Dead Space 2 is, in my opinion, one of the greatest games ever made. One of the reasons for that is because it uses the best ideas from its predecessor, the original Dead Space, as a brutal jumping-off point both mechanically and narratively. Dead Space was a fantastic starting point, but Dead Space 2 upped the ante on nearly every front. Following the success of the recent Dead Space remake, many fans are expectantly looking at the game’s developer, EA Motive, and hoping that it’ll announce a remake for Dead Space 2.
As a die-hard fan of the franchise, I hope they don’t make one.
There is a lot to love about the way that the Dead Space remake reimagines the 2008 survival horror classic while also staying true to its roots. While I was a big fan of the remake, it feels like a fresh coat of paint rather than a new foundation. Its new colors sure look nice, but they’re all pulled straight from Dead Space 2‘s palette. While that helps modernize the aging 2008 original, its sequel doesn’t stand to gain much from the same refresh.
On nearly every level, the Dead Space remake innovates on ideas present in the first game to make for a snappier, more engaging title. However, Dead Space 2 already did that in 2011, so most of the major changes that are featured in the remake simply bring it up to speed with its sequel. For instance, the zero-gravity sections have been reworked to function exactly as they did in Dead Space 2, Isaac’s kinesis RIG has been upgraded to allow the player to use it more aggressively in combat, Isaac is fully voiced by Gunner Wright to give his character a bigger part in the narrative, and the whole game follows Dead Space 2‘s lead of being one sequential, uncut shot.
Those changes are all excellent, but it just means that EA Motive hasn’t made a case for how it could push Dead Space 2 forward with a similar treatment. The original Dead Space needed those changes, so its sequel made them. The only notable improvement that EA Motive could make would be improving its graphical fidelity, but that seems to be the scope of a remaster rather than a full-blown remake.
Fans of the Dead Space remake might argue that EA Motive could improve on Dead Space 2‘s exploration mechanics by connecting everything and making it worthwhile to return to previous areas with security clearance levels. Although that’s not necessarily a bad idea to consider, the reason it worked in the Dead Space remake was because so many areas were reused in the original game, and exploring them at your own pace felt like a natural part of uncovering the game’s mystery.
Dead Space 2 is a much more linear, action-focused title that rarely reuses its locations, so an interconnected world wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense unless a remake were to completely revamp the story. However, EA Motive showed just how faithfully it wants to adapt the series with the Dead Space remake in terms of narrative structure, so it seems a little far-fetched to expect the studio to alter Dead Space 2 like that.
With a remake of Dead Space 2 feeling like a redundant prospect, EA Motive’s time could be better spent making a new game in the Dead Space franchise. Luckily, the studio mentioned in a Reddit AMA that it’s interested in continuing its work with the series in the future. There was no mention of what that project could be, whether another remake or a brand-new title, but it’s good to see that there’s a future where we get more Dead Space from EA Motive.
The studio created a remake that was able to outshine its source material. Now that it’s proven itself, it should take the best ideas from the series as a whole and use them as a jumping-off point, just as Dead Space 2 did. There’s no point in remaking something that’s already nearly perfect, so Dead Space 2 should just stay as it is.
That way, EA Motive can feel free to go nuts on fixing up Dead Space 3.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.