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Free-roaming zombie mashup Dead Rising won over many horror fans with its blood-stained shopping mall setting and intricate structure, in which events unfolded in real time regardless of whether the player was there or not. This meant that players had to carefully ration their time in order to save as many survivors as possible.

For the upcoming Dead Rising 3, it sounds like things won't be quite as stressful, with an emphasis on freedom and choice rather than manic timekeeping.

"The past instalments were relatively regimented and you were kind of forced along at a particular rate of time," executive producer Josh Bridge has told the LA Times. "Now we've unlocked that to really let you explore this world. We went deeper with more stuff to interact with, more areas to explore, it just feels like a much richer world as a result."

Also enriching the world is Microsoft's SmartGlass app. This will integrate with the game, introducing a new character who will call you up in real life to ask for help, adding a layer of augmented reality to your adventures in the undead apocalypse.

"It's as though the game kind of comes out of the screen and you're literally holding it in your hand," explains Bridge. "You'll get calls from this character, text messages and just additional game play from this device, which is kind of cool. We geeked out on it because it was cool just to have our phones be part of the game."

It certainly sounds like the most inspired use of SmartGlass to date, and it'll be really interesting to see how it all comes together.

Dead Rising 3 is an Xbox One exclusive and will be out later this year.