If you played the original Dead Space, you’re well aware of the game’s strategic dismemberment mechanic. It worked extremely well in the original, but developer Visceral Games has loftier hopes for the sequel and seeks your input to make it happen.

Straight to the face

Starting today and running through March 26, Dead Space developer Visceral Games are holding a contest seeking the best fan-designed limb detachment action. The winner will have his or her manuever  and likeness placed in the game. That’s quite a reward.

There are three ways to let Visceral know your idea. Describe your idea in writing, snap a picture of it or compile a video brutally depicting how the blood will flow.

More information about the promotion can be found on the game’s Facebook page.

In his introduction the new Del Rey printing of the actual Inferno poem, Executive Producer and Creative Director of the Dante’s Inferno game, Jonathon Knight, clearly displays a great deal of knowledge and passion for the source material. Yet, after playing the game you’d be hard-pressed to find a love of literature within the game’s stylish and violent look at the Christian mythos of hell. That’s really the problem with taking something as historically and literally treasured as Dante’s work—its potential depth is merely squandered on the limited vision of EA Games and developer Visceral Games.

Visceral (and Knight) previously created the exceptional dark and involving Dead Space. What made Dead Space great was that it looked at survival horror and took it in a new environment (space), plus added the focus of tightly-paced, nerve-wracking shooting action. It wasn’t stunningly innovative, but still felt different. Dante’s Inferno, on the other hand, seems to serve one of two purposes—depending on your platform preferences.

If you’re a Sony gamer, the game is squarely aimed at giving you something to do until God of War III hits in March. For Xbox players, Dante’s Inferno is the absolute closest you’ll get to Kratos’ saga. As a game, Inferno seems hell bent on emulating Sony’s franchise in almost every way.

Dante’s poetic epic provides a suitable alternative setting to the Greek god locations. This view of hell comes with nine sin-themed circles, so it’s perfect for a video game setting. Instead of gods as bosses, we have historical and demonic figures that guard each circle and must be dispatched in gruesome, cinematic ways. Most bosses are epically huge as well, and combat is the exact same cross between hack and slash and Simon-says-level Quick-Time-Events (QTE).

You actually play as Dante, in his angry quest to free his beloved (and dead) fianc©e, Beatrice, from hell, which is somewhat nobler than Kratos’ psychotic narcissism. And yet, Dante is hardly more likable a character. He’s a self-centered, angry hypocrite, who has committed outrageous atrocities in the name of his god during the Crusades. Thankfully, he manages to gain some minor redemption through the game.

The action is remarkably solid. Instead of swinging blades, Dante wields Death’s Scythe. It’s a handy weapon of mass carnage with good reach and plenty of combo potential. More importantly, the weapon is fun to use against the poor, foul denizens of hell. Aside from light and heavy attacks and combos, you can "grab" enemies with the scythe by impaling them, then either punish or redeem them. Either choice results in experience points for your holy and unholy abilities. There is an easy to use skill tree where you spend these points, and as you build up one side or the other, new and more powerful abilities are opened up.

Although it might be possible to focus on either the holy or unholy sides of Dante exclusively, you’ll ideally build both up to gain the best of both worlds. Building Dante’s abilities makes him much hardier in battle and by the fourth or fifth circle, he’ll feel like a real Templar badass. Throughout the game, Dante will mount bizarre and gigantic creatures of hell, although the controls here are noticeably cumbersome.

From the perspectives of visual design, Dante’s Inferno is a mixed bag. The visuals are gorgeously grotesque when the game really stretches its creative muscles, but each circle is actually remarkably small and has an absurdly limited number of special enemies. The game also simply doesn’t get freaky enough in its design. Some of the bosses are hilariously macabre, but why is the only lust demon simply a topless harlot with a whip-like womb? Sure, it’s weird, but after the fifth fight with one, you’ll be wishing for some creepy and nightmarish variety.

Worse, after a while, the game just seems to give up on variety. You’ll fight endless hordes of faceless, pot-bellied damned souls, along with the other more powerful demons, but by the end you’re just fighting the same few types over and over. There’s little level exploration as well. Each circle has some secret treasures, but the levels aren’t big enough to make finding them much challenge.

When not killing endless hell spawn, Dante is usually double jumping, climbing, or swinging his way through death traps. Many of these sections, especially when he must swing quickly from one burning rope to another are incredibly intense and fun. On the flipside, other levels—especially the city of Dis—almost feel like cheap filler material.

Another weak area that could have been much more is the historical damned souls Dante encounters. These are figures from history that are usually hidden away and Dante can punish them further or absolve them. It adds some minor historical relevance to the overall story, but has so little effect on the gameplay that they seem like a wasted opportunity for adding meaty sub-quests and levels to the otherwise completely linear game.

Blast factor: How much you’ll get out of Dante’s Inferno depends on expectations. Download the demo first, or just play one of the God of War games. If either appeals to you, then Dante’s Inferno provide plenty of gory entertainment for the span of its nine or ten hours. But don’t expect a shred of any depth here. The game is purely surface country meant to emulate God of War with amazing precision. That’s not a bad thing, because Dante’s Inferno is easily the best example of this genre since God of War II. EA hardly had to mine classic literature for such a task though, and overall Dante’s Inferno really seems like a missed opportunity to create something truly interesting and bizarre.

A copy of the game was purchased for review purposes.

Electronic Arts and development studio Visceral Games made it official today and announced Dead Space 2 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, begging the question, just how many sequels can we play?

The answer, is at least another one, and we don’t mind because this one, according to the very vague press release that came down the wire this morning, gamers are promised another “heart-pounding adventure” filled to the top and beyond with scenes of strategic Necromorph dismemberment and zero-gravity.

Sadly not official DS2 art

“We’re thrilled to jump back into the series, making the next chapter in Isaac’s journey. The infection continues to spread throughout space and our hero Isaac Clarke is the only person able to contain it. There are still loads of necromorphs that need killing!” said Steve Papoutsis, Executive Producerof Dead Space 2. “In Dead Space 2, not everything is exactly as it seems. Expect plot twists that will surprise you and a huge cast of twisted, disgusting monsters that are sure to scare the daylights out of you.”

Additionally, EA teased us further by describing some possible plot details by saying “Survival isn’t the only thing on Isaac’s mind in Dead Space 2 – this time, he calls the shots.”

Oh, heavens, what could it mean? Who the F knows, but we’ll find out sometime in 2010, when the game releases for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Hell is a hot, devilish place, but Visceral Games and Electronic Arts hope to make the nine circles of Hell an attractive and alluring destination for gamers to venture to in February when the game hits PS3/360 and PC.

But if February and its silly 28 days seems too far away, Visceral Games today announced that a demo for the God Of War-esque title will hit the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live in December.

In the demo, officially dubbed “Gates of Hell,” soul-crushing Hell-raisers can enjoy the entire first level of the title and soak in all its fiendish delight. You know, if you’re into sinning and all.

The official press release from EA states “Players will experience fast-paced hack-n-slash combat as they fend off waves of enemies before taking on the ultimate battle against Death.”

A battle against Death? Assuming you defeat the man (or woman?), who’s next?

Electronic Arts and Visceral Games today announced that Will Rokos is the man writing the story of Dante’s Inferno the video game.

Yes, we know, Dante Alighieri wrote The Divine Comedy, but the digital version, that’s all Rokos.

Rokos wrote the screenplay for the 2001 film “Monster’s Ball” and was up for an Academy Award for it, though a nomination was all he’d get.

“Taking such a naturally rich and deep universe and adapting for the video game has been one of the most interesting and challenging projects I’ve worked on” added Will Rokos.‚  “I really got into re-imagining Dante as a flawed hero with a dark past, and his determination to save the love of his life from a terrible fate.‚  It was a truly unique experience to re-create one man’s hell, one circle at a time.”

Not so say story isn’t important in every game, but in this Hell-Circle of a game, I’m crossing my fingers for a winning script.

The Dead Space franchise is probably my favorite new one of the past year. I awarded the original game five out of five stars in our old scoring system, praising it for its attention to detail, brutal gameplay and the limits it pushed the survival horror genre to. Visceral Games had crafted a dark and futuristic universe that needed to be expanded upon, because the story of Isaac Clarke was just a portion of what occurred on the flagship mining cruiser, the Ishimura. How did the Necromorph disease get there? What was it like for those who sent out the distress signal that Isaac and his team responded to in the first place, as they tried to escape a horrible death for as long as possible? Dead Space: Extraction sets out to answer those questions, but does so from not just a different character perspective, but also a different viewpoint.

Extraction is, as EA puts it, a “guided first-person experience.” While many people scoffed at the notion, and claimed that EA was just dressing up the term on-rails shooter so that the opinion of this Wii prequel would be higher, those who have now played through Extraction will have to admit that EA was not full of it, and the game is much, much more than your standard on-rails shooter. The first-person perspective, the focus on action and atmosphere and the constant dialogue from your characters makes this game much more Aliens than Alien, but it’s still Dead Space in every way.

In order to make this feel like it belonged in the Dead Space universe, Visceral needed to accomplish a few goals. First, they needed to nail the atmosphere. The original took its cues from games like Resident Evil 4, Doom 3 and the Metroid Prime series to create a sci-fi world where you would feel isolated, helpless, and very, very scared, and these feelings permeated the entire experience. With ammunition at a premium, every battle with the Necromorphs was a struggle as you tried to dismember their limbs and push on through the halls of the Ishimura. Visually, the game was stunning, with attention to detail in things like shadows and lighting that helped you scare yourself when the game wasn’t busy doing it for you. The audio was also fantastic, and helped to keep the mood thick with tension that you couldn’t get over even when the coast appeared clear.

While Extraction is not as much of a horror game as Dead Space, it still managed to meet the expectations for atmosphere–enemies attack you in large numbers from all directions,‚  you need to keep an eye on your ammunition, and, despite the stop and go nature of an on-rails title, there are plenty of surprises thrown your way thanks to the developer’s control over the action. The sound is also excellent, with text logs and reloading effects coming through the Wii Remote speaker and plenty of bumps and thuds in the dark to keep you on edge. I’m also happy to report that this game is a visual stunner–there was not a single moment in my entire playtime of Extraction where I wished the game was on more powerful hardware, because Visceral Games did a fantastic job recreating the visuals. Remember–this is a game that places place in the same exact areas as the original Dead Space, so the fact that Visceral was able recreate those areas and environments without forcing the player to think negatively about them in a negative sense is a huge achievement. Seeing the same rooms also helps shed some light on how certain areas ended up covered completely in the bodies of the dead, or destroyed by blasts and so forth. For those who have played the original, it’s a very nice, subtle bit of fan service and story expansion.

Besides that, Visceral also would need a compelling narrative; while the characters themselves fall into horror movie stereotypes–the calm, collected leader figure, the veteran soldier, the helpless girl, the shady, self-important guy that won’t reveal his past–the story itself is right up there with the action as far as being compelling goes. You’ll keep playing Extraction to learn what happened to the Ishimura and its crew, as well as those people from the colony you’re in control of,‚  not just because blowing the limbs off of mindless creatures is exhilarating. (though that has its merits as well!)

The game is broken up into 10 chapters, and you’ll control a slew of different characters throughout depending on what needs to be done and who has been separated from who. To keep you on your toes, many characters you travel with or are controlling are killed off without warning as part of the story–you’re never quite sure what’s going to happen next, which helps build the tension. You’ve got loads of Dead Space standbys at your disposal, like the Plasma Cutter, the Flame Thrower, the Ripper–which by the way, works much more effectively in Extraction than in the original thanks to pushing and pulling on the Wii Remote to aim the spinning blades–as well as a few new weapons, like the Rivet Gun. The Rivet Gun is used for its tool purposes–you’ll seal off barricades by riveting them into place–but also as your basic “pistol” type weapon that does not run out of ammo but is clearly weaker than your other options. Secondary fire modes are enabled by twisting the Wii Remote, and the only motion you’ll deal with is intuitive: to enable the flashlight-esque Glow Worm, you’ll shake the Wii Remote–this will often need to be done while in dark hallways in the middle of battles, so keep an eye on it and feel that tension build–and in order to throw a Necromorph off of you as it tries to devour your face.

You have recharging stasis shots that come in handy for environmental puzzles as well as slowing down faster enemies or dangerous ones in your peripheral vision. You’re able to grab ammunition, weapons, health, audio and text logs from afar using Kinesis; you can also grab projectiles from enemies and explosive canisters that can be fired off with the B button. You can do all of this in single-player, or pair up with a buddy anytime with drop-in co-op–on the harder difficulty levels, some people may find co-op a necessity just so you can fire twice as often and at different targets. Even on Normal, the second half of the game is challenging. You’ll most likely live through it, probably without dying even, but it will get hairy on occasion. Given the game has four difficulty levels, you’ll be able to test for yourself just how good you are at Extraction. It’s a good thing too, because the game may run a little short. It’s long for an on-rails title, clocking in at 7-8 hours, but still short as far as a shooter goes.

Besides the difficulty modes, there are a few more extras that will help you get your money’s worth out of the title though. You’re graded on each level you complete, and you unlock additional health and weapon upgrades by achieving higher scores. Challenge modes unlock as you complete the story; the title is not misleading, as you face wave after wave of Necromorphs as they try to tear you limb from limb in order to make you like them. You can also check out some Dead Space comics in motion comic form, which is a neat extra, especially for those that are very much into the Dead Space universe and all of the non-game content.

Blast Factor: Dead Space: Extraction had a lot to live up to in order to be a worthy entry in the Dead Space series, but it succeeded in many huge ways while only failing in minor, negligible forms. It has more depth than any on-rails title you’ve ever played, a great and engaging story, and many reasons to come back; namely, more difficulties, the Challenge modes, and the motion comics. I hope this is the start of a companion series for the Wii used to flesh out details of the Dead Space universe, but even if it is not, this game stands up on its own as a great Wii title and one of the system’s better releases in 2009.

Dead Space: Extraction is available exclusively on the Nintendo Wii, and retails for $49.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.

Newly renamed Electronic Arts development studio, Visceral Games, is reportedly working on a title surrounding everyone’s favorite serial killer, Jack The Ripper.

Patent filings for the words “The Ripper” were found by Superannuation and seem to point to the much rumored project.

Visceral Games, formerly EA Redwood Shores, or more bluntly, the team behind Dead Space, is supposedly working on the project sometime in the future, as they still need to finish Dante’s Inferno and Dead Space 2.

A Jack The Ripper game has some serious potential and the fact that Visceral Games are working on it, well that’s just icing on Jack’s bloody knife.

We’ll keep a close eye on this story and keep you in the loop as information becomes available.

via IGN

Dead Space: Extraction, the Wii-exclusive prequel to the events of Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Dead Space hits shelves tomorrow and EA and developer Visceral Games are hosting a live Q+A session and demo with fans across the world.

Yes, thanks to the wonder of the Internet, EA and Visceral, beginning tomorrow at 12pm PST, are able to host a live demonstration of the game and its horror for the world to see and field your questions on just about anything you’d like in the Dead Space Extraction universe.

The webcast, scheduled to last an hour, will take place over here at the EA Blog, so you might want to bookmark the URL today, so you don’t forget.

Look for our review of Dead Space: Extraction this week.

Electronic Arts and Visceral Games are launching their Wii-exclusive Dead Space game next Tuesday, but in case you’ve missed our coverage, the publisher released a launch trailer today that sums it all up nicely.

Dead Space: Extraction is a prequel to Dead Space on PS3 and Xbox 360, but promises the same amount of tension, blood, and pants-wetting horror the original delivered so well on.

Dead Space: Extraction hits retail this Tuesday and look for our review soon after.

Visceral Games, the studio that brought you Dead Space, announced today that their latest digital project, Dead Space: Extraction is on the way to retail as we speak.

The game, a Wii-exclusive prequel to Dead Space, has us very excited to piss our pants all over again, and based on early reviews, the final product is one hell of a ride.

“Dead Space Extraction has been such a rewarding project for many different reasons” said Steve Papoutsis, Executive Producer on Dead Space Extraction.‚  “We have successfully brought Dead Space’s trademark action horror experience to a new platform while maintaining our studio’s high standards for quality and polish. Dead Space Extraction will be one of the defining action horror games for the Wii.”

Defining horror game? Well we’ll just see about that. Look for Dead Space Extraction September 29, and our review coming next week.

Electronic Arts and Visceral Games today announced that “BioShock” composer Garry Schyman is the man with the plan for EA’s hell-bent adventure game Dante’s Inferno.

The soundtrack was recorded at the famed Abbey Road Studios in London and made use of the‚  Philharmonia Orchestra and Metro Voices Singers for the games’ orchestral score and chorus respectivley.

“Scoring Dante’s Inferno was one of the most interesting and challenging projects I have ever tackled” said Garry Schyman. “Literally being asked to score hell was fantastic especially once I saw the surrealistically frightening world that Visceral Games had developed. I thought long and hard about every piece of music I wrote to create something new, surprising and fitting. It has turned out to be one of the most creative experiences in my career.”

Hell is quite a place. What with its demonology, heartache and all you’d think the sights alone would scare you sh*tless, but no, you’ll likely need multiple pairs of undergarments to play EA’s latest.

The third-person action adventure game from Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) hits PS3, Xbox 360, and PSP February 9 2010.

We spent time with Dead Space: Extraction at both this year’s E3 and San Diego Comic-Con, and we will get another chance to check it out before its release later this month at the Penny Arcade Expo. From what we have seen, you can tell that EA focused on making this experience a different one from what many Wii owners have become accustomed to in the past. That’s why we sat down with Steve Papoutsis of Visceral Games, the developer of both the original Dead Space and its Wii prequel, to talk about what they see as the advantages of Extraction over the competition.

BLAST: Tell us a bit about Dead Space: Extraction and how it fits into what we know about the ever-growing Dead Space universe.

SMP:‚  Extraction is the official prequel to Dead Space.‚  The game kicks off from the moment the Red Marker is extracted and follows a group of four people as they attempt to escape Aegis VII and see sanctuary on the USG Ishimura.

BLAST: Rather than port over the original Dead Space to the Wii, the focus for Visceral Studios was instead to create an original property that expanded on the Dead Space universe. What drove you in that direction, rather than the one that many Wii owners are accustomed to seeing?

SMP:‚  As gamers we wanted to create a unique Dead Space experience from the ground up for the Nintendo Wii.‚  The Wii is a very unique console with its innovate motion controls and we wanted to embrace the challenge of building a Wii game and that meant starting from the ground up.

BLAST: There are mature games on the Wii, but they have hit retail with varying levels of success. What, in your mind, separates Dead Space: Extraction from those mature Wii games already on the market, as well as those that are still on the way?

SMP:‚  With Extraction we are hoping to deliver a unique and new Dead Space experience for Wii gamers.‚  One of our main areas of focus with Extraction was nailing the atmosphere the first game had.‚  Compared to some of the other mature games on the Wii we feel our visuals and gameplay will really stand apart and hopefully interest a wide range of gamers.

BLAST: From what I have played, even in a room full of other people, this game has you jumping and feeling antsy just like the original did. Since the game is a guided experience though, was it challenging to recreate that creepy atmosphere in this format? How was it accomplished?

SMP:‚  Going with the Guided Experience approach has really opened a lot of doors for us as it relates to setting up tension and scares.‚  With this new perspective we have been able to approach the game in ways familiar to film makers.‚  Since the majority of the time we know where the camera will be looking we can leverage that knowledge and create some good set ups that we were not able to do on the original game.

BLAST: Part of the problem with the Wii is perception; many gamers that consider themselves “hardcore” have ignored the Wii in favor of its other console cousins. What do you think Dead Space: Extraction can do about changing the mindset of those gamers by convincing them that it’s okay to own and even like a Wii?

SMP:‚  Personally as a gamer I think it’s great to have options when it comes to the game systems I play on.‚  I enjoy playing games on all of the various console and handhelds.

I hope people enjoy Extraction and view it as one of the must have games on the Wii.‚  I think gamers are open minded and as long as a game is fun will give it a shot regardless of the platform it is on.‚  Hopefully they feel that way about Extraction.

Electronic Arts today announced that the highly anticipated Dead Space: Extraction has officially gone gold in preparation for a September 29 debut and will be playable to the game-crazy masses at PAX this weekend in Seattle.

The Wii exclusive, developed by Visceral Games, formerly EA Redwood Shores, is a prequel to the award winning and pants-wetting “Dead Space” and promises to bring gamers the same elevated heart rates and horrid nightmares its big brother did.

What’s more is EA is bringing the M-rated “Extraction” to PAX this weekend in Washington state to help win over undecided gamers and journalists alike. Our editor, Marc, will be on site playing the title and sending you his thoughts. Stay tuned!

“The Divine Comedy”‘s adaptation will be a thrilling video game for sure. Playing as Dante Alighieri, gamers must push through in order to reclaim the soul of Dante’s lost love, Beatrice, whom Lucifer has dragged into hell.‚  The themes of righteousness and redemption will be tested as Dante searches for Beatrice and encounters each of the vivid challenges in the nine circles of hell. The game will be released on February 9, 2010 for Xbox 360, PSP and PS3.

LOS ANGELES — Dead Space 2 is the Wii-exclusive prequel to Electronic Arts’ gripping, ballsy horror action game. The original Dead Space was announced here at the Electronic Entertainment Expo last year, and to see a second game already well through development “" set for a Sept. 29 release “" is impressive and shows EA’s dedication to the genre and to this new intellectual property.

Blast had the chance to play Dead Space Extraction at E3, checking out the two player co-op mode with Chase Colasonna from Fortyseven Communications.

I also had the chance to chat with Steve Papoutsis, senior producer at EA’s Visceral Games, the studio behind Dead Space, Dante’s Inferno, and other hot titles.

The game is on a rail. There are tons of cut scenes and lots of story tidbits that reveal themselves as you progress. Papoutsis told me that they weren’t going for an arcade game feel, but seconds through the first level I was thinking “Time Crisis,” and I stand by the comparison.

The visuals are impressive, especially for a Wii game, and the co-op mode is fun, with tons of weapons and powerups that the players can share. The arcade feel actually works very well for the game, so it was surprising to hear that EA is shying away from that label. They are really going for a thick plot that sucks you in, and though I didn’t get that far in Extraction, I’ll buy the argument.

One thing I like is that there are puzzles throughout the game that the players have to complete together in order to advance. This adds to the game significantly with a bit of cerebral exercise, though it’s mostly about moving the Wiimote in the right direction.

But the main thing is that the game is fun and lets you jump quickly into the action, like raining molten fire down on some serious baddies.

Q&A with Visceral Games’ Steve Papoutsis:

Blast: So this is the Dead Space prequel. What does the Nintendo Wii add to this game?

Steve Papoutsis: So right off the bat, the Nintendo Wii brings a whole new kind of design thinking to the game. You have the unique Wii Remote and the nunchuck controls “" you have to really think about how you’re going to use those. So for Extraction, it’s just a perfect analogue for pointing at the screen and shooting. The controls first and foremost are the big difference.

Blast: Dead Space is still a fairly new product. Where do you want to take this IP from here?

SP: Well right now I’m personally, solely focused on extraction, but I’d love to see more games in the Dead Space universe in the future.

Blast: Were you going for an arcade feel with this game “" a kind of classic shooter game?

SP: No. Our goal with Extraction was to try to deliver on the same atmosphere, mood and visuals that Dead Space had. The way that extraction plays, you’ll notice that it’s not just a shoot-’em-up every five seconds. There’s areas where there’s pacing and story and there’s puzzles and different things that bring innovation to this type of game.

Blast: What do you think is the best part about the game so far? What should fans be looking for?

SP: My favorite feature is co-op. It’s really great to be able to play with a friend. When we started making the game, one of our goals was to make sure that it was easy to play with a friend. Jump right in. That was one of our goals. It’s really fun playing with a friend, making up different strategies and piecing the story together.

Sit back, relax, and let the beauty of Dead Space: Extraction amaze you with its horror depicted in this latest trailer from publisher Electronic Arts and newly named developer Visceral Games.

Electronic Arts today unveiled oodles of new screenshots for Dead Space: Extraction-the Wii prequel to its mighty big brother, all of which instill horror but also artistic magnificence.

Extraction is in development by the newly named Visceral Games, and if these shots and this trailer are any indication, gamers will soon be able to soil their pants on every major console.‚  Joy!

Look for Dead Space: Extraction sometime in the Fall of 2009.

note: first few images are concept art and clicking each image increases the amazingness.

Electronic Arts today announced that the critically acclaimed Redwood Shores development studio will live on under a new and edgier moniker: Visceral Games.

A press release from the mega publisher defends the decision by saying the change was necessary “to better reflect the studio’s culture, identity and focus on creating intense action-oriented intellectual properties.”

A sugar coated way of saying the name Redwood Shores wasn’t bad-ass enough to spawn titles containing the aforesaid bad-assery.

Redwood Shores created the painfully horrific Dead Space under the old name and is currently working on Dante’s Inferno and Dead Space: Extraction-the Wii prequel to be published with the more sensible Visceral brand name.‚  What’s more is that Visceral is also working on two other “unannounced titles”-ooh la la.

“Action, intensity, excellence. It isn’t just in our DNA, it’s in our blood,” said Glen Schofield, VP and GM of Visceral Games. “For the past two years, we have adopted a new culture that prizes excellence above all else. Primal action is the beating heart of the studio and now our new name reflects that.”