In the mood for some survival horror gaming? Do you miss that warm fuzzy feeling you get from cutting off the limbs of your enemies, or that satisfy crunch when you crush their head? If you've been longing for some hot bloody action, Dead Space is definitely the game for you. Having heard nothing about this release in prior months, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but so far I'm extremely happy with what the game has to offer and how it is presented. Simply put, it advertises itself as a straight up survival horror game and it has turned out to be all that and more. The title might be a bit confusing, but Dead Space really is a combination of all four of those elements in one beautiful game. Of course it's far from perfect, few games are these days, yet it delivers on every level from psychological immersion to intense sound to beautifully crisp visuals.

When I bought the game I brought it home fully expecting to be disappointed, or to have another Doom clone that would just be average. Instead, I've been extremely pleased with it and found myself scared on more than one occasion. So, whats to like? It's all in the presentation.

Ok, quick rant because this has been pissing me off. Seriously, what is so difficult about releasing a decent version of Adobe Flash for Linux? Granted, it has come a long way and the fact that it works at all is at least something I guess, but come on. Fedora is coming out with it's tenth release in a few weeks, Ubuntu is on their ninth, yet it seems like Flash is perpetually half assed. At this point, the web is literally saturated with everything from Flash ads, to video and audio players, to games, yet I always find myself having to accept a buggy user experience as status quo. I will give some praise to Adobe for actually releasing RPM's and DEB's, which is more than most companies offer, but there is no way they have more than three guys working on their Linux ports.

For example, with Flash 9 I had fairly solid playback when it worked, yet it was hit or miss whether it would actually load with the page. Often I had to reload the firefox tab three times before it would start, instead of just displaying a grey box.

It's a good thing that most video game film adaptions have been horrible, because instead of getting my hopes up in anticipation of Max Payne, I was prepared for the pile of shit that would attempt to pass for a decent movie. Looking back, Silent Hill wasn't all that bad, and the first Resident Evil was ok, but overall I still haven't seen a single adaption that really brought the game to life. They all set you up for a major let down and never stay true to the original game that gave life to the movie in the first place. At least this time knowing full well that the $10 I just spent would have been better saved for a new game allows me to walk away feeling sane, rather than attempting to maim the first director I can find in a storm of rage... and boy am I glad my expectations were low going in.

First of all, what were they trying to accomplish here? A good video game adaption, or a good action flick for someone off the street?