While this week brought a rumor that Dead Rising 3 would see the return of original hero Frank West to his zombie-smashing ways, a new competing rumor has surfaced that suggests not only will DR3 not star West, but it will be set in a new location.

Only connected to a source from Siliconera, this rumor claims that Frank West, and Chuck Greene, would be relegated to the sidelines, replaced by Rick, and auto mechanic fighting to survive in the fictional city of Los Perdidos, California.

Rick, like Greene and West before him, will join forces with a small handful of survivors to dispatch waves of zombies, along with the series’ trademark psychopaths. Probably the most interesting part of the rumor is how the game will incorporate the concept of immigration into the story using an underground group of non-governmentally registered infected called — wait for it — illegals.

But still, despite all the intriguing new concepts being teased by this Dead Rising 3 rumor, it all feels like it will never come to pass because of one important omission: Frank West.

If there’s anything to be learned from Dead Rising 2 it’s that fans of the series enjoy protagonist Frank West just as much as they enjoy the creative zombie-killing milieu. Sure, Dead Rising 2’s hero Chuck was an extreme sports version of West, but he wasn't popular enough to be featured as a Marvel vs. Capcom 3 fighter, and was ostensibly replaced in his own game with Dead Rising 2: Off the Record. All that being said, it makes us pretty suspicious of a rumor that states that Capcom will once again be giving Frank West the boot in favor of another new character.

The location, on the other hand, and the concept of drawing parallels between a zombie epidemic and immigration sounds intriguing while not altogether new (see some of George Romero’s later of the Dead movies). It’s two competing theories at work for Dead Rising 3, with our money on whichever sticks with Mr. West.

Which would you be more interested in seeing: Dead Rising 3 starring a new protagonist in a faux-California setting or anything that features Frank West? Has Capcom underestimated what makes the Dead Rising games appealing?

Source: Siliconera