Artless Gamer

After a long time of rumors, hinted at, teased and talked about for months. Now it is finally official. EA has announced Dead Space 2. All platforms will benefit from this long awaited title and as such Xbox 360, PS3 and PC gamers alike will be able to enjoy this second installment of this much loved title.

Not much else can be said about this new release. We don’t have an exact release date yet and the game hasn’t been rated by the ESRB or PEGI, either. Executive Producer of Dead Space 2, Steve Papoutsis, promises plot twists that will surprise gamers and has had this to say about the new release:

Hero Isaac Clarke returns for another heart-pounding adventure, taking the fight to the Necromorphs in this thrilling action-horror experience. New tools to gruesomely slice and dismember the Necromorphs complement Isaac’s signature Plasma Cutter, empowering him as he meets new characters, explores epic Zero-G environments, and fights against a relentless necromorph onslaught. Survival isn’t the only thing on Isaac’s mind in Dead Space 2 – this time, he calls the shots.

Further information about the game can be found by clicking here.

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At first I had my doubts that anything big would leave EA’s gigantic publishing factory any time soon. Recent announcements of massive lay-offs have painted a dark picture of the company’s financial situation and with 1500 employees less, the company seems to be significantly weakened. The company justified this by calling it a move to “narrow the product portfolio to provide greater focus on titles with higher margin opportunities”. Why not just call it saving money?

Despite the disheartening news, it seems like EA are still planning to go ahead with some rather high profile titles. DICE’s senior lighting artist Oscar Carlén, included the title Mirror’s Edge 2 in his list of games for his 2009-Present portfolio.

As soon as the news about this spread, however, he removed the entry.

When EA published the first title for Mirror’s Edge I played both the demo and the full version. While the game concept was fresh and exciting, the full release version was very underwhelming in terms of actual game play delivery. The first title was plagued with many issues, including an exaggerated camera motion feature that made a lot of gamers “motion sick”. Aside from the motion sickness, the game didn’t really blow me away. It was short, didn’t expand and ended up being a bland experience that tasted more of an early experiment for a concept to be worked on in the future.

Players can now hope that the second installment of the game will be a more fleshed out and gripping experience than the first one.

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