Something went wrong. Try again later

Jeust

Head eye coordination is a fascinating subject. :)

11739 15085 430 277
Forum Posts Wiki Points Following Followers

My Experiences with Horror: Movies and Games

Scary, isn't it?
Scary, isn't it?

Horror is a very broad theme, both in movies and in games, that entices the mind of its consumers, and drives them to experience uneasyness, tension, fear, and terror, or just a laugh.

To me movies and games engage me and connect with me differently, and elicit different responses. Being that responses also variate because of the subgenre.

Before delving into the theme applied to both types of media, I will discuss the types of horror based on the crucial plot elements. In horror there are some variants that produce different reactions in the consumers, and in me.

I divide the genre of horror, according to the plot in:

  • Spiritual horror - that delves into ghosts, demons, poltergeists, possessions, hell, life after death, paranormal;
  • Sci-fi horror - that delves into aliens, portals into dimensions;
  • Fantasy horror- that delves into zombies, Frankenstein, vampires, werewolves;
  • Criminal horror - dealing mainly with killers;
  • Psychological horror - the subgenre that explores psychology, the workings of the human mind and its products.

With these themes in mind, spiritual and psychological horror have a more intense and lasting effect on me, than sci-fi, fantasy and criminal. That is greatly due to my ignorance about spiritual matters, enough to not be able to disprove phenomenons, and my interest and exposition to human psicology, and its uncertainty. The fact that aliens and zombies in media are fictions, and that my excessive exposure to violence has dissensitive me to it, makes me less susceptible to them.

So horror affects me differently depending on the theme.

And now we've come into the discussion of horror in movies and games.

To me horror is much more effective, inside the same subgenre, in movies than in games.

Why is that?

To me movies are, by its inherent characteristics, more natural and relatable, with human actors and more natural interactions, feeling more realistic, than games. Games are by their nature more interactive, but also full of jarring elements like unatural movement, health bars, save stations and rooms, bugs, and questionable graphics. Unlike movies, games take me out of the experience often, to deal with these distractions. So some of the build up is lost when experiencing these elements.

Although of course there are bad horror movies that scare very little, with bad cg and characterization.

Scary? yeah... not so much.
Scary? yeah... not so much.

This doesn't mean that I'm impervious to horror in games. Nanashi no Game really creeped me out, and made me a bit paranoid playing it alone at night. Dead Space was killing me with tension, and foreboding. Clive Baker's Undying scared me playing it even in broad daylight. And those ghosts in Silent Hill 4 were really disturbing.

But the normal horror game doesn't really scare me, although it does creep me out. Evil Within was one of those cases, especially at the end, going into the safe place after Tatiana's twist.

But comparable horror movies generally make much more emotionally envolved. Event Horizon really did disturb me, The Ring scared me a good deal, The Abandoned terrified me. So did Nightmare on Elm Street.

And Fatal Frame 1 and 2 really did little for me, for those same reasons. The sound was top notch, but having to distance myself from the horror to focus the camera, and learn the ghosts patterns, while aiming to take the best shot, as well as some jerky movement of the ghosts diluated the experience a great deal. Even though ghosts really disturb me.

Evil Within's difficulty, when not spiking, and making me replay sections over and over again, it gave me tension, and that was a step in the right direction to engage me, but the mundane nature of the horror in the game (chainsaw enemies, the Keeper, the haunted), and the bugs, diluted that feeling, although I enjoyed it quite a bit.

All this leads me to think that despite the genre of the horror work, the execution is very important. And a very flawed execution is capable of draining all the dread from the experience. And making forgettable an otherwise fantastic story. Again, Fatal Frame I'm looking at you.

It doesn't seem real does it?
It doesn't seem real does it?

This sumarizes my thoughts about horror, and the genre applied to movies and games.

How do you feel about horror, and horror in games and movies? Do you feel differently? Share your thoughts...

19 Comments

The Keeper

He is the man with a box for a head, the metaphor for the unsympathetic, indifferent man, whose touch hurt.

Mysterious, he locks his thoughts deep inside his mind, his brain, made of flesh, selfish, twisted, caprichous.

He is the embodiment of it all.

He is the Box Man.

Hello!
Hello!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is an interpretation for the Box Man, because I was curious about him, about the significance of the box for a head. Especially after seeing the room with all the portraits of people with boxes for heads.

Do you agree with it?

8 Comments

The Increasing Problems of Gaming

This generation of consoles has only started but the problems in gaming seem to be increasing dramatically. Problems like:

  • Broken games and beta versions of games being launched, and fixed after being sold to its consumer audience;
  • A larger focus given to DLC;
  • Microtransactions;
  • Periferal issues conditioning creativity: the portrayal of sex, feminism;
  • Sequels instead of new original intelectual properties;
  • Pre-order bonuses.

This generation started badly. Do you believe things can improve enough to make this generation better than the last?

Feel free to include other issues I have overlooked.

63 Comments

Change and Goals

Most of us have bad habits, and all of us have unhealthy inclinations, be it cigarettes, coke, fast food, and what not.

Sometimes we aren't aware that they are unhealthy, or sometimes we are, but we don't care enough to change.

Why should we change? To be more of the same that we are now, just worse, without the comfort of that vice? What's the point?

Change I believe normally comes from pursuing a goal we haven't achieved. If we settle for what we have now, we won't change. why should we if we already have what we wanted? we can slogg through life then.

But does that makes us happy?

Or should we pursue a new higher goal? a goal that will make us work to achieve it, and change, and be better? Maybe we'll be happier then.

This is a thought piece. I'd like to know you opinions on it.

J

15 Comments

My interpretation of the movie Lucy (Spoilers)

No Caption Provided

First I would recommend that you watch the trailer:

Now lets get cracking...

There is some confusion about the main idea of the movie, but if you look closely at the trailer, or at the entire movie, there are two main ideas interwined:

  • that human being normally only use about 10% of the brains capacities;
  • if someone could have conscious access to 100% to the brain functions, the person should become a completely alien lifeform unable to be related by the rest of humanity.

These two ideas come together giving the main concept of the movie: what if a human being was able to progressively unlock the ability to use consciously all of his brain capacities, with an understanding of everything he is, and is capable of. What would happen to him/her and the world around him?

We have to understand that while the percentage of 10% may seem ridiculous and untrue, it is true though that throughout history there have been singular men that have made better use of the brain than their contemporaries and become heroes and legends, men like Socrates, Plato, Hipocrates, Archimedes, Copernicus, Nietzche, Pierre and Marie Curie, Einstein, Freud, Jung, still influence the world of today, long after they died. They developed each, their particular talent uncovering a part of reality, that was both their focus and to their reach, yet to them as to us there were still many mysteries to be uncovered. Now imagine having all their talents put into one person, and think of what that person could do, and what more could he discover about reality.

This is the main focus of the movie: what if one could access consciously the talents, inteligence, that have been manifested throughout history, and transcend it and unlock all the unknown potential that still lies in the human mind, what would happen?

Will it transcend the perfection of the Vitruvian Man?
Will it transcend the perfection of the Vitruvian Man?

In the movie, Lucy says:

"all this knowledge about everything, quantum physics, applied mathematics, the infinite capacity of the cell's nucleus, they're all exploding inside my brain. All this knowledge. I don't know what to do with it."

One could possibly unlock the secrets of the universe, and become like god.

Moving on, in the movie there are a lot of abilities that have been a part of western culture, like the more popular levitation, mind control, and telekinesis, or the more obscure like psychometry and bilocation (click here for more information). They are used in the logic that, if they are capable of being done by a human being, a person that had unlocked all of her potential would certaintly be able to do them.

The story then serves to explore these ideas, with almost all scenes having an underlying motive besides to amuse, giving context to the shallow entrapings of an action movie.

Lucy starts with a simplistic sci-fi premise: by absorbing a drug, Lucy is artificially allowed, progressively, to unlock the conscious use of all her brain.

Like you see in the trailer, the main character at the beginning is made to be the most ordinary and mundane of girls, but after absorving the substance her entire demeanour starts shifting to manipulative, uncaring, social awkward, obsessed, extra sensitive to the reality around her, becoming increasingly detached from the people around her, transcending normal human comprehension, becoming something completely alien. Like she says:

It's like all things that make me human are fading away...

This makes her an unusual character in a work of fiction. She apparently becomes invulnerable after ingesting the substance, but despite the apperances she is not. Her body and mind are changing faster than exponentially, which makes her overly unstable - you see her desintegrate in the trailer.

In the movie Lucy says:

"Professor, my cells are reproducing at a phenomenal speed, several million per second. I'm having trouble precisely evaluating the time of my death, but I doubt if I'll last more than 24 hours."

Also the first quote from the movie, posted here, supports this idea too.

The movie also dabbles into other ideas like :

- the imortality of the soul, when Lucy says in the movie: "We never really die.";

- Henosis, in the sense that the final step in the evolution of a being is fusing with reality, becoming an omniscient immaterial entity that is in perfect harmony with the whole of reality, and is expressed by the full use of reality;

- the behaviour of cells in reality, which her actions end up mimicking. In the words of the monologue presented in the movie:

[Looking to the future] "If its habitat is not sufficiently favorable, or nurturing, the cell will choose immortality, in other words, self-sufficiency and self management. On the other hand, if the habitat is favorable, they will choose to reproduce — that way, when they die, they hand essentialinformation and knowledge to the next cell, which hands it down to the next cell, and so on. Thus knowledge and learning are handed down, through time."

- the potential of the cell's nucleous, as the nucleous has in itself the DNA that encodes the whole human body, making it the source of all creation, recreation and maintence of the living body.

The DNA from the cell's nucleous
The DNA from the cell's nucleous

And with this, it ends my take on the movie Lucy.

If you agree or disagree about any part of the text, don't hesitate to post about it.

Cheers,

J.

2 Comments

Psychology and Philosophy from the Planes (Spoilers)

No Caption Provided

I'm trying to play through Planescape Torment, which is kind of hard with so much good lines to read and ponder about.

So I'm going for a series of blogs where I'm going to discuss some tidbits of the script of Planescape Torment, and I would love to hear your replies and insights about the lines, and my interpretation of them.

Let's start...

Dak'kon said when you meet him at the bar:

No Caption Provided

"In chaos we dwell with only our knowing to preserve us."

Isn't that the same with us? We live in a world apparently chaotic, that we comprehend and interact with based on the use we make of the information we receive. Like Bill Gates said:

"How you gather, manage and use information will determine whether you win or lose.”

Later on The Nameless One encounters a tattoist dabus named Fell in his shop in the Hive, and engage in a costumer-client conversation that falls upon the topic of The Nameless One's prior body work:

Fell: "The symbol that lies upon your left shoulder is the mark of torment."

Fell: "It is *torment.* It is that which draws all tormented souls to you." Fell nods at your left arm, at your shoulder. "The flesh knows it suffers even when the mind has forgotten. And so you wear the rune always."

This a bit more sinister, but in truth we grow close together because of our particularities, being that feeling dazzled by a beautiful smile, a good pair of tits, maybe our nurturing feeling towards someone that suffers, or even the feeling of a common understanding born from the past experiences of both. One such emotion over which a bond can be created is torment, the torment experienced by both and understood by both similarly.

The second part is interesting and curious, and you probably have felt it before, when you feel something for reasons you can't explain. Like when you got something you really wanted, and it made you happy, and maybe you even forgot it the following moment, but that feeling of wellbeing accompanied you during the rest of the day, or at least part of it.

Well, this is it for now.

I hope you enjoyed it, and you are free to agree with me, and if so, please expand on what I said, or tell me how wrong I am.

Cheers,

J

1 Comments

Game Length and Linearity

Is game length that important? When a game can motive multiple and different playthroughs in its non-linearity?

A game can last two hours to finish, but if every playthrough is unique, does it justify the price of a longer and linear game?

Does it in the case of The Binding of Isaac?

And Left 4 Dead?

Will it be justified the price of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeros? And of Routine?

Maybe it's time to equate a different conception of value.

30 Comments

Dementium: The Ward and 2's Story Compilation and Analysis

Dementium is an interesting horror franchise for the Nintendo DS. Here I'm going to try a plot compilation and analysis of both Dementium: The Ward and Dementium 2.

If you like what you are reading, stop reading and get the games! Because they are great.

So here the dementia (yeah!) starts:

I - Dementium: The Ward

No Caption Provided

Plot description:

Dementium: The Ward starts with the main character entering a psychiatric hospital called Redmoor Hospital, strapped to a wheelchair pushed by an unseen orderly, with lots of gruesome monsters stalking the corridors. Among this horrifying visions is a woman laying down montionless near a puddle of blood, a very pale child of long blonde hair with eyes without pupils, and a surgeon figure that appears right before the wheelchair falls through a hole in the ground.

No Caption Provided

The main character wakes in an empty bedroom. Getting his bearings, he searches through the room, and finds a notepad, with "WHY DID YOU DO IT?" scribbled in the first page. After exiting the room, in the hallway, he sees a bulky monster with a blade, dragging the same woman that appeared before, through a pair of double doors.

With the progression of the story you come to know that within the hospital gruesome experiences with the patients took place, and there was dissent between the medics about these actions, while the chief doctor was convinced that the ends they were striving justified the means.

The child appears again, now inside an elevator, and beckons the main character to her, through the disarrayed hallway, and the door closes.

You forget about it, and continuing trying to escape, as the main character, and come again across the child that this time, runs away from you.

In the courtyard the same woman that appears innitially, while the main character was admited into the hospital, appears near the fence, being forcefully and mysteriously pulled by the darkness beyond, leaving a key in the floor.

In some unrelated places you find three pieces of a picture, that when put together reveal a secret code for a door, and the fact that the woman and the pale child apparently were a family together with a man whose face is scratched.

No Caption Provided

After progressing further thru the gastly corridors of the hospital, with a record playing in the background, the main character come to have a vision of the woman. that appeared before, dead in the ground near him, in a fadding study, and the child opening the door in front, and running away screaming after facing the man. The character runs after her, and she disappears.

Later on, you come across the news playing on a tv, detailing a murder where a man shot and killed his wife, with their daughter fleeing the scene.

After more meandering the main character comes finally face to face with the evil chief doctor in underground division. He tells you that you're his puppet, a pawn, and that he will destroy you. And then he exits the door.

At the end of the underground complex you find the doctor again, and have a final showdown.

After defeating him, the main character wakes up in a clean hospital bed. He gets up, the door of the division opens and his wife and daughter appear beyond the door waving at him, with the screen fadding to white.

The game then picks up in an operating room with the chief doctor performing open head surgery on the main character, who is with his eyes open and oblivious to everything. The medic states that Phase One is over, and, with a saw in hand, orders to prepare for Phase Two.

Setting and characters analysis:

Redmoor Hospital is suitably decrepit, bloodied place. A place of decadence and violence. The enemies reflect that with:

No Caption Provided

- monster with his eyes shut by nails, suggestion unwillingness to see and even violent behaviour to whom is capable of bringing knowledge, with his heart open sugesting someone who is all heart and little mind;

- bugs and flies, that normally appear in reality in places of filth, and death;

- the screaming clown faces, suggesting the extreme pleasure and suffering of maddness;

- The Cleaver boss, suggesting the monstrous nature of a killer, whose right hand is a blade;

- Gatlingun Wheelchair Guy, perhaps a mockery of the main character when he entered the mental hospital;

- The Green Mouth room, perhaps a metaphor for an asfixiating state where the character felt surrounded by enemies - paranoia and fear.

Plot Analysis:

The whole journey through the Redmoor Hospital was probably a dream. The main character, suffering a psicotic episode, probably killed his wife, while their daughter seeing her mother dead, runned away from the scene. Now he lays down in a slab, with his eyes open, being operated by a surgeon, while he is completely alienated from reality.

II - Dementium 2

No Caption Provided

Plot description:

Dementium 2 starts off with the main character waking up in a hospital bed, with a nurse beside him. While his vision is focusing, she asks if he is all right, and states that his name is William Redmoor.

She rushes him out of bedroom, saying that she needs the bed for another patient, and calls the guards.

No Caption Provided

The men escort the patient through the halls, populated with russians imprisioned and a vision of his supposedly dead wife in a bloodied elevator, that turns into a nurse walking by.

William Redmoor then is taken through a cell block and left in a cell with a russian. He finds a post card written by himself (to himself), with a paradisiac setting in the cover, hurrying him to flee:

"For God's sake, get out of here before it's too late.

- William."

The world suddently changes - similar to the setting transition in Silent Hill - and the player is left to escape through a twisted and masoquistic representation of the medical facility.

No Caption Provided

The player picks up a bloodied shank on the floor. At the end of the cell block he sees an animated corpse strung by chains in front of him, and a monster sprints from a door, yanks the corpse and goes through another with the body.

Soon after, the world changes back to a regular correctional facility, and the player is left to escape from it. Guards are alerted to his situation and try to take him in, and he kills pr flees them, and runs away.

Reality continues warping between more normal and more disturbing scenarios, although the settings, after each change of reality, resemble very little the ones he was in before.

No Caption Provided

William solves a puzzle envolving rearranging bottles of eyeballs, in the more sane version of the world, opening the door to a medical school class, with a surgeon performing open head surgery in a man, while a class of students watches attentively.

Through the glass window to another division, William sees the chief doctor, in a while robe, that tells that these twisted events started happening when they did William's surgery, letting out whatever vicious thing was inside of him. The doctor suddently switches to a dark green robe, and asks William to ignore his saner half, as it is a bit remorseful, and expresses the desire to share something. The camera then zooms over the room William is in, and it is not a class anymore, but a kind of arena. The same monster that gnawed the chained decomposing body at the beginning, appears and a boss battle ensues.

No Caption Provided

After the confrontation ends, William continues his escape through the facility, and comes across another paper describing the recent intake of russian prisioners from death row, cheaper and legally less problematic.

In his escape he comes across an office, and within it is his transfer papers, from Cowling State Hospital for The Criminally Insane to Bright Dawn Treatment Center. The document is as follows:

Patient #: 47329

Patient Intake: 10-31-07

Transferred from: Cowling State Hospital for The Criminally Insane

Background: Allegedly murdered wife and suffered psychotic break. Presented with low level of function/ high suicide risk (GAF 13), possible schizotypal disorder but officially diagnosed as unclassified mental illness (F99).

Treatment Protocol: Phase One.

William continues scurrying the institution looking for a way out, and comes across a message from a prisioner, in the ground. It details his work in creating a passage from the boiler room, in which he was stationed, to the outside. But also adverts that he found monstruosities outside, that lead him to block the passage, and wanting to forget the matter. The paper is written as follows:

WE ALL MUST STAY

Folks are gonna wonder why I dug an escape tunnel and never used it. The thing is cursed! I dug for three months, working night labour in the Boiler Room. Locked in all night, nobody but me. Check that gauge... mop the floors... DIG. Cover the hole every morning. After ten feet I broke through to a natural cave. But there are things in that cave! I boarded it up and never went back. I rather die in this cell than go back to that tunnel.

No Caption Provided

After some more sniffing around, the main character finds the tunnel to the outside world, and goes through it arriving at a road, that leads to a town. There is another postcard, written by himself to himself, that reads:

"It's spreading like a cancer. Hurry!

-William"

He starts exploring the apparently empty village. In a cabin he finds a letter from his wife:

William, my love. You have finally returned for me. My dear William, I have missed you desperately. Go south to the docks. It is my favorite place. I will see you there. Please hurry. Love, Elizabeth x o x

After some meandering he has a vision of his wife at the docks, hurrying to follow her, and after a few brief moments it desappears.

Fighting the way through the village, he gets to another empty house, where he finds another letter from Elizabeth. It states that:

William, my dear. It is difficult for me. I'm sorry. Much has changed since we last saw each other. Please try to find a way to enter the northeast area of the village. I'll wait for you at the Inn. Please come quickly. Love, Elizabeth x

No Caption Provided

Struggling through the town, William reaches an hotel room, bloodied and in desarray, where he finds another letter from his wife:

William. I want to see you, but they are making it so difficult. Our safe house is west of here. Remember? I have a surprise for you. Meet me there. I changed our code, it is now 326. You must hurry. Elizabeth.

William trails back to a locked door where he uses the code. Inside he finds another letter:

They got here first. They took Amanda. I'm going to the church. Take the key. Meet me there. They will come. This will end. In the church, in the gate you find another letter. Go south. Find Amanda. Bring her to me.

William goes down to the crypt, and finds graves, in the bottom floor, he finds one with the epitaph:

Amanda

Daughter of William and Elizabeth.

He digs the grave, and finds a doll, that transports him to the other world. There he continues his escape, fighting the enemies in his way looking to exit the church.

No Caption Provided

He reaches the main hall, looks at the tapestry on the altair, and the Wendingo Witch appears. A boss battle ensues.

After the battle the sane world reasserts itself. William picks up another postcard behind the altar saying:

"Too late for escape now. You must go back to the prison and stop him. This will help you: 129484

- William."

He then exits the church, and returns through the passage to the clinic.

Arriving at the center, William is greated by a message of the surgeon on the speakers:

- I'm very disappointed in you, William. I saw so much potential. I thought we'd make the perfect team.

In a door William finds another postcard:

"He's always watching. Always.

-William"

No Caption Provided

William enters a hallway, and hiding behind a desk is a soldier with an assault rifle, that at the sight of a big beast coming towards him, starts firing, and after a bit the monster falls to the ground defeated. William and the soldier shoot each other, and eventually the soldier dies.

In a desk William finds two notes:

ANGUISH LORE p. 816

.. Malatesta: an ancient serpent trapped in the lowest Plane of Anguish. Centuries spent within the Plane have twisted this creature into a demented, rage-filled beast of immense power.

Malatesta can only be harmed in the deepest reaches of Anguish. If it breaks free of this realm, it becomes invincible... Malatesta reaches into real world pscyhoplasmic eruption - infects host

ME

tries to tear open path between two planes

the dead will rule the living

MUST STOP

cannot stop

must open pathway

William continues his journey to freedom, and finds another postcard:

"The Doctor is just the host. It's using him, and trying to break through. You can't let it.

- William"

No Caption Provided

After more meandering looking for the way out, he comes accross another post card:

"Find what's hidden... unlock what's locked.

- William."

The surgeon talks again through the speaker system:

- We're like two sides of the same coin, William. Neither of us can succeed without destroying the other.

William exits to the courtyard, and enters the chapple. And the surgean voice arises again in the speakers:

- Soon the plane of Anguish will burst through to our world. The Sun will blacken, blood will fall like rain, and the air will be filled with the music of pain. You wouln't want to miss that would you?

William follows the trail of blood on the floor, and finds the priest hanged with a key around his chest.

No Caption Provided

Around the chapel, he finds a letter from the chapelain to him, that reads:

Mr. Redmoor -

All my life I have prepared for this day. But, nothing could have prepared me for what has happened. I was foolish. I did not anticipate his strength. His intentions are purely evil. You are a pawn in his game. You must go no futher. The secret door in this office is locked. You must not enter that room. Crossing over to the Plane of Anguish will complete his plan. Leave now, while you can.

- Chaplain Kennedy.

Against the priest wishes, William jumps into the portal and comes to the other world.

No Caption Provided

He passes through an altar, and a postcard is left there, which says:

"There's no way you can defeat him now. I'm

sorry I ever got your hopes up.

- William."

After exiting the altar, William faces the surgeon chief, that speaks to Malatesta:

- Malatesta, I bring you an offering. Do with him what you will!

And the medic turns into Malatesta, a gigantic worm.

The final battle ensues, and with hardship, William kills the monster.

The otherwold fades, and he finds himself in a lounge. He walks to the exit, and passing near a window, in the glass he sees the reflection of the surgeon, instead of himself. William nears the window, and the surgeon grabs him and takes him beyond the mirror, dragging him further in, until they both vanishes in the darkness.

THE END

Setting and characters analysis:

- The setting is varied, always decrepit, abandoned, sometimes gory, generally nonsensical;

No Caption Provided

- The Gnaw, the monster that gnaws the decomposing corpse in the beginning of the game, exibits the viciousness of animal behaviour;

- The Wendigo Witch, supposadly represents the corruption of Elizabeth, turned into a wild and bloodthirsty wraith in his mad allucination;

- The Gorgamesh, another boss, another abomination, brutish, violent, sadomasoquistic, knitted together of pleasure, pain and suffering;

- The Colossus, an oversized, overwheight monstruosity, with a big mouth, and metal claws for hands, voracious, insatiable and violent.

- The Wisperer is a shade, that stalks William until he is outmaneuvered, and engulfes him, spawning him in a room with various foes, just like a dark thought that when considered, bring new threats to mind;

- The spitter, another enemy, laughs when William hits him, suggesting a sadomasochistic behaviour;

- The screamer is a flying head that tries to ram you, while he screams, maybe a sign of madness;

- Malatesta, a gigantic serpent trapped for centuries in the plane of anguish. demented and enraged, powerful, perhaps a manifestation of the weariness, that facing his anguish has brought, and his strengthened desire to give in to his anguish, madness, and rage, all personified in a serpent, a western symbol of temptation and evil.

Plot Analysis:

No Caption Provided

Whether the world is in its more sane version or more insane, truth is a lot of times it is nonsensical. So I believe that most of the time William is allucinating. Elizabeth is probably dead, and Amanda's whereabout are unknown. The whole revolving world of Dementium 2 seems to invoke and manifest anguish, pain, madness and violence. Even a demonic serpent, Malatesta, appears, as a possible metaphor for William's anguish and madness. To me the whole game is about William coping with his anguish and guilt over the death of Elizabeth. But there is also the part of himself that just wants to let himself go, to surrender to all those dark feelings that plague the corners of his mind, and to escape facing the truth. The ending supports this as the surgeon (his darker half) grabs hold of him again, preventing him from freeing himself from his own nightmares. The postcards he writes himself show that he has prescience over the events happening, so a part of him knows what is going on.

But the fact that part of the game looks sane, and there are even human guards in the medical facility, and prisioners speaking real russian, begs the question of if there is any sanity and reality in the world William traverses on. Is he really killing human beings?

Dementium III

It is a possibility, even the developer, Renegade Kid, acknowledged it. So here goes two chilling predictions for the third and possible conclusion of the story:

I - First prediction

No Caption Provided

All the events in Dementium: The Ward, Dementium 2, and even Dementium 3 were dreams, of a man confortably sleeping in his own bed. William wakes up with his wife beside him, and his daughter, Amanda comes rushing in and throws herself to the arms of her father.

If this happens, what did the games mean? Did he really dreamed with killing his wife, security guards, Malatesta, and a world full of nightmares?

II - Second prediction

Dementium: The Ward was all a dream, and Dementium 2's story partly was real, and partly was the ramblings of a haunted mind. Malatesta and all the second game's horrors were just illusions, while the confinement in the Bright Dawn Treatment Center and his confrontations with the security personel were real, and, in reality, he is no longer a killer, because of the murder of his wife, but a crazed serial killer. How can this end not badly?

Finishing thoughts

If you manage to read the whole thing, I salute your patience, and ask what you think about the whole deal? With the story, and even with this text.

Cheers,

J

7 Comments

Wake up and stop blaming the year!

If you haven't heard Paul Waker, the actor of Fast and Furious among other movies died, leaving his daughter orphan of a father.

News source: http://www.tmz.com/2013/11/30/paul-walker-dead-dies-car-accident-fatal-fire-crash/

People say it's tragic, and wish the year to end, so they can leave these phenomenons behind. But they forget that such things happen not because of the year it is, or because of bad luck, they happen because people are stupid and careless. If they didn't speed, they would probably still be alive.

And because such carefree attitudes, friends and family are left suffering with the death of their loved one, like the daughter that is left without a father.

So, instead of speeding, think of your loved ones and slow down. This way the year doesn't need to end to avoid more tragedies. Because the year has nothing to do with it.

Rest in peace Paul Walker and his friend, and love to their family and friends.

56 Comments

I'm a sellout (and surrendering my Survival Horror Fan card)

No Caption Provided

Dear Survival Horror Fan Club,

I finished Resident Evil 6, and love it!!! Sure the boss recycling is annoying and the boss battles became exasperating and monotonous, and there were some less polished sequences, but overall I found the game awesome.

Resident Evil 6's graphics, complimented by a nice quantity of zombies and mutated foes, great enviroments (like Tall Oaks and China), some heart wrenching moments, a serviceable and creative gameplay, and plenty of emotions in its rollercoaster ride style of pacing, provided me a great time!

I played it in singleplayer, with the AI companion, and for the first time in a Resident Evil game, I can say it didn't deter me from having fun, unlike Sheva did. To be fair Sheva was only part of my problem with RE5, being the rest of my complains centered around the severely miniscule inventory and the cooperative focused boss battles.

For the first time I can get behind this direction for the Resident Evil franchise. Of course I would love that the game was slower paced, scarier, and zombie-centric, but I'm not displeased with the new direction.

Survival horror was awesome, at the time it was invented and florished, but... right now I don't have the patience to either survive through the long hours to wrap my head around the puzzles, or consult a faq each five minutes of playing.

So, without further ado, I hereby surrender my Survival Horror fan card.

Love,

J

35 Comments