So, as some of you know, I've been playing Dead Space 2 off and on for the past two months or so. It's taking me so long to get through this game only because I sometimes go weeks without finding the time to turn on the ol' PlayStation 3. But over the weekend I was finally able to devote a rather largish chunk of time to the game, and I have to say . . . things are really getting FREAKY!!!
Dead Space 2 is a sci-fi horror game. It takes place aboard a mining station orbiting Saturn's moon, Titan. In the first game, Isaac boarded the deep space vessel U.S.G. Ishimura and got introduced to the wonderful group of swell folk known as Necromorphs. After that adventure went bust, some idiot decided to tow the Ishimura back to Titan station (nicknamed "The Sprawl"), and so of course the Necromorphs are now all over this place as well.
Anyway, so, Isaac meets up with this other survivor--a technician named Ellie--and we're trying to get down to the bottom of some sneaky government cover-up occurring on the Sprawl. At some point before chapter 10, it's decided that Isaac needs to head back inside the Ishimura in order to get them from Point A to Point B. Ellie, naturally, waits outside the ship while Isaac climbs aboard and tries to get the big hunk of junk operational. This ship is HUGE, btw, but is theoretically supposed to be empty since Isaac took care of all the nasty baddies during the first game. But, do you think they would make it that easy?
At one point I'm contacted over the comm channel by Ellie, who has a clear view of the outside hull of the ship from where she's waiting. I was on my way to the Ishimura's bridge on an internal tram system when the following conversation takes place:
Ellie: "[Necromorphs] are coming in through a hole in the Medical Deck. At least you won't have to go through there.
Overhead Computer Voice: "Unexpected obstruction ahead. [Tram] shutting down. Welcome to the Medical Deck."
Isaac: "Crap."
*sigh* I just can't catch a break in this game!
Incidentally, from this moment on the shit really hit the fan. What was supposed to be just a quick run through the Ishimura to get it up and running turned out to be a nightmare trip down memory lane. I barely made it out of that damned ship alive and into Chapter 11.
Oh well, just another day in the life of a gamer. I hope the rest of you had as entertaining a weekend as I did. :)
Okay, now normally I wouldn't want to keep bugging folks reading this blog about the same thing so often . . . but I just had to post up this vid of Toby Turner's (aka, Tobuscus) latest installment to his "Literal Trailers" line of promo parodies. This time he's poking fun at the most recent Dead Island trailer, which I first talked about just last week.
The gag behind Literal Trailers is that Toby takes the footage and music from the trailer, and then sings his own interpretation in the same melody to exactly what's taking place up on the screen -- in other words, a *literal* translation of the trailer. It's HILARIOUS!
But first off, before watching the literal version, refresh your memories by watching the original Dead Island trailer.
All set? Cool. Now watch Toby's version below:
I swear, it was SO hard for me to keep a straight face through this. I was in "literal" pain after it was over. OMG, was not expecting to laugh so much so early in the morning! My favorite part? "Prin-cess . . . of Persia" LOL! You have to be a gamer to get the reference, but it's so spot-on funny!
You know, I'm not so sure how humorous this would be to anyone else on second thought. But it was to me, and this is my blog, so therefore -- SUCK IT!
No, no. I don't mean that. You don't have to suck it, or even find the trailer funny. But if you do, and if you would like more where that came from, head on over to Toby's website. Or check out his "Tobuscus" site on Youtube, which collects all of his vids in one handy place.
I recommend taking a look at the literal trailer for the game Dead Space 2, also. Again, before watching it, you might want to first watch the original trailer for Dead Space 2 here. Then check out the Tobuscus version here. I think the Dead Island one is funnier, personally. But the DS2 one is pretty hilarious in its own right.
Whoa, it's been an extravaganza of Necromorph killin these past few weeks! Let me count the ways for thee:
Two weeks ago I blogged in this entry about the upcoming sequel to 2008's breakout horror video game, Dead Space. To prepare myself for Dead Space 2's impending release, I purchased and downloaded the short prequel puzzle game, Dead Space: Ignition. Playing this quick title set the stage for some pretty freaky things that will be going on in the sequel . . . things I'm excited for, but which my heart is not going to be too happy about. I don't think it's recovered yet from that initial foray aboard the deep space mining vessel, the USG Ishimura.
But I had so much fun playing Dead Space: Ignition, that I decided to rent from Netflix last week the animated film which serves as a prequel to the first game, titled Dead Space: Downfall (pictured above). It was an excellent movie, one that got me even more hyped to return to this universe of bizarre alien artifacts and horrible monstrosities created from the corpses of dead space miners. Kewl!
However, now I think it's getting to be too much. I mean I love it all--don't get me wrong--but the hype machine for this game series is running on overload! Last night, Electronic Arts released a Dead Space game for the Apple iPhone and iPad -- which got a pretty decent review over here. (I haven't downloaded this game yet to my phone, but best believe I will!) The Apple game is like Ignition in that it shows another side-story taking place in the events leading up to the shenanigans going down in Dead Space 2. So, yet again, fans looking forward to the sequel game will be able to get a little more back story to round out the experience beforehand. I'm all for that.
Then comes today. Today, Tuesday the 25th of January, is a BIG day! Not only do we get yet another Dead Space animated movie released on DVD--this one called Dead Space: Aftermath (pictured above)--but, of course, it is the the launch day *finally* of the game itself, Dead Space 2!!! IGN has a really nice review of it here, too.
Phew! Can you say "Dead-Spaced out"?
Luckily, this is a series I really, truly like, or else I would be in danger of severe burnout. But although it may seem like a lot of info to the uninitiated, these various smaller media tie-ins are just like appetizers--light and fluffy. The two mini games--Ignition and iPhone--are very quick, breezy numbers that drip atmosphere and great story, but don't really tax the player. For that, the real meat n' potatoes is still the proper sequel, Dead Space 2. The movies, on the other hand, serve as nice pieces of exposition for those who are either being introduced to the game's universe for the first time, or who just wanted to reinforce the knowledge they already have about the mysterious things going on in Isaac Clarke's world.
I'm about to head out to purchase Aftermath on Blu-ray. Tonight and tomorrow I'll probably play and finish the iPhone game, and then this weekend I shall crack open Dead Space 2 on my Playstation 3. I really wish my other gaming friends could join me on this adventure, but they're all either busy with other games and/or real-life issues, or are just plain chicken-shit to try. Of course, I say the latter with lots of love. :)
Anyway, if you like extremely gory and freaky jump-out horror with your sci-fi, you've just been served notice that Dead Space is where's it all happening these days. If you've been hiding under a rock all this time, you have some catching up to do, yes?
Of course, if you just want to jump headlong into Dead Space 2 from scratch, I would recommend at least searching out the story scenes from the first game online to get you up to speed. You could probably just play the sequel cold (I'm sure the back story will be explained in some form or another), but why should you when we have such wonderful modern day inventions like Youtube and Wikipedia to make life easier?
If you decide to join me . . . bring a spare plasma cutter and perhaps a few replacement projectile saw blades with you, okay? It's going to get HAIRY!!!
As I mentioned back in this entry, I recently downloaded the game Dead Space: Ignition, which is sort of a set-up title paving the way to the upcoming sequel, Dead Space 2. The game only costs $5 and takes roughly 45 mins to complete from beginning to end. But the story has a branching plot, much like a choose your own adventure novel, so in order to see all the possible outcomes (a total of 4 different ones), you'll have to replay the game another 3 times to get the full picture.
Got it? Good.
I don't quite understand all the backlash this tide-over title has received since its release back in October. Complaints range from the game not involving any actual shooting or other action-y bits, to the art style being underdeveloped and "blobbish."
To that I say, whaaa? I actually liked the art direction. I wasn't expecting cutting-edge graphics here, not for $5. The story is told through the "motion comics" format, a style that might be familiar to fans of the recent Zack Snyder Watchmen film, which included a motion version of the graphic novel on the collector's home video set. Basically, the cutscenes are static comic book frames brought to life by minimal movements for dramatic emphasis. If you're into comics and cinema, you've seen this done before. It's no big deal. I don't see where all the hate is coming from.
Again, five dollars people! If you want to get an idea of what I'm talking about, check out the video trailer for this game by clicking here.
As for the complaint that this is not an action-shooter game -- big whoop! Why should it have to be? You want a shooter game, either replay the original Dead Space or wait for the sequel to hit next week. I was told that Ignition was going to be a puzzler, and that's exactly what I got. You solve a bunch of puzzles increasing in difficulty throughout the course of the game, all the while being fed the story via motion comic format in-between. The story is engaging and very much in spirit of the main games, complete with graphic horror moments, plot twists, and a whole heaping of betrayals.
Dead Space: Ignition tells the tale of two CPD employees aboard a space station named "The Sprawl." I'm sure there's a more official name for this place, but I don't recall hearing it during the course of the game. Nor do we ever fully understand what the "C" in CPD stands for, but we can infer from the dialog that the "PD" portion is Police Department. So, these two police officers--named Franco and Sarah--are coworkers. But, it turns out they're also lovers on the down-low. And while Sarah is the brawn of the pair, Franco is the brains. Or, at least, the technician. He's the staff engineer and, as such, he seems to spend most of his shift fixing computer terminals throughout the station.
When Ignition begins, Franco and Sarah are called to investigate a series of corrupted automated processes across the Sprawl. Franco hacks into the systems and hauls them back online. Sarah's job, on the other hand, seems to be standing around and making smart ass cracks. The voice acting is very good, however, and you do get a real sense of chemistry between these two.
Of course, because this is still a game taking place in the Dead Space universe, eventually there is a "Necromorph" outbreak aboard the station. These appear to be the same baddies Isaac Clarke came across in the first game. Necromorphs are mysteriously infected humans who mutate and turn inside-out and go on a general killing spree of mayhem and gluttony until no one is left alive. How the infection got from way out in deep space to the Sprawl is a mystery that is never truly answered in this game. But there are hints that the same saboteurs messing with the station's computer systems are behind the outbreak. Only Dead Space 2 will provide the true revelation, it seems.
Naturally this is where the game heats up. Franco and Sarah get caught up in the melee which follows the outbreak, barely having time to make sense of what the hell's going on before they're joining the other unsuspecting citizens in running for their lives. Although you never do get to wield your trusty plasma cutter and get hip deep into killing some baddies (that's Sarah's job, handled entirely through expository scenes), your job as Franco is to hack into various barrier controls and access panels in order to effectively escape the ravenous hordes of Necromorphs heading your way. This is where the challenge and gameplay aspects kick in. As an engineer, Franco's main expertise seems to be using hacker's tricks to bypass sabotaged circuits or safety overrides. In his arsenal are three types of hacks, which he'll choose depending on the scenario: Trace Route, System Override, or Hardware Crack.
Trace Route. My least favorite of the hacks. This puzzle involves Franco wending a light trace (orange line) through a maze of computer-generated barriers and redirects in breakneck speed. The system attempts to prevent you from reaching the mainframe core by sending out its own traces (blue lines) in a race to see who will reach the center first and unleash a quarantine on the enemy subroutine. In addition, along the way it releases various other subroutines to block and/or alter your course. I hate this hack because it's a bit reminiscent of the light cycle sequences in Tron, which in my opinion were always overplayed by fans. This hack, unfortunately, seems to be the most frequent throughout the game, though. Ugh!
System Override. This is a curious hack. Curious in that it's far too easy. For some reason I never failed any of these puzzles, not even once. I don't even know if it's possible to fail them. Basically, it's a capture-the-flag game with the system's firewall. Franco inserts a vector (the red trident icon in the lower right) into a honeycombed software layout. Through this vector, he can release 4 different types of viral attacks. The object of the game is to get either one of these viruses across the board to attack and "capture" the computer's firewall (green fortress blob on the far left). Along the way, however, the attacks are met with swift and furious anti-viral measures. The challenge comes from judging which viruses to send out to best attack specific types of anti-viral opponents. It becomes a juggling act, but in the end your efforts all boil down to your army being bigger and better than the computer's. Through sheer, overwhelming attacks, eventually all the anti-viral measures succumb under your numbers, leaving the firewall "fortress" completely vulnerable. Quite simple, really.
Hardware Crack. Ah, this is the mack-daddy of all the hacks! They start off easy, but then become hard as hell. By the end of the game, you're ready to tear your hair out due to the sheer complexity of this hack. Luckily, this is the least frequent of all three types. Yet, oddly enough, it's also my favorite of them all. Your job here is to redirect the two main light beams (green and red) to their respective matching power junctures on the other side of the board. Bend the beams around various obstacles just right, and you'll overload the fuses for a hardware short. At some point, however, a yellow power junction is introduced. So, in addition to finding ingenious ways to split, reflect, and redirect green and red lights across the board, you'll have to figure out how to also combine both colored beams to form yellow and route it over to the appropriate yellow receiver point as well. It can become quite the colorful mess, let me tell you!
And that's pretty much the sum of it, folks. The entire game is nothing but these 3 hacks being thrown at you in numerous variations. Some can be quite ingenious puzzles that are rewarding in the cracking, but most are annoying. To be honest, I only got enjoyment in being able to see the story progress after each solution. And trust me, the story gets pretty gripping at points.
Eventually Franco and Sarah end up in a really bad situation, which may or may not result in one or both of them meeting a horrific end. It all depends on the choices you make. Of course, if you play through all 4 possible story branches like I have, you start to see a certain pattern shared by all choices. This revelation, I'm sure (and it's quite the doozy, in fact) is going to pay dividends when it's time to play Dead Space 2. I can't wait to discover exactly how!
For your efforts at beating Ignition, you get a special hacker suit Isaac can use in the sequel. I hope the suit does what it sounds like. In the first game, you got special perks for various in-game items (like health, ammo, etc) depending on the level of your hacking abilities. So, if you're into that sort of thing like I am (hacking is always my favorite part of most games these days), this is even more incentive to play through Dead Space: Ignition.
And why wouldn't you want to? You get a pretty decent and quick offering for only 5 bucks (free if you pre-order the sequel), and the story sets up some elements for Isaac Clarke's continuing adventures. if you're a fan of the Dead Space universe and plan on returning there sometime soon, do yourself a favor and take less than an hour to try something a little different in the same milieu. Despite my hatred of the Tracer race hack, I still think the total package was well worth my investment.
Rating:8.3 out of 10.
P.S. -- In case you're thinking of stepping right into Dead Space 2 without first playing the original, below is a video trailer which will catch you up on the back story to this universe. And, hey, it just revealed to me that the name of the space station is Titan Station, after the Saturnian moon it orbits -- kewl! Does this mean the Necromorphs are closing in on Earth? *gulp*
Where the *bleep* have I been all this time? Oh right, neck deep in novel and short story writing la-la land for the past several months. Still, this is no excuse. I can't believe I almost missed out on the fact that Dead Space 2 is coming out in just under 2 weeks time!
Whoa!
Now, I know I said I was taking time off from gaming to write . . . but honestly, this is something I can't pass up. In case you don't recall, I talked about the original game in this entry back in July 2009 when I first started it up, and then this one nearly a month later when I was almost done. Wow, what a summer for gaming that was!
Anyway, Dead Space seriously impressed the hell out of me, despite initial misgivings. But words alone cannot explain how high-octane, insanely gruesome and satisfying this title is. To date, it is the one game that almost all of my friends cannot get through because it scared the living bejeebus out of them. Only two of my bros-in-arms finally mustered the courage to see it through to the end. That right there should tell you something about how seriously creepy the title is. It even had me taking breaks to catch my bearings -- and I'm a muther-effin VETERAN at survival horror games!
And now Dead Space 2 is upon us, ready to thrust poor engineer Isaac back into the fray of things. Knowing what happened during the credits scroll at the end of the last game, though, I must admit I have a few sneaking suspicions about what's up with our main dude this time around. Let's just say it's not looking good. But, hey, check out the launch trailer below and tell me you're not as psyched to play this as I am:
Awesome! I could do without the Smashing Pumpkins track blasting over the dialog of course, but other than that it looks like I should be expecting more of the same of what made the first game so damn addictive. And, hey! Isaac not only has a face for most of the game this time around, but a voice as well! He's moving up in the world.
I challenge all my gaming buddies out there to join me on January 25th and put this one through its paces. We can see who makes it the farthest and quickest. And, no, I'm not favored to win because, like I said already -- I'm a little pressed for time right now. Even if I wanted to play this every second of every day (and trust me, I will want to), I'd be lucky if I even get one hour of game time PER WEEK to fight nasty necromorphs with my trusty plamsa drill. I simply have too many things going on in my free hours this year.
We shall see.
Oh, but on a side note: apparently a small set-up game to this sequel was released on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live! last October. Dead Space: Ignition is a non-shooter puzzler done in a quirky comic-booky presentation that's more like an interactive graphic novel than a true, full-fledged game. Okay, that might be selling it short since apparently some of those interactive elements are quite puzzly and requiring you to hang on tight to your gaming hats. Still, it's more story set-up for the real meat-n-potatoes that is Dead Space 2. As such, it might be a good idea for me to download it off the PSN and prepare myself properly for the release date of the actual sequel. You can also get the download code for free by pre-ordering DS2 from any retailer.
I would hazard a guess that Ignition only needs about 2 or 3 hours to beat, tops. Which, in my world, means a good couple of days of sporadic devotion on my end. Luckily, I have a 4 day weekend starting today thanks to MLK day on Monday, so guess what I'll be doing?
Oh yeah!!!
And here I thought I would be getting back into Red Dead Redemption sometime soon. Oh well, so much for that plan.
So last night I made it to chapter 10 in my ongoing playthrough of the PS3 game, Dead Space. In this chapter, Isaac must find a spare space shuttle that's hiding out in the vicinity of the crew quarters in order to escape the nightmare aboard the USG Ishimura. Except, all the control cards to navigate the vessel have been removed by some unknown saboteur (although I have a pretty good idea who it is).
Anyway, on my search for the cards, I discovered the Zero-g basketball court. As the name implies, this is a simple game of basketball turned on its head--with the gravity removed. There are 4 "hoops" and, apparently, players would launch themselves from surface to wall and ceiling pads in this free-floating environment, and attempt to rocket the ball into one of these 4 holes in the wall at the end of the court. Take a close look at the picture above to get an idea of what I'm talking about.
Of course, all the players are now dead. So when I show up, the court's deserted. Or, at least, it's *supposed* to be. As soon as I stepped in and the weightlessness kicked in, 4 Lurkers immediately launched themselves out of each hoop and proceeded to "swim" in my direction, throwing acidy spit at me from all angles. I had to jump to each pad, constantly on the move, and attack each enemy individually while magnetically rooted to the surface. Whenever two or more would gang up, I'd immediately re-launch myself to another hardwood patch of floor on the other side of the room--sometimes sideways, sometimes upside down. Finally, when I had dessicated all enemy combatants, I stood in the center of the court huffing and puffing and admiring all the eviscerated body parts floating around in zero-g above me.
*shudder*
I think this game is finally getting to me. But, being the glutton for punishment that I am, this of course only makes Dead Space that much awesome!!!
I was going to play through inFamous for a second time, but honestly I hate playing games over when I have so little time to play the ones which I haven't gotten around to yet. So even though I wanted to unlock some more bonus trophies, I had to move on. Plus, I just wasn't having any fun since I had already seen all the missions before, albeit as a bad guy now and on a higher difficulty setting.
So, what am I playing now, you might ask? Well, first off, thanks for asking! And to answer your wonderfully prescient inquiry, all you have to do is glance rightward at my "Now Playing" sidebar.
Yup, after much, much delay, I've *finally* got around to starting up Dead Space. It's been out since October, so that should give you an idea of how full my gaming plate has been these past few months. And lets not even get into the the next 9 months coming up.
Anyway, Dead Space is a fun little game. It's sci-fi and horror mixed into one, sorta like the movies Alien and Dawn of the Dead combined. Or, as some gamers have put it: Resident Evil in space! But in actuality it reminds me a lot of Bioshock, at least in terms of the thrills and spills. While not quite as creepily atmospheric as the latter title, Dead Space *does* have its moments. And I've only just started! I can only shudder to think what's in store for me later.
The cool part of this game is that it is not your typical shooter. You're an engineer named Isaac. Isaac is pining away for a girl named Nicole who is trapped aboard the deep-space mining vessel Isaac and his team are investigating. His only clue is a distress message Nicole sent a few days earlier. Because Isaac is not some bad-ass soldierly type, when the shit eventually hits the fan (and boy does it ever!), he's left to using the tools of his trade to keep ahead of being some mutated miner's lunch. This means metal slicers, bolt cutters, mining drills, flamethrowers, that sort of thing. True, these so-called "blue-collar" tools are designed more like guns in the game, but it's the novelty of the approach that I appreciate.
Last Fall I had originally wrote off Dead Space as just another Resident Evil ripoff, and with RE5 coming out a few months later, I decided to wait around for that instead. But now that I'm playing the title, I can see I was wrong to dismiss it. It really is an exciting experience. I'm loving all the intricate details of the level designs, and also the abilities Isaac can upgrade his RIG suit to perform. And the way you kill enemies is new, too. Instead of shooting them in the trunk or head the way most shooters train you to do, the only real way to take down enemies here is to slice off their limbs first. So if a big, hulking brute is barreling towards you down a long, narrow corridor, slice it off at the knees first to cause the creature to fall flat on his face. Then, as he tries to claw his way towards you, adjust you plasma cutter and take out each of his arms. After that, curb stomp the head for a truly gruesome finish.
Sounds good to you? Because that's about damn fucking AWESOME in my book!
Anyway, I've only just begun, so keep checking the sidebar for continued updates. I've already finished chapter 1, and am just a tiny ways into chapter 2. I'm moving pretty quickly because I want to finish this up by August 25th, just in time for Batman: Arkham Asylum, which I gush about exactly one post down.
Oh, and here's a trailer for Dead Space if you want an idea of what I'm dealing with:
