Dead Space 3 Exclusive Limited Edition Xbox 360

Released on 08-Feb-2013

Continue to fight to save mankind from the Necromorphs in Dead Space 3 for Xbox 360.

The latest chapter in the sci-fi/horror saga, Dead Space 3 sees the return of Isaac Clarke and his quest to discover the source of the Necromorph terror in a new hostile environment. But this time, he's not alone...

Dead Space 3 Exclusive Limited Edition includes:

First Contact Bundle

• First Contact Suit - Built for long term space exposure with thick armour
• Negotiator Weapon - Tesla powered "instrument" for organic tissue dismemberment

Witness The Truth Bundle

• Witness Suit - An insulated suit to help you explore Tau Volantis' harsh terrain
• Evangelizer Weapon - Heavy duty assault rifle and shotgun combination

Key Features of Dead Space 3 on Xbox 360:

• A tense new story delving into the secrets of the Necromorphs - and the Markers
• Face a hostile new environment on a planet of ice
• Team up against the Necromorph threat with series-first co-op option
• Upgrade your weapons with the new Weapons Bench system
• Kinect for Xbox 360 brings new voice controls to the series

Dead Space 3 delves further into the secrets of the Necromorphs and the mysterious Unitologists, as you follow Isaac Clarke on his mission to save humanity from the reanimated, mutated threat. Clarke's quest to discover the source of the Necromorph outbreak takes you to Tau Volantis, a key location in the backstory of the Markers, the mysterious monoliths worshipped by the Unitologists, and which may hold the key to mankind's victory.

Tau Volantis offers a hostile new environment for Dead Space, replacing the  series' traditional black of space with the harsh white snowstorms of this ice planet. As you travel through the frozen wastes you'll need to overcome everything this environment - and it's many side-missions - throws at you, from abandoned encampments and underworld cities, to treacherous ice-climbs and the ever-ominous threat of an avalanche. On top of this, the white void of Tau Volantis is just as deadly and unpredictable as the black void of space, with deadly creatures and other shocks awaiting in the blizzard, offering familiar gameplay for long-term fans of the series.

There's new gameplay coming to the series, too, with the introduction of a new co-op mode. Say hello to Sgt John Carver, a fellow Necromorph survivor who can join the campaign in optional drop-in/drop-out co-op. Playing in co-op mode can reveal additional story details, and players will each have a slightly different experience as dementia kicks in, with one player seeing things the other does not. It also enhances the action and combat as part of the game's new cover system as you team-up to face the Necromorphs together.

Combat gets a further boost as the series' traditional Bench weapon upgrade system is itself upgraded to the new Weapons Bench. Scavenge the harse environments for raw materials and scraps, and the Weapons Bench can be used to construct them into makeshift weapons. You can also build new weapons out of existing ones to create new tools of war to take out your enemies. The RIG (Resource Intergration Gear) suit also returns to display your health and weapon count via a holographic display - particularly handy in the vacuum of space as it tells you how much oxygen you have left.

Exclusively for the Xbox 360 edition of Dead Space 3, you can immerse yourself further into the game with voice commands using your Kinect system. New voice commands offer a unique way to tackle the Necromorph threat, especially in co-op mode as you share health or ammo, revive each other and find objectives.

• Dead Space 3 Gets UK Release Date

  
  

  We've known for a long time that EA's grisly but gripping sci-fi horror series gets its third entry early next year when Dead Space 3 bursts into gruesome life. Now we have a firm date to write in our diary: February 8th.

  That's when hapless engineer Isaac Clarke will face the Necromorphs once again, this time on the frozen planet Tau Volantis rather than the restrictive spaceship and colony corridors of before. Isaac will be able to dodge and roll away from danger, as well as take cover. Dead Space 3 also introduces a two-player co-op mode that will let another player drop in and out as military man Sergeant John Carver at will.

  There'll be an RPG style weapon crafting system that will allow you to combine two weapons into one for additional attack options, and new enemies as well, such as the insect-like Swarm Infectors which can splice two creature types together as well as reanimating the dead.
  

• Dead Space 3 - Preview

  
  

  

  Everyone's heard of the difficult second album syndrome, but spare a thought for those lumbered with the even more difficult third album syndrome. The first Dead Space was a modest success, and the very definition of a cult hit; a small, vocal group rallied behind this stark space-bound survival horror game and were delighted when it was granted a sequel.

  That sequel went bigger and, popular belief has it, better. Set-pieces were more spectacular, enemies more varied, and the gore didn't just come in buckets any more - it was shipped across in huge industrial vats. Everyone, it seemed ,was happy, and Dead Space 2 has a strong claim to being one of the best all-out action experiences that this generation's offered us thus far.

  3, The Magic Number

  Which brings us to Dead Space 3, and things don't look like they're going to be quite so easy for developer Visceral and publisher EA this time around. Everyone's got their preconceptions of what a Dead Space game should be - cold blank horror, isolation, and limbs being ripped from their sockets, but EA's keen to find a bigger audience. There's a clash in there somewhere, and so far it hasn't looked pretty.

  Dead Space 3 continues the story of Isaac Clark and his search for the truth behind the Markers, mysterious artefacts that are worshipped by a shady religion known as the Unitologists, even though these monoliths have a knack of turning everyone who comes into contact with them into gurgling, mutated monsters.

  

  Having escaped the spaceship Ishimura and then, in the second game, the vast colony of the Sprawl, Isaac's now on the ice planet of Tau Volantis, a key location in the backstory of the Marker. So far, so very Dead Space. A jaunt through the ice-scape sees the palette reversed, the black spaces of the first two games flipped into the white static of a snowstorm, and all the while the fear of the unknown remains. There are well-directed shocks and some pleasantly violent interludes as Necromorphs stumble through the blizzard, and in a way it's all comfortingly familiar.

  But then there's trouble, and it comes not in the way of an enemy that's looking to liberate Isaac's limbs. There's a second playable character in Dead Space 3 (and continuing the series' appropriation of iconic sci-fi names, he's called John Carver) and his presence threatens the fabric of the game in a way that many fans aren't happy about.

  Alone In The Dark?

  There's a simple equation that fuels that fear - the more players sharing the space, the thinking goes, the less true thrills there are to be had. After all, it's that much harder to be scared when you're not alone, isn't it? That's proven to a point in a run-through of some of Dead Space 3's early missions with another player by our side - the horror's gone, but the action's been intensified, a shift in tone amplified by the addition of a slight cover system and an athletic evasive roll for both characters.

  

  But here's the thing: it's actually kind of fun too, as one player can concentrate on layering stasis effects on an enemy while another can get busy with a rifle. And that's not even the most important thing: Dead Space 3's co-op is entirely optional, and it's perfectly possible to play through the game's no-doubt meaty campaign without ever knowing that it's there.

  Anybody who's followed Dead Space throughout the years will likely be feeling a little déjà vu with this current round of whining about the direction that the series has taken for this sequel. When the second game was announced, fans were aghast that Visceral had bolted a multiplayer mode onto a game whose charm lay squarely in its single-player campaign.

  Those fans were right, in the end - the multiplayer was awful and kind of redundant. They could well be right this time too, and the co-op may well be a little pointless. But as Dead Space 2 proved, those fans would be wrong to write off the game as a whole - beneath those additions there still lies a horror game that's slick, well-executed and more than capable of providing some genuine chills. Take its track record into account, and there's every reason to believe that this will be one of the more thrilling games of the new year.

  Published: 23/11/2012

• Dead Space 3 to offer Kinect voice commands in co-op play

  Remember at the end of the Avengers movie, when it looks like Iron Man is dead until Hulk shouts him back to life? Well, it sounds like you'll be able to do something similar when Dead Space 3 creeps onto Xbox 360 next year.

  The sci-fi horror game, which introduces co-operative play for the first time in the series, will open up new areas and side missions if you play with a friend. Using Kinect, you'll be able to use your voice to give items to your companion, locate objectives together as well as bring your pal back from the brink if they get taken out. Players will be able to join and leave the game without interrupting the flow.

  "The voice commands in Dead Space 3 give players a unique way to take down the terror, whether they choose to face the Necromorphs alone in single-player, or alongside a friend with drop-in / drop-out co-op," said Steve Papoutsis, vice president of developer Visceral Games.

  Dead Space 3 swaps the gloomy spaceships of the first two games for the frozen planet of Tau Volantis. It'll be published by EA for Xbox 360, as well as PlayStation 3 and PC, on February 8th.

  Published: 14/12/2012

• Developer explains the waking nightmares of Dead Space 3

  Everyone who played Dead Space 2 will know that series hero Isaac Clarke faced his fears and seemingly overcame them during his adventure. So how can the horror be brought back for Dead Space 3? Here's senior production designer Ben Wanat with the answer.

  "In Dead Space 3, Isaac Clarke is much more resilient to the effects of Marker-induced dementia, having defeated his inner demons in Dead Space 2," Wanat revealed in a post on the official Dead Space blog. "His mind still has the secrets of the Markers crammed into it but it manifests more as an affinity for the Markers rather than a madness. This affinity has made him the closest thing there is to an expert on Markers and ultimately it's why he's pulled into this latest adventure."

  It's Clarke's co-op partner, John Carver, who experiences the full horror this time around. Having lost his family to the reanimated flesh creatures known as Necromorphs, his journey will be very tough indeed. "In Dead Space 3, Carver drags himself through a number of punishing but revelatory ordeals," Wanat explains. "He knows he won't like what he finds but he's determined to face his past and atone for his sins. Isaac's resilience to dementia allows him to act as a grounding element for Carver as he explores these waking nightmares."

  Dead Space 3 will lurch menacingly towards us on February 8th, for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

  Published: 18/12/2012

• How to unlock the Mass Effect N7 armour in Dead Space 3

  The third instalment of EA's skin-crawling Dead Space saga will be with us soon, and the publisher has let slip a little bit of info regarding a fun freebie you'll be able to unlock in the game. It's a special Mass Effect themed N7 armour suit for Dead Space hero Isaac Clarke and co-op partner John Carver.

  How do you get it? Simple - you just need to have a Mass Effect 3 save file on your console, and Dead Space 3 will automagically detect your allegiance to EA's other big sci-fi franchise and reward you with the armour. For Isaac, the armour is an ominous black, while Carver's version is blood red. Both are simply divine and the must-have outfit this season for exploring icy planets inhabited by alien monsters made of dead flesh.

  On the subject of dead flesh, producer Yara Khoury has spoken to Official Xbox Magazine and explained how switching gloomy spaceship interiors for snow-blasted exteriors has helped to keep Dead Space 3 scary. "I think at this point we've mastered the art of doing closet scares, you know, necromorphs jumping out of vents," Khoury told the mag. "I think that's why it will be interesting to go to Tau Volantis - to see how we've been able to use the blizzard with its sensory tricks. You can't really see what's ahead of you, there's the snow that can, you know, hide some things. There's also all the noise - the blizzard is actually really loud, and we've really played with these things to trick the player and create new kinds of horror.

  "The ice planet that worried players at first because it's an external environment, actually turns out to be one of our allies in terms of creating new ways to scare our players."

  Dead Space 3 slithers into view in just a few weeks on February 8th, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

  Published: 22/01/2013

• Dead Space 3 has a hardcore mode with permanent death

  It's not even out until next week, but already we're hearing about some of the bonus extras you'll unlock when you complete Dead Space 3. Top of the list is a suite of optional game modes, including one that's strictly for the hardcore. Producer Steve Papoutsis revealed the extra features this week on the official Dead Space blog.

  Most interesting for fans is the Hardcore Mode, which features ruthless permanent death. That's right - you'll need to play through the entire game without dying once. That's even tougher than the similar mode in Dead Space 2, which at least let you save the game three times.

  There will also be a Classic Mode, which ditches the item crafting and advanced aiming options of Dead Space 3 in favour of collectable blueprints from the 2008 original. Pure Survival Mode will remove all ammo, health and weapons from the game, forcing you to craft everything you need at the game's workbenches. Finally, there's the familiar New Game + mode which represents a much more welcoming alternative to all this punishing difficulty, starting you over again with all your stats and weapons from your first playthrough.

  Papoutsis also hinted that there'll be additional story material, presumably to be released as DLC. "We're not saying much, yet," read his post, "but think 'disturbing' to get your imaginations going."

  Dead Space 3 is out on February 8th for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

  Published: 30/01/2013

• Dead Space was always going to go 'epic', says original writer

  Dead Space 3 introduces more action, weapon crafting, co-operative gameplay and open exterior locations on the ice planet Tau Volantis, but according to Antony Johnston, writer of the first game, the Dead Space series was never intended to remain as a pure horror experience.

  Speaking with NowGamer, Johnston explained that striking a balance between accessible action for more players and gruelling horror was always tricky task. "It's a very difficult balancing act to pull off," he said. "So far, I think Visceral has done an admirable job of maintaining that balance."

  Johnston wrote the script for the first game, and provided a story outline for both Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 3. He went on to pen various Dead Space comics and graphic novels, and also scripted Ubisoft's ZombiU.

  "I know the developers always wanted to go bigger, in terms of scope", he added. "The universe we created was huge, with lots of elements, which simply didn't make it into the first game. So to get that story told, to round out the universe, it was inevitable the settings and environments would open out a bit, become a bit more epic in scale...otherwise you'd just have the same game on a different ship each time, and that's pretty dull."

  Dead Space 3 is out now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. It is, by all accounts, the biggest and most varied entry in EA's sci-fi bloodbath saga with an average play time of 16 hours, not counting optional co-op sections.

  Published: 11/02/2013

• Dead Space 3 - Review

  
  

  

  Dead Again

  For its third entry, EA's popular Dead Space saga has broadened its canvas. Where the previous two games took place on a drifting spaceship and a stricken colony, Dead Space 3 mixes up its traditional claustrophobic horror with big action movie sequences, a larger cast and a story that hops from a city on the moon to the ruins of a space fleet to the surface of a frozen planet. Those moments of skin-crawling terror are still there - there's just so much more to do this time.

  In Space, Snowman Can Hear You Scream

  The game opens with a playable flashback to two hundred years ago, as Earth soldiers on the ice planet Tau Volantis go to great lengths to recover a mysterious codex. Inside is a secret that might - just might - hold the key to halting the Necromorph menace.

  Necromorphs, for anyone joining us without prior Dead Space experience, are corpses that have been reanimated and mutated by an alien force contained in gnarled and etched "Markers". These creepy monoliths have been the cause of much pain and loss for our hero, spaceship engineer Isaac Clarke, to the extent that when we finally rejoin him he's hiding out in a Blade Runner-style lunar city, ditched by his girlfriend and at a very low ebb.

  He's forced back into action when military men burst into his apartment. His girlfriend has continued to battle the Markers without him, and now she's gone missing - near the ice planet Tau Volantis, no less. Extremist terrorists who worship the Markers, led by the snootily charismatic Danik, want Isaac's blood so he reluctantly sets off once more into the heart of darkness, hoping this time to put an end to the Necromorphs forever.

  

  Meating Of The Minds

  That's easily the most complex and involved storyline of the Dead Space series, and the gameplay has evolved to match. The basics are still the same - Isaac clomps around in third-person view, wielding weapons and tools to get to where he needs to be - but the pace is much more varied. You'll engage in blazing gunfights with the fevered cultists who want to unleash, rather than crush, the Markers. You'll steer a shuttle through the atmosphere and navigate tortuous chasms. You'll abseil down cliffs and take long spacewalks, ferreting out the parts needed to fix many, many machines.

  But whenever it feels like the game is drifting too far from its roots, there's always some ominous location that must be explored. Dank metal corridors, gloomy derelict buildings, sinister caverns - all crank the creep factor back up again, as you stalk cautiously forwards, gun raised and torch at the ready, waiting for the flicker of movement or skittering sound that means a rotting puppet of meat and bone is about to lunge after you.

  There's food for thought alongside the viscera as well, with plenty of puzzles that range from the clumsy and obvious to the fiendish and ingenious. You may grow tired of the numerous bypass routines needed to open locked doors, but the highlights - such as a fairly epic quest to find and reassemble the missing segments of a fossil - are well worth the wait.

  Stay Together, Slay Together

  Dead Space 3 deviates from the past in other ways as well. Most obviously in the addition of co-op play, which sees a second player join in as Carver, a bullish grunt whose prickly relationship with Clarke is a nice antidote to the sort of fist-bumping camaraderie usually found in co-operative shooters. The story also adapts to the presence of two players in a clever and seamless way, altering cut-scenes and even offering different experiences of the same level for each player. Having a buddy mowing down monsters alongside you does diminish the horror almost completely, but provided you're not too precious about a series playing outside its genre, a full co-op playthrough is well worth the effort.

  

  Also new is crafting, an RPG concept that brings both good and bad ideas to the Dead Space table. Or rather, the workbench. It's here that you'll use the various resources found during the game - smashed out of crates or stomped from dead foes - to create and enhance a variety of weapons and items. The freedom to build your own weapon is, frankly, brilliant. You have two weapon slots, but each weapon can offer two fire modes. If you want an assault rifle that also shoots grenades, or a pistol that doubles as a flamethrower, you can make it happen. Once you find the perfect combination for your playing style, it can be hard to go back to the restrictive loadouts of previous games.

  But crafting also means grinding, and here Dead Space 3 stumbles most obviously. For one thing, the need to constantly grab junk from every room means that too much time is spent breaking open boxes and hacking up defeated foes in search of scrap metal or "transducers". It also brings in the spectre of micro-payments, as any shortfall in the stuff you need can be topped up using a real money purchase. Greedy contrivance? Lazy cheat? Or just a handy convenience for those who can't be bothered playing Space Womble? You certainly don't need to spend any more money - if anything the game is overly generous with the stuff you find - but whether paying or foraging, it's the only element that never quite clicks with Dead Space's tone.

  Ice To See You

  There's a sense that sometimes Dead Space 3 is trying to cram a little too much in, with its optional missions and co-op missions and crafting and puzzles and shoot-outs and boss fights and... you get the picture. For a series best known for its tight, claustrophobic focus, Dead Space 3 does sprawl a little and risks losing its best features in the process. It always manages to reel itself in, however, and for all its weird pacing there's rarely a dull moment. Whether you play it as a beefy co-op action game or a disturbing single player horror adventure, it's a rare AAA game that falls over itself to give you more than you asked for.

  GAME's Verdict:

  
  

  The Good:

  • A truly epic 15 hour story
  • Freedom to create your own perfect arsenal
  • Co-op play is very cleverly handled

  The Bad:

  • Not as scary as previous Dead Space games
  • Hunting around for crafting resources is annoying
  • Some repetitive mission design

  Published: 14/02/2013

• Dead Space is “ready made” for a movie, says John Carpenter

  Legendary horror director and avid gamer John Carpenter has said he would love to direct a Dead Space movie. The revelation came in an interview with Game Informer magazine.

  Carpenter is best known for such iconic fear flicks as Halloween, The Thing and The Fog, and he's a big fan of EA's sci-fi horror saga. "It's great," was Carpenter's verdict on Dead Space when asked about his favourite titles. "The first game was more - I guess it was like Alien - but not quite. It was a little different than that."

  Does this mean that the horror master would get behind the camera for a film version of Isaac Clarke's battle against the Necromorphs? It certainly sounds like it. "I maintain that Dead Space would just make a great movie because you have these people coming onto an abandoned, shut-down space ship and they have to start it up and something’s on board," Carpenter explains. "It's just great stuff. I would love to make Dead Space, I'll tell you that right now. That one is ready-made."

  This February saw the release of Dead Space 3, which introduced co-operative play and relocated the action to the icy planet of Tau Volantis. EA is already getting into the movie business, with a big screen version of Need for Speed currently in production starring Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul.

  Published: 09/05/2013

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