So...hrm.

On one hand, I'm glad to see the franchise get another entry. On the other hand, this feels a little less "Alien" and more "The Thing" married with "Lost Planet". The sequel paved the road for this and it's not surprising, but I miss the ambient, terrifying atmosphere of the Ishimura. Turning the franchise into yet another mindless third person action shooter is not one I'm really excited about.

Still, learning more about the Markers should be interesting and it looks like there's some strictly Human enemies to fight this time around.

But then there's turning Ellie into Issac's new psychological obsession. Yeah, after two games that's kinda been done before. And she was missing an eye.

The comparison just makes me wish there was a really great game version of The Thing.

Pretty stoked about this.

And honestly, I'd wait till more footage of the game to come out before I'd make a call of how much of a "Mindless Shooter" it is. Most of the stuff in the trailer seemed to be showing off the coop and what looks to be boss battles.

To be fair, this was when the Alien series started going downhill as well. Still, looking forward to this one. Hope we finally get an explanation of what happened to Nathan McNiel this time around.

So Dead Space is now a co op, cover based shooter, focusing on action?

Damn it, that sucks.

After the clusterhug of problems EA caused Bioware with DA2 and ME3, I'm saddened but in no way surprised it's apparently getting its soul ripped out like this. I fully expect bugs galore, obviously rushed sections, a lack of plot and microtransactions to take precedent over continuity and established lore. Yay.

Here's a run-down of the E3 Demo, in case anyone's interested.

I'm really looking forward to this. Absolutely one of my favorite current gen franchises. I'm always up to refresh a franchise, or idea, so I really welcome the change of scenery. I don't see the gameplay changing a whole lot. I think they said they added a role and a cover mechanic, which is fine with me. And the co-op is a separate campaign, and from what was said about it, seems to mainly be a replacement for DS2's awful multiplayer.

Looks great I can use another co op game to play with my friends.

It's Resident Evil 5 all over again.

How is Dead Space 2? I keep seeing it on the shelf thinking I should pick it up eventually.

I personally think it's incredible

One of the best games of 2011, that's for sure.

It's a great game, but it's very much "Aliens" to the original's "Alien". Gone is the slow build up of dread. Dang near every room you go into has you get swarmed by Necromorphs to the point very early in the game you can predict when the rushes will occur.

It's still a good game and a very solid story (Issac Speaks!) with some moments of absolute craziness. If you don't mind a bit of spoilers, check out this video and keep reminding yourself that this is all taking place *in game*. This is not a cutscene:

Word is the co-op is completely optional, with no AI partner forced upon you while playing alone like in RE5. Seems like they've just been hyping it alot.

Something which I believe is a mistake, given how most people got into this series because of the incredible atmosphere of dread these games create while still keeping the RE4(With Strafing!) style gameplay.

So no movie or comic series bridging Dead Space 2 and 3?

This game looks incredible

Aside from the universal ammo thing,(which I'm wondering if that's for demo purposes or not), it looks pretty awesome.

Wish they showed off something besides the pulse rifle though.

I have trouble associating the horror genre with a game where you are basically Iron Man.

I get why you say that, but to me I don't see that as a bad thing since I really enjoyed Aliens as much as "the" Alien movie.

It's all in a person's personal preferences. To me, I adored the atmosphere and panic inducing claustrophobia of the original game, where you could go nearly a half an hour without seeing a single Necromorph and dreading what was around the next corner. The second game was just as good, but it didn't take long until I started accurately predicting where and when I would get jumped. There just wasn't the same nerve wracking build up to the confrontation the first game had.

The same thing was said about Multiplayer not effecting Singleplayer in Mass Effect 3, and that turned out to be a complete lie, so I'm not expecting anything different here.

Ultimately EA want multiplayer and the extra cash it brings in to be th main focus of as many franchises as possible, and if that negatively effects the single player aspect, then they simply don't give a jive.

And it makes sense to forcibly incorporate mandatory co-op since Dead Space 2's Multiplayer was a colossal flop.

I'm still ambivalent towards Dead Space 3. On one hand, Dead Space! On the other hand, I worry about the franchise abandoning the horror roots that made it successful and becoming yet another mindless third person shooter.

In fairness, I doubt it'll be mandatory as such, I'm just not expecting it to be something you can avoid if you want the full story and experience that should be available with just singleplayer.

I'm definitely worried by the apparent shift in focus to generic action TPS though. That, combined with yet more Multiplayer getting shoe horned in, and the shorter development time, leave me very nervous.

Pretty sure the dev time is about the same as 2?

The 20-minute playthrough they released shows that the same amount of story scenes play out in single-player as in multi-player, they're just different. In the single player version of a scene they showed, a team of survivors of the outbreak call down to Isaac from the top of a structure to join them in the command center, only to be ambushed and driven back by necromorphs too far out of the player's reach to help.

In the multi-player version of the same scene, there are no survivors or necromorph ambush, just Isaac's partner getting angry at Isaac that he's more concerned about finding Elle than destroying the markers.

So no, it doesn't appear that the multiplayer is either shoehorned in or gives any significant story elements that the single player does not.

Actually looking at more closely it depends on when it's released next year, but it shouldn't be be that much no, thankfully.

I was going off release year, which looked like 3 years Between 1 and the release of 2, when it was 2 years 3 months.

I still don't trust anything produced by EA to not be rushed though. Their deadlines caused an enourmous amount of cut content and rushed, half arsed sections in Mass Effect 3, and that was even with an extra 6 months after the release date was delayed, since they physically couldn't make it playable in EA's standard sequel every other year cycle.

Even if DP3 has the same Dev time as 2, given the need to make things bigger and better with sequels, and the implementation of loads of new gameplay mechanics, I'm still worried about how well it can be pulled of in just 2 years.

I just really don't trust EA basically.

One demo section used to sell a product to customers EA knows will be weary of MP inclusion, who they are more than happy to lie to in order to get their money, doesn't mean it's true throughout the entire game.

Not saying it won't be completely fine, or that it can't be, but I'm not going to trust anyone on EA's payroll when it comes to promises about Singleplayer being prioritised even equally to Multiplayer.

If nothing else, having the same scenes in SP and Co-Op means that every part of the script is having to be written with the need to have an alternate version where the same events happen with the second players character fulfilling the same role as various NPC's, and I can't believe that's not limiting the story potential, character roles and variation, and the amount of time the writing team has to perfect the plot and dialogue.

Ordinarily I'd be delighted with Co-Op inclusion, but the shift of genre, target audience and EA's involvement mean I'm not going to believe it won't have any negative consequences on the singleplayer experience until it's been released and I can hear it from player reviews.