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[GreasyDogMeat]

I don't like gross games, so it was good for me. Edit: AW also comes with a bunch of great songs as extras, including Space Oddity.

I'm not crazy about ultra-violent movies etc, but I love it in my games. The nastier the better.

is probably my favorite 'survival' horror game recently. I think it helps with horror if when your character dies they don't just fall over, but get ripped to

. Also must point out the sound is fantastic in Dead Space. One of the few games that gave me goose bumps playing it.

 

Alan Wake does have a pretty awesome soundtrack. All of the Poets of the Fall songs.

The Poet & the Muse.

Used in one of my favorite sections of the game.

 

Even the in-game music was good.

Edited August 30, 2011 by GreasyDogMeat

[Gorth]

I'm not crazy about ultra-violent movies etc, but I love it in my games. The nastier the better.

is probably my favorite 'survival' horror game recently. I think it helps with horror if when your character dies they don't just fall over, but

I liked Dead Space (quite a lot actually), but it never struck me as "survival horror". There was no gradual building of suspense (relying solely on simple jumping out of the expeccted shadows yelling Boo! at you gimmicks) nor any real shortage of ammo (played it on easy). The visual style and the "soundscape" were stunning however, as was the feeling of moving around in a supersized derelict space ship. Isaac was hard to like though as he never said anything. By that I do not just mean no voice overs. I can't remember him actually ever saying anything, just listening passively to instructions all the time, like some bot with built in voice recognition module. Oh, and the weapons were quite fun too, giving new meaning to 'cut and paste' (I'll cut you into a gooey paste)

 

If it wasn't for EA's silly insisting that their customers needs online accounts to play single player games, Dead Space 2 would have been a must buy for me. I just can't be bothered to keep track of more logins.

[Nepenthe]

Two new Max Payne 3 screenshots

 

Looks good, wish there were some gameplay movies. But with 5-6 years development time, this better be good.

 

It's not done by Remedy -> It sucks.

 

Yep, MPINO.

 

Max Payne was originally Remedy's in-house project, which then moved to Rockstar as a part of the publishing deal. But hey, since it's Rockstar and not EA, nobody goes all Westwood about it...

[GreasyDogMeat]

I'm not crazy about ultra-violent movies etc, but I love it in my games. The nastier the better.

is probably my favorite 'survival' horror game recently. I think it helps with horror if when your character dies they don't just fall over, but

I liked Dead Space (quite a lot actually), but it never struck me as "survival horror". There was no gradual building of suspense (relying solely on simple jumping out of the expeccted shadows yelling Boo! at you gimmicks) nor any real shortage of ammo (played it on easy). The visual style and the "soundscape" were stunning however, as was the feeling of moving around in a supersized derelict space ship. Isaac was hard to like though as he never said anything. By that I do not just mean no voice overs. I can't remember him actually ever saying anything, just listening passively to instructions all the time, like some bot with built in voice recognition module. Oh, and the weapons were quite fun too, giving new meaning to 'cut and paste' (I'll cut you into a gooey paste)

You definitely run short on ammo on the normal and hard modes. Some of the best hair raising moments for me were when I ran out of ammo and had to run away with some terror trying to rip me apart a few feet away. I don't know what it was about Dead Space but it drew me in like few games have and I really felt tension playing it.

 

As for Isaac not speaking, its a conscious decision some devs make (increasingly rare now-a-days) to make the player feel like they ARE the main character. For me it actually helped with the tension in the game. There are cases where the silent protagonists fails and feel Half-Life 2, for instance, would have been a better game with a speaking protagonist. There are games I feel are enhanced by the silent protagonist though and I feel Dead Space was one of them.

 

Meh, all this talk about it is making me feel like a replay.

[Gorth]

Meh, all this talk about it is making me feel like a replay.

I'll probably agree to disagree on the silent protagonist, but I still got my game installed. I have an xbox360 controller too, which I bought solely for this game when I got it. It makes the controls less awkward (imho)

[Majek]

A high DPI mouse works fine too. And forced Vsync in your graphic card settings instead of the ono in game if preferable. And ... you only run out of ammo if you're using all the weapons. But you don't ever need anything more than the Plasma cutter. And you never run out of ammo that way. Even on insane.

[The Transcendent One]

alan wake was great best graphics ,story and music in a game.

alan wake is very underrated.

[entrerix]

dead space was ok. survival horror both hit a peak, and fell apart, when resident evil 4 was released imo.

 

i'd definitely rather replay system shock 2 for the 5-6th time than dead space for the second. still, dead space was alright, im not bashing it. definitely was better than alan wake

[Purkake]

Alan Wake? Dead Space? What is this, GameFAQs?

 

Amnesia or bust!

[Zoraptor]

The only game which has really made me think of survival horror are the X labs in Stalker. I absolutely hate them, in a good good way. Most other games though... oh, it's a monster made from babies; ah, those statues are people with plaster on them etc etc blah blah herble derble. I like Dead Space/ System Shock 2 etc a lot but they didn't really have the 'oh **** make it stop' factor.

 

[Frictional totally sold out with Amnesia. Penumbra is where it's at :hipster:]

 

Might warrant a second post but oh well, Witcher 2 sold nearly a million copies in six (?) weeks.

Edited August 31, 2011 by Zoraptor

[Wrath of Dagon]

I don't think Alan Wake was even supposed to be survival horror. The T rating should've been a tip off there. It was supposed to be like a Stephen King novel in game form.

[Majek]

The only game which has really made me think of survival horror are the X labs in Stalker. I absolutely hate them, in a good good way. Most other games though... oh, it's a monster made from babies; ah, those statues are people with plaster on them etc etc blah blah herble derble. I like Dead Space/ System Shock 2 etc a lot but they didn't really have the 'oh **** make it stop' factor.

 

[Frictional totally sold out with Amnesia. Penumbra is where it's at :hipster:]

 

Might warrant a second post but oh well, Witcher 2 sold nearly a million copies in six (?) weeks.

What? You mean the endless wrench guys in System Shock 2 didn't give the " oh **** make it stop" feeling?

 

What Thief? Return to the cathedral? Or Shalebridge Cradle in Thief 3?

Edited August 31, 2011 by Majek

[C2B]

Horror is a very, veeeeery subjective thing. If you find something scary is based on tons of things that are different from person to person.

[Tale]

Horror is a very, veeeeery subjective thing. If you find something scary is based on tons of things that are different from person to person.

I have a theory on that. I suspect that part of the subjectivity is a labeling issue. The physiological response between two people can be identical, but they may label it differently. One would call it tension, the other could call it fear. I'd be very interested in seeing research on this subject.

 

Now, there is still room for subjectivity, nontheless. Some people may not get either tense or afraid. Or have managed behaviors that overcome it, such as comfortable savescumming.

[C2B]

Horror is a very, veeeeery subjective thing. If you find something scary is based on tons of things that are different from person to person.

I have a theory on that. I suspect that it's not too subjective, it's just interpreted differently. The physiological response between two people can be identical, but they may label it differently. One would call it tension, the other could call it fear. I'd be very interested in seeing research on this subject.

 

 

Of course it can be identical. Its still subjective. Hard. And this isn't exactly mysterious and needs a lot of research to be backed up.

 

To name the most obvious (and with biiiiig influence) thing that makes this whole thing subjective: Childhood Traumas.

Edited August 31, 2011 by C2B

[entrerix]

i get scared by tons of stuff. so its easy for me, i think having an active/overactive imagination makes it happen more readily.

 

i love scary games, but often can't finish them... (amnesia)

[Nepenthe]

Horror is a very, veeeeery subjective thing. If you find something scary is based on tons of things that are different from person to person.

I have a theory on that. I suspect that part of the subjectivity is a labeling issue. The physiological response between two people can be identical, but they may label it differently. One would call it tension, the other could call it fear.

And then there's squealing like a schoolgirl when a splicer with a wrench jumps you from a dark corner in Bioshock.

[Zoraptor]

I'd say that there is both subjectivity, relativity and definition (labelling) issues with determining scariness- I'd tend to use 'creepy' or 'disturbing' to describe psychological stuff and something like 'tension' to describe more gameplay focussed stuff for example; which others might describe simply as scary. Subjectively, in order for me to find something scary I really need a combination of both those factors plus a sense of immersion and objectively it's difficult to quantify why I rate the X-labs as scariest. I'd also add that it is relative too, because if I hadn't played Stalker I would likely rate one of those mentioned below as most scary.

 

What? You mean the endless wrench guys in System Shock 2 didn't give the " oh **** make it stop" feeling?

Not really, though it may well have been due to my playstyle- I didn't run short on med hypos or ammo as I was very careful from the outset, and my first playthrough was on normal. It has one of my favourite moments in a game ("the spoiler form is dead. What is it you fear? The end of your pitiful existence?.."), but I'd already guessed it was coming and like a lot of things in Dead Space and Bioshock I found it... a bit creepy, rather than scary.

 

What Thief? Return to the cathedral? Or Shalebridge Cradle in Thief 3?

Both excellent and I suspect RtC would qualify if I hadn't come to Thief quite late (played it after its sequel and SS2). Robbing the Cradle I didn't find scary as I killed the killable enemies and, as with SS2 my natural playstyle was a good fit. Of the Jordan Thomas levels I'd probably rate Fort Frolic from Bioshock as 'scarier'.

[Gorth]

The haunted house in VMBL did a good job of playing on peoples fears, building up gradually as you went along. Perhaps it was because it played on familiar subjects (something fantasy and scifi games might have problems with)?

[Slowtrain]

The most nerve-wracking game experience I can recall was creeping around the cargo bays of the Von Braun with a mostly broken pistol and about 5 bullets listening to the shrieking of the mutant psi-monkeys roaming around me somewhere out in the darkness.

 

I wouldn't call it scarely precisely but it certainly was enjoyably unbearable.

 

 

A couple of the undead-heabu levels in Thief were pretty good like that as well.

[Orogun01]

For my money Fear was the best scare I've had, not the game per se but the ending.

 

I guess that a large part of why games aren't scary its due to the fact that you are on a "play" mentality, there's a strong brick on the fourth wall called reload. Most effective scary games are due to atmosphere and/or surprise elements.

[Gizmo]

I think I will most certainly [try to] get this game.

 

It certainly reminds me of

, but also (and I hope not so much...) of

. Edited September 1, 2011 by Gizmo

[Wombat]

I definitely want some horror factor in Thief 4 but I like more real-world like settings than fantasy/SF ones...playing Deus Ex has strengthened this feel (Some characters let me feel that they could be in our society while some others are out-of-cartoon villains). Also, I wonder how far they could reach with sound effect aspect since I think it contributed to the horror factor as well as lighting, too. DXHR's stealth play is very much tied to shooter and visual signs supported by the "argumentations". Well, indeed, Garrett has an "argumentation", whether it's mechanical or magical (according to the ending of DS), then again...

 

The haunted house in VMBL did a good job of playing on peoples fears, building up gradually as you went along. Perhaps it was because it played on familiar subjects (something fantasy and scifi games might have problems with)?

Some movies definitely influenced it such as Shining. Basically, I'd agree with you but the problem specific to the area for me was that I wasn't scared by the scenes more than the inevitable feeling of d

[Oner]

Doom finally getting lowered to +16 in Germany

[Malcador]

X-COM night missions with no flares, ah the joy of hearing something moving around out there. Still skip night missions