Dead (Good) Space

My first report from the frontlines of the busiest gaming Christmas since, well, last year, is this: Dead Space is good. Dead good, in fact. Hence the pun.

Despite having a few things wrong with it. The plot and characters have failed to excite me so far. There's a lot of things to collect, Bioshock style, which is a bit annoying. And it's not exactly scary. Not yet, anyway. It's as if, because it's an EA game, it has to be a little bit too polished, too action-movie to truly become the game it aspires to be. Whenever you forget who made this game - which is easy because it's far superior to the usual EA stuff - the largely unnecessary weapon upgrade system and incongruous "kinesis" abilities are around to remind you.

Still, it seems churlish to complain about that when the game is so visually and aurally overwhelming. The brilliance of Dead Space is all in the dark corners, billowing smoke, and constant, unsettling cacophony of clatters, clangs and howls. Oddly, the bits when you're actually shooting things are probably the least scary bits of the game. There's some eek-get-it-off-me moments, and I always get a bit twitchy about what might be behind me when I'm aiming, but generally the tension is relieved when you actually have something in your sights. It's still a lot of fun, though. Having to lop off limbs rather than just spraying the enemies with bullets makes combat very fiddly, in a good way. It's reminiscient of having to shoot the parasites off the Regenerators in Resident Evil 4.

On an almost completely different note, De Blob is quite good as well. Jury's still out though.

IRL

Five real life things that have reminded me of videogames this week:

1. What? Small Dog is evolving!
Saw a couple walking a dog, then saw them again later on, but with a different dog. Or maybe it was the same one, and it fought a few Pidgeys and levelled up. Our cat is such a slacker. She's stayed the same for about twelve years now.

2 The Temple of Tesco
I went on a fetch quest to get some shopping. I'm inclined to think Tesco isn't entirely unlike a Zelda game. There's no bosses, but you collect items, and make sure you have enough rupees cos the business scrubs aren't to be messed with. Also there's a quick puzzle where you have to fit all your stuff into one bag. Actually, that bit's more like Resident Evil 4.

3. Patrick fell asleep for 2 turns
I was a bit ill over the weekend. No symptoms except I slept fitfully for about 48 consecutive hours. It was less an illness and more like a status ailment. Maybe I'd encountered a Jigglypuff.

4. They're waiting for you Gordon... in the test chamber
I know this has been said before, but the Hadron Collider thing. I mean it's just a resonance cascade waiting to happen isn't it? I'm stocking up on supplies right now. Don't blame me when the Combine hop through and take over the world.

5. Light bloom
I woke up this morning and the sun was so bright I could barely see through my window. It was like sodding next-gen all over again.