Dead Space 2: is it worth it?

IGN reported a while ago that Electronic Arts COULD be making a sequel to Dead Space in 2010 While it is total speculation (still)at this point, I took a while to contemplate the idea of a Dead Space Sequel. Yes Dead Space Extraction came out, but that didn't sell very well despite the good reception from people who played it. I had previously looked upon the idea of a sequel with some encouragement, now that has seemed to change for me.

Dead Space was creepy, I liked it. But despite my NEED to grab a copy of Dead Space, I haven't. This isn't due to my opinion of the game when I tried it so long ago, it's merely a title I intend on getting as an afterthought. That, and the fact that Extraction didn't sell well on the Wii leads me to believe a sequel to the game won't do any better. There are complaints of very few replayable titles on the Wii, Dead Space Extraction seemed like one you could play consistently. Especially since it took advantage of the Wiimote motion control.

Another reason I don't think a sequel will be successful is the Dead Space movie. Video game movies suck, and I hope Dead Space can break that chain as well as the others coming. Bringing another game won't help that as far as i'm concerned, the producers might look towards the sequel more and mess up the storyline for the movie. The screenplay for video game movies are an integral part, and make it harder when sequels come out.

Above all, Dead Space is a title that should be a stand alone game. It's not a game of discussion very often, but should there be a sequel, I hope for the best.

Battlefield 1943 Demo Impressions

In the Xbox Live Arcade store, 1200 points is expensive, and the game better be really good to earn that price. There is a very big judgement difference between a game worth 800 points and one worth 1200, Battlefield 1943 is a heavily online multiplayer oriented game. So how does it shape up?

Battlefield is actually pretty damn decent, so decent that the only reason it is not on my hard drive is because I am not fiscally sound at the moment. It is that good, especially considering it turns something as simple as a 3 island area into a fun and chaotic warfare ground.

With the ability to choose what type of soldier you want to be, there are different weapons given to you with different strengths. Your character can drive turret mounted vehicles around the island, and when neither plane, boat or bridge exists you can simply swim across to another island. The planes are especially regarded as fun by most players, so fun that I could not ever get in one in the 30 minute demo I had. Although the plane seems cheap because it has nuclear bombing capability that pretty much covers half the island.

However the game definitely is not your run of the mill shooter either, you cannot just shoot and run. It has a much slower killing rate than other games, and I unlike some actually appreciate the amount of attention you DO need with your health being that resilient. If there was any trouble I had, its the difficulty to keep up with friends if you lose them. The mapping and lack of a good hud to indicate friendlies caught me off-guard at times.

New Left 4 Dead update next week for PC

Even though I will be paying for Left 4 Dead 2, THIS is a nice little freebie for the first game to interest me.

Essentially you get to create your own campaign maps, I wonder how far you can customize. Well you can add your own as I said before, cool, but kotaku seems to imply other people's creations will appear as selections? i'm not sure.

I didn't really see much on what you can control, adding more swarms of zombies and deciding how the players will go through the level would be cool. Especially if I could design several ways to get through one map.

But this is a great leap forward, especially if they add all these changes to the new game. HERES AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT YOU CAN DO

People hating the creation of Left 4 Dead 2 will be appeased I bet, i'm also not a good map creator but seeing other people's creations and having fun with them will be priceless. Too bad I didn't get the PC version :(