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Horror

dead space

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

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?

Here at E3, we chatted with Dead Space senior producer Chuck Beaver and asked him about creating fear in such an action-heavy, fast-paced environment. Many of the standard-setters for survival horror — think Silent Hill and the earlier Resident Evil games — used atmosphere, environment and careful pacing to terrify players. But Beaver's got some very specific tactics planned for Dead Space:

More »

SCEA Pre-E3 Judge's day

Siren: Blood Curse Even Scarier Moving

In case the screenshots of Sony's Siren: Blood Curse episodic horror adventure didn't sell you on the game, here's a trailer for the game, which wound up making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up just a little bit, especially the chanting at the end. Chanting is one of those things that is damn spooky when placed in the correct setting. That and spooky little girls. And baby carriages. Someone hold me.

beta watch

Requiem: Bloodymare Enters Open Beta

Didn't get into the Age of Conan early start event? Well here's something for you to mess about with over the weekend instead. Gravity Interactive's horror-MMO Requiem: Bloodymare couldn't have picked a better time to go into open beta. Right now you can head over to the website, register an account, download the client, and there you are, fighting evil in a rather unique little setting.

I've played the game a bit myself, and while there are points where it feels a bit like your standard Korean MMO given a fresh coat of paint, the game mechanics are actually rather entertaining. The only real problem I have with it is that it is hard to maintain an atmosphere of horror after you've killed the same monster 20 times, but it definitely has a few moments. Hit up the link below to get things started!

Requiem: Bloodymare Official Site [Gravity Interactive = Thanks Andthenjaredsaid!]


the horror

Japanese Game Movie Adaptations Are Crappy, Too!

Though, it may seem like Hollywood has a monopoly on shit game movie adaptations, others can make shit game adaptations! Take the Japanese film industry, which is churning out what apparently is a crud version of computer visual novel Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Japanese movie site Chou Eiga Hihyou gave the movie a 10 out of... 100. The problem, according to the reviewer, is that the movie cannot capitalize on what makes the game so interesting: Cute characters in a love comedy who gradually become violent and bloody. In live action, that kind of story arc is old hat! Also, we're pretty pissed that the actresses don't have green or purple hair. I mean...hello?!
10 of 100 [Chou Eiga Hihyou via Canned Dogs]

movie games

Saw Writer Talks Saw Video Game

James Wan, the executive producer for the Saw series of horror films, was also responsible from writing the two best installments of the franchise, the original and Saw III, so news that he is busy writing the story for the video game is welcome news indeed. James talks about the project a bit in his latest MySpace blog post.
Leigh and I are very excited about this new venture. We are big gaming fans and we think it would a great opportunity to continue the SAW legacy into a different platform/medium. Keeps things fresh for us anyway. A lot of people have asked us if we would be interested in writing another SAW movie...well, we are writing another SAW story...but it's for the game. We're treating this story like the SAW movies with lots of twists and turns. We have no idea how that is going to apply to a computer game format, considering that most games are generally pretty simple in it's plotting. Maybe its a good thing that Leigh and I are naive to the video game world and that we're writing it like its a movie!
More »

romero's baby

GameTap Sets Daikatana Free

GameTap really hates us. Don't believe it? Just look what they've given us for Christmas. From now until December 31st, John Romero's masterpiece Daikatana is free for everyone to play.They've even posted a retrospective covering the game's history for you to giggle at. If you missed out on what some game reviewers at the time called "BWAHAHAHAHAHA", and "Is this a joke?", then now is your chance to experience all the pulse-pounding terror of robot frogs! *insert horrific violin squealing incidental music here*. Seriously though, you can't make fun of it unless you've played it, so there it is. This article is the gaming equivalent of eating something bad and going, "Ew, this is horrible! Taste this!"

Play Daikatana Free [GameTap]


gallery

Dead Space Looks Deadly, Spacey

I have high hopes for EA's Dead Space, because space-based horror films rock. I don't know what happened to Luke as a child that he didn't like Event Horizon, but it was an excellent example of how outer space and horror can be brilliantly mixed. Look at the Alien series. Look at...um. Hellraiser: Bloodline? Jason X? Leprechaun IV - Leprechaun In Space? There was this really great episode of Doctor Who from the first season of the new series where the Doctor faces Satan in outer space. That was pretty good. *drums fingers on the table, thinking* Okay, so making good space horror is hard, but EA seems to be off to a good start. As long as they can keep the music in check and highlight the silence and isolated feeling of being stranded in space, they could very well pull an Event Horizon out of their airlock. If not, then "As Shakespeare said, shit happens. "


clip

The Zombie Heads of Dead Island

Zombies! We love 'em. Like really, really love 'em. Here's a real time peak at upcoming PC/Xbox 360 title Dead Island. The above clip isn't for the squeamish (sorry, Mom) and features real time zombie damage. The game is front the first person perspective, but isn't a FPS. Rather, it's a FPHAS, which means "First Person Hack And Slash." I just made that up. Like right now!

resident evil

Umbrella Chronicles Files Revealed

You know all those files, notes and missives you run across in the Resident Evil games? The ones no one ever reads except for the few obsessives who like me, enjoy reading? Well, a fellow obsessive has managed to document all one hundred and nine files from the upcoming Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. So if you're interested in the backstory, but don't want to stop your zombie massacre long enough to read them in-game, treat yourself to some weekend reading and check them all out at Resident Evil Horror. While you're there, take some time to click around as RE Horror has managed to put together quite an extensive collection of RE history, time lines and stories. Good weekend reading over coffee.

[Thanks, John]


clip

Dead Space Trailer

Move over Alien, there's a new scary... alien in space. GameTrailers managed to nab a world exclusive trailer for EA's upcoming space horror game, Dead Space. I'm a big fan of the survival horror genre but usually my tastes tend towards the Silent Hill, Resident Evil end of things. I have yet, to my memory (which is admittedly poor) played a horror game in outer space much less zero gravity, so I'll be anxious to check this out when it hits next year. Definitely one for lights out...

demo

Darkness Within - 'Things Man Was Not Meant To Click At'

Back in September, Fahey mentioned Lighthouse Interactive's PC adventure game Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder (pretty pictures included!), and now the nice people at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have taken the demo for a spin. You can get your own copy over at the official website. It doesn't sound like the demo gives a very good impression of the game, though I guess demos frequently don't: More »

impressions

Jericho Sucks Less Than I Expected


So I got a chance to play the demo for Clive Barker's Jericho earlier on my Xbox 360, and I have to say it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it might be. It wasn't anywhere near as scary as I had hoped, but it was still much better than Hexen. As an FPS it is pretty mediocre, with each character having two weapons to choose from on top of their various supernatural powers, and no jump button, which just made me sad. I just like jumping, okay? The graphics fall into the shiny school of next-gen, with everything glistening in the light of your weak flashlight. Enemies seemed pretty dumb, but they are reanimated corpses, so you can't expect much there. My favorite part of the whole demo was when one character, the female ninja Church, had to crawl through a series of tunnels alone to open a door, though the sequence was marred by the game's darkness; even with gamma up full I could barely see anything. While I'm not exactly impressed, I am certainly interested. I'll probably pick up the game via GameTap for the PC once it hits next month.


gallery

See The Darkness Within

Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder is a PC adventure horror game coming out next month from Lighthouse Interactive. It's inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, which means it will either be amazingly chilling and disturbing or they'll go overboard and it will come across as just plain goofy. You tread a thin line when you draw inspiration from Cthulu's daddy. The story involves you investigating the death of a rich man who was involved with the occult, which leads you on a harrowing journey into the depths of horror that lurk within the human psyche. Head on over to Lighthouse's web page for more info, after you've taken a look at the darkness without below.

the horror

Halo 3 'Museum'...Reimagined


Without giving anything away, let us simply say that this clip is very much worth a watch. Just make sure you've seen part 1 first.

Halo 3 Advert - Consolevania [youtube]


the horror

PSP2K Tear Down

Sure, the PSP2K doesn't go on sale in Japan until September 20th, but that doesn't mean you can't yet buy a new PSP Slim. Hong Kong models are on sale in Akihabara for ¥27,000 (US $234)! Nerd site Akiba Blog picked one up and dissected it. And guess what? It's innards look pretty much like a regular old PSP. Click below for the grisly gallery.

PSP2K Torn [Akiba Blog]

compare and contrast'

NYT Compares Manhunt 2 to Horror Flicks

Writer Seth Schiesel from the New York Times recently wrote an article about Manhunt 2 which he was actually able to play the original version of the game at Take-Two's Manhattan office for three hours last Friday night. Unlike the recently posted impressions of the banned game, Schiesel had a different angle to wanting to try the game. More »

ds survival horror

Renegade Kid Enters The Ward

Nothing goes together like horror and hospitals. They're like the peanut butter and chocolate of fright, combining supernatural terror with the very real fear of our own mortality that hospitals tend to evoke. Tapping into these two great tastes is developer Renegade Kid, today announcing a publishing agreement with Gamecock to create Dementium: The Ward for the Nintendo DS. More »

clips

Clip: Alone in the Dark 5

Ok Atari, this is your last chance. I'm a real "once bitten, twice shy" kind of girl, so although I want to believe all of this is, in fact, fantastic in-game footage, and that this game is going to scare the fur right off my teddybears, I have my reservations. More »