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Posts with tag Horror

Cursed Mountain features walking, pointy hats


As you can imagine, two things really stuck with us following our viewing of this latest trailer for Cursed Mountain: how much walking they show the protagonist doing and one enemy with a pointy hat. Sure, there's other good stuff in there, like brief snippets of combat and a variety of locales, but we usually find pleasure in the little things, to tell the truth.

So, now that you've seen more of it in motion, what do you all think?

Cursed Mountain devs considering MotionPlus


According to N-Europe, who found this in an NGamer magazine (we'd call something this abstracted a rumor if it weren't already hypothetical), Deep Silver may seek to augment the controls for their unique survival horror game Cursed Mountain with MotionPlus.

The article describes the motion-based controls in the "prayer gestures" used in the nonviolent combat in a bit more detail. Apparently, "prayer scrolls" will be used along with motion-controlled ritual simulations to banish ghosts from the earth. In addition, players will use motions to climb walls with an icepick, suggesting more context-sensitive motion controls that would probably benefit from MotionPlus.

With any luck, then, our controllers will register with near-perfect accuracy the shaking of our fists as we curse a mountain.

Top 5: Spooky Gaming Moments


In order to survive on these tough tubes, one usually needs to develop a biting sense of sarcasm. You know, where we make a statement and then italicize the second part of the sentence to indicate that this is where the funny is. When you work in cynicism, sentimentality and unfettered joy are difficult to host. You can't be contemptuous one moment but filled with child-like joy the next. Thus, we tend to judge the value of holidays based primarily on if it grants us a day off from work.

Yet one holiday that seems to entertain even the crabbiest of bloggers is Halloween. Around the world, the lead-up to October 31st has us enjoying the orange and black decorations, scanning late-night cable for horror movies, and attempting to rationalize buying abundant amounts of candy at the counter of the drug store. Sure, we can be as bitter and weathered as we allow ourselves to be, but there's no denying the joy of carving pumpkins, piecing together a costume, and perhaps even enjoying a good scare or two.

As gaming is always finding new ways to entertain us, fans of things that go bump in the night have no shortage of spooky games. Developers have been attempting to give us frights ever since the obscenely terrible Halloween for the Atari 2600. Good gameplay can survive regardless of technology, but generating a convincing scare is usually dependent on quality audio and visuals. Since top-notch technology and mature content have inconsistently been attributes of Nintendo, our favorite line of consoles is slightly lacking in good scares. But while the Silent Hills and Fatal Frames of the other guys have given us plenty of sleepless nights, Nintendo's consoles are home to a handful of underwear-changing moments. Here's the Top 5 moments that, speaking in strict technical terms, give us the heebie-jeebies.


The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.

Wii Warm Up: The scare factor


A batch of videos leaked last week to inadvertently reveal a new horror game from Hudson, The Calling. Although Hudson has since requested we take them down, the footage reminded us just how effective games can be at creeping us out. And, since it's, uh, the month of Hallowe'en (look, we're trying to be topical here), we thought we'd open the floor to discussion about games that scare you.

I'll get started, then. Because I am an absolutely ridiculous, quivering coward, I couldn't even finish Shadow Man when playing it alone. Yes, I know it's not a typically scary game and I'm pathetic, but I recall being especially unnerved by the faded face of my character's dead kid brother flashing on screen and whispering at me. Honestly, I daren't even pick up a Silent Hill box now, and I won't be offering to review Fatal Frame IV.

What games have you ended up playing from behind the sofa, or even switched off?

Rumor: Footage for new horror title from Hudson [update 2]

Update 2: Hudson has requested we take down the videos.

Update: Looks like the original videos were pulled by YouTube (new videos have already made their way back up). Be warned: these also could disappear at any moment. Incidentally, Hudson has contacted us, explaining that a hacker stole these videos from internal files on their server and posted them without their permission.

Leak ahoy! A mysterious trio of videos have been discovered on the open servers of a PR company representing Hudson, apparently showing off a brand new Wii horror game from the publisher. Judging by the name of the directory address, the title will be known simply as Calling (though we'd wager on The Calling), and it looks like an extremely creepy slice of J-Horror. That doll! Eeee!

It's played from a first-person perspective (a technique which has always boosted the scare factor for us), and might be an on-rails adventure, unless the person playing this has incredibly steady hands. That's difficult to believe -- cowards that we are, just watching this makes us tremble a little. If you dare, go past the break for a second gameplay video.

A few Dead Rising


Click to embiggen

Here it is, just what we asked for: the maintenance tunnel in Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop versus the same area in the original. In the Xbox version of the title, the tunnels were a grueling challenge, a never-ending sea of grasping hands, and here, it looks like ... well, this place with some zombies in it.

We can accept a game that is similar to Dead Rising, but different in order to adapt to the Wii. It'll be fun, and there's nothing like kicking zombies in the face. But seeing the two side by side can sometimes bring out a sigh.

Gallery: Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop

Manhunt 2's extra-scary, extra-late UK date

Rockstar has taken a long-form approach to scaring people with Manhunt 2. They've waited very quietly, very still, until everyone in the UK forgot that it was there, and then they JUMPED OUT AND ANNOUNCED A RELEASE DATE! "BOO! Manhunt 2 is coming out on October 31!"

This version of Manhunt 2 is different from the one the US got, having been "heavily reworked" (as IGN describes it) in a desperate bid for BBFC approval. They got the right to release the game in December, but by then Halloween had already passed, and what's the point of releasing a horror game on any other date?

Gallery: Manhunt2

Reggie 'answers' questions about Disaster, Fatal Frame IV


Because it's not a Nintendo event if it isn't followed by "where's (Game X)" questions, Kombo cornered Reggie Fils-Aime at yesterday's conference and asked him about the status of North American versions of Disaster: Day of Crisis and Fatal Frame IV. While nobody expected concrete dates or even confirmation from Reggie's answers, he still managed to impart a bit of information.

Regarding Disaster: Nintendo of America is waiting to see how the game performs in Europe before making a decision. That means that we at least have to wait for a while after October 24 to hear anything.

As for Fatal Frame, he offered the following frustrating response: "you're going to have to contact the publisher for questions on that." So it might be coming out here -- just not from Nintendo, despite Nintendo of Japan publishing it. Who wants to start cold-calling publishers?*

*Note: Wii Fanboy does not encourage the cold-calling of publishers.

Gallery: Disaster: Day of Crisis


[Via GoNintendo]

Hopefully not the last update on Last Flight


Click for more eye candy

Bloober Team may have split from the Notorious N.I.B.R.I.S., but their methods seem disturbingly similar to their progenitor. They have yet to actually release any games, and after months, and some cases years, of teasing, we have nothing to go on but concept art and occasional doctored screenshots. Their most complete games have made it to the "DS homebrew program" stage. We really want Bloober Team to not be Nibris.

So it is with mixed feelings that we present this concept art of Last Flight. We can laugh at the continued non-development of Nibris's Sadness, because it sounds like a pretentious, overambitious game and we'd probably laugh at it if it came out anyway. But Last Flight, the WiiWare game about fighting vampires on an airplane, is something that we would actually like to play within our lifetime. We're glad to see Bloober Team releasing something about this game, but we're a bit worried that it's concept art.

Gallery: Last Flight


[Via press release]

Capcom talks more Dead Rising, inevitable questions ensue



We feel sorry for Capcom PR staff right now. Take Jason Allen here. His performance when talking about Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop is as smooth and unruffled as they come, but somebody just had to wheel out the old, old question of zombie numbers, didn't they? Allen clearly knew it was coming -- he gives a wry smile as he answers -- but he does stumble a little. "[There will be] just as much, er, a satisfactory number of enemies on screen to fight off against," he replies. Fair enough.

Away from the issue of zombie quantity, Allen discusses how the game borrows Resident Evil 4's combat controls, a decision that was made because the Wii Remote worked so perfectly there; in fact, he notes, Dead Rising on the Wii will boast more firearms than the Xbox 360 game. Capcom is also restructuring the title so it's more appealing to the casual gamer set. All side quests are now incorporated into the main narrative, the rationale being that casual gamers are less likely to replay the game for the extra quests. That makes sense, and it doesn't really result in less content. It's just all squashed together in one whole now.

Gallery: Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop

Renegade Kid releases art for mysterious new game


Dementium: The Ward and Moon developers Renegade Kid have announced that they're partnering again with Gamecock for their next game. The platform isn't explicitly specified for this new project (nor is anything else), but Renegade Kid has references to their "next original title for the Wii" in job postings, and only the Wii and DS logos appear on their website, so it's a fairly short logical jump to assign this new game to the Wii.

The new game is based on "one of the biggest horror icons of all time," and, like the platform, it doesn't seem too hard to figure out. The cool stencil-style teaser art features a caped character, a full moon, and a bunch of bats. The Gamecock logo is even sporting some little fangs! Also the character appears to have Texas for a hand, but that may not be related to the character's lore.

[Via IGN]

Dyack: Ownership of Eternal Darkness IP is 'complicated'



Our greener, slightly more hi-def colleagues at X3F recently had a chance to sit down with Denis Dyack, famously outspoken founder and president of Silicon Knights. Although Dyack and Silicon Knights have been working with the others in recent years, the company does have a history of working alongside Nintendo, perhaps most notably when Ninty published cult favorite Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem on the GameCube. Since it was released in 2002, the fan clamor for an Eternal Darkness follow-up has been considerable.

Regrettably, the signs given by Dyack here (at around the 4.30 mark) aren't encouraging. The sticking point seems to be the issue of who owns the Eternal Darkness IP, something which Dyack describes as "a complicated question with a complicated answer."

That said, he also reveals that Nintendo is a "silent partner" with the developer, and that the two companies have a "great" relationship. "It's not time to talk about Eternal Darkness 2," he concludes. The chances of an Eternal Darkness sequel on Wii seem a little slimmer after watching this, and that makes us sad pandas.

Video comparison shows Dead Rising taken down by Hitman



So yeah, we're not even touching this. Not with a twenty-foot damn pole. Some user at GameTrailers compiled this video, featuring a comparison between Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop and the PlayStation 2's Hitman: Blood Money. The point? To show up the supposed lack of NPC zombies in the former, by comparing it to the achievements of a two-year-old game on a technologically inferior system.

The Dead Rising footage used is a touch selective (we've seen screens with a far greater number of zombies), but like we say: we're staying out of this. It isn't going to end well.

Gallery: Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop


[Via Go Nintendo]

GC 2008: First footage of Cursed Mountain


You'll have to endure some conference attendee's phone call at the beginning of this off-screen Cursed Mountain footage, but it takes place during the seemingly interminable intro anyway. This video contains the first actual images of Deep Silver's horror title, which, at first, only seems scary because the music and the editing tells you it's supposed to be. It's just a foggy mountain, which isn't really that terrifying unless you're there. But then ghosts arrive, and it's generally accepted that ghosts are scary.

Judging by the brief glimpse of an onscreen prompt, QTE-style gestures figure into the combat. Either that is what they meant by motion-controlled combat, or those arrows were on the screen as a tutorial, to help players learn the gestures. There's also a pointer visible on screen, which may just be used for investigating or may also be part of the ghostbusting.

Rub your eyes: Sadness 'footage' emerges, disappears again [Update 1]



Go Nintendo's RawMeatCowboy recently received an email from an anonymous, shadowy figure calling themselves "rabbits can't be sad." That's pretty weird, but stranger still, the email contained something we almost never expected to see: footage of Nibris' "vaporware" title, Sadness. Despite the unconventional method of its delivery, it definitely looked like the real deal.

We say "looked" because now it's gone, pulled down by RawMeatCowboy, who (we're guessing) was asked to remove the footage. In his amended post, RMC simply writes: "Sorry for the inconvenience, but I unfortunately have to remove this post. That is all I can say at this time."

So after being relentlessly mocked (not least by us), has Nibris actually been making a game all along? Really, really slowly?

[Update 1: Some enterprising soul grabbed the footage before it was pulled, and added it to YouTube -- thanks, DaisukeKiriyama!]

Gallery: Sadness


[Via Go Nintendo]

Previously, we've had plenty of reasons to believe that Sadness is about as likely to exist as Bigfoot: just take a look at our timeline of the game to see what we mean.

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