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DARPA's next-gen wearable display: augmented-reality, holographic sunglasses
The US military seems to adore the idea of wearable displays, hence its continued efforts to make them a reality. We know it seems like just yesterday that DARPA tapped Lockheed Martin to build low-power, lightweight augmented-reality eyewear, and it was actually four full years ago when the wild and wonderous dream was to craft HMDs as small and light as "high-fashion sunglasses." Well, that dream lives on, this time with holograms: the lenscrafters at Vuzix just received a cool million to develop goggles that holographically overlay battlefield data on the wearer's vision. It all sounds very Dead Space (or, you know, like a Top Secret version of Recon-Zeal's Transcend goggles), promising realtime analysis of anything within sight. The company believes the finished product will be no more than 3mm thick and completely transparent when turned off. If all goes well, expect this to trickle down to consumers in short order; soon you'll have full "situational awareness" -- including relationship status -- of that mysterious stranger you've been eyeballing from across the room.
EA iPhone spring sale includes Dead Space for $5
Many of EA's for iPhone and iPod touch are discounted this weekend. The big deal is that the well-received iPhone version of Dead Space had a couple bucks strategically dismembered from its regular price and is available now for $5. Other discounted titles include Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12,The Sims 3, SimCity Deluxe, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and The Simpsons Arcade. All the titles are $5 or less, with SimCity and Simpsons being only $1.
Dead Space movie still in production, Caruso toyed around with 'a prequel'
Back in 2009, D.J. Caruso signed on to direct Dead Space. Since then, we haven't heard much about the project -- a piece here; a small morsel there. An interview with AreaGames during a German press tour for I Am Number Four, Caruso's latest film, brings news that a big-screen adaptation of Dead Space is still very alive. "We're working on the story," Caruso said in the video interview, which you can see for yourself just past the break. "We had one attempt of trying to do a prequel, but the story didn't quite work out as well as we wanted it to. But if we can capture how -- I don't want to say, I guess, how scary or horrifying it would be to play that game because it's really, really fantastic. It'd be fun to make that into a movie." And we wouldn't mind seeing it, granted none of those crazy-scary Necromorph children from Dead Space 2 make their way into the film.
EA and other publishers unleash app sale for iPad 2 launch
With the iPad 2 launch tomorrow, it's time for publishers to carpe diem on the App Store. EA is going big with mega-discounts on every one of its iPad compatible titles. Like TUAW points out, focus those plasma cutter devices at Dead Space and leap for Mirror's Edge. AppAdvice has a solid list up of this weekend's sales, which includes Firemint's Flight Control HD. If you do pick up an iPad 2 this weekend, or are just wandering through the App Store with your iPad 1 this weekend, keep an eye out for more deals.
Lots of iPad games go on sale this weekend, likely more to come
iOS developers have realized that there will probably be a whole lot of iPad 2 apps sold this weekend (since there will be so many new iPad 2s wandering around), so they've dropped prices on quite a few iPhone apps. AppAdvice has a good list up -- EA's apps are in there, including Mirror's Edge and the recently released Dead Space, and Firemint's Flight Control HD is down to a buck this weekend. Minigore HD is also on sale for a dollar, definitely worth a purchase if you haven't grabbed it yet. Bulkypix is also putting most of its iPad games on sale, though that sale doesn't start until tomorrow morning. I doubt this is the last we'll see of these sales -- there's going to be a pretty big rush for the top apps lists in iTunes this weekend, as developers try to take advantage of the incoming flood of iPad 2 owners. The good news is that you, as an iPad 1 owner or someone lucky enough to get a shiny new iPad 2, will get to grab some great apps for cheap.
Visceral on the believability of Dead Space's Isaac Clarke
In its continuing series on profiling character design in games, IndustryGamers has posted a chat with Visceral creative director Wright Bagwell on Dead Space 2 protagonist, Isaac Clarke. According to Bagwell, it was very important from the beginning that Dead Space's main character was a "normal everyday kind of guy" and that he made logical sense in the game's universe. "We didn't want you to play a superhero, and we didn't want your character to be a space marine as well," said Bagwell, which led to the idea of an engineer sent to help an abandoned space ship. Not only did this help players identify with Isaac, but it also gave him "a lot of interesting things to do in this world as well." Dead Space 2 presented new challenges, thanks to Isaac's newfound ability to speak. According to Bagwell, the team at Visceral tried to prevent Isaac's dialogue from pulling players out of the game. Thus the team "focused a lot on having him say things that [the team] thought were situationally appropriate." Speaking from personal experience, we can certainly identify with Isaac hurling expletives during the more shocking moments in Dead Space 2. Head over to IndustryGamers to read the whole piece, which includes insights on the characters of Nicole and Stross, as well as Visceral's insistence on using creepy nursery rhymes.
Riccitiello says it would take 'Dead Space 3' for franchise to produce a 5-million seller
EA CEO John Riccitiello believes that the Dead Space franchise could reach the "five million unit cadence" with "Dead Space 3," though he didn't outright confirm the next sequel. Riccitiello was listing off the company's "strong, growing franchises" at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, reports CVG, when he footnoted Dead Space as a franchise close to becoming one of EA's biggest. After rifling off names like Madden, FIFA and Need for Speed, the exec said, "That excludes Dead Space because I think it will probably take Dead Space 3 before we get into that five million unit cadence versus say three, four." EA has already invested quite a lot in Dead Space, making it an expansive, transmedia property (spanning animated films, comics and a novel). That commitment seemingly paid off with the release of Dead Space 2 last month. The sequel trumped the first game's launch sales "2-to-1," according to EA. Now, if only there was room in EA's purse to support just one more franchise.
Kinect hack gets a Wiimote assist, stomps all over Dead Space 2
It's not the first time that a Kinect hack has incorporated a Wiimote, but this demonstration from YouTube user Kick755 is certainly one of the more impressive examples to date -- even if it's still not quite ready to fully replace a controller. As with similar hacks, this one relies on the FAAST emulator for the Kinect end of the equation and GlovePIE for the Wiimote, but it has one notable feature that the others lack: the ability to quite literally stomp on your enemies in Dead Space 2. See for yourself after the break.
Dead Space 2 'Origins' trailer examines Clarke's universe (Isaac, not Arthur)
This trailer, titled "Origins," is a galaxy-wide view of everything going on in the Dead Space franchise, from the recent sequel to the various animated films and recent novelization. We just have one question: Where exactly does Skate 3's Isaac Clarke fit in with all of this?
Dead Space plasma cutter replicas will strategically dismember your savings
The Plasma Cutter replica included with the collector's edition of Dead Space 2 is nice and all, but it doesn't have that overboard extravagance that some people want from their video game memorabilia. Now, these full-size replicas being released next month -- there's some real, substantial money-wastin'. The $220 replica of the Plasma Cutter from the first Dead Space, and the $240 Dead Space 2 version, are packaged in metal briefcase-style carriers, and have rechargeable batteries to power the realistic "3-blast spot" lighting. The only thing they lack is real cutting power -- which is a shame, because at these prices, you're going to wish for real life-or-death monster battles to justify the cost. [Thanks, Johnnynumber5!]
Dead Space 2 outselling first game '2-to-1,' EA says
Despite an overwhelmingly positive critical reception, the first Dead Space was a launch dud when it hit retail in mid-October of 2008. Reporting on its life-to-date sales through that November, Gamasutra described it, along with fellow EA newcomer Mirror's Edge, as having "failed miserably" -- NPD data showed that Dead Space was below 500K unit sales more than a month after launch. The following February, EA would quietly confirm that the game had become a million-seller by the end of 2008. Fast-forward two Februaries later and EA is bringing back up that bleak launch, but this time in new light: "Dead Space 2 launched last week [...] outscoring the original Dead Space and outselling it two-to-one," the publisher trumpeted in its latest list of business highlights (without revealing specific figures). Putting the Dead Space 2 commercial launch in such stark terms sounds impressive, but in reality it's more like "a pretty good start" for a deserving sequel. So, EA, when are you gonna give Mirror's Edge its second chance?
TUAW's Daily App: Dead Space
Dead Space is already known as a high-quality title on both consoles and PC, and the sequel just arrived this week to play through. (Though I'm a fan of the series and was even able to play a few preview builds of the game, I haven't had time to play the actual game because of Macworld Expo this week.) But along with the full title, EA has also had its Iron Monkey Studio create and release a Dead Space iOS tie-in, and it's a pretty solid experience. Rather than just rehash the console series, the game is an all-new experience in the Dead Space universe, sporting a pretty impressive recreation of the original game's limb-severing mechanics and horror-based sci-fi setting. You play as a character named "Vandal," a member of the freaky Church of Unitology in the series, who is working on a little sabotage when things go horribly wrong and the series trademark Necromorph baddies start to appear. Just like the full game, the controls are excellent, and while the graphics don't quite scale to the same resolution, they're more than serviceable. The iOS game does a really amazing job of recreating the feel of the full experience. It's not quite as inventive or polished as the full release, but the story especially does a nice job of carrying you right through the game. The game sells for US$6.99 on the iPhone and $9.99 on the iPad, which is quite cheap when you consider what the console versions cost. I should probably say as well that this is definitely a mature game -- while the player death animations aren't quite as gory or detailed as what I've seen in the full title, there are still lots of limbs everywhere and scary moments to experience. The game also offers some microtransactions for power-up items, though the experience is still full-featured without them. And sadly, there's no Game Center integration at all -- this is very much a standalone title. Still, it's an excellent download for fans of the series, and even those who haven't played Dead Space but are still interested in the horror genre should get a kick out of it.
Dead Space marked down 66 percent on Steam this weekend
Are you hoping to get caught up on the events of Dead Space before its sequel drops next week? Okay, then: A whole bunch of people got murdered by monsters in space. Oh, you wanted something a bit more comprehensive? Well, then, you should grab the game on Steam at 66 percent off this weekend.
Dead Space 2 launch trailer has very nice things to say about Dead Space 2
We're T-minus 12 days and counting until the launch of Dead Space 2. In what is probably a last marketing hurrah before it ships, EA has released new footage from the sci-fi horror title featuring protagonist Isaac Clarke coming face-to-typeface with giant quotes from glowing reviews of the game.
Dead Space save file unlocks original plasma cutter in Dead Space 2
Here's a nice bonus for fans of the original Dead Space. If you have any save file -- completed or not -- from the first title, you'll unlock the original plasma cutter right off the bat for use in the upcoming sequel. Hardcore players should be more than familiar with the gun, thanks to an Achievement that forces players to complete an entire playthrough using only that gun. But don't expect the plasma cutter to give you much of an advantage at the beginning of the Dead Space 2 campaign. Although you'll get access to the gun, Visceral Games' Louis Gascoigne told us that the upgrades you purchased for the weapon won't carry over into the sequel. Isaac Clarke just can't get a break, can he?
Dead Space iPhone preview: Small-scale scares
EA hopes to tie together the events of the first Dead Space game with those of Dead Space 2, the sequel set to launch in January, and it's looking to accomplish this with ... well, yes, with the poorly received downloadable Dead Space: Ignition. But also with another Dead Space game! Instead of an animated motion comic with minigames, Dead Space on the iPhone is a 3D game with all of the gusto and flair of its console brethren. This thing looks and plays fantastically -- at least, I thought so after a brief demo at a recent downtown San Francisco event.
Dead Space Aftermath coming to DVD and Blu-ray on January 25
EA has announced a release date for the upcoming Dead Space Aftermath animated movie. The film will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 24 in Europe, and January 25 in the US. MSRP is $34.99, but some outlets (including Amazon at the moment) are selling it for even cheaper than that already. The film will also come bundled in a double pack with 2008's animated tie-in, Dead Space Downfall. The film will supposedly serve as a prequel to Dead Space 2, about a group sent by the Government to the Aegis VII disaster from the first animated film, in order to "test" the "effects" of Marker shards. Sounds like a recipe for "trouble" (and some gory scares). Between this release next month and the demo later on this month, the Dead Space franchise is about to get a whole lot livelier.
EA discounts Mass Effect, Dead Space and more for PC Halloween sale
EA's mobile offerings aren't the only games the publisher is marking down in honor of this most spooky holiday -- the EA Store currently has half-off deals on PC blockbusters like Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Dead Space. Peep all the temporarily low prices below.
Dead Space Ignition confirmed for October 13 on XBLA
If an interactive motion comic sounds like something you could get into, then you'll likely be interested in this tidbit of news: Dead Space Ignition, the prequel to January's Dead Space 2, is set to launch on XBLA next week, October 13, for 400 MS Points ($5). The news comes via Xbox Live's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb -- we've contacted EA for clarification on a PSN price and launch date, which we assume will be the 12th, because the PlayStation Network usually gets the stuff on Tuesdays. In the meanwhile, be sure to check out our preview of the prequel if you're looking for more. Or don't. No pressure! %Gallery-97880%
Dead Space, Mirror's Edge and Spore on sale at the EA Store this weekend
Wanna dodge the sun's harmful rays and get some gaming in within the air-conditioned comfort of your home? EA's been offering discounts on its PC lineup every weekend; a revolving door of its best and brightest for a pittance. Through Sunday, Dead Space, Mirror's Edge and Spore share the spotlight -- you can get each game for $10, $5 and $20, respectively.
