Dead Space

Look at the Metacritic scores and see for yourself

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/deadspace

OXM's UK counterpart, OXM UK, gave this game a 9.0/10.

http://www.oxm.co.uk/article.php?id=6585

Here's another problem I have with this review: on the verdict it says that the whole story is a "cliche" horror mystery? WTF? That has to be the dumbest thing I've ever read. Yea landing on an abandoned mining ship in space infected by zombies has been done a hundred times before. Pssh whatever! Oh and thanks for spending so much time telling loyal readers about the good things about the game, such as, oh I don't know, ZERO GRAVITY!! THE BEST AND MOST ORIGINAL IDEA OF ANY GAME ON THE 360!! My god OXM, next time dont let someone who obviously hates survival horror games review a SURVIVAL HORROR GAME.

And everyone else is giving this game atleast an 8 or higher. Pitifull

Calm down everyone.

@ ShawnOfTheDeadz:

No it is not about keeping us happy, it is about them (the reviewers) being honest in the writing of reviews. If that pisses someone off, well that's too damn bad!!!!

I don't want someone to withhold an honest opinion because it might make me happy. No thanks, I'll take the honest opinion even if I don't agree. I will still greatly enjoy the magazine even if my favorite game gets bashed.
But that is me............

ok so im finally seeing more people defend the review. ok but seriously some of the comments on here shouldn't be said anywhere. we all have the right to an opinion, bashing someone doesn't make you superior, it only makes you look like an idiot. that goes for both sides personally this has been my best survival horror experience since resident evil. of course some people will hate it (including oxm to my sad dismay) but most people have loved it.

Keep it clean

I have to agree fully with Meghan's review - the ending was garbage (yes there will be a sequel coming to address the ending if there $$ to be made). The game starts off well but becomes tiring after the 7th chapter. A huge ship that requires massive backtracking to be 'big'. And you will 'enjoy' the endless repetitive fixing - running - fixing puzzles one after another. As a character Isaac was uninteresting and I was not surprised to 'discover' the Nicole twist either...predictable and lame. Meghan your review is spot on and I commend OXM for telling the truth as it is without being paid off like the other publications.
Keep her on OXM as she is a good and honest reviewer and there aren't too many of those still alive these days. Keep Up The Good Work !

im sorry Crazylightsaber but i have to quickly correct you,

in the end, its all about pleasing the consumer, Making "YOU" HAPPY! if a game has a poor review, and "YOU" play the game and it sucks, it makes "YOU" happy and makes "YOU" want to go back to the site, pay for the magazine, etc, etc. This then increases the popularity because people like how they are reviewing. But if they give a bad review to game you loved! or vice versa it dosent Make "YOU" happy (or vice versa) and its going to make "YOU" not want to view the reivews and or purchase the magazine. In the end a one time way too low or way too high score could acttualy boost views as many people become curious to why and it also gives them attention and could boost profit for that period though a common occurrence could cause the trust to be lost with consumer and would have a negative profit on the OXM or other magazines.

Below she said the first 6 chapters were good, yet it all went downhill after. the reason why i believe myself and other people were so quick to question her is because she was so unclear why it was poor, all she seemed to talk about was the good features such as limited ammo (i found bioshock had way to much ammo available for a survival gerne and so has many other people.) alot of the things she said that displeased her appealed to many members of the gaming community.

I have currently beaten it twice and realised that the game did a poor job on chapter 7 where it can become quite confusing, that is if you got used to that little light path and dint read or listen to where you had to go first, because that silly elevator was so long. In Chapter 7 it lacks what all the other chapters cotain which is an element of suprise and fear, but what it replaces instead is shear numbers and masses of nercomorphs causing your limited ammo even more limited. I found the ending quite well done in my personal opinion because what the game developers wanted us to realise is that Issac is a regular guy, just like everyone else who went mental, crazy or suicidal on the ship and was a good twist in my opinion.
Though the reason why most of the gaming community is still flamming the comments arguing this out untill a change may ocur is because we pretty much have nothing better to do, and most gamers like myself get pretty pissed off when a game gets a review it dosent deserve. This review could hamper a huge amount of profits and buyers because OXM is one of Xbox's biggest magazines and more casual or busier fans may pick up or read this magazine and decide not to buy the game and settle at that. You may also get people paranoid at spending money and only buying the best games available a notice this game has one bad review so they choose not to buy it.

In the end all we are trying to ask and say for the future of OXM is that for big, and hyped up games such as DEAD SPACE which already has a huge fan base, you should get more than one person to review the game, and ethier choose between, or merge them together to give a balanced score.

Thank you!

@ Mikeyg121:

Why are people retards? Because they don't agree with YOU? Well that's just too bad. If YOU don't like the review, and it bothers YOU so damn bad, and YOU think that she should be fired, then maybe YOU should take your money and time somewhere else huh?

An honest opinion is always welcomed by all. And frankly, it doesn't really matter if YOU agree of not. These writers are not here to make YOU happy. They are here to play games and tell us what THEY think, and not what YOU want to hear. I suppose that she could have LIED in her review just to make YOU happy, but then the review wouldn't matter anymore.

Meghan can't appreciate a good game when she sees one obviously look at the scale of this.

Dead space reviews.

Gamepro: 100/100

Gamespy: 100/100

360 gamer: 100/100

ZTgamedomain: 96/100

Atomicgamer: 96/100

Kombo: 95/100

Gamespot: 90/100

Official Xbox Magazine: 65/100 (WTF!!!???!??!)

Its too far off there is no way in hell proffesional reviewers opinions can differ so much, and they don't. The only one who does is Meghan it just screams "BIAS!!". She should not be allowed to do another review if this is how she rates games that are being praised by stricter and more loyal reviewers, people who didn't give Bioshock and Halo a 10/10 becuase neither of them deserved it. Bioshock was not scary, it tried to be. But it was too easy, am i the only one who noticed you couldn't die in that game? i completed it on hard first time becuase of this and never played it again. Not worthy of a 10, but i'll agree with the 9.0's it received, it did have quite an intresting story, but the RPG elements were not fleshed out enough, people say the powers in Dead space (stasis) make it a bit less scary. In Bioshock you could shoot bumble bees at people....BUMBLE BEES!!.

I totally agree with STOCK, they f@$ked up this review. They gave a crappy game like, oh I don't know. . . Force Unleashed a 7.5 when it obviously deserves a 6 or less. To all viewers and readers of comments, this game deserves much more praise than it is getting. Come on people , give it a try, I 100% guaranty you. . . you will jump at least once in this game, theres no doubt about it.

Once again, I would like to state that my previous posts were actually quite tame and not bashing anyone. As I said before...I want a fleshed out oppinion, not something that is shallow and saying things just for the sake of saying them. Thats like saying any particular item is bad just because it's bad...that certain statement needs to be justified.

To answer Tobyneil's legitimate question, the crew were carrying credits and med packs on their person when they turned into necromorphs...sounds reasonable that they drop them. As I stated earlier you are an enineer using tools not meant to be used as weapons but are absolutely viable as weapons. Take a hammer for example. That is a tool. Could you use it to bludgeon someone's head in? Absolutely. Is it as conveniant as using a gun? No. That is the difference.

All it takes is one to infect and everything goes to hell. See countless zombie movies for refwerence. But if you receive a distress signal from a ship and then pick up it's escape pod....one would assume that it isn't hostile. Simply put....they weren't prepared for an alien offense. That is in regards to the military ship.

I cannot believe this crap. Stars Wars: The Force Unleashed gets a 7.5 and a fully polished game like this gets a 6.5. Wow note to developers: make a sh*tty, half-assed game and you'll earn a full point higher on your final score than if you would have actually finished it!!! Every so-called "FedEx task" feels absolutely necessary. I guess you payed no attention to the fact that this you land on a sabotage ship that NEEDS TO BE FIXED!!! This game is plenty scary and well deserving of at least a 9.

Her opinion DOES matter you retards. She wrote this review for a magazine that many people purchase. It will affect many peoples choices to buy the game saying "its her opinion it doesn't matter" is a foolish thing to say. She deserves to be fired for this review. She has given a horribly short review and not explained the bad points well enough. People will look at that score and go "Seriously?, why?" despite reading the entire thing. This IS a survival horror game tahts what they planned to create so saying it isn't is your own personal opinion. It WAS scarier than Bioshock and it was also a game i decided to replay. Bioshock on the other hand, was far too easy for me to give it that pleasure. Well done Meghan, you dumb woman. You have lost some of Redwood shore's well deserved money and i personally hate you for that.

I do suspend my disbelief. But this isn't survival horror. Its action horror. I dont get medpaks and ammo when I kill zombies in RE. And to say there werent any militry? Did you beat the game?
*******************************************
spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler

A military ship was sent to destroy the Ishtumura and they knew what was going on. They picked up one thing in the escape pod and get smoked. By one???
***************************************

Now, youre telling me a flamethrower, a pulse rifle the force gun the contact beam arent weapons? Thats like saying miners use AK 47s to chip away at rocks. And the necromorphs are the bodies of the deceased. But did you see pockets on them?? Again, my point is that its action, not survival, like Bioshock. And Bioshock did a better job of creating not cheap scares by using positional audio and shadows. And it did a better job of telling a story. This game was strong for the first half, and it couldnt figure out what it was trying to tell you. The end was garbage. It was cheap PG-13 horror movie scares. They dont explain anything in this game. At least in Bioshock, there was a point where all was explained to you. This game they required you to find these stupid audio/video files ala Bioshock ripoff. At least you didnt need to find everyone in Bioshock, they gave you more insight to what people were doing, but not required to understand the main story. And in other games, like Resident Evil, and DOOM, you were a cop and military personnel respectively, makes some sense that they would have some survival skills as compared to a miner. And this game still requires too much go here fix that. It was repetitive. They could have added some different things or just cut some of it out. If this game were 2 hours shorter it wouldnt have been too bad. But seeing as its only a ten hour game, it seems like they added more fix its to lengthen the game.

Tobyneil ... tsk tsk. I thought when people played ANY VIDEO GAME you have to SUSPEND YOUR BELIEF. YOURE IN A WORLD WHERE ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. The reason those necromorphs have medpacks and credits is because they were once human and more than likely were still carrying that stuff. PLUS ... its a goddamned video game. I can give you examples of tons of video games that have this same concept. Plus he doesnt slow down time. he merely puts things in a stasis field. 3rd what he used were not made to be used as weapons. they arent even weapons. they are used to chip through rock and ore and shiz (with the exception of one weapon). Finally the reason why the main character survives and not military personal (of which there werent many to begin with) is the SAME REASON THE MAIN CHARACTERS FROM DOOM GAMES, RESIDENT EVIL, HAL LIFE, etc etc etc survive ... ITS A GODDAMN VIDEO GAME! Makes it fun. i respect all your wishes but damn your arguements were annoying and not really that great. now the review up there ... thats more reasonable. peace

Nicely said crazylightsaber

What the hell is going on here? It's just a review people! Which is also known as an OPINION. Get it? Everybody has one and they are all different. Feel free to disagree after you have played the game yourself, but don't be a jerk about it.

I'm pretty sure it stops being a repair mission when there are all these things trying to kill you. They could have come up with a lot more creative things. Last I checked, my blumer didn't carry automatic weapons just in case... It's annoying because everything happened to be taken apart or shut off or jammed and you needed to go here to fix that to open this door to fix this. Wouldnt an engineer probably have tools to open whatever door he wanted? And wouldn't there be maintainence hatches to different floors for the sole reason that someone could easily repair a damaged ship. I mean, I understand those things could have been in there, but since they were everywhere anyways, I'd try and cut down on my travel time and get to the point. The point that you're an engineer and thats why you fix things is dumb. Why are you the baddest mofo on this ship that you can take everything down when theres military personnel that gets smoked in seconds? Isn't thier job to shoot crap? That'd be like playing the game Freedom Fighters, or even Mario and every 5 seconds you stop to fix a toilet cuz you're a plumber. Again, we get why it's in the game, it's the fact that from start to end that's ALL YOU DO. And why do the Necromorphs have credits and ammo and medpaks on them?!?!?!

this is exactly y xbox doesnt deserve MGS4
becuz ppl like this will give great games like this one a crappy review

this is exactly y xbox doesnt deserve MGS4
becuz ppl like this will give great games like this one a crappy review

ok u wanna know why u go on fix-me missions in the game a lot BECAUSE U ARE A SPACE ENGINEER!! A FRIKIN SPACESHIP REPAIRMAN!! U FIX $H!T!!! idiot,thats the point of the game that developers were tryin to get across! UR THE BAD @$$ REPAIRMAN FROM HELL FIGHTIN UR WAY FOR SURVIVAL!!! THATS Y U GO ON "10 hours of FedEx missions " STOP TRYIN TO NOT MAKE SENSE OF SIMPLE $H!T! REPAIRMAN=A LOT OF BLASTING THROUGH BADDIES TO FIX $H!T to survie. y let this person keep making crapy reviews

Well, it looks like to OXM staffers have gone into hiding for the weekend. Hopefully we'll get some answers to all the legitimate questions that have been asked during the next work-week. I've said it before, and I'll say it again; this review just doesn't make sense.

BEST REVIEW EVER! I would have given a 7.5 but hey. Can someone explain why necromorphs have credits? The story in this game started strong but yeah, I can only take the "go here, fix that" so many times. Ugh. Why can't I pause and look at my inventory? And the ability to slow time, really? This game is another horridly overrated EA game. And if Resident Evil 5 were out now, people would slam this game hard. If someone thinks they can flesh out the Bioshock style ripoff of a story, my email is tobyneil@yahoo.com. I dont want to spoil the fact that theres no explaination of whats goin on and that the game just ends. And the 3 boss fights of shoot the giant yellow blobs. And it's 10 hours long. I was so into this game the first 5hours I couldn't WAIT to finish it when I got done with work. But when there was less and less narration and more and more fix something thats broken, I lost that interest and struggled to finish it. I just wanted there to be something at the end to wrap it all up and make me think "damn, I need to play this again!" But alas, to no avail. *sigh* Meghan, I'm glad you went against the grain of everybody give the same review so we don't get bashed and told it like it was. This game was Bioshock in space with a strong start. It seemed like they couldn't find a way to wrap it up or they just want to cash in on sequals. And since it's EA, the Disney of videogames, they're not gonna put any financial backing into it and you'll just be playing last years Madden... Sims.... Live... At least they do good with Hockey!

It's a huge shame to see a game of such high quality and fun-factor get such a lousy review. It's true most other reviews are an 8, 8.5, 9 or higher - but this really torpedos the game's overall metacritic. I was wondering why it was sub-90, and when I saw "OXM - 6.5" I actually thought it was a bug at gamerankings.com lol.

This is the most immersive, polished, engaging game I've played in months. It's stunning to look at, richly detailed, filled with tension and the audio design is world class.

I could barely play Force Unleashed (or Prey) for more than 15-20 mins at a time....after 2-3 hours of Dead Space in a sitting I have to tear myself away, and I keep looking forward to my next session with it.

It's a shame to think of the gamers who will rely on OXM's print score and give this one a pass, they are really missing out.

I think this game is even better than RE4, personally. Yeah, I went there! :)

I'd like to point out that I wasn't so much bashing the review as just asking for a fleshed out version of it. I was in no way trying to hurt anyone or insult anyone's work. I just merely wanted answers.

All I can gather from your particular comment is that the game didn't scare you. That is fine. What about the atmosphere...was it pretty good would you say? Sound? How was that? What about story?

All merrits that should be weighed when criticizing a game I think.

I really love how people are putting so much effort into bashing one person's REVIEW of the game. If it really bothers everyone else that one person gave the game a negative comment, read other reviews. There are plenty of sites that gave Dead Space really great reviews, so in the long run, why even pay attention to OXM? Free speech allows us to have our own opinions and speak them freely...

I've played the game myself, and I have to whole-heartedly agree with the review. I've heard nothing but great things, but when playing have found the game to be sub-par. Those scary moments when something is supposed to jump out at you? Barely even flinched... and I'm a girl who generally can't play survival horror games alone in the dark. ;)

Really, what's the point in bashing one person for a bad review and investing so much time? Kudos to Meghan who probably knew what others sites gave it and still was truthful writing her own review.

One review isn't going to change the world, so -shrug- I don't understand what the big fuss is all about, really.

Journalists are allowed to make mistakes because they have the ability to also make retractions and corrections. True journalistic leaders know that blindly defending their mistakes is just their ego and pride getting in the way of doing the right thing.


Dead Space is much better than Meghan's review indicated. I hope the Senior Editors at OXM have the strength of character to offer a second take on the game.


Otherwise readers, like myself, interested in objective and fair reviews need to find a different magazine to frequent with our print and online subscriptions.

I suppose I am like many of the other who have commented on this particular article and have just created my account to comment on this (but will probably comment on toher things as time goes on.) and hope that does not take away from what I have to say.

I just got my 360 not long ago and that would probably explain why I have never heard of this site until recently (never owned an Xbox either) but it came up on a message board....the people were saying some rather rude comments about you guys which I don't particularily care for.

Let me set something out in the open....I don't look at reviews to see a number. "Oh yay! An 8.5! That says loads about the gameplay, story, art, and sound. I'm deffinately going to buy it now!" Sounds kind of silly doesn't it? I read reviews for honest oppinions from informed people in the video game circuit. To get what their oppinions are on what the game broguht to the table and what it failed to deliver.

I have sifted through the pages of comments and looked at the staffs responses and some very wild and unbased remarks from disgruntled players, and very informed and valid points from others. But it seems you guys have been dodging a few of the questions that have been reasonably asked. Meghan, you did elaborate on your very shallow review in your comment which is greatly sppreciated. I do not blame you for the shallow review but the editor for cutting the amount of space you had to write it in. However, your response wasn't all that much better then the review.

I do not understand your point of "endless loot scavenging". Really? That can be applied to many games. The first to come to mind is Bioshock where I can tell you that I spent much more time wandering around and picking stuff up then in Dead Space. Could you please elaborate on that, and how it differs from other games? I understand you did not write the other reviews, but I'd like your take on the matter. I think it makes sense that there would be ammo for maintenance tools lying around a mining ship...that is just my oppinion though. A ship whose inhabitants are rapidly going insane and killing other people may not exactly be focussed on making audio logs perhaps? These are in question to what you mentioned in your review.

This whole cliche horror thing is bothering me a little to. I found that the game borrowed heavily on the films "Alien", and "The Thing" respectively. Maybe they aren't considered to be horror movies...maybe they are. They both certianly have horror elements and manage to keep a very tense feeling throughtout. Last I checked...it is the job of Survival-Horror...or even Action-Horror games to keep the player tense....not jsut to scare them. I think that this game did an excellent job of keeping me tense throughout the play experience....I was wondering where the necromorphs were going to come from next. There were of course a couple token slasher movie jump moments....but the flcikering lights, the whispering, the heartbeat racing during combat, the screams you heard, the man smashing his head against the wall as you make your way down the corridor...those all helped to set the atmosphere and quite well I may add. Since when is almost perfectly executing the atmosphere of a game 'generic'?

Maybe the upgrading of your equipment wasn't exactly ground-breaking. But the whole interface was pretty cool. Text could have been a bit bigger...but it was passable. It was pretty original. The voice acting was astounding in my honest oppinon.

I really would like to hear your oppinions on these topics. Whether they be on this board, or via e-mail (younglink62@hotmail.com). I am just genuinely curious, I am not attacking your journalistic integrity, personally attakcing you or anything of that sort. I just want to know is all. I know I probably will not get a response from you guys directly to this post....but I figured it's worth a shot. For anyone who has read this incredibly long post.....sorry it was so long...hopefully it isn't a wall of text.

Sincerely,
Krono

oxmsucks* said (censored for oxm's sakes):

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"Take this (deleted) review down and let an intelligent human being play the game and write a review. (deleted) OXM sucks so (deleted) much because of this. (This sentence was uncalled for and thus has been deleted). Stupid (deleted) you deserve to die."
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*Editor's notes: His original post was in all caps. I took the liberty of making it less of an eyestrian to read.
----
Seriously? Dude, you need to calm down...
---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gm2bhovFcI&fmt=18

9 out of 10 other reviews are in the high 8's & low 9's except this one. How can a "professional" reviewer be that far off from everyone else when you are trained how to critique certain things in a game, movie or whatever? There is a little leeway for subjectivity but not as much as between a 6.5 and a 9. So it is obvious that you did not objectively judge this game on it's merits, you merely did not like this game. That's all there is to it. I hope you can be more professional and impartial in the future.

Bungie.net group: The Pestilence
Membership Info: http://www.bungie.net/fanclub/132227/group/grouphome.aspx

It's pretty simple, happens all the time in journalism. They got leaned on, I think someone with more power than OXM is trying to push sales of Fable or Fallout.

Whatever though, my opinion of this mag is it would come in really handy if I was ever short of toilet paper, always has been.

Hey, yet another person who is writing to expresses their displeasure at this person's review. I know there is little that I can say that hasn't already been said...but, frankly, I don't care. This review is written in such a way that it screams bias. You could break down any great game and make it sound lousy if you use her style. Super Metroid is just wandering through tunnels collecting items to progress to the next area. Halo is shoot at some grunts, hide until your shield recharges, shoot at some Elites, hide until your shield recharges, shoot at some Jackels, hide until your shield recharges. And Super Mario is just a bunch of jumping.

Yes, Dead Space is one errand after another, but the errands MAKE SENSE. You're an engineer trying to repair a crippled behemoth of a ship, the actions as mundane...which is what makes them work. Your actions are believable, and because of that it allows you to accept the unbelievable (i.e. the Necromorphs). It adds legitimacy to a fantastic situation. *shrugs* You are entitled to dislike a game, but this review reads like Meghan didn't even try to enjoy the game. Perhaps she's not a fan of the genres involved (survival horror, action, or science fiction), or perhaps she was genuinely disappointed...either way, she came across poorly and didn't explain her dislike beyond the superficial.

Ok, I'm done reviewing her review...

nobody is asking for them to change the review...we are mainly asking for a reason to this review as a 6.5 has not been justified based on their comments when plenty of other games do the exact same thing and receive praise for it
Whichever OXM staffer (Paul??) said they needed to reduce space on the review due to print space available in the magazine...well you sure as hell had no problems when it came to Fallout 3 (6 PAGES!!!) and Fable 2 (3 PAGES!!!)
OXM has blown it big time and continues to fall downwards ever since their staff has changed. While they are good at a few things (ie. previews) they will always be a small fish in a reviewers world due to the garbage they have no problem publishing
I really hope their e-mail inbox gets flooded with complaints...because no matter how much you justify this review...we all know its full of crap...
thats what you get with interns
/shrug

i was itchin so bad to say sumtin, so i jus made this account on this site so i can say this: This GAME DESERVES A 10. and yea after lookin at everyone else's review of this game (which i own and knew would be a great game), i really dislike the fact that UR THE ONLY PERSON ON THE FACE OF THE GAMING WORLD that would give this game a 6.5!!! I MEAN C'MON!! If u arent a fan of a horror game and u jus dont like it, y play it to make it look bad!?!?

AND FROM WHAT I'VE HEARD BELOW FROM other users of xbox and this site say u gave reviews before of games that arent even as fully immersive as this one....wow lady u deserve to have ur right and opinions but what u said about someone's hard work put into such a great game isnt right. LMAO to everyone and anyone that can dis this lady real bad

One word for OXM: Seriously?

OXM is entitled to their opinion, regardless of how uneducated or biased it is (Andy Irving lying about the issues with Headhunter Redemption was one of many).

After all it is their magazine - if you don't agree just unsubscribe or something ?

I seriously doubt they will change the review just because people ask for it.

it got a 9 on games raidar!?

According to your "The Verdict" Scale:
-Blitz: The League 2
-Penny arcade Adventures: Episode 2
-Fifa Soccer 09
-Midnight Club: LA
-WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009
-MotoGP 08
-Fracture?!
-A Kingdom for Keflings
-Legendary
-NBA 2K9
-Lego Batman
-Portal: Still Alive
-Samurai Showdown 2
...Are all better than Dead Space.
And that's just in December's issue.
I have the game now, and I don't agree with any of your points Meghan. Especially not the "glance up from endless loot-scavenging" part. If you don't need to look down, how on Earth are you glancing up? Dead Space was given a bad score just to let Bethesda and Lionhead to more satisfaction. And sports games, REALLY?
ITS THE SAME SHIT -- EVERY SINGLE YEAR -- and here comes little underrated spawn of EA, unjustly shot down by a woman -- in the gaming critic world, god knows why -- who has never, to my understanding and logic, let her grimy little paws on a survival horror game.

It has nothing to do with opinion. Like many people have said, it's not the score that they are disturbed by. It is the lack of respect to the game and the lack of depth of the 5 paragraph review. The score given is not this issue.

I loved reading peoples complaints about reviews on games. Like some of you said this is based off of somebody's opinion not your own. Play the game for yourself and then decide how you feel about it. I have been a subscriber to OXM since it started back in the original Xbox days and have read some reviews I didn't agree with but it never stopped me from making my own opinion. I also never bashed them for it. Hell their review on Dark Sector wasn't good but I enjoyed the game. They also got bashed by a lot of new people that register to the site just because of the score. You all have a right to an opinion but remember it is just like the review an opinion.

I have subscribed to OXM for about two years now, and normally I find OXM insightful and honest, but this review has made me lose some serious respect for you guys. Its not the score either. Its the lack of care in the review. Citing looking in containers for items as a negative...have you played a video game besides this one lately Meghan? Using logs to tell a story, I seem to remember Bioshock doing this and getting a ten. Face it, you spent too much time with Fallout and Fable 2 and you sent an intern to review a game that honestly deserved more attention...You can stick to your guns and say you all played this game and thought it was mediocre at best but you are doing a serious disservice to the readers of you magazine trying to make an informed purchase by printing shallow reviews like that one.

OXM Staff, the problem here is NOT whether more than one staffer played this game, and NOT whether the staff agrees with Meghan's review. The problem IS that this review does not cover the basic principles of the game that set this apart from the others. There was negative connotations towards Dead Space in the mag's preview, and it continued right through this review.

If more than one staffer played and agreed with this score and content of the review, then that is very disappointing to hear, indeed.

I was trying to find some other reviews by Meghan to get a sense her style, but the only one I could find recently is Fracture of which she gave a rating of 7.0. This rating is fairly high compared to the other publication's reviews (the average on MetaCritic for Fracture is 69).

Having played the Fracture demo and just as quickly deleted it, I am still puzzled by Meghan's rating system. I don't know of anyone who liked Fracture or even bought it (I work part-time at EB Games), but we are hard-pressed to keep Dead Space in stock and all who have played it are praising it.

Meghan, can you please give us some insight into *exactly* what factors of Dead Space would garner it a lower score than Fracture, an obviously bad game? The reasons given in your review are all staples of survival horror and have been in those games since the beginning. I am not trying to bash you for your review, I'm just trying to understand it. Could the game you were given for review have been an earlier version of the one that was released to the public?

I agree with other people statements that we should never take only one publication's review as the sole reason for buying or not buying a game. That is why I use Metacritic to get the average of all reviews. I was thrilled to see Dead Space get an 89 average (though the PS3 version got a 90, which the 360 version also deserves). The only reason I felt compelled to comment here was because I trust OXM since I'm a loyal subscriber and an avid listener of their podcast. The review score given this game just baffled me.

Regardless, I am thoroughly enjoying this game and it still creeps me out every time I play. I am always afraid to turn a corner without my weapon raised!

I'm glad Paul brought up the right to and importance of the minority opinion, especially if it's true that the entire staff shared Meghan's view of the game. In this way journalistic integrity has remained intact. Yet there are plenty of basic principles of journalism that imply a duty to the reader, especially the paying reader. This doesn't mean one has to write a review that every reader will like. But it means that somebody, probably an editor, should be able to tell when the reading community is going to raise some flags on a review.

Some things could have been done to prevent such a backlash. If the entire staff has a negative opinion of a highly-anticipated game receiving positive reviews from most sources, then one of the more recognized writers should be given the task of delivering the bad news to readers. Next, hiding behind the need to constrain the length of a review because of page space in the print edition is either misleading or just plain not well-thought-out.

One of the gifts from the Internet to journalists is an abundance of space. If a reviewer has the time to play an entire video game, then they have time to expand a print capsule review to something more fully conceived for the website. It's not like reviewers needs to do extensive info visualization or fact-checking to extend their web content (like news media outlets have to); pretty much a fully fleshed-out page of the notes Meghan took while playing the game would have sufficed.

Alberto Cairo (and even the super-lame Journalism 2.0 by Mark Briggs) is fairly good source material for teaching newer journalists how to expand print content for a web audience. Thanks for reading. I love your magazine, and this review and its backlash are a mess you guys really don't deserve.

It makes you wonder why OXM had this obviously disinterested person review this game. The tone of the review was condescending throughout as if Ms. Watt was not even a fan of survival horror, and didn't care to give it a chance. Dead Space isn't perfect, but to give it a 6.5 is just plain idiotic. The voice acting, atmosphere, and production value alone far surpasses most games out there. The game woked well on what it was trying to accomplish, which is the whole point in the first place. I laugh when she dismisses the missions as just scavenger hunts. Isn't that basiclly what happens in games like Bioshock and RE4. Both highly rated games that won plenty of honors. I suppose she didn't like those either. In the future OXM, I would seriously consider who you have review which games. This is nothing short of an embarassment for your website, and it makes you look very hack and unreliable like Ms Watts ability to review games properly. Oh well, as they say "Opinions are like---well, you know, and some of them stink!"

I have read OXM since the first issue, and only now have I made an account to post on here with my name. I just have to voice my opinion about this poor review. It frustrates me to no end when a game is reviewed to a standard that is preconceived, and not reviewed for what the game actually delivers. More than once, this game wasn't scary enough, or new enough is one aspect or another according to Meghan. Why not rate it for what the game actually does? Many games can benefit from scary parts without having to cause defecation in ones pants. This game has a persistant mood and theme throughout, the ship has varying environments that are all interesting which is extremely difficult to accomplish considering the whole game is always just on one ship. I'm sorry that this review by Meghan was the one to make it on the website considering everyone else's opinion and take on the game. This game was very well thought out and the pacing was very well done. No part of this game seems untouched by talented gamers and programmers. I wonder if Halo 2 would have gotten a poor review according to Meghan's final bullet points.
+ Shooting hundreds of aliens...
- ...when you have time to glance up from endless flood.
-Cliche sci-fi, super soldier isn't enough to make John's journey worthwhile.
? Sorry, but was that an ending?

IM a 40 year old gamer who has been doing it since Pong. Im not some angry teen trying to shoot off my mouth.
Ive been playing this game for a few days now, and even played it today with Ms Whatts review in mind looking for her issues and Im sorry but shes 's still wrong.
The game is amazing and even a different level of amazing through a surround sound (wow what a difference that makes) its immersive and detailed as well as keeping you on the edge of your seat and ive played all the games in this genre right from Clock tower and R.E.
The tiny details are INCREDIBLE just walk around and look at how the check lists in the elevator, and the signage, and the way the blood smears are done everything looks right and not just thrown on.
And yes the game made me jump.
Graphics are amazing, sound is off the charts, controls are tight, game play is excellent, replay-ability maybe the only question mark but that's par for the genre.
A 10? maybe not, a 6.5 oh hell no!
Halo 3 a 10?!?.
The bottom line is we will never trust a review by Ms Whatts again and the OXM's review policies are questionable as well based on the history...
REALLY HALO 3 A 10!?! Guys do you have a 12 year old reviewer on staff?

6.5 eh? Well...lets be comparison shoppers, shall we? Whenever one goes to spend hard earned money on something its usually a wise idea to shop around and see what the other folks have to say about it.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/deadspace/review.html?mode=web

Well, thats odd...Ms. Whatt here CLEARLY seems to be in the major minority. Well, in fact she is the ONLY critic out of...wow...21 different critics...that felt the game was lousy. THE ONLY ONE. Even her companion XBox rags gave the game a 9 out of 10. So folks, its up to you...listen to the 20 other reviewers that give the game anywhere from 8-10 or 10-10, or listen to Ms. Whatts here. And truth to tell, I would NEVER trust this womans opinion on any game again. She is so far out in left field she cant even see the stadium. How can 20 other critics find the game so incredibly done...Gamespot claims this is THE horror-survival game that will be setting the standard for the genre from here on out...High praise for a game indeed, and Ms Watts gives it a 6.5.