Dead Space 3 release date announced, Limited Edition version detailed

EA and Visceral Games announced the exact release date for upcoming shooter/survival-horror game, Dead Space 3.

Announced at Gamescom today, Dead Space 3 will release in North America on February 5. It is due out in Europe three days later on February 8.

Dead Space 3 has received a lot of flack lately from fans of the series due to the game's apparent shift towards more action gameplay, but during the press conference today they showed off some violent, subzero gameplay that pitted players against gigantic creatures and blood-thirsty Necromorphs.

Visceral and EA have continued to defend Dead Space 3 as a "scary" game with added multiplayer to attract more gamers who may have originally been too scared to play. In Dead Space 3 players will now have the option to face these terrors with a friend. While still playing as engineer Isaac Clarke, his new merciless co-op partner, John Carver, will assist in survival.

In addition to the release dates, EA also detailed The Dead Space 3 Limited Edition, a special edition that provides gamers with first access to two game bundles: "First Contact" and "Witness the Truth" – each of which contains an advanced suit and devastating new weapon. These hand-crafted weapon combinations act as initial blueprints for the millions of permutations players will be able to create using the all-new weapon crafting system in the game.

Below are the exact details:

“First Contact” Bundle

• First Contact Suit: This unique EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity) suit was built by the SCAF (Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces) for encounters with "foreign entities.” It sports a flamboyant golden finish to provide protection from long-term space exposure and thick armor for… unspecified reasons. The suit was given the nickname "First Contact" by the scientists who made it.
• Negotiator Weapon: While technically classified by the SCAF as a "scientific instrument,” the gold-plated "Negotiator" is loaded with some surprisingly aggressive hardware. The overclocked, top-mounted Tesla Beam is capable of bursting a man-sized organism into several pieces with a single shot. The bottom-mounted Linegun appears to have been built with the sole purpose of cleanly dismembering organic tissue from a distance.

”Witness the Truth” Bundle

• Witness Suit: These insulated suits were worn by a SCAF deep dig team assigned to exhume the darkest secrets of Tau Volantis. Whatever they found locked deep in the ice changed them forever. When they emerged weeks later, they were covered head to toe in strange graffiti and claimed to be "Witnesses to the Truth.”
• Evangelizer Weapon: A modification of the standard AL-2 used by the Sovereign Colonies Legionaries, this version sports a souped-up AL-2g assault rifle on the top with an Emerson 2100 "Big Boy" tactical shotgun on the bottom. The surviving "Witnesses" of the SCAF deep dig team dubbed it the Evangelizer and decorated them top to bottom with strange symbols.

Dead Space 3 is set to release on Xbox 360, PC, and PS3.