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:

Siren: Blood Curse Even Scarier Moving

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!]

Japanese Game Movie Adaptations Are Crappy, Too!

Saw Writer Talks Saw Video Game

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!

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]

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. "

The Zombie Heads of Dead Island

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]

Dead Space Trailer

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

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.

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]

PSP2K Tear Down

NYT Compares Manhunt 2 to Horror Flicks

Renegade Kid Enters The Ward

Clip: Alone in the Dark 5