Dead Space 3 demo available for 360 and PS3

The notion that necromorphs are the only enemy or it's not dead space is just dumb. After three games of Altman's crazy cult and the corrupt Earth Gov, it's about time you fight actual people in this universe.

Couldn't agree more. The Marker can influence people, and stuff. I'm kinda surprised we're just getting to fight humans now.

I just want to know how much will the story "end" given this is the last Dead Space on consoles. I'm pretty sure we'll have more of it next-gen, but will it still be Isaac? Will John be taking over? How will they continue the Marker and Altman story without getting stale, etc.
 
How can you base a 30 minute demo off a 10 hour experience?

I mean, I understand you disliked the demo, but perhaps you should just wait for reviews, and gaf impressions before totally dropping out of the race.

Because demos are supposed to try and sell you on a product? Plus if he has doubts why would he willy nilly plop down $60 instead of waiting for a price drop or a rental?
 
Just watched a video of the demo (waiting for it to pop up on PSN). I've been vocally critical of the direction the series has drifted in, and the demo definitely seems to follow in DS2's somewhat less suspenseful and more hamfisted footsteps. There's the great looking but boring as sin to "control" QTEs, overemphasis on combat, and increasing reliance on TPS tropes the first Dead Space miraculously avoided.

That said, I'm continually enamoured by the art direction in the series. The environments look incredible, and the surreal vistas of the demo create a convincing sense of place, at least when Issac isn't trudging through clumisily shoehorned in cover shooter segments. It's good to know environmental variety is in healthy supply here as well. I wasn't a fan of how DS2 was constantly hinting at teeming city streets then relegating you to a fairly linear and enclosed path, so here's hoping DS3 can sucessfully marry the broader suggestion of this swept over winter planet and it's inner structures with moment to moment level design, rather than relying on the distant landscapes soley as irrelevant dioramas off in the distance.

While the suits have somewhat veered away from the awesome clunky but utilitarian aesthetic of the first, the new ones are mostly great designs unto themselves. I'm on the fence about the parka RIG, but they're looking pretty slick overall. I also dig the larger scale of some of the enemies, and pray the biggest scariest ones aren't all relegated to button mashing QTEs like DS2's boner killing "boss"encounters. I want overcome the space boogeymen myself, not passively watch what a cool dood Issac the action star is, what with his hilarious sarcastic quips only a game writer could love.

Reservations aside, I'm looking forward to trying the demo first hand. It may dictate when I'll actually purchase the game. I'm also hoping to hear more about the greater emphasis on exploration and side missions, which could be a saving grace as long as they don't devolve into paramilitary warfare.

Long story short, I have the impression the game will be a good action game with top notch production values, but little of the restraint or panache that made the original game a soothing oasis of creeping suspense among a sea of overbearing software. We'll see. I'm sadly used to games that can't resist giving the player a wink and a nudge (look how totally awesome this is!) to do genuine atmosphere building. I'd love to be wrong, but I feel like we've been through this before with assurances regarding DS2's shift in focus, and the general lack of acknowledgement or outright dismissal of fan criticisms since release. Best to keep expectations in check on this one methinks.
 
I think there might be a fake beta key site. it asks you to do a bunch of crap like posting to facebook and looking at ads.

www.ds3betakeys.com

Just make sure you apply for codes on the official dead space facebook page.
 
Long story short, I have the impression the game will be a good action game with top notch production values, but little of the restraint or panache that made the original game a soothing oasis of creeping suspense among a sea of overbearing software. We'll see. I'm sadly used to games that can't resist giving the player a wink and a nudge (look how totally awesome this is!) to do genuine atmosphere building. I'd love to be wrong, but I feel like we've been through this before with assurances regarding DS2's shift in focus, and the general lack of acknowledgement or outright dismissal of fan criticisms since release. Best to keep expectations in check on this one methinks.


That's the EA touch though isn't it? Take something fresh and slap it with a ton of "modern" on top of it, making it feel more homogenized than original. They should have just just left well enough alone, but I suppose since RE5 decided to ditch the survival horror/atmosphere aspect and sold bucketloads, EA figured that was the best approach for any followups. The tacked on multiplayer is also a huge waste of time, yet I'm sure it will also influence sales just like it did with DS2.

So did people get an e-mail for this? I signed up and I didn't get nothing.

You were supposed to sign up before 1/15. It's kind of stupid how the site remained up after that point though.
 
I enjoyed playing the demo last night, I like that it's evolved into something more than the original, but it still has the requisite jump scares that catch you off guard. It also looks stunning in places considering how old the 360 hardware is. The vistas that greet Isaac as he goes from claustrophobic indoor areas into beautiful twilight landscapes really captured my imagination, making me want to see what was next.

The cover mechanic isn't above criticism, and I found it really awkward and a poor fit with the series. I ended up treating human combatants as I would necromorphs and put them into stasis and pick away at their limbs. It seemed to work rather than ducking and diving.

The weapon customisation grabbed my attention, spent a good half hour dicking around making different combinations from the materials I'd found. Some of the crap I concocted just wasn't fit for purpose! :lol Good fun though and a nice, unexpected bonus that I'm looking forward to what the full game will offer.

I'm glad the developers are trying to expand the universe, take it to new directions and even if they don't succeed fully, I'd rather they try to change things up than just tread water, that's not appealing to me personally. Was on the fence about this, but definitely buying in March now.
 
I just had a run of the demo and its more Dead Space, necomorphs, jump scares, dat incredible surround sound. The effort Visceral go to with the use of surround is without peer. Just love it. I'm really looking for playing this coop.
 
Because demos are supposed to try and sell you on a product?

I cannot remember a single game where this happened. The only demos that make sense are the PS+ full game trials, and even those come with the caveat that most games do not take off until hours in. Does a demo tell something? Sure. Does it tell you what you should really know about a game? Almost never, imho.
 
I think you pair are being purposely dense. Yes it is only a demo. But being required to pay a premium service, or else wait an extra week for demos, is questionable. So too, is live still being littered with adverts, when you for their premium.

It's worth noting i love my 360 and i'll definitely be buying the next Xbox. I guess that would make a hypocrite. Then again, i didn't instigate this, i just clarified what MrCookiepants was obviously getting at.

You're not waiting a week, gold users just get it early.
 
I cannot remember a single game where this happened. The only demos that make sense are the PS+ full game trials, and even those come with the caveat that most games do not take off until hours in. Does a demo tell something? Sure. Does it tell you what you should really know about a game? Almost never, imho.
Oh, it can happen.

You can't tell me the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo didn't sell people on that game.

What about Bioshock? That made one hell of a strong first impression.

There have been plenty of others though it's true that, on average, demos often fail to put their best foot forward.
 
there are really clumsy design decisions, i dont know what the developers were thinking:

-when an enemy shoots at you, mostly isaac does not react, at all. no virbration, no visual cue, nothing. has to be a bug, because sometimes isaac does react when getting shot (but only when you are crouching). but when you are in "aiming over the shoulder" mode (which is most of the time when you are in battle), he doesnt react.
that makes it impossible to tell if you are in trouble or not. all of sudden you realise "shit, why is my lifebar in the red?"
-coversystem is clumsy and needs to be reworked. hell, its not even a fucking cover system. its "crouch behind some crates and lets hope the enemy doesnt hit you". its like gears of war never came out 7 fucking years ago. if you need a coversystem in you game, at least do it right.

i can only hope that fighting armed enemies does not happen often in the final version, its just broken at this point.
 
I agree with Mupod, I didn't notice any difference in controls. What I did notice was a difference in the fire rate of some of the weapons. The line gun I crafted felt like it had more delay between shots. FYI folks, there is a controller sensitivity setting in the settings menu, try adjusting that if it feels slow.

Other than that, it felt like a Dead Space game to me. I thought the white out effect was great. I had less visibility with that in those brief moments than in both the previous games combined. Coupled with the wind noise it made for some pretty decent tension.

New enemy variations are great. The first time a dead human slowly came back to life as a necro startled the crap out of me.

I do agree that the cover mechanic is kinda 'meh', but I ended up just hiding and waiting while the necros and humans duked it out, and I cleaned up the survivors. The dive roll also felt clunky, and I couldn't quite get the timing down when trying to dodge the spider's lunge attacks.

Some questions for Codecow & Monkey Pants:

- are power nodes now completely out in favor of the crafting system?

- there was a locked room in the outside area just before the drill. Looked like it needed a key card or something to enter. Is that part of a mission, or is it the new version of the power node closets/conduit rooms?

- was there always controller sensitivity in DS1 and 2? I don't remember.

- can you rip out upgrades in your suit/kinesis/stasis and re-spec them like in DS2?

- can you say where in the storyline the section we played falls? Like, half, 1/3, 3/4?

- are we able to take guns/blueprints that we craft in the testing chamber into the campaign?

One more question:

- I noticed that in the demo that there was no more 'store' as in the first two. There was only the suit upgrade station and the workbench. Is crafting replacing picking up credits and purchasing items?
 
Oh, it can happen.

You can't tell me the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo didn't sell people on that game.

What about Bioshock? That made one hell of a strong first impression.

There have been plenty of others though it's true that, on average, demos often fail to put their best foot forward.

Well, BioShock falls exactly in line with the Ps+ demo example given the way it was built, MGS2 too, if I recall the content. anyway, you'll have to admit those were different times. Having a demo (for a hugely hyped game, no less) together with another game could move mountains.
 
this "steam or no sale" stuff is gonna hurt the DD environment in the long run
your actively encouraging a steam monopoly

I would buy from another company as long as it is privately owned with a strong established background. And I will never buy anything that is Origin exclusive.

Never Trust EA™
 
For real. The first game easily had the best audio ambiance of any game I've played this generation. The audio of the second was great too, but in a lesser way since there was usually always something "actiony" happening every few seconds.



All that does is gives you a code where it says to "redeem when you check out" it at deadspace.com. Yet there's not actually anywhere to redeem it on that page, just a FAQ and more links to Facebook.

The code they give you is an xbox code. Just go to 'redeem code' in the guide menu and enter it.
 
All that does is gives you a code where it says to "redeem when you check out" it at deadspace.com. Yet there's not actually anywhere to redeem it on that page, just a FAQ and more links to Facebook.

It should give you a code, take it to your Xbox live account and enter it. I can't do it cause I already had a code so when it tried it again it said I already had the content, so I'm assuming that will let you use it.

*Beaten*
 
They actually are the same, we didn't change any of the tuning/code/speeds at all for main aiming. The controls are the same except for a couple of additions (crouching, roll). Originally at E3 we had more new stuff but we took it out because we didn't like it.

One difference is that the AI is a lot more aggressive. In the previous Dead Space games there are a lot of states on the Slasher enemies where they just stand there waiting for you to shoot them. In Dead Space 3 once you start building your guns with things like stasis effects on the projectiles (and especially in co-op) it starts to make the game too easy.

Keep in mind that this demo is basically what we showed at E3 last year and is only representative of a tiny part in the middle of the game (minus any weapons you would have made) and with a bunch of demo-y stuff added. As usual for us we put out effectively anti-GAF demos.

Could the changes to the controls have anything to do with the possible change in physics (Character "weight", enviroment, etc.) and/or character+weapon-animations, and possible changes in the FPS performance (Or the combination of said things.)?

I haven't played the demo, but the connections people have made to Uncharted does not sound good, especially since I'm not a big fan of the Uncharted games.
I hope it's because Uncharted is still a relatively new/often talked about 3rd person shooter, since there are many other games with character+weapon upgrade systems out there that seems like they'd compare better to this game.
 
It should give you a code, take it to your Xbox live account and enter it. I can't do it cause I already had a code so when it tried it again it said I already had the content, so I'm assuming that will let you use it.

*Beaten*

You only need to like the page and it will appear in your news feed, you just click on the "claim code" and it will pop up a little window with it .
 
One more question:

- I noticed that in the demo that there was no more 'store' as in the first two. There was only the suit upgrade station and the workbench. Is crafting replacing picking up credits and purchasing items?

To my knowledge, yes, every weapon is crafted in the game and not bought.

Going on the optional side missions also helps get unusual parts to make more unique weapons.
 
To my knowledge, yes, every weapon is crafted in the game and not bought.

Going on the optional side missions also helps get unusual parts to make more unique weapons.

True, however you can effectively "buy" weapons by collecting the resources necessary to construct a weapon from a blueprint. There are blueprints that you find as well as the ability to give a blueprint to someone in a Co-Op game.
 
The code they give you is an xbox code. Just go to 'redeem code' in the guide menu and enter it.

Yeah, I wasn't sure but just assumed that's actually what the code was for, tried it out and got the demo. The "instructions" are a little misleading though.

If you couldn't already tell, I don't use the redeem code function much at all on the 360.
 
there are really clumsy design decisions, i dont know what the developers were thinking:

-when an enemy shoots at you, mostly isaac does not react, at all. no virbration, no visual cue, nothing. has to be a bug, because sometimes isaac does react when getting shot (but only when you are crouching). but when you are in "aiming over the shoulder" mode (which is most of the time when you are in battle), he doesnt react.
that makes it impossible to tell if you are in trouble or not. all of sudden you realise "shit, why is my lifebar in the red?"
-coversystem is clumsy and needs to be reworked. hell, its not even a fucking cover system. its "crouch behind some crates and lets hope the enemy doesnt hit you". its like gears of war never came out 7 fucking years ago. if you need a coversystem in you game, at least do it right.

i can only hope that fighting armed enemies does not happen often in the final version, its just broken at this point.

I'll agree with most of this, I mean I don't object to having to fight humans from a story standpoint. And it was pretty cool seeing the fights between them and the Necros, like the humans would start winning but then the necromorphs would take over the body of a fallen soldier and the tide of battle would shift. Cool stuff.

But really it does feel bad. I mean, RE6 honestly did it better and had a less awkward cover system, even though it's so bad you usually don't use it for anything other than regenerating stamina. Hopefully the gunfights are rare or have been improved a bit since this demo was made - it IS pretty old.

The point about reacting to bullets is a good one too. The demo is set to babby difficulty and you can become basically invulnerable by upgrading your suit armor, but in the full game those gun-toting 'zombies' will be bad news. Rolling does help a lot though.

Could the changes to the controls have anything to do with the possible change in physics (Character "weight", enviroment, etc.) and/or character+weapon-animations, and possible changes in the FPS performance (Or the combination of said things.)?

It's the freaking same! Only thing is you spend a lot of the demo shambling through snow which slows Isaac down a little but when you're aiming even that goes away. I don't see how that could be the issue people are having though. The repeated stomp animation does look a little different than I remember it in DS2, but you can still stomp the shit out of things just fine.
 
Played this last night and loved it. Although I have a particular fondness for this series.

Only issue I had was how he walked slowly shielding himself from the blizzard, but with the gun out he practically runs. Kinda ruins the effect of the storm tbh, but not a big deal. Oh and the cover system is a little weak, but at least its there.

I got to test out my upgraded sound system with it too. Wow... I wish more developers would emphasise the sound more in game. When it works it really improves the game.
 
Not sure which enemy encounter you're talking about, check out my youtube video. The first enemy encounter was pretty unexpected to me, and I don't see any drops in the frames.

Maybe I was the only one then, but as I was shooting it the frames dropped to single digits. (playing on a 360 Slim I bought last summer)
 
I am not hyped AT ALL for this game, and being that I pre-ordered the first two for full price 6 months in advance, this is sad news indeed.

The fact that it is Origin exclusive only hammers that fact in.

So sad.
 
One more thing, this game has a very wide variety of environments way more so than either of the two previous games; it is also much longer. If you like space and such we have you well covered. There are also some neat surprises.

This made me smile. :)

Longer and a bunch of space stuff? You already sold me.
 
I hope this level is very different in the full game. I mean, the pacing didn't make any sense at all and the way the environments are connected felt weird as well.

Also don't really like how fast Issac is moving while aiming :/ Makes everything a little too fast paced.
 
I hope this level is very different in the full game. I mean, the pacing didn't make any sense at all and the way the environments are connected felt weird as well.

Also don't really like how fast Issac is moving while aiming :/ Makes everything a little too fast paced.

DS2's demo was actually a few random areas from the game stitched together, so this being the same wouldn't surprise me.
 
So I'm playing DS 2 for the first time, and came across this.

ibgkpVukXlnYfr.gif


Can you do anything with it? Seems like a person stuck in a laundry machine lol, not a necromorph.
 
They actually are the same, we didn't change any of the tuning/code/speeds at all for main aiming. The controls are the same except for a couple of additions (crouching, roll). Originally at E3 we had more new stuff but we took it out because we didn't like it.

One difference is that the AI is a lot more aggressive. In the previous Dead Space games there are a lot of states on the Slasher enemies where they just stand there waiting for you to shoot them. In Dead Space 3 once you start building your guns with things like stasis effects on the projectiles (and especially in co-op) it starts to make the game too easy.

honestly, it feels off to me. I even played dead space 2 to make sure and there's something not quite right about the controls. maybe it is the aggressive ai that makes the controls feel slower, but they don't feel as snappy as they were in dead space 2. maybe there's a problem with my download?
 
DS2's demo was actually a few random areas from the game stitched together, so this being the same wouldn't surprise me.
Dead Space seems to have a weird history of rather bad demos.

If I remember correctly was DS1's demo just the reactor room where you had to fight wave after wave of enemies.
Not in the slightest representative of the final product
 
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