Normally, I don't go for zombie games whenever I can help it. I never understood the attraction. But Dead Rising showed me that something in the experience eluded me.

The joy in having photojournalist-hulk Frank pick up his first bench and use it as a medieval battering ram to flatten zombie hordes was only the start of even bigger and better things. From flat-screen televisions to cars, nearly anything was up for grabs when it came to carpeting concrete with gooey zombies. That was likely my epiphany.

So, what did I think of the second one? Most of the magic is back. I don't expect the game to convince anyone who hated the first title's schedule system or the tactically placed restrooms required to save. But for fans, it's still Dead Rising.

Dead Rising 2 also had the potential to blow away the first one; instead, it only chews on its shoulder with a playful flesh-eating bite. I still have that survivor's list that I ought to finish up, but the question is whether that's enough anymore.

I came up with a nice, rounded list of ten reasons to describe how I found myself torn between my love for zombie crunching why the game itself -- not necessarily its brain munching hordes -- tested my conviction on why I'd spent my time with these foot draggers in the first place.

Five reasons I hate Dead Rising 2

1. Technically rough

Dead Rising 2 comes across in some ways as unfinished. Texture seams, pop-in obstacles (for me to crash into as I race down the Silver Strip on a motorbike), and Chuck's disconnected feet when he changes shoes just don't belong in a next-gen game.

Fights against the psychopaths reveal more glaring problems, such as the slight lag between the gamepad and some of what Chuck actually does onscreen. Clicking the stick to dodge roll and seeing him do it a second later made a few battles unnecessarily more difficult.

This looks awesome until any of it gets on Chuck.

Visually, Dead Rising 2 gets its point across. But up close, many of the textures lose a lot of their detail and flatten out, such as the flourescent blood. Some effects simply look awful, like Chuck's jaggy, 8-bit shadow. In these and other ways, the sequel almost looks worse than the first game.

And the load times? I spent half the game staring at load screens. I had even strategized on which areas to go through in order to minimize how many of these screens I would see. The worst offender is toward the end, where two cut-scenes precede the lead up to one particular fight. Rinse and repeat with defeat; the loading screen pissed me off more than losing the fight.

2. Multiplayer lacks legs

Blue Castle added multiplayer as a big extra, which consists of two-player co-op and a friendly contest between three other "contestants" on “Terror Is Reality” as they participate in a number of creative matches involving zombie slaying.

Zomboni is just one of many modes with which to crush zombies and hear the lamentations of other players.

It sounds good on paper, but the only real reason to play Terror is to supposedly earn money that you can transfer to your single-player game. Well, if you're really competitive, you can also raise your position on the leaderboard.

The problem is that it takes longer to grind through these random matches than it does to earn money in the story mode. The attraction diminishes further when you have more money than you will ever need. This only rubs more salt in the wound that is the missing Infinity Mode from the first game.

3. Co-op hates me

I could have chucked this into number 2, but it really deserves its own place on the list. Saving on the other end kept knocking me out of the game. And why empty my inventory out when I jump into someone else's Fortune City? Special items I can understand, but regular weapons and food? It's kind of hard to fight the crazies and zombies with an empty belly or with nothing in my hand except bad intentions.

Better hope your partner isn't fighting a psycho when you jump in because you could be screwed -- or that the stranger on the other end is a psycho and just wants to grief incoming players.

The matchmaking system has problems finding and connecting to a game. I had to check my list of previously met players whom I'd failed to connect to before and manually initiate a session to start playing.

And no friendly fire on/off option?

I'll give it this much: When co-op works, it makes taking down a psychopathic nut together fun. But dealing with its brokenness: not so much.

4. It comes with baggage

Despite the enhancements to the game, it's still more of the same thing. The bad thing about this is that it also brought back some of the baggage from the first game that wasn't so great. Does Chuck have to do an uninterruptable pose off every time he puts on a new set of threads? Does he like leaving himself open to getting jacked by a zombie when he does it? Does it get boring wiggling the analog stick? The answer to all three questions is yes.

5. Skimped on extras unless you got the pre-order/Zombrex/High Stakes/Woody "Tallahassee" Harrelson version

No Survival Mode? No new and inventive modes for using Fortune City outside of co-op and the thin multiplayer? Dead Rising 2 missed a great opportunity to build in a few more  things that could have made heading back into Fortune City's big sandbox even more compelling and removed a few that were in the first game. Aren't sequels supposed to build on that kind of success?

You know, Rockstar doesn't seem to have a problem with including fold out maps for their games