Dead Space 3 Catch-All

ccesarano wrote:

FYI, Step 3 is either Liking the page on Facebook or Tweeting it. I know some folks are very much against social media around here.

I hate that sort of spam as well, but meh. It'll be buried in most people's feeds anyway.

I just hit the "Continue" button at the bottom of Step 3 without touching the Facebook/Twitter buttons and it pushed right through to the confirmation page.

Seems like it's optional, but of course they won't tell you that.

Huh. I thought the "Continue" button was greyed out or something. Or maybe the wording just suggested it was mandatory.

Either way, we'll see if I get access and thus determine if this is a day-one or not.

Did you get an email confirmation that you filled out the form yet? 'Cause I didn't.

I suppose EA could skip over my application because I didn't play nice and promote their wares, but that's cool too. An extra week isn't a big deal.

Not yet. All the same I can wait a week as well. Just figured I might as well try and give it a shot.

Aaron D. wrote:

Did you get an email confirmation that you filled out the form yet? 'Cause I didn't.

I suppose EA could skip over my application because I didn't play nice and promote their wares, but that's cool too. An extra week isn't a big deal.

I didn't but the page after the last step also said "Thanks for submitting your info" or something along those lines. Just for kicks, I tried it a 2nd time, and the message was "We already have your submission on file". I always opt out of being on any mailing lists for these types of things, so I may not even get a notification if they send one out.

The "Dev Team Edition" comes with a lot of sh*t at $160.

  • 13" SCAF Tin Crate
  • 8" Ployresin Black Marker Statue
  • Aluminum Data Pad
  • Med Pack Water Bottle
  • Bound SCAF Jotter
  • 3 SCAF Posters
  • 6 Peng Postcards
  • 96 Page Mini Art Book

Thank you for sharing with those of us who have more money than sense!

beeporama wrote:

Thank you for sharing with those of us who have more money than sense!

I know. I am actually seriously considering this one.

I'd want that Black Marker statue if it were more like a piece of desk art than a model of an in-game thing. Like something a cultist might actually have on their desk, you know? I'd also want that metal case if you could only open it by stomping on it while shouting profanity.

Demo is out today on XBLA!

LobsterMobster wrote:

Demo is out today* on XBLA!

*Only for those who signed up for early access and have received a code to download on XBL. Open access is next week on the 22nd.

Check your email if you signed up, I just got mine this morning.

Not just for DS3, but I'd love to meet the bright spark who thought of the idea of restricting the material you're using to sell your game, and they're not even restricting it once (by date), but twice (also by platform). I'm sure they've got some market research statistic they can pull out of their bum that says they achieve a net benefit by 'engaging series enthusiasts' or something.

Scratched wrote:

Not just for DS3, but I'd love to meet the bright spark who thought of the idea of restricting the material you're using to sell your game, and they're not even restricting it once (by date), but twice (also by platform). I'm sure they've got some market research statistic they can pull out of their bum that says they achieve a net benefit by 'engaging series enthusiasts' or something.

It's called marketing. Xbox probably paid for the early access to the demo, not unlike what they probably do for early access to CoD map packs.

Gold members also get early access to demos as well as discounts on items in the store as well. Not that big of a deal, really.

I got an early access code in the mail. I'll probably sign on tonight then and play it. Anyone else get's a code, let me know. I'd be willing to give the co-op a whirl.

I've got it too. Are we Xbox super-friends?

I think we are. I remember playing a game online with some lobster of some sort at some point. I used to be Grohdinger, but got my tag changed to ccesarano for consistency.

I also have it, so feel free to add or invite me.

Unfortunately I didn't get to play with Lobster tonight, as it took until about 10pm for the demo to finish downloading. It seemed slower than usual, though that is either 1) my imagination, or 2) because I downloaded the demo onto my USB drive instead of the Xbox hard drive.

I went and played solo, though, and also used my nifty new Christmas present to capture the footage. I'm uploading it now, but I won't be able to share until tomorrow morning.

The demo offers you the option to play solo or co-op. I find it curious and interesting that other multiplayer options are now gone. I imagined they would be continuing with that, but it seems it wasn't enough of a success in Dead Space 2 that they're just switching how they do multiplayer. I have mixed feelings about this, as I actually enjoyed the Dead Space 2 multiplayer (for all two or three times I played it).

There is also a "Bench Room" or some such that allows you to practice crafting and modifying weapons. It's interesting how this mechanic alone can make things feel a bit different.

Dead Space 3 does and does not feel like Dead Space. I think enough small details changed that it feels a bit off, or perhaps I just am not remembering the previous games right. It feels like the Plasma Cutter you start with does less damage than before, which is why I stuck with the other gun so much. They seem to have rebuilt all the monsters instead of reusing assets and A.I. like the second game, but as a result none of the Necromorphs feel familiar. The limbs feel a bit downplayed as well, as there were times it felt like I shot guys in the head by accident and it killed them.

But none of this is to say that the game is bad. I enjoyed the demo. But it felt a bit easy on Normal. With the exception of the drill fight at the end, where they just swarm you with monsters as you have to try and focus on freezing and blasting the drill, I never felt myself needing to restore my health or worrying too much about ammo. In fact, with the new upgrade system, it seems crafting yourself med packs and ammo is going to be a lot easier than buying them.

They're definitely going with a different feel for Dead Space 3. It's not going to play like the previous two games. Is that a bad thing? Honestly, don't know.

I finished Dead Space 2 last night as I'd never played it before. To be honest, I think I've had my fill. 1 and 2 were awful similar. Some nice touches and additions, but I wonder where they can go from the ending of 2 and for it to feel relevant and fresh. Not really up for necromorphs on earth and I feel we've expended the developers creativity in space by the looks of 2.

troubleshot wrote:

I finished Dead Space 2 last night as I'd never played it before. To be honest, I think I've had my fill. 1 and 2 were awful similar. Some nice touches and additions, but I wonder where they can go from the ending of 2 and for it to feel relevant and fresh. Not really up for necromorphs on earth and I feel we've expended the developers creativity in space by the looks of 2.

Hmmm, I can see where you're coming from (another facility, another bigger marker?) but I don't think they've really said too much about the story in this one at this point. They've put the mechanical changes, and the coop front and centre of what they've shown. I think there's a risk they do what Capcom do with Resident Evil, where it's not a story that concludes but a perpetual series with each one trying to turn it up to 11 compared to the previous entry, okay for a while but looses it's impact after a decade or so.

That video upload is going to take longer than I thought.

I can't make promises from just a thirty minute demo, but as I stated above, it feels like they didn't just reuse assets on this one as they had in Dead Space 2. Plus, it's actually on a planet so it looks like they'll be doing more than just Zero-G tricks. Still, as stated, it's all little differences, so it may not make any difference for you.

I'm going to see if I can score some co-op time with Lobster or Nel e Nel tonight. I'll capture footage of that as well and plug it up on YouTube for demonstration.

ccesarano wrote:

it feels like they didn't just reuse assets on this one as they had in Dead Space 2.

My memory might be a bit fuzzy, but besides from the obvious (Ishamura) I didn't feel like they recycled much in DS2. That said, well done recycling is one of the ways to keep costs down on a project, and if you can do it from game to game then even better, so long as it's not really noticeable.

So I played the demo last night as well, and I really enjoyed it. For anyone who is feeling left out or miffed about timed exclusive demos, don't be butthurt: it's the exact same demo that was shown at E3 last year, so you're not really seeing anything new.

It feels like Dead Space. There's a lot of kerfluffle about it feeling clunkier on neogaf, but those guys are crazy. It feels the same as DS2, with the addition of the combat roll. Now that felt clunky. I couldn't quite get the timing down when trying to dodge the spider's lunge attacks.

I thought the white out effect was great. I had less visibility with that in those brief moments than in both the previous games combined. Coupled with the wind noise it made for some pretty decent tension.

New enemy variations are great. The first time a dead human slowly came back to life as a necro startled the crap out of me.

I do think that the cover mechanic is kinda 'meh', but I ended up just hiding and waiting while the necros and humans duked it out, and I cleaned up the survivors.

Some other interesting changes:

- no more power nodes. every upgrade is now constructed from the scrap materials that you collect: suit/stasis/kinesis upgrades, health packs, ammo, stasis packs - all crafted from found items.

- no more 'store' either, which means - yep - no more credits to collect. There was a suit upgrade station and the workbench for crafting items. Nothing was available for purchase.

The crafting I thought was actually great. It was a lot of fun to mess around in the test chamber and see what kind of wild and interesting combinations you can make. You aren't required to make a double weapon either. The basic plasma cutter you start out with uses a rotator cuff for it's secondary, which give it the standard horizontal/vertical capability. It looked like you could do the same with all the other components as well.

ccesarano wrote:

I'm going to see if I can score some co-op time with Lobster or Nel e Nel tonight. I'll capture footage of that as well and plug it up on YouTube for demonstration.

Wait, you want me to play MORE DS3? Ok, twist my arm why don't ya.

nel e nel wrote:

It feels the same as DS2, with the addition of the combat roll.

There's a what now?

ccesarano wrote:

The limbs feel a bit downplayed as well, as there were times it felt like I shot guys in the head by accident and it killed them.

Lame.

You think you are excited - you should see my nipples!

ccesarano wrote:
nel e nel wrote:

It feels the same as DS2, with the addition of the combat roll.

There's a what now?

Double tap LB and you roll in whichever direction you have your LS pointed.

Video is uploaded. You can check out a half-hour trek through what can easily be a fifteen minute demo, I think.

Sorry about last night, ccesarano. By 10PM I had other stuff to do. I still haven't played through in co-op if you want to give that a shot tonight or whenever.

So, here are my first impressions:

Stuff I Like:
- The weapon crafting is really flexible and very cool (even if the weapon attachments look kind of goofy). I upgraded my plasma cutter to have a light stasis effect, which makes follow-up cuts way easier. Then I removed the ability to rotate the blade (so it was stuck permanently on a horizontal cut) and added a shock gun, for pushing enemies back. Other weapons I made included a freeze gun with a chainsaw on it and a gatling gun that fired flaming metal spikes and had an underbarrel missile launcher.
- The new necromorphs are interesting. The ice climber dudes with the ice axes are really interesting. They start out as pretty basic humans, but sprout these big nasty spider legs once you start to lay into them. If you take out their legs, they switch to the spider legs and get a huge boost to movement speed. I felt that the first two games rarely punished you for hitting the wrong thing (with a notable exception of the big fat spawny necromorphs), so these guys are a welcome addition.

Stuff I Don't Like:
- The setting. Dead Space works best in, well... space. And it does space really, really well. Putting it on a planet takes away that feeling of confinement, and the tension that comes with it. From what I've seen, at least part of the game takes place in space so maybe it's not such a big deal.
- Long-range combat (or, "fighting other dudes with guns"). The cover system is clunky and the "take cover" button is the same as the "aim" button. Most of the weapons are designed for close-range combat so the addition of long-range combat kind of forces you to take a long-range weapon like the military rifle, which I've always found to be kind of boring. In the demo they either put you up against a very limited number of long-range hostiles or put them in as a sort of "third faction," so you can hang back and let the necromorphs gnaw on them for a while. Even so, I just know there are going to be parts in the full game where you're straight-up taking cover and popping out to shoot at guys who are shooting at you. I don't think they've integrated it smoothly enough to make that any fun.

Stuff I'm Not Sure About Yet:
- I haven't tried co-op so I can't make any judgments on it. I'm not particularly interested in Carver, but then I also wasn't particularly interested in Clarke after playing Dead Space 1 and I don't expect them to fully develop a character in a demo, so I have faith they'll do him justice. Or at least copy Dom from Gears of War. Single-player was just fine and I didn't feel like I was missing anything for lack of a buddy, especially since he did show up from time to time.
- I'm really ambivalent on the new ammo system. I feel like between universal ammo and the ability to make custom weapons, there's no longer a place for those high-damage, rare-ammo superweapons from the first two games. I found a few weapons that take a long time to fire and do some nice damage (do they eat up ammo faster than others?), but nothing quite like my old friend the contact beam. My other favorite, the ripper wasn't in the demo but I've seen it in trailers. I didn't see the spear gun either, and I really hope they bring it back because I loved pinning enemies to the wall.
- As much as I love making custom weapons, they're visually a little too cluttered. Most often they look like two weapons glued together, with two separate displays for ammo, two aiming lasers, etc. And as I noted earlier, the "attachment" pieces are too glowy to really suit the heavy industrial look of most weapons.

Lobster: from what the two developers who post on neogaf have been saying, the universal ammo is supposedly a place holder for the demo. Keep in mind that the demo we're playing is from E2 2012, so there's most definitely been a lot of tweaks since the.

As for the 'missing' weapons, I was able to make a Tesla coil/spear launcher combo in the test chamber, and I was able to vary the fire from fully automatic to the DS2 semi-automatic-pin-them-to-the-wall style.