EA Adds Preorder Bonuses to Dead Space 3

[Andy Chalk]

EA Adds Preorder Bonuses to Dead Space 3

Putting down a preorder for Dead Space 3 will net you one of two bonus pieces of heavy-hitting hardware.

The Dead Space franchise is no longer about surviving the Necromorph infestation, it's about pounding it into goo in a variety of creative, gut-splattering ways. You may now commence the inevitable arguing over whether or not that's been the case all along, but either way, fans who preorder Dead Space 3 from either GameStop or Amazon will have one more slicing-and-dicing option to added to their arsenals.

A Amazon [http://www.gamestop.com/xbox-360/games/dead-space-3/102440] will get you a Tesla Enervator, which delivers a precision blast from an overdriven focus coil that causes "instantaneous electrocution and molecular destabilization." Both bonus weapons come in addition to the "Limited Edition" preorder content available from all retailers, which includes the "First Contact" and "Witness the Truth" bundles.

No, they're not the most impressive preorder bonuses ever, and it's a shame that everyone is going to have to buy two copies of the game just to get both, but if you were going to preorder it anyway, it's better than nothing, right? Dead Space 3 comes out on February 5, 2013, for the XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.


Permalink

 

[mad825]

No, they're not the most impressive preorder bonuses ever, and it's a shame that everyone is going to have to buy two copies of the game just to get both, but if you were going to preorder it anyway, it's better than nothing, right?

Why bother anyway? I highly doubt that the game is going to be difficult and pre-order items like this just makes the game even easier, some may consider them as cheating.

 

[Kopikatsu]

"Hey guys you know that Origin thing we forced on everyone?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Think we should give the people who preorder on our system, and give us all their money instead of going to a retailer, a bonus for preordering with us?"
"...nah fuck those guys."

Glad I never got into this series.

Yeah...this part doesn't make sense to me. If I were EA, I'd offer both DLC for preordering on Origin. Or if Gamestop and Amazon take issue with that (Since they're paying to have exclusive DLC), then add something better. Like N7 armor for Isaac or something.

 

[ThriKreen]

"Think we should give the people who preorder on our system, and give us all their money instead of going to a retailer, a bonus for preordering with us?"

Unfortunately, retailer exclusives are due to said retailers wanting it, obviously to get customers to buy from them, not the competition.

From a publisher/dev point, we hate it since we're the ones getting the complaints and have to deal with fragmentation of content and all that. But hey, making games is expensive and if they want to throw money our way for what amounts to a weapon skin with a bunch of numbers attached to it...

 

[Trishbot]

Here's what I don't understand about retailer-exclusive DLC. If it's ONE retailer getting some exclusive content, that makes some sense... but when EVERYONE has a different retailer-exclusive DLC, what's the point? Now it doesn't matter if I get it from Amazon or Gamestop, because I have no clue what any of these weapons look like, sound like, or more importantly FEEL like in the game. It ultimately makes the DLC pre-order pointless since you have no idea which you'd like more, so you'll most likely just buy it from the store you were going to buy it at regardless. There's NO incentive to buy it from a different retailer, and the only thing it does is keep content out of player's hands for arbitrary reasons.

Also, I find it slightly ironic that a horror game that works best when you aren't equipped with overpowered weapons markets itself by saying it'll give you overpowered weapons if you pre-order.

If anything, if you want a better horror experience, give fans a pre-order that gives them the option of having LESS equipment and less powerful weapons and market it as a "challenge pack".

 

[Nihlus2]

I really have never understood the concept surrounding pre-order items for linear shooter games. (Action Horror if you want to be all precise about this). Last I checked, horror games were about building atmosphere, ambience and subtlety, letting your own mind be your worst enemy (the prick).

Never really got into the Dead Space series myself, "abloogy-woogy-wooh!" scares never seemed all the interesting or left an impact beside maybe the very first. Regardless, for those who are a fan of the franchise would it be so hard to be slightly innovative about the preorders?

Eh... Right, it's EA, nevermind then, forget I said anything.

 

[crazyrabbits]

Knowing EA, all of the pre-order bonuses will be on the PC version behind a line of code you can switch on. They, of all people, should know that such bonuses are largely a crock. Pre-order bonuses either (a) have little to no value beyond being an overpowered weapon to get you through the first third of the game, and (b) are chopped out and sold piecemeal a month after the fact.

 

[Coffeejack]

That's a kickin' offer, but I think I could stick to building castles in Minecraft and save a staggering amount of money in the long run.

 

[Slycne]

A GameStop preorder will bring with it the EG-900 SMG, a compact Earthgov submachine gun sporting an internal hyper-accelerator that gives it a punch beyond its size. Taking your business to Amazon will get you a Tesla Enervator, which delivers a precision blast from an overdriven focus coil that causes "instantaneous electrocution and molecular destabilization.

While it's perhaps a bit silly that Issac wouldn't have gotten his hands on proper fire-power by now, I sort of miss the aesthetic and gimmick that most of the weapons were repurposed tools.

 

[Absolutionis]

No, they're not the most impressive preorder bonuses ever, and it's a shame that everyone is going to have to buy two copies of the game just to get both, but if you were going to preorder it anyway, it's better than nothing, right?

Why bother anyway? I highly doubt that the game is going to be difficult and pre-order items like this just makes the game even easier, some may consider them as cheating.

Exactly my view.

I bought Dead Space 2 in its complete edition about a year after it came out and got all the DLC bundled with the game. Not knowing any better, my first visit to the store gave me access to an entire arsenal of FREE (zero in-game cost) weapons and armor that were strictly better than their non-DLC in-game counterparts.

The first half of the game became a hilariously simply run-and-gun. The other half of the game, I imagine, was much simpler primarily because of the tremendous amount of money I had that I got for free due to all the DLC packs and the amount of money I did not use on actually buying the weapons. Dumped everything into ammo and upgrade chips and ran around with strictly better armor/weapons.

 

[ThriKreen]

Knowing EA, all of the pre-order bonuses will be on the PC version behind a line of code you can switch on. They, of all people, should know that such bonuses are largely a crock. Pre-order bonuses either (a) have little to no value beyond being an overpowered weapon to get you through the first third of the game, and (b) are chopped out and sold piecemeal a month after the fact.

That's less a publisher thing and more of the designer making sure the pre-order bonuses don't break the game and can be quickly negated, again, making the whole issue of it moot. But again, hey, if those retailers wanna pay devs money for superficial bonuses...

 

[Andy Chalk]

While it's perhaps a bit silly that Issac wouldn't have gotten his hands on proper fire-power by now, I sort of miss the aesthetic and gimmick that most of the weapons were repurposed tools.

Very much agreed. It may not have been "pure" survival horror, but the original Dead Space at least brought a unique angle to the horror-shooter genre. Dead Space 3 looks more like just another third-person shooter, albeit with gross-out enemies. It's a loss, and a shame. I paid $20 for Dead Space because I had no idea what it was all about, which led me to spend full pop on the Dead Space 2 CE. With Dead Space 3, I'm back to waiting for it to hit $20.

 

[Salad Is Murder]

Exactly my view.

I bought Dead Space 2 in its complete edition about a year after it came out and got all the DLC bundled with the game. Not knowing any better, my first visit to the store gave me access to an entire arsenal of FREE (zero in-game cost) weapons and armor that were strictly better than their non-DLC in-game counterparts.

The first half of the game became a hilariously simply run-and-gun. The other half of the game, I imagine, was much simpler primarily because of the tremendous amount of money I had that I got for free due to all the DLC packs and the amount of money I did not use on actually buying the weapons. Dumped everything into ammo and upgrade chips and ran around with strictly better armor/weapons.

This makes me think you never finished the game...or actually got that far. While having the DLC guns does make the first part easier, mostly due to being able to access some of the weapons earlier, rather than them actually being significantly more powerful, which they're not. While the guns are objectively better, most of the bonuses are very small and add little to the overall effect. Take the Forged Plasma Cutter (the Forged Set probably being the best, in my opinion), it has a 10% damage bonus, sure, but it's base damage is 10; not game breaking stuff here.

Also, getting the guns for free isn't even that big of a advantage. Let's take the Force Gun (you should take it, you'll need it) the standard version costs 11,000cr, a DLC version costs 0cr. Both take 24 upgrades to complete, which will cost you 240,000cr in Power Nodes, minus whatever you find from scrounging or get with the Vintage Suit discount (costs 40,000cr to buy, gives a 10% discount at the store).

EDIT: I rarely preorder games, but when I do it's almost always from Amazon. They usually get about the same (or comparable) bonuses that everyone else does, plus they usually do stuff like gift cards and rebates in addition to it. Plus, I hate Gamestop and will probably never purchase anything from them again.

 

[Epic Fail 1977]

Thanks but I'll be fine with my trusty plasma cutter. We go back a long way.

 

[Frostbite3789]

"Hey guys you know that Origin thing we forced on everyone?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Think we should give the people who preorder on our system, and give us all their money instead of going to a retailer, a bonus for preordering with us?"
"...nah fuck those guys."

At least it's not like Steam, forced on you for games that aren't even made by Valve.

Buy in store copies of Skyrim, and Saints Row the Third. Have to register on Steam. wat?

 

[Norrdicus]

Buy in store copies of Skyrim, and Saints Row the Third. Have to register on Steam. wat?

Well, you can have Steam, OR the publisher of the game will have to use development money to make their own form of DRM. How often is that DRM any good? Or even works properly?

So which would you rather have?

 

[Tortilla the Hun]

Also, I find it slightly ironic that a horror game that works best when you aren't equipped with overpowered weapons markets itself by saying it'll give you overpowered weapons if you pre-order.

If anything, if you want a better horror experience, give fans a pre-order that gives them the option of having LESS equipment and less powerful weapons and market it as a "challenge pack".

Uhhhh...you read the article, right? If not the entirety of it, then at least the first sentence, right? Right?!

Not trying to be a dick here, but really, the article began with explaining that Dead Space isn't going the horror route in this next installment ('cause really, how many times can one be scared of Necromorphs jumping out of holes in the wall?), but now it's become a battle between mankind and the kinda-like-man-but-in-weird-shapes...erm...kind. Anywho, the point is, the game will be more focused on you removing this scourge entirely rather than the struggle to keep your pants unsoiled.

Spoiler: OT: I was gonna preorder anyway, but now I get stuffs?!?