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The many sounds of Dementium
In this latest trailer for Dementium: The Ward, the focus is on the sounds of the game. It follows the same theme as the previous trailers, combining live-action segments with in-game footage. As if we could have any more reason to absolutely need this game, we find ourselves at the point where we'd assassinate a foreign diplomat if it meant getting our hands on this title sooner. Harsh, we know, but how great does this game look?!%Gallery-4929%
Gamepro gets freaked out ten times by Dementium
Genuine horror is a bold objective for a handheld game. It's very hard to create an atmosphere when your material is contained entirely in two tiny screens (and proportionately tiny speakers.) In fact, we'd say that it's even harder to make a handheld horror game than it is to make a good FPS on the DS. Renegade Kid seems to be pulling off both tasks with Dementium, however.This fun, spooky feature from Gamepro outlines some of the scary junk that will jump out at you during the game. It's all screaming this and blood-covered that. We suppose that if you're avoiding spoilers, you may want to skip it, but we think that even if you know something is coming, there's still a good chance it'll give you the jibblies when it does bust through the window.
Old horror films and books: They won't stay dead!
Lest you forget the upcoming All Hallows' Eve holiday, The Moon Books Project has been posting horror-themed content almost every day, stacking its shelves with DS-compatible novels and movies. They're downloadable for free and completely legal, so you won't have to fear any threatening "I Know What You Downloaded Last Night" letters from the MPAA bogeymen. Already, the site has put up over a dozen classics like Nosferatu and Fall of the House of Usher. Even if you don't have the homebrew hardware and software (Moonshell) needed to view the files on your DS, you can still scare yourselves silly with iPod/PSP-formatted and streaming versions of Night of the Living Dead.
Barnyard Blast porks your DS January, 2008
Not wanting to steal Phantom Hourglass' title as the 2007 Game of the Year, DSI Games politely pushed the release of its Barnyard Blast to early 2008, January 15th to be specific. Yes, that's unfortunate for 2008's GOTY contenders, but there's a kitty with a thirst for its mother's milk whom you can refer your complaints to.Being avid readers of our site, you'll remember that Barnyard Blast is a 2D action platformer styled after the original Castlevania games on the NES. You play as Robert Belmart, a cowboy pig and monster slayer, blasting your way through a variety of parodied horror levels, such as "the old creepy wooden jail" and "the castle of intolerable pain."Developer Sanuk Software revealed more about the game in a recent interview with us just a couple of months ago. If you haven't read it yet, now's your chance to roll around in the mud with it!
Blu-ray movie releases for the week of Sept. 30
Now that we're entering the month of Halloween, we'll be seeing an influx of Blu-ray horror movies, and we can't be more excited. This week we're treated with vampires, zombies and psychotic killers, but if horror isn't your thing, you should be covered with A Room with a View and Galapagos. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Bram Stoker's Dracula The Day After Tomorrow Halloween Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn Dawn of the Dead Day of the Dead Galapagos A Room with a View Any time two George Romero and Sam Raimi classics are released in the same week, you know you're in heaven. Do yourself a favor and at least pick up Dawn of the Dead; it's the best zombie movie ever made.
Latest Dementium trailer is kind of disgusting (in a good way)
We're dying to give Dementium: The Ward a proper playthrough. We want to feel the jagged edges of the game cart in our hand and slowly, lovingly place it into the slot of our DS Lite. We want to brave the dark and vanquish the evil within. We want to feel alive.You can check out the NSFW version (see: uncensored) of the trailer here.
Fresh hot craziness in latest Dementium trailer
Mixing in gameplay segments with live-action footage (you know, like they've already been doing), this latest trailer for Dementium: The Ward is a tad bit unsettling. There's lots of blood and creepy women covered in it, shouting and popping up in random places frame after frame. The gameplay, though, looks as good as ever. Seriously, this is one of our most-anticipated titles for the DS to date.How awesome is that whole wheelchair sequence?%Gallery-4929%See also: PAX07 hands-on: Dementium: The Ward
New Silent Hill 5 scans to drool over
Every time I see new screens, scans or videos of Silent Hill 5, I fall in love all over again. This game just looks so damn good, and if you want more proof, take a look at these new scans from Playzone magazine. While Playzone doesn't give us any real new information about Konami's popular survival horror title, I'm sure some of you will be pleased just to see more scantily clad nurses.When you're finished drooling over these new screens, be sure to cast your vote for Silent Hill 5 in this week's Poll Police!
Friday Video: Putting your game face on
We just can't resist these Dementium trailers. They're fresh and different, which definitely grabs our attention, but they seem to demonstrate a great spirit as well -- a blend of comedy, "mature" content, and gameplay that we wish showed up in more trailers and commercials.Though we'll say one thing: if blood ever splashed up from our DS while we were playing a game, we think we'd be asking for a refund. After we stopped uncontrollably freaking out, anyway.
Wii Warm Up: Games vs. movies
Since the Manhunt 2 debacle, there's been a lot of discussion about the differences between graphic games and graphic films. Everyone seems to have a different opinion about which is worse. In fact, two recent articles were not only completely at odds with one another opinion-wise, but they used some of the same examples! However, they did focus on slightly different subjects. Seth Schiesel of the New York Times thought movies were far ahead of games on the gore factor, and he cited comparisons between Saw II and Manhunt 2. Since the most graphic moments in the latter were short, and of course, animated, Schiesel found the lengthy, almost loving shots of "torture porn" in Saw II to be much more disturbing. Clive Thompson of Wired, however, thinks that games are much better than most recent films at creating a frightening atmosphere. Movies rely far too much on gore, he said -- citing Saw as both example and possible progenitor of this phenomenon -- while horror games can recreate the chilling, anxiety-inducing feelings of the best horror films the genre has ever offered, because (Roger Ebert would hate this reason) horror games take a very artistic approach to mood and atmosphere. While he talks mostly about BioShock, the principles can be applied to many other games; he mentions Silent Hill and Resident Evil as well.So our question today is: where do you stand on this? Can games go further and do more, or are films still the benchmark for horror and intensity?
Dementium, with tongue firmly in cheek
If we weren't already interested in Dementium: The Ward, we certainly would be after this latest trailer. What it lacks in gameplay footage, it makes up in humor, and poking fun at ambulance-chasing lawyers never gets old ... particularly when they happen to sport an amusing moniker (like this fellow),The trailer itself is amusingly bad, like watching a low-budget film that is fully self aware and uses its cheapness to its advantage. We particularly liked the obnoxious, excessive gore, especially when "blood" looks as though it's being sprayed from a squeezy bottle of Hershey's syrup. Well played, Renegade Kid and Gamecock. Well played indeed. See it for yourself after the break, but beware -- mixed in among the funny, there are some squicky moments.%Gallery-4929%
Friday Video: Bloodletting and cockroaches
While everyone else in the room was bemoaning the presence of cockroaches in this chilling new trailer for Dementium: The Ward, this blogger was simply stunned by the music. The last thing we expected to hear was Concrete Blonde's "Bloodletting" from the album of the same name, and yet it was strangely fitting despite the lack of singer Johnette Napolitano's amazing vocals. It's quite a slick little trailer; while light on the gameplay footage (which is okay! we've seen it), the video is heavy on mood, and we think it will definitely get you excited about spending time in The Ward.And we ain't lying when we tell you that it's a pretty creepy trailer -- definitely a step up on the perversity scale for DS games. See for yourself after the break.
Nibris announces another new project
When the world has begun to doubt whether or not you even exist, and your "games" have become comedic fodder, what's a young developer to do? We would suggest something crazy, like finishing a game, or even just following through when promising official statements. But the folks at Nibris, they're rebels. Instead, they've announced yet another title, this time a horror game for the DS. The Children of the Night is said to feature third person gameplay and a deep story. Unlike the rumored Sadness, it will be in full color. At least, that's the plan: a commenter under the name of "Nibris" who sometimes speaks out at C3 reported that the game is still in a conceptual stage. Yeah, we know -- a Nibris game only in the planning stages? Say it ain't so!The commenter also reports that Sadness is almost complete, thus freeing up the creative team for work on Children of the Night, but we'll believe that one when we see lots of actual gameplay footage ... and maybe a copy on a shelf somewhere. Don't get us wrong. We want all these games to exist, and to be released, and for everyone to join hands and sing about making the world a better place. But when videos feature flash carts with other commercial games on them, deadlines come and go repeatedly, and gameplay footage continues to be presented in a slapdash manner, we start to doubt things a little.
In video: Clive Barker's Jericho
After questioning Jericho's lack of presence so close to its impending September release in our initial impressions, we're finally able share some (very dark) gameplay videos from Gametrailers. The clips focus mainly on physical combat, though you'll catch a few glimpses of the character switching mechanic and the destructive magical abilities that prompted us to describe the depicted struggle as a "micro-war between fantastic supernatural beings." Also of note is the fact that voice acting is not yet finalized and that the soundtrack, composed by God of War's Cris Velasco, is currently absent.[Warning: Videos contain some profanity, violence and the line, "I'm very dusty, sir."]
Full trailer for Dementium: The Ward
We've seen the tiniest of teasers, but now we can enjoy the full trailer for the upcoming title Dementium: The Ward. From this short video, the debut from developer Renegade Kid looks a little like the recent Touch the Dead, but with a few more character models. And should we be surprised? The games have a similar basic premise -- guy awakens in hospital and finds he must fight for his life -- but Dementium is more than just a shooter ... and it seems to have a few more character models to boot. Publisher Gamecock has really been all over the DS lately, and from the looks of these releases, we hope they decide to stay.
Stalker remotely controls family cellphones, even when they're off
To use a TV news cliche, it's like a horror movie come true: three families from Fircrest in Washington State are being harassed by a unknown individual, who somehow has the power to turn cellphones on, send messages, and change ringtones. Over the last few months, the families have had calls that threaten death and violence against them, calls that tell the people what they're doing at that time, and calls that originate from the cellphones of other members of the family. In one case, the stalker changed the ringtone of a phone to say "answer your phone." According to one James M. Atkinson, an apparent expert in these matters who used to provide the CIA with advice in counterintelligence, the technical profficiency to pull off this level of stalking isn't that high: if the FBI can do it, why not some anti-social kid, right?
CB2 Child Robot is possibly the most disturbing machine ever built
Imagine if someone, somewhere managed to find the exact formula for producing the most perfectly awful example of the uncanny valley (say, for a horror movie or something). Now, accept the fact that this organization is the Japanese Science and Technology Agency, and that they managed to produce the most disturbing machine you've ever seen, without even realizing it. The 33 kilogram CB2 is literally beyond words in its freakiness, not only in its nailing of the uncanny valley, but in its description. Apparently it emulates "the physical ability of a 1- or 2-year-old toddler, can turn over and stand up with assistance," has 51 compressed air-powered actuators, and has 200 tactile sensors in its "skin." It sends so many shivers up our spine to think of the CB2's lifeless putty coating as "skin" that it's a wonder we're even able to continue typing. Seriously, just so that we can stop and move onto something else a little more human (heck, even a motherboard feels homely next to this), go check out the video after the break of the horrifying little thing writhing about on the floor.[Via Tokyo Times; thanks Dave]
Indie horror adventure Penumbra: Overture available on Linux, coming to Mac
Indie developer Frictional Games announced today the Linux release of the first episode of its 3D horror game Penumbra: Overture. The PC version hit back in March and provides a solid adventure game with more spooky atmosphere than you can shake a blood-covered piece of wood at. The game emphasizes interactive physics and physics-based puzzles, not combat, meaning you'll spend more time playing with the environment than stabbing baddies. Mac gamers can take heart, as Frictional is planning a Mac port of the game some time soon.[Via Adventure Gamers]
Lovecraft-inspired PC horror adventure unveiled
Zoetrope Interactive today announced a Lovecraft-inspired horror game in development for the PC: Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder. You take the role of police detective Howard E. Loreid (which is an anagram for "Stock Character") attempting to solve the murder of rich guy Clark Field who, as luck would have it, has had dabblings with the occult. According to Zoetrope, Darkness Within lets players explore the "eerie and disturbing corner[s] of the human psyche". If you met some of the people we know, that's a terrifying prospect indeed. Look for Darkness Within later this year. In the meantime, stare at the gallery below to get the spookiness flowing.[Via CVG]%Gallery-3525%
The Shining cuckoo clock terrifies on the hour, every hour
We've seen some pretty frightening things come over to the consumer electronics realm in the past, but Chris Dimino's The Shining cuckoo clock is probably the most apt to leave a very unfriendly image burned in your mind. Designed by the same guru who brought us the keyboard waffle iron, this cult classic tells time like your average clock, but as each hour strikes, a demented Jack bursts through the door, proclaims "Here's Johnny!," and grins while Shelly Duvall lets out a piercing scream. Of course, Mr. Dimino would have quite a bit of paperwork to sign with the movie studio if this thing were to ever go on sale, but we're sure there would be quite a line ready to drop unfathomable amounts to put this shocking souvenir in their own Room 237.
