Dead Rising Demo First Thoughts

The demo of Dead Rising, the forthcoming Capcom Xbox 360 game, is now on Xbox Live. I tried it out, as I haven't killed nearly as many zombies as I thought I would have at this point in my life.
I thought it was extremely funny how the creators had to completely disavow any connection between the game and George Romero's Dawn of the Dead in a pre-title screen disclaimer. Zombies? In a mall? How anyone can connect that with Dawn of the Dead is beyond me.
In the game, you control Frank, a news photographer who resembles (to me, at least) a less-coked-up Quentin Tarantino. Searching for a story, he winds up trapped in a mall filled with mindless, flesheating zombies. It's up to you to ensure his survival.
The game does an excellent job of putting you in a "virtual sandbox" filled with zombies and ways to dispatch said zombies. It's fun to figure out new and exciting ways to dispatch the undead, and the mall is a quite accurate fascimile of an average American mall.
I have to say, the best part of this game is being able to kill zombies without the tired "wander slowly through empty areas trying to find a key" formula (I'm looking your way, Resident Evil). Also, the game renders a virtual army of zombies to fight, as opposed to a steady trickle of brain-chomping foes (once again, kicking Resident Evil's ass).
However, the real issue with this game will be longevity. Despite the many possible ways to play the game, Dead Rising feels like it could get repetitive very easily. There has to be something to back this zombie-killing up, or the game will get old fast.
Despite this, Dead Rising appears to be the closest videogame approximation of Dawn of the Dead to date. Look out for it August 8th. I know I will.