Games and Fear 145
Happy Halloween, game folks. There are a couple of creepy-themed game articles floating around the web today, and they're all lists ... disturbingly. eToyChest gives us the top five most horrifying moments in games. Next Generation offers a ten-point guide to inspiring fear in games. And finally, GameTrailers.com has an entertaining top ten scariest games list, complete with video. Even if I don't agree with some of their placements within the list, I think their #1 is a pretty accurate pick.
Scariest game moments (Score:2)
And the first time I played Quake 1 home, alone, in the dark.
-Rick
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On the other hand... man, the sound was freaky.
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Remember the Alien TC for Doom? (Score:3, Informative)
I think I crapped my 256 color, 320 x 240 pants.
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For anyone who's interested, I found a link for it here [cdrom.com], although it doesn't seem to be working, at least not from my job.
If anyone does find a working link, share with us please?
Fear the F.E.A.R. (Score:2)
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Maybe they were going for some high brow horror by evoking all that "scary" symmetry and uniformity, but they should have at least added some computer programmer ghosts into the cubicles or something.
"Ooooooooh, I'll be using Windows 3.1 FOREEEEEEVVVVEEEEERRR!!!"
"We do all our accounting software in COBOL!!!!
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"We do all our accounting software in COBOL!!!!"
Tsk tsk ! Displaying such heinous crimes against humanity in a game is not done !
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Although I have to admit the full screen bloodied face didn't exactly do me any favours either. But that was a cheap scare, and it more pissed me off than proper scared me.
F.E.A.R. and Doom I (Score:3, Interesting)
One of the scariest moments I've had in a video game was also playing Doom I. There was an Aliens mod that replaced the monsters with different aliens from the movies, and replaced a ton of the sounds
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my scariest video game moment (Score:3, Funny)
Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 3.6).
Re:my scariest video game moment (Score:4, Funny)
Now I have to add a whole bunch of text to get around the lameness filter. Of course, if it were truly a lameness filter it would, in fact, filter itself.
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(not mine, saw it in a signature somewhere)
Still waiting on GT (Score:2)
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Layne
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My personal scariest (Score:2)
But I will say that there is NOTHING scarier than "It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue."
Because eventually, if you keep messing around in the dark, it's going to happen... and only your imagination limits how terrible a grue is. This game experience was why I demanded my parents install a nightlight.
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to name a few (Score:1)
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Last Half of Darkness (Score:1)
Silent Hill (Score:1)
A great example would be Silent Hill. Oh sure, I jumped here and there, but nothing big. It wasn't until hours AFTER the game, that I got creeped out. It affected me for DAYS afterword.
I stopped when I got to that sick and twisted school-house. I kept expecting things to jump out at me. I was convenced that just around the next corner, I would run into a hidious boss that would take all 5 of my bullets and then eat me alive.
I just can't get up the c
Re:glad to see someone else had the same problem (Score:1)
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More scary games: Alien: Resurrection for the PS1 and the Ravenholm level in Half-Life 2.
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But man, downstairs on the "big tv" after everybody is in bed, with the lights off round 12am. That damned STATIC getting louder and louser! WHERE THE HELL IS IT?!?! DAMNED PS1 CLIPPING PLANE!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH Great game
Reapy
Bloody flash sites! (Score:2)
I haven't gamed in a good many years (the occasional hop onto the 'family' PC to play my kids' copy of The Sims doesn't count), so I'm sure I've missed out. However, the only *truly* frightening experience I ever had was while playing the Doom TC Aliens conversion, in the dark, with a good set of headphones. I can't count how many times I jumped while playing that game, or held my breath while I hesitated to turn a certain corner.
So, to anyone who remembers the Doom mod I mentioned above.. do
Half Life 2, Ravenholm (Score:2)
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HL1 was, until HL2, the most immersive, pulse-pounding FPS-with-a-storyline I'd ever played. HL2 outdid it in every way.
Ep 1 was pretty darn good as well. Looking forward to Ep 2!
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The level title "we don't go to Ravenholm any more" is pretty self explanitory.
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And since my computer is pretty much obsolete, the worst thing about the steroid zombie things for me was that by the time I heard one, I knew that my framerate was going to drop to 1 frame every other seconds. *Screeeeech* *rending and slapping sounds, with accompanying slide show*. "Whoops. Guess I'm dead."
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Not surprising, Father Grigori is by far my favorite character...
Slashdotted (Score:1)
Ravenholm (Score:1)
Alone. In the dark.
Nuff @#$%ing said.
Eternal Darkness (Score:1)
Flash, "This can't be happening!"
Grea
I've got your scary right here... (Score:2)
Picture it: 2am in a thunderstorm after having drank WAYY too much coffee. It's exam routine for finals, and you're playing Metal Gear Solid 2:Sons of Liberty... you're hopelessly addicted to it, and desperately need to finish the damned game so you can get some studying done... you're near the end and... the game starts going all crazy.
Suddenly the screen turns itself off and then on, and then the colonel says "You've been playing the game a long time, haven't you?"
I nearly had a fucking heart attack...
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TURN OFF THE CONSOLE! RIGHT NOW!
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted! Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
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Great idea for a good scare (Score:2)
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Scariest games as far as i'm concerned. (Score:1)
AITD, DOOM3 (Score:2)
Alien vs. predator also comes to mind.. when the motion sensor starts beeping faster and faster and you can't see a thing and before you know some aliens are kickin' the hell out of you.. just like in the movies (first two I
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fear (Score:2)
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
Thief: The Dark Project (Score:3, Interesting)
That's when it chose to jump up and take a swipe at me. I screamed bloody murder and yanked the power cable from the back of my computer, turned on all the lights in the apartment and didn't turn the damn computer back on until the next day. For serious immersion in a game, Thief is amazing. Much, much more interesting than most of your regular first-person games. Like a lot of people here, I am a huge fan of Half-Life 2 and Ravenholm, though.
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Doom II (Score:2)
Man, that was great!
Carl
resi 4 (Score:2)
As was the bit where you have to kill the zombies who are chasing you and Ashley in the big truck, it's them getting you from behind that get me...
Oh! and when those walking things are suffling along in a really scary way and you can shot them all you want but they just don't seem to want to die...
Project Zero/Fatal Frame (Score:2)
I mean, Silent Hill? Resident Evil? I have WEAPONS! Project Zero... a camera, a bloody old camera with no film.
And that insane ability for them to put dolls everywhere that don't move...
then there's that one that catches your eye, but doesn't move...
until you finally put the camera away and decide it's just another doll.
scary (Score:1)
Can't forget X-COM and its terror missions... (Score:2)
Those old VGA graphics and tinny sounds had more atmosphere than most horro
X-COM (Score:1)
Some of my moments (Score:1)
Thief 1 - One of the last levels inside some house where the interior was all space-disoriented and whatnot. The creatures in that level freaked me out. It's been a while so sorry for the lack of details.
Unreal - All the lig
Ocarina of Time: Bottom of the Well (Score:2)
Can't believe no one mentioned "7th Guest" (Score:2)
-Eric
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project firestart on C64.... (Score:1)
See here for a review: http://www.classicgaming.com/rotw/projfire.shtml [classicgaming.com]
another scary and more recent one is System Shock II (haven't played the first one), at some point I even quit playing that game because it was to stressful....
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Alright, another fan of this game!
Aside from having to swap and wait for disk loads, this game was fantastic: good (for the time) graphics, non-linear gameplay, and multiple endings...
RTCW (Score:2)
Aside from San Andreas, probably the last REALLY good single player game I've played.
rhY
Doom 3, halflife 2, the other ones were just "eh".
What??? (Score:1)
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One makes you kill yourself out of terror, the other out of sheer pain and the destruction of one's will to live.
Silent Hill 2 (Score:2)
Sometimes while playing I couldn't tell if the controller was rumbling or if I was shaking.
Alien Vs Predator (Score:1)
System Shock 2 (Score:1)
I started playing this at 2 AM on a Saturday night with the lights off, thinking it wasn't going to be bad. I was busy running around until I heard something yelling "Kill me! NyaaaAAGGH! *whack*". I turn around and nearly jump out of my chair as this crazy hybrid is beating me with a wrench.
After another hour of the game, I was looking over my shoulder in real life every few minutes to ensure no hybrids were after me.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (Score:4, Insightful)
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The whole game is.
Terrible shame about what happened to Troika, really.
Fatal Frame 2 (Score:1)
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Undying? (Score:2)
Needs to be first person ... (Score:2)
Games like FEAR and Thief and Arx Fatalis genuinely scare me (Arx Fatalis is a highly under-rated game, and much creepier/downright scary than has been r
Rescue on Fractalus (Score:2)
Fabulous.
Metal Gear Solid 2 (Score:2)
At least with "scary games," you're expecting them to be scary. This was a perfectly normal game that suddenly became very differe
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Original Half-Life (Score:3, Funny)
Evil story: Years ago, I moved into a sharehouse with a couple of friends. One of them hadn't played HL yet, so I set it up on his machine and left him to it.
A couple of days later, I came home late at night and saw that the door to his room was open.
He was playing one of those freaky bits where you're crawling through badly lit ventilation tunnels, and headcrabs jump out of the dark. He was hunched over the keyboard, right into it, with headphones on, with his back to me...
Naturally, I did what any good friend would do. I sneaked up behind him, grabbed his shoulders and yelled "Hi, Mat!"
He didn't speak to me for a week.
Doom3 (Score:2)
While the gameplay is rather boring and scripted, kudos to the audio engin
One of the best horror games ever: Anchorhead (Score:3, Informative)
It's "just" a text adventure, but it's reach, convincing, creepy, and free. I highl recommend Michael Gentry's Anchorhead [wurb.com] . Your husband has just inherited an old family home from a relative he didn't know he had. You've just moved to Anchorhead. Your husband has gotten a position at the local college. You have a simple task: head over to the real estate agent's office and pick up the keys for your house. Unsurprisingly things go downhill as it turns out that your house and the town have a dark past.
For anyone new to interactive fiction, you'll need a free interpreter. I recommend Gargoyle [ccxvii.net] on Windows or Linux and Spatterlight [ccxvii.net] on Mac OS X.
WoS (Score:2)
My keyboard took that moment to stick, and I couldn't kill my peLOADING..PLEASE WAIT.
Alone in the Dark (Score:2)
I've actually become more pussy over the years than I used to be.
I played the AVP2 demo and quit on the second level - no monsters for 1 level was long enough for me.
System Shock 2, lasted 5 minutes in the demo and quit - not a chance, scared the shit out of me.
Doom 1, E1M5 - never forget that last room which turned dark.
The suffering, played 5 minutes, quit that one too.
Doom 3, lasted about an hour before using cheats - only way I could reduce the fear factor
A particular moment in Doom 3 did it for me... (Score:2)
Witchaven (Score:2)
Jonah HEX
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id Software (Score:2, Informative)
id [reference.com] -noun Psychoanalysis
the part of the psyche, residing in the unconscious, that is the source of instinctive impulses that seek satisfaction in accordance with the pleasure principle and are modified by the ego and the superego before they are given overt expression.
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I spent a couple of minutes trying to google a reference for this, but was unable. Please take my word.
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Initially the logo said "ID," which lead some people, myself included, to think it was an acronym or short for "identification." Way back then a lot of people also started writing the name as "iD." I don't think it was ever officially iD though. Looks like on the Wolf 3D box, for instance, they had ID Software, but references in the game say id Software.
Anyhow, I remember writing iD Software quite a lot when referring to the company during the pre-do
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