Well, We most all got it (PS3) - Dead Space

Update: 10/28/08

From the previews of Dead Space, I got the impression that the necromorphs weren't going to die, I mean why should they? They're already dead. I thought that's what the selective dismemberment system was about: cut that fucker's leg off so he can't hurt you, just gurgle at you menacingly. My way is scarier.

Update: 10/20/08
I have beaten Dead Space. I thought the middle was slow but the end was really really good. Me and my neighbor should have seen it coming but we didn't. The game tricked us that well. To a certain extent, the Doom3, Bioshock, all that style thing helped along the twists at the end, but I really wanted the supporting crew to banter more and show concern more for Isaac.

I'm also really really scared still. Gameplay, interaction with the environment (the map! OHMYGOD! the Map is amazing!), the world of Dead Space, all these things were tight, but some of the scenarios were kind of lame. Do this shit. This shitty thing is broken so you can't do that shit. Go over there and fix that shit so you can do that shit. Now that you've done some shit, we're gonna attack with some enemies. Almost every single time too. Completing an objective almost assuredly means getting attacked.

The game was really really good. I don't really want to sleep. The writing for the animated comics was really really good too, and they tell a tighter story than the game itself. I really wanted to have the world go crazy while I was there, not go find the wreckage afterwards though. Are they gonna make a sequel? It'd be interesting.

The limb thing was cool. I thought the engineer weapons would make a little more sense. There's no real explanation why you can use these tools to dismember zombie-aliens, or why you can buy these tools ready-made from a conveniently-placed store. It's just there. It's like the designers saying to the player, "You've played video games before, right? This is our weapon-upgrade system. Use it or don't whatever. You'll die if you don't."

It was really good about keeping the survival part of the horror going. At first they give you plenty ammo but no space to keep it in, but then you have plenty of space and no ammo, or it just takes a while to conserve and I blew it all in a bad bad fight. Oh, God, and can I just mention that solving a puzzle while an unkillable monster chases you is fucking difficult in this game and harrowing and my neighbor and I kept screaming at each other about how to fucking solve the goddamn puzzle while tricking the monster into thinking we weren't there.

Oh, yeah. There's some nice tricks you can pick up with doors if you want to avoid being seen by monsters even though you're in plain sight. It makes sense in terms of programming because the doors are the loading screens (and that was pretty fucking cool too), but not if the dudes are actually trying to kill you.

I had a moment on top of an asteroid where I just stared off into the endless vacuum of space in wonder. It was powerful. I really like but am scared of space.

Dead Space. Did she really just pop out of nowhere or is he just crazy? Goddamn. Those moments always get stuck in my head. I'm scared again. Unitology is scary.

10/19/08: I think I've been marathoning Dead Space for over seven hours on a 1080i tv after having played pinball, Guitar Hero, and saw The King of Kong all day.

I'm on break! A dude loaned me his TV. I bought a copy. The King of Kong was really good.

Right, so...I didn't like Doom 3. Any part of Dead Space that reminds me of Doom 3, I don't like. For instance: audioblogs don't make sense. Who just records tapes and leaves it hanging around? Yeah, they're following that "masterful" type of story-telling that Half-Life 2 used, but I would much rather have some real character development like Isaac is going through some rough shit. How come he's so calm?

You know who had better story-telling than Half-Life 2? Shadow of the Colossus. Give me a silent character like that and I'll buy it, or better yet, give me a real person, give me any main character from Silent Hill instead. Then maybe I'll give a shit about the stupid flunkies Isaac's left behind with who just order you around...lame...gaaaaahhh...WHY DON'T THEY ACT LIKE PEOPLE? They don't joke, they don't tell asinine stories...Why don't they have arguments with Isaac about what they should be doing? Why don't they fuck up from the stress? Why do they only talk to Isaac about their objectives? You know, I only played System Shock 2's beginning, but it had some of really nice elements that really grabbed the player.

Gameplay has been tight. Zero-g sequences have been amazing. At one point, I thought I had the game by the balls, and it would only get boring from then on, but then a rough fucking chapter has left me bruised in ego and supply. I had so many fucking medkits and ammo! Now I'm stuck with only one gun with decent ammo, limping around with barely minimum health. Also, some of the biggest scares haven't come from the game itself but playing it with my neighbor. See, I've got the gun. I know where those bitches are coming from 'cause I can hear them. I know how to kill them because I've been doing it all night, but he's watching so he's just got his wits, and sometimes they get taken out from under him. So then he starts screaming and it unnerves me. I mean, it's easy enough to steel yourself against scary shit, but to also steel someone else or deal with another frightened human being is unnerving. See how character interaction can make a game scarier? I can aim for specific body parts all night, but make me concerned for the survivors around me, and I'll get fucked up.

Every once and a while I have to repeat out loud myself I have respect for human life.

Dead Space has fucked with me. It has told me I like ripping apart the limbs of other living things, or I had fucking better if I want to survive, and I think I do want to survive although I have no clue how this story will end. I'd like to think the odds are too stacked against Isaac for there to be a happy ending, but that it should be a good ending that doesn't feel forced or too open.

I'm tired. I haven't beat this game yet. There's a scene where you shoot a cannon at incoming debris. It is very lame. The developers said that you were an engineer, not a soldier, and yet you act just like one. Gordon Freeman disease or some shit.