Splatterhouse in Australia?

[Rano]

I would say that Dead Rising 2, to some extent at least, satisfies the criteria with weapon choices and limb damage though is pretty weak in other categories. gore in video games can be excessive yet for some games (God Of War series for example)it is part of the reward that killing creatures using specific weapons or techniques gives more points. its as simple as the old combo system. so for this "perfect game" perhaps the old 'hit,hit,grapple' combo could be used with the grappling hook for hilarious effects. and one last suggestion: make the cable for the grappling hook some kind of high tensile piano wire, good fro slicing

 

[internetzealot1]

Dead enemy carcasses should still be able to bleed, be torn apart etc.

Enemies should emit some sort of sound when hit to convey that they are in pain.

 

[L4Y Duke]

Faulty memory, Yahtzee? [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2176-Dead-Rising-2]

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Here's one that somebody may have used already!

For certain melee weapons (like glass) and certain ranged weapons (like the bow and arrow) make sure arrows or what have you stick into the flesh and stay there, possibly causing residual damage. Also, taking a note from your suggestion of enemies clutching an area which has received critical damage, how about having enemies reach for, pull out and, use as a weapon any glass, knives, shuriken or, what have you already embedded in their fleshy flab.

 

[duchaked]

my mind is still on the thought of going to the library to pick up some Tin Tin comics xD

 

[SkyC]

I personally think that smaller numbers of enemies who are more difficult to kill and require many damaging attacks would be more indulging of gore. When you mass enemies the gore becomes mindless and easy. But if there are one or two enemies at a time that you have to slowly and constantly bludgeon them to death--each event of gore festers in your mind between the next event of gore, and at the end of the murder all you can think of is the moments in between the strikes--fully realizing the gore as important.

 

[Optimystic]

He reviewed Halo Wars that one time.

Also Bryeutal Legend, that was an RTS too.

Most of Yahtzee's suggestions were spot on, though I think he should have said something about the 2D segments.

 

[RandV80]

A lot of these suggestions apply to off my favourite older but classic PC games, Carmageddon and Die By the Sword. Apart from the graphics limitation due to the graphics back in the day, but damn did they ever try. Between the two you got pretty much every point covered off.

 

[Metropocalypse]

Didn't feel like reading all the comments, so I apologize if this is a repeat.

I think what would make these games more appealing to the horror fan base - since most of these games seem to have a pseudo-horror feel to it - is to have a boss monster go against that coloring and dismemberment scheme Yahtzee is going for.

Ideally for me, I was thinking of a much larger than human, reoccurring boss monster, who I suppose looks like you pulled Andre the Giant inside out; and let me explain why this works at least for me:

- Reoccurring because if the first few appearances lead more to a survival feel to it, you get both the greater sense of accomplishment for killing it later, but you also get that nice "Oh, god, now I have to try and kill this thing? I'm gonna die!" mentality on the last encounter, whereas the first two encounters (cause any more is overkill to me) that really is the case if you try to kill him.

- Design because its a nice contrast to the rest of the enemies. You hear the gore, you know you're hitting it, you should be hurting it, but you can't tell. He should seem damn near invincible until, I would say, about a third of the way through his health when you get the first physical signs that he's mortal and hurting. Then of course about the 66-80% point when he starts crippling about in disbelief that something so insignificant can hurt him, but at that point we're getting too far into my personal taste I would think.

Anyway, that's just what I'm thinking.

That sounds awfully like Pyramid head

 

[Moffman]

Pretty decent article, I'd agree with most of what you said. Like the grappling hook idea but this can be pushed to utter limits. Killing gets very boring if you only have a couple of ways to kill. Left 4 dead 2 does a nice variety, which keeps me coming back: melee, pistol, machine gun, shotgun and sniper are plenty for an FPS because they all give a different visceral sense when killing the legions of undead... sorry infected.

I find the best gore beat-em-ups/ action adventure would use items like the grappling hook and maybe the force like powers in Force Unleashed? Except without the lightening being over powered. If a design team is good they could create a whole range of enemies that all require different tactics either by combining the moves or with some just a good ol button mash. I think that would give extremely high depth to the battle system... except writing an tutorial that doesn't impede the flow of the game would be a huge challenge.

 

[Moffman]

I should give more examples of the killing thing... I'm not a good designer though

1) Heavy attack to destroy shield- button mash the rest.
2) Enemy has a force field, use lightening to disrupt it.... button mash.
3) an enemy crawls on all fours, its belly is the weakness- launch the enemy and slice it from beneath.
4)Enemy is weak from behind, dodge it's slow attack and tear out its spine.
5) Enemy heavily armoured bar its head, concentrate on using high attacks.

That's 5, admittedly pretty bad ones but just these five would offer a lot more challenge and variety than most current games, especially if you were attacked by mixed groups.
Thoughts any one?

 

[samaugsch]

I also find it odd that Splatterhouse was allowed in Australia.

One as side note:

I wander if he is ever going to review Civilization 5, like he said he might do in case he started to explore more generations.

Coming to think of it, does he ever review anything that isn't a shooter, platformer, RPG, or a racing game?

He has reviewed SimCity Societies, Spore, and the Sims 3.

 

[mstieler]

Three words: Shadows of Rome. This was an epic carnagefest back on the PS2, with bludgeoning weapons able to break limbs (with accompanying gimping of said limb), slashing weapons could sever limbs, heads, even torsos clean in half. You could pick up dismembered body parts to use as new bludgeoning weapons, or even pick up a decapitated head and chuck it into the crowd for more (whatever the hell the game had you going for; popularity? charisma? something like that).

I don't think it had a grappling hook, but the length some of the weapons reached could easily work in that favor.

And ye, you could break all of a person's limbs and watch them flail around on the ground. Can't remember what happened if you severed more than one limb, but I'm pretty sure it was close to death. And with a "decisive" enough swing from a bladed weapon, you got multi-part dismemberings/decapitations, however that worked.

 

[Skunkrocker]

Yahtzee, you do realize you described MadWorld to a tee here? And, to quote, you felt that MadWorld was a "six to eight hour game with enough ideas to fill a three hour game" but that you did have fun with it, and your biggest complaint simply being it was on the Wii. So with more content and better controls, you'd have given it a much better review? I'm surprised you didn't actually say this in the article, because the point is pretty obvious. Maybe, though, you didn't make the point because you knew Sega wouldn't listen... they're still making Sonic games and like you said the only reason it had notoriety in the first place was because it was on a Nintendo console.

 

[Demodeus]

Say Yahtzee, have you ever played Postal 2? You should.

 

[Frostbite3789]

It sounds a whole lot like you just designed Dead Rising 2 there. Body part removal. Lots of gore that gets on the player character and on the floor. You can occasionally grab zombie's body parts upon killing them. Lots of satisfying ways to off zombies. Rewards for killing them.

 

[Dastardly]

Extra Punctuation: Splatterhouse in Australia?

Yahtzee offers some suggestions on how to maximize blood and gore.

Read Full Article

Animations, animations, animations.

Too much damned time and energy are spent on textures. Not nearly enough is spent, in most games, on the animations. It's the way that something moves that makes it feel real--which, on an unrelated note, is why Pixar beats the AllFuck out of Dreamworks in the animation business. The characters don't look real, but they feel real.

Animations and game physics convey that sense of mass and substance that is necessary for the mind to register something as "getting hit" or "being chopped off." Speaking of which, the animations need to include the removal of the limb. The actual process of the limb coming detached. Otherwise, you've got a real-looking person... and then a real-looking person standing next to a real-looking severed limb. It's the connective bits (literally and figuratively) that sell the realism.

This is what made the first Hostel far more painful to watch than the second. Neither were "great" movies, but the first must at least be called "effective." The camera stays on the subject during the whole process of each cut/stab/burn/peel. The camera refuses to flinch, so you have to. Things weren't fast and obscured by sprays of blood. They were slower, more highly visible. It's these kinds of visuals that sell the gore--not just what comes off or goes in, but how it happens.

At that point, all you need are good sound effects. Exaggerated is one thing, sure, like you said. The descriptors you gave were also good. But from a technical standpoint, the one thing that ruins most sound effects is too much high-end. Larger objects have lower resonant frequencies, so using "bass-ier" sound effects helps to convey that sense of weight. Same goes for guns. High, sharp "pop pop" sounds don't do it. Some low-frequency "gwoohm!" type stuff is what you need.

This also allows a contrast in sounds. Your reloading, talking, enemy claws and fangs clicking, all that kind of stuff can occupy the higher end. With an increase in the range of frequencies being represented, your soundscape is larger and deeper. Your caverns will be more cavernous. You'll look heavier, feel heavier, and sound heavier. And this is sounding more and more like I'm lapsing into another love letter to your mom.

Eh, basically, smoother and heavier animations, lower and heavier sounds.

 

[teisjm]

I'd think all the dynamic blood splatter would be hard to make, particle systems are a ***** towards render-time in 3D graphics.
Dunno how it works with game-engines, haven't worked with that yet, but i assume they can't magically ignore render-time, hence the use of normals maps on ridiculously low-poly game-models, since it has to render in real-time.

 

[k-ossuburb]

"If you have changes or additions to suggest for this idealistic fun-violence code of conduct, why not mention them in the comments?"

You read the comments?

 

[Egillswordguy]

I remember in the original MediEvil where if you would run out of amunition for range wepons you could throw your arm like a boomerang. Also that game had pretty fun set pieces, AND EVERY SINGLE ONE was inspiered by gothic horror.