SallyNasty's Game Club - Dead Space! Happy Halloween!!! Chapters 1-12 open for spoilery discussion! We did it!

Hey gang, new game incoming!

But first - these are the guidelines for these playthroughs -

1. Games should be at least 1 calendar year old. That makes it easy to find games that are either a) on most people's piles or b) cheap to pick up(I am thinking 10-15 bucks max).
2. Games should be either episodic or broken up into easily agreed upon stopping points (i.e. achievement for ch.1 or reaching certain checkpoint). I would like it to be about an hour to an hour and a half for each "assigned" session, no more than 5-6 hours a week needed to participate.
3. Games shouldn't be more than 20 hours.
4. No console exclusives. Has to be on Microsoft/Playstation/PC platforms.

Prior to having played Witcher 3, my game of all time was a little game known as Dead Space. It is funny, as I am a bit of a nervous wreck when it comes to things jumping out at me and scaring me - but the mix of Sci-fi, fun combat, a story that was a combination of The Thing and Event Horizon just worked for me. This is still one of my favorite games, and one of the very few games I regularly replay just for fun(not for cheevs). I love the psychological horror elements, love the incredibly well realized setting, and I love the straightforward but exciting combat. This, to me, is Resident Evil's promise realized.

I like to choose scary games to play in October, and I will be dipping my toes in all 3 multi-platform Dead Space games(wish I had a system that could play Extraction:() and sure hope you all will play along!

This has been on my backlog for years. It's time!

Extraction is good, but whatever you do don't get suckered by Ignition.

I love this series. I will definitely be replaying it with you guys. I never did get any co-op 3 in. Maybe I could work that out too....

p.s. how do you not have a Wii? Everyone and their mother (literally) owns a Wii.

Excellent, time to fire up Dead Space 2. I just played the first game a couple of months ago.

Anyone playing on Steam will want to fix the vsync / 30 FPS problem. The game forces 30 FPS with vsync turned on and has terrible input lag. With vsync off the controls are responsive but the framerate skyrockets and the physics get really weird. The solution is to cap the framerate at 60 FPS.This worked for my AMD card, and there are Nvidia equivalents on the Steam forums.

Redherring wrote:

Excellent, time to fire up Dead Space 2. I just played the first game a couple of months ago.

Anyone playing on Steam will want to fix the vsync / 30 FPS problem. The game forces 30 FPS with VSYNC turned on and has terrible input lag. With vsync off the controls are responsive but the framerate skyrockets and the physics get really weird. The solution is to cap the framerate at 60 FPS.This worked for my AMD card, and there are Nvidia equivalents on the Steam forums.

Thanks for the tip, Redherring. I've played through Dead Space 1 & 2 multiple times on console, but I'm going to try the PC versions this time around.

Great pick for October, Sally!

Another game from my "almost finished, but..." pile. Can't remember why I dropped it but I do remember having fun while playing.

MrMetonymy wrote:

Great pick for October, Sally!

Agreed. Count me in.

It's too bad I gave away my 360... looks like the first Dead Space is the only one on the BC list.

I never finished the first dead space game. Since its BC I could maybe give it a go but I don't really want to start over.

I'm confused. Which Dead Space game are we playing? It looks like the first one from the OP, but then all the rest of you are talking about other ones.

I'm up for it!

I'm not quite certain, but the first Dead Space may be one of the few games I maxed achievements for on 360.

I'll be diving in again to see how it holds up.

Happy to replay DS1 or 2.

DS 3...I *might* give another chance, though I personally found that one to be a tedious slog. Plus the "true ending" epilogue DLC never came to PC afaik.

I finished Dead Space 1 and 2 at their respective launches. Never played 3. Been wanting to revisit the series for a couple of years now, so I'll be tackling the trio in order. I remember preferring 1 to 2 and I'm curious to see how my opinion goes this time. 2 ramped up the action a bit too much for my preferences, and the station never felt as cohesive or interesting to explore as the Ishimura. DS1's non-combat moments added a lot to the atmosphere.

For bonus points I picked up Dead Space: Martyr from my local library. It was sat on a shelf during this morning's visit so I took the hint. As it's a prequel covering the original discovery of the marker and the foundation of the Crazy Space Religion(tm) my series run will begin there. Won't take me long to read. I hope it is not terrible. Plot was never the series' strong point.

frogbeastegg wrote:

For bonus points I picked up Dead Space: Martyr from my local library. It was sat on a shelf during this morning's visit so I took the hint. As it's a prequel covering the original discovery of the marker and the foundation of the Crazy Space Religion(tm) my series run will begin there. Won't take me long to read. I hope it is not terrible. Plot was never the series' strong point.

Oh God. I bought it because a buddy of mine said it was actually really interesting regarding Altman and the origin of Not-Scientology and all that. I couldn't get very far, though. I was making red-pen edits to it in my mind. God awful prose.

I liked the world and the mystery after playing the first one. I've also read all the books from this Ip as well. Interesting stuff.

I liked DS1 the best and am looking forward to replaying it, probably on the PS3.

Bought a copy on Xbox 360. I'm really curious to see how this game holds up to my memory of it.

I was just talking with Sally about getting an XB1, but I have this on 360 also, so depending on if it's backwards compatible, I'll be joining in on the action in some form or another.

I like the parameters, I can just about squeeze in 6 hours of "adult playtime" a week. Looking forward to this!

I found my copy of DS1 for the 360 (it was in the basement), brought it up to the first floor, and put it on the 'currently playing' pile. I haven't used my 360 in months... Actually, I haven't played much of it since I bought it three years ago to replace my previous Elite after it RRoD'd...

I went to pull my copy of the first game off the shelf when I remembered (through its absence) that I lent it to my brother.

Whelp!

m0nk3yboy wrote:

I was just talking with Sally about getting an XB1, but I have this on 360 also, so depending on if it's backwards compatible, I'll be joining in on the action in some form or another.

I like the parameters, I can just about squeeze in 6 hours of "adult playtime" a week. Looking forward to this!

It is backwards compatible.

Just picked it up used from my local game shop for PS3, so I'm in

Dammit, I don't know if I will get through this one. /chicken

There's no shame in playing on easy.

Also, don't underestimate the starting weapon. It's considerably more versatile than all the other ones.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

There's no shame in playing on easy. :)

That's how I play shooters nowadays!

I should get through this pretty quickly....I still have a NG+ save. That gives Issac a pretty hefty advantage as soon as you get to the nearest shop kiosk / upgrade worktop.

I'm on the fence with this one, how similar is it in game play to Alien: Isolation? I must admit I'm not super into space environments. I did enjoy A:I in spite of that though. It's almost as if trees are a basic requirement for me. So, while I really wanted to play a scary game along with all of you, I'm not sure this is the one for me. Anyone have anything to say about it that would sway me, or am I better off not adding this one to the pile? I watched the trailers on Steam and didn't much move off the fence.

On another note, the fun you all had with Mad Max has made me want to pick up that game, even though I had zero interest before. So, it's remotely possible you all know something I don't know.

Alien Isolation is as heart a stealth game. Dead Space is at heart a shooter.

The environments are similar, but Dead Space has more in common with something like Bioshock or Resident Evil 4 than with Alien Isolation.

pyxistyx wrote:

I should get through this pretty quickly....I still have a NG+ save. That gives Issac a pretty hefty advantage as soon as you get to the nearest shop kiosk / upgrade worktop.

Dangit, I deleted all my saves after I got the 1k! Oh well, I am going to play it on easy(beat it twice on hard already).

Excited to play again!

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Alien Isolation is as heart a stealth game. Dead Space is at heart a shooter.

The environments are similar, but Dead Space has more in common with something like Bioshock or Resident Evil 4 than with Alien Isolation.

Basically just seconding this, with an added bit of Doom 3 in that you basically recognize when enemies are gonna pop out after a while. Still fun as a shooter, but the horror subsides.

That helps a bit, thanks Clocky and cces. I think I'll go for it, I've been playing sooo much Witcher 3, a change of environment will be nice. My tree quota has probably been met for at least the next month.

Now, back to W3!