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Perfect Ten: Virtual haunted houses
Happy Halloween! Or if that's not politically correct enough for you, Happy Scare-Related Holidays feat. the Stylings of Ed Casbar and His Electric Teeth. It'd be the best of holidays if most people didn't have a prejudice against a middle-aged guy going trick-or-treating. Hey, us adults need sugar fixes too, you know! And just because you don't understand my seductive Night Elf cosplay outfit doesn't mean it's less valid than the tots with Iron Man masks. At least the online world is prejudice-free, which is why I love bouncing around between MMOs looking for a little haunted mansion action. Let's take a quick tour through 10 virtual haunted houses that go from zany to freaky, although not necessarily in that order.
City of Heroes pledges to pump out more frequent updates
As the Paragon Studios team puts a wrap on August, the latest City of Heroes producer's letter reiterates the studio's key philosophy: Content is king. Along those lines, the letter discusses several exciting developments in store for the game's future, including the upcoming Haunted Mansion for the Halloween season, new Incarnate Trials, and more content for the Winter Event. The team is also focusing on delivering "more regular updates" than has been seen previously, so expect to see CoH upping the frequency of in-game goodies from here on out. As part of the "content is king" philosophy, Paragon will be releasing a monthly Signature Story that will be free for VIP (subscribing) players. These will not only tell intriguing stories, but will reward superheroes with increased rewards. The team is also going to put new items into the in-game Paragon Market store on a weekly basis, including costume pieces and power sets. City of Heroes is preparing to launch Freedom, its free-to-play version of the game, at an unspecified point in the future. Subscribers will be able to get a head start when Freedom arrives, and they will enjoy spending the 400 points that their VIP status entitles them to each month.
Disney World's Haunted Mansion gets interactive upgrade, digital spooks (video)
It may not be as scary as Walt Disney World's Hall of Presidents, but the Florida theme park's Haunted Mansion just got a ghostly upgrade. The ride's grand finale, which previously positioned hitchhiking ghosts -- by way of half-silvered mirrors -- alongside unsuspecting visitors, is now reportedly using a series of digital mirrors and sensors to make things more interactive. As opposed to just popping up next to passengers, Disney's Ezra, Gus, and Phineas are now equipped to rip your head off, blow it up balloon-style, and send it flying. Sure it sounds scary, but this is Disney, the same company that didn't see the nightmare-inducing capabilities of a robotic Obama. For a peek at the new creepers, peep the video after break.
GDC09: Disneyland's 'The Haunted Mansion' is a first-person shooter
Scott Rogers is a creative manager at THQ, and a former game designer who worked on titled ranging from God of War to Maximo, and he held a panel at GDC called Everything I Learned About Level Design I Learned From Disneyland, and one of our favorite quotes was "Well, the Haunted Mansion is basically a first-person shooter if you think about it. You're directing what the guest sees and has access to, and that's what we're doing with level design." If Walt only knew! Although not apparent at first glance, once you look at amusement park design and game level design, there are a ton of similarities. We have a lot of goodies coming to you from Rogers' talk which we'll be bringing to you next week. In the meantime, you can reimagine your favorite rides turned into FPS titles. Or you could take the obvious route and just combine a ride and shooter, like Disney already did with Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.
