Dead Space Comments by Dan Whitehead

Quite surprised at the score to be honest (haven't read the review yet) as I was just checking on metacritic and the average there is 9/10 at the mo

I wonder if there's a sci-fi reference buried subtly in the character's name?

The gist I get:

Lots of promises made, very little substance. Looks great, but it's just gibbing critters repeatedly, with no real meat to the game.

I'm wondering that since the GTA4 10 if EG are really putting games to the sword to justify high marks nowadays? Not that this is a bad thing because a rating system gets a bit devalued once a score of 7 or 8 for a game is deemed "poor" or "a failure", whereas it should be seen as good.

Good enough score for me to buy it, but only once it's a bit cheaper. I can't really warrant buying anything a full price at the moment.

@Widge,

Why since GTA4? EG have always been more stringent in their final scores than most other sites out there, where 7 is bad, 8 ok, 9 average and 10 pretty good.

Same criticisms IGN had, but they gave it 8.2. I'm looking forward to this one.

I think I'd get bored with this one pretty quickly... that said, I did enjoy Condemned 2.

/looks at PZ:Crimson Butterly

/sighs

This is whats ridiculous about videogame scoring, people see 7/10 and think it means waste of time.
A 7/10 for one man is another's 10/10.
Too many games score 8/10+ for my liking, not everything can be getting that close to perfection.
Look at film review averages for example, if a film gets in the 70s it means its bloody probably very good!

>I'm wondering that since the GTA4 10 if EG are really putting games to the sword to justify high marks nowadays?

What? GTA4 got 10s all over the universe.... as did Halo 3 BTW and Oblivion and Braid and.... etc...

Keep on whining...

I dunno, maybe since that has been when my focus has been on it a bit more, but I'm sure games have had to work alot harder since then for their marks.

At what point was there whining? I don't believe I said I had a problem with the score.

Oh and I love GTA4 so I'm not entire sure where you were going with your stance?

Sorry, rather than leave it like that... my general gist is that there is this perception under a 9 = bad and people get disappointed when things are marked like this. So something like this may get dismissed whereas it might be pretty alright if you want a new game.

I will be getting this for sure, I've been looking forward to this for an age - however I may wait until after Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2 have been played through, as the release schedule for the end of this month is bloody ridiculous!

Also WAR is taking over my life at present.

@robg

I believe the sci-fi connection is Isaac Asimov & Arthur C Clarke

"I dunno, maybe since that has been when my focus has been on it a bit more, but I'm sure games have had to work alot harder since then for their marks. "

It's what the high scoring AAA games do, I beleive the expression is 'raising the bar'.

to be honest, Eurogamer is heading down the path of Edge, where they're deliberately running down titles just to appear respectable, as if by marking harder than anyone else, they're something special

their reviews no longer hold much meaning for me, i check Eurogamer for news at the most, and even then they're often way behind everyone else

Every game that has advertising on eurogamer gets 7/10. So does that mean that Saints Row 2 will also get that score? Course it does

>Oh and I love GTA4 so I'm not entire sure where you were going with your stance?

You seemed to suggest GTAIV was not a 10 and that now EG is compensating by rating games lower.

Anyway.. ignore my remarks if that was not the case.

I would have loved Dead Space to be a 9 or a 10 but I just have no more faith in EA. A 7 is probably ok but a missed opportunity since they seem to have a kick ass engine. The movies looked more like an FPS TBH... how can you have "horror" when you have to slaughter countless aliens every minute.

Not as good as LBP then?

Thanks for clearing that up, DrunkenKillfish.

"No offence but that's a terrible review, you compared it to about 20 different games in a failed attempt to take some of the gloss off this fine game."

So you've played it then ? Twat.

Oh Jesus. Can we please stop splitting hairs over the cocking score. Its frankly the very least important part of the review (as always).

So anyway, on the subject of the actual game. Its reassuring to hear the combat is fun, as that is the area I worried about. Sounds like the level design let it down a bit (under the umbrella of not very imaginitive plotting). Worth a rental I suppose?

NickJC1:I'm done with video games sites, theyve lost all credibility when it comes to reviews.

hooray! do you promise to fuck off forever and never come back again then?


anyways, lookin forward to this game immensely, sounds v good. fable2 out the same day tho, so it might have to wait til after the xmas rush...

Wo, I almost entirely missed this. For some reason this hardly stands out at all on the front page. Perhaps substitute the current image for one of the game's iconic protagonist?

NickJC1, your comments on the LBP review thread and now here show that you are completly insane. I suggest you go and get some help.

I'm wondering that since the GTA4 10 if EG are really putting games to the sword to justify high marks nowadays?

For what it's worth, that's just how I review games. I play them through, and get a feeling for what sort of mark I'd probably give it. Then I put it to one side, sleep on it for a bit, go back to it and see if it really stands up to my initial impressions. Sometimes they go up, more often they go down a notch.

What I can say with absolute conviction is that in over two years of writing for Eurogamer, I've never once had a conversation, argument or debate with any of the editorial staff over a mark I've given a game. I know this will be hard for some to believe, but Tom simply sends me a game, I play it, I think about it, I write my thoughts down, give it a score out of ten, send it to him and that's what goes up on the site. No pressure, no queries, no editorial tampering. Ever.

I've been writing professionally about games since 1991, and this is the first time that's ever happened. For what it's worth.

I still think we should get rid of numeric scores for subjective qualitative game entertainment products. 'Buy', 'buy if you like that kind of thing', 'rent', 'avoid' -- would work for me, and it sounds like Dead Space is a 'buy if you like that kind of thing' title.

And I do like that kind of thing, so it's a PC purchase for me. Although I wish EA would use Steam for distribution.

I was expecting a little higher, but no doubt 7 is a pretty good score for their first attempt. It seems a shame that the game boils down to people telling you to fix this or that over the radio; I always find that solid objectives help make a game feel a bit more credible.

Still, one to check out it seems, although perhaps early next year if/when the price drops, due to this horrendously competitive season.

EG i think you need a review of yoursleves. Just glimpsing at the comments shows that alot of people think your scores are rather odd.

me included!!

During the review you seem to focus on negatives and how it takes from other games..but the list of other games is good and i for one am pleased to have a mix of them. And even after all the negatives you give 7/10 which should actually count as a pretty good game.

Come on EG sort out your rating system and reviews. be a bit more positive aye?

Not as good as Lego Batman then Dan..... :)

@Dan
"this is the first time that's ever happened. For what it's worth."
First time what has happened? Have you got editorial beef from your score?

I'm not a fan of 'scoring' reviews either, I look at the final score sure, but for me it's the impression from the text that gives me a feel for the game rather than the score.

7/10 isn't bad by any means, but the review actually delves into the reasoning behind this, and for me, whislt I'm slightly disappointed that the game doesn't appear to have been the masterpiece I was hoping it would be, that remains to be seen from my point of view when I go out an play it.

Why whine about scores, just play the game and see for yourself if you agree with the review or not. I see reviews as a guide, and sometimes in the past I have been put off from playing a game, but all in all, it's how YOU feel about a game that matters, not anyone else surely?

@Dan
"this is the first time that's ever happened. For what it's worth."
First time what has happened? Have you got editorial beef from your score?

I presume he meant, first time in his career before EG that there has been NO editorial pressure to change a review score?

DAN : 'I think about it, I write my thoughts down, give it a score out of ten, send it to him and that's what goes up on the site. '

...

Go fuck yourself, San Diego!

I'll wait for it to be reduced to 19.99 then.

What is wrong with you people? Stop talking about the score ffs.

Right. Next person to talk about the score likes fiddling with cattle, whilst wearing stolen underwear.

Starting now.

@DanWhitehead

To even respond to that crap is not worth your time dude. Some people just like moaning about stuff.

Shit. Should I have made those last posts in reverse order?

/gets underwear sack

IGN gave it 8.7 (not 8.2 coomber) and gamepro gave it 5/5 and i really like the genre so i might buy it as soon as it becomes availaible.

edit: 7/10 is fine btw. No moaning from me.

And Playr gave it 9/10 - not that you can really trust them too much, IMO.

People dont see a 7/10 as shit. I think most people understand that such a score means GOOD GAME.

But, the problem is that playing games takes alot of fucking time. (For some money is a problem aswell,)
When you already have a billion 8+/10-games on your To-Play-List, or when you know the holiday season is just around the corner, 7/10 naturally feels like "shit", as its probably worse than most other games that you still havnt had the time to play.

Games are not movies in this regard, and while we should be glad so many great games come out, its proves a problem at the same time.

Yeah Dan, I don't think any sane person thinks you mark the final score as anything other then a fair representation of the overall quality of the game. I'm sure you know as much as anyone the amount of idiots that post on this site (just check the LBP posts).

Anywho as for scores, I'm pro scoring and only think they are useful to compare similar games in the same genre not to decide whether Halo is better then Sudoku.

I presume he meant, first time in his career before EG that there has been NO editorial pressure to change a review score?

Yes, sorry, just to clarify - that's what I meant.

Non-quirky/non-leftfield game gets less than 9/10 on EG shocker!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any time i see a 'regular' game reviewed on EG i usually add one or two to the review score to compensate for the Edge-style eliteism on this site.

Why do we always get info on how a game plays on the consoles but never on the PC? With games released on three or more platforms at the time I think it's a very important piece of information, it's not the first time the PC has suffered from bad ports or cross-platform-development.

So just to recap, Eurogamer only gives top marks to big budget mainstream blockbuster games because of the big sacks of money the publishers send, but Eurogamer also only gives top marks to quirky, leftfield arty-farty games because of omg elitism.

Hmm. Paradox.

I'm a bit surprised at the review as I've been hearing lots of goods thing on DS.

Still games that get 6 or 7 on EG I normally like quite a lot so not bothered about the review. As a big Survival horror fan I know this is my cup of tea so add on a point or two!

Been following this since it was announced, 7/10 is a good enough score for me to pick it up I think.

Anyone know if theres gonna be a demo?

Alone in the dark and Dead Space is within the same genre and received the same score on this site. Thats very odd imo. I prefer Metacritic when comparing scores to avoid really bad games having the same score as good ones.

The game still sound great to me after reading the review.

Unoriginal ?... well I didn't really expect it to be.
Inpersonal main character?... worked for Halo ;)
Backtracking?... ok, this IS a issue and something also pointed out by IGN, but apparently no a game breaker.

So not a masterpiece as many hoped, but sound like a great game :)