Slashdot | Dead Space 2 Announced

Electronic Arts announced on Monday that their popular survival-horror game Dead Space is officially getting a sequel. According to the press release, it’s being developed for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. There’s speculation that Dead Space 2 may include some form of multiplayer, after an EA job opening was spotted on LinkedIn that mentioned multiplayer level design for the franchise.

Very cool.

I’m not sure that I care much about the multiplayer…  Could be fun, I suppose…  But I’m more interested in a solid singleplayer experience.

I thoroughly enjoyed the original Dead Space and can’t wait to see what they do with a sequel.

Looks like there’s a new Dead Space game out – Dead Space: Extraction.

Too bad it’s only available for the Wii.  We’ve got a Wii, but it’s mostly for Christopher.  I’m not a big console gamer.  I’d much rather play on my PC.  Still…  This looks pretty good.  I might have to pick up a copy anyway.

I loved the original Dead Space.

So, yesterday was Thanksgiving.  Terri got the day off on account of her slaving over a hot stove every other day of the year, so I did the cooking.  Everything turned out surprisingly well.  Not that I really thought I’d ruin everything…  I can cook fairly well usually…  But a big ol’ Thanksgiving dinner is a little imposing.

I, of course, ate far too much.  Piles of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, pumpkin pie…  It’s amazing that I didn’t rupture something yesterday.

I also spent a good chunk of the day yesterday playing WoW.  My Warlock is now 76, and my Death Knight is 62.  I’m more-or-less done with Dragonblight…  There are still a few group quests for me to do there, but I’ve had enough.  Some of those quests were pretty frustrating and I’m glad to be out of the zone.  I’m currently grinding in Howling Fjord – technically a step backwards, as the zone is lower level, but it’s a lot of fun.

I haven’t played Left 4 Dead again since that first session.  It was certainly fun, but I’ve been tied up in WoW almost nonstop.  That’s the problem with the holiday season in general – excess.  Too much stuff going on, too much to do, not enough time for any of it.  I’ve still got to play through Red Alert 3, and I wanted to try Fallout 3, and I never did finish Dead Space…

The best part though, is that it is only Friday night.  I’ve had two full days off from work, and I’ve got two more to go.  Very nice.

Today is the Wrath of the Lich King launch…  And, appropriately enough, it’s cold here.  Frost all over the place…  Had to wait for the car to defrost before I could drive anywhere this morning…  Having to wait for a car to defrost before I can go to my first call of the day…

I am certainly looking forward to WotLK.  I can’t wait to start playing a Death Knight for real, and I never really explored much of Northrend in the beta, and there’ll be new quests, and new cooking recipes, and more fishing to do, and new dungeons…  But, most importantly, I’ll be able to play with Terri – unlike in the beta.

But, to be completely honest, I’m not so excited about launch day.  If WotLK launch is anything like the original WoW launch, or BC after that, it’ll be nearly impossible to accomplish anything for a few days.  The servers will be buggy, laggy, and periodically rebooted for a day or two…  And everyone is going to be playing in the same areas again.  The lower sections of Northrend and the Death Knight starter zones are going to be packed full of people.  It’ll be a challenge to get anything done at all.

I honestly don’t expect to be able to accomplish much of anything until Saturday or Sunday.

That’s ok though…  I’ve got plenty of other things to keep me occupied.

Friday night I’ll be working fairly late, so I won’t have much time for games.  I don’t expect to get home until somewhere around 9:00 or so.

I’ve also still got Dead Space to play.  I haven’t made much progress with that for a good week or so.  That last tentacle attack was very demoralizing.  I never liked those tentacles…  And I was thrilled when I thought they were gone for good…  And now they’re back.

I’ve also been on a Peggle kick recently.  It’s a pretty simple game, but a lot of fun.

Then there’s Fallout 3, which I acquired a little while ago but haven’t gotten around to playing yet.  Everyone says it’s pretty good…  But they also stress that it isn’t really a Fallout game, which worries me.

And Red Alert 3 was recently released, and I’ve managed to acquire a copy of it as well.  I did install that, and gave it a try, and I’m fairly impressed so far.  I really kind of regretted spending any money on Command & Conquer 3…  It just was not a satisfying game.  Didn’t enjoy it much at all.  I expected similar disappointment from Red Alert 3, but so far it’s a very solid game.

I managed to grab the flux capacitor out of the Valor.  Actually, I guess it’s a “singularity core”, but it certainly looks like a flux capacitor.  Zach got killed by one of the giant, hulking necromorphs.  I was hoping those super-fast necromorphs would stay aboard the Valor, but it looks like some of them made it aboard the Ishimura as well.  Had to go down to the crew section of the ship to repair a shuttle.  Turns out it needs more than a flux capacitor…  Needs navigation cards, which means I need to wander around the crew deck looking for them, as soon as I find myself a key to open some of these doors.

The crew deck is pretty neat.  It is reminding me a lot of the common areas aboard the Nostromo in Alien, or maybe some of the dining hall scenes in Aliens.  Tables and chairs everywhere, some vending machines, a bar or cafeteria or something like that.  Lots of posters on the walls advertising what look to be movies…but maybe I’m misunderstanding.  Found a Unitologist shrine, surrounded by dead Unitologists.  Also found a text log that kind of explains the whole Unitology thing.  And there’s someone singing in the background…  I can’t quite make out what they’re singing, but it’s damn creepy.

I got another message from Dr. Kyne – he wants to meet me, talk to me, tell me some secret plan or something.  He doesn’t want us just to run away.  He seems to think that the planet itself is angry because they removed the marker.

I also ran into Dr. Mercer again.  He’s still ranting and raving about the end of humanity.  So, now I’m wondering if his buddy the regenerating super-necro is going to show up as well.

Kendra seems to be taking Zach’s death pretty well.  In fact, she didn’t seem to care at all.  I’m not sure what to make of that…  It’s obvious the developers wanted the player to choose sides between the two of them.  There was tension right from the start, and the two of them were often arguing over how best to proceed.  And both of them have acted very suspiciously at one time or another.  Obviously I’m supposed to have doubts about who is trustworthy and whatnot.  And now I’m left with Kendra.  And I do have doubts.  I’m wondering what, exactly, her agenda is.

I also ran into one of those giant tentacles again…  Thing grabbed me and dragged me to my death.  Was not expecting it, had the line gun ready, and couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with it.  I really figured I was done dealing with those giant tentacles.  I thought that when I killed the leviathan I wouldn’t be seeing any more of them.  I guess I was wrong…  And now I’m wondering how many more I’m going to have to deal with, because I do not like them.

I’m also kind of wondering how all these other people are managing to stay alive – where they’v been hiding, what they’ve been doing.  Me, I’m constantly getting jumped by necros, constantly fighting to stay alive.  But Kendra doesn’t seem to have that problem…  Nor Dr. Kyne…  Nor Dr. Mercer…  And it looks like Dr. Mercer found himself some more survivors to experiment on.

Fired up Dead Space today, after a several-day break.  Unfortunately the interlude has dulled my reflexes, softened my killer instinct, and getting back into the game is proving somewhat difficult.  I found myself panicking when attacked again…  And aiming for their bodies instead of their limbs…  Had a couple very rough fights, died a couple times.  But I think I’m getting the hang of it again…

So, I stopped playing shortly after I lobbed that rock into space with a distress beacon attached to it.  Almost before the “Objective Completed” notice faded from view, a military ship was picked up on radar.  Rescue!  But we couldn’t talk to them because the communication array was down.  So I had to run off to the bridge to fix it.

Once again, I’m sure Isaac was breathing a sigh of relief when faced with this objective.  He is, after all, a repair technician.  I’m sure he’s thrilled to be given a task that is actually in his job description.  Not all this running, screaming, and killing.  Unfortunately, the trip to the communication array involved an awful lot of running, screaming, and killing.

Fixing the communication array involving walking around in zero-g, removing broken communication antennae, and replacing them with working ones.  All while constantly looking over my shoulder to make sure something nasty wasn’t sneaking up behind me.

So, we got the communication array on-line and were able to hear what the new ship – The Valor – has to say.  They were on a recon mission in the area and happened to pick up one of our escape pods, the escape pod that Zach jettisoned with a necromorph inside it.  Kendra tried to warn them not to open the escape pod, but the blast shield was in place over the communication array, and we couldn’t get a signal out.  So I had to go clear whatever was blocking the blast shield and keeping it from opening.

Turns out that the leviathan has an ugly sister, and she’s sitting on the communication array’s blast shield.  I had to trek all the way up to another one of those defensive guns…  And as soon as I popped up to see what was going on, I saw a big ol’ tentacle-y blob sitting on the hull of the ship.  Had to blast it repeatedly with the defensive gun to make it let go of the ship.

We got the blast shield open, and Kendra called up the Valor.  We got the communication channel open just in time to watch someone get eaten by a necromorph.  Then the Valor, sans pilot, crashed into the Ishimura.

Zach showed up again.  He claims someone has been blocking his signal and he’s been unable to communicate with us.  He’s now officially in favor of aborting the mission and running for safety.  Kendra thinks that’s a good idea, and I have to agree.  The plan is to get aboard the crashed Valor and grab some spare parts to repair a shuttle and get the hell out of there.

I made my way to the cargo bay, which is where most of the Valor landed.  Had to clear some debris and make my way to a functioning airlock.  And now I’m working my way through the Valor, trying to find the part we need.

Exploring the Valor is a new kind of creepy.  The Ishimura went to hell a while before we arrived.  Most of the chaos and slaughter was over and done before we showed up.  It’s got an old, abandoned, empty feeling to it.  Any movement, any noise seems out of place and worrisome.  Like walking through a long-abandoned house, or maybe a crypt.  The Valor is still falling to chaos.  It just recently crashed, was just recently infected with necromorphs.  Things are still breaking, exploding, falling down…  People are still screaming in terror…  It’s like walking right into a slaughterhouse.

I’ve also met a couple new necromorphs…  One of them is very tall and gangly, moves fairly slowly, and falls apart when you kill it.  Literally comes apart.  Its hands and head grow spindly little legs of their own and scamper up the walls…then they leap at you…  Very riminiscent of The Thing.  Very annoying to fight.

The newest addition is some kind of super-fast necromoroph aboard the Valor.  The soldiers were wearing some kind of military suit with a built-in stasis module…which is allowing these new necromorphs to move very, very quickly.  Quick enough to dodge shots from the line gun.  They’re almost unstoppable unless you hit them with stasis first.

The plot is definitely starting to thicken.  I’ve picked up a couple logs aboard the Valor that show it was not simply doing recon in the area.  They were sent out specifically to look for the Ishimura, because the Ishimura may have located “marker 3A.”  And they were warned that some kind of deadly infection was distinctly possible if the marker had been recovered.  So it looks like this wasn’t some innocent mining operation gone wrong…

No real Dead Space updates lately, since I haven’t played in a couple days.  I’ve been busy with WoW.

Terri and I went on a Zul’Aman raid Monday night.  Breezed through everything, did a full clear, got three of the bonus chests.  That’s only my second time through there, Terri’s first.  Most of the loot is kind of useless at this point, but you can still get a whole pile of Heroic badges.

Last night we went on a Karazhan raid.  Again it was a quick and painless full clear.  Again, much of the loot is kind of useless…  Though Terri did get a couple upgrades…  And we both got a pile of Heroic badges.

I was looking forward to playing more Dead Space tonight, but I’m not sure that’ll happen now…  Looks like I’m going to be working late tonight.  Boo.

Courtesy of EXTRALIFE:

Courtesy of Penny Arcade:

I’ve spent something like seven hours playing Dead Space now…  I guess I’m about halfway through the game.  And so far I’m very impressed with it.  Lot of fun stuff, interesting mechanics, great visuals…  But that isn’t to say that everything is perfect.

I’m on my way back to the bridge, this will be my second time there.  I made two trips to medical as well.  And A couple trips to the landing bay.  I’ve seen some reviews that complained about the backtracking…  Said it felt gratuitous and un-necessary…  Like it was just tacked on to make the game longer.

I guess I can understand where they’re coming from.  Especially since the whole reason I went to medical the second time around was to brew up a poison that didn’t even work.  But I’m really not minding the backtracking.  Medical had changed enough on my second trip through that it may as well have been a new section.  And I’m honestly kind of wishing I had the ability to backtrack more.

I’m not saying I want to be sent to every area at least twice…but it would be nice if I had more freedom of movement.  On my second run through medical I left a bunch of monsters alive and a lot of loot on the ground.  After the showdown in cryogenics I was given a different exit that took me right to the tram and shuttled me directly to hydroponics.  I was not able to go back for the monsters and loot I left behind.

I guess what I’d like to see is more Metroid-like gameplay.  I’d like to be able to go back to the docking bay, for example, and grab some goodies that were unreachable without the kinesis module earlier in the game.

I’m really enjoying the weapons and damage mechanics.  They’re very refreshing.  Combat in Dead Space is almost a parody of traditional location-based damage.

Back in the day, enemies were just sprites, or maybe a pile of polygons if you were lucky.  It didn’t really matter if you shot them in the foot or the head, they took the same kind of damage.  The advent of location-based damage was huge.  Now you could kill someone wil a single shot to the head, instead of multiple body shots.

It adds a kind of realism to the game…  Having enemies that take damage more like they would in the real world…  And it quickly became the standard in shooters.  You quickly learned to aim for the head, or the body at the very least, and pretty much ignored the appendages.  Everyone pretty much ignored the appendages – even developers.  Very few games allowed you to intentionally target someone’s legs to slow them down, or someone’s arms to disarm them.  And gamers have learned to aim for the head or torso instinctively.

And Dead Space just doesn’t work that way.  The monsters can take dozens of hits to their body before they go down, but one or two well-placed shots to the limbs will take them out very quickly.  Headshots are almost universally useless in Dead Space.  You have to actually aim for the extremities.

And this influences your choice of weapons as well.  Something like the pulse rifle would be perfect for a game of Half-Life 2 – it’s fast, accurate, holds a lot of ammo, does decent damage – what’s not to like?  The problem is that it does damage in a fairly small area, which means it can be hard to cut off someone’s legs with it.

What becomes a very useful weapon is something like the plasma cutter.  It’s got a relatively low rate of fire, and doesn’t hold much ammo, but it creates a plane of damage – which can very easily sever a limb.

The amount of damage that you can do, as a raw number, just isn’t that important in Dead Space.  It matters more what shape that damage takes.

Dead Space also does a terrific job of balancing suspense, horror, and combat.  There’s a constant sense of dread.  You’re aboard a ship that is doomed.  Its crew is dead, its systems are failing, and it’s over-run with monsters.  You will genuinely be lucky to get out alive.

But you get to ease some of that tension by blasting the enemy.  And unlike a traditional survival horror game, you actually have a pretty good chance of surviving a random monster attack.  You don’t have to spend the entire time running for your life.  You don’t have to avoid all confrontation.

Unfortunately, the controls are a bit clumsy and limited on the PC.  I know this game was developed with consoles in mind…  I suppose I should be happy that it’s available on the PC at all…  But I really expect developers to do a better job with their ports than this.

There’s no excuse for a sloppy mouse-driven interface.  Too many games have come before that managed to get it right.  There’s no reason why I should have to use my arrow keys to navigate my inventory instead of my mouse.  There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to bind my additional mouse buttons to actions as well…  I should be able to put kinesis on mouse4, and stasis on mouse5.  I should be able to use my scroll-wheel to switch between weapons, instead of forcing me to use the number keys.