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Spooky Games

edited April 2009 in GeekNights
Tonight on GeekNights we discuss the scariness of video games. In the news, Wii Motion Plus is really coming, and Mike Tyson's Intergalactic Power Punch is released.
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  • Meta: The things of the day aren't showing up in the RSS feed. Nor, it seems, in your forum posts.

    Note on the Aladdin game: it has the only cheat code I still remember. ABBAABBA took you directly to the next level.

    Note on "Spooky" games: the scariest game I've ever played is the Marine section of Alien vs Predator. I think it helped that it made me think of the appropriate moments from the film, but sneaking through passages knowing there are facehuggers and aliens about freaked me out. Also, if I remember rightly, you could use a torch or the motion tracker... but not at the same time. So could see when an alien was coming, but not see it, and then switch to the torch. Of course, if you didn't immediately see the alien you were pretty much screwed. Add that it didn't have many save points and you were REALLY afraid of dying. No other video game has come close to it in terms of scariness.
  • Meta: The things of the day aren't showing up in the RSS feed. Nor, it seems, in your forum posts.
    Try going to

    http://www.frontrowcrew.com/feeds/totd
  • Meta: The things of the day aren't showing up in the RSS feed. Nor, it seems, in your forum posts.
    Try going to

    http://www.frontrowcrew.com/feeds/totd
    So now I have to subscribe to two feeds; one for the news links and another for the thing of the day links?
  • So now I have to subscribe to two feeds; one for the news links and another for the thing of the day links?
    No, I guess I'll do something about it.
  • edited April 2009
    Good podcast; the DOOM video was a really interesting piece of video game history.
    Post edited by Rym on
  • edited April 2009
    I think the reason people are scared by games like Silent Hill or Condemned is because they want to be scared by them. I haven't played Silent Hill myself, but the Condemned games do an incredible job of building up tension and atmosphere, provided you immerse yourself in the game with the intention of being afraid. You guys don't seem to go into these games with that mindset, which explains why you don't find the frightening.

    Not that I'm knocking that; I really love the ideas you talked about in this podcast. I'm considering taking up Half Life 2 mapping again just so I can mess around with some of those ideas, because they sound like they'd be really fun to come up with.
    Post edited by Walker on
  • The new Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles game came out for both the DS and the Wii (the Wii version being a port of the DS version). They are completely new games that you can play co-op between both versions. So you could have someone playing on the Wii version and have three other people with their own DS's playing along with the person on the Wii.

    I find this idea to be interesting, but Square-Enix dropped the ball (again) with the fact that the Wii and DS versions have to be bought separately. I think both the DS and the Wii versions are priced at $30 each, but if I were to get the game I would just get the DS one and not bother with the Wii version as they are the same game entirely.
  • I'm surprised you didn't mention Bioshock, which I think did scary/spooky in a really good way. It mostly came through the ambiance of the world, and some of the audio journals. Specifically in the first part of the game, I found listening to the surgeon go crazy in his journals to be really creepy.

    You guys should try this game Eversion, its a pretty interesting spooky independent game.

    Also I've heard good things about the Condemned games, in terms of the kinds of things you were talking about towards the end of the podcast.
  • Bioshock was not scary, creepy, or spooky in any way whatsoever.
  • About to hear the podcast (as soon as the smodcast is over), I'd say you at least mentioned Alone in the Dark, X-Com and Quake.
  • RymRym
    edited April 2009
    We tried to use very simple games as examples, since there are fewer possibly conflating factors at work. Rather than talk about games that did or did not scare us, we explored the aspects of scariness.

    Consider a board game mechanic as an example. You're better off breaking it down to its fundamental core for analysis, rather than studying the complex, blown-out, full case. Studying the tinge of fear from Castlevania 2 is more useful than doing the same for, say, Fatal Frame or Resident Evil.
    Post edited by Rym on
  • The games of the Fatal Frame series are the only games that have been consistently scary for me. I found Resident Evil and Silent Hill creepy, perhaps unsettling, but never terror inducing. Fatal Frame on the other hand has reduced me on several occasions to sleeping with the lights on.

    I have a couple of theories about the Fatal Frame series, and why they are scary.

    Theory the first:
    The protagonists of Fatal Frame 1, 2, and 4 are young high school girls. They have no real combat ability and are armed only with a psychically charged camera and a flashlight. They have to fight things that have no material form and can appear and disappear at will. Conversely, the protagonists of Silent Hill and Resident Evil are fully grown men/women and are often extremely capable, and usually well armed by the end of the game. Their enemies are corporeal, and normal things like blunt objects and firearms dispatch them in fairly short order. Having a character that seems physically vulnerable, is not well armed, and vastly outclassed by the enemy he or she faces adds to the tension and sense of danger (fear) immensely.

    Theory the Second:
    The setting of the Fatal Frame games are much different than the settings of other survival horror games, which usually take place in western/European locales. The Fatal Frame games take place in Japanese locales, and the ghosts are often of a more Eastern theme and feel (drowned girls, vengeful lovers, violent monks) which is very foreign to a western audience, even ones who are well versed in Japanese cultural references in general. The unknown or unfamiliar being instinctively scary, this again heightens the tension and sense of danger.
  • edited April 2009
    Music and lack of it is the answer to several games you mentioned, like the last dungeon in Zelda that changes the music. Scariness is mostly drawn by music, by creating the sense of disparity in power between the enemies and you and with color. That's about it, the rest of the stuff is only shock value.

    And I'm pretty sure that by the time you get the "float" you had enough level to purchase and use the Warp spell several times to exit.

    EDIT: Clive Barker's "Undying" had those "change subtle things" but didn't really work.
    Post edited by MrRoboto on
  • edited April 2009
    You guys should try this gameEversion, its a pretty interesting spooky independent game.
    The idea that this game isn't suitable for children is laughable. I also found neither the endings or the rest of the game creepy in any respect.
    Post edited by Sail on
  • So now I have to subscribe to two feeds; one for the news links and another for the thing of the day links?
    No, I guess I'll do something about it.
    I did something about it.
  • The examples that you gave for your theortical game are the same as other scary games.
    Example you gave: You look at a table with a few candles lit. You look away and look back to find that one of the candles are missing.
    Example from horror game: You look at a bathtub. You look away and look back to find that there is a body in the bathtub.
    It seems that you guys don't want horror games to do anything different, just to be more subtle.
  • The examples that you gave for your theortical game are the same as other scary games.
    Example you gave: You look at a table with a few candles lit. You look away and look back to find that one of the candles are missing.
    Example from horror game: You look at a bathtub. You look away and look back to find that there is a body in the bathtub.
    It seems that you guys don't want horror games to do anything different, just to be more subtle.
    You're examining it only on the surface level. The mechanic of looking away and looking back may be the same, but the psychological difference between a lit candle and a body in a bathtub are extremely different.

    The fact is that someone who isn't timid won't be afraid of anything that is overt. A million horribly gory zombies whatever, is not going to scare me. If you want to really scare people proper-like, you need to use audio and video to stimulate the brain's subconscious fear reflexes without doing anything the conscious mind will notice.

    I don't know about you, but there are times when I've felt really uneasy, even though there is no particular thing I could point to that I think caused that feeling. It's just some combination of factors that affect the human body, and engage its fear reflexes. One of the easiest ways to do it is to use infrasound. However, there are perhaps other audio/visual stimuli that can achieve the same effect, and can also be used.
  • It seems that you guys don't want horror games to do anything different, just to be more subtle.
    I've never seen a game that did it well. The key is managing player expectations. The entire genre of "horror" games has created a meta context for certain things. Most gamers, in a game like this, will expect a bloody body to appear in any bathtub they may run into, as their expectations are coloured by the genre.
  • Earthbound is awesome.
    Just sayin'.
  • edited April 2009
    SCARY VIDEOGAME BAD GUY IDEA #1

    An audio clue informs you that you are being followed by an enemy. You can not look behind you, or it will kill you. If you take too long to kill it, it will kill you. You don't fully see it when you are killed by it.
    Post edited by Railith on
  • Actually, the new Crystal Chronicles is a new game. See, a new game, Echoes of Time, came out for both DS AND Wii. Both of THESE games are identical. The DS and Wii versions can play multiplayer together. You can have multiple DS's and multiple Wii's playing together, one person per system. Apparently it's better than Ring of Fates, which is you said was crap. But the Wii version does supposedly suck because of its lamesauce screens. So, I've read that you should get the DS version, which apparently fixes some problems from Ring of Fates.
  • I do the emulator speed-up thing, too. I had gotten so used to playing Pokemon with it that when I went back to Pearl for a little bit I tried to speed things up and was disappointed when I remembered that only worked on emulators.
  • I think Rym and Scott's statement about the upper-left of Zelda 1 and the other island on Zelda 2 can be summed up like so: The game made you feel like you shouldn't be there. Like you're doing something wrong by being all the way over there.
  • I think Rym and Scott's statement about the upper-left of Zelda 1 and the other island on Zelda 2 can be summed up like so: The game made you feel like you shouldn't be there. Like you're doing something wrong by being all the way over there.
    Wow, you are so right.
  • Something about the Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time has always just creeped me out. The music is the worst part as it is incredibly suspenseful. This coupled with enemies that are able to attack at any time from above as well as weird yet horrifying puzzles creates an experience that will never leave me.
  • Something about the Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time has always just creeped me out. The music is the worst part as it is incredibly suspenseful. This coupled with enemies that are able to attack at any time fromaboveas well as weird yet horrifying puzzles creates an experience that will never leave me.
    I never liked the Forest Temple either, but just for the aesthtics. I still hated the music, but not because it was creepy, but because it was fuck annoying and got on my nerves having to listen to it over and over again.
  • I think the forest temple was a combination of the weirdness of the grown up worlds darkerness [now officially a word] compared to the young world, the amount of times you're just walking around grim areas with nothing in them and the music. It also introduces wallmasters, which can all die in a fire.
  • It also introduces wallmasters, which can all die in a fire.
    God, I hated those. Actually, as a younger kid the Shadow Temple and especially the Bottom of the Well really creeped me out.
  • It also introduces wallmasters, which can all die in a fire.
    God, I hated those. Actually, as a younger kid the Shadow Temple and especially the Bottom of the Well really creeped me out.
    What did they call those stupid white zombie things that would start raping Link if he got too close? Those scared me off OoT for a week the first time I ran into them.

    Also: Eversion. It will scare your socks straight off and into the wash the first time you play it.
  • edited April 2009
    I just thought Eversion was kind of funny the first time I played it.
    Post edited by Walker on
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