Sunday 30 September 2007

Obscure 2 being released stateside

First becuase of poor sales of the origional, which has since become something of a cult classic for its teen slasher movie style. Obscure 2 was not being released in the states, but apparently due to surprisingly good sales figuires from the uk and european release of obscure 2 it is now coming out in the u.s as "Obscure II:The Aftermath" on the playstaiton 2 and nintendo wii.

Official UK playstation magazine Silent hill 5, 5 page article

Shamelessly ripped from silenthill5.net as my scanners on the fritz.
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So theres Some decent information coming out about this game, and now my xbox whent from 100 dollar disc reader repair to full on (warranty covered) red ring of death in excited about this for the 360, some of the monsters are a little too "the suffering" for my taastes but its not team silents creation this time so im not gonna bitch too much about it, however the full page talking about "the nurses ample cleavage" is just creepy, surely thats not whats on your mind when you play a silent hill game, and if it is, go get help. right now. go.

Thursday 27 September 2007

Sadness

I wouldnt be surpised if you hadnt heard of this title.
Continuing the 'Wii horror' theme for today This is the sadness site http://sadness-wii.com/ ,no it really is just a picture saying coming soon, and a "trialer" has been out for ,according to gamespot ,320 days now. Almost a year and theyve released 5 pictures of concept art, a 30 second trailer and a one picture "website".
This is appearing to suffer from "The Phantom" syndrome, and we all know how that "next gen console" fell through. Though visiting a few horror forums it appears that there has been major development problems with this project, even to the point of rumours about the company that is in charge of development involved in some kind of scam.
It's pretty fishy, but then who doesnt love a good rumour?

Fatal frame/ Project Zero 4 only on Nintendo Wii

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3163198

huh.
Colour me surprised, but in a good way, the cube had a good amount of survival horror titles but so far the wii only has umbrella chronicles, sadness, escape from bug island and, well thats all i can think of right now. So its great to hear a horror game series i actually find scary, which is a rarer thing as ive gotten older and more desensitized to horror, Is coming to the wii , fatal frame, or project zero as its known over here is, for those who dont know, a supernatural survival horror in which you play a girl who's trapped in an anbandoned mansion or town, depending on the game and is trapped in there with the restless spirits of the dead. The only way to combat these ghosts is to take there pictures with the mystical camera obscura thus exorcising/sealing them away.
To do this the game goes into a 1st person mode, as seen through the cameras lens, and i think this could work well on the wii utilizing the wiimote instead of an analogue stick.
Ive allways found the atmosphere in this series be pretty damn frightening, which is allways the sign of a good horror game and i think this is perfectly suited for the wii and its nice to see some good horror games starting to come out for it.

Wednesday 26 September 2007

The current horror games im playing :September '07

So the horror games of choice for me this month are Silent hill 2: Inner Fears, Obscure 2 and Zombie virus. So expect reviews for each one soon.
I figure on the first day of posting i should point out that this bog encompasses all horror games, not just survival horror, so this includes 3rd person shooters/fighters like devil may cry and ghost hunter, point and lick adventures and more.

Just thought id point that out before i got some emails from cranky survival horror purists.

You know who you are...

Rainy Wood's Tokyo Games show ''07 trailer

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/25298.html courtesy of gametrailers.com i bring you the trailer for new 360/ps3 survival horror game Rainy wood's, no its not about an emo porn star, but a series of bizaare murders in the town of rainy woods, you play a schizophrenic cop who ,along side his split personalitiy must solve the murders, its allready being toted as A: the twin peaks of gameing and B: an alan wake rip-off, ill bide my time to catch it on release before i make my judgement on this one but it looks definatley like someone just took the scripts from blue velvet and twin peaks, threw em together and built a game around it, but wether thats the makings of a good game ill wait adn see as sometimes even horror does not make for a good cross medium port.

Obscure II: the soundtrack

Whilst scoping out one my usual forum haunts, chris' survival horror quest one member posted a link to a free download (legal i might add) to the Obscure 2 soundtrack, So give the dude a virtual high five and check this out: http://www.olivierderiviere.com/od/flash/

Obscure: The Review

Obscure
Release date: 2004
Platforms: Xbox Playstation 2 and PC
Developer: Hydravision
Genre: Survival Horror
Review: Published by french company Hydravision, Mortifillia, or "Obscure" as it is known in The UK and the states is a survival horror game set at leafmoore high. An american high school were students have been dissappearing and all is not as it seems at first glance. The 5, yes 5, protagonists are stuadents who attend the school but are shut in after dark by the janitor as he locks up the doors for the night. While at first this doesnt sound like too much of a problem theres a twist. Bizaare photosensitive creatures are infesting the school and attacking the students and your goal is to uncover the source of these disturbing monstrosity's and escape the school with your lives.Whilst many points for origionality are lost, the creatures, plot and gameplay could all be easily ripped off from resident evil or silent hill, there are many redeeming features that save this game from being just another resident evil clone. Light plays a large part in this game. The creatures envelop themselves in a black protective mist which lessens the damage they take and protects them from sunlight. As i mentioned the enemies are photosensitive creatures and using the combine mechanic you can tape a torch to the end of your gun and by setting it to high beam mode, which is only temporary due to overheating, you can burn away at the protective mist enableing you to take a shot at the monster and do much more superior damage. You can also, during the daylight portions of the game, smash in windows to flood a room with light and severly damage any creatures that are in the room or may appear as you look around for items and ammo.



The 5 protagnoists are all playable, though Kenny is avaiable in the opening prologue he does not become available for constant play till you rescue him about 2/3rds through the game. But each charcter has his or her own unique talents, the student reporter Josh can use his investigative abilities to tell you if a room is devoid of items or if there is somethign left to do. others include extra healing power, lockpicking ability, extra strength and speed and the ability to perform a double attack such as firing 2 shots in one action from a pistol. You are free to use whichever of the protagonists that you choose during the game allowing for the game to be played around your own style of play, do you aim to clear a room or enemies then explore?, or perhaps choose the flight rather than fight method? depending on your choice of characters your tactics to explore the school and combat the monsters is fairly versatile compared to the similar resident evil 0 were you could only choose between the strong billy coen or the medic rebecca chambers when you needed to.The controls are smooth and fluid with a good responsiveness. The cameras are static-staionairy but without the confusing camera angles of the origional resident evil. The soundtrack is superb, ranging from the opening basketball game played along to sum 41 to exploreing the abandoned hallways at night to an eeiry french choir the music allways sets the scene very well and it was entertaining from start to finish.A big selling point for this game is the ability for two player co-operative play, at any time during the game a freind can plug in a second controller and take control of one of the 4 other characters you are not playing as whilst this can hinder as much as help, actually working with another person rather than a computer contrlled bot is a breath of fresh air into the game and increases the replay value tremendously.So whilst a little short and not particularly groundbreaking plot wise, obscure is a highly enjoyable horror game for fans of the genre and an undrerated gem that i highly recommend.It is a shame however that this game is obscure by nature as well as by name, with little to no media advertising or magazine reviews it whent relatively unnoticed by the gameing community, in fact the sequel is allready out and has been released in europe and the UK only ,purely for lack of interest from the states, So if you want somethign a little new and out of the ordinary i recommend obscrue nd give it a solid 8 out of 10.