Dead Space

Platform: PC/Mac | Publisher: EA | Developer: EA Redwood Shores | Prices: £6.49/$9.99

Steam are practically giving Dead Space and Dead Space 2 away this weekend. You should take full advantage of this superb deal immediately.

One in five Americans are born with some sort of personality disorder – something that makes them zag when everyone else zigs. It might be as subtle as a nervous tic, as confusing as Asperger's or as overt as psychopathy. But mentally unstable individuals are part of the real world – and part of the world of videogames as well. Sometimes their damage leads them to be horrible, monstrous villains, and other times it can make them loyal friends, or complex protagonists. No matter what it does to them, though, it's usually hard not to be sympathetic to their problems, and to, in a way, fall in love with them... even if they're murdering sociopaths...

Sometimes, a game’s plotline can surprise you. Awhile back, we posted a story called the top 7 games with mega plot twists you never saw coming that showcased seven brilliant “gotcha!” moments in gaming history. This is not that story. No, this story is a celebration of the unsubtle and clumsy, a compilation of those games whose plot twists were so thinly veiled, so heavy-handedly, elbow-in-the-ribs foreshadowed, that everyone and their grandmother figured it out ten minutes in. The only people fooled by these swerves were people who called it, but second guessed themselves, thinking, “Nah, it can’t be that stupid and obvious, can it?”

Yes it can, friends. Yes. It can...

We love the original Dead Space. Like really love it. And with the first footage of the sequel slipping out at PAX East 2010 last week, we’ve been thinking about things we want from Dead Space 2. Obviously, 72% of the game should be made of those awesome hoverboot sections, but we also want more scares, new enemies and more varied locations.

Perhaps better than any other creative medium, videogames have managed to recreate entire ecosystems of imaginary creatures and presented them in an observable context. Books and movies may offer detailed glimpses of anatomy and behavior, but only in videogames does the observer interact with organisms and experience behaviors first hand.

Why can’t some people just call a spade a spade? Or, in the case of video games, call a health pack a health pack, instead of a multi-purpose, cosmic healitron 3000. We’re sick of developers trying to give their games extra context or dimension by pasting unnecessary and sometimes baffling terminology onto simple, every day game actions or objects. It’s convoluted, embarrassing and totally comically. Below are some of the

Founded by a group of religious cultists who worship an unexploded megaton bomb, who then built their church at the centre of the crater the bomb created.  These Children of Atom believe that the atomic masses released by nuclear bombs contain whole universes and are therefore sacred.

How about being constantly surrounded by the most upbeat, glass half full folk any of us are ever likely to meet? Full

We need to be told what to do in a game from time to time. We rely on helpful characters to issue us with objectives and point us in the right direction. Imagine the wasted hours if they weren't there to help. Trouble is, some of them go about it all wrong and - although they're trying to help - just get right on our tits. Honestly, Navi's a joy compared with these nagging characters that need to STFU.

Has it really only been 12 months since the last avalanche of “Best Games of 200X” awards? Well, we all love a good list, and you won’t find a better barf bag of random praises than our own Platinum Chalice awards, the place to have someone else’s gaming opinions shoved upon you. How important are these awards? So important. Real important. What do the other guys have, gold trophies? Screw that.