impulse

As posted on my website awsy.tk

This week was the annual Animex, games and animation festival. One of the presentations held was by Doug Wood about the design and developmend of Left4Dead. I was lucky enough to be there with my camera so I wrote up an article on my website awsy.tk, with a couple of slides and some video footage of the original mod "Terror Strike" which the game was based on, as well an early source engine build. Here's a direct link:

http://sites.google.com/site/arewescaredyet/left-4-dead--feature-presentation

This week was the annual Animex, games and animation festival. One of the presentations held was "Creating Horror and Immersion with the Art of Dead Space" by the game's Art Director Ian Milham. I was lucky enough to be there with my camera so I wrote up an article on my website awsy.tk, with a couple of slides and some video footage of them testing out dismembertment early in development as well as prototype Xbox (original) build. Here's a direct link:

http://sites.google.com/site/arewescaredyet/dead-space-presentation-feature

Wow, it's empty in here... Well if anyone stumbles by here the review off of my website awsy.tk

It's hard to review Cold Fear on it's own merits when it so closely resembles Resident Evil 4, and I wouldn't mind going through the similarities one by one. It's a pretty interesting comparison considering the two were released only a few months apart. On the other hand I feel that Cold Fear was an interesting enough experience to warrant an independent review, so here goes.

The most unique aspect of Cold Fear is the high seas on which the game takes place, and the designers do a good job of showing it you from the moment the game starts. And although it adds some interesting gameplay elements like holding on to rails to steady yourself I couldn't help but hope to find some more stable environments as I progressed through the game. And you eventually do as much of the outdoor action gives way to more traditional corridor crawls. Otherwise the game feels very much like a by-the-books survival horror game. You'll trounce around looking for the usual assortment of key cards and door handles all the while shooting zombies in the face to conserve ammo.

The story doesn't break any new ground either. Parasitic organisms have been unearthed out at sea and have proceeded to crawl into peoples mouths and turn them into zombies. Though there is a healthy amount of back story to be found in the traditional mess of papers left lying around (I'd recommend bringing your reading glasses).

The game let's you toggle back and forth between a laid-back or over the shoulder 3rd person view. It's worth noting that I played this on a PC. Though I suspect the original console version might run a bit smoother aiming would naturally be harder with the analogue stick. Apart from zombies and various other mutants you will be squaring off against Russian mercenaries who do a good job of mixing up the action providing some long distance fire-fights. There are also some neat free for all action from time to time.

Taken directly from my website awsy.tk

It seems to have become a trend that, I want to play Monolith games, but the gameplay just doesn't appeal to me. In the case of Fear 2 I really want to experience those brief moments with Alma, but I don't want to wade through all that generic shooter content.

Alma is really back in shape though, at one point during the demo I thought, "this needs more scary", seconds later I turn around to see her standing behind me. Later on she pops out of nowhere and grabs on to you, freaky. That being said, the setup is entirely the same as the first game. You'll be on your way shooting people with brief interludes of horror every now and then. It's like an action movie with scenes from the Ring inserted at random intervals. The shooting feels the same too, and while it might have been innovative when Fear first came out it feels very conventional by todays standards. Though at the very least Monolith did a good job on the environment as one of my biggest complaints about the first game was the monotonous office locals.

There is also a sequence at the end of the demo in which you get to play as a mech. Now the purpose of such a sequence would be to give the player a scene of empowerment, though that feeling quickly dissipates when you realize the moment you got into a mech everybody else did the same.

Are We Scared Yet? Terrified, there is some great horror in there, but can I be bothered to go looking for it? If I do pick this up it'll be on the strength of Alma's scares and my confidence in Monolith as a developer.