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Dead Space 2

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Wed, 2011-01-26 11:37

sndwurks

Dead Space 2

No spoilers for the second game here, please. But I am playing through this game, and so far? It is very enjoyable. It is definitely a worthy successor to the first game. In Eclipse Phase terms, as the first game is a beautiful example of how an Exsurgent infection could manifest on a Scum Barge or any large spaceship, this is truly how an Exsurgent infection could go on a larger habitat. There are many other exceptional parallels that can get drawn from these games to elements of EP. I highly recommend both the original and the sequel. However? Do not play the sequel until you play the original. Otherwise, you will not be able to appreciate how Isaac Clarke has gone from a quiet, hard-working engineer to the BA, monster-stomping, surly renaissance man of the sequel.

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Doomsayer

Wed, 2011-01-26 11:54

nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture

Re: Dead Space 2

I started playing Dead Space 1 (and got up a little past where you shoot the giant space slug). I lost my inertia and after four months I think I'm going to get my butt handed to me if I jump back in the middle of the game. But I have to ask - are there more awesome things I can apply to EP in the remainder of the game, or have I basically gotten the jist of it? I'm sure I'll hexedit my saved game down to 'normal' difficulty and finish it up sooner or later, I just don't know how much I should hurry.

Wed, 2011-01-26 17:59

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: Dead Space 2

I though that the Unitologists would make a great potentially hostile religious faction. They worship the ETI (and/or the TITANs), and see the Exsurgence as a blessed evolution I really doubt that Firewall looks kindly upon this group! A variant approach for them would be that they believe that humanity was uplifted to sentience by aliens, but the process isn't quite finished yet, and a way to complete it is by death/resleeving process or exposure to the TITANs' Exsurgent Virus. TITANs that were somehow uplifted by the same aliens that uplifted the humans long ago. They call the Fall and the forced upload of millions "the Convergence". update edits: I just watched Dead Space Aftermath, and it's decent -fairly good, if you have average animation standards- but quite enjoyable and much more cynical than Downfall was. It's also very, very easily adaptable to EP: A crew of Gatecrashers (could be the player characters, some working in secret for Project Ozma, others employed by Fah-jin, Terragenesis or other planetology oriented hypercorp) are rescued from an exoplanet by Planetary Consortium team, and they are interrogated by a team of Cognite psychosurgeon about what happened on the exoplanet, and their exposure to a TITAN artefact there (the Marker). there are several cool ideas to pick up from this animated feature to augment your EP descriptions: -creative use of AR sensorial overlays to play with character fears -Basilisk hack and resulting hallucinations -Augmented reality spimes -Chrysalis strain Exsurgent virus descriptions -ideas for pregen characters like genehackers, planetologist, variant on the Oversight Auditors from Sunward

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[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Wed, 2011-01-26 18:18

Extrasolar Angel Extrasolar Angel's picture

Re: Dead Space 2

I couldn't play Dead Space 1, it's not that I am afraid-I am too jumpy. I can stand blood,meat and bone, and the whispers, but when something jumps out of the dark on the screen with its razor claws my heart almost stops. So I watched the walkthrough instead ;) Anyway-the Dead Space setting indeed could be adopted to EP-it's kind of fun also since players could expect something more mechanical rather than biological as the enemy. A exoplanet where a colony worships supposedly Alien monument seems plausible.

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[I]Raise your hands to the sky and break the chains. With transhumanism we can smash the matriarchy together.[/i]

Wed, 2011-01-26 20:02

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: Dead Space 2

I know what you mean, but that's exactly where the fun lies! to have those Necromorphs jumping at you... I was wondering how to make the RIG work in the EP setting (Ressources Integration Gear), several of its features is redundant with the MESH inserts (the holograms of the RIG interface work like the entoptics' AR, radio and video could also be found with the basic Mesh inserts) but there are others like working with vac suits, exoskeletons, the Stasis and Kinesis Modules that could be handy. The trick is to find how to integrate it and explain it especially they kinesis module I think I'm gonna use that Sprawl station around Titan, tho too great to pass

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[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Thu, 2011-01-27 11:53

sndwurks

Re: Dead Space 2

Most of the really good points have already been made. Without getting too spoilery, one interpretation of the purpose of the Marker is that it acts like a Bracewell Probe. Part of what triggered the existential risk of the Necromorphs is the Marker, and that exposure to the Marker... changes you. Both the Stasis Module and the Kinesis devices are actually a little bit beyond most EP-level technology. Remember, most gravity in EP is created by rotation and the like. Dead Space uses technology that is several steps above EP: hyperspace, local artificial gravity, massive space ships, etc. Personally, I think one of the more compelling aspects of use in Dead Space is the actions of the CEC and EarthGov. They are not too far from the Planetary Consortium in their activities. I also agree that you can run a fairly good Dead Space inspired game off of a Gatecrashing scenario, complete with the Marker and the rise of the worship of it.

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Doomsayer

Thu, 2011-01-27 12:21

Extrasolar Angel Extrasolar Angel's picture

Re: Dead Space 2

And of course there is a Plasma Cutter in Gatecrashing. When I saw it I thought that it was homage to the Dead Space game

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[I]Raise your hands to the sky and break the chains. With transhumanism we can smash the matriarchy together.[/i]

Thu, 2011-01-27 13:47

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: Dead Space 2

well, actually my buddy SteelAngelJohn and I came up with an idea for the kinesis module. (and what nasty stuff could be done with hacking a RIG) here is an excerpt of the brainstorm we had: Quincey Forder: and gets infected Quincey Forder: idea for the telekinesis Quincey Forder: the IA in the RIG analyses the object aimed for transport Quincey Forder: if its small enough (like a bar with, up to a morph) it releases a nanoswarm that will carry the object up to the size/weight of a naked biomorph with a COOR of 5 under a .5g gravity and no higher). it'll need to replenish after X number of use if the object aimed is equipped with motors, the RIG's AI will remote the use the motors instead (like moving the scanner, connecting transport arms/rails Still pondering on the Stasis module, though

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[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Thu, 2011-01-27 20:53

urdith

Re: Dead Space 2

The small things in the Dead Space world make lovely additions to EP. The RIG suits, for example, and the way the displays are integrated with the viewing experience are a good way to translate AR. And the sound design. Talk about ways to build tension without visuals. Just a few well placed sound effects from speakers near the back of a room...

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"The ruins of the unsustainable are the 21st century’s frontier."
— Bruce Sterling

Thu, 2011-01-27 22:50

#10

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: Dead Space 2

not to mention childhood songs, lullabies and limericks, in a horror setting really adds up to the tension. like playing Twinkle Twinkle, for example! generally, describing things to a player that others don't see, hear, smell whatever really is freaky, both for the player who sees and those who don't! To that purpose, for some adventure I'm setting up, I'm making some cards I'm distributing to the players. On one, there's a description of something he or she or _they_ perceive, and on all the other cards, there's the mention "whatever X perceived you didn't. play accordingly or lie to the others, it's your call" opposite can be true too all receive a letter another receive a blank sheet, or covered with nonsense and being able to read the letter proves one is not infected by something.

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[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Fri, 2011-01-28 06:44

#11

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: Dead Space 2

Quincey Forder wrote:
generally, describing things to a player that others don't see, hear, smell whatever really is freaky, both for the player who sees and those who don't!

Oh yes. I described the felonious intentions of an empty soda can to the player of a slightly erratic async, and the PC went on to very carefully destroy the can while threatening its evil boss. To the other players I just said "Gao for some reason stamps on a can while muttering."

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Fri, 2011-01-28 14:02

#12

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: Dead Space 2

CONSTANT VIGILANCE!! cans are everywhere, it would be so easy for them to take over the world! TITANs? pfft! those are nothing! the real threat are the soda cans! tell me, did that async come close to an helix shaped monument, with red markings carved on it? anyway, those who play DS2, pay some attention to the video about the guy being interrogated, Stross. his story is told in Aftermath. oh, if anybody could come up with stats for him (or any NPC of the Dead Space lore), I'd be very interested now, on the Stasis module. I have reasons to believe that the slowness of enemies subjected to the Statis module is an illusion. Instead of slowing the enemies, it actually boost you, like a external Neurachem included in the RIG. Therefore, you just have to apply the rules normally applied to the use of a Neurachem. If you want to go with the other approach, that the target is actually slowed down, I would say that, like telekinesis, the Stasis is a type of nanoswarm that stuck on the target and solidifies in a graphene-like adhesive, locking the target in position, even if suspended in midair, in which case the same rules as telekinesis are followed (nothing bigger than a biomorph, in a 0.5 g gravity). Stasis to be used to slow down propellers, slamming doors, etc.

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[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Tue, 2011-02-01 20:20

#13

Extrasolar Angel Extrasolar Angel's picture

Re: Dead Space 2

Big Spoilers: Hmm, I watched the walkthrough of Dead Space 2 and I must say that the Marker is starting to make some sense. It is clearly a an agressive Bracewell Probe-which scans for intelligent life, then manipulates it into insanity and murder to remake the corpses into a bio-weapon, it also has the ability to use memetic attacks and exsurgent like mental viruses to ensure its survival as a copy. The ability to create dementia by artificial means reminds of Peter Watts Blindsight where a similiar effect was happening. http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm

Quote:
Depending upon whom you believe, the judicious application of magnetic fields to the brain can provoke everything from religious rapture24 to a sense of being abducted by aliens25. Transcranial magnetic stimulation can change mood, induce blindness26, or target the speech centers (making one unable to pronounce verbs, for example, while leaving the nouns unimpaired)27. Memory and learning can be enhanced (or impaired), and the US Government is presently funding research into wearable TMS gear for—you guessed it— military purposes28. Sometimes electrical stimulation of the brain induces "alien hand syndrome"— the involuntary movement of the body against the will of the "person" allegedly in control29. Other times it provokes equally involuntary movements, which subjects nonetheless insist they "chose" to perform despite overwhelming empirical evidence to the contrary30. Put all this together with the fact that the body begins to act before the brain even "decides" to move31 (but see32, 33), and the whole concept of free will—despite the undeniable subjective feeling that it's real—begins to look a teeny bit silly, even outside the influence of alien artefacts.

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[I]Raise your hands to the sky and break the chains. With transhumanism we can smash the matriarchy together.[/i]