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Original IPs have been quite the rage with EA these days and it’s hard not to get misty-eyed upon seeing Dead Space, a third-person action/adventure horror escapade developed by EA Redwood Shores, in action for the first-time. Reggie and I were invited to EA India’s office in Gurgaon today to have ourselves an intensive hands-on session with a near final-build.
In the beginning of the game, we’re treated with an in-game cinematic of lead protagonist Isaac Clarke with a space crew heading towards the USG Ishimura, a giant orbital ship that suffered a huge communications blackout for whatever reason unbeknownst to its curious approachers. Eventually, stinky poop hits the fan when your crew’s vessel gets pulled into the Ishimura’s magnetic field and you’re forced to make a landing inside its hull. Voodoo vibes are in full effect, and this is pretty much were you come in.
Imagine a calm, relaxing little town, away from the noise and the pollution of the big city… perfect for a weekend getaway. Spend a relaxing evening at the Toluca Lake, grab a couple of drinks at Heaven’s Night or visit the Historical Society. Meet strange new people, visit alternate dimensions, solve interesting puzzles and did we mention the monsters?
Welcome to Silent Hill…
Unarguably the pinnacle of survival horror, the Silent Hill series has been continuously scaring and captivating gamers since the release of the original Silent Hill in 1999. The fifth installment is set to release just a few days from now and so we decided to take a look back at the franchise before we brave the twisted little foggy town again.
For fans of Dead Space that have been eagerly awaiting the next instalment of the wonderfully crafted animated comic, EA has finally released the next episode in the series which continues the gruesome story of the Marker, the Unitology conspiracies and the shocking mass-suicides and takes it one step further with the beginnings of horror, betrayal and infection. With just two more comics and the Downfall movie to go over the next three months, Issue 04 opens the gates of Hell as Marla finally figures out how “death is the key” just as the Ishimura inititates planetcrack, marking the beginning of the end and unleashing the Necromorph infestation, accompanied by the obligatory creepy-as-hell soundtrack.
The 130 MB animated comic is available for download in MP4 format from the Dead Space servers here. (Right click, select Save Target As)
Expect a full-fledged review of the issues so far and its evolution as soon as we manage to get our hands on the actual print comics themselves. Soon.
After years of hiding away in Shanghai and delivering beyond-terrible gaming with Bad Day L.A., the veteran behind Doom, Quake and Alice – American McGee – has emerged back into the land of the living with his uniquely twisted take on the already-twisted Grimm Brothers’ Tales. The first of 24 tales in the series, A Boy Learns What Fear Is, is out today on GameTap, with the others set to release consecutively with each passing week.
All the games will be free to play for the first 24 hours, after which players will be required to fork out $3.99 per episode. A Boy Learns What Fear Is, like all the other tales that are set to follow, should offer around an hour’s worth of play and is loosely based around a cruel, sadistic and blood-chilling version of Katamari Damacy’s gameplay style – according to the official website, a boy who wants to learn the true meaning of fear goes around “hanging gallows, a haunted house and even a wedding, but doesn’t truly encounter fear until Grimm decides to enter the story.” After all the terrifying nursery rhymes and the sheer violence and terror of having gone through the original stories once, I am most definitely staying away from these games. But then again, it’s not like I really have a choice – GameTap still refuses to serve gamers outside the United States. Thanks a lot, guys.
The severed head is so passé. Ditto for the ragdoll model, entertaining as it was to see a supposedly something-kilogram individual dissolve into a fluttery, floppy pair of dead bunny ears. No one pouts at the impaled body or distinctive parts on a pike, spear, or any variant thereof. That close-range shotgun shell into the gut is now commonplace – and it’s a strategy most players should adopt quickly if they want to take survival for a night out on the town without cheating on Lady Luck. And in today’s gaming world, true horror and chills have been substituted for spanking, new-fangled attempts at sadism, joyfully depicted in almost poetic reams of aching screams, cannibalism, most preferably of the female figure (Rape is so old-school), and intense emotional suffering.
Flash back to the time when Alone in the Dark first came out. Or to the first Resident Evil. Or if you’re one of the more gritty horror-mongers, Silent Hill. What started in those games wasn’t a trend but an élan for playing with a gamer’s nerves. Opening a door in Capcom’s franchise was a common sequence publicly admitted to hide load-times; Resident Evil: Code Veronica used the ingenous technique of a slow close-up on the handle of an entrance set to the rapidly increasing beating of a tense heart whenever a serious event was to take place. Most times it was the case, as when you were greeted by the Tyrant on the escape plane. The clawing of zombies out of graveyard soil formed the first CG sequence to gameplay transition. However, most insane, most maddening, and for all honesty, the best example of total full-on mind-fuckery was going through the sequence above and being greeted by…nothing. Horror done right, as they say, is horror not done at all.
I don’t know what sick sadistic pleasure I derive out of scaring myself shitless; thats what I did today when I came back from work and foolishly checked out the trailer for Chunsoft’s (never heard of em’ before) latest offering to the survival horror genre, Imabikisou. Unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show 07, one can’t make much out from this new trailer (since its in Japanese), apart from the fact that its going to be a “Play-Novel” type game (like the Silent Hill Play Novel for the GBA where one had to select from many text choices to progress in the game). The atmosphere and theme presents a splendid touch of dread and panic, reminiscent to many Jap-Horror Movies (the good ones). What’s interesting to note is that the visuals in the trailer is a combination of in-game graphics and cutscenes put together, both of which look unbelievably real.
Clive Barker is one sick bastard. After scarring us with the Hellraiser movies and inducing enough and more nightmares with Undying, the Master of Horror wants us slipping and sliding headlong into his newest “interactive nightmare” – Jericho. With a seriously creepy website unleashing its jujumagumbo on us a couple of weeks back, we were left wondering how we’re going to get through this game without a massive heart attack.
As if to make things worse, Codemasters recently announced that Cris Velasco, the hero of both God of War game soundtracks, has scored some spooky shit for Jericho. Now, considering Cris has won enough awards so far to fill the Grand Canyon, we’re sure his work will have our hearts leaping out of our throats right in the first level! And in case you were wondering, it was Clive Barker himself who hand-picked Cris, saying:
“Cris Velasco’s music for Clive Barker’s Jericho is exquisite. Filled with yearning, dark energy, threat and redemption, it is the unstoppable engine in the terrifying ghost train of Jericho.”
You know what that means. Keep your heart medication nearby as you play.
Oh fuck, I just had the worst 5 minutes of my life. My heart is racing like crazy and my left arm is tingling, I have a slight pain in the left side of my chest and I am tasting metal. Why, you ask? Because I just spent a horrible half hour with the newly launched Jericho site in complete darkness and I think I need new pants!
Going online today at http://www.codemasters.com/jericho the site is one of the most brilliantly designed Flash websites and the scariest to boot. First, let’s go through the official press release for the website:
Clive Barker’s Jericho website:
The website features everything you need to prepare you for Clive Barker’s Jericho… it is not for the faint-hearted.
· Read all about the game – an overload of sensory shock as players journey through hellish locations and time
· Download the latest thrilling videos
· View stunning screen shots
· Navigate through a series of different chambers containing hidden features and heart stopping surprises
· There are puzzle-like challenges to complete in order to see secret, locked content and rooms
More chambers and content will be revealed as the weeks progress but this site will grip any horror and gaming fan…just remember to turn the volume up!
Beyond the website, themes from Clive Barker’s Jericho have been explored further in video, available to view online…
Now that we have gotten that out of the way, here are some hellish images I managed to capture while I was shakily clicking my way around the website. Let’s just say that the shitty website managed to scare the living crap out of me at least 4 to 5 times, thanks to the stupid heartbeat monitor that was thumping away on the woofer and the horrible screeching “surprises” that assaulted me when I least expected them and was, unfortunately, peering right into the screen for a closer look. Safe to say, that if I wasn’t sitting in a strong backed chair, I MOST definitely would have fallen back in shock. Without further ado, here are the images. Suffice to say, these are potential spoilers for the website and if you can’t get beyond the site’s clues (which shouldn’t be too difficult for anyone that’s been recently exposed to the ARG-like sites that have been cropping up all over the Internet) and decipher the story of Jericho, so you might want to run through the site yourself before you come back and see the images.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you, and YES, do keep the sound turned up decently, or else you will really miss the scare factor that might be the last website that you might ever see while you are alive. Let’s just say that NOW I understand why the player fights so many creatures from so many timelines!
Once you are done seeing these images, here’s more stuff for you to feast on. DO MAKE SURE you go to the YouTube page and check out the videos!
The Jericho of the game’s title refers to the Jericho Team, a seven-man strike force that protects government interests from paranormal threats. Trained in conventional warfare each team member is an expert in different para-psychological disciplines, including clairvoyance, alchemy, blood magic and exorcism.
Taking the disciplines of exorcism, telekinesis and pyromania three eerie and disturbing clips were produced and leaked out under the guise of being discovered by a 34 year old American, named John. These digitised clips were ‘apparently’ part of a collection of over 2,000 hours of film and video unearthed by the individual somewhere in the USA; posing the question – ‘real of unreal?’
View the three clips and a never before seen fourth one at – www.youtube.com/strangeexperiments
So that explains all the psychic powers your teammates have!
If the Screenshot above was enough to give you jitters, you are in for a big treat. Codemasters finally opened up to the public releasing information about Clive Barker’s Latest Masterpiece, ‘Jericho‘. The game will be developed for all three major platforms, namely the PC, the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Slated for a fall 2007 release date, Jericho’s storyline will be conceived by the sick, twisted mind of Clive Barker who plans to deliver a truly horrifying and scarring experience to gamers. How’s this for a plotline – “Before creating Adam and Eve, God’s first attempt at a man was a complete disaster who was banished forever into a parallel universe referred to as “The Box.” Inevitably, this aggravated the young whippersnapper somewhat, and he makes frequent attempts to reclaim his place on Earth. Each time, a group of US supersoldiers called the Jericho squad are there to send him back to his immortal plane.”