12th October 2010 / Dead Space / On Sale / Videogames
DEAD SPACE IGNITION, the “prequel / prologue / sidequel / whatever you can want to call it” to DEAD SPACE 2, is available today to download on Xbox Live. I’m pretty sure it’s out on PSN today, too, but I don’t have confirmation of that. From the official release when it was announced:
IGNITION will show fans what happens in the hours leading up to the beginning of DEAD SPACE 2 with gameplay that is fast-paced and accessible.
[It] combines an interactive comic-style story with three unique hacking games; Hardware Crack, Trace Route and System Override. Each game offers a fun arcade experience that will challenge players with puzzles and twitch gameplay.
IGNITION features a unique ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ type narrative, allowing players to survive the initial Necromorph outbreak on the Sprawl in multiple ways, with four different endings.
And for the gotta-have-that-edge hardcore players among you, each different ending also rewards the player with an unlockable for use in DEAD SPACE 2. Probably a spare pair of underpants, or something.
DEAD SPACE IGNITION costs 400 points on XBLA, $5 on PSN — or if you’re a smart cookie and pre-ordered DS2 in the US, you should receive a free download token to get it.
7th January 2010 / Interviews / On Sale / Videogames / Wasteland
WASTELAND #27 is now on sale. This is the second part of the “Enemy Within” story arc, following Jakob’s perspective on the six months following the Sand-Eater attack.
The order code is JUL091015, and here’s the solicit:
After saving the city from the Sand-Eaters, Jakob has a plum position in the city Watch… but Golden Voice’s call for freedom will give him pause for thought. Working for a man he despises and abandoned by his faith, Jakob must decide where his loyalties lie as Newbegin faces a Sunner rebellion!
(Observant readers will have noticed that WASTELAND #29 hasn’t yet been solicited; don’t panic, we just ‘paused’ solicitations when it became clear #26 and #27 would be delayed, because we all hate soliciting books that we know we can’t ship. We’re getting back on track now, so #29 will be solicited next month.)
Of interest to the videogame crowd: the inimitable Fran Shergold of Ready Up! recently interviewed Rhianna Pratchett and myself about writing for games, and it turned out pretty interesting. You can read the whole thing here.
1st March 2009 / Dead Space / Videogames
I’ve been informed that I can officially announce what a few people already guessed — I’m scripting DEAD SPACE: EXTRACTION, the new game for the Wii.
Obviously what I can’t do is go into any detail yet. But I can say the following:
That’s all I can say for now, but there’ll be plenty more closer to release.
13th October 2008 / Dead Space / On Sale / Videogames
Just a quick reminder that DEAD SPACE goes on sale tomorrow in America for PS3 and XBOX.
Us Euros, and PC owners, will have to wait another week—by which time No Known Survivors will have wrapped up, too. It’s a good time to be a space zombie killer on the loose.
3rd October 2008 / Dead Space / Videogames
I’m not going to post every link that comes up, because every gaming mag and site around will be reviewing it, and that would get a bit dull. But this one’s pretty special: issue #71 of Xbox World 360 magazine, out now in the UK, has the exclusive first review of DEAD SPACE.
The verdict? 91%, and special praise for the “film-worthy” script. Nice!
18th September 2008 / Dead Space / Interviews / Videogames
So it would seem there’s a bit of confusion over something I apparently said to PSW magazine about DEAD SPACE:
But don’t you dare go skipping any cut scenes in Dead Space.
“You’d be a fool to do that,” Johnson told PSW magazine. “If you want to find out the mysteries of the game, you need to listen to the dialogue. But more than that, you actually need to listen to it so you can complete the game.”
Now, this interview was conducted back in April, at the Sci-Fi- London event, so the fact that I have no actual memory of saying it (especially the last part) is neither here nor there. I do remember the guy from PSW, and he was a nice chap, so I’m willing to trust it isn’t a misquote.
However, it is being taken out of context, and I know this for one simple reason: there are no cut scenes in DEAD SPACE. Not one. Everything takes place in real game time. You can listen to audio logs, or watch video logs, while you’re running around dismembering necromorphs to your heart’s content if you want to. Or you can stop and listen/watch as you find them. But they don’t remove control from the player and they don’t stop the action.
So there’s really no need to skip them at all, and if you do, well, you’re only really getting half the game. Which is probably the context in which I actually said the above. Hey ho.
5th September 2008 / Dead Space / Pre-order / Videogames / Wolverine
So I’m pretty sure this hasn’t been officially announced yet, but the cover to the first volume of WOLVERINE: PRODIGAL SON is now on Amazon.
(Except, um, it’s in black and white for some reason. I’ve seen the cover colours myself, so I know this isn’t final art, but I also know Amazon often requires covers many months in advance. I therefore assume this is just an old mockup done specifically for them. Hopefully it’ll be fixed soon enough.) [The final coloured cover is now up for all to see, so I've altered the image here.]
What’s more interesting is there’s now an official release date of April 7th 2009, and all this means it is, of course, available for preorder from Amazon US (or Amazon UK if you’re over here, naturally).
Speaking of release dates, DEAD SPACE has been brought forward by a week (again!) and will now ship on the 14th October in America.
There’s no official word on whether the European release will be moved forward too, but the expectation is that it’ll follow over here on the 17th October.
26th August 2008 / Animation / Dead Space / Videogames
EA has just launched No Known Survivors, a DEAD SPACE website that will be updated weekly throughout the run-up to the game’s launch. It’s designed to take you “behind the scenes in-game†with logs, files and animations that give you insight into the Ishimura and its crew as they approach their untimely fate.
I mention NKS here because I wrote a few scripts for it. The implementation has changed quite a bit from the site’s original inception—for the better, I might add—so I don’t know how much of my stuff is still there, though I’ve already found at least one (I’d link to it, but the whole site is in Flash… It’s the medical logs of “Jane Gauthierâ€). Either way, it’s a pretty cool idea.
[ADDENDUM: Some of the PR I've seen quoted around the web implies it's not changed much after all, and in fact most of what will appear on the site is stuff I wrote. I guess we'll see in the weeks to come.]
12th August 2008 / Dead Space / Interviews / Videogames
There’s a new interview with me about DEAD SPACE up at Comic Book Resources today, talking about how we dealt with the comic being ‘in sync’ with the game, the challenge of making people care about a comic where most of the characters are doomed from the start, and so on. Click here to read it.
Obviously, I’m talking here mostly about the comics — but interviewer Brian LeTendre (moonlighting from Secret Identity) also interrogated DEAD SPACE producer and story guru Chuck Beaver at the same time, to ask more about the game and its story. That one should be live soon, and I’ll link to it when it’s up. [EDIT: It's there now.]
1st August 2008 / Appearances / Dead Space / Videogames / Wasteland
Witness the extraordinary work of DEAD SPACE producer Chuck Beaver, who hand made the “Isaac Suit” for EA’s booth at San Diego:
Awesome stuff. (And spare a thought for poor model Jay, who upon donning the helmet found himself blind and breathing his own exhalations. Yum.)
Anyway, San Diego was great. Thanks to everyone who came out to see Ben and I for DEAD SPACE, or Chris and I for WASTELAND. Apologies to anyone who missed me—I was running back and forth between both booths all weekend, and as they were practically at opposite ends of the convention centre, it often took me a full ten minutes to get from one to the other.
One particular highlight was Chuck BB, artist of BLACK METAL (one of 2007′s best books) and our special guest illustrator for WASTELAND #20, winning an Eisner. Nice!
A reminder: this Saturday (i.e. August 2nd) I’ll be appearing at Travelling Man‘s Manchester store, signing WASTELAND and anything else shoved in front of me, from 2pm till 4pm. If you’re in the area, do pop in and say hi.
Archives
RSS Feed
