Dead Space Remake Development Team Consists of Former Ubisoft, BioWare Devs

EA recently announced a remake of Dead Space, with EA Motive bringing back the beloved survival horror classic with a ground-up reimagining. It's still early in development right now, which means that there's much about the game that we don't yet know (and probably won't for some time yet), but we do at least have a bit of an idea of the people that comprise the game's development team at this stage, thanks to an analysis done by VGC.

For starters, several of EA Motive's own developers are, of course, are working on the remake, having jumped straight to it after wrapping up work on last year's Star Wars: Squadrons, including development manager Alma Talbot, senior environment artist Xavier Perreault, and senior lighting artist Mathieu Tétrault. Interestingly enough, there's at least one former Dead Space developer who's working on the remake as well- art director Mike Yazijian, who worked on Dead Space 2 (and also on Batman: Arkham Origins and Motive's own Star Wars: Squadrons).

Several former Ubisoft developers are also on the Dead Space team. Creative director Roman Campos-Oriola, for instance, was the creative director of For Honor, and also the lead designer on games such as Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and Red Steel and its sequel. Then there's senior producer Philippe Ducharme, who, at Ubisoft, worked on Assassin's Creed 3, Assassin's Creed Unity, Far Cry 5, and Watch Dogs: Legion. UX designer Jessica Maher and senior technical designers Daphney Alarie and Shadi Mallak have all also worked on Assassin's Creed games during their own stints at Ubisoft.

Meanwhile, several former BioWare developer are also working on the Dead Space remake, such as lead level designer Gary Stewart (who worked on the Mass Effect series), senior 3D environment artist Alexis Dumas (who worked on Mass Effect: Andromeda, and has worked on Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and Squadrons at Motive), and gameplay tech lead Pierre-Vincent Bélisle (who worked on Mass Effect: Andromeda, and joined EA Motive towards the end of Star Wars: Squadrons' development).

Other notable names in the remake's development team so far include senior gameplay animator Stephen Yu (who worked on Batman: Arkham Knight and Sleeping Dogs), senior technical artist Robin Bonhoure (formerly of Ubisoft until February of last year), and senior VFX artist Maximilien Faubert (who worked on Shadow of the Tomb Raider at Eidos Montreal).

Dead Space is in development for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It currently does not have a release date.

Steam Deck Games Have "Consistently Met and Exceeded" Valve's 30 FPS Target in Testing

While the Steam Deck's technical specs have mostly been received with widespread praise, one aspect of the device that a few have been skeptical about is its frame rate, with Valve recently having said that it will be targeting 30 FPS performance in games running on the system. However, it seems you needn't worry.

Valve designer Pierre-Loup Griffais recently took to Twitter and clarified the above statement, stating that the 30 FPS target for the Steam Deck is "the floor" of what Valve has considered acceptable while playtesting games- in other words, it's the minimum. According to Griffais, games have "consistently met and exceeded" that target during testing. Meanwhile, he also adds that players will also be able to use FPS limiters to decide whether they want better performance in games or better battery life for the device itself.

With impressive specs, support for ray tracing and variable rate shading, user upgradable SSDs, and more, the Steam Deck has certainly impressed people with its technical aspects. Valve has also said that in all the time it has spent testing games from the Steam library on the Steam Deck, it hasn't been able to find something that the device cannot handle- which is certainly cause for optimism.

Steam Deck and Switch Are Going After Different Audiences – Valve

It's in our nature to start comparing new devices on the market against those that we perceive as its competition, and of course, the Steam Deck, too, has been compared with all the major consoles in the industry. The one that it seems to be pitted against most often is the Nintendo Switch, not only because of its form factor, but also because, in the absence of the long-rumoured Switch Pro announcement, the Steam Deck seems to be doing things that many feel the Switch should do.

But according to Valve, they haven't set out to compete against Nintendo's hybrid system at all. Speaking with IGN, Valve designer Greg Coomer said that with the Steam Deck, Valve is targeting core audiences who are already invested in Steam, rather than looking to capture the Switch audience, and any similarities between the two device's form factors don't really indicate any desire for competition.

"We tried to make all the decisions really in Steam Deck that targeted that audience and that served the customers that were already having a good time interacting with the games that are on that platform, on our platform," Coomer said. "That really was how we were making our decisions. We've ended up with a device that cosmetically shares some traits with a Switch, but that just was… it's kind of an artifact of how we've proceeded down the design direction."

Meanwhile, Valve CEO Gabe Newell also chimed in with a similar statement, saying that the two devices are going after completely different audiences, and that that's going to be instantly apparent in several ways.

"I think Nintendo does a great job targeting the audience they do with the content that they have," Newell said. "And that's going to be different. Like when you pick this up, it feels much more like the ergonomics for somebody who's used to playing with an expensive game controller, right? Because it's bigger and it's bulkier than a Switch. And if we're right, that's the right trade-off to be making for the audience that we're going after."

He added: "Let me put it this way: if you're a gamer, and you pick up a Switch, and you pick up one of these, you're going to know which one is right for you, right? And you're going to know it within 10 seconds."

One look at the Steam Deck's specs (or even its price) is enough to tell you that it really isn't attempting to go after the same crowd that the Switch does. With its SSD, features such as ray-tracing, and more, it's clear that the design philosophies behind the two devices differ in some fundamental ways.

The Steam Deck is out (in some regions) this December, and Valve has grand ambitions for the device's success. Let's see how well it lives up to those expectations.

Forza Horizon 5 Will Detail the Various Biomes of its Open World Tomorrow

Forza Horizon 5 will be arriving in a few months' time, and in the lead-up to its launch, developer Playground Games has been revealing several interesting details about the open world racer on a regular basis. Many of these have come via weekly "Let's Go!" streams, which in past episodes have talked about everything from the game's audio design to the variety of its racing events. The next episode is also set to reveal interesting details.

Taking to Twitter via the official Forza Horizon page, Playground Games recently confirmed that they will be taking a look at the "diverse biomes" of Forza Horizon 5's open world in tomorrow's episode, at 10 AM PT. The variety of biomes that are going to be available in open world Mexico in the game is something the developers have talked about previously, so this should be interesting to see.

Forza Horizon 5 launches on November 9 for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC.

Final Fantasy 16, Tales of Arise Top Famitsu Most Wanted Charts Again

Famitsu has released the latest weekly charts for the most highly anticipated upcoming games, as decided by its readers. Tales of Arise and Final Fantasy 16 have been topping these charts on a consistent basis for several weeks running, and the two occupy the top two places this week as well. In fact, they're separated by just four votes.

Meanwhile, Bayonetta 3 is still in third place (surprisingly enough, considering the game remains as elusive as ever). Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have climbed up to fourth place, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 has dropped down as a result to No. 5.

Shin Megami Tensei 5, which was in fifth place last week, no occupies the sixth spot. Meanwhile, other big upcoming releases such as Splatoon 3, The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki, Pragmata, and Elden Ring make up the rest of the top 10.

You can check out the full top 10 below. All votes were cast by Famitsu readers between July 1 and July 7.

1. [PS4] Tales of Arise – 700 votes
2. [PS5] Final Fantasy 16 – 696 votes
3. [NSW] Bayonetta 3 – 572 votes
4. [NSW] Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl – 544 votes
5. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 – 535 votes
6. [NSW] Shin Megami Tensei 5 – 511 votes
7. [NSW] Splatoon 3 – 318 votes
8. [PS4] The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki – 299 votes
9. [PS5] Pragmata – 265 votes
10. [PS4] Elden Ring – 231 votes

[Via Nintendo Everything]

Dead Space Remake – Everything We Know About It

Well, it's finally happening. The sudden demise of Dead Space and Visceral Games was a tough pill to swallow when it happened nearly a decade ago, and honestly, it still stings. Fans have been clamouring for a Dead Space revival, especially with the survival horror genre having enjoyed the kind of resurgence it has in the last few years- and yes, after several weeks of consistent leaks and rumours, it's been confirmed that the original Dead Space is indeed being remade by EA Motive, the studio behind Star Wars: Squadrons. Though the game's announcement trailer was brief and didn't give much away, many new details on it have emerged since then, particularly in an interview with the developers published by IGN. As such, here, we're going to go over some of the most interesting pieces of information that have emerged on the Dead Space remake.

GROUND-UP REMAKE

Dead Space is the sort of timeless game that would have been perfectly served even with a fairly conservative remaster, but the development team at EA Motive has bigger ambitions for this game. It's a ground-up remake, and based on what the developers are saying about it, it seems it's going to be reimagining the original game rather than sticking to it faithfully, similar to what Resident Evil 2 did a couple of years ago. Meanwhile, where the visuals are concerned, rather than porting in assets and animations from the original game, Motive is completely remaking all of them, while it seems level design is also going to be tweaked here and there, particularly in instances where the original game had to make changes that were forced by technological constraints.

NEXT-GEN ONLY

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Most games coming out right now – especially third party multiplatform titles – are releasing as cross-gen titles, which, of course, is generally what happens with most releases in any console generation transition. But Dead Space has been confirmed as a next-gen only title (along with a PC version, of course). Apparently, being able to reimagine the original game while leveraging the much more powerful hardware of the PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S was one of the biggest reasons for why development on this remake even started. Of course, we don't have a Dead Space release date yet, or even a release window, so it's entirely likely that by the time this comes out, cross-gen releases will have petered out anyhow.

FROSTBITE

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EA Motive has plenty of experience with the Frostbite engine at this point, thanks to their work on Star Wars: Squadrons and the single player campaign of Battlefront 2, and it's been confirmed that they're sticking with it for Dead Space. Frostbite as an engine has consistently enabled stunning visual fidelity in games, of course, so it's exciting to think what this could mean for the sci-fi horror title. And sure, when it comes to Frostbite, many people often immediately grow skeptical, seeing as the engine has been largely responsible for the troubled development of games such as Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda– but Dead Space, which is a linear, cinematic horror game (and definitely not an open-ended RPG), Frostbite seems like an excellent match.

GAMEPLAY IMPROVEMENTS

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Of course, being more of a reimagining than a straight remake, Dead Space isn't just going to limit its improvements and enhancements to the surface level stuff- Motive is promising plenty of gameplay improvements as well. While exact details are scant for now, one thing that the developers mentioned in the aforementioned interview with IGN was that the remake is also going to use gameplay elements from Dead Space's sequels. One example that's brought up is the zero gravity sections of Dead Space 2, and how those could be potentially be improved upon and implemented in a remake of the first game.

DISMEMBERMENTS

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When it comes to Dead Space's gameplay, the thing that stands out most (and is pretty much the biggest selling point of the series) is the dismemberment- not only is it incredibly cool to pull off and look at, it's also a crucial gameplay mechanic that your survival often hinges on. That, incidentally, is another area where the Dead Space remake is going to make improvements. Again, there aren't a lot of details on exactly what those improvements are going to be, but according to the IGN interview, on top of being gorier, dismemberment in the remake is also going to be an even more crucial part of the game's combat mechanics.

STORY IMPROVEMENTS

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Dead Space's story is fondly looked back on to this day (that ending is still legendary), but EA Motive isn't bringing it over as is in the remake. Of course, you can expect the larger story beats to remain the same- but they're also fleshing it out in a way that connects to the sequels and other cross-media spinoffs and adaptations better. Essentially, they're putting more meat on the story's bones, rather than reworking the entire skeleton. Speaking to IGN, creative director Roman Campos-Oriola provided a brief explanation of how EA Motive is approaching story improvements. He said: "There are some improvements that we want to make to that story. And not necessarily improvements because those things were not really working in the original, more improvements because of what came after, and we're like, 'Aw man, that's interesting if we could reference that, or if we could make a link to that."

BETTER AUDIO

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Audio design is important in any game, but in particular, it can be a make or break feature in horror games- and to this day, the Dead Space series has some of the best audio design ever in a game. It's crucial to the experience, and heightens the atmosphere drastically. It follows, then, that this is an area where EA Motive is putting a great deal of its focus on. On top of staying true to the very distinct aural identity of the first game even with the improvements they're making on top of those classic sound design and effects that Dead Space fans will be very familiar with, the remake is also going to make use of 3D audio.

IMMERSION

crawlers dead space

Again, immersion and horror games go hand-in-hand, and again, Dead Space is one of the best examples of that. Unsurprisingly, EA Motive is well aware of that fact, and the developers have said they're going to emphasize immersion in Dead Space as much as they possibly can. How exactly, on top of the visual and audio improvements? Well, for starters, thanks to the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S' SSDs, the game is going to have zero loading screens, and the developers are saying that the entire game is going to be a completely seamless experience from beginning to end. Meanwhile, the original Dead Space was also known for its diegetic UI, and how everything from the map to the upgrades to your health and ammo were all displayed in-universe rather than through menus or meters or what have you- and the remake is going to do that as well.

ACCESSIBILITY

Dead Space

This is one area where the Dead Space remake is hoping to make significant improvements over the original, rather than taking the excellent foundations of the original and continuing to build on them. Accessibility options often went ignored in games back when Dead Space first came out, but that, thankfully, is no longer the case in the industry- and Motive is determined to put plenty of accessibility options in the remake. Speaking to IGN, Campos-Oriola said, "Something that is also really important for us that was not there 12 years ago is all those options or different ways to play the game if you need it. All those elements of accessibility will definitely be something important for us in terms of opening the Dead Space experience to a broader set of people that didn't necessarily have the opportunity or could play the game when it came out."

NO MICROTRANSACTIONS

Remember when EA put microtransactions in Dead Space 3? Yeah, that sucked. Fortunately, it seems like the folks at EA Motive know that. It's been confirmed that there are going to be no microtransactions in the Dead Space remake. And apparently, it's also not going to be one of those games that don't have microtransactions at launch but sneakily add them in later anyway. No, senior producer Phil Ducharme has adamantly told IGN that microtransactions will "never" be added into the game. We've seen EA cut out microtransactions entirely from a couple of games in recent years, including Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Motive's own Star Wars: Squadrons, so it's good to see that they have the sense to not use that monetization model in a game where it just doesn't belong.

Xbox Series S Is "An Ambivalent Piece of Hardware," Says Blacktail Developer

In an interview with Gamingbolt – CEO and creative director at THE PARASIGHT, the developer behind Blacktail, gave some great insights about Microsoft's next-gen budget offering, the Xbox Series S. Kapron believes that the Series S is an ambivalent piece of hardware.

The Xbox Series S is a drastically weaker console when compared to its bigger brothers such as the PS5 and Xbox Series X. In terms of raw TFLOPs, the Series S just has a third of the graphical grunt of the Series X. Thus, many seem to have doubts regarding its future, and whether it would be able to hold it's own in next-gen titles. Kapron shares the sentiment to some extent, but also seems grateful that budget gamers can now get into next-gen gaming with the Series S.

"I think Series S is a very ambivalent piece of hardware. On the one hand, it makes the new generation much more affordable. On the other hand, everyone has doubts as to whether it won't be a ball and chain, especially when the next gen will kick off for good. Personally, I think that despite the obvious difference in the target resolution in the future, we may also witness setting scaling between series X and S."

While Microsoft's claims of providing 1440p/60fps next-gen gaming looks to be an outstretched one, but the giant seems to be doubling down on making Series S as affordable as possible. In addition to providing gamers in select countries the option to purchase the console at a monthly payment with the Xbox All Access program, Xbox Game Pass ensures gamers get a healthy chunk of fresh offerings on a regular basis.

Battlefield 2042's Season Contents Potentially Leaked – Rumor

Later this year will come the next installment in EA and DICE's iconic action series, Battlefield 2042. The multiplayer-only title will take you to the near future, where conflict brews over a environmentally devastated world. It's looking to be one of the grimmest entries in the series from a pure speculative fiction standpoint, but will no doubt be a good time. And today, a new leak shows what could be with the game's season set up.

Known leaker Tom Henderson took to Twitter to reveal what he knew about the game's seasons. According to him, the free seasons will include a specialist, multiple maps for both regular modes and the recently revealed Portal mode, new weapons, new vehicles and ultimately 100 season tiers. Keep in mind, this is the free seasons that will come roughly every three months, which is separate than the paid battle pass the game will also have.

As always with leaks, take them with a grain of salt, but Henderson has been one of the primary leakers for the game and has largely gotten information on 2042 right so far. So, it won't be too surprising if this looks pretty close to what we ultimate get.

Battlefield 2042 will release on October 22nd for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC. An Open Beta is set to also come, starting September 6th.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Will Introduce Level Scaling On July 27

The Assassin's Creed series took its open world, historic setting concept to the full RPG level a few years back with Origins. That has since continued with last year's Assassin's Creed Valhalla, with many of these elements being refined as time has gone on. While the series future is looking to go in a very different direction once again, Valhalla is still getting regular updates, and now we have one for those who are wanting a new challenge.

On the official Twitter, it was revealed that level scaling with be part of a new update coming next week. The scaling with allow you five different options, ranging from completely off and all the way up to Nightmarish, which will give you the ultimate challenge as your foes stay a large step ahead. You can see the options below.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is available now on most major platforms. Level scaling will come on July 27 across those platforms. 1 handed swords were also hinted to be coming in an update soon, but it's unclear if these will be bundled as part of the same title update.

Sniper Elite 4 Enhanced is Now Available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5

Rebellion Developments' Sniper Elite 4 has received a free upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S players. It allows for the third person stealth shooter to run in 4K resolution and 60 FPS with better load times. Of course, PS4 and Xbox One owners receive the upgrade for free.

To see the current-gen update in action, check out the trailer below. Set in the Italian peninsula during World War 2, Sniper Elite 4 follows marksman Karl Fairburne as he allies with the resistance to take down the Nazi regime. Much of the same elements from previous titles like the X-Ray kill cam and realistic sniping carry over, though the sequel offers more freedom when playing a mission.

Along with traps and missions at night, Karl is also more adept at climbing, which opens up more vantage points for sniping. Sniper Elite 4 is currently available for Xbox One, PS4, PC, Nintendo Switch and Google Stadia. For more details, check out our official review here.