It’s not ruining anything to tell you that Franco Delille doesn’t die of old age in Dead Space 2, seeing as his demise happens, quite horrifically, in the opening moments of the game. But more surprising than his death is the amount of work that went into bringing him to such short life – it took a team of eight people two months to complete Delille’s Infector-induced death, as detailed in an interview with Joystiq.
“We wanted the skin to slough,” said EA’s Tony Gialdini, adding that the team spent three weeks just animating the transformation, to say nothing of the modeling, lighting, and sound and video effects. “The most hellish part of that was actually not the animation of all the skin falling, as you would think, it was actually the 18-22 tentacles that were all wiggling around on his head…It was slowly driving [animator Ryan Hood] insane trying to get these tentacles to behave.”
It really makes for a fascinating read, especially when Gialdini shares the ways in which the team actually held back. If you think Delille’s death is the stuff of nightmares now, imagine earlier versions where “his face kind of exploded…like all the skin flew off” and one where the head stabbing scene looked a bit too sexual, becoming “disturbing in the wrong way.”
Call of Duty: Black Ops is back in charge of the UK’s weekly all-formats sales chart, denying newcomer Marvel vs Capcom 3 the desired spot. The Activision shooter surged +192% last week and has now spent a total of eight weeks as #1 (just one week short of Modern Warfare 2‘s nine).
The #2 position shouldn’t matter much to Capcom though as MvC3 has already nearly matched the lifetime sales of its 2002 predecessor.
Not much more excitement this week; last week’s #1 Test Drive Unlimited 2 slips to #4 as Dead Space 2 inches in at #3 after a 61% boost in sales.
Top 10 follows.
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops
2. Marvel vs Capcom 3
3. Dead Space 2
4. Test Drive Unlimited 2
5. FIFA 11
6. Just Dance 2
7. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
8. Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!
9. Grand Teft Auto IV: Complete Edition
10. LittleBigPlanet 2
January was another ho-hum month for our beloved industry; revenue is down a total of five percent in the US over the same month in 2010. Total revenue came to $1.16 billion.
So how are your favorite games tracking? Call of Duty: Black Ops came in at the top spot of sales for a third month running, with Ubisoft’s Just Dance 2 in second. Newcomers Dead Space 2 and LittleBigPlanet 2 took the third and fourth spots respectively. DC Universe Online managed to just scrape in at 10. It’s nice to see these new titles positioning fairly well. Check out the full top 10 below.
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard) – Xbox 360, PS3, Wi, DS, PC
2. Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft) – Wii
3. Dead Space 2 (Electronic Arts) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC
4. Little Big Planet 2 (Sony) – PS3
5. Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (Majesco) – Wii, Xbox 360, PS3
6. NBA 2K11 (Take-Two Interactive) – Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2, PC
7. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft) – Xbox 360, PS3
8. Dance Central (MTV Games) – Xbox 360
9. Michael Jackson The Experience (Ubisoft) – Wii, DS, PSP
10. DC Universe Online: The Next Legend Is You (Sony) – PS3, PC
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