Posts Tagged ‘Visceral Games’

Battlefield Hardline Multiplayer Open Beta Next Week

This seems outside police procedure.

Several years ago, I had a meeting with EA and pitched Battlefield: The Thin Blue Line, an FPS adaptation of the ’90s Rowan Atkinson sitcom. [Did you now? -ed.] Players would engage in gossip, give young shoplifters stern talking-tos, and even bop a yob with their truncheon. The final mission would be to sneak a big frilly bra into DI Grim’s office during a surprise inspection from the Superintendent. Unfortunately, EA instead picked up Battlefield Hardline [official site], a quick-drawing, dirty-talking, civil rights-ignoring celebration of police militarisation. Shame. I bet it doesn’t have even one single cascade of misunderstandings with hilarious consequences.

The point is, EA are launching a short multiplayer open beta test for Hardline next week.

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RPS Feature The Squiggly Blue Line

Battlefield Hardline: On Meaning And Theme In Multiplayer

This is not a police car.

Battlefield Hardline takes the series’ now familiar formula and gives it a new theme. It’s still about large teams of players killing, capturing and controlling vehicles in various objective-based multiplayer modes. But instead of visiting exotic locations and fighting as a military force, the game takes place in the streets of Los Angeles and players play the roles of cops and robbers.

I’ve been playing the closed beta since last Friday, and in between rounds of criminal mayhem I’ve been thinking a lot about meaning and structure in multiplayer game design. Now that the beta has opened up to all, let me exorcise those thought-demons here.

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April Cowers: Dead Space Free On Origin Until May

Ahhhhhh, memories.

What is the most terrifying thing? I mean aside from spiders. And human nature. And that one episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Yep, that’s right: being forced to admit there is a legitimate reason to open Origin, to dig it out of your PC’s sullen grave of a start menu and rack your brain to remember your password. But at least now you can pair terror with terror, as Dead Space will be completely free on Origin until May 8th. And that’s free to keep – not just to play.

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Alarming: Dead Space 3 – Awakened DLC

Somewhere in the back of my space-scarred and delirious mind, I knew that there was some DLC for Dead Space 3 in the pipeline. I’d intended to write a reminder to be annoyed about it on a post-it note because it was announced before the game had even been released and contained what sounded very much like the end of the story. Even though I enjoyed Isaac’s latest escapade, it didn’t leave me wanting more, which is perhaps why I’d forgotten all about The Awakened. It’s out tomorrow and there’s a trailer below.

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RPS Feature The Limbless And Clarke Expedition

Wot I Think: Dead Space 3

Even if Dead Space 3 actively carved off your limbs as you played, some might argue it is the best option in the current vent-bursting alien-blasting market. Don’t worry about that though, because I’ve finished the single player campaign without losing an arm or a leg, and I’m notoriously puny. With nothing to fear but the absence of fear itself, I reacquainted myself with Isaac Clarke and took a winter vacation.

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Dead Spin: Yes, The PC Deserves A Better Dead Space 3

Slender finally met his match when he tried playing oogie-boogie with a guy holding a flamethrower.

During an interview with Shack News, Dead Space 3 producer Steve Papoutsis expressed confusion about why PC players are disappointed at the lack of any extra frills in our version of the game. “It’s confusing to me that this question even comes up,” he says. It’s by no means any less important to us; it gets a lot of attention. The PC is a very different platform. As developers, you want to deliver an experience that’s as similar as possible on different platforms.”

In a word: Hurm…

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Pay As You Churn: Dead Space 3’s Microtransactions

Remember how in the previous Dead Space games, the only way to buy new weapons, armour, ammo and medkits was to stomp on the gooey remains of malformed mutants and catch the credits that they had stashed in their internal organs? Those were the good old days. Eurogamer spotted a “downloadable content” pop-up during Dead Space 3’s all-new crafting sections and the game’s associate producer, Yara Khoury, has now confirmed to our EG chums that it will be possible to pay real money to improve weaponry:

“You can buy resources with real money, but scavenger bots can also give you the currency that you can use on the marketplace. So you don’t have to spend [real world] dollars.”

The answer to the question, “Please, sir, can I have some Ishi-more-a?”, is “Yes, but keep your credit card handy.”

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Solitary Dismemberment: Dead Space 3 Shows Its Roots

Argh, jeez. Lay off, man. You're pushing so hard that your piece of scrap is clipping right through my hand.

It’s my dream to one day live in space, but I have some reservations. Foremost, it seems very, very dark, and I fear that I’d constantly stub my toes on even the sleekest, most futuristically rounded of outcroppings. Dead Space 3, meanwhile, contends that undead dog babies may also make my extraterrestrial existence somewhat less pleasurable – which is something I hadn’t previously considered because I like being able to sleep at night. The latest Dead Space 3 level walkthrough, though, has all that and tons more promisingly Dead-Space-y things. Pitch-black corridors, anti-grav antics, and limbs flying every which way – you know the drill. Questionable co-op, shouty man-shooting, and even the slimmest shred of daylight, meanwhile, are nowhere to be found. That gently swelling flutter in your chest? That’s hope. Well, presumably, anyway.

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Dead Space 3 Going Planetside In February

Is it just me, or does that Necromorph look kind of mischievous? Maybe he left a whoopee cushion in Isaac's chair or provoked his schizophrenia or something.

Tragically, that’s a referential wink at, you know, space – not news of an impending crossover between Visceral’s friendship-making, Necromorph-breaking scare-’em-up and SOE’s massively multiplayer shooting opus. Still though, Dead Space 3 has a release date now, so that’s exciting. Specifically, it’s joining every other game in the known universe by plotting a course for February 2013. And while it’s definitely taken its fair share of flack for choosing to bind Isaac to another character, I must admit that this latest trailer has made me a bit more hopeful. Get sucked into the cold, endless vacuum below this post to see the full thing.

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RPS Feature Just because he severs you, doesn't mean he likes you

Hands On: Dead Space 3

Are the open spaces of a frozen planet inherently less conducive to fear than the claustrophobic confines of a creaking interstellar haunted house, blood-stained metal dungeon or sprawling catacomb? Does being followed around by an angry man called Carver tend to cut through an atmosphere of exhilaration and dread somewhat? These were the foremost questions running through my mind as I sat down to play Dead Space 3. Oh, and what’s with the universal ammo?

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Quite The Thing: Dead Space Teases “New Chapter”

But guys, you're not gonna believe it. This place has the greatest view of th-- oh. Shit.

I love how kitschy pulp sci-fi some aspects of Dead Space are. Sure, its exterior may be grimdark and gore-spattered, but this (fairly impressive) digital comic focuses around “Earthgov” and a planet called “Uxor.” That, to my mind, is admirably silly. Granted, that’s hardly the only influence poking through Visceral’s exosuited sleeve here. An overbearingly icy planet? Parasitic monsters crawling from every crevice? A poor, fleshy human struggling to come to grips with it all? A new main character whose name, John Carver, sounds suspiciously similar to John Carpenter? Yeah. I’m thinking the words “Wow, Dead Space 3 is quite the thing” will soon take on a whole new meaning.

Granted, while Dead Space 3 hasn’t had its official reveal yet, this comic sure aligns well with the limb-severing barrage of recent rumors. Also, it’s apparently “just the start of John Carver’s saga in the Dead Space Universe.” So jump past the break and watch as this post’s flesh bubbles and bursts, revealing a grotesque trailer creature not of this world.

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Dead Space 2 Features Screaming, Ghosts


If you click below, you can watch a six minute walkthrough of Dead Space 2‘s train station level, narrated by executive producer Steve Papoutsis. The environments are certainly looking a lot busier than the original, but Isaac is now also now hallucinating like a man on the wrong side of the 1960s. There’s also a breath-taking tunnel flight sequence, which might be silly and simple and linear, but it looks oh-so awesome.
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The Frighteners: Dead Space 2


They’re calling this the lullaby trailer, which means it’s soundtracked by a spooky rendition of a children’s song. Nothing spookier than that, eh F.E.AR. franchise? Better than being soundtracked by inappropriately shouty rock music, anyway. We’ve seen a fair bit of Dead Space 2 already, and I think it’s fair to say that it looks a good deal more ambitious than the original. Actually, with the infested city and so forth, I am getting a bit of a Bioshock vibe from the environments, but maybe that’s just me. Also, I’m afraid I am one of those freaks who was able to put up with the interface wonkiness on PC and still rather enjoy the game, so I am certainly looking forward to this hitting on the 25th of January.
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Dead Space 2: The Enstampening?


The horror sequel, which isn’t fully confirmed for PC, but is… or is it? Yes/No, has a trailer. Standard teaser stuff for now: no real footage, but confirmation that hideous mutant dead things will once again feature in the franchise’s future, as Isaac wakes up on a heavily populated space station, The Sprawl. Will Dead Space 2 feature more stamping with big metal space boots? We can only say: yes, probably. The trailer is in the depths below…

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