For all of you holiday shoppers who start knocking names off the list 3 months in advance, we've got just the item for the Dead Space lover in your life! Visceral Games has just announced a whole host of swag available for pre-order now. Prepare for the release of Dead Space 2 and buy this: a Dead Space Rig Backpack.

The pre-order will set you back $40 today, and the backpack will be available in January. So I hope that space-miner in your life doesn't mind getting an empty box as a present. But for the extra $68 in the new year, you'll score the backpack, a Dead Space 2 t-shirt designed by the art director Ian Milham, and 3 mini Dead Space 2 lithographs. All of these items are exclusive to this sale, so you won't be getting a second chance.

The bag will be going on sale by itself for $108, but only by pre-ordering now will you get the tee and lithographs for free. I've been told that getting stuff for free is a pretty good deal. If you want to get it while the getting is good, you can head directly to the pre-order site here. Since the game has acquired a massive cult following since it was released, there's no question these things will move quickly.

Although it seems like a bit of a cruel joke to sell a backpack modeled after the main character Isaac, since he's no longer able to wear it. But hey, that's just me. Thankfully, this is another sign of EA acknowledging just how loyal the fan base for Dead Space has become, and adds to the long line of fan bonuses that they're releasing prior to the launch of Dead Space 2 in January. It's always nice to see faceless corporations giving fans something more to look forward to then forking over cash for a new title, although Visceral's additions to the game definitely look promising.

So will you be hurrying over to snatch up one of these Dead Space knapsacks ASAP, or are you looking forward to just getting your hands on the sequel, and taking your own run at those creepy demon babies?

Join me in playing Dead Space 2 with my hands over my eyes when it comes to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on January 25th, 2011.