Jeff Baum

Dead Space is a video game for Xbox 360 and PS3. I rented it this weekend cause I needed a game to hold me over till Fable 2 and Far Cry 2 come out next week. It’s been very well reviewed, and, while Space sci-fi horror games aren’t really my favorite thing, I wanted to give it a shot. Seemed like the perfect game to be the first video game I’ve rented from Blockbuster in probably a decade. I should probably do this more often.

So here’s the deal. It’s a really well made game. The graphics and controls are pretty much as good as anything I’ve ever played. Oh, and the sound. Great sound. The lighting effects are stunning, and the way they avoid an HUD with all info sticking out as an extension of the suit you wear is especially impressive. The controls are a mix between Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War…except you can shoot while you move and there is no cover. It works well. The fact that it never gets in the way and just feels perfectly natural is a testament to how great it plays.

So it’s weird…I’m playing through this beautiful, well crafted game, but I’m not impressed. The game feels like a big fat Bioshock ripoff. Except you’re in a sterile, bland spaceship rather than a glamorous underwater Art Deco utopia. It’s just not as interesting. And the story even plays out the same way. You get video and audio players along the way that advance the story of what happened to the ship while some guy you barely see telling you to go here and there to accomplish tasks. it even starts you out in the medical center and connects each level with a tram that warps you from place to place. Plus, the fact the main character looks an awful lot like a Big Daddy is hard to avoid.

Also, the enemies are all the same, for the most part. You go through and have to cut off their limbs for them to die. This would have been cool on a couple enemies as a change of pace, but its a bit too repetitive. From everything I’ve read, the pistol you start with is more or less the best weapon in the game because it’s upgradable and cuts limbs the best. I’m only a couple levels in, but it seems to be doing the trick just fine so far. Not balancing the weapons better takes a big fun part out of a shooter. It feels limited.

But that all said, it is worth playing. I suspect the story advances predictably and probably gets a bit more interesting, but it starts real slow. It’s a really impressive game, for sure, but one I’m sure I won’t wanna play once the rest of the season’s big games come out. Will have no issue returning this next week, even if I’m only less than half way through the story.

And it’s not so much McCain himself, but his embrace of this extreme wing of the party that gives him pause. Which is why Rush Linbaugh’s response only pounds the point home even more.

Who do you think you are, Duke? I hope you lose.

McCain’s bemused reaction to a supporter shouting today at a rally that Obama is a terrorist reminds me of his bemused reaction to when supporters asked him “how he would beat the bitch” if Hillary Clinton won the primary.