I know exactly what you mean. Exactly! Because.. I dunno how I feel about it either, but my initial impression is that it's a bit fancy.

I think Dead Space lacked personality in most of its design, but the suits had a really distinct, weird look to them. They seemed designed (within the fiction) to be useful and practical and to be truly armored as opposed to being all anime-y and deliberately "cool" looking. They definitely had a certain design flair to them but nothing overly *flattering*. It was a great, unique look.

As Sath pointed out, this looks very made-to-be-snazzy, and I always pick up on attempts to broaden the appeal of something and fancier suits will look *cooler* on the cover. I dunno.. I'm not stoked about the front of the helmet fitting right in with a cover for a Zone of The Enders game.

But yeah, there'll be many suits in there, and the premise is different this time. The first one had mining gear for armor, but this is pretty obviously MADE to be sent into battle and designed accordingly no doubt.

I am, regardless, very excited about this game. I'm just about to play Dead Space Extraction this weekend with a friend of mine, so this couldn't have come at a more fitting time. :)

I clearly hit a nerve, I'm sorry that my arguments upset you.

I tried to identify just what points of mine specifically you had a problem with by reading your text, but there's very little in there that actually talks about the subject of pacing at all.Really? UC2 puzzles and shooting is your bar for exploration and exploring game mechanics? RRREALLY? Please have a sit down and think about that before I have to give birth to another wall of text people will grow a beard reading.

I'll give you a few hints though. Puzzles have one, obvious solution. Puzzles in that game are not meant to be solved - they're already solved - they're meant to break up the action and slow the game down. They drop you in a HUGE box with an obvious problem/solution and the mere travel distance required and the methodical getting around offers a nice change of - yes - pace. Platforming is exactly the same. An obvious route, but a breather from the box of men. That's incidentally where people think it offers the appeal of Tomb Raider; it doesn't. TR is genuinely about plotting a path and traversing it, essentially a puzzle game in a physical space.

And when there's a box of men, shooting has one, obvious solution too. Headshots. Oh and melee if you're up close. The headshot and melee orgy of Uncharted 2 is far, far, *far* away from being open to tinker with. In loving air quotes.

UC2 throws a lot of amazing set pieces and scripted sequences at you, that's its hook, that's the experience. It's not meant to be experimented with it's meant to be experienced. There are simply no systems in place for management and decision making. There's no weighing one option against another because there is essentially always the one option; to push on towards the end of the game. Of COURSE that game can afford to be a thrill ride, of COURSE that game can hurl the player along with no sacrifices.

OF COURSE Dead Space is an entirely different prospect where deciding whether to check out a room for supplies, risking an encounter, or pushing on toward the end actually gives the player real agency. Upgrade systems, ammo conservation, weapon specialisation, currency, inventory management, it's a fundamentally different game.

Look, there's prolly some padding needed here. I really loved UC2, and I love me a lot of authored experiences like that. I don't think it's perfect even at what it sets out to do, necessarily, I've had some things to say about it tonally, balancing the sense of peril, and just straight up encounter variety, but ultimately I still think that's a superb game. This is not about me hating on UC2, or actually making qualitiative statements at all (although it's hard not to when me and Korn rev up because he's taking every stab he can at my fave game of last year, and I'm just human) this is a discussion regarding what pacing suits Dead Space best.

I think leaving the experience open to be pushed along by you, to be to an extent assessed and weighed by you, is key to the experience that Dead Space was.

AH! Now people have beards anyway, dammit. :(

I wonder at what stage that MP box they're so desperate to check is actually useful. Is it like.. back of box advertising it? Review scores? I read a quote where someone said that without MP you're essentially screwed, but I just wonder who along the way cares. I mean I know rentals are a big unforseen problem when a campaign is 10 hours long and people play it without a dime going to the publisher/devs, but simply having MP in there won't lend a game the longevity and pull to make those people buy it unless it's something truly spectacular.

And then you get into the weird thing where the MP gets all the attention because that's obviously what makes the money, and suddenly it's not so much an SP game as an MP thing set in a linear set of successive maps with weapons and balance tweaks that answer to an MP environment rather than being beneficial to the progression and escalation of a single player game.

I dunno how you get people to buy a game rather than rent it though.. so hey, I probably shouldn't question their attempts.