Isaac will shoot off his arms and then tell him there’s No Jacket Required.
So Dead Space 3 has a new trailer, and EA made the absolutely baffling choice to score it with a Phil Collins cover.
Don’t get us wrong: Lyrically, choosing the Phil Collins hit In The Air Tonight for Dead Space 3 makes a lot of sense. Memory and anxiety are a major theme in the game, and they’re a major theme in the lyrics. And this is growth, for horror game advertising, because at least it’s not screamy nu-metal. Musically, though… come on, EA. We can come up with three songs, right of the tops of our heads, that better suit the ad. See if you agree.
First, here’s the actual ad itself:
Again, it’s not a bad cover. But that said, it’s still frickin’ adult contemporary, especially since the cover kept the synth drum hits. You might as well have scored this thing to Sussudio. Our nominees for a better option:
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, The Mercy Seat
A song about a man being led to the electric chair for a crime he’s not entirely sure he’s guilty of. The acoustic version in particlar is a stab to the heart.
Relevant Lyrics: “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth/and anyway I told the truth/and I’m not afraid to die.”
Nine Inch Nails, Vessel
Yeah, a song about something overwhelming you and erasing your identity? Seems apt.
Relevant Lyrics: “I let you put it in my mouth/I let it get under my skin/I let you pump it through my veins/I let you take me from within”
Mission of Burma, Trem Two
Granted, expecting EA to even have heard of an obscure Boston-area post-punk band is probably asking a lot, but this song has a particularly troubling and haunting mix of guitars and lyrics. And if you want to sum up Isaac Clarke, the opening is one hell of an apt way to do it.
Relevant Lyrics: “The face at the window/The features I know/I try to escape but/The world is too slow”
Give some more suggestions in the comments; clearly, EA desperately needs our help.
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holy shit is his face computer animated at the end of that clip? because we may have just come out the other side of the uncanny valley.
I’m… not sure. It might be an actual person.
It’s actually Gunner Wright’s real life head green-screened onto the CGI suit. He’s the voice and facial basis for Isaac in Dead Space 2 & 3: [www.imdb.com]
Not sure if he does the mo-cap as well… oh wait, quick google-fu: [youtu.be]
So I’m guessing he’s 100% space marine trope now?
Actually, by all accounts, it’s still pretty horror centric. Like, if you play co-op, one player or the other starts hallucinating.
I have a question that is burning inside me. Are they trying to make “Dead Space” some sort of “Gears of War”/ “COD” type thing now? I saw in a previous post where you said that folks were upset with the new direction and just feels like that. The original “Dead Space” was fairly sweet and scary. This just sort of feels like something else.
Yeah. When I saw this all I could think about was the Gears of War ‘Mad World’ trailer.
That one never made sense to me, personally. But hey, it worked.
I agree. The Mad World ad worked very well. It was unexpected and original. This just seems like a desperate attempt to copy that.
Phil Collins was a weird choice.
Maddness- Muse …. would have made this trailer immensely better
No. Just no.
… That would be somewhat wrong, but so so right.
I was curious as to when you were gonna talk about this. Good song suggestions.
The Phil Collins didn’t really bother me as much as the “Actual Gameplay Footage” where it all seemed like in-game cinematics or QTEs rather then actual gameplay.
Seeing this commercial and The Americans use the same old song in the same week was kinda weird. Anyway, yeah, it didn’t fit very well. Although, my best friend is a huge fan of Dead Space and her girlfriend is a huge fan of Phil Collins, so it did kind of amuse me in that way. As for the other songs, the Mission of Burma one would’ve been perfect, and the Nick Cave one would be great too. Really disliked the NIN one, but whatever.
Heh, “Year Zero” is NOT an album for everyone. I was going through my music collection and happened to stumble on it.
Hey there’s nothing wrong with a little PC, everyone here has two ears and a heart right!?
I have nothing against Phil Collins, beyond winning the Oscar that should have gone to South Park, but it doesn’t work here.
Whilst I like the song… it doesn’t work in the trailer. I mean it seems very amateur, sort of thing a fan would post on youtube.
Nick Cave is great. Loved that they put him in Alan Wake.
As an alternate Trent Reznor created song that captures more of that “Mad World”/GoW vibe while including the lyrical connection to the new white ice-ness environments: [youtu.be]