Mind and Crumpet

I think the stupidest line I've heard in Dead Space 2 thus far (and there's some stiff competition) is a scientist saying, with a completely straight face, that only "smart people" will be able to withstand the Marker implanting information into their skulls.

Her words.

A scientist.

"Smart people."

Mmm. And just what is the metric for "smart," lady?

How about "After extensive tests, I believe the implanted information can only be withstood and translated by people with technical and practical intelligence; architects, mechanics, engineers, scientists...to anyone else (even anyone else whose intelligence is great in a different area, such as emotional or creative) it is so much noise, and the overload will eventually drive those who do not fit the criteria to violent, self-destructive insanity. I have yet to isolate the exact mechanism by which this occurs; further testing is needed. Please see attached list for traits proven common to the most productive subjects."

The character writing has improved, marginally, but the rest of the writing, particularly anything involving the MagGuffins or 'scariness', remains very very silly.

Dead Space wants to be System Shock 2. It wants to be System Shock 2 so bad. It writes meticulously researched self-insert fanfiction where the nameless SS2 protagonist is really named Isaac Clarke. For god's sake, the Hydroponics level is a point-for-point reconstruction of the Hydroponics Deck in SS2, down to mixing up a poison and putting it through the ventilation system.

This is unfortunate, because there's already a game like that, and that game was Bioshock; more or less a remake, but with a large handful of fantastically clever ideas and enough changes to stand on its own. They even have different story themes, despite their story structures being identical. Bioshock is a great game, an excellent game, for that. Dead Space, on the other hand, is neither.

( However. (Spoilers, but this game spoils itself, honestly.) )

In other news! I am going back to classes soon! I will be wrestling with the Centrelink dragon so I can get my moneys, but first I must quest for the Mighty Medical Report saying I am kind of crazy, so as to exempt me from some requirements! It will be a glorious battle! (Well, it'll actually be me nervously presenting the form to my doctor, but that seems to count as epic battle in every RPG I've ever played.)

I've been generally feeling a lot better lately. It's pretty cool!

ETA: Incidentally, the Australian release date for Coraline is May 7, and movie publishers can suck my metaphorical wang. There is a correlation between these two facts.