The camera toting protagonist from the original Dead Rising is finally making his grand reemergence into the series with Dead Rising 2: Case West. The standalone expansion to Dead Rising 2 launches in less than week, December 27, and is aiming to break the record that its predecessor Dead Rising 2: Case Zero set. To tease its release, Capcom has released a short trailer for Case West, featuring some narrative by the titular hero. He's as snarky as ever, but it sounds Frank West has some serious issues to take care of this time around.Check out the trailer as Frank West builds the dramatic tension up, only for the game to be launched and every player to dress him up in a ninja suit:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dXMmCFKmtU&feature=player_embedded

Frank's goal in Case West is to clear Dead Rising 2 protagonist Chuck Greene's name, as well as discover the relation between the Fortune City outbreak and Zombrex pharmaceutical company Phenotrans. Players can also grab a friend and play cooperatively in Case West, taking pictures as wither Chuck or Frank. Yes, that's right, the controversial camera mechanic is making a return, and is certain to remind gamers why they disliked it in the first game.

I'm a bit confused by the storyline of Case West. I only played a few hours of Dead Rising 2, but I thought Chuck's goal in that game was also to clear his name and discover the cause of the out break? Does that mean the game provided no sense of closure? I'm even more glad I didn't continue with that game now. It's astonishing to me how Dead Rising can tease the idea of a true storyline in the midst of their ridiculous zombie killing system. The balance between them is entirely off-putting, but hopefully Case West is able tie things together a little better.

Either way though, gamers seem to like these smaller Dead Rising releases. Now to see if Dead Rising 2's mediocre reception hurts Case West's.

What did you think of Dead Rising 2, Ranters? Are you going to pick up Case West? Do you think these smaller releases are better than the full ones?

Dead Rising 2: Case West releases on December 27 exclusively on the Xbox Live Marketplace.