Tablet connectivity was a big part of many company's E3 presentations, with Sony and Microsoft highlighting how the next generation of consoles will use tablets to enhance gameplay on many different titles. One of those titles in the Xbox One exclusive Dead Rising 3. Capcom executive producer Josh Bridge highlighted several of the bonus features the SmartGlass app brings to Siliconera, including special missions that can only be obtained through the SmartGlass:
"After you launch the app, it notices that Dead Rising is currently being played, press a button, and in kicks our phone. It actually skins your phone to be like the phone from the game's universe. You'll get calls from a character that are only on the SmartGlass device. So if you don't have SmartGlass, you won't get those calls from that guy. Which also means you won't get those missions."
While completionists will have to use SmartGlass to get these missions, they are completely optional, and players will be able to finish the story regardless if they use SmartGlass or not. In addition, players will not miss out on achievements if they do not have a SmartGlass device.
In the E3 demo of the game, we saw the tablet app of Dead Rising 3 used to call in airstrikes, leading some to believe this may the only multiplayer in the game. However, Bridges revealed that the game would have full co-op gameplay as well:
"...it's mostly part of the single player mode, but as we've been working on it, playing it on our studio, I'd toss it to a buddy as go, 'Hey, help me out here; can you do this for a sec?; It ends up being pseudo-cooperative play. But it's not an answer to co-op, we have co-op."
In addition, the airstrike seen in the E3 demo is a special ability, one that is tied into the main game and has a cool down feature, so players will not be able to spam the ability whenever they want. Look for more Dead Rising 3 as we get closer to the Xbox One's November release time.