Crispy Gamer News

I touched upon this yesterday in The Rundown, but today let’s analyze the particulars. This week Wayne County, Michigan Prosecutor Kym Worthy released her list of Top 10 Violent Video Games Played By Teens. The list, which is actually a rehash of the Mature rated section of games from the National Institute on Media and the Family Video Game Report Card for 2008, feature’s a who’s who of the most popular “M” rated games in North America. The link between “teens wanting to play these particular games” is tenuous at best, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

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2008 is slowly fading to black. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. Here’s today’s news..

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Despite the systemic retail failure of original intellectual properties like Mirror’s Edge, Army of Two and most recently EA Redwood Shores developed Dead Space, EA has not given up on creating new and original game properties. The company announced today that the studio is hard at work on a new and original IP based on the epic poem, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.

The poem weaves a tale of an incredible journey through the afterlife and serves as an allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife and the punishments of hell. The protagonist Dante travels through the nine circles of hell: limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery. How this masterpiece will be presented as a game is almost as interesting as the source material it is based on, and EA at least deserves some points from trying something that has not been done before. This may also be the game that Paramount won the film rights to in Nov. (read that story for more details).

You can get a first glimpse at what the company has planned to put the fear into a whole new generation by visiting www.dantesinferno.com.

 If you have not yet tried the retail version of EA’s horror survival game set in space, then you will want to be on the lookout for the demo, which is hitting Xbox Live Market and on PlayStation Network  on Tuesday, Nov. 25. The European demos will be released on Nov 27.

The demo for Dead Space gives gamers a measured taste of this action game set on a derelict mining space station, apparently under siege by a wicked alien species.

Developed at EA Redwood Shores, Dead Space is rated M for Mature with descriptors of Blood and Gore, Intense Violence and Strong Language by the ESRB and 18+ for PEGI. Dead Space is available for MSRP $59.99 on the Xbox 360 and PS3 and MSRP $49.99 for the PC.

Fans of the Dead Space comics - based on EA’s recently released horror survival game set in space - will be happy to hear that all of the comic books related to the game have been re-released in one single hardcover tome.

The Dead Space hardbook serves as a prequel story for the videogame that tells the tale of a deep space mining colony that unleashes a deadly alien life force from a dark rock. The Dead Space hardbook combines all 6 Dead Space comics written by Antony Johnson and illustrated by Ben Templesmith with exclusive cover art by Templesmith, an exclusive bonus art section, and a background section on the major characters.

Those interested in buying it can find links on the Dead Space Blog.

No matter what you think of Fable II (great game, crappy game, whatever), Lionhead’s lofty RPG is doing very well at retail. According to retail sales data from NPD for the month of Oct., Fable II moved a respectable 790, 000 units, beating out such heavy hitters as Fallout 3, and LittleBigPlanet.

Fallout 3 for the Xbox 360 moved 375, 000 units, while LittleBigPlanet managed to move a meager 215, 000. If you’re looking for the big winner based on platform, then this month goes to the Xbox 360, with Wii coming in second and PS3 coming in last. So sorry, Sony.  The full top ten list after the break with all the dirty little numbers you hunger for.

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Isaac Clarke is about to get some upgrades if you are willing to spend some cold hard cash. EA announced that Dead Space downloadable content will be released on Nov. 13, giving PS3 and Xbox 360 owners of the game some special gear and new outfits. It’s like playing dress up but with guns and creepy monsters attacking you.. The complete list of upgrade packs after the jump - including exclusives for PS3 and Xbox 360 owners:

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