Kotaku: Survival Horror

Resident Evil 3 Vs. Resident Evil 4: Separating Survival Horror from Survival Action

Mike Fahey — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST

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Not all horror video games are created equally. Some focus on creating an atmosphere of isolation and vulnerability. Others rely on shock to frighten the player, while making sure there's enough firepower laying around to shoot horror right in the face. Confused? Perhaps this handy graphic will help. More »

Flashback Designer Creates Survival Horror Babysitting Adventure

Mike Fahey — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:40:00 EST

Paul Cuisset, the man behind the rotoscoped classic Flashback, takes a turn at survival horror with Amy, a tale of post-global warming horror that charges you with protecting one very special little girl. More »

How Dead Space 2 Tuned Its 'Meat Cello'

Owen Good — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:40:00 EST

Nearly a year ago, the Dead Space 2 production team crowdsourced one of the game's signature kill animations, in which the player and a necromorph are locked in combat. "Meat Cello," which you'll see when the game releases, was chosen. More »

Whenever the Next Half-Life Comes Out, It Had Better Be Scary

Owen Good — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:30:00 EDT

Games have "gotten away from genuinely scaring the player," and Half-Life, whenever it deploys its next episode, needs to get back to doing just that, the game's boss said More »

The Difference Between Scary and Horror

Owen Good — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EDT

I have a fear of horror films, and by extension horror games. I'm just too attenuated to suspense and having the hell scared out of me. But what I'm really experiencing, argues one writer, is just that: scary, not horror. More »

Ignition Has A Deadly Premonition For 360 Owners

Mike Fahey — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:20:00 EST

Ignition Entertainment brings more survival horror to the Xbox 360 next year with Deadly Premonition, a creepy tale of mystery and terror set in a remote rural town. More »

Cursed Mountain: A Religious Experience

AJ Glasser — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:40:00 EDT

You can learn a lot from a behind-the-scenes movie. Today, I learned that mountains are women, Bardo probably sucks and Buddhist mountain climbers could potentially be the best zombies ever. More »

Resident Evil 5 Review: A Mutation of Fun

Brian Crecente — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:00:00 EDT

It's unfortunate that before its launch Resident Evil 5 became about everything, but the game. The most hotly debated questions had little to do with what should matter most to gamers: Is it fun? More »

Cursed Mountain Screens Are Cursed, Mountainous

Mike Fahey — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:20:00 EST

New screenshots for Deep Silver's upcoming survival horror title Cursed Mountain go great lengths to showing just how cursed this particular mountain may or may not be. More »

Frankenreview: Dead Space

Mike Fahey — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:30:00 EDT

Dead Space comic books. Dead Space animated films. Electronic Arts' marketing push behind their new survival horror IP has been nothing short of epic. To put this much faith in an untested product, EA must be pretty sure they've got something special on their hands, but then again parents often think their children are much more attractive and intelligent than they actually are. It takes an unbiased outsider to tell you if your baby is hot or not, and that's where the game critics come in. Hit the jump to see if Dead Space is the terrifying little darling that EA hoped for or just another ugly baby. More »

Ars Certifies Dead Space's Scariness Cred

Owen Good — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:00:00 EDT

"Do yourself a favor when you get the game," writes Ben Kuchera at Ars Technica. "Make the room as dark as possible. Turn the sound system up. Allow yourself to be swept away in it." More »

Does Survival Horror Really Still Exist?

Leigh Alexander — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

By: Leigh Alexander You're picking your way through the destitute skeleton of an abandoned building. All around you, decaying, discarded décor reminds you that people lived and worked here once, just as it prompts you to wonder what happened to them. Strange noises and crawling damp seep through the rotted walls. Your backpack is stuffed with cryptic objects you inexplicably picked up in your exploration – unsettling to look at and obscure in their application, they somehow hold the solutions to the puzzles that impede your progress, if only you can figure them out. It's dark, you've got a weak flashlight, a short knife, maybe a length of steel pipe you picked up along your way. And you have a sinking feeling that at the end of the next corridor, death is lurking in the shape of a shambling, deformed monster. But you press on through the dispassionate madness, driven by unraveling mysteries and the unresolved ghosts of your own past. This is survival horror – does it still exist? More »

Dead Space Producer Chuck Beaver Talks Survival Horror In Halo's Era

Leigh Alexander — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:12:22 EDT

Halo and Gears seem to have rung in new gold standards in game mechanics, and the general trend since they hit the scene has shifted to favor action-intensive, fast-paced shooters. How has this affected the survival horror genre? More »

Rule of Rose Video Preview!

egauger — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 19:20:58 EDT

eToychest was kind enough to point this out to me and since I can let no Rule of Rose material slip through my grasp, I am logging it here with mad glee. This video documents a bit of movement and a boss fight, and talks about various dog functions and the overall mechanic of the game. More »

New Rule of Rose Gameplay Footage

egauger — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:20:17 EDT

There's some new Rule of Rose stuff over on MTV's game site, Overdrive (which runs like complete crap on OSX Firefox), and it's completely without context. Who's talking in the clip with the broom goblins? The subtitles don't seem to correspond with anything. The music is pretty, but extremely repetitive. A lot of it is inappropriate for the variety of scenes it's laid over. More »

Official Rule of Rose Site

egauger — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 22:20:19 EDT

Destructoid points us to the official Rule of Rose site, which officially went live back on the 18th. Seems like everyone missed it, as everyone has missed most of their pre-release milestones. They are sneaky, those spooky schoolgirls. More »

Some Original RE4 Footage

brownlee — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 12:40:04 EDT

Earlier today, I posted an interview with Resident Evil 4 producer in which he made some cryptic comments about earlier, discarded versions of RE4. Kotakuite Eric was kind enough to write in, pointing out a YouTube video of one of them, before the direction changed to a more action-oriented game. More »

What the Hell IS Rule of Rose, Anyway?

egauger — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 19:20:01 EDT

One thing I haven't really been clear on is what Rule of Rose is actually about. The plot synopses I've seen are all vague and full of innuendo. More »

Drool of Rose

egauger — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 21:40:42 EDT

Upcoming creepy Lolita spooktacular Rule of Rose is hemorrhaging new screenshots, and I am here to gleefully lap them up. More »

Genre Pleasure

egauger — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 19:40:49 EDT

Online magazine the Escapist reassures us that as long as we understand genre, scary games cannot hurt us and in fact, will make us happy: More »

Alone In The Dark Returns

brownlee — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 14:40:33 EDT

More games should be Cthulhu based. There, we said it. The dripping tentacles of the Old Ones bearing towards mankind a fathomless hatred born from beyond the stars and nurtured over the millennia in chthonic tombs far below the sea — it's depressing that games don't feature Lovecraft monsters more often. More »