On the subject of horror, anyone else keen/heard any news on Eden, the game adaptation of Lars Von Trier's film Anitchrist, which the developer said was aiming to be "...a bit like a nightmare version of ?Myst?"?
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
Am i wrong to disagree with yahtzee that the best SH is SH3 and not SH2?
Ok,the Pyramid Head standing behind the bars,just staring at you is unerving,but when the f******* walls start bleeding and you can't even see where you came from that just scare me more than anything else in the world.Even more than the freaking PH.
Ok,the Pyramid Head standing behind the bars,just staring at you is unerving,but when the f******* walls start bleeding and you can't even see where you came from that just scare me more than anything else in the world.Even more than the freaking PH.
I agree there, at the time i thought it was kinda of a predictable game, but more often than what i was expecting i find myself remembering great things about it. I guess it's kinda of a compliment that Yahtzee keeps quoting stuff from it now and then, like at least it rightfully enters in the genre of the big scary games franchises. I just hope he'd quote some of the good stuff too...TarkXT said:
Then again it seames to me that when he's made up his mind about the overall outcome of a game, things from it will always be only examples of what made him decide over good, bad, excellent, terrible, mundane, etc.
Can't help but think that because it's on the pii, and that the average pee owner is 8, that they scaled down the scary for the kiddy aspect because what teenager/adult buys the pii for hardcore games anyways?
That's simply what we call a difference of opinion. You make it sound like one of them has to be wrong and one of them has to be right.Athinira said:
Also worth noting in regards to the Austin Powers steamroller scene was that the steamroller was moving EXTREMELY slowly and that Austin and whatever Elizabeth Hurley's character was called (can't remember) were screaming at the guy to get out of the way for the entire time. So using that makes Shattered Memories sound really not scary in the slightest, at least to me. I think I can get out of the way in time, haha.
I think a game that did the whole "death with consequences" thing well was Dead Rising, which was due to its annoying save system (though they did that on purpose to have this exact effect). Normally it was pretty light-hearted and funny, but I was legit-ly scared when walking into some parts of the mall where I had never been and not knowing who I would meet or when I had just saved about 5 people from a cult and would have to drag their stupid asses through a mall full of zombies.
I had done some thinking on the horror genre since Yahtzee's last review. And I remember that as Yahtzee said "all games are scary" the fear of dieing and having to redo since the last checkpoint is in all games.
But the horror games should make sure that you fear death rather than find it frustrating. So the combat in games is tricky to master. For Example: RE5 is not scary because the zombies you don't fear the zombies because you can kill them so easily.
My idea for combat is battles that are (almost) always close encounters using melee weapons. In order to insure it's difficult enough to be scary but easy enough to prevent frustration, the monsters can be killed if fought one at a time but if you get surrounded they can overwhelm you. Through out the game this becomes more and more difficult to avoid.
But the horror games should make sure that you fear death rather than find it frustrating. So the combat in games is tricky to master. For Example: RE5 is not scary because the zombies you don't fear the zombies because you can kill them so easily.
My idea for combat is battles that are (almost) always close encounters using melee weapons. In order to insure it's difficult enough to be scary but easy enough to prevent frustration, the monsters can be killed if fought one at a time but if you get surrounded they can overwhelm you. Through out the game this becomes more and more difficult to avoid.
So, I'm curious to know what you think of Bright Falls, the web miniseries prequel to Alan Wake. They're full of the atmosphere that helps build horror that you've always said is so important (which I agree with).
You can either download them on Xbox live (though I don't know if they're released in the land down under; can't imagine why they shouldn't be, but that's never stopped slow releases before), or catch them on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DSR45ZF0r8&annotation_id=annotation_142634&feature=iv
There's a link to the first episode. As of this writing, there are three out, and I think they said somewhere that there's going to be seven total, but don't quote me on that.
You can either download them on Xbox live (though I don't know if they're released in the land down under; can't imagine why they shouldn't be, but that's never stopped slow releases before), or catch them on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DSR45ZF0r8&annotation_id=annotation_142634&feature=iv
There's a link to the first episode. As of this writing, there are three out, and I think they said somewhere that there's going to be seven total, but don't quote me on that.
"[Psychoanalysis element] ...would have been more effective if it hadn't TOLD me that I was being psychoanalyzed"
I couldn't agree with this more. The game really kicks itself in the balls with that warning when you boot up the game, like hyping up an awesome joke to your friends and then no one laughs because it really wasn't that funny.
I'm also with you about looking forward to Climax doing more with Silent Hill. When that happens is unknown, since the next Silent Hill is gonna be an FPS by another unknown studio. Argh.
I couldn't agree with this more. The game really kicks itself in the balls with that warning when you boot up the game, like hyping up an awesome joke to your friends and then no one laughs because it really wasn't that funny.
I'm also with you about looking forward to Climax doing more with Silent Hill. When that happens is unknown, since the next Silent Hill is gonna be an FPS by another unknown studio. Argh.
As an aside, I'm curious if Yahtzee reads these comments. But ALSO if he ever played Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Before it became a fairly standard shooter, that game had some of the best "RUN! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD RUN!" style gameplay ever. Bolting doors, tossing cupboards down behind you to deter pursuers, that's what you should be having to do.
Disregarding the fact that different people get scared in different ways (we all have different phobias), given that their opinions are in direct contradiction to each other, one of them does indeed HAVE to be right (or at least more right than the other).mjc0961 said:
Like i said, Yahtzee made a good point in that if the enemy isn't a percieved threat then the horror goes away, no matter how scary it looks. That, in my opinion, still doesn't make Shamus point any less true: If you kill the player, you kill some of the immersion (and therefore, by extension, some of the horror as well).
I wonder what your thoughts on Fatal Frame / Project Zero are since you never mentioned those games and they are my favourite horror games.
1 and 5 are wrong.
Monsters jumping out of cupboards aren't scary, to get fear going you need to make the most of the time when the player knows he's going to be attacked, but not by what. Shattered Memories messed this up by telegraphing too late and too consistently. But the moments that you know you're going to be attacked by something, but don't know what are the only ones that are ever scary.
You need to have teeth, the enemies that attack you need to present a real danger. But if they actually kill you that's when you notice they have no teeth, the best they can do is inconvenience you. As much as possible a good horror game should avoid actually killing you.
Monsters jumping out of cupboards aren't scary, to get fear going you need to make the most of the time when the player knows he's going to be attacked, but not by what. Shattered Memories messed this up by telegraphing too late and too consistently. But the moments that you know you're going to be attacked by something, but don't know what are the only ones that are ever scary.
You need to have teeth, the enemies that attack you need to present a real danger. But if they actually kill you that's when you notice they have no teeth, the best they can do is inconvenience you. As much as possible a good horror game should avoid actually killing you.
Am I the only one who thinks this was a pretty dissapointing EP? Pretty much just making a long text about the basics of horror games and underlining what he already said in ZP. I was especially dissapointed because I thought this was a really intresting game with a lot of stuff to talk about, and it even seemed in ZP that Yahtzee liked many things about this game but then he never really explains this further.
It's been a pretty long time since your Psychonauts review, Yahtzee, and I think many people would be intrested in seeing you be positive sometimes by now.
First of all, I can't believe he didn't mention how immersive the gameplay is. The way you actually read and explore the enviroment without the text screen pop-ups, the way the phone and the flashlight is used and all that. And I'm saying this even though I played SH:SM on a freakin' PSP! Of course, this makes it all the more dissapointing that the horror elements kinda blew...
I also gotta say that I loved the new take on the alternate Silent Hill. I agree with Yahtzee's comment on ZP, but the frozen town had a certain eerie beauty to it that appealed to me. And it's always nice to see something new.
It's been a pretty long time since your Psychonauts review, Yahtzee, and I think many people would be intrested in seeing you be positive sometimes by now.
First of all, I can't believe he didn't mention how immersive the gameplay is. The way you actually read and explore the enviroment without the text screen pop-ups, the way the phone and the flashlight is used and all that. And I'm saying this even though I played SH:SM on a freakin' PSP! Of course, this makes it all the more dissapointing that the horror elements kinda blew...
I also gotta say that I loved the new take on the alternate Silent Hill. I agree with Yahtzee's comment on ZP, but the frozen town had a certain eerie beauty to it that appealed to me. And it's always nice to see something new.