Gamertell

Happy Halloween everyone! In honor of the spookiest holiday of the year and the fortunate (or is it misfortunate) coincidence that my column would land on this date, I decided that it would be a good day to honor some particularly spooky Japanese video games.

All of the games below have never been released in the US, so hopefully you’ll learn about something scary and new that would delight while possibly frightening you. Then tonight, go out and trick or treat, party, watch a spooky movie or play a spooky game in honor of the holiday. I’m having two wisdom teeth removed today, so I know I’m in for a fright…

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I am a coward.

At sleepovers in my childhood, I’d close my eyes during particularly scary portions of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, I’m 25 years old and still can’t listen to Reagan’s “possessed” voice in The Exorcist and I only was able to watch about a half hour of the remake of The Omen. For a brief time after watching all of The Exorcism of Emily Rose, I would make a conscious decision to be in bed and asleep by 3am.

But I’d like to think I’m getting better, and its all because of Fatal Frame.

It all started around Halloween in 2002. I was in college, and taking a night Japanese class with my friends Shawna and Vivienne (not their real names). Often, when class would get out, we’d feel like actually doing something, rather than going home, studying and getting to bed. You know - productive stuff.

Shawna was, and still is, a horror game fan - and good at it too. She suggested we rent Fatal Frame from Blockbuster and return to Vivienne’s nearby home for a game-a-thon. Vivienne and I had never heard of the game, but Shawna made it sound interesting, so we instantly agreed. We figured it may help us get in the spirit of the season…

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There’s no better time to play horror games than now. Halloween is just around the bend so it’s high time we start shoving as many horror titles into our brains as physically possible. Case in point - The Suffering. The Suffering is now available through FileFront for free thanks to the United States Air Force (so expect a few ads). If that doesn’t scare you off, then brace yourself.

The Suffering was published by Midway back in 2004. You play as a man named Torque who’s sentenced to the penitentiary for…

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In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve pretty much made it my mission to make sure each and every one of you are scared senseless this Halloween. The latest game I’m sending your way isn’t exactly scary but it’s fitting for this time of year.

The Darkness was a really fun game when it was released in 2007. You can now pick it up on Amazon for a mere $5. Yep, for less than a typical value meal at your favorite fast food establishment, you can be the proud owner of The Darkness for Xbox 360.

The Darkness is based on a comic book but it’s not totally necessary to know the game’s canon to get into it. This gritty first-person game is..

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Yes it’s a big let down that Resident Evil 5 won’t be coming out this year along with all the other big games but we will still get our yearly Resident Evil fix. It won’t be a game this time around but instead the animated feature Resident Evil: Degeneration is coming to home video, guaranteeing we get our annual dose of RE creepiness all the same. Degeneration will be coming out on December 30, 2008 on Blu-ray, DVD and PSP.

Degeneration is a computer-generated movie that takes place seven years after Raccoon City was destroyed by the government. This time our zombie splattering heroes are trapped inside Harvardville airport when an outbreak of zombie madness…

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During Comic Con 2008, many games and comics were featured. And who wouldn’t want to attend a special preview of today’s most talented directors and animators create independent film masterpieces. The Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival consisted of movies that fell into seven categories: action/adventure, animation, comics-oriented, documentary, humor/parody, horror and science fiction/fantasy. On July 27, 2008, the top films in each category were announced and awarded.

This year’s Comic-Con International: Independent Film Festival are…

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Condemned 2 hits store shelves this week smashing together two for no-brainers gamers: frights and first-person combat. It’s a formula that’s looked tempting on paper for a number of developers over the years, and, from time to time, has led to some top-notch experiences. Here’s a short run down of other notable shots at the FPS horror sub-genre.

+Doom (MS-DOS, 1993)—Doom took a brooding, vivid depiction of hell, sprinkled in some fierce firepower, and blew everyone away. It wasn’t just that it looked, sounded and played better than anything before, it also put you right in the middle of it. It seems like a foregone conclusion today, but the game’s message of immersion was so stark, it was frightening.

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EA has announced that its creepy survival horror game Dead Space will release on October 28, 2008 - just in time for Halloween. GameLife reports that the game is set in space, on a ship in which all the space miners have been eaten/destroyed by some horrific evil they’ve dug up. It sounds sort of like Alien meets Doom, though the actual gameplay is said to resemble traditional survival horror fare. The game is slated for simultaneous release on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

It’s a fitting date for such a creepy game. After all, nothing is better on Halloween night than a horror game binge. Here’s to hoping that Dead Space lives up to its name and gives gamers massive chills this October.

Read [GameLife]

• Gamertell Review: Dead Space Downfall on DVD, Blu-ray
• Playstation Store Update: Black Friday and Thanksgiving 2008 edition
• Playstation Store Update for the week of November 20-26, 2008

Clive Thompson had an excellent editorial yesterday on the Wired blog  about horror videogames delivering better thrills than recent horror films. His argument touched on the fact that games are inherently subjective (ie. you are the one in danger, as opposed to vicariously watching a character on a screen be in danger) along with Hollywood’s recent propensity for gore over suspense (Saw, Hostel, etc. aren’t very big on subtlety).

It’s a great read but Thompson only touches briefly on one of the most crucial elements of creating a successful horror experience in either a game or a film -  sound design. Sound is everything when it comes to…

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The cast list has been announced for Uwe Boll’s latest game-based movie masterpiece, including the talents of Rick Yune (Fast and the Furious, Die Another Day), Lance Hendriksen (Pumpkinhead, Aliens) and Ralf Moeller (Far Cry, Postal, Seed). The storyline will involve a band of witch hunters and their prey.

The film is set to begin shooting…

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