I rented Dead Space two days ago and it has reminded me why I love videogames - not that I needed reminding.

The alien-infested ship you're trapped on - the USG Ishimura - is a real place, sectioned into the vital components of space life: hydroponics, engines, asteroid defense systems, mining. Its job, when it had living people on it, was to "planet-crack": slice through a planet's outer-layer to access rich minerals deposits.

Like the best science-fiction, everything in Dead Space is explainable. Just when you've managed to get the ship's power back on so you can use the tram system, you realize the Ishimura is on a collision course with the planet it's orbiting. Of course! The engines are dead and the massive rocks held in the mining section are weighing it down. Arriving at the computer panel for the engine room you see a warning hologram and a simple model of a slowly turning planet with a ring of asteroids. Upon closer inspection, a small yellow figure within the asteroid belt is blinking - the Ishimura - and an arrow shows its current trajectory, straight into the atmosphere. You may not like it, but you know what you have to do: get down into the belly of the ship and get the engines working again.

You fight your way through the horrendous remains of the crew, repurposed by an alien life-form, and struggle to keep their lethal tongues, teeth, tentacles, and pincers away from your body. Finally, you reach the massive engine chamber and hit the ignition panel. The burners come to life in a beautiful, satisfying explosion. You've done it.

Relieved, you trek back up to the control room, the reverberating hum of the engines fading below. The hologram now shows the ships trajectory into orbit...through the asteroid belt. The radio on your suit crackles on and your two surviving crew mates are having a fit. The asteroid defense system is offline and the Ishimura is beginning to sustain serious damage. The only way to get the defense cannons back on is by getting to the circuit breakers. Here we go again.

Through it all there is an astonishingly good music engine. I call it an engine because it adapts to your situation. It never misses a beat and ultimately serves as a gameplay mechanic: your field-of-view is so limited, it is often impossible to know you are about to be impaled by an alien's scythe-like arm without the terrifying screech of violins to jolt you into spinning around frantically. Even outside of battles and "Gotcha!" moments, the score lends itself to the eerie mood in a wonderful way. Walking through tight, dark, smokey corridors littered with meaty fly-infested corpses and the haunting marks of something long gone is made even more nauseating by the rising and falling of a sea of strings.

After all this I haven't even covered half of what makes the game great, its Metroid roots, innovative menu system, visuals....

It Means No Worries

The PS3 exclusive title "Afrika" has received little attention in the months leading up to its Japanese release this past Thursday, which makes sense considering there have been no announcements promising either European or North American versions. But if you look a little closer you may just realize it's a rare game that deserves a second look and a worldwide release.

Hilariously retitled "Hakuna Matata" for it's Asian release, Afrika lets you step into the shoes of a wildlife photographer working in - you guessed it - Africa! Rhino Studios has meticulously recreated the African biomes as well as their respective fauna. You'll see stampeding water buffalo and cheetahs on the hunt. No word on lion cubs being held up to holy light by baboons though.



Although the environments are expansive you are relegated to the passenger seat while in the Jeep. Upon arriving at your destination you take control of the photographer from a 3rd-person perspective, allowing you to approach and position yourself for that perfect shot. Once you are satisfied, returning to base camp lets you to submit your shots via laptop where they are scored based on their angle, target, distance, and technique. The better your score the bigger your reward. Spending that reward nets you upgrades and new cameras, which are real Sony SLRs with all the features you'd expect, or goes towards completing your National Geographic animal library. The library contains stats, photographs, and real-life videos of all the animals featured in the game. From the looks of it, the library seems vast enough to keep even the most obsessive collector entertained for a long time. As if that wasn't enough the game features a fully orchestrated soundtrack from composer Wataru Hokoyama.

I have fond memories of Pokemon Snap! for the N64 and I am very excited for Afrika. It holds promise of a game world you can get lost in. It would be great if the game let you use your own brain to figure out and predict different animals' behavior and movement patterns throughout the day, instead of holding your hand. Rather than memorizing the quirks of a completely isolated game world, you could take pride in having learned about a real world ecosystem. Above all, Afrika looks like something different; and when your looking at a release calendar of gritty, in-your-face, adrenaline-addled games - different is good.