Dead Space has to be one of the best franchises to be churned out of EA to date, keeping you on the edge of your seat, especially if the lights are turned down low and the sound cranked way up. The third installment, slated to be released next month for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC, is one of the most highly-anticipated titles of 2013. A demo is currently available on both consoles.
New to the series will be micro-transactions. According to Eurogamer, gamers will be able to speed up the process of crafting items by simply purchasing the components they need. Otherwise, resource materials can be (slowly) obtained by picking them up along the journey, or through scavenger bots sent out by the player.
"You can buy resources with real money, but scavenger bots can also give you the currency that you can use on the marketplace," Dead Space 3 associate producer Yara Khoury explained to Eurogamer. "So you don't have to spend [real world] dollars."
Also new to the series will be a drop-in/drop-out co-op mode which Dead Space 3 executive producer Steve Papoutsis called "shockingly difficult" to make. He said the story had to be flexible enough to accommodate both series hero Isaac Clarke and tough guy John Carver in the same scene whether one person or two people were in the game simultaneously.
"Let me tell you," he said, "it was very difficult to create a game that allows for drop-in/drop-out, that's why you don't see it so much. It was shockingly difficult."
Now there's news that the PC version of Dead Space 3 will be a direct port of the console version rather than an independently-developed title with exclusive features. Even more, there will be several options to adjust the visuals, but the PC version will not support DirectX 11. It won't have additional high-resolution textures, and no visual enhancements beyond what's offered on the two console versions.
Bummer but not surprising.
Dead Space 3 is slated to arrive on February 5 in North America, and then on February 8 in Europe and other territories. The system requirements for the PC version are listed below (as seen on Origin).
FOR WINDOWS XP (SP3), Vista (SP1) or WINDOWS 7
* 2.8 GHz processor or equivalent
* 1 GB RAM (XP), 2 GB RAM (Vista or Windows 7)
* Nvidia GeForce 6800 or better (7300, 7600 GS, and 8500 are below minimum system requirements)
* ATI X1600 Pro or better (X1300, X1300 Pro and HD2400 are below minimum system requirements)
* 256 MB Video Card and Shader Model 3.0 required* The latest version of DirectX 9.0c
* At least 10 GB of hard drive space for installation, plus additional space for saved games
* INTERNET CONNECTION, ONLINE AUTHENTICATION, AND END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT REQUIRED TO PLAY
* Integrated Chipsets may experience issues
