When it comes to Dead Space, what dies doesn't stay dead for long. Dead Space 3 launched in February 2013 and EA has said nothing since to indicate it's ready to revive the science fiction horror series. We've already explored the Dead Space 3 the developers wanted to make, but what about Dead Space 4? It turns out Visceral had ideas - some properly exciting - for a fourth game in the series. Unfortunately, Visceral never got the chance to turn them into reality. After Dead Space 3 flopped, EA put the studio on the Battlefield series with spin-off Hardline before assigning it a Star Wars game that was eventually cancelled. Now, Visceral is no more.
April's Xbox Live Games with Gold line-up feels like a particularly good one.
Dead Space 2 and 3 have been added to the Xbox One's backward compatibility library.
Editor's note: In light of EA closing Visceral Games, we thought it would be a good time to remember the game and series the studio is known best for: Dead Space. This article was first published in February this year.
My initial plan for this article was to write about the space bits of Dead Space, also known as everyone's favourite bits of Dead Space. I was going to write something cool and arch and critical like "the true horror of Dead Space lies not in the snarling, gibbering Necromorphs that attempt to rip and tear the flesh from Isaac Clarke's body, but in how the game imagines the inky void of space as a direct physical threat. Throughout its length, Dead Space constantly reminds us the USG Ishimura is a tiny lifeboat spinning in a vast, black vacuum. It sucks the air out of Isaac's lungs, and forces us to fight in environments where even simple things like the concept of 'Up' become entirely redundant."
Something like that anyway. But then I played Dead Space, which I haven't done in about five years. I arrived at the first jump-scare, the one where Isaac is separated from his crewmates in the docking bay as Necromorphs start falling from the ceiling like coconuts on the galaxy's worst tropical island. I wish I could tell you that I was stalwart in the face of danger, hardened by my years playing horror games in the name of games journalism. Instead I completely bricked it. Again. I'd prepared myself mentally for it as well, playing the scene over in my head as the game downloaded. It made no difference. The moment Dead Space dropped the NecroMic I panicked, racing blindly through the corridors, fingers stabbing at the wrong keys, swearing with increasing volume as I tried to get the goddamn elevator doors to shut.
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Resident Evil 7 looks pretty good, if you ask me - in all honesty I thought the days in which I could muster excitement for an upcoming Resi title were long behind me, but the next instalment seems to have real promise.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a multifaceted mental disorder that doesn't seem to get discussed very often; oftentimes it seems like one of those things that only happens to other people.
Dead Space and Battlefield Hardline developer Visceral Games' VP and general manager of 15 years, Steve Papoutsis, is no longer at EA.
Children are kind of useful, giving people who no longer fancy going to the pub very often something to fill their time with instead. They also ensure the continuation of the human race solely by existing, which is pretty impressive when you think about it. Apologies to any parents reading this by the way, I really am trying my best.
John Carpenter - director of Halloween, The Thing, and Escape from New York - would like to make a Dead Space movie.
Update 2: EA has accused VideoGamer of fabricating its Dead Space story, but the media outlet isn't taking these allegations lightly and claims that EA knew about the story in advance and was given an opportunity to deny it prior to publication, but for whatever reason, didn't.
VideoGamer has a detailed account of its correspondence with EA prior to publishing the piece.
But first, the accusations. Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore left a comment on a GamesIndustry report regarding the whole affair.
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Keep-the-lights-on sci-fi horror Dead Space 2 is now free for PlayStation Plus subscribers to download.
Outspoken Dead Space story producer Chuck Beaver has defended his critique of Gears of War, claiming his remarks were taken out of context.
The story producer of the Dead Space franchise believes Gears of War has "literally the worst writing in games".
You-hoo, PC gamers, there's a juicy sale going on over at EA's digital distribution shop Origin.
Visceral Games, the studio behind the Dead Space franchise and God of War pretender Dante's Inferno, is working on a brand new IP.
Dead Space 2 developer Visceral Games toned down a number of the title's stages when playtesters struggled to progress through the game, according to one of its developers.
EA has plans to uproot its survival horror series Dead Space after next instalment Dead Space 3, a new report suggests.
Purported plot details from Dead Space 3 have leaked, detailing returning hero Isaac Clarke's deteriorating mental state.
EA's threequel will see the beleaguered engineer haunted by a secondary personality, according to fresh info from Siliconera.
Dubbed "Shadow Isaac", the apparition will haunt players throughout the game - similar to how Clarke's dead girlfriend Nicole popped up in Dead Space 1 and 2.
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Dead Space 3 sees series hero Isaac Clarke stranded on a frozen planet called Tau Volantis after his ship crashes, according to alleged insider info procured by Siliconera.
Believing he is the only one to come out of the accident alive, he finds his way to an abandoned waystation where he meets another survivor who tells him that a few others made it - including Ellie from the first game - and have set off in search of a facility.
Duly, they apparently all rendez-vous, with new character Jennifer then concentrating on reverse engineering mysterious tech by a group called Rosetta.
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What appears to be a Dead Space 3 logo and concept art have popped up in a video tour of EA's Redwood offices shown on Israeli TV.
The scariest video game on Xbox 360 is EA's sci-fi survival horror Dead Space 2, a new scientific study has determined.
FPS sequel Crysis 2 has now sold in three million copies worldwide, publisher EA has announced.
Portal 2, Dead Space 2 and Dragon Age II, meanwhile, have all broken the two million mark, while FIFA 11 nears 15 million units and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 nine million.
The numbers come from EA's fiscal Q1 earnings report, which saw the publisher log non-GAAP net revenue of $524 million, down slightly from $539 million this time last year. Digital revenue was picked out as a highlight though, increasing 11 per cent to $209 million.
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Dead Space 2's multiplayer mode is getting an expansion, and it's coming for free.
Welcome to Cheap This Week! We already tell you which games are out this week, so we thought we'd try bringing you a weekly roundup of the best deals in gaming as well. Look out for Cheap This Week each Wednesday.
A Wii version of EA survival horror sequel Dead Space 2 was at one point in time in existence, according to newly unearthed developer CVs.
Publishers are needlessly shoehorning extraneous multiplayer modes into games that don't suit them in an attempt to maximise profits, so says Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford.
Crysis 2 is EA's biggest UK launch of 2011, sales-counter GfK Chart-Track has revealed.
That means the 8/10 shooter developed by Crytek has enjoyed a bigger opening weekend than Dragon Age II, Dead Space 2, Bulletstorm and Fight Night Champion - the games EA has already released this year.
Crysis 2 topped the UK all-formats chart this week, selling a 57 per cent majority on Xbox 360. The remaining 43 per cent was split 29 per cent on PS3 and 14 per cent on PC. Remember, digital sales aren't counted, which excludes Steam and its ilk.
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The live action Dead Space movie still exists and will happen, its director has insisted.
Dead Space developer Visceral will soon begin work on a "bold new IP" - a move that suggests either Dead Space and Dante's Inferno are being put on hold, or that a second, complimentary team is being made.
The Dead Space 2 Severed DLC has been released on Xbox Live Marketplace and costs 560 Microsoft Points (£4.80 / €6.72).
Dead Space 2 entered the January US sales chart at number three, one spot behind Wii-exclusive rave-up Just Dance 2, according to new NPD data.
Sales of Dead Space 2 have been double those of the original, but it won't be until the release of Dead Space 3 that the series will really take off, EA said.
PlayStation 3 Dead Space 2 users are getting the chance to pick up two new multiplayer suits this weekend. However, getting your hands on them won't be easy.
It is a story sure to warm even the coldest of hearts. Overnight Dead Space 2 creator Visceral promised to enable the re-mapping of key bindings for the PC version of its superb action horror game after a disabled gamer complained about not being able to play.
Over 20,000 people have signed an online petition calling on developers to enable button remapping after a disabled gamer complained about not being able to play Dead Space 2.
Dead Space 2 spends a second week atop the UK all-formats top 40 chart today.
Dead Space 2's single player campaign is an anxious creep through a string of dark corridors to a soundtrack of groaning steelwork and laboured breath. There are, of course, interruptions to the taut atmosphere: the burst of a gangly Necromorph through a dilapidated wall, or a screaming phantom that breaks through the fragile sanity of your mind. But the journey through Dead Space II is characterized primarily by its bars of rest, not by its bars of fury.
Peek inside Issac Clarke's mind.
Dead Space 2 is currently outpacing sales of its predecessor by a factor of two to one, publisher EA has announced.
Speaking at an investor call today, EA chief operating office John Schappert boasted that the sequel, released last week, "is approaching two million units sold in – double the sell through of the original Dead Space."
That's great news for survival horror fans. Following comments from EA exec Frank Gibeau last year that the original game "didn't hit expectations" at retail there was a sense that this was Visceral's last chance to get the franchise to stick.
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Superb horror shooter Dead Space 2 has landed squarely atop the UK all-formats top 40 chart.
Visceral Games has held discussions about a live action Dead Space movie and would "love to do it" under the right circumstances, according to the game's art director.
Like for like footage analysed by Digital Foundry.
It's fair to say our attention has been fixed upon the Far East for the last 48 hours. An elongated home console generation means that we've lost the regular rush of excitement, speculation and punditry that accretes in the run up to a platform launch, and even if the Next Generation Portable turns out to be an overhyped dog when it arrives later this year, which seems unlikely at first glance, we owe Sony thanks for reminding us that gaming is about more than creativity – sometimes it's about geeking out over tech as well.
Dead Space 2 lands in the UK today - but where's cheapest to buy it?
Some games elicit fear in their player through ambience: the hollow grumble of a cello, a mortal cry for help daubed in blood on a wall, a rocking horse swaying in an unfamiliar breeze as an unseen child sings a nursery rhyme.
Other games engender fear through brute shocks: sudden power failures that rob you of a sense, floorboards which give way in showers of splinters, monsters who burst through walls you had ticked off as safe in your subconscious.
Then there are those games which unsettle the player by restraining their reach into the world. There's a limit to the amount of ammunition or health packs which can be carried at any given time. Save points are spread out between long tightropes of danger. Walls close in, creating a sense of claustrophobia and panic when trying to line up a headshot in a confined space.
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In space no-one can hear you scream. That is, of course, unless you're wearing a headset and are playing online in gory multiplayer battles to the death. This week sees the release of Visceral's science fiction horror game Dead Space 2. We're promised scares the likes of which gaming has never seen. Oh, and with multiplayer, fast-paced online action.
Arise, Sir Issac of Clarke.
All EA's games are friends, which is why a code is being included in Dead Space 2 that will unlock armour in Dragon Age 2.
Dead Space dev devises directional device.
Gameplay stuns EA focus group.
Isaac Clarke is having a bad day.
A new Dead Space game will be available on the App Store on 25th January, EA has announced.
Can you decipher the Scrawl?
The outstanding additions to a jam-packed PlayStation Store today are three demos: one for Dead Space 2, one for LittleBigPlanet 2 and one for Mass Effect 2.
The Dead Space 2 demo dropped on the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live yesterday, giving us our first chance to get hands-on with playable code that we would hope is representative of the final game set for release on 28th January. First impressions? It's a bit good, isn't it?
Work's not always exciting.
Demo coming 21st December.
Animated film Dead Space Aftermath will release on Blu-ray and DVD on 24th January.
A demo of action horror game Dead Space 2 will release worldwide on Xbox Live on 21st December and on the European PlayStation Network on 22nd December, EA has announced.
The demo is set in the Church of Unitology part of giant space city the Sprawl. You assume control of unfortunate engineer Isaac as he kills horrible Necromorphs in what's described as a "gruesome, unforgiving battle".
The Church of Unitology is an expectedly "safe" place that quickly becomes dangerous and deadly during the Necromorph outbreak.
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25 hours and you're out single-player only games are "finished", according to mega publisher EA.
Art director spills the beans.
You may well be in for a treat this Christmas - EA has dropped an exaggerated hint that a Dead Space 2 demo is on its way.
Mirror's Edge, EA's 2008 parkour-flavoured FPS, "fell short" of the publisher's expectations.
All growed up for the sequel.
Isaac Clarke is no stranger to getting out of scrapes – if you can call being yanked apart by a shuddering tower of blood, gristle, and talons a scrape. However, even he would have trouble solving the problem that faced Visceral Games when the developer started work on Dead Space 2.
Daft new Dead Space 2 clip.
A new Dead Space game for the iPad will launch in December, EA has revealed.
EA has announced ambitious expansion plans for Dead Space developer Visceral Games.
Like one of its horrible beastly necromorphs, Dead Space 2 is creeping up on us with unnerving silence. EA's action horror is out in three months, which means it's time to sit down with creator Visceral Games and find out what the hell is going on in here.
The Dead Space 2 Collector's Edition will contain a replica Plasma Cutter gun, "art cell", soundtrack, downloadable armour and a copy of the game.
Every year at the Eurogamer Expo we invite you to tell us what you thought of the games you played, and without fail every year (so far anyway) you exhibit amazing taste in huge numbers. This year's Expo line-up was our strongest and most diverse yet, so we were excited to see what would follow in the footsteps of last year's winner, God of War III, or 2008's Mirror's Edge...
Development on a sequel to Dante's Inferno is not underway, developer Visceral Games has revealed, and there are no immediate plans to get started.
Joystiq asked Visceral's Zach Mumbach whether we'd be seeing adaptations of the remaining sections of Dante's Divine Comedy.
"I'm sure that if enough people are like, 'I got 60 dollars for Purgatory or Paradiso,' then we would make that game. But I don't know. I don't get to make those decisions."
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EA will hand out downloadable prologue Dead Space Ignition free to anybody that pre-orders Dead Space 2.
A handful of lucky PS3 owners are being invited into a Dead Space 2 closed beta test.
Sign-ups are handled by developer Louis Gascoigne (no relation) on Twitter ("codecow"). He's been sending out PSN codes to people that message him their email address.
"Thanks to everyone showing interest in the offer I mentioned earlier, I will see if I get any codes tomorrow," he posted three hours ago, at 6am UK time.
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Dead Space 2 isn't out until January next year, but developer Visceral Games hopes it'll be successful enough for EA to sound the call for a third game in the action horror series.
A raft of upcoming EA games will be playable ahead of their release at the Eurogamer Expo this October.
New information regarding the online multiplayer mode in Dead Space 2 is flying about the internet.
According to Gamernode, it emerged during a GameStop conference in San Antonio, Texas.
Apparently EA revealed you'll be able to control the Necromorphs in deathmatch-style battles against regular "soldiers" - and vice versa. More multiplayer characters will be announced in the future.
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In space, no one can hear you realigning solar arrays. To be fair, no one can hear anything in space, but that's not how it's generally portrayed by videogames or Hollywood. We've always found this strange because, as Dead Space 2 demonstrates, it's always nice and atmospheric when things die down to virtual silence and the only thing to listen to is the sound of your own breathing (and Stanley Kubrick spinning quietly in his grave).
Isaac Clarke starts to unravel in EA's sequel.
Sony has announced a bunch of exclusive tie-ups with third-party publishers to provide downloadable content, betas and limited editions only available to PlayStation 3 owners.
EA will launch special versions of the new Medal of Honor (12th October) and Dead Space 2 (28th January) that include exclusives bonuses. Medal of Honor will ship with an HD remastering of Medal of Honor: Frontline (remember that?), while Dead Space 2 will include a copy of Dead Space: Extraction featuring PS Move support.
2K, meanwhile, will offer exclusive day-one downloadable content for Mafia II on PS3. "Loads of new missions and hours of additional arcade gameplay," apparently. Mafia II's out on 27th August.
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EA has announced a DLC multiplayer expansion pack for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 set in Vietnam. It will be released in winter 2010.
A very short teaser was shown of jungle action set to a Creedence Clearwater Revival tune. The press release confirms that you'll be able to play as either US Marines or North Vietnamese Army.
Meanwhile, Medal of Honor was confirmed for a 12th October release date, and Dead Space 2 will be released on 25th January 2011 (28th in Europe).
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Steve Papoutsis on giving Isaac a voice.
Few things could ever hope to top the gurning onomatopoeic satisfaction of pruning malicious spindly limbs from Dead Space's necromorphs. The whump of the stasis blast to stop them in their tracks, the surgically precise thunk and schlick of the plasma cutter carving through bone with merciless efficiency.
It turns out that Visceral Games is making a PC version of Dead Space 2 after all.
EA will show a beefy line-up of games at E3, including the new "action" Need for Speed game and FIFA 2011.
EA has announced that Dead Space 2 and a new Dragon Age title (TBA) will be released in Q4 of fiscal 2011.
Dead Space and Dante's Inferno developer Visceral Games has PSN and XBLA projects on the boil.
Rumour suggests these will be an adaptation of Wii game Dead Space: Extraction and a new strategy game called called Planet Cracker.
"Our express purpose is to make the sort of AAA hits that are just naturally found on 360 and PS3. We also do some PC work as well. That's not to say that we don't have smaller efforts under way and direct-to-consumer efforts on XBLA and PSN," Nick Earl, general manager at Visceral, told Gamasutra.
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Dead Space 2 may not be as dead in the water as reported.
EA has reportedly said that Dead Space 2 is not on its way to PC after all.
EA may be revamping Wii game Dead Space: Extraction for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.
EA's latest release schedule lists Dead Space 2 for release between January and March 2011, along with more from the Spore, Sims and Need for Speed series.
EA had previously said to expect Dead Space 2 by the end of March 2011. The latest schedule only lists the game for PS3 and Xbox 360, but previous announcements have pegged it for PC as well.
The other interesting items on the release list in the first three months of 2011 include "Shooter from Epic TBA" (thought to be from People Can Fly) and "Need for Speed Title TBA" (probably not Criterion's reboot, as the schedule also lists an NFS game for the last three months of 2010.
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EA superboss John Riccitiello has said to expect Dead Space 2 and Crysis 2 "at full margins", whatever that means, within the company's 2011 fiscal year.
After a bare-bones reveal on Monday, developer Visceral Games has fleshed out Dead Space 2, confirming multiplayer, an enormous space station called Sprawl, dialogue for Isaac Clarke and a wide array of weapons, monsters and more.
Multiplayer wasn't elaborated on, but RelyOnHorror's regurgitation of Game Informer's spread (via VG247) did promise we'll be able to dismember our friends. And we like the sound of that.
The new hub to everything will be Sprawl, a space station-cum-metropolis built around the remains of Saturn's moon. This dramatically dwarfs the Ishimura of Dead Space 1 and provides Visceral with variety: an opportunity to create shopping mall, church and school environments, to name a few.
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EA has announced Dead Space 2 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, but hasn't said when it's due out or whether it includes multiplayer.
