EA Wants Dead Space To Be The New Resident Evil

[Pikminister]

EA Games President Frank Gibeau feels that Dead Space is a franchise that should branch out to reach mainstream consumers. And the way do pull it off successfully, is to follow the lead of Capcom.

Here's what he said to IGN:

"The Resident Evil series was awesome, the early versions were phenomenal. [Capcom] did a good job of growing the franchise to a very large market," Gibeau said.

"I think we still have some areas to grow with Dead Space in terms of trying to reach a broader audience without losing the quality and that survival-horror mechanic.

That's how we're going to think about it as we think about Dead Space 3 and what we do next with the IP."

[Beanovsky Durst]

Dead Space IS the new Resident Evil. At least for me, in Survival Horror/Action is the new king.

[TheSelfishGene]

Dear Dead Space.
I love you.
Don't change. Stay just the way you are ;)

Love
A Resident Evil fan.

[Darkmoon]

Resident Evil = Success. From a campy horror title to being Capcom's biggest game series, with a movie series that rakes in the hundreds of millions. Gameplay wise, Dead Space is fairly close to the newer Resident Evil...the main difference being the lack of horde enemies and the ability to move and shoot. But Dead Space is far more terrifying. The Necromorphs always strike me as dangerous, regardless of how many of them there are. I take a single slasher seriously. I take a pack with a certain terror.

Storyline wise, Dead Space is winning hands down. Between the books that actually tie into the plot, the animated movies, the comics and the games own stories, by Dead Space 2 we have far more in the way of a substantial, coherent plot than Resident Evil has managed. I admit, I haven't gotten to Dead Space 2 yet, but so far I really enjoy what I've seen.

The only problem I really have with Dead Space is the kids. Between the Necromorph babies (OK, I get it on the Sprawl...but what the hell were hundreds of kids doing on the Ishimura? It's a mining ship!) that are either throwing things at you with there own intestines or blowing up, the Pack and even a dead baby in a tube on the Ishimura (on the medical deck, in the tube across from the crazy nurse operating on a patient with a saw) it's a little over the top. And by a little I mean if I'd known about the exploading babies in Dead Space 2 I likely wouldn't have bought it. Realism can go a bit too far...

[Mr. Spencer]

Dead Space, don't come this way! NOOOO!

[Darkmoon]

Hey, if they can do it without doing anything Capcom-esque to shaft the origional fans, making fast sums of money seems like a good plan to me.

[News Bot]

by Dead Space 2 we have far more in the way of a substantial, coherent plot than Resident Evil has managed.

I get really tired of hearing this. Biohazard does have a substantial, coherent plot. It's just that only about 30% of it exists in the games themselves. Heh.

[Darkmoon]

When you have to carefully import the plot, and translate it from another launguage, it doesn't count. With all the translation cock ups and such most of the stuff we get just isn't reliable.

Even then, though, I'd personally give the nod to Dead Space's story. If only because it's a lot more accesible.

[Stu]

When you have to carefully import the plot, and translate it from another launguage, it doesn't count. With all the translation cock ups and such most of the stuff we get just isn't reliable.

Completely agree with this. I enjoy reading whatever knowledge can be found through translations, but as far as i'm concerned, i'm never going to take any of it as the gospel.* When you have so many teams working in different areas, the idea of any solid cohesion is laughable unfortunately.

That said, i do think what's on offer story-wise with Resident Evil through the games interests me far more than Dead Space at the moment.

*I say this with the very sincere hope that these comments aren't misconstrued as some sort of grudge against THIA, Pro-Um, reH or anyone other RE website.

[Dracarys]

Dead Space plot is weak, it already had a few major errors and inconsistances with just the first movie and game.

I watched the movie first, then when I played the game stood next to the marker for 'protection' like in the movie. Guess what happened next.

That isn't the only thing, but a pretty major one.

[Xander Ashford]

I agree that Dead Space pretty much is the new Resident Evil. Resident Evil just doesn't have that scare factor that it used to. Just last night, I was playing Dead Space 2: Severed, and actually jumped numerous times...And this was actually my second playthrough, so some of it I should have been expecting. It still scared me though. The only problem, I have with what Dead Space is wanting to do is become far more action-oriented. They claim they will maintain those survival horror moments, but whenever a game starts talking about more action, it usually spells doom for the future chapters of the series. And Doom will not be pleased.

The only problem I really have with Dead Space is the kids. Between the Necromorph babies (OK, I get it on the Sprawl...but what the hell were hundreds of kids doing on the Ishimura? It's a mining ship!) that are either throwing things at you with there own intestines or blowing up, the Pack and even a dead baby in a tube on the Ishimura (on the medical deck, in the tube across from the crazy nurse operating on a patient with a saw) it's a little over the top. And by a little I mean if I'd known about the exploading babies in Dead Space 2 I likely wouldn't have bought it. Realism can go a bit too far...

See, I actually disagree with you; I think the addition of children/babies led to a higher sense of realism to the game. To me, it demonstrated that Necromorphs did not discriminate like the T-Virus apparently does. The Necromorph "virus" mutates any living tissue. While the T-Virus only seems to infect men. Until about Resident Evil 4, female zombies/enemies were pretty much nonexistant. In Resident Evil 2, there is that small handful in the beginning sequence as Leon/Claire are running to the police station, but if I recall correctly, there are only two female zombies in that whole game. And there are also NO children what-so-ever in ANY Resident Evil game. Are you telling me that zombies have feelings enough to spare children/babies?

At the same time, I can totally see where you're coming from, Darkmoon. It can be seen as sick or twisted to put exploding babies in a game, but these same arguments were brought up with the Damned/Unbaptized babies in Dante's Inferno. What's the common factor here? Visceral Games...Visceral seems to like to push the envelope a bit, and make you say "Whoa, I wasn't expecting that!" As a gamer, I find it to be refreshing that they aren't bound to society's expectations that "killing children is wrong."

All I'm really saying though is that I think it adds to a game's overall realism.

|AA|

[Darkmoon]

Dead Space plot is weak, it already had a few major errors and inconsistances with just the first movie and game.

I watched the movie first, then when I played the game stood next to the marker for 'protection' like in the movie. Guess what happened next.

That isn't the only thing, but a pretty major one.

Well, it's not entirely clear if that was a deliberate plothole (which is entirely likely, to my mind) or whether it was a clever hint at the true nature of the Markers (less likely, but way cooler). But yeah, it has a few cock ups. My personal favorite is the Necromorph at the end of Extraction, which lost it's hand in human form and magically regrows it for the ending.

On the other hand, Resident Evil is chockfull of plotholes, although a lot of those are addressed...in the Japanese guides and additional materials.

See, I actually disagree with you; I think the addition of children/babies led to a higher sense of realism to the game. To me, it demonstrated that Necromorphs did not discriminate like the T-Virus apparently does. The Necromorph "virus" mutates any living tissue. While the T-Virus only seems to infect men. Until about Resident Evil 4, female zombies/enemies were pretty much nonexistant. In Resident Evil 2, there is that small handful in the beginning sequence as Leon/Claire are running to the police station, but if I recall correctly, there are only two female zombies in that whole game. And there are also NO children what-so-ever in ANY Resident Evil game. Are you telling me that zombies have feelings enough to spare children/babies?

At the same time, I can totally see where you're coming from, Darkmoon. It can be seen as sick or twisted to put exploding babies in a game, but these same arguments were brought up with the Damned/Unbaptized babies in Dante's Inferno. What's the common factor here? Visceral Games...Visceral seems to like to push the envelope a bit, and make you say "Whoa, I wasn't expecting that!" As a gamer, I find it to be refreshing that they aren't bound to society's expectations that "killing children is wrong."

All I'm really saying though is that I think it adds to a game's overall realism.

|AA|

Well, the T-Virus simply destroys the system of people under a certain age, hence why they don't re-animate. It makes as much sense as anything else. But yes, I agree, it makes the games more realistic. It's a personal dislike, not a criticism of the game. I feel they've gone too far by making obliterating the corpses of babies and kids a regular part of the game. And yes, I actually played Dante's Inferno when Alexia from the forums kindly let me borrow...and stopped shortly after the unbaptized babies for the same reason.

Dead Space's plot interests me enough to keep me playing, but those paticular enemies make me feel uncomfortable. I am a father of three small children, which is where a lot of my discomfort comes from. With my very active imagination, and the games relatively high realism factor (yes, I know, there are plenty of things that aren't perfectly realistic...) it's far too easy to see my own kids there.

But I also tend to dislike using kids in horror without a very good reason. I understand why they have in Dead Space, and partially agree with it. I simply feel it's too much, too often. Children should never just be another enemy in video games, but they get to that point in Dead Space 1 and I suspect it'll be even worse in 2, since there are two more child based enemies.

[BrionIrons]

i don't see what the big deal is.Its a VIDEO GAME.people need to stop taking things so seriously.If I recall the original silent hill for the Playstation had mutated zombie or demon(whatever they are) children with blades as hands.13 years later havent heard any complaints (to my knowledge) about that.

[Enetirnel]

i don't see what the big deal is.Its a VIDEO GAME.people need to stop taking things so seriously.If I recall the original silent hill for the Playstation had mutated zombie or demon(whatever they are) children with blades as hands.13 years later havent heard any complaints (to my knowledge) about that.

However, that - the demon childrens' appearance in the school was actually censored for a lot of other places.

I know for bloody sure we didn't get that in the retail version of Silent Hill in Australia, as well as in a fair amount of other countries.

THAT is why a lot of people would still like to see children affected in more games instead of being censored again - that's why they're bringing it up and RE being censored itself and we just sort of had the same sets of zombies - all adults that we didn't really think twice about shooting.

If there were children zombies, it would have added another layer. Hell, look at the reaction to the Dead Island trailer - the majority of the reaction was at the fact of the girl, a child becoming a zombie in front of her own parents.

I haven't gotten to play Dead Space yet as my PC controller broke, but when I get around to it - I'm looking forward to it as it looks really, really good.

[Pikminister]

Well... I don't think the plotlines of either franchise is Pulitzer prize material.

I do agree that DS does have less plot holes than RE. But then again, what franchise out there doesn't? Even Tetris makes more sense.

But cheer up. RE doesn't lose in all fronts against Dead Space. Nooo. Resident Evil blows away most franchises (DS included) in terms of its charismatic characters.

Amiright?

Those RE characters are so damn popular that they can even sell spin-off games. One of which even inspired the creation of Dead Space.

Happy days are here again!