I’m in the process of creating a little hobby site for Etsuko called Brissylife. It will be a place to find information for permanent residents or people seeking permanent residency in Brisbane. It is a place to learn from, and meet, other people living in Brisbane.

Anyway, it’s not quite ready yet, but you can check it out.

I’ve now completed Dead Space (the game) and watched both the Dead Space movie and comics.

Whilst I enjoyed the experience thoroughly, I found the ending of the game crept up fairly quickly. It certainly feels that the first 6, of the total 12, chapters are larger. Though this may just be a result of familiarity with the game in the latter stages.

The chronological order of the 3 parts are as follows:

1. Dead Space Comics
2. Dead Space Downfall (animated movie)
3. Dead Space (game)

Whilst it probably makes sense to experience them in that order, it does make some of the plot development in the game redundant as you already know it from previously. Perhaps a good compromise, between being chronologically correct and maintaining mystery, is to do what I did and play the first few chapters of the game and then watch the comics and movie.

Quick summary

• The religion (Unitology) is obviously based on Scientology
• The levels are quite interesting and varied; including both areas of both zero-gravity and vacuum of space
• The graphics are fantastic, however, for some reason anti-aliasing didn’t appear to work very well, if at all.
• The sound and music is brilliant.
• The story (particularly the back story) leaves a lot of room for further expansion. No doubt there will be new games or movies, based in this universe, produced in the future.

I am enjoying it a lot. Good story/atmosphere with great visuals/sound. I am currently half way through.

It is very similar in story/feel to System Shock 2 (with “The Many” as the bad guys), and also Event Horizon. Which, in my opinion, is a good thing.

Many things to like about it, including the rather interesting method of displaying the HUD. You can upgrade your weapons and suit, similar to in System Shock.

My only complaint is the control system. The mouse does not behave as you would expect with PC games, even with the sensitivity turned up greatly. Whilst you can get used to it, it would’ve been nice to have it done consistently with what is expected on a PC (for example, Half Life, Doom, Quake and so on). The perspective (third person, but very close over the shoulder) also takes a little getting used to.

I look forward to continuing playing it tomorrow, as well as eventually watching the Movie (prequel to the game) and perhaps looking at the comics (prequel to the movie). It’s a nice universe that EA have created and has the potential for many stories to be told within it.

The teaser trailer for the game is below: