I purchased a WiiU because I shipped a game for it and figured I should actually have one to play on. My first two purchases were (naturally) ZombieU and Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. I’ve completed every Fatal Frame game to date (excepting FF4, which I got stuck in), and the series has always […]
I gave an IGDA talk a few years ago about the horror genre’s roots in Adventure games. You can draw a line of influence, I argued, from Colossal Cave Adventure and King’s Quest all the way through modern titles like Slender and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. This line, which crosses through all of the survival horror classics, is best understood […]
It’s pretty hard to write about Until Dawn. It is probably the highest-end horror game ever made. The art, cinematography, acting, and overall presentation set an exceptionally high standard. In addition to this impeccable production quality the gameplay is pretty great as well. The controls are good and the camera system is a glorious evolution […]
“These days, though, you have to be pretty technical before you can even aspire to crudeness.” — William Gibson, Johnny Mnemonic If you’re an indie developer, making a pixel art game is pretty attractive. First and foremost, it’s pretty cheap and easy to develop, at least in terms of art production. A one-man-band dev can put together […]
I wasn’t planning on buying a next gen console, at least not for a while. I have a giant stack of games for older consoles that I should play first, and besides, I’m out of HDMI ports. But when a friend offered me his Xbox One for $100, I couldn’t pass it up. The only game […]
Platforms: Xbox360, PC Release Date: 2012-02-22 Regions: USA Japan Europe Chris’s Rating: ★★★★ Small, tight, and fascinating, this short follow-up is better than the original Alan Wake. “I think the major is just about to fall asleep over his typewriter-although his fingers are still racing feverishly over the keys…” “It’s a creepy thought.” “This is […]
Platforms: Xbox360 Release Date: 2011-06-09 Regions: USA Japan Europe Chris’s Rating: ☆☆☆☆ A lame zombie brawler is rendered unplayable by its motion control scheme. Rise of Nightmares is a first-person horror beat-em-up that relies on the Kinect sensor for controls. You pivot your shoulders left and right to turn, put your foot forward to walk, […]
Platforms: PSX Release Date: 1998-03-26 Regions: Japan Chris’s Rating: ☆☆☆☆ An extremely dated exercise in unwavering linearity, …Iru! is only interesting when contrasted with better games. I have a huge collection of obscure horror games that I have amassed over the years. Most of them are Japan-only PS1 releases, and these days they are neigh […]
Platforms: Xbox360, PS3 Release Date: 2012-03-13 Regions: USA Japan Europe Chris’s Rating: ★☆☆☆ A disappointing entry in the Silent Hill series, Downpour’s flaws stem from a few major design decisions. Silent Hill Downpour is a disappointing game. It is clearly the worst Silent Hill game to date, and it was justly panned by the press. […]
Platforms: Xbox360, PS3 Release Date: 2012-01-11 Regions: USA Europe Chris’s Rating: ☆☆☆☆ An interesting idea is completely ruined by mechanical flaws and lackluster design. Amy is one of those games that sounds great on paper. Designed by Paul Cuisset, a veteran game developer famous for creating the seminal Flashback (one of my favorites), Amy is […]