october means a month of horror games

[Snickerd00dle]

Wow, Illbleed and Eternal Darkness both look like awesome games! I've had Illbleed on my radar for a bit now, but I've never heard of Eternal Darkness until now.

i remember when i bought Illbleed, i was really excited, and well, I thought it was a great idea, just not well executed...just my opinion...Eternal Darkness is great though

[MrPopo]

Yeah, Eternal Darkness is amazing. I personally suggest you never heal your sanity, as the mindfucks are really really cool. Even when you already know the specific things they will do to you (such as volume adjustment) you will still be fooled by it when it happens.

Can you still finish the game if you let you never heal your sanity? I have the game, but haven't played it yet. It's on my TO DO list.

You never once have to heal your sanity to finish the game. Health is obviously health, then there's the blue bar which is your mana, and the sanity which is the mindfuck. The only thing you need to keep up is your health, as you die otherwise.

[Ack]

Wow, Illbleed and Eternal Darkness both look like awesome games! I've had Illbleed on my radar for a bit now, but I've never heard of Eternal Darkness until now.

i remember when i bought Illbleed, i was really excited, and well, I thought it was a great idea, just not well executed...just my opinion...Eternal Darkness is great though

It's ok, for some reason my copy tends to randomly crash on my Dreamcast(it's not the only game I have that does it, I have an extremely finicky DC), so I couldn't spend much time with it, but what I did play felt a bit overly complicated. That said, there are some very hardcore Illbleed fans out there who adore the game, so it obviously has its high points.

Either way, I'm glad I own a copy. I've got most of the Dreamcast survival horror titles.

[Ack]

Fatal Frame



Ok, so instead of zombies or demons, this game goes for the supernatural approach: ghosts. And your weapon of choice is a camera. I would say that this is one of the big wigs in terms of survival horror, well respected though not as big as Resident Evil or Silent Hill. Truthfully, I don't recall having ever met anyone who didn't get freaked out by the Fatal Frame series.

"The game revolves around a girl named Miku Hinasaki, who goes to the supposedly haunted Himuro Mansion to search for Mafuyu, her older brother. Mafuyu has been missing for almost one week, after visiting Himuro Mansion to look for his mentor, Junsei Takamine. He had also gone missing in the mansion, together with his assistant and editor, whilst conducting research for a new novel."



If you're interested in a very heavy Japanese feel in your games, this is definitely a series to check out. Plus, the game features multiple endings, an upgradeable weapon, alternate costumes, a battle mode, etc. There's a lot of meat to keep folks coming back, and even more in the Xbox version, which was released later. As for your weapon, the Camera Obscura, it takes a little practice to get used to it, it forces the player into a first-person view(so you have to face your enemy to hit them), and it can even get critical hits...if you're willing to hold your attack until the last possible second.



Check out the intro here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eJ_SR09VmQ

From the comments on that YouTube video:

"We tried playing this game with the lights off. We shat and pissed our pants."

If you're going to play this game, try playing it at night, at least just once. It's worth the experience.

[nickfil]

borderlands is making me seriously lag behind on these games.

also- i wish fatal frame wasn't so damn expensive. I've been wanting to play that for a long long time.

[Snickerd00dle]

borderlands is making me seriously lag behind on these games.

also- i wish fatal frame wasn't so damn expensive. I've been wanting to play that for a long long time.

they just re-released it, i think its like 50 bucks new on the ps2 new, and the xbox version is what like 25 or 30 bucks, shouldn't be too much

[Ack]

Siren



Basic plot run down from Chris' Survival Horror Quest:

"Something is very wrong in the small mountain village of Hanuda. The waters have all run red and the residents of the town seem to have turned into zombie versions of their former selves. A small group of people, mostly unarmed, must try to make it out of the village alive."

Basically, a strange noise has called the people of Hanuda into the water, turning them into murderous shibito that will kill any still-living humans they see. You play as ten survivors over the course of a three day span, attempting to discover what is going on in Hanuda while not getting killed. The story breakdown of this game is part of what makes it so interesting: it's told in short segments and not in order. In one level you might be playing at 3:00 pm on the first day, then the next might be 6:00 am the second day, following by a 2:00 am section of the same day. But if you do something in one level, you might have additional, fewer, or different objectives in different segments.

Because it jumps, you end up playing as different people at different points, following each survivor. They vary in age, gender, profession, skills, and equipment, though all possess the ability to sightjack: to see and hear from the shibito's perspective. This is a key ability because this game is all about stealth. Relatively few of the survivors have any means of combat, and even then it generally isn't enough to save you. And shibito are armed with various implements, from gardening tools to firearms and flashlights. And if they see you, they will come after you. If they hear you, they will come after you. And if one sees you, his shouts will bring others. So whatever you do, don't get noticed.



It should be noted that while not impossible, Siren is considered quite difficult. In fact, some folks have even gone as far to say it is the hardest survival horror title ever created. A lot of patience is required by this game, moreso than your typical stealth games, because enemy routes can be long and complex, and the game's not afraid to put you in tough spots where you think you won't have enough room to make it. It is also particularly horrifying to sightjack into a shibito only to discover he's staring at you, though just because you can see yourself through his eyes doesn't mean he registers you as still living.



To beat this game, you will have to follow the game's rules, and prepare for a very intense experience. Do yourself a favor and don't forget to breath.

Here's the English intro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eoUiVAR6TY

[(-_-)]

I have all three Fatal Frame games and I haven't finished a single one. I got about halfway o rso thorugh the first one, but ended up deleting the file because it was so damn big, and I hadn't touched it in a while. I'd gotten lost and decided the best thing to do was restart the game. The second Fatal Frame game is possibly the most terrifying game I"ve ever experienced. The story is just unsettling and the rest of the game does a very good job of giving you a heart attack whenever it can.

I've been eyeing Siren for a long time at my local EB. It's only 10 bucks but I already have so many unfinished games I can't decide if I really need it or not.

[jfe2]

I watched a couple of Siren gameplay videos on Youtube, and that game looks scary as hell! I can't believe I've never heard of some of these games...

[Ack]

Curse: The Eye of Isis



"Strange things are happening at Great Britain’s museum of natural history in 1890. A gang of ruthless thugs has broken into the establishment, the Eye of Isis Egyptian statue has been stolen, and a mysterious fog has overtaken a number of areas of the museum killing and transforming all it comes into contact with.

Playing as museum curator/archeologist Victoria Sutton and her childhood friend Darien Dane, you’ll have to fight the various beings and entities created by this fog. You'll spend considerable time in the museum, take a steam train to the coast and travel the seas in a huge cargo ship before finally entering the pyramid tomb where you must find and destroy the source of this ancient evil."



So this is a third-person survival horror, where you play as two different characters(who are functionally no different). However, combat is handled in first-person(and the PC version apparently allows you to switch between the two modes on the fly), so you will have to stare down a few monsters to make it through the game. And what kind of monsters will you be fighting?



MUMMIES!

And the game generally stays true to its Victorian setting, so items include menthol and smelling salts, and weapons are limited generally to what was available at the time. It's horror by gaslight. But beyond this, the game generally plays like Resident Evil, including preset camera locations and limited save capabilities. I don't mean you've got ink ribbons, however: all saves are handled by a man named Abdul, but he's only one man. If you find him in one location, he won't be in any other until you advance enough to make him show up. So backtracking can be difficult.

There really isn't much that you haven't seen before in this title if you've played the well-known classics, but Curse can apparently be a decent romp if you enjoy the original Resident Evils. While it did see release on the PC, Xbox, and PS2 in the PAL regions, only the Xbox and PC versions made it to the NTSC-U region, so those of us in North America have fewer options to play.