How to get your gamepad to work with Dead Rising 2 for PC

This was an issue that bothered me to no end when I bought Dead Rising 2 for PC last  year. I put the game aside for several months because, no matter how many supposed fixes I tried, my wireless gamepad simply would not cooperate. Most PC games, especially ones that are labelled with the “Games for Windows Live” logo, come with gamepad support right out of the box. For whatever reason, Capcom or Blue Castle or whoever was supposed to test this functionality didn’t. As a result, hundreds of PC gamers feel that they were ripped off and are unable to properly enjoy the game. I don’t blame them.

Well, I’m happy to tell you that I finally found a solution and even happier to tell you that the game is buckets of murderous fun – once the gamepad works, that is. The keyboard and mouse controls are horrendous. Some games just don’t feel right without a gamepad or controller in hand. Here’s how I got my gamepad to play nicely with Dead Rising 2:

Step 1: Download this Xbox 360 controller emulator by Evaldas Jocys. The file you want is named something like x360ce.App-2.0.2.158.zip, give or take the version number.

Step 2: Extract the zip archive to your Dead Rising 2 executable directory, which will be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Capcom\Dead Rising 2. It’s important that the x360ce.exe file is in the same directory as the deadrising2.exe file. This is because executable (.exe) files will look for library (.dll) files in the same directory that they reside in first before going to the system directory. This is true for any program running under Windows, at least. I’m not sure how it works under other operating systems. When you run the x360ce.exe file, it will create the missing library files for us in this directory.

Step 3: Double click the x360ce.exe file and confirm that you want to open it by clicking “Run” when the Windows security warning dialog pops up. When the program launches, you should get two additional warning dialogues. The first one will prompt you to create the x360ce.ini file. This is the file that holds the configuration settings for the program. The second one will prompt you to create the xinput1_3.dll file. This is the library file that gets compiled along with the configuration settings and will enable your gamepad to work with the game. Click “Yes” on both of these prompts to have the files created.

Step 4: At this point, you should be looking at a new window that says “New Device Detected.” Leave the first radio button checked – the one that says “Search automatically for settings” – along with the checkbox that says “Search the Internet” and click “Next” at the bottom of the window. Finally, click “Finish” at the bottom of the next window. If the program displays a green box on the tab for the controller you have selected, then you can continue to step 5. If it displays a red box on the tab, then see the troubleshooting section of this post.

Step 5: Click the “Options” tab near the top-center of the main program window and change the hook mode to “Compatibility.”

Step 6: Click “Save” at the bottom-right corner of the window. Close the program and launch the game.

Step 7: One the game has launched, go to Options, then go to PC Settings. Hopefully, you will have the option to enable the gamepad.

If this method doesn’t work for you, try experimenting with the other hook mode settings. I hope this helps someone else enjoy the game.