Dead Space 3 release date and pre-order bonuses announced

In Cologne, Germany today at the annual GamesCom conference, EA announced the official release date for its highly anticipated upcoming horror shooter,Dead Space 3.

Among other announcements at the conference, EA revealed that Dead Space 3 will be arriving in stores late this winter on February 5, 2013. They also revealed that like most AAA releases today, Dead Space 3 will be getting an array of pre-order bonuses from select retailers (they didn't specify which retailers though.)

The bonuses will come in two similar packages. In a press release sent to us today, EA described the two packs:

First Contact Bundle --
First Contact Suit: This unique EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity) suit was built by the SCAF (Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces) for encounters with "foreign entities.” It sports a flamboyant golden finish to provide protection from long-term space exposure and thick armor for…unspecified reasons. The suit was given the nickname "First Contact" by the scientists who made it.

Negotiator Weapon: While technically classified by the SCAF as a "scientific instrument,” the gold-plated "Negotiator" is loaded with some surprisingly aggressive hardware. The overclocked, top-mounted Tesla Beam is capable of bursting a man-sized organism into several pieces with a single shot. The bottom-mounted Linegun appears to have been built with the sole purpose of cleanly dismembering organic tissue from a distance.

Witness the Truth Bundle --
Witness Suit: These insulated suits were worn by a SCAF deep dig team assigned to exhume the darkest secrets of Tau Volantis. Whatever they found locked deep in the ice changed them forever. When they emerged weeks later, they were covered head to toe in strange graffiti and claimed to be "Witnesses to the Truth.”

Evangelizer Weapon: A modification of the standard AL-2 used by the Sovereign Colonies Legionaries, this version sports a souped-up AL-2g assault rifle on the top with an Emerson 2100 "Big Boy" tactical shotgun on the bottom. The surviving "Witnesses" of the SCAF deep dig team dubbed it the Evangelizer and decorated them top to bottom with strange symbols.

Momentum has quickly been building up for Dead Space 3. There was a brief dip in interest after E3 2012 when the annual rumors came out that EA was abandoning survival horror to turn the series into Gears of Space, but as we personally witnessed, those rumors were unfounded. We've loved every minute we've seen of DS3 (not to mention the entire series thus far) and couldn't be more excited for this game to get out the door this February.