What are you playing?

[MacBlayne]

COUNTDOWN VAMPIRES

The survival horror genre can almost be summarised as “like Resident Evil, but what if it was…?” Dino Crisis is like RE, but what if it was dinosaurs. Silent Hill is like RE, but what if it was religion? Deep Fear is like RE, but what if it was The Abyss? Countdown Vampires follows this same pattern. CV is like RE, but what if it was shit?

CV is the worst survival horror I have ever played, and until I ever get round to Virus: It is Aware, it probably will remain the low-point. As you have probably noticed from my recent reviews, I love survival horror. I won’t say they are all great games, but it is a genre that I find to be remarkably consistent. All you need to pass into the realms of decent is a passable mystery plot, and balance your items so that it never becomes too easy or difficult. Succeed at these, and you have the makings of at least a C grade.

CV fails at both parameters. The story is almost non-existent, and whatever there is very poorly translated. You play as a twat called Keith Snyder, a homicide cop who is demoted into a protection detail after being suspected of murdering his partner. I’m sure the Japanese team probably meant that Snyder f***ed up and got his partner killed, but the translation clearly states that Snyder is accused of murder.

The game is riddled with bizarre mistranslations, and poor signposting. Doors carry signs that don’t tell you where they lead to, but tell you what room you are currently in. Except for when they doesn’t, as sometimes the sign on the door tells you where it leads to. It’s maddening, as I reckon I blew at least 20% of my playthrough walking through doors hoping I got the right one, realising I don’t, and returning to where I came from, and discovering that all the enemies I wiped out, have F***ING RESPAWNED!!! Had the game employed some semblance of art direction, it might have helped out, but no, many rooms and hallways look the same, and even the corners of the rooms look the same. It’s almost impossible to make a mental map of the location.

Which is horrible, since CV uses backtracking to pad out its length. Backtracking is a natural part of survival horror, but good games know how to disguise it. Usually, you are presented with two doors. One is locked, the other isn’t. So you take the open route, go on epic adventure that has you circle the map, and returning to the locked door with the key and some fancy items. CV does not do this. Here’s how one CV puzzle worked. To open the door at a fountain, I had to remove the panel, find a bunch of terminals, and use them to get other panels. All within a time limit. If I messed up, it’s back to the beginning. After finding the panels, I return to the fountain, use the new panels to solve a puzzle, which gives me access to the fountain door. Said fountain door asks for a password, which I found out, and I enter it. The game tells me that a terminal at the OTHER END OF THE MAP is now accessible. So I got to backtrack for at least 15 minutes, with respawning enemies, to get to the terminal. I solve another tedious puzzle, and then the game tells me that the fountain door is unlocked. This is the gameplay loop of CV.

CV does pick up slightly in the second disc. It’s not good, but the level design is a lot tighter. Plus, the desert rest stop location is way more visually interesting than the warehouse masquerading as a casino in the first disc. But this is where resource balancing is exposed as completely broken. By the time I got to the final boss, I had 42 tranquiliser darts, 614 rounds of handgun ammo, 238 shotgun shells, 131 magnum rounds, 138 assault rifle ammo, 190 heavy machine gun bullets, 42 grenades, and 50 sniper rifle rounds. Not to mention 24 health kits. Never mind being more than adequately prepared for the final boss. I was ready to invade a small nation.

The game offers a sense of replay value, in that if you beat the game in under seven hours, you are rewarded with a Special Story Mode that offers to fill in the missing plot from the initial campaign. Only for the fact that I beat the game in just over five hours, I gave it another try. There are certainly more cutscenes, but it plays exactly the same as it did before. And these cutscenes don’t explain the plot, rather they raise more inconsistencies.

CV is a joke. It was such a colossal failure, both critically and commercially, that Bandai cancelled the PS2 sequel that was already halfway in development before the original was released. Bandai never recovered from it, and were forced to sell themselves to Namco to survive. Good! They deserved it.

Stupid title too!

[TokyoCyborgOrgy]

Been replaying the assassins creed series recently currently on Brotherhood and gonna play all the way to Syndicate. Really miss playing the old formula AC games.. The newer format with the rpg elements just doesn't feel the same for me unfortunately.

But that being said I forgot how much I actually love these games they still hold up pretty well for they're age!

[MacBlayne]

EVIL DEAD: HAIL TO THE KING

There are two game designers. Let’s call them Matt and Pat.

MATT: Let’s make a game sequel to The Evil Dead films.

PAT: Yeah. But since writing is kinda hard to do without crayons, let’s just have Ash’s severed hand come to life again and play the tape that Ash didn’t destroy for some reason.

MATT: Ooh, speaking of tape recorders, let’s have the player save the game with the tapes.

PAT: But let’s do it in a way so that the first save point is an actual tape recorder, but every other save point is an option in the inventory chest. That’ll keep the players nervous.

MATT: Um, yeah. Hey, let’s bring Bruce Campbell in to do the voice!

PAT: And let’s have him just repeat lines from the films. I’m sure he’ll love that!

MATT: We need to figure out puzzles and level design.

PAT: Tim drew up this map, but I accidentally blew my nose into it. I think I can work it out. Anyways, for puzzles, I figure we can do find the missing item.

MATT: Oh, yeah? Like how Resident Evil does them?

PAT: If Resident Evil hides key items beside the needed spot, or in completely random locations, then yeah!

MATT: … Since I brought up Resident Evil, and The Evil Dead being a horror too, why don’t we make our game a survival horror? Limited inventory, fight or flight?

PAT: And let’s make all the enemies bullet sponges that respawn at a infinite rate, and just to rattle the player, they can spawn on top of the player!

MATT: Ha! Sounds cool!

PAT: Really?

MATT: No! That’s terrible! Who would play that?

PAT: Oh, well, um, we already made the game.

MATT: What?

PAT: The game I was describing? The Evil Dead one? Yeah, we finished it.

MATT: I was joking, you twat!

PAT: I didn’t know! What do we do?

MATT: I don’t know! Market the shit out of it! We’ll fire you later. Oh, God! We are so f**ked!

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by MacBlayne

EVIL DEAD: HAIL TO THE KING

There are two game designers. Let’s call them Matt and Pat.



MATT: Let’s make a game sequel to The Evil Dead films.



PAT: Yeah. But since writing is kinda hard to do without crayons, let’s just have Ash’s severed hand come to life again and play the tape that Ash didn’t destroy for some reason.



MATT: Ooh, speaking of tape recorders, let’s have the player save the game with the tapes.



PAT: But let’s do it in a way so that the first save point is an actual tape recorder, but every other save point is an option in the inventory chest. That’ll keep the players nervous.



MATT: Um, yeah. Hey, let’s bring Bruce Campbell in to do the voice!



PAT: And let’s have him just repeat lines from the films. I’m sure he’ll love that!



MATT: We need to figure out puzzles and level design.



PAT: Tim drew up this map, but I accidentally blew my nose into it. I think I can work it out. Anyways, for puzzles, I figure we can do find the missing item.



MATT: Oh, yeah? Like how Resident Evil does them?



PAT: If Resident Evil hides key items beside the needed spot, or in completely random locations, then yeah!



MATT: … Since I brought up Resident Evil, and The Evil Dead being a horror too, why don’t we make our game a survival horror? Limited inventory, fight or flight?



PAT: And let’s make all the enemies bullet sponges that respawn at a infinite rate, and just to rattle the player, they can spawn on top of the player!



MATT: Ha! Sounds cool!



PAT: Really?



MATT: No! That’s terrible! Who would play that?



PAT: Oh, well, um, we already made the game.



MATT: What?



PAT: The game I was describing? The Evil Dead one? Yeah, we finished it.



MATT: I was joking, you twat!



PAT: I didn’t know! What do we do?



MATT: I don’t know! Market the shit out of it! We’ll fire you later. Oh, God! We are so f**ked!

The PS1 multi disc jobby you're referring to right Mac? One of the most frustrating infuriating games I've ever come across.
I got it for free and i still got ripped off.

[MacBlayne]

Originally Posted by J Harker

The PS1 multi disc jobby you're referring to right Mac? One of the most frustrating infuriating games I've ever come across.
I got it for free and i still got ripped off.

That's the one! I mean, I enjoyed the serving of Campbell, but it was a maddening experience.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by MacBlayne

That's the one! I mean, I enjoyed the serving of Campbell, but it was a maddening experience.

I never finished it. I buckled down many times but it was just beyond me. It wasn't a difficult game as such, just extremely poorly put together, to the point that i lost patience. It was give up or smash the controller.

Sent from my SM-G780G using Tapatalk

[Nordicdusk]

Playing the campaign of COD Vanguard really enjoying it looks beautiful and the guns sound great and give the feeling of real weight to them when firing. Last mission I played was a really fun plane mission shooting Japanese Zeros out of the sky and dive bombing air carriers great stuff.

The multiplayer is still horse s!!t unfortunately.

[trebor8273]

Been playing fallout 3 with some mods main one is wolverine mod that gives you adamantium claws and healing factor, which does make the game easier, but it is enjoyable going toe to toe with deathclaws and slicing them to bits.

No matter how many times I play this or the other fallout games or elder scrolls always find something new.

Also been playing the quarry and this is the best game sulermassive games have done since until dawn and unlike that the characters are likable and I don't want to kill them off.

The graphical detail of the faces is amazing we also have genre faces such as Lance Henriksen, David Arquette, Lin Shaye and very creepy Ted Raimi.

[MacBlayne]

MURDER HOUSE

After the execution of the notorious Easter Ripper, a TV crew arrive at the Ripper’s decrepit house to film an exploitive documentary about how the Ripper raped and tortured 11 children to death. However, the crew are left fighting for their lives when the gates are locked, their cars are wrecked, and an unexpected visitor shows up.

Murder House is the first major game by Puppet Combo, an independent designer heavily influenced by slasher films and PS1 survival horror. Murder House is no different from his other works, in that it pays a lot of reference to those oldies. Unlike other referential throwbacks, Murder House is terrifying.

This game goes hard. There is only one enemy, but it the stuff of nightmares. A giggling monstrosity in a dirty rabbit costume that stalks you throughout the entire game. The violence is nasty, the insinuations of brutality against children is vicious (don’t worry – nothing is shown), the fixed camera, and the discordant soundtrack creates a feeling of unease that never goes away until the finish.

Yeah, that ending. This is the only flaw I have against Murder House, and unfortunately, it is a big one. Puppet Combo’s games have a reputation for unsatisfying endings, and it is something he freely admits to. He claims that he wants to replicate the endings of 80s horror junk, stating that while he knows they are lacking, he loves them all the same. But this does a disservice to Murder House. Those films didn’t go as hard as this game does, and when the finale does happen, it feels like a cop out.

Ending aside, I loved this game. It’s five hours of intensity, and is made with love and affection. Even the fuzzy menu screen shows off loving crafted VHS art. If you’re looking for some Halloween scares, Murder House is the game you want.

[MacBlayne]

THE RING: TERROR'S REALM

After the strange death of her boyfriend, Meg Rainman takes his position at their workplace to uncover the secrets of his job. It turns out that he had been working on a secret virtual reality programme called RING. After sampling the programme, Meg gets a call informing her that she will die soon. And to make matters worse, nervous authorities seal the building thinking there is a virus inside.

The Ring: Terror’s Realm (simply called The Ring in Japan, and what I shall be calling it from now on) is one of the most derided survival horror games of all time. It generally sits alongside current trash king Countdown Vampires, but due to its connection to the legendary film, it carries the most notoriety.

And I think it’s a little undeserved. Don’t get me wrong – it’s far from great, but I wouldn’t call it atrocious either. I said before that survival horror is one of the more dependable genres in video games. Craft a little mystery plot, balance some resources, open up the map gradually, and you have a fairly solid foundation. The Ring does do all of this, but shows off what separates its nappy from Resident Evil’s big-boy pants: POLISH.

Resident Evil’s map is one the finest there is. When they were making it, you know they drew up that map multiple times. Locking doors, moving items, finding ways to block the player to find another route. It’s a system that keeps the player immersed. The Ring does block the player, but does so in a way that destroys immersion. You want to go downstairs? Well, you can’t. A security guard will spawn and stare you down like he’s Lou Gossett Jr. No real reason is given either.

What about the inventory system? The Ring has one – it’s pretty much the same one as Resident Evil. You can only carry a limited number of items, and you can only save at designated spots. However, the inventory system is only relevant in perhaps the game’s oddest design choice.

The Ring is split into two styles of game: the office setting is more of an adventure game, where Meg must explore and solve puzzles to unlock more clues behind the mystery. The virtual reality setting (represented as a dark, futuristic, and industrial) is where Meg decks out in soldier gear, and uses resources and combat to battle monsters. While this does make sense in the overall sense of the story (which has a neat twist), it is poorly implemented. The VR segments have very little impact on the story, and it only becomes relevant at the end. As a result, these moments carry on for what seems like an eternity with no sense of progression.

It doesn’t help that the combat uses delayed animation, and that the monsters are visually pathetic, and never feel imposing. Do they hint at their approach with groans or rattling? Do they burst out of closets? Nope. They just spawn in and charge you. Meg will just be walking down a hallway, when the camera will just switch to a close-up of the monster going BLAUGH, and it will run into your shotgun fire.

The office levels are the best bit, as this is where the game shows off its trump card: the story. It is a shoddily translated effort, but as a fan of the 1998 film, and of Koji Suzuki’s trilogy of novels, I was deeply engrossed in the mystery. Without spoiling too much, it seems to try to connect Nakata’s film (which went off in a very different direction from the novel) to the final book, Loop. This might be the only time Loop has been represented in another media.

The game was released to coincide with The Ring 0: Birthday, but it feels much closer to Suzuki’s science-fiction horror than the ghost story Nakata presented. I’m guessing the game started development around the time when The Ring film and The Spiral were about to be released (which is around when Loop was about to be released too), and the focus was to carry on from where The Spiral left off. The Spiral bombed, and the studio changed course for the series. To the game’s credit, it doesn’t do a bad job of bridging Nakata’s film and Suzuki’s novels. If the game was ever dragging out, I felt inclined to push on as I needed to know what was Sadako’s connection to the company.

Let's not mince words - The Ring is jank. The different gameplay styles feel at odds with each other. The game suffers from momentary pauses and long loading. The combat is like drawing blood from a stone. The music is a repetitive loop, that while not wretched, will certainly have you longing for the mute button (seriously, they couldn’t snag a few tracks from Kenji Kawai?). But I enjoyed my time with it. It has a distinct visual style that feels very unique to the Dreamcast, and the effort of connecting the film series to the books results in an intriguing mystery. Maybe some spit and polish, and a designer who was actually interested in making it, may have resulted in a genuinely good effort. As it is, if you are a fan of the series (and especially the novels), I do recommend checking it out.