REVIEW: Dead Space 2

In 2008, Dead Space was released to great critical and commercial success. The seamless blend of survival-horror, action, and cinematic beauty offered an experience that many games before it attempted to create, and many after attempted to emulate. Fast forward to 2011, and the release of the long awaited Dead Space 2. Eager to prove the series has staying power, does Dead Space 2 hit its Marker, or will it be torn apart by its inner demons?

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Dragon Age II Demo Hawkes Your Platform of Choice on Feb. 22

Earlier this week, there was some back and forth on the status of a Dragon Age II demo. It's happening, no it's not, it is but only for PC, yadda yadda yadda. Well screw all that noise, the final word from BioWare is that a demo will be available on the big three of PS3, X360, and PC. Holla!

The demo will allow you to choose from three different character classes and split skulls through the game's prologue. Your mini-adventure will wrap up Kirkwall, a place of some importance, where you befriend one of your possible romantic interests. Don't get it twisted, you will only befriend, if you want sexy time you're going to have to buy the full version of the game, pervert.

At the completion of the demo, you'll unlock a special weapon, Hayder's Razor, which will give you all kind of awesome stat buffs in the full release of Dragon Age II, which drops on March 8.

Ready your EA account logins, y'all. 

Bullet Points: Crysis 2 Multiplayer Beta

All footage I've seen of Crysis 2's multiplayer in action led me to believe this was going to be the hot new title for online head-to-head this year. With Halo wrapped up for the time being, and the shaky ground Call of Duty has stood on recently, the door was opened for a new king of competitive multiplayer.

Two or three hours with the Crysis 2 beta leads me to believe it is truly that; a beta, not reflective of the final product. Hit boxes are off, lag persists, and good luck even connecting to a match. Odds are you'll run into more than a few host/server disconnects. The models look cheaply made, especially in death, where they ragdoll like five planks stuck together with one bent nail. Overall, the game feels unpolished. While the Manhattan rooftops are a great place to showcase a nanosuit's impressive array of skills, it's a bland representation of the fully rendered destroyed New York City locations Crytek has been using as a selling point.

+ Exciting, cinematic action
+ Hi-tech perks and abilities keep the pace high
+ Addictive, rewarding, multiplayer system (though not very original)
-  Unpolished
-  Unstable match connections, lag
-  Hit box areas appear off

I came away feeling like Crysis 2 is Modern Warfare with hi-tech abilities and perks, which isn't really a bad thing. It retains the CoD series' addictive and rewarding incentive based system. They've got some time to clean the damn thing up, and I hope they do, as it would suck to let so much promise go to waste. March 22nd is just around the corner, so Crytek will have to work fast.

Bullet Points: Bulletstorm Demo

I've been lambasting Bulletstorm from what seems like day one. Why, you ask? Well, the graphics and effects are amazing, the action is off the charts, and the skill/style based combat rewards creative fragging.

It all sounds good until the characters start running their mouths, and that's where it goes downhill for me. In one word summation, "dick tits". That's what the writers have sunk to. However during this incredibly fast paced, short-lived demo, the script was not on display, nor was the atrocious voice acting. It's all about killing with skill.

+ A bloody, adrenaline rush of a good time
+ 300 kickin' and beam whippin' lets you get creative with kills
-  Hero Grayson Hunt looks like Billy Ray Cyrus
-  Too much health, almost impossible to die
-  Way too short 

After playing the enthralling demo twice, (and watching my associate play through twice) I came away with a changed mind. I didn't think the action of Bulletstorm could be worth sitting through the rusty nails I was prepared to have forcefully kicked through my ears, but I may be eating some serious crow come February 22nd.

Suit Up for the X360 Exclusive Crysis 2 Multiplayer Demo

Got an Xbox 360 and a Gold Xbox Live membership? Lucky you, because you're granted exclusive access to the Crysis 2 multiplayer demo, releasing today, January 25th!

While The multiplayer of Crysis 2 is nothing we haven't seen before - perks, abilities, customization up the wazoo - I can't help but feel that the CryEngine 3 powered beast just may provide one of the year's more addictive gaming experiences. 

In my eyes, hi-tech perks and armor abilities, incredible speed of play and mobility, and working the environment into putting away foes in creative ways is grounds for weeks, maybe months, of continued play. It's why I like Halo: Reach's matchmaking so much, it's why Modern Warfare and Black Ops' warzones wear on me, and it's why I'll probably play the hell out of some Crysis 2. Sure this trailer may be trying a little too hard, what with its overused, licensed music and use of voice clips to be cute and clever, but the real nitty gritty, the running and gunning, looks hard as hell, yo.

Dead Space 2 Will Impress You, One Way or Another

EA has blessed us with a new trailer for the slick and incredibly disturbed looking Dead Space 2. Between trailers and gameplay videos, Dead Space 2 is giving gamers plenty to get excited about, but it is inevitable that there will be doubters. For those of us who aren't yet properly hyped for the January 25th release, EA is offering an early Christmas gift and not change your mind.

You can download the Dead Space 2 demo for your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 on December 21. I have a feeling there will be tons engineers and necromorphs being dismembered very soon.

Hey, Dead Space 2 Wishes You a Happy Halloween Too!

Though not as meaty as Shadows of the Damned's Halloween trailer, Dead Space 2 reminds you that its roots lie in the blood-soaked dirt of the horror genre. The trailer also reminds you to preorder nao, as the title releases January 25th, 2011. 

Happy Halloween, from Shadows of the Damned

All has been quiet on the Shadows of the Damned front. The survival horror slash action title involving gaming heavyweights Shinji Mikami, Suda51, Akira Yamaoka, and EA Games reminds you that it's still kickin' by way of this trailer. 

Mainly to give you an idea of the uglies you'll have to blow apart with your transforming skull gun, Shadows of the Damned also wishes you a Happy Halloween! And why not? Grasshopper is trying to put the emphasis on horror, a gaming genre that hasn't been represented too well over the past forever.

Will Black Ops One Up The Competition?

Medal of Honor is trying to woo you with its edginess. Real soldiers overlooked the development process of the gritty war title, did ya know that? Also, they had a Taliban faction before those scheming politicians made them change the name. True story! So with all that MoH has going for it, how'd it do? Not too good. 

Enter Black Ops. With Medal of Honor, Black Ops' primary competition in the gritty war action genre, receiving merely pedestrian reviews, it's time for Treyarch's Vietnam tale to take it's place atop the realistic war action genre. I've called it something different twice, should I just call it first person shooter genre? Eh, whatever. 

The Modern Warfare games made for very cinematic single player experiences. Black Ops looks like it's going to take that and run with it. I mean, pistol on the table, ratty headband, Deer Hunter anyone?! If the game's intensity can be anything close to that brilliantly suspenseful Russian roulette scene, Treyarch will have won my heart. 

NYCC10: A Few Minutes with Dead Space 2 and a Developer

We had a chance to sit down with Dead Space 2 producer Zach Mumbach and ask him a little about what makes his game tick. In true developer fashion, he doesn't reveal too much, but we get enough out of Zach to make it interesting. 

Before watching him play, I was able to log 10 minutes or so with the demo on the floor, which is "very close" to being an end product. I liked what I saw and enjoyed what I played, the build was polished and handled tightly. The graphics are sharp and detailed, and the environments seem to exist to haunt the player. The sterile and cramped confines of the stage I tried really messed with my head. Blood and severed limbs strewn around the floor panels should have really alerted me, but I was still rightly spooked when a necromorph burst through a panel from behind and forced me into a gruesome retirement.

The experience was topped off by entering an eerily beautiful cathedral area where I fought a boss who has a stinger with a fetus growing on it. Dead Space 2's art designers are sick sons of bitches, I love it. The stinger makes for one of the sickest death animations we saw, and you will too in the video below.

I'm very excited for Dead Space 2, which for a player should be all about ambiance. It's all fun and laughs on the Comic Con show floor, with plenty of lights and a flood of people around, but when the game releases, and it's just you in a dimly lit room with no one home, that's where the real fun begins. 

Dead Space 2 releases January 25th, 2011.