Just got my pre-order a day early.
Early impressions are very good. Stunningly well made EA game. Resident Evil4 in space with a few touches of Doom3 & Alien thrown in also reminds me a bit of an old EA Commodore 64 classic called Project Firestart!
Runs very smoothly for me on either 4850 or 4870 no stuttering or slowdown at all @ 1920x1200 constant 60FPS. Game does not seem to support AA at all which is understandable as it uses a lot of smoke, debris & other post process FX to create a very strong atmosphere. Screenshots do not show you how good it looks as you have to see it all in motion to fully appreciate it as the way the shadows, lighting and debris combine is what gives the game a strong atmosphere along with some very strong sci-fi sound design and deep bass.
You really need to use an X360 controller or other dual analog design as the game plays best with this. Mouse & keyboard is not really easy to use here as the game features 3D ingame menus. This is why some have complained about the controls as by design it is supposed to be a little floaty to accomodate the 3D ingame menus.
Overall game design is very consoley as its a multiplatform release but the PC is the best version by far and has the best gfx/sound. Loading times are very quick once the main level has started did not not notice any inlevel loading at all.
Securom activation is seamless you type your serial number at the install and the game auto activates for you instantly. Also needs to add 2 firewall exceptions for the game. No DVD is required either and so far I have installed it on my 2 PC's and no problems with DRM whatsoever.
Only tech problem I have found is a silly one. EA have gone OTT on the gfx options as game defaults to 800x600 @ 56Hz (CRT default res?) on startup so if you have a display which cannot support this mode you may get a blank screen and no display message and as the game does not get to the stage where it creates this file you are out of luck!!
Quick worksaround I found is to copy the following text into a file called: settings.txt and place this in: C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Electronic Arts\Dead Space then obviously just edit the file to match your displays resolution (this is all on Vista 32bit).
Audio.MusicVol = 1.00000000
Audio.Output = 0.00000000
Audio.SFXVol = 1.00000000
Audio.Subtitles = false
Audio.VoiceVol = 1.00000000
Control.InvertX = false
Control.InvertY = false
Control.MouseSensitivity = 0.50000000
Control.Shock = false
Game.Played = 0
Misc.LastSaveSlot = 0
QualityOptions.ActorMotionBlur = true
QualityOptions.Bloom = true
QualityOptions.Blur = true
QualityOptions.ConfigType = 1
QualityOptions.Decals = true
QualityOptions.DoF = true
QualityOptions.EdgeAA = true
QualityOptions.Flare = true
QualityOptions.Glow = true
QualityOptions.ManipColor = true
QualityOptions.ShaderQuality = 2
QualityOptions.Shadows = 2
Window.Fullscreen = true
Window.Gamma = 0.50000000
Window.Height = 1200
Window.Hz = 60
Window.Left = 0
Window.State = 0
Window.Top = 0
Window.VSync = true
Window.Width = 1920
Early impressions are very good. Stunningly well made EA game. Resident Evil4 in space with a few touches of Doom3 & Alien thrown in also reminds me a bit of an old EA Commodore 64 classic called Project Firestart!
Runs very smoothly for me on either 4850 or 4870 no stuttering or slowdown at all @ 1920x1200 constant 60FPS. Game does not seem to support AA at all which is understandable as it uses a lot of smoke, debris & other post process FX to create a very strong atmosphere. Screenshots do not show you how good it looks as you have to see it all in motion to fully appreciate it as the way the shadows, lighting and debris combine is what gives the game a strong atmosphere along with some very strong sci-fi sound design and deep bass.
You really need to use an X360 controller or other dual analog design as the game plays best with this. Mouse & keyboard is not really easy to use here as the game features 3D ingame menus. This is why some have complained about the controls as by design it is supposed to be a little floaty to accomodate the 3D ingame menus.
Overall game design is very consoley as its a multiplatform release but the PC is the best version by far and has the best gfx/sound. Loading times are very quick once the main level has started did not not notice any inlevel loading at all.
Securom activation is seamless you type your serial number at the install and the game auto activates for you instantly. Also needs to add 2 firewall exceptions for the game. No DVD is required either and so far I have installed it on my 2 PC's and no problems with DRM whatsoever.
Only tech problem I have found is a silly one. EA have gone OTT on the gfx options as game defaults to 800x600 @ 56Hz (CRT default res?) on startup so if you have a display which cannot support this mode you may get a blank screen and no display message and as the game does not get to the stage where it creates this file you are out of luck!!
Quick worksaround I found is to copy the following text into a file called: settings.txt and place this in: C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Electronic Arts\Dead Space then obviously just edit the file to match your displays resolution (this is all on Vista 32bit).
Audio.MusicVol = 1.00000000
Audio.Output = 0.00000000
Audio.SFXVol = 1.00000000
Audio.Subtitles = false
Audio.VoiceVol = 1.00000000
Control.InvertX = false
Control.InvertY = false
Control.MouseSensitivity = 0.50000000
Control.Shock = false
Game.Played = 0
Misc.LastSaveSlot = 0
QualityOptions.ActorMotionBlur = true
QualityOptions.Bloom = true
QualityOptions.Blur = true
QualityOptions.ConfigType = 1
QualityOptions.Decals = true
QualityOptions.DoF = true
QualityOptions.EdgeAA = true
QualityOptions.Flare = true
QualityOptions.Glow = true
QualityOptions.ManipColor = true
QualityOptions.ShaderQuality = 2
QualityOptions.Shadows = 2
Window.Fullscreen = true
Window.Gamma = 0.50000000
Window.Height = 1200
Window.Hz = 60
Window.Left = 0
Window.State = 0
Window.Top = 0
Window.VSync = true
Window.Width = 1920
. Looking forward to getting my copy tomorrow!
