'Ware the child with a knife!
Welcome back to Nerds Without Pants! This episode is a pseudo-sequel to the last one, as we discuss levels and areas in games that we find spooooky. Then it’s a lot of games talk before the War of the Roses in Video Game Cage Match. Enjoy!
Take a walk on the fringe!
Welcome to a spooooky special edition of Nerds Without Pants! Okay, actually not that spooky, but Julian is joined by Jordan Bonaparte, the creator and host of The Night Time Podcast. Jordan produces an incredible show that deals with the fringe, the weird, true crime, and more, and Julian has a great time talking to him about a ton of different topics.
The fear is back in The Chinese Room's spiritual sequel to The Dark Descent. Prepare to be scared!
Frightening games require a key ingredient that is not initially present in their makeup: a willingness, on the player’s behalf, to be scared. Without this, horror games are seldom terrifying, and more often than not are only campy experiences as silly and ineffective as the latest Jason & Chucky crossover flick. I went into Amnesia: Machine for Pigs wanting to be thrilled; and I made sure to play it at night, with headphones on, while everyone else in the world slept – to achieve this goal. This certainly isn’t a Resident Evil experience, where you’ll be blowing away fiends with your acid rounds – but something different, more along the lines of some other modern horror games where you are essentially powerless against the forces of evil, rather than being a semi-immortal avenger.
Publishers aren't the main reason horror franchises are quick to lose the scares.
It’s hard to talk about games like Resident Evil 6 and Dead Space 3 without having someone go off on a tangent on how the publishers “ruined” these series by trying to broaden the series fanbases – moving beloved franchises away from their horror roots and towards the more spectacle driven action genre. There is an idiom of truth to this complaint. Horror doesn’t generate Call of Duty sales volume. It’s a niche genre where only the exceptional few break into the mainstream. Action titles, counterparts of the money eating summer movie blockbusters, appeal to a much greater audience and are thus able to bring in much more cash. So yes, it makes sense that the “big bad” publishers would be responsible for the taming of your favorite horror franchise.
The definition of survival horror.
Take this how you will, but I am scared of playing ZombiU. Every time I pick up the Wii U Gamepad to start playing, I get a feeling of dread, and worry. Before I start, I carefully consider my last outing in the game, and identify what it is I have to do in order to survive as long as possible. This is a feeling that no horror game has brought up in a long time. While my fear of ZombiU can be seen as a positive or a negative depending on the context of the question, there is no doubt that ZombiU is an achievement in the survival horror genre.
Guillaume Brunier (Senior Producer) educates us on survival in the world of ZombiU.
How long can you survive?
Ubisoft is showing up big on the Wii U. With eight different titles either being ported to, or developed specifically for the system, the publisher has laid down a heavy bet on Nintendo’s next console’s success. With so many titles being produced, you’d be forgiven if you thought that perhaps games were being rushed and that not anything terribly unique would be delivered, but one title in their arsenal, ZombiU, seeks to prove you wrong.
Sounds thrilling.
After a tongue-in-cheek teaser for a zombie game during yesterday's Nintendo Direct presentation, Ubisoft formally announced "ZombieU" today at E3. The Wii U exclusive will set players in a zombie outbreak on the streets of modern day London as thousands are ravaged by a deadly virus. The first person shooter integrates interactive elements, GamePad controls, multiplayer, and more.
