» dead space

Wow its been weeks since I’ve last updated my blog, been extremely busy with other work. So as usual, I went to Gametrailers to look for surprises and there wasn’t anything surprising unfortunately. Although not a surprise, Dead Space: Extraction actually looks really promising, this game, which will be released exclusively for the Wii takes place before the first Dead Space game (if I remember correctly).

Other than playing it in third person like the previous entry, you will be playing this one in a guided first person. Think of House of the Dead, Time Crisis and you will get the idea. You don’t actually get to move yourself but you are being “pushed” around and all you need to worry about is shooting your way out of the horror. Based on the trailer, aside from the third-to-first person change, its basically the same as before where you have pulse rifle, flame thrower, stasis etc.

Another worthy game for the Wii, too bad its Wii only otherwise I would pick this one up with no hesitation.

  

Silent Hill: Homecoming was somewhat disappointing mainly because of its outdated graphics. I know it is not sufficient to judge a game solely based on game play. Although new elements were added to the game such as new combat system and new item/weapon navigations. And I was not happy with the new navigations by the way because you can waste your healing item, mainly the serum which heals you completely, by accidentally move your L3 button and have it selected without even knowing. The game play was kind of expected and I was really hoping for graphics that are next-gen. Ok, enough ranting and time to move on.

Dead Space generated a lot, and I mean A LOT of hype with all the animated trailers, comics and game trailers. Does this game live up to all the hype generated? I would, with no doubt say YES.

  

Story and controls
The story is about a repair ship which crash landed on a large mining ship called ISHIMURA. And as you can imagine, all the horror begins here and almost right away. Some of the controls are rather different from say, Call of Duty, like in order to run, you need to press L3 (move) and L2. The new controls might take a while to get used to but nothing major. If you have been keeping up with your first/third person shooting skills, the aiming should not be a problem either. Again make sure you aim the hands and legs and not the body unless you want to waste ammo. You can also treat your gun as a melee weapon at close range as well as pressing L2 for some foot stamping.

  

Game play and graphics
Dead Space uses a new and innovative user interface for accessing your items, weapons, map and missions etc. Its actually a holographic screen that is projected right in front of you in real time. So for example, you can have the map up and move around at the same time. So far I though, I can’t feel the “survival” part of this game because you get lots of ammo and healing items, I’ve picked up so many that I have to put them in the safe. (I’m playing on normal not easy by the way) Finally, safe points are in many places so I don’t really have to worry about having to restart from far back.

Speaking of which, there is also a store which you can buy healing items, upgrade your suit, called the Rig which increases the amount of items you can store as you go, new weapons, power nodes which are for upgrading your Rig’s max health(which is your health) and your weapons’ damage, ammo capacities etc. Weapon upgrades using the power nodes are performed by accessing another system called Upgrade Bench.

There is also something called Stasis, similar to the “Force” in Star Wars, in which you can manipulate objects by slowing them down or throwing them etc. Nothing new but you need them to solve some of the puzzles as you progerss through the game. And if you ever get stuck, simply press the R3 and a thin line will appear to show you which way you are suppose to go next based on your mission.

Even though both Silent Hill:Homecoming and Dead Space are survival horror, the former doesn’t really make you jump like Dead Space does. Being a survival horror fan for so many years, I’m pretty used to all the scare moments but I was constantly on my toes while playing Dead Space and got a few jumps actually. And finally this game supports the Trophy Collection.

First thing first, I’m sure everyone would want to know about this, YES the game supports 1080p high definition video output. Strangely it defaults to 720p similar to Call of Duty 4. It will only output to 720p unless you explicitly set your console, in my case PlayStation 3 to only output 1080p. And speaking of graphics, it is VERY graphical with tons of blood and body parts all over walls, floors, windows and anywhere you can imagine.

  

Also just to mention there’s no online multiplayer component, it would be even better if there was but with this game, it doesn’t really matter because the single player is just that exciting. And besides, I’m not sure how you can design the multiplayer side based on the story, hmm maybe there could be two races, the humans and those mutated humans? Just a thought.

  

  

Sound
Sound effects are top notch as well, you can hear random screams, objects banging onto other objects. One thing I dislike and makes this game a little bit less difficult and cuts some of the suspense is every time before monsters start coming at you, you will know because you will hear some “horror” noise. So whenever you hear it, you can pretty much expect to ready your limb cutting gun. But like I said before, I still managed to get a few scare from my 2 hours of play time.

  

Final Verdict
Is this game worth the $59.99? I would definitely think so, at least I didn’t regret buying this game like I did with Silent Hill: Homecoming. For those looking for a sci-fi + survival horror and those that are into limb cutting, then Dead Space will be the game.

There may be a part 2 if I find anything that’s worth mentioning

9/10

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Dead Space is out in less than a week, we are presented with yet another impressive animated comic movie trailer from Gametrailers.com. This month is going to be one busy AND expensive month for me with all these great games coming out.

PlayStation 3 doesn’t have anything good these past two weeks that suited me except Silent Hill: Homecoming will be out at the end of September. After that, there are at least four games that everyone should watch out for since they are pretty hyped up! Hopefully these games will live up to their hype specially Little Big Planet.

Here are the dates for the four games I recommend to watch out for that are coming out in October:

 

Dead Space – 10/14/2008
Far Cry 2 – 10/21/2008
Big Little Planet – 10/21/2008
Fall Out 3 – 10/28/2008

Dead Space, an horror + sci fi combo third person shooter. Sort of like Resident Evil + the movie Event Horizon and with a lot more gore. Basically, in this game, forget about headshots from Counter Strike or Call of Duty. In order to make the bloody monsters stay down is by shooting their limps or their weak spots. Obviously each monster will be dealt with differently. Another new feature that has not been introduced in any of the other third person shooters is fighting in zero gravity where your movement is slower and sound is suppressed. Top becomes the bottom, left can be right under this environment. I am looking forward to hunting those monsters down jumping all over the place in zero gravity.

I also think Dead Space will be a good addition to the horror section for the PS3 until Resident Evil 5 comes out. Unfortunately there is no online component to this game, which is not good in my book. Would be nice if at least co-op play was implemented like Mercenary 2 because playing with others, specially your friends, is much more fun and enjoyable than by yourself…well sometimes.

 

October 21st will be a busy day as Far Cry 2 and Big Little Planet come out on the same day based on EBGames.com. I guess I will test out Big Little Planet first because its really a new type of game where as Far Cry 2, while impressive in both game play and graphics, is still a FPS to me so therefore it can wait. Big Little Planet really looks like a true party game that PlayStation 3 lacks since day 1 where you can play with up to four people on one console and instead of having a split screen, all four will be on the same screen, which is a huge plus. Wii will still dominate the party game section for a while or maybe for as long as the console lives since I think that’s what it really is for. But I’m still glad PS3 is coming out with an exclusive party game.

And finally we have Fall Out 3, another promising game to complete the month of October. So far it looks like Oblivion with improved graphics. Don’t get me wrong, its not necessary a bad thing. I will need to see more game play previews before I can say more for Fallout 3. But so far it really looks promising.