Video Games

[Dr. Zirk]

I've got an unused copy of the Alice PC game that I can donate if anyone wants it. Somehow I never really got hooked on PC games, although the brief time I devoted to this one was not without rewards - the game does have a striking (if sort of primitive) visual style.

I have no idea how it will run on Win2000, but if anyone wants my copy, I can mail it to you (at least within the US or Canada - I'm a poor working stiff).

[unknown]

I was about to suggest the Silent Hill series...and yes...the second one is the best

[damo]

like you im not a big gamer. get through about three a year. but check out 'the suffering'. you play a guy who MIGHT have murdered his family and has been sent to this horrible, island-based prison. the boss is a bit of a dabbler and manages to bring hellish creatures to the fore, which go through the populace in no time, leaving you to make your way to freedom while battling various freaky monsters. its a third-person shooter (the only kind i play, apart from the odd first person), but you can also play it first person. well spooky, great prison, and its even got a 'haunted prison' documentary.
currently playing psi-ops by the same company. also pretty dark and a great game.
Liked the theme of silent hill, but not enough action – found it a bit plodding.

[unknown]

Quote Originally Posted by DeathfareDevil";p=&quot

Quote Originally Posted by Aetherwing";p=&quot My daughter has a PC game that seems extremely Liggottian. It's called ALICE, and is a twisted insane asylum version of Lewis Carroll...The Cheshire Cat, who will appear sporadically to offer cryptic clues, looks like a Cat of Tindalos. It's a really creepy game, I must say. Where does that reference, Tindalos, come from? It's been a while since my last Lovecraft binge. In the thread about bands, I mentioned one called Epoch Of Unlight -- they recorded a song called "Hounds Of Tindalos," and I've never figured out where the name originated. (It IS Lovecraft, though, right?)

EoU's latest album is ####ing great

[yellowish haze]

I liked the second part of Silent Hill but it was way too scary for me. Im more into atmospheric adventure games, with less shooting and more puzzles. Arcane is definitely this type of a game. I would also recommend a french game "Dracula:Resurrection" and it's sequel "Dracula:The Last Sanctuary". It has some very disturbing images and fantastic settings - as if taken directly from the real Transylvania (believe me, I've been there)!

[The Silent One]

Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Bantham";p=&quot

Quote Originally Posted by DeathfareDevil";p=&quot Where does that reference, Tindalos, come from? It's been a while since my last Lovecraft binge. In the thread about bands, I mentioned one called Epoch Of Unlight -- they recorded a song called "Hounds Of Tindalos," and I've never figured out where the name originated. (It IS Lovecraft, though, right?) "The Hounds of Tindalos" was actually written by Frank Belknap Long, who was considered a member of The Lovecraft Circle. The story is within the Lovecraft Mythos vein, however. "The Hound", written by Lovecraft, may have been the basis for the further design by Long. I do not recall the creatures being mentioned in full title by Lovecraft, though I stand ready for someone to correct me. While a devout fan of Lovecraft, I certainly do not consider myself a scholar in such matters. I will leave it to Aetherwing and The Silent One to expound on the finer points related to the crytozoology and dark history of The Hounds of Tindalos. Those two will no doubt have volumes to add to my quaint observations, as they are quite mad to the point that I suspect both of regularly imbibing space mead.

Thank you, my good sir ! The byakhee will be dismissed. Khyqh'khruch Hquheshha'hh! Anyway, the Hounds of Tindalos are horrid pan-dimensional beasties, born of the angles of time as we were born of its curves. They lust for some innate quality in normal life that they have not, and viciously hunt down makers of paradoxes and time-travellers in general. All that seems to remain of their victims is a pus-like bluish green substance. My modern theory: antimatter exposure. Their appearance is most likely not canine, likely simply indescribable. As an author, I will be mentioning them in my short fiction "The Grey Simulacrum".

[Karnos]

Quote Originally Posted by unknown";p=&quot

I was about to suggest the Silent Hill series...and yes...the second one is the best

Yeah, I also like the Silent Hill games, although I think the last two in the series (3 and 4) have been rather bland, although 4 did pack a good punch, once you start walking down the almost endless spiraling stair...

But the first two are great, 2 being the most "personal" storyline (It actually affected me) and 1 being the most hellish and thus my favorite one. Matt Cardin's fiction often reminds me of the fleshy decay of Silent Hill 1' aesthetic.

[paeng]

Has anyone played the Call of Cthulhu game? I am told that it received mixed reviews and that its publisher experienced financial difficulties. A recent article from Escapist discusses Lovecraft-inspired computer games and explains why they have not been very successful.

[Dr. Bantham]

Quote Originally Posted by paeng

Has anyone played the Call of Cthulhu game? I am told that it received mixed reviews and that its publisher experienced financial difficulties. A recent article from Escapist discusses Lovecraft-inspired computer games and explains why they have not been very successful.

I own Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth for the X-Box. The controls were awkward and there were points of insane difficulty which ruined the game for me. I gave up playing it altogether after reaching a point in the game where I was continually dying and having to re-trace my steps in a perpetual cycle of death. Otherwise, the graphics and story were done rather well.

[simon p. murphy]

I played through 'Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth' last year. I enjoyed the game, but I should mention that I found it to be entertaining in a way quite different to the way I would enjoy a Lovecraft tale.

I haven't read the article about Lovecraftian games and why they don't succeed, but my own impression is that they seem built around the (I think mistaken) premise that what made Lovecraft's fiction so frightening was his monsters. I think this a big although ubiquitous misconception.

You can't expect to feel a Lovecraftian pang of supernatural horror when you have the power to lay waste to a horde of Deep Ones with a side-by-side 12g. What true horror can be defeated in such a mundane way? In Lovecraft's tales we'd be lucky if we caught even a glimpse of his beasties.

I liked DCotE because it was what I'd call a 'historical shooter', and had some novel elements such as the sanity system; but the constant drove of humanly-defeatable enemies (while cleverly realised by the visual designers) had little more than a desensitizing effect.

I also own Chaosium's pen and paper RPG 'Call of Cthulhu', but I've never played a game of this where the key elements of a Lovecraftian tale have dominated - narrative blurring, suggestion, and painstaking restraint. More to do with who is running the session than the system itself which is very well done.