New "Silent Hill" videogame

Is that Kirby Sweetman the rare films dealer? (Or perhaps he's best known under the guise of Daryl Dixon, zombie slayer...)

I've never owned a Playstation so I missed on this series. I ended up playing the second game as a port for PC and I enjoyed it a lot. The movie was alright too, and had a great atmosphere. The second movie, eh, the least said about it the better. Anyway, if this isn't a playstation exclusive, I might play it.

Hell-Ghost: yes, the score by Akira Yamaoka is legendary in the gaming community, and outside of it too! (parts of it were even used in the movie as is, without any rearrangement or re-recordings). An amazing piece of work, eerie, noisy, and sometimes oddly melodic.
 
Hell-Ghost said:
I do not play video-games (nor will I ever) yet I am an admirer of the Silent Hill franchise.
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It's one of the few games to have had a narrative like Resident Evil , Dead Space, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VII, Syndicate, Twisted Metal, that sought to be some kind of reflection on society … they're games created to be more than games .

The important thing about them being that as a kid a lot of them were Japanese , were being played by everyone I knew, so it was some of the little alien outside cultural criticism that was ever really prominent in pop culture like outside of Hollywood and whatever. Compare Metal Gear Solid to Terminator. It says something very different about the nature of evil, technology and capitalism, etc than the other film does. The evil in Terminator has no human responsibility to it, at its core. Whereas Metal Gear Solid really grabs you by the balls and presented a world politics that wasn't really known thought about in that way at that time .

mostly I don't blame you for not playing video games because the really good ones are few and far between but I think in the past the really good ones were a real 'event' , it's not like today where a new game comes out every other day just made to make money.
 
mostly I don't blame you for not playing video games because the really good ones are few and far between but I think in the past the really good ones were a real 'event' --SpookyDread
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True, true, true.

I built my first desktop in 20003. A few months before, a friend had given me his old HP laptop (weighed a ton!) for fifty bucks. It was old with 16 Mb. Of ram (it had been upgraded) and probably went for 3 or 4 grand when new.

I had never touched a computer before. I played with the thing for a short time and then heard from some source that a Lovecraft-inspired game called Doom 3 was coming out for the pc. I was curious. Back then a good gaming rig could easily run 5 grand or so and I thought it might be interesting to see this game on the highest settings. (Yes, and even stranger is the fact I had never before played or shown interest in video games).

For a month I studied up at the library until I was confident I had a reasonable chance of building a gaming rig (Again, back then you could save big bucks by ‘rolling your own’ and financially it didn’t make sense to go any other way.

Got the parts from Amazon. Built the thing over a period of 2 days (man, that was lazy, but it was probably just lack of confidence). I even got the case wires right first time. So I fired it up with the switch on the psu and…Nothing other than a fan and some lights…briefly.

Called my friend John in Oregon, a computer whiz and general genius (he was the model for the character Jim in The Box) and described my predicament. I had already rechecked and reseated everything I could.

“When I turn on the power supply it doesn’t go into the bios,” I said.

He thought for a minute.

“What happens when you hit the power button?” he asked.

OK, in fairness to myself, the power button comes already installed and wired. Yeah, I should have caught on hooking up the case wires…but I thought the circular indentation on the front panel was a bit of fancy sculpting design.

I had built successfully a fine pc—I pressed the power button and it came to Life immediately—but I didn’t have a clue how to start it.

Doom 3 was great.
 
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I don't know if you have ever played Dead Space but its probably the most relevant cultural criticism and greatest weird supernatural horror novel for many years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEVmDaDM5xw

It's not just inspired by Lovecraft stories and movies like The Thing, it's saying something about the current new age religious marketplace , charismatic Christianity.. "Unitology" is S.Korean charismatic worship.. the Moonies? yeah… it criticizes scientology, at higher levels of which is a lot of esoteric stuff, and anyway it presents a link between mysticism , madness, schizophrenia, psychosis, and well ghost worship. The whole story originates on a mining ship called the USG-Ishimura (some foreign Japanese oriental make!) .

Hilariously poignant compared to the current crop of horror literature. Doesn't attempt to be cryptic in any way. It's the kind of video game that demands serious literary study which is not commonly given to media like films and video games.

I've pretty much vowed that as a literary critic and English major I'll also study film as well, at Concordia I'm at the best school for that too, as far as studies in genre, and I'm angry actually that I couldn't also do the same kind of work in video games. There's been a course at Concordia on video games, but I don't think the faculty really understands the medium, it's ontology or way of thinking about reality and so on.

and yeah notice the life-meter down the length of the spinal column . Videogames do something at expressing the numinous in ways not possible in film or literature. It's an extra degree of separation towards divinity.. as a play or film is literature for performance, video games are performance + immersion + further articulations about the nature of the self and mind , video games have a HUD, and inventory. uh yeah.
 
I love Dead Space. The first game is a must for anyone who lives horror and videogames. It's a survival horror in space, with a lot of emphasis put in atmosphere and world-building. And if you like it, 2 and 3 continue the story of Isaac Clarke, space engineer and reluctant necromorph slayer.

Also, a bit of a brilliant videogame diegetics is that in all three games the HUD is built into your space suit, or is projected as a hologram from it. That was pretty interesting, me thinks.
 
The Dead Space games were quite good and I particularly liked the way cutscenes were cleverly integrated into the gameplay. I also enjoyed the Stalker series, particularly the original, as well as little known classics like Clive Barker’s Undying. I suspect Bioshock Infinite may be the last pc game I play. It was good with stylish graphics but pc gaming isn’t even the shadow of what it once was.
I hope I’m wrong and there’s a rebirth but I don’t see it.
 
Bioshock Infinite was gorgeous and the story was pretty good. But gameplay wise it bored me. Finishing it felt more like a chore than a challenge. I'm not sure what went wrong there.

There's a good Lovecraftian game, Call of Chulthu: The Dark Corners of the Earth. It's loosely based on "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", but throws in references and elements from a myriad other stories. It has a "madness" system, where your character starts going insane when you see something horrible. It's not a five-star game (more like three), but it's a good experience for Lovecraft fans. Sadly the game underperformed and plans for a sequel got scrapped.
 
There's a good Lovecraftian game, Call of Chulthu: The Dark Corners of the Earth. It's loosely based on "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", but throws in references and elements from a myriad other stories. It has a "madness" system, where your character starts going insane when you see something horrible. It's not a five-star game (more like three), but it's a good experience for Lovecraft fans. Sadly the game underperformed and plans for a sequel got scrapped.--ramonoski.
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I agree it's a good one. J. Edgar Hoover and a shoggoth! What more could we ask?
 
Games are just too expensive to make today and companies can no longer afford to take any risks. I really enjoyed Resident Evil 5 because I was able to play co-op with my wife but getting the complete inventory was a total grind. I was really excited for Resident Evil 6 but it was a total let down. Running the gauntlet in the Resident Evil 5 levels was simply more fun. I don't know what is wrong with the other game in the series but fans were demanding a more puzzle solving , old school departure, and I thought for a co-op game that the arcade gauntlet style was the right direction to go into. My wife is hardcore into video games more than I am . and I consider myself pretty hardcore. I remember when hardcore gamer actually meant something lol things are really different today . It's sad but there isn't much to be really hardcore about anymore.
 
Darrel Schweitzer wrote once that while a lot of people were busy arguing over whether the horror boom of the 70’s and 80\s was dying something funny happened…the Horror Boom died. Same thing was true for pc gaming. It died and a lot of people didn’t notice until long after the fact. At one time for inventiveness and great graphics nothing could touch the best pc games. Today all we have is a ghost to remind us.
 
Druidic said:
Darrel Schweitzer wrote once that while a lot of people were busy arguing over whether the horror boom of the 70’s and 60\s was dying something funny happened…the Horror Boom died. Same thing was true for pc gaming. It died and a lot of people didn’t notice until long after the fact. At one time for inventiveness and great graphics nothing could touch the best pc games. Today all we have is a ghost to remind us.
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That was pretty much the problem with Dead Space.. I really liked Dead Space 2, but was let down by Dead Space 3. There were rumours about EA pressuring them on deadlines , happening with a lot of companies, and when I got to the ending it was the most anti-climatic thing ever I was like.. but I've already played Eternal Darkness! :roll eyes:

The big thing now seems to be television series. like Under The Dome and stuff . There are still some really exceptional games like Grand Theft Auto 5 . But the thing is Rockstar has been working on that for eons, and for their hard work it payed off. Rockstar still has all of their integrity.

Hurray for Rockstar seriously.
 
Dead Space 3 had the same problem that Alan Wake had: at the end the story doesn't conclude, just stops. And this is because the actual ending was saved for a downloadable content release—which has an extra price. I really don't like that. I think DLC should focus on side missions, cut content, new maps or costumes, etc. But not the actual denouement of the 8+ hours story you've been following. Not cool, game publishers. (That said, both games' DLC end on a cliffhanger anyway. Alan Wake 2 and Dead Space 4 coming not soon, but eventually.) Alan Wake was good, incidentally. Another horror game worth checking out, provided you don't mind that "it doesn't end, just sort of stops". Or are willing to pony up for the DLC, of course.*

Anyway. I think my biggest issue with modern gaming is that the bulk of them is taking either of two paths: A) better graphics means better games, everything else can take the backseat or be disregarded entirely; and B) games should be like interactive movies, and here's six hours worth of cutscenes to "enhance" your experience.

Whatever happened to the days where you popped in Mario or Contra and were playing right away? And those games are still a blast even today. I'd rather replay Megaman 2 than sit through the 20-minutes introduction and tutorial of, say, Assassin's Creed or something like that before I can actually start playing it.

* imagine if book publishers did that... "Here's Thomas Ligotti's Spectral Link. Hope you enjoy it. btw, the last two sections of 'the small people' are being released in September as a separate chapbook, so be sure to purchase that too if you want to read the conclusion!"
 
I'm a huge gamer myself and have been since my dad and I spent many nights programming simple games back in the 80s. The whole scene has shifted greatly, no doubt, but I feel it's a very interesting time to be active in the gaming scene with the emergence of Kickstarter and similar resources. The whole argument that companies aren't making games because they are too expensive isn't all that solid considering these campaigns have shown that people are willing to pay for exceptional games(Star Citizen for example; $2,000,000 pledged on a $500,000 goal). The problem is that most people who play games are the mouthdrooling Call Of Duty weeked-warrior types who will buy whatever they are told is the best. Why would big-business developers try to innovate when they don't have to? They can literally make the same game over and over, charge $60 for it and market it in such a way that makes it appear to be the greatest thing since the last game they made, and the mindless drones will eat it up without question. Innovation is happening, though. Just look at the Greenlight section on Steam or Kickstarter in general. Guild Wars 2 is another great example of a company taking huge leaps to revolutionize a genre. While certain systems might not have turned out as well as they intended, their vision DID fundamentally change the genre in positive ways.

Trine, Mind: Path To Thalamus(Created by ONE dude), Bothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Bastion, Transistor, Bioshock, LIMBO, Dear Esther, The Swapper; these are all games I have played recently and found to be not only amazing experiences, but wonderful actual games as well. I do agree that somewhere along the line the concept of video games being actual games became lost to narritive-driven systems that do not translate well to the inherent nature of the platform. But, I think that is beginning to change as games like Mind:Path to Thalamus, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and Dear Esther have shown. These games present new ways to tell stories within virtual, interactive worlds that actually work really well. Brilliant and often breathtaking, I truly believe that these types of games are just the beginning in making the medium a true platform for artistic creation.

As far as the PC platform goes, there is a great deal of overlap now between them and consoles, but the role the PC has in the market is definitely unique and very much exclusive to the platform. Skyrim, for example, can essentially be any fantasy game you want it to be thanks to the passion of the mod community, which cannot and does not exist in the realm of consoles. World of Warcraft still has 7 million people playing it after it's release 10 years ago and it also has a rich and thriving competitive scene not only in PvP but also PvE. Like all MMORPGs. It is also completely reliant on the exclusive benefits of the PC platform. Star Citizen is without question one of the most ambitious PC exclusive games I have ever seen in my entire life, and it's shaping up to be everything Chris Roberts said it would be.

It's one thing to dislike the direction of PC gaming and gaming in general. And that is completely fine and understandable. There are many things I myself dislike about some of the current trends and a few years ago I stopped gaming altogether because I felt there was little life in the PC platform. But, brilliant and fun games are definitely out there and the PC platform still offers the greatest gaming experience not only from the player side but also the development side. There still really isn't any question about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyQU-AfAgno
 
It’s all subjective to an extent but there are some objective points.
PC Gaming was largely associated with single player shooters like Unreal and Half Life because the pc allowed developers to push the graphic envelope as far as they could at the time, and also because of the greater control given by mouse and keyboard. The games you mention, Cnev, are no doubt good games but I doubt if any would appeal to me. My interest is not with video games in general but only exclusively designed single player shooters for the pc. And they will be back…never again. For me they defined the difference between gaming on a console and a computer...

Hey, Ramonoski, that chase sequence was pretty good in Dark Corners, followed Lovecraft’s escape from the Gilman quite closely.
 
Druidic said:
It’s all subjective to an extent but there are some objective points.
PC Gaming was largely associated with single player shooters like Unreal and Half Life because the pc allowed developers to push the graphic envelope as far as they could at the time, and also because of the greater control given by mouse and keyboard. The games you mention, Cnev, are no doubt good games but I doubt if any would appeal to me. My interest is not with video games in general but only exclusively designed single player shooters for the pc. And they will be back…never again. For me they defined the difference between gaming on a console and a computer...

Hey, Ramonoski, that chase sequence was pretty good in Dark Corners, followed Lovecraft’s escape from the Gilman quite closely.
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I'm a console gamer responding to you in a flame suit. I think there were games on consoles like Twisted Metal , Legacy Of Kain Soul Reaver or God Of War that were fun beyond the capabilities of mouse and keyboard . I'm a proponent of the Sony Dual-Analog sticks. I like games like Jak & Daxter, and Demon's Souls. I know those games can work on PC as well but I've never heard of any game pad the likes of the dual analog set up.

the Console gaming platform allowed for a different kind of gaming experience that I prefer over PC gaming .

yeah I never bothered to get the Dead Space 3 content I was so let down. I'll probably pony it up eventually though anyway. Even if a company releases a half ass somewhat shitty game I guess I'm a sucker and I'll buy the product anyway .

God Of War Ascension. ugh

If I like a company/game designer i'll buy stuff from them. Even if they release a lacklustre product , I have faith :drunk:
 
Of course, guys, the pc games often came with a secret hidden game for free.
Your participation was mandatory.
It was called "Try To Get This Damn Game Installed And Running."

Yes, desperately editing config files, trying to find another human being on the Net that had managed to achieve the impossible, just wanting to know that somehow it was possible to get the blasted thing up and running without waiting days, weeks or months for a patch that might never come...
It was one hell of a Game. And it was Free. All it cost was frustration and your sanity.
 
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