What horror game are you playing?

[Xeogred]

Shattered Memories doesn't look very fun to play, I was thinking of just watching a walkthrough instead or something haha. I never really do that, but eh. Nasty looking PSP port, I don't know.

I've been thinking of jumping back into Silent Hill with Origins, maybe after some Fatal Frame if I still want some more survival horror. Origins actually looks pretty good and fun.

Few hours into Fatal Frame 2 and I'm definitely liking it quite a bit more than 1. The combat is definitely better and the overall atmosphere/level design is a nice improvement. The music is standing out a bit more too, I'm really digging the save theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzNYJVum6Zg

I've crossed paths with that central room with the ghost you can't kill, at least yet. And he's an instant death upon touching you I'm sure. But then I saw some notes with ** characters in the text, which I remember my friends and I joking about (we had one guy in the group read the notes, so he just made noises for those). Well safe to say I still have no clue how much of this game I originally played haha. Maybe not much after all though. I feel like most of my memories revolve around this invincible ghost at the point I'm at.

Looks like 3 still has static camera angels... which I like here! So I'm happy that looks like it'll play similar to the first two. Love the PSX vibe I get playing these haha. 4 looks way different in comparison.

[Ack]

I haven't played Shattered Memories, so I couldn't say unfortunately. It and Downpour are the only two official SH games I've never played. 0rigins is ok...but it is also the beginning of non-Konami development, so keep that in mind. It wants to explain Silent Hill too much, and its ridiculous combat system very quickly becomes broken once you discover you can wield just about anything that isn't bolted down. If you have beaten 1-4(if I recall, you have), check it out, but if not...go back and play those first.

Fatal Frame 4 dropped the fixed camera and is probably the biggest jump in the series to "modern" gameplay. Whether or not that is a good thing is up to you, but since we'll apparently never get it, oh well. I'm glad you're getting through FF2 pretty well. I think all of them have some pretty creepy but awesome music.

At this point, the domestic survival horror I'm missing for the PS2 is pretty slim. Besides Rule of Rose, Fatal Frame 3, and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, I don't have ObsCure, Lifeline, The Suffering, The Suffering 2, Alone in the Dark(I have the 360 version), and a bunch of Resident Evils that I either have little interest in or have on other consoles. Also, is it even possible to still play Resident Evil Outbreak?

[Xeogred]

Yup, I know of the Team Silent (1-4) thing... they went on to create Siren I believe, which all sound insanely funked up. But they sound pretty hit or miss gameplay wise. And we didn't get the second game. I think I was going to jump in with Siren Blood Curse first sometime, which I think is a remake of sorts... or a reboot, I don't know. But that one looks really cool from the videos I've seen. I'll laugh if it feels like a better successor to Silent Hill 1-4 than the rest of the main games haha.

Explaining... Silent Hill... ugh, that doesn't sound good. But yeah I'll give it a shot.

Have you played Resident Evil Dead Aim? I ordered it cheap awhile back. It seems like an interesting mix of arcade like first person combat, but you still move around in the classic RE style. Seems kind of obscure but it looks neat to me, I've just heard it's really short (but hey half of them are). It seems to carry on the legacy of having a cool save room theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO28Ff-1CLs

Did you play Run Like Hell? I've been curious about that one for awhile.

[Ack]

I didn't pick up Dead Aim after a bad experience with the first Survivor years before it. The concept of an on-rails Resident Evil turned me off after that. I suppose I should go back to it sometime and give it a try though.

We didn't get Siren 2 because Siren didn't sell well...which makes sense considering it is hard as balls and features far too many agonizing babysitting quests. Also, the enemies in it are ridiculously cheap, particularly if they have a rifle, in which case they can see you before you can see them through the fog. The sight-jacking ability is cool and creepy at the same time, but man that game can be brutally annoying. I never beat it specifically for that reason. I've heard Siren: Blood Curse improves on it in nearly every way and is overall the superior game. If you want to play a Siren game, skip the first and just go for Blood Curse. As for the Silent Hill connection, there are a few little things, like the fog. But overall, no, it feels very different from the SH franchise and is definitely not related.

RLH is...not very good. The gameplay feels sluggish and poor, with combat a drag despite being completely required. It's a shame, considering how much time and money was spent on it. And the voice acting? I'll listen/watch/play anything with Lance Henriksen involved. Too bad it got trapped in development hell.

Now you know what survival horror game you should try out? Echo Night: Beyond.

[Xeogred]

That's the thing with Dead Aim, you walk around as you would normally in the main games, but it just goes first person when you're fighting stuff. I'm cool with that, otherwise yeah I don't have much interest in the pure on rails RE entries.

So Blood Curse gets your blessings? lol. I'm hoping it's good, never hear much about it though.

Echo Night: Beyond definitely looks cool.

[Ack]

Yeah, Echo Night: Beyond is a wonderful game where there is no combat and every angry ghost you encounter is capable of killing you. It has a tense and lonely atmosphere and some genuinely creepy encounters, though there are a few corny moments thrown in. It's nowhere near as bad as something like Clock Tower 3 though, which is basically a giant murderous cheeseball.

Can RE Dead Aim be played with a standard controller? I don't have either a PS2 light gun or mouse and don't really have a desire to seek one out, particularly a light gun since I no longer have a CRT I can use. If I can play the game without it, I might try tracking a copy of this down for October.

If you move to Siren: Blood Curse, please let me know.

[J T]

I don't know if I would play Dead Aim without a light gun. That's the primary thing that makes it cool. I'm not sure if it can be played without one either, I've never tried. It's really cool with the gun though. When I bought a Guncon for my PS2, I made sure to buy as many worthwhile light gun games as I could. Dead Aim was one of my favorites, along with the Time Crisis games, Vampire Night, and Ninja Assault.

As for my recent horror exploits, I have returned to Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs after a long hiatus. I think I needed the time away to get used to the idea that it is not The Dark Descent. While A Machine for Pigs' gameplay changes detract from the horror that made the first Amnesia so memorable (no pun intended), it does have a substantially better (and marginally more coherent) storyline. The machine is something truly horrible and macabre to walk through. As I've journeyed deeper into its foul innards, the game has finally begun to find its stride and I'm finally feeling that tightness in my chest again as I round corners, and I'm finding the game hard to put down.

[Ack]

I don't know if I would play Dead Aim without a light gun. That's the primary thing that makes it cool. I'm not sure if it can be played without one either, I've never tried. It's really cool with the gun though. When I bought a Guncon for my PS2, I made sure to buy as many worthwhile light gun games as I could. Dead Aim was one of my favorites, along with the Time Crisis games, Vampire Night, and Ninja Assault.

Well if that's the case, there's just not much point in my picking it up right now, as I don't have a television I can play it on. Oh well.

[Xeogred]

Suddenly, I am already at the second to last chapter on Fatal Frame 2 apparently. How Long to Beat didn't seem too accurate here unless these last two chapters are fairly long. But I'm always cool with these games being a bit on the shorter side, I currently have 6 and half hours so that's really not too bad.

I went in expecting longer and was planning on taking a break, but since it looks like I might be wrapping it up sooner than expected I may just jump into 3 right afterwards then. One thing I've heard is that you play as multiple characters I think... which always kind of feels like a recipe for failure to me, but maybe they handle it well. Because I have to say I've been really impressed with how they handled the twins element in 2 and when she's around. It's never been a bother. The story is getting really cool too. Overall it doesn't seem as gruesome as the first game (the blind mask, the rope/pulling torture mechanisms, etc), but I think I'm digging everything about 2 even more. They pulled some moments where you don't have the camera or flashlight, along with some other mid fight tricks that I won't spoil, that ended up being really cool and not a pain. The encounters seem a lot more memorable and it doesn't seem as heavy on the action, but because the levels are a lot bigger there's more to explore anyways, so it almost feels like more of an adventure than the first game. Puzzles have been cool too, whereas the first just had some really annoying ones haha.

So yeah, this has been a blast. Very excited to see what 3 is like.

Not to knock on 1 though, it's still great. I'll laugh if I end up feeling like this series is more consistent than RE or SH, haha.

[J T]

If anyone liked the Obscure series, apparently there is a side scrolling beatemup game set in the Obscure universe, but they never highlighted this because they thought it would disappoint fans of the survival-horror game. It's called Final Exam:

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-FEXAM/final-exam