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Vermain posted:i think part of the reason people remember SH2 so much as the silent hill game is because it managed to hit the nail on the head of deeply personal, introspective horror with its singular focus on james and his guilt, which was then reflected strongly in the aesthetics and mood of the setting: everything is this quiet, brooding nightmare that really hammers home the idea of james being trapped in some kind of obtuse hell of his own making, and all of the monsters are the twisted mirror reflections of his anxieties and fears. it's a perfect self-consistent package with nothing extraneous that all ties together into a neat little bow Honestly I didn't find 1 to be bad. The vibe was different from 2, but the way it tangled the esoteric and the mundane worked well. Not just in terms of the real world and the nightmare world, but as a whole for the game. Dahlia runs a cult that controls the town, but they make money by selling drugs. The Head doctor helps to keep the cults demon child under his control, but does it by exploiting a woman's dependence on drugs. Even down to Alessa splitting her soul with one side kept in the esoteric part of reality and one growing up normally. Harry ends up running through the various areas of Alessa/Cheryl's young life from Elementary school, the hospital, church, and an amusement park. And sees how her other forms torture and outlook have warped them from the purer soul previously under his charge. To the point that the final dungeon is all the areas enmeshed together. Silent Hill seems to be attempting another such thing like that, but it feels reduced. Partially because there really was no impetus to set off. You have a dream and then the mall turns spooky without you having a goal besides going home. Silent hill 1 meanwhile immediately had you setting out to find Back to 3 and I'm way more onboard now after the apartment cutscenes. Finally we have a real narrative direction. Its bizarre that we explore the 2 hospital instead of Alchemia tho Gaius Marius fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Nov 11, 2022 |
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Nov 11, 2022 03:14
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My friends and I finished our playthrough of The Quarry tonight. It wasnt too bad, I liked the dumb goofy teen dialogue and the facial capture was great (though at one point while walking around as Caitlyn, there was a weird bug where her neck wasn't really obeying laws of physics and would twist around more than 360 degrees, making her neck this horrific twisted thing). The beginning was stronger than the end though. Might have been due to some choices we made, but things felt pretty disjointed by the end, and the final scene where Travis, Laura, and Dylan shoot Silas felt weak as hell as a finale. We actually chose not to do the thing, and everyone died, which was even more of a wet fart of an end. Still though, overall I liked it.
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Nov 11, 2022 06:03
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None of the monsters in SH2 are scary to me because thematically they’re all pathetic except for pyramid dude. They’re all crawling or prostrate or skittering or buxom babes with no faces. Meanwhile the first monster in SH3 is a huge bandaged creature with deceptive range eating a corpse that can basically two-shot you.
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Nov 11, 2022 16:01
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Silent Hill 1 Demo Disc for the PS1 had monsters that were babies with long knives. I always thought those were scary. They changed them into the small things with claws instead for the full game.
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Nov 11, 2022 16:08
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only in pal regions iirc us release had the knife wielding grey children
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Nov 11, 2022 16:11
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Unless you live in America, where we are perfectly fine with shooting infants with a gun so long as there are no female-presenting nipples around. 
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Nov 11, 2022 16:12
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SkeletonHero posted:Unless you live in America, where we are perfectly fine with shooting infants with a gun so long as there are no female-presenting nipples around. The puritans never left us
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Nov 11, 2022 16:28
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I guess there were always zombabies in Dead Space, but I always forget they're in the first game because they just look like tentacle blobs. The hordes of exploding ones that crawl at you in the second game were enough to crop me out, though. I wonder if they were changed at all for any non-US releases.
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Nov 11, 2022 16:33
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Captain Hygiene posted:I guess there were always zombabies in Dead Space, but I always forget they're in the first game because they just look like tentacle blobs. The hordes of exploding ones that crawl at you in the second game were enough to crop me out, though. I wonder if they were changed at all for any non-US releases. Dead Space 2 introduced them amazingly. Having you go through a preschool was a good choice, really set the pit in your stomach
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Nov 11, 2022 16:37
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The mole men from 3 have taken the most annoying enemy trophy from the jumping bondage dogs in 1. There's always a million of them and they constantly know me down trying to run past.
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Nov 11, 2022 19:28
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there are several enemies in SH3 that just aren’t worth fighting but the Slurpers are the only ones who like to hang out in cramped hallways
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Nov 11, 2022 20:09
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SH3 also had rooms that were literal monster closets with no key items in them, something idk if I liked while playing the game but I appreciate in hindsight as contributing to its violent atmosphere compared to SH2 where James is the deadliest monster.
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Nov 11, 2022 20:12
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that loving dance studio
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Nov 11, 2022 20:14
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Gaius Marius posted:The mole men from 3 have taken the most annoying enemy trophy from the jumping bondage dogs in 1. There's always a million of them and they constantly know me down trying to run past. Mechanically, they're the worst, but I do like their design. A symbolic representation of the childhood fear "what if there was a little guy in here?"
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Nov 11, 2022 20:14
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al-azad posted:SH3 also had rooms that were literal monster closets with no key items in them, something idk if I liked while playing the game but I appreciate in hindsight as contributing to its violent atmosphere compared to SH2 where James is the deadliest monster. Fighting three nurses one with a revolver and realizing there was nothing in the room really ground my gears. For the mole men, at least the other little guys don't also make that horrible slurping noise. Its not even scary, just hideously annoying.
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Nov 11, 2022 21:30
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Gaius Marius posted:Fighting three nurses one with a revolver and realizing there was nothing in the room really ground my gears. True. It would be the worst noise in the game if not for the spinny blade guys.
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Nov 11, 2022 21:39
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Little Nightmares 2 is picking up during this TV section but the schoolhouse and morgue were disappointingly series low points. The intro with the hunter set a fantastic mood but so far this game just doesn’t have the strong setting of the first and the player character feels like a nothing blank slate compared to the increasingly hungry raincoat girl. Congrats kid you released the Tall Man in the tv you jerk.
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Nov 11, 2022 21:52
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al-azad posted:Little Nightmares 2 is picking up during this TV section but the schoolhouse and morgue were disappointingly series low points. The intro with the hunter set a fantastic mood but so far this game just doesn’t have the strong setting of the first and the player character feels like a nothing blank slate compared to the increasingly hungry raincoat girl. I agree w/ the morgue (don't remember much about it actually) but the schoolhouse was excellent and the Teacher was by far the most terrifying thing in the whole series.
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Nov 11, 2022 22:28
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The Teacher was cool but the children felt fiddly like I could wait for them to come to me but it wasn’t a reliable strategy, sometimes they could leap out of range or they would leap with no windup. The game definitely got better the more Color out of Space it got idk what to make of the ending.
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Nov 11, 2022 22:31
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Is Tormented Souls good? I bought it for a fiver on PS5 and enjoy the games it claims to crib from, but haven’t fired it up yet. I seem to remember hearing not bad things which is why I picked it up.
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Nov 11, 2022 23:16
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man nurse posted:Is Tormented Souls good? I bought it for a fiver on PS5 and enjoy the games it claims to crib from, but haven’t fired it up yet. I seem to remember hearing not bad things which is why I picked it up. It's definitely an old school survival horror game. The save system broke me when I played, missed the first one and lost a bunch of time. Haven't gone back, but I do like the lore and the play of it.
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Nov 11, 2022 23:19
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I finished it last weekend - it's not good, but if you're looking for the RE1 feeling it will fill the niche. It's also much easier than it lets on up front so don't let that part scare you off - the save items are scarce in the first half but plentiful by the end, and you get enough ammo that killing every single enemy in the first half is a perfectly reasonable approach. If you identify one or two to leave alive it will even be comfortable. Storywise you'll have pretty much everything worked out way way before the protagonist and the voice acting is obviously terrible but, I mean, that's kind of what you're here for I guess. I will give it credit for having one of the funniest uses of time travel I've ever seen, and in a context with better presentation and character writing it could have landed pretty well.
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Nov 11, 2022 23:30
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man nurse posted:Is Tormented Souls good? I bought it for a fiver on PS5 and enjoy the games it claims to crib from, but haven’t fired it up yet. I seem to remember hearing not bad things which is why I picked it up. It's pretty much a devoted love letter to the Resident Evil 1 Remake, so if you liked that game you'll have a good time.
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Nov 11, 2022 23:32
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Yeah that sounds about right. Not expecting a masterpiece or anything but if it’s a playable game that evokes “old school” survival horror in some capacity I figured $5 is probably worth it for an indie game attempting to scratch that itch.
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Nov 11, 2022 23:39
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It's worth $5. The limited saves thing turned me off it, unfortunately. I know that's a throwback to a generation where I had time to replay sections or keep pushing till I *had* to save, but now I can't do it.
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Nov 11, 2022 23:48
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Along the same lines, does Visage ever pick up? I feel like I mostly remember seeing positive impressions, but so far it's like...great, an old school adventure game where every single piece of household debris is a red herring I can waste time interacting with. My current goal seems to be getting access to the attic, with an attic door handle I can't reach, but none of the fifty things an actual human could use to extend their reach I've passed by so far merit the "key item" designation. I took a break after hauling a loving step ladder up from the basement also failed to do the trick. Also kind of looks like it's got that bad Eternal Darkness copy thing going on, where seeing anything interesting requires playing poorly on purpose.
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Nov 12, 2022 00:56
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keeps getting worse actually
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Nov 12, 2022 01:02
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First two chapters of Visage are good, woods-wife and grandma, but it’s clear they lost the plot later on and it spins its wheels.
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Nov 12, 2022 01:06
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Well at least I bounced fast, thanks. On to...I dunno, maybe In Sound Mind or Lost in Vivo? Or maybe I just stick with the old school survival horror feels and give Alisa a shot.
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Nov 12, 2022 01:32
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Irony.or.Death posted:Well at least I bounced fast, thanks. On to...I dunno, maybe In Sound Mind or Lost in Vivo? Or maybe I just stick with the old school survival horror feels and give Alisa a shot. lost in vivo is a solid 8/10, it doesn't do anything groundbreaking but it's a great little piece of action-horror in sound mind is supposed to be solid as well but it is very stupid. it may be occasionally scary but mostly it's stupid. "lobbing antipsychotic pills like hand grenades" stupid
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Nov 12, 2022 02:04
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They're only hand grenades if you throw them into toxic chemicals that are spilled all over the place. Otherwise they act as temporary lures to distract enemies or as a temp speed buff to yourself. In Sound Mind is good. All the story weapons have cool puzzle and combat uses.
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Nov 12, 2022 02:39
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In Sound Mind is dumb but it’s also a greatest hits of dumb horror scenarios. Closest thing to a modern Realms of the Haunting.
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Nov 12, 2022 03:16
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Visage is a game that feels like one of those not-very-good indie horror games that a streamer buys for a few bucks then plays through for an hour to get some content, with all the directionless wandering and 'deep' plot that probably involves mental illness portrayed poorly or something, except then it's been given a glossy coat and stretched over to be a game that's, like, over 10 hours or something and it just doesn't have the chops for it. Every now and then there is a good section, but eventually my friends and I, while playing, resorted to following a walkthrough step-by-step because finding out what to do next was such an immense chore.
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Nov 12, 2022 03:20
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It took me a while to figure out how to get the shotgun in In Sound Mind and played all the way up to the final tape without it. That was interesting. I liked it overall, the bad guy reminded me of a goon with his attempts at put-downs failing sometimes.
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Nov 12, 2022 06:02
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I finished Signalis. The endings and how they work is extremely bizarre and makes zero sense to me, as did like, 60% of the story until I read some other people talk about it. It was a real good ride, presentation is absolutely top notch and I thought it was a real good time. Probably done with it after one playthrough though.
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Nov 12, 2022 07:18
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Irony.or.Death posted:Along the same lines, does Visage ever pick up? I feel like I mostly remember seeing positive impressions, but so far it's like...great, an old school adventure game where every single piece of household debris is a red herring I can waste time interacting with. My current goal seems to be getting access to the attic, with an attic door handle I can't reach, but none of the fifty things an actual human could use to extend their reach I've passed by so far merit the "key item" designation. I took a break after hauling a loving step ladder up from the basement also failed to do the trick. No. it's not very good. I've played through 2/3rds of it twice and gotten bored out of my mind both times and moved on. It's pretty spooky but not very fun to play and it really starts to just feels sort of cheap and crappy after a while.
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Nov 12, 2022 10:10
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I've been playing Signalis off and on, taking my time with it and today I noticed if you hold your aim on an enemy (with the pistol at least) the red box indicating you'll hit slowly shrinks to a certain point. If you fire when it's at its smallest, it only takes 1 pistol bullet vs 3 for the most basic enemies. Absolutely made me  for a moment at how much ammo I had wasted not knowing this.edit: it's not 100% always going to take 1 bullet, but even just reducing it to 2 bullets makes removing obstacle enemies way more efficient, goddamn. Evil Kit fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Nov 12, 2022 |
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Nov 12, 2022 18:16
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veni veni veni posted:No. it's not very good. I've played through 2/3rds of it twice and gotten bored out of my mind both times and moved on. It's pretty spooky but not very fun to play and it really starts to just feels sort of cheap and crappy after a while. I get really worked up about that game a lot just because I can't remember the last time I saw that much potential in something I was kind of excited for completely wasted. Tangentially related, I'm replaying American McGee's Alice for the first time in almost 20 years. It's like Visage in that it looks good, sounds great, plays bad, and has only a wisp of story, I'm actually having a blast with it just because it's goofy as poo poo and even if the plot's paper-thin, the nature of it makes the setting so interesting and unpredictable. There's really just nothing else like it and it's legitimately exciting to see what it throws at you next.
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Nov 12, 2022 19:39
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Post Ironic Cereal posted:I could forgive Visage for playing like garbage if it did anything even remotely interesting story-wise. The visuals are great, there's some really well-directed scares, there's some imaginative set pieces on display. The story just so loving meandering and predictable and dull. Every section of that game has a story eerily reminiscent of terrible Reddit two-sentence horror. I adore the Alice games, for all their jank and the seconds failed potential. I just wish American wasn't so...yeah
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Nov 12, 2022 21:07
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I actually liked Madness Returns a lot, for what it was. I played that again more recently since it's easier to get ahold of. I just found the original mixed in with my old KMFDM albums, naturally. It goes over the top in trying to recapture the shock value of the original which seems adorably quaint now, but the visuals hold up spectacularly and dammit the dresses are so cute. I want every single one of them.
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Nov 12, 2022 21:30
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