Colette Bennett

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Stories By Colette Bennett

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    Lifestyle
    Lifestyle By Colette Bennett

    Comforts of violence in Papo & Yo

    Writer Colette Bennett examines the tragic, emotional violence of addiction explored in the PSN-exclusive Papo & Yo, reconciling it with her personal experience with alcoholism. There are some spoilers for the ending of the game included in this article. My mother is an alcoholic. Growing up with her meant living in a flurry of contradictions. She was overwhelmingly sweet, beautiful, gregarious, and fun to be around, sometimes willing to be just as much of a child as I was. She was also absentminded, stubborn, and selfish. I learned at an early age that if something captured her fancy, she'd chase after it with all the tenacity of a cat pursuing a fluttering bird. I used to be the central object of her attention. Eventually, she ran after something else, leaving me behind to watch her silhouette fading away in the distance.Papo & Yo (or Papo y Yo, loosely translated to Dad and Me) is about a different type of alcoholic relationship than the one I had growing up, but all the same, I recognize my ten year old self in it.%Gallery-150408%

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    Entertainment
    Entertainment By Colette Bennett

    Scared Stiff: Turning a horror trope into a treasure

    If it's horror, Colette Bennett knows it. 'Scared Stiff' is a column dedicated to everything frightening gaming has to offer, from ghostly little Japanese girls to flesh eating zombie dogs. Whether you've spent the last two years foraging through horror games, or the last twenty, by now you may have noticed that they have a few things in common. I was recently playing a "scary" game that will go unnamed, and as I progressed, I recognized that I felt that needling desire to get up and go do something else, anything else, even though I was supposed to be relaxing and enjoying myself. It was that sense of weariness that can only come with drudgery, the frustration that says, "This could have been so much better, if only!"If I had one of those handy checklists by my side that you can use to make sure you haven't forgotten something crucial, I would have been able to tick off each of the following: Who am I? Welp, it looks like I got amnesia Oh no! I've lost my girlfriend/wife/daughter/mother/dog Blood, but you don't know where it came from (could be yours though) Scrawled notes, preferably with directions Wow, I'm in an abandoned [enter facility type here]Every genre has tropes. It's a part of what makes the formula work, whether you're an androgynous pretty boy leading a pack of rag-and-tag scoundrels in an RPG or flexing your overly-significant muscles at your opponent in a fighting game before you land that dazzling finishing move. Dissolve these tropes, and the genre in question becomes murky. Use them every time, and people get sick of the same old, same old. What to do? Why do video games and their consumers have to be so demanding?

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    Entertainment
    Entertainment By Colette Bennett

    Scared Stiff: Amnesia and the evolution of the modern horror game

    If it's horror, Colette Bennett knows it. This column is dedicated to everything frightening gaming has to offer, from ghostly little Japanese girls to flesh eating zombie dogs. You fumble through the darkness, your feet slopping in the rain. You have no idea where you are or how you even got here. An unfamiliar sound reverberates in the distance, its tinny undertones stinging your ears and furthering your sense of confusion. You're alone and have nothing to defend yourself with. And the only sound you can hear is that of your breathing, ragged with panic.There's no mistaking it – this is survival horror.Unlike the basic action and platform genre, the evolution of horror titles has followed a slow, twisty path. By the mid-nineties, it was known for its signature talent: the ability to reel you into a dark, unknown world like a helpless fish. Titles like Silent Hill and Resident Evil acted as some of the first passports into the journey we now refer to as "psychological horror." System Shock, Parasite Eve, Fatal Frame, and Siren were memorable trips into less-than-reassuring territory. Throw in some unexplained, mysterious figures, watch the world spin out of control, and you've got one hell of a recipe for an addictive genre. Who would have thought that fog-choked towns and shambling creatures who greet you with a spray of vomit could be so appealing?%Gallery-148212%

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