Dead Space 1 is now free.... on Origin!

I already own Dead Space 1 on Steam. I see this as a good way to get people to try Origin, but its not an exclusive to Origin game.

Anyway, what do ya'all think of Dead Space now that there are 3 of them and what do you think of Origin?

Origin recently told its users they'd no longer be selling physical copies of the games via Origin.

geo said:

Dead Space 1 is now free

Cool! I've always sort of wanted to try Dead Space, and I see this as a perfect excuse to finally-

geo said:

....on Origin!

Fuck that shit.

So does this mean games which require Origin will no longer have physical copies? Besides that however I've never had an issue with Origin, it seems to be more lenient to people with slower connections since it's offline mode doesn't force the occasional online check and doesn't force you to update games if you don't want to.

I already own the original non-steam and non-origin DVD version of Dead Space 1 so of course I'm not going to bother with it.

And this is exactly how I thought people would react. Kind of a troll in me to do this, but really free is free. Even though I own it on Steam, I now have it free on Origin in case one day Steam somehow dies but Origin still lives.

I never got to the end of Dead Space. There was a bit at the end that involved moving really fast and some physics objects. The physics glitched and I rage quit.

This is tempting, but I'd be supporting EA, which is probably an unforgivable sin if a just God exists (which it doesn't, but still...).

I've only played the first two, but they were pretty fun. Not nearly as scary as everyone said they were, but the environments reminded me of Doom 3, so I had fun in it. Unfortunately, the PC version has horrible mouse controls.

The PC version has mouse controls that vary with your vsync setting. It's weird.

I loved the environments. I basically played for the atmosphere.

I enjoyed all 3 of them, but first one had the best setting, "derelict" spaceshift drifting in deep space without and you have to get hell out of there. Reminds me of system shock 1 and 2 which I enjoyed a lot. I wish they would make system shock 3 someday or more space survival horror games. Waiting for alien isolation.

I refuse to support EA in any way, even if it's gratis. I'm not a Stallman-esque freedom zealot (I'm willing to make compromises that I deem fair, hence I use Steam), but I have to draw the line somewhere. My opposition is more to do with their business practices than anything DRM related. I don't mind mild DRM, like a mostly unintrusive confirmation that I legally possess the software, but a demand to stay always-connected is pure trash that I refuse to deal with.

Also, Dead Space 3 sucks because not only has it committed the ultimate sin of having microtransactions in a paid game, but especially for having them for the single-player campaign, thus ruining the integrity of the design. I'm not a fan of pay-to-win, I'd rather just have gratis access to a text console if I'm going to cheat at single-player, thanks.

I've got the Dead Space trilogy for PS3, it's been awhile since I've played them. I think it's time to go revisit them!

Edit: Sorry but I wish to retract what I said.

Aliotroph? said:

I loved the environments. I basically played for the atmosphere.

Essentially this.

I'd also agree that the first two games are the finest. Though I recently replayed the third one and found that it had grown on me; less HURROR, but still enjoyable in a 'stop treating video games as a cerebral exercise and enjoy the vapid, visceral experience for what it is' sort of way.

Sadly I hated Dead Space 1's controls on PC. I'm left handed and the controls didn't let me change to arrow keys. I also think the keys were double bound. In order to change to the arrow keys I had to download some program to change them.

When I went back to play it recently it kept crashing.

Also, I always felt the player character was just in the way even though it was OTS so he wasn't as in the way as he could have been. There was no shoulder flip to have the camera over the left or right shoulder like in other games. I just couldn't get past the controls. I think that I ended up getting to the part where you're on the side of the ship in the meteor shower.

Aliotroph? said:

The PC version has mouse controls that vary with your vsync setting.

It can't be fixed on some hardware. Unfortunately, I have that kind of hardware.

I wanted to replay DS1 after I played DS3, but I really didn't want to endure said horrible controls again, no matter how much I loved the atmosphere.

Sodaholic said:

Also, Dead Space 3 sucks because not only has it committed the ultimate sin of having microtransactions in a paid game, but especially for having them for the single-player campaign, thus ruining the integrity of the design.

Nobody's forcing these microtransactions down your throat. The game is perfectly playable on its own.

I hardly use Origin even though I have an account, so I can't really say I like it or dislike it. I've only played the first Dead Space, but I really enjoyed it, and this is coming from a guy who doesn't like the horror genre. I quickly discovered the control issue on the PC version, so I ended up buying it for the PS3.

I have had Dead Space for a little while now and incidentally I got it for free (Thank you Megalyth!). I still haven't finished it though - I'd wager I'm at least halfway through it but I tend to get hung up on certain parts and just leave it alone for a while. I enjoy Dead Space mainly for it's atmosphere but I have found myself on more than one occasion finding great satisfaction in tearing up enemies with the line gun or blasting them to bits with the Contact Beam.

As for being hung up I'm just being lazy, as I could look up what I'm supposed to do in terms of placing the beacon on the asteroid. But I still haven't. And might not. Today at least :P

Hm, always wanted to try these games, so I might look into it.

The first game was fun. I bought it for PS3. The rest of the games strayed from the format so I don't think I'll ever play them.

It's a pretty decent game. It does fall once again into that category of "Games I loved but never finished," but even with the somewhat wonky PC controls, I thoroughly enjoyed it. One thing that does bug me though is, I don't like how, if I come back to it after a while of not playing it, I'll have completely forgotten what my objectives were. Yeah, you have the handy line thingy to tell you where you're supposed to go, but I always feel bad not remembering exactly what I was trying to accomplish and only going down a path because the game told me to.

Already own it on Steam, nice try EA.

The only issues I have with Dead Space was you could not bind arrows for movement without an altered config file, the rare crashes and placing the beacon on that asteroid in the mining deck without getting killed by the double moving rings.

I knew the PC controls were bad, but I just thought the master race babies were just exaggerating its extent. Even with the fixes, the game would just 'forget' what sensitivity I was set at after a few moments. I already own all the console releases, so I didn't want to play with a gamepad again. Deleted after seven minutes, uninstalled Origin again, called the police.

No scruples about downloading Origin, here. Free games is free games!

Well, you can always say to yourself: "at least Origin is a less-pervasive resource-devouring behemoth than Steam".

Dead Space was pretty freaky. Yet always I found it be overly linear. I had a roommate who swore up and down it was the scariest mind-fuck of a game he ever played. So I wouldn't turn my nose up at this offer necessarily.

It's not that scary. Complete a puzzle, LOUD NOISES, repeat.

geo said:

Sadly I hated Dead Space 1's controls on PC.

Yup, that killed it for me too. The PC controls were awful. I simply couldn't play it. I tried and tried but eventually had to give up. Years ago, someone on here posted a link that explained how to customise the controls but I never got around to reinstalling the game to try it out.

I kinda wish Respawn Entertainment chose a different publisher. Despite the fact that I hate CoD, I actually think Titanfall looks kinda neat. It looks generic enough though that I'm not too beat up over the fact that I won't play it.

Da Werecat said:

Nobody's forcing these microtransactions down your throat. The game is perfectly playable on its own.

That's not my point. EA makes offers in the hope and expectation that people will take them. The fact that it's there at all means they expect you to use it, otherwise they wouldn't have gone through the trouble of implementing it. The design is already compromised by its mere presence.

Beyond that, it's an insult. What they're saying to me is "Hey, customer, we presume that you're a non-discerning shopper that's stupid enough to pay EXTRA just to have access to cheats, and we think you're so casual that you think it's justified to use these cheats during a serious playthrough." It's cynical and shows that even the game itself views me as a cow to be milked, not a customer who ALREADY PAID to be entertained without being condescended to.

Of course, that's hypothetical, as I haven't given a red cent to EA in many years. I refuse to even pirate their games I hate them so much.

Somehow the terrible mouse controls enhanced the experience for me; nothing quite like trying to aim with a thumbstick while some undead atrocity is crawling towards you at full speed. Incidentally the second game didn't come close to that feeling of desperation during fights, with good mouse mouvement I'm too much in control.

Same thing happened with State of Decay. First release with broken mouse movement, having to play with a gamepad? Tense as hell. Mouse fix patch? So easy it became a snoozefest, after a mere one hour never felt like playing again.

Phml said:

Incidentally the second game didn't come close to that feeling of desperation during fights, with good mouse mouvement I'm too much in control.

Good controls should be a given in any game. If it fails to create the emotions that it's attempting to after anything broken being fixed, then it fails at it, plain and simple. Bad controls should never be defended in any case ever. In the case you're describing, that broken feature ended up being a mere crutch for the "scary" experience. A game should never rely on crutches no matter what form they take. Face it, the game sucks at what it tries to do, both in being playable and scary.

Nah, it was plenty scary to me. Just picked it up again tonight and jumped like a little girl. Awesome. :)

If you don't put any effort into immersing yourself in the experience, nothing is ever scary. And if you actively work *against* that by doing your best impression of a tough guy frown, well, you just screwed yourself out of a great experience; and nobody is impressed, because we're not 10 anymore so we can all see those seams you think you're so clever for spotting, and you just come across as lacking imagination (and more than a little irritating, because there's few things worse than someone being immature and condescending at the same time).

Sodaholic said:

That's not my point. EA makes offers in the hope and expectation that people will take them. The fact that it's there at all means they expect you to use it, otherwise they wouldn't have gone through the trouble of implementing it. The design is already compromised by its mere presence.

I know what you were trying to say. And I'm saying that the game doesn't suck when the player doesn't take said "offers". On practice, not in theory.

Besides, it's a little too late to mourn design elegance when we have shooters in which your character can't die/lose at all. You don't even have to pay to have that "feature" forced onto you.

Beyond that, it's an insult.

And from this point onwards you're pretty much being a zealot, so I probably shouldn't say anything.