Rely on Horror

Horror game comic book adaptations available now for PSP

JBoc — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:13:28 +0000

You enjoy your horror games? If so, would you enjoy their stories told in a different format? If you answer yes then you’re in luck, because the Playstation Store has you covered. Available for the PSP’s digital comic reader, here are the, as of now, available comic books based on two classic horror franchises, which both happen to be Konami.

Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy #1 of 5.

“Part 1 of 5: It is 1576, and the legend of the Belmont family’s vampire-hunting prowess still echoes through the Romanian countryside. While Christopher Belmont celebrates his nuptials, dark forces conspire to raise Count Dracula from his unholy slumber. With this ancient evil unleashed once more, young Belmont must to prove he is worthy of the Belmont legacy. Based on the smash-hit Konami videogame series.”

Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy #2 of 5.

“Part 2 of 5: It is 1576, and the legend of the Belmont family’s vampire-hunting prowess still echoes through the Romanian countryside. While Christopher Belmont celebrates his nuptials, dark forces conspire to raise Count Dracula from his unholy slumber. With this ancient evil unleashed once more, young Belmont must to prove he is worthy of the Belmont legacy. Based on the smash-hit Konami videogame series.”

Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy #3 of 5.

“Part 3 of 5: It is 1576, and the legend of the Belmont family’s vampire-hunting prowess still echoes through the Romanian countryside. While Christopher Belmont celebrates his nuptials, dark forces conspire to raise Count Dracula from his unholy slumber. With this ancient evil unleashed once more, young Belmont must to prove he is worthy of the Belmont legacy. Based on the smash-hit Konami videogame series.”

Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy #4 of 5.

“Part 4 of 5: It is 1576, and the legend of the Belmont family’s vampire-hunting prowess still echoes through the Romanian countryside. While Christopher Belmont celebrates his nuptials, dark forces conspire to raise Count Dracula from his unholy slumber. With this ancient evil unleashed once more, young Belmont must to prove he is worthy of the Belmont legacy. Based on the smash-hit Konami videogame series.”

Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy #5 of 5.

“Part 5 of 5: It is 1576, and the legend of the Belmont family’s vampire-hunting prowess still echoes through the Romanian countryside. While Christopher Belmont celebrates his nuptials, dark forces conspire to raise Count Dracula from his unholy slumber. With this ancient evil unleashed once more, young Belmont must to prove he is worthy of the Belmont legacy. Based on the smash-hit Konami videogame series.”

Silent Hill: Dying Inside #1 of 5.

“Part 1 of 5: What would you sacrifice to gain absolute control over your own destiny? The lives and souls of those who love and trust you? The future? A war rages in the demon-infested town of Silent Hill, where seventeen year-old Goth Lauryn must make a decision that may forever alter the course of this unholy place-and one day loose Hell itself upon the world. Don’t miss the incredible action and chilling terror of the miniseries’ conclusion.”

Silent Hill: Dying Inside #2 of 5.

“Part 2 of 5: What would you sacrifice to gain absolute control over your own destiny? The lives and souls of those who love and trust you? The future? A war rages in the demon-infested town of Silent Hill, where seventeen year-old Goth Lauryn must make a decision that may forever alter the course of this unholy place-and one day loose Hell itself upon the world. Don’t miss the incredible action and chilling terror of the miniseries’ conclusion.”

Silent Hill: Dying Inside #3 of 5.

“Part 3 of 5: What would you sacrifice to gain absolute control over your own destiny? The lives and souls of those who love and trust you? The future? A war rages in the demon-infested town of Silent Hill, where seventeen year-old Goth Lauryn must make a decision that may forever alter the course of this unholy place-and one day loose Hell itself upon the world. Don’t miss the incredible action and chilling terror of the miniseries’ conclusion”

Silent Hill: Dying Inside #4 of 5.

“Part 4 of 5: What would you sacrifice to gain absolute control over your own destiny? The lives and souls of those who love and trust you? The future? A war rages in the demon-infested town of Silent Hill, where seventeen year-old Goth Lauryn must make a decision that may forever alter the course of this unholy place-and one day loose Hell itself upon the world. Don’t miss the incredible action and chilling terror of the miniseries’ conclusion.”

Silent Hill: Dying Inside #5 of 5.

“Part 5 of 5: What would you sacrifice to gain absolute control over your own destiny? The lives and souls of those who love and trust you? The future? A war rages in the demon-infested town of Silent Hill, where seventeen year-old Goth Lauryn must make a decision that may forever alter the course of this unholy place-and one day loose Hell itself upon the world. Don’t miss the incredible action and chilling terror of the miniseries’ conclusion.”

Silent Hill: Among the Damned

“In a gripping tale of bone-chilling horror, writer Scott Ciencin (Silent Hill: Dying Inside) follows a young soldier suffering from survivor’s guilt into the darkened confines of Silent Hill. There, he will meet a doomed soul that will change his life forever… or end it.”

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‘Saw II: Flesh and Blood’ new info

JBoc — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:32:29 +0000

Saw II: Flesh and Blood sees players take the role of Detective Tapp’s son. Putting a literal spin on the title, complimented of course by gruesome traps that will also present gamers with what the title implies. Konami has just released a press release for this sequel, you can check it out below. I’ve had a bad experience with the original Saw game. I went into it thinking it’d be an awesome romp through the asylum , filled with traps and the elements found in the films. I found that, but, it was fused with some bad game-play choices. But, by the looks of this press release, this seems to be getting a change for the better. We’ll see how it turns out.

Gruesome Mechanical Traps – Jigsaw has devised a new series of traps that will force you to make life or death decisions as you witness the machines destroy others and yourself

Challenging Puzzles – A new set of puzzles will test your wits as you work quickly to advance through Jigsaw’s game

New Combat System – The visceral fighting mechanic requires precise timing to defend yourself from aggressive minions

Unique Horror Experience – With a blend of intense combat, mind-bending puzzles, and a twisted storyline, players will face horror and terror that only SAW can deliver

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Keiji Inafune working on Resident Evil 6?

JBoc — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:31:21 +0000

Time to hear from our good friend Inafune again! This time he talks about the multiple projects already on his slate currently. He also goes on to say how they will be revealed soon. By soon, I think it’s safe to say at TGS. With him being involved in the development of Resident Evil Revelations, he may also in fact be working , in a producer role, on Resident Evil 6.

The topic of the Playstation Move and Kinect was also brought up, but Inafune stated that he has no plans to bring Dead Rising exclusively to those peripherals. Perhaps Resident Evil?

More info on these projects as they come.

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‘Rock of the Dead’ detailed by the ESRB

JBoc — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:22:31 +0000

‘Rock of the Dead’ , a music game that likes of guitar hero, mixed with zombies, seems to be getting closer to release. We also now have a bit more info, aliens anyone? Apparently, according to the ESRB, not only will players be taking out zombies, but aliens as well. Also, judging by the way this report comes off, it kind of makes it seem like it’s a PS3 exclusive now. Here’s the ESRB’s blurb on the game:

“This is a first-person shooter in which players assume the role of an aspiring rock star who finds himself in the midst of a zombie/alien invasion. Players defeat the creatures by accurately hitting notes, matching inputs, and creating successful riffs—these guitar attacks kill the various enemies. When the bugs, zombies, aliens, and mutant dogs are hit by guitar attacks, brief blood-splatter effects occur. Green blood stains also appear on the floor, in elevators, and on walls. Some song lyrics contain brief references to sexuality (e.g., “And vicious t-bird breed on the whore” and “Brain trash porn flash what is why”). During a protracted boss battle, a giant zombie will spew green vomit onto the ground.”

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EA: Mikami/Suda 51 game to be unveiled next week

JBoc — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:05:07 +0000

EA has just announced, in Japan, that the much talked about Shinji Mikami and Suda 51 game will be revleaed next week at their company focused pre- TGS event: EA Tokyo Showcase 2010. Why is this being posted on ROH? Well other than the fact that Mikami is the father of Resident Evil and Suda 51 being in the same position for Killer 7, it’s known that this may be a horror title. A while back , when this project was at it early stages, it was stated to be a multi-platform release. We’ll find out concrete details on this project next week, September 15, at EA’s event. Here’s to hoping this game brings some real horror back to the industry, just like Dead Space did when it hit. At least it’ll get the mood right with the musical score, since the amazing Akira Yamaoko, of silent hill game, is said to be composing this title. All this sounds like it may turn out to be a survival horror classic. We’ll wait and see, more info as it comes.

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Kudos to Lunatika from http://www.shdownloads.com.ar/ for the pic!

Bioshock Infinite – New Screens

chewie — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:57:58 +0000

Game Informer has scored a fresh new batch of exclusive screens from the upcoming Bioshock Infinite. Expect more details from the game on the magazine’s exclusive cover story for their October issue.

Click HERE to view three new screens.

Review – Amnesia: The Dark Descent

jeeves86 — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:46:21 +0000

For the past few years, there has been something that survival horror fans have been clamouring for. Read any forum topic on the subject of how they would envision their perfect game and you’ll find similar responses. Frictional Games, the creators of the often overlooked Penumbra series, have just what the doctor ordered. Amnesia: The Dark Descent is available September 8, 2010 exclusively on the PC. Read on to find out why Amnesia is the game that horror-gaming enthusiasts have been waiting for.

Frictional suggests that you not play the game to win, but rather to explore. Let the game pull you in and envelop you in its dark atmosphere. So dim the lights, throw on the surround-sound or a nice set of headphones and immerse yourself.

Amnesia puts you in the role of Daniel—a poor sap who wakes up in a Prussian castle with little to no recollection of who he is or why he is there. While the ‘amnesia’ storyline might be a little dated, there’s a reason it’s been used so often. It works exceedingly well here and anything more elaborate than that would have felt tacked on and needless. Little by little, Daniel pieces together the mystery of who he is and why he is there. And the fruit of his labours? Let’s put it this way: Some things mustn’t be forgotten—but other things are better left that way.

The controls are very much like your standard FPS control scheme—WASD for movement, F for light, you get the idea. Through a first-person perspective, you see everything that Daniel does and you’re required to do all of the things that he does with the mouse. Using a “grab mechanic,” click on a door and move the mouse to the right to open a cabinet door or pull the mouse back to open a drawer. Using the R-button and the mouse, you can rotate items for a better view, or just to see what’s hiding inside of them. Right click when an object is your hand and you can hurl it across the room–great for opening up new passageways! All of these actions have a fairly realistic feel to them when they’re performed. There’s a strange disconnect when you watch your character onscreen do something with the simple press of a button–no such disconnect here. There are certain collision detection issues, one such instance a broom got stuck sideways in the closet, but it’s relatively minor; Frictional has done a great job on this!

The inventory is easily managed—there’s nothing overtly amazing about it other than that. Here you can check out the Journal, to help you if you get lost, and the two health metres to monitor Daniel’s health. A heart for his health and a brain for his Sanity Metre.

Anyone who has played Clock Tower or Eternal Darkness know exactly what this metre does. Daniel is going to witness some pretty horrifying events in Amnesia, and true to form it’s going to affect his psyche. Strange happenings around him are going to decrease his grip on reality. And you don’t need to check the metre on the Inventory screen to know what’s going on. Whispering from within the walls and other strange noises and a noticeable loss in balance let you know that Daniel is starting to lose it. In one instance, he began to hug the walls and wouldn’t look forward, in essence hiding his eyes. There is also a lag in movement when Daniel starts to panic, and what could be worse than bugs crawling on your face? All of this leads to a major increase in tension: you have to somehow maneuver this ball of nerves out of harm’s way. Enemies aren’t going to go easy on Daniel because he’s crying like a baby in the corner.

Seeing something like this will cause Daniel’s sanity to take a dive

That brings us to our next point. If you expected to go into Amnesia: The Dark Descent guns blazing, be prepared for epic disappointment. Like previous Frictional games before it, there are very few enemies in Amnesia—and you can’t kill any of them anyway. This is where the real ‘survival’ aspect of the game kicks in. Daniel is no match for these abominations, truly the stuff that nightmares are made of—so much so that he can’t even stand to look at them (it will decrease his sanity). Some people are going to be disappointed with that, but the lack of combat doesn’t make Amnesia any less of a horror game. Like the recent Silent Hill: Shattered Memories; in the Penumbra games before it, Daniel is realistically vulnerable. The knowledge of the protagonist being helpless against these foes tends to intensify the experience. But unlike Shattered Memories, Amnesia’s enemies, while slow to first show up, will show up whenever they like, keeping you permanently on the edge of your seat.

The game is made up of exploration, puzzle-solving, and getting the hell away from what enemies there are. The game isn’t extraordinarily hard, but there are places where you’ll scratch your head trying to figure out what to do. This can lead to a problem that we’d like to dub the “Got a Light?” syndrome, further explained in the next paragraph.

The environments are rendered spectacularly—it makes you really want to explore the castle further, and the game rewards those that do in the form of lost letters, journal entries and other useful items. The light and dark mechanics of Amnesia make Alan Wake look like RE5. Looking down many a hallway without a light reveals nothing but darkness, and it is scary! That being said, the oil to fuel your little lantern and tinderboxes to light torches on the wall or candles is extremely limited. This hampers the desire (and requirement) of exploration as quite often we found ourselves in the middle of looking for a crucial clue in complete darkness–this causes Daniel’s sanity to dip and makes things pretty challenging. There are bins of oil located around the castle, but that oil doesn’t last forever and soon enough you’ll be left in the dark again. But fumbling around in the dark in Amnesia is more “ohshit!” inducing rather than frustrating.

There are aspects of the visuals that we wish could be a little bit nicer to look at, but when looking at the big picture, it’s a non-issue. The graphics may not stack up against some of the bigger budgeted games for the PC, but what’s here is done amazingly well. Enemies look horrifying when you see them and other gruesome sights are just that.

Another element of every good horror game is a stellar soundtrack. Even from the intro scene and the main menu, you can tell that Amnesia has this down-pat. Taking a cue from Akira Yamaoka, sometimes there’s not so much an actual score in the background, but ambient noise, strung together to create a haunting sound. Whispering in the halls, footsteps just around the corner, creaking floorboards above you, rolling thunder outside the castle—it’s all here in full form.

Amnesia offers an amazing survival-horror experience on the PC; a console that rarely gets any love from the genre. As gamers, it’s rare that you see such a top-quality game for such a good value, as well. Amnesia is priced at only $19.99 through Steam. This is a game that could have sold for double and we’d still buy it, it’s that good.

Final Verdict: 9/10

You’ll Like:

–Good graphics
–Haunting audio
–Limited resources and no combat really make this a ‘survival’ horror game
–The Sanity Metre doesn’t fool around
–At $19.99 USD, it’s a steal

You’ll Hate:

–A game without combat doesn’t resound well with some gamers
–Some puzzles are going to leave you in the dark. Which can either be frustrating or frightening depending on who you are

Conclusion:

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is the best survival-horror experience on the PC and the game that survival horror fans have been waiting for. With recent titles forsaking their roots to go the action-oriented route, Amnesia sticks to keeping the protagonist helpless and scared. With haunting audio, superb visuals and the kind of story to make you want to keep trodding a little further into the darkness, Amnesia is set to keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end.

–jeeves86

Resident Evil 5 highlights ‘Xbox Live deal of the week’

JBoc — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:55:39 +0000

Had enough Resident Evil 5? If you’ve purchased all the released DLC and put in countless hours into the game and its modes then chances are, yeah, you may have had enough of a Resident Evil 5 fix. On the other hand, there are those who haven’t downloaded the extra episodes and modes, for reasons ranging from pricing or just having those releases slip by under their radar. Well, now is the best time for those uninitiated with Resident Evil 5’s extended campaign to finally be able to purchase what they’ve been missing.

This week’s ‘Xbox Live Deal of the Week’ revolves around Resident Evil 5. As proudly advertised on your dashboard, you’ll now be able to download the following DLC with new, friendlier, prices:

Untold Stories Bundle: Reduced from 960 to 560 msp.

Lost in Nightmares: Reduced from 400 to 240 msp.

Desperate Escape: Reduced from 400 to 240 msp.

Versus Mode: Reduced from 400 to 240 msp.

Avatar items:

Chris Redfield’s BSAA uniform: 160 msp.

Hawaiian shirt: 80 msp.

Puzzle Crank: 80 msp.

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Dead Rising 3 news?

JBoc — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:50:32 +0000

As the days go by and new interviews crop up conducted with Capcom mastermind, and Dead Rising creator, Keiji Inafune I seem to get more and more bitter at last weeks tidbit concerning the future of Dead Rising. A future in which Inafune-san plans to dethrone Resident Evil of it’s position in Capcom with the likes of Dead Rising. Hell, if it wasn’t for Mega Man Universe looking so awesome and promising, I would be bashing Inafune to no end.

Now, here we are, with word of a potential Dead Rising 3 (is this a surprise to anyone?) and who may be warming the developing chair. According to Inafune himself, if Capcom were to make a Dead Rising 3 then , due to a good working relationship with them, Dead rising 2 developer Blue Castle Games will be called back to action, albiet a potential alteration to the gameplay structure. But let’s slow down a bit, since , according to Inafune, this would only be the case if Dead Rising 2 performs commercially well. Judging by Case Zero’s current one week sales, thus far, it may not be that surprising to see it’s mother title sell exceptionally well also. Either way, it’s going to exceed Lost Planet 2 salewise, and in quality too…More info on the Dead Rising franchise as it surfaces.

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Dead Rising 2 Case Zero sells well

JBoc — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:41:50 +0000

Dead Rising 2’s prequel , titled Case Zero, has been out for almost a week now. And already, according to GamerBytes, the download only (360 exclusive) title has made it to 328,290 users’ hard-drives. That’s quite impressive considering the time that the game has been out for. The price also lend a helping hand to this, seeing as how 5 dollars a download is a friendly digital price tag, considering what you’re getting here and the ability to transfer experience to the main game.

This could potentially be a new market example of how to release, and format, digital content promoting a major release. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of publishers start to go this route and the future. Imagine Capcom doing something similar for Resident Evil 6? Yes please, as long as it’s back to classic style that is!

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