Critical Miss: Telegraphing

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Valagetti

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Aug 20, 2010
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That was pretty funny. After typing this up, Im going to look at it again and laugh at it some more.
 

chaos order

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Jan 27, 2010
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i really liked this one! ive only ever watched ppl play horror games cause i get REALLY INTO EM.

PS. i also loved how the aimer was positioned on one of the necromorphes dick.
 

dtheman

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Nov 18, 2009
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you know whats sad, we will never see the end of the story arc.
I'm going to kill myself now.
 

chinangel

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Sep 25, 2009
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actually depends on the monster. Those charging bastards are annoying, until you realize that they are some what predictable. nice attempt to have them flank us, but maybe you shouldn't have them telegraph their attack by peeking out to glance at us.
 

DTWolfwood

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Oct 20, 2009
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Homerun on that this one XD

i've always thought Silent Hill 1 did it best with the radio static. Almost no music and just an eerie static noise when monsters are near. Also the fact you only had a lead pipe and maybe a kitchen knife helped with the dread.

right at the beginning. when you're helpless and frantic :D

The second you get the means to dispatch you're enemy efficiently it ceases to be scary telegraphing or not :(
 

matrix3509

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Sep 24, 2008
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The_ModeRazor said:
Dead Space 1 wasn't scary, and I haven't played the seconds.
Actually, I don't really remember any 'scary' games. Maybe the first time a Yao Guai jumped in my face, but even that was just 'wow', not a jump.

I prefer terror to horror. So S.T.A.L.K.E.R is my poison.
I would call S.T.A.L.K.E.R. more profanity laden frustration than anything that might be either terror or horror. When some soldier NPC ganks you for the umpteenth time because even though you have the same or better quality gun and armor than they do, they have a magic accuracy canceling button, I think I am perfectly within my rights to say "fuck this game" after about 50th separate time this happened.
 

The_ModeRazor

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matrix3509 said:
The_ModeRazor said:
Dead Space 1 wasn't scary, and I haven't played the seconds.
Actually, I don't really remember any 'scary' games. Maybe the first time a Yao Guai jumped in my face, but even that was just 'wow', not a jump.

I prefer terror to horror. So S.T.A.L.K.E.R is my poison.
I would call S.T.A.L.K.E.R. more profanity laden frustration than anything that might be either terror or horror. When some soldier NPC ganks you for the umpteenth time because even though you have the same or better quality gun and armor than they do, they have a magic accuracy canceling button, I think I am perfectly within my rights to say "fuck this game" after about 50th separate time this happened.
Good thing I played a different S.T.A.L.K.E.R then. Was it Clear Sky? I didn't have that problem in SoC, and I didn't have it in CoP. Clear Sky I never played.
I was actually always kinda relieved when having to fight humans, 'cause I'm a far better shot than the AI, and because at least I get some loot out of them :D
 

The Random One

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May 29, 2008
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I remember a similar gag in a comedy film with Leslie Nielsen and that means Isaac Clarke looks like Leslie Nielsen under his helmet. FULL CANON ACTIVATE.
 

Gralian

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Sep 24, 2008
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This webcomic seems to be rapidly turning into an unrelated parody series. It feels like it's been a long time since we've had any continuity from Erin's job as a reviewer, it just seems to be spin-off after spin-off.

...Which isn't entirely a bad thing. They're pretty funny, i really liked the Bioshock reference in the previous comic, and this one has some truth to it.

Although i think the music is really there to startle you and make you panic, as opposed to setting a creepy atmosphere. When monsters jump out, it's normally a loud obnoxious shriek that makes you jump or give you less than perfect aim because it's distracting and makes you panic. The comic kind of implies that you start hearing a riverdance song or something each time you get attacked.
 

Eclectic Dreck

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Sep 3, 2008
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Therumancer said:
To be entirely honest I think the telegraphing is because the industry does not have the guts to do real horror games anymore.
While I agree in part with your post, I would not go so far as to say something this extreme. At every moment a player is at the mercy of the mechanical systems of the game. Murdering a player in an instant is trivial. Giving them an impossible task is the easiest of all possible tasks. Presenting an enemy that is impossible to beat is easier than producing one with any semblance of weakness. But these things are not exactly fun.

A player who is killed by a trap or ambush in a single player game should feel chastised for not noticing the signs telling them of the doom that lay ahead. In some way, every danger significant enough to really harm the player ought to be telegraphed in some fashion. This could be as simple as revealing the surprise just a little bit too soon (thus giving them time to react), it could be with music or audio, it could be some small graphical detail. While I agree that the "dynamic music" of Dead Space 2 (Remember when that was a new feature in games?!) makes it just a little too obvious, it performs it's function just fine.

So, while I agree that few games really try to be scary (and that the level of information given to a player regarding their environment and dangers lurking therein is a big part of this), I tend to think that instances where a danger is not telegraphed ought to be the rare exception rather than the rule.
 

matrix3509

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Sep 24, 2008
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The_ModeRazor said:
matrix3509 said:
The_ModeRazor said:
Dead Space 1 wasn't scary, and I haven't played the seconds.
Actually, I don't really remember any 'scary' games. Maybe the first time a Yao Guai jumped in my face, but even that was just 'wow', not a jump.

I prefer terror to horror. So S.T.A.L.K.E.R is my poison.
I would call S.T.A.L.K.E.R. more profanity laden frustration than anything that might be either terror or horror. When some soldier NPC ganks you for the umpteenth time because even though you have the same or better quality gun and armor than they do, they have a magic accuracy canceling button, I think I am perfectly within my rights to say "fuck this game" after about 50th separate time this happened.
Good thing I played a different S.T.A.L.K.E.R then. Was it Clear Sky? I didn't have that problem in SoC, and I didn't have it in CoP. Clear Sky I never played.
I was actually always kinda relieved when having to fight humans, 'cause I'm a far better shot than the AI, and because at least I get some loot out of them :D
No it was SoC. Trying to use the ironsights was an exercise in futility for me. I actually enjoyed fighting non-humans because it was a challenge without resorting to outright bullshit. After a while of fighting human stalkers and military types, I started to suspect that the firearm mechanics were ruled by some sort of sadistic random number generator.
 

Plurralbles

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Jan 12, 2010
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music only workds when the player doesn't notice it. it has to get to the back of their minds.
 

Acidwell

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Jun 13, 2009
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K4RN4GE911 said:
Scrythe said:
CORY RODALL AND GREY CARTER WILL BURY THEIR BURDENS IN BLOOD

WWW.ESCAPISTMAGAZINE.COM

God, I know that is a lyric to a song, but I can't place my finger on it. Can anyone help?

OT: This comic was a complete riot for me. Kind of reminds me of how Yahtzee described Dead Space's brand of horror. "The man in a scary mask going 'Abloogy woogy woo' across a brightly lit room, walking towards you slowly while plucking a violin string, then slapping you in the face with a T-bone steak."
Its Here We Are Juggernaut by Coheed And Cambria

OT: I thought the scariest part of dead space 1 was when you are flying away at the end and the necromorph jumps out at you. I totally didnt call that and i jumped so high.
 

The Wooster

King Snap
Jul 15, 2008
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matrix3509 said:
The_ModeRazor said:
matrix3509 said:
The_ModeRazor said:
Dead Space 1 wasn't scary, and I haven't played the seconds.
Actually, I don't really remember any 'scary' games. Maybe the first time a Yao Guai jumped in my face, but even that was just 'wow', not a jump.

I prefer terror to horror. So S.T.A.L.K.E.R is my poison.
I would call S.T.A.L.K.E.R. more profanity laden frustration than anything that might be either terror or horror. When some soldier NPC ganks you for the umpteenth time because even though you have the same or better quality gun and armor than they do, they have a magic accuracy canceling button, I think I am perfectly within my rights to say "fuck this game" after about 50th separate time this happened.
Good thing I played a different S.T.A.L.K.E.R then. Was it Clear Sky? I didn't have that problem in SoC, and I didn't have it in CoP. Clear Sky I never played.
I was actually always kinda relieved when having to fight humans, 'cause I'm a far better shot than the AI, and because at least I get some loot out of them :D
No it was SoC. Trying to use the ironsights was an exercise in futility for me. I actually enjoyed fighting non-humans because it was a challenge without resorting to outright bullshit. After a while of fighting human stalkers and military types, I started to suspect that the firearm mechanics were ruled by some sort of sadistic random number generator.
Vanilla Stalker suffered from some insane AI (picking you out with a pistol shot from 50 feet away when you're hiding in a bush in the dark) and some really dodgy gun physics. The big mod (I've forgotten the name now) fixed all of that, made the guns more damaging, the combat more exciting and the game look phenomonal. Grab it if you can.
 

Lieju

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Jan 4, 2009
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Sound and even music cues can be used effectively to invoke horror. You know the monster is somewhere, you can hear it, but don't know where it is.

But if it works like a signal that will let you know the threat is coming at you, and you know the silence means there are no threats around that's very detrimental to the horror atmosphere.