dead-space posts

You may remember that we had a post a few days ago that showed a PC gamer with disabilities playing Fallout New Vegas with only his head and a mouse. That gamer was Gareth Garratt who is dealing remarkably well with the effects of cerebral palsy. Garratt would like to play the recently released PC version of Dead Space 2 but at the moment Electronic Arts' survival horror sequel doesn't support customizable controls for the PC port. That kind of support is needed for Garratt to play the game with his condition.

Now it looks like the game's development team at Visceral Games will be offering a way to re-map key bindings in an upcoming patch for Dead Space 2, along with other bug fixes, according to a statement sent to our sister site Joystiq. There's no word yet on when the patch will be released.

Dead Space 2's release was preceded by a marketing campaign that talked about the survival horror game's fictional religion called Unitology, which also showed up in the first game. Indeed Dead Space 2 was demoed at E3 last June by Electronic Arts press folks were able to pick up a comic pamphlet that discussed the religion much like similar pamphlets that have been passed around by certain Christian organizations.

But Unitology as it is described in Dead Space 2 seems to have more in common with Scientology, the religion founded by the late L Ron Hubbard. In an interview over at MTV's Multiplayer blog, the game's creative director Wright Bagwell denied that the team tried to make a direct connection between Unitology and Scientology, stating, "It was never really intended. I think people get that a lot because the name is very similar." But in a feature story Ars Technica says otherwise, pointing out the many similarities Scientology and the Unitology religion as depicted in the games. The game even has an in-game add for Unitology that shows a man who has more than a passing resemblance to Hubbard.

The original Dead Space got solid reviews when it was first released back in the fall of 2008. However, despite marketing ideas like a six-issue comic book mini-series and an animated direct-to-DVD movie, the sci-fi survival horror game from Electronic Arts wasn't a huge sales success. The publisher admitted back in August 2010 that the game had sold about two million copies across its three platforms, including the PC.

Flash forward to today with EA now saying it is very happy about the sales success of its sequel Dead Space 2. The game which was released just last week, is outselling the original game by a ratio of "two-to-one" according to a statement in EA's financial press release. Specific sales numbers were not mentioned but we are going to guess that if they hold up we might be seeing yet another game in the franchise.

So some of you may have bought Dead Space 2 already and gone through the entire game but we don't think most of you have tried the sci-fi survival horror sequel in hardcore mode. Yep that means the creatures are more deadly and the challenges are much more difficult

But while all of that is going on you stick to your goal on completing the game in hardcore mode. At least that's what we are assuming some of you are trying to do. Once that goal is accomplished you get access to a new weapon in the game. Lots of people speculated about what they would be getting but we bet none of them saw this coming. You can check out the video that shows off the new weapon after the jump:

The weekend has finally arrived. If you are not covered up in snow we hope you will have a safe and fun end of the week. It's looking like next week may be a bit on the slow side news wise.

• Steam has added the casual game Mishap 2: An Intentional Haunting to its game lineup.
• Steam also has a new automatic update available for download for Swarm Arena.
• Users of OnLive's streaming PC game service can get Red Faction Guerrilla for 75 percent off today only.
• Elemental War of Magic owners can download a new 1.19 beta patch for the game.
• Check out a fan-made Elder Scolls book. Cool artwork and detailing here.
• A Dead Space movie could happen but EA doesn't want to rush into making one.
• Blizzard and PayPal go after World of Warcraft gold sellers.

Electronic Arts, the game publisher that in December bought the web site domain CampaignForPCGaming.com, is once again treating the PC platform as a second class citizen when it comes to multi-platform games. This week, even as Dead Space 2 is released, EA announced that the game will be getting a single player DLC mini-expansion, Dead Space 2 Severed, sometime in the near future

While is great, except that the DLC is strickly for Xbox 360 and PS3 owners of the game. VG247.com reports that EA won't be bringing that DLC content for the PC version. It's a case of "same old-same old" for EA who has denied PC owners a chance to demo games like Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, Dead Space 2, Bulletstorm and most recently Crysis 2. Need For Speed Hot Pursuit PC owners also won't be able to access any paid DLC content for that game.

At least some Steam users who purchased and downloaded Dead Space 2 are finding that their digital copies are not activating. Reports from the Steam message board state that users are finding that their CD keys for the game are invalid. This issue seems to be affecting more than just a few users who have bought Electronic Arts' sci-fi survival horror sequel via Valve's PC game download service.

Valve seems to be aware of the issue as a team member posted up a note responding to all of the complaints, saying, "We've contacted EA about this, so hopefully it will get resolved soon." A similar note has been posted on the game's Steam web page.

[Via VG247.com]

Update: It looks like the activation issue has now been solved.

Sony Online's super hero MMO DC Universe Online is apparently selling lots of copies in a single bound. The game was the number one best selling game on Steam's weekly PC game sales list for the second week in a row. This feat was echoed by Sony Online CEO John Smedley today on his Twitter page. Without offering specific numbers Smedley also said DC Universe Online was Sony Online's fastest selling game ever. Indeed he reports that there have been shortages of the game in retail stores but those stores "should have more inventory in Monday."

The full Steam top 10 sales list for the past week is as follows:

1. DC Universe Online - Sony Online
2. Call of Duty Black Ops - Treyarch/Activision
3. Dead Space 2 - Electronic Arts
4. Dead Space - Electronic Arts
5. Dragon Age 2 - BioWare/EA
6. Dungeons - Kalypso Media
7. Battlefield Bad Company 2 - DICE/EA
8. Civilization V - Firaxis Games/2K Games
9. Counter-Strike Source - Valve
10. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II Retribution - Relic/THQ

Update: Smedley posted up another "tweet" saying that the PS3 version is slightly outselling the PC version with a ratio of 52 percent (PS3) to 48 percent (PC).

It appears that Isaac is having a bit more of a delusion than what could be considered usual. He's on The Sprawl, but keeps flashing back to some kind of medieval time period, with magic and dragons being the most pressing matter. EA has decided to crossover their two biggest Q1 releases, Dead Space 2 and Dragon Age 2, and the result is Isaac Clarke's armor for the main character of Dragon Age 2. That's it. There's nothing on the stats of the armor or if it fits a particular archetype of character, but it certainly looks good!

Download HD Dragon Age 2 'Ser Isaac' Trailer
Check out all Dragon Age 2 downloads

Dead Space 2's multiplayer mode is vaguely reminiscent of Left 4 Dead. Four human players, four infected players, and a ton gore. This trailer for the multiplayer, appropriately termed "Outbreak Mode," goes into the eyes and abilities of the necromorphs rather than the engineers. It details the abilities of each of the four classes: the Puker, Spitter, Pack, and Lurker. It's also the first time we've seen the multiplayer mode completely from the player's perspective, including points for kills and names everywhere. In other words, watch this if you wanna see what Outbreak is all about.

Download HD Dead Space 2 'Through The Eyes Of A Necromorph' Trailer
Check out all Dead Space 2 downloads