‘Dead Space’ remake arrives on January 27th, 2023

EA is releasing the remake of Dead Space on January 27th, 2023. Motive, the EA studio behind the game, made the announcement at the company’s Crafting the Tension Art Developer Livestream. The classic sci-fi horror survival game is being rebuilt from the ground up using EA’s Frostbite game engine and will be available for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

The original Dead Space was released back in 2008 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC. Motive is upgrading its visuals and made its audio crisper for a more immersive experience on modern consoles. The studio remade all the in-game props, tools and environments for more modern hardware and platforms, and it used “dynamic, volumetric lighting with atmospheric and environmental VFX rendered in full-HDR” to capture the creepy atmosphere of the game.

In Dead Space, you play as engineer Isaac Clarke who’s on a routine mission to fix the mining starship USG Ishimura. What he didn’t know was the the ship’s crew had been slaughtered and infected, transforming them into creatures known as Necromorphs. To find his girlfriend who worked as a medical officer onboard, he has to fight these monsters while also grappling with his growing psychosis. 

In addition to announcing the remake’s release date, the Motive team has also given us a look at the development of the game in the livestream. You can see how they incorporated lighting changes and new elements in the video below:

‘Mini Motorways’ suddenly arrives on Nintendo Switch

Nintendo held its latest Indie World stream today and, as is often the case at these events, a few games that were shown off suddenly popped up in the Switch eShop. One of those is Mini Motorways, a puzzle strategy game that debuted on Apple Arcade in 2019 before making its way to PC last year. Dinosaur Polo Club’s follow up to Mini Metro (which is also available on Switch) is making its console debut.

The core idea is that you’ll build out roads to keep traffic flowing in a growing city. Things will naturally get more complicated as demand grows. You’ll also be able to compete against other players in daily and weekly challenges. The Switch version of Mini Motorways costs $14.99.

Three other indie games landed on Switch today: Soundfall, OPUS: Echo of Starsong – Full Bloom Edition and Gibbon: Beyond the Trees. Soundfall is a rhythm-based dungeon crawler with dynamically generated levels that are based on the music you select. There are more than 140 tracks to choose from and there’s support for local and online multiplayer. OPUS: Echo of Starsong is a visual novel-style puzzle game, while Gibbon: Beyond the Trees is a slick-looking 2D platformer.

It was also revealed that We Are OFK is coming to Switch this year, as are Cult of the Lamb, Totally Accurate Battle Simulator,Ooblets and ElecHead. One of the other games that caught my eye in the showcase was Gunbrella from Doinksoft and Devolver Digital (which recently released the terrific Trek to Yomi). It’s a “noir-punk adventure” in which you wield a gun that’s also an umbrella. However, you play as a woodsman who’s seeking revenge rather than a Batman villain. 

Another game that looked intriguing was Another Crab’s Treasure from Aggro Crab. It’s a soulslike (meaning it takes inspiration from FromSoftware titles such as Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls) that takes place in an undersea world. You play as a hermit crab who has to use trash as makeshift shells to protect yourself from enemies. Like Gunbrella, this one should land on Switch in 2023.

The Indie World stream shone a spotlight on several other titles, such as Wildfrost and Wayward Strand, but there was sadly no sign of Hollow Knight: Silksong. You can check out the showcase in full below.