I've decided to take a small break from Dead Space 2 before I attempt hardcore mode. In the meantime, I've switched back to playing Dead Space Extraction. I'm playing through again on Impossible, which isn't really that difficult. I've managed to 5-star 8 of the 10 levels without much effort, so it should be fairly easy to 5-star the remaining two levels with a few more attempts.
I'm definitely not looking forward to the collectable trophies though :/ Some of the text and audio logs are on the screen for a split second, and if you miss them, you pretty much have to restart the level.