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When it was brought to my attention that September 2019 marked the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Sega Dreamcast in North America, I felt compelled to actually play something on Sega's short-lived final console, which is something I rarely do. Since the Dreamcast has a handful of exclusive survival-horror titles that have never been ported or re-released on other consoles, it only seemed fitting that I would check out one of these titles and see how it holds up. Being a huge fan of the Resident Evil series, I decided to go with an unabashed Resident Evil knockoff known as Carrier.
Carrier is a Sega Dreamcast exclusive survival-horror title that was developed and published by Jaleco. Released in North America, Japan, and Europe on January 31, 2000, February 24, 2000, and July 5, 2001 respectively, it was met with mostly mixed criticism. A sequel was planned to be released for the PlayStation 2 but was ultimately canceled. Carrier has since faded into relative obscurity as it was likely overshadowed by the much more popular Resident Evil CODE: Veronica which released only a month later in North America.
Continue reading Carrier
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Resident Evil fans have been clamoring for a remake of the series' second entry ever since the excellent remake of the initial title. What seemed like a pipe dream for years was finally announced back in 2015, but many fans were skeptical at this point due to the direction the series had been going around this time. Although the positive response to Resident Evil 7 help assuage fears, early footage of the Resident Evil 2 remake still resembled the 'action-horror' titles that are oft maligned. I am glad to say that any fears were unfounded, and Capcom delivered what I feel is the best remake of their survival horror classic that they could have possibly made.
** Note: In an attempt to discuss all relevant gameplay mechanics, some mild story spoilers may be included. **
Continue reading Resident Evil 2
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While I have always been a huge fan of the survival horror genre, when it comes to the Silent Hill series, I have generally played it safe and stuck to the first three titles which are almost unanimously praised. Although many of the later Silent Hill games are almost universally disliked by fans, the fourth entry is probably the most divisive title in the series, with a seemingly equal number of people who either love or hate the game. After playing it for myself, it is easy to see why opinions are so mixed, as I too had a sort of love/hate relationship with it. Good or bad, it is definitely one of the most interesting games I have played in a long time.
** Note: Due to the nature of the game, it is impossible to discuss all pertinent gameplay mechanics without giving away some mid-game spoilers, although I will try to keep things as vague as possible. **
Continue reading Silent Hill 4: The Room
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In 2005, Capcom released Dead Rising for the Xbox 360. Capcom made their entry into the world of High Definition gaming a memorable one, as Dead Rising was like no other game before it. There were a few years around and following the release of Dead Rising where zombies would rule the roost, as games from both large developers like Capcom themselves, Valve, and Activision, had games or popular game modes that had a heavy emphasis on zombies. This popularity also coincided with the rise of indie games on the PC market, and zombie games thrived there for a few years until fatigue inevitably set in. Most of the biggest zombie games and modes were first person shooters, whether it was Nazi Zombies from Treyarch's Call of Duty games, Left 4 Dead, or Killing Floor, running around and shooting zombies made quite a bit of sense.
Capcom is not known for first person shooters, and instead designed Dead Rising in a completely different manner based around what it did know and had recently experimented with. Dead Rising has a third person perspective where combat is more focused around melee weapons. Guns do exist, but they are clumsy to aim and not particularly powerful until the player has completed one of the most difficult challenges in the game, which unlocks the most powerful gun, and overall weapon, in Dead Rising.
Continue reading Spooky Plays: Dead Rising
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Galerians is considered a bit of a hidden game for Sony's first Playstation. The game was released in 1999 in Japan, and the following year in Western markets. It was developed by Polygon Magic, published by ASCII Entertainment, and carries the Crave logo for distribution. It seems to have been hidden as a result of the game's late timing on the system, coming just as the hype for Playstation 2 was in full gear. It's also a game that does little to advance the survival horror design formula, other than giving you a different story and weapons that fit the story.
Continue reading Spooky Plays: Galerians
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Most people know that I am a huge fan of the survival-horror genre, particularly the Resident Evil series, so I was immediately intrigued when The Evil Within was announced back in 2013. This was a brand new survival-horror IP directed by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, and it promised to bring the genre back to its survival roots rather than the action-oriented approach of more recent horror games. While I still enjoyed more recent horror titles that have been given the label of 'action-horror,' the prospect of a modern title that recaptures what made the old-school games so unique and interesting was exactly what survival-horror fans had been hoping for.
Continue reading Spooky Plays: The Evil Within
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If you grew up in the 80's, at some point your dreams were probably plagued by images of at least one of the super iconic kings of the slasher film. Though Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, and even Leatherface were not totally absent from appearing on the home console, most of these games (if not all) were very poor representations of their movie license. Of course, this had a lot to do with early censorship issues, which prevented fantasy blood, gore, and other forms of more "adult" content. Thanks to ESRB ratings (established in 1994), parents can now be more aware of what their kids are playing, and on the flip side and much to the joy of many modern gamers, the amount of mature content has greatly increased in modern gaming. Prior to ESRB ratings, many licensed horror games were "forced" to keep their games behind the counter or dull down the content for younger gamers. One of the most notorious (as in notoriously bad) games to come out pre-ESRB was Friday the 13th on the NES in 1989. Since then, no one has even attempted to make a more violent and mature video game based on this series.......that is, until NOW!
Check out more details, watch the project creators talk about the game, and JOIN THE KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN HERE!!!: https://www.kickstarter.c...h-the-game?ref=nav_search
**DISCLAIMER** - PICTURES AND VIDEOS BEYOND THIS BREAK MAY CONTAIN VIOLENCE, BLOOD AND GORE, AND ADULT MATERIAL THAT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AUDIENCES. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Continue reading Friday the 13th on Kickstarter
In space no one can hear you scream, unless MJ and Janet are responsible, in which case no one wanted to hear "Scream". Of course that doesn't really help most of us that are stuck in our living rooms on a regular basis playing horror games. I'm pretty sure everyone in my family knows I scream like a little girl thanks to Silent Hill 2. Dead Space isn't really improving things.
Dead Space, designed by EA Redwood Shores, is a new intellectual property from EA, a company that used to be considered the most vile and unoriginal collection of individuals since John Romero's ego took over his soul. With their buying up every single development house known to mankind and pumping out Maddens like it was going out of style they easily qualify as atleast a stereotypical Captain Planet villian. Then they release a string of good new properties that I enjoyed such as Army of Two, no matter how criminally short it was, Crysis, and most importantly Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Then Activision came along and proved to be worse than Julian Sands as the Warlock and anything EA has mustered for upsetting me. Then EA released Dead Space a week ago.
Continue reading Week Old Reviews: Dead Space
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