I think so long as you've played MGS3 Snake Eater you'll have some semblance of idea of what's going on. At least that's what I've heard and what I hope because that was the last MGS game I played.

That and Peacewalker. I think it's more important if you've played MGS3 though as a lot of what happened in Peacewalker is reviewed and then expanded upon. Big Bosses' timeline is what I'm most familiar with, and it's a hell of a lot more interesting than Solid Snake's. A lot of the story is tucked away in to cassettes, so if you're just in it for the game it shouldn't really be that big of a deal, as long as you have some general idea of what's happened. For a MGS game it's pretty lax on the cut scenes, but just a warning, it's incredibly dark for one too. Rape, torture, children soldiers, genocide, it's got some quirk to it (namely one line near the end which I had a double take to), but it's pretty straight laced for a MGS game.

I really, really enjoyed it (even if I read most of the lore and played only MGS3). It just gets really depressing towards the end, almost to the point where I kind of don't want to pick it up for awhile.

Meet Rudy. He's an old friend I haven't seen in twenty years, and he's going to protect me from the alien. So long as I'm playing Alien: Isolation or any other scary game, he'll be by my side, giving me support.

Say "Hi!", Rudy.


http://i.imgur.com/7zoV2jp.jpg

Just as an aside to further illustrate my manliness, I've never used YOLO unironically in my life, but it has become a mantra that I repeat to myself over and over again whenever I summon the courage to make a crouched break for an objective.

Of course, once I hear the alien touch down, all thoughts of YOLO go out the window, and I flee with my tail between my legs to the nearest hiding place, praying to any god who might be listening with pity in his/her/its/their heart.

YOLO is a way of horror game life.

P.S. My new computer can probably play a lot of older games, but I'm dubious just how good it is, so are their any 360 horror games worthy of note? I'm looking at the Condemned series and F.E.A.R., but from what I gather the 360 isn't exactly a haven for quality horror games. Luckily I still have Dead Space in the wings.

^I assume you're enjoying the horror genre then? If so, i'm happy to hear that. I don't really know anything for 360, but if you have a pretty decent PC, you need to play Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and Outlast.

You definitely need to play Condemned: Criminal Origins.

This idea did not work out, turns out becoming a vampire was more of a nuisance than a bonus.

For the love of God man, never smile on a pic again.

Also, the Dead Space series, if he hasn't already.

I think "enjoy" is a... strange word to use, but it's definitely a refreshing change from RPGs and FPSs.

The Batlord Creepy Smile© has done it again.

Just finished Until Dawn. A lot better than I was expecting. The endless jump scares were a bit much, and more often than not the characters were insufferable, but the mystery throughout and the story itself was quite good. The whole butterfly effect aspect and all the different potential outcomes was interesting.

Finally started playing Metal Gear Solid V over the weekend. Well I say play, but the first 80 minutes of the game is more like watching an incredibly tedious movie with the odd command press up, press x, etc.

So boring and everything I dislike about modern gaming. I really don't care for fancy cutscenes, characters, dialogue, fancy graphics or realism if the gameplay isn't fun. I'm hopeful the game proper is fun, but the opening was so bad I've not been back since. :(

Dull:




I had to play this bullet hell shoot 'em up to cheer myself up. Fun:

^That's the first time ive seen someone disappointed with MGSV.

I'm disappointed with the opening chapter, that's all - cos that's all I've played.

I just hate games that don't let you play. The fun I get from gaming comes from what I do with the controller, never from anything else.

Likewise although with the MG games i don't mind the cut scenes cause i dig the story.

Some games really strive for an epic story though, and this has one of the best stories I've ever followed in any medium. Plus, the prologue and Chapter II are really the only "story" heavy moments I.e flashy cutscenes, unlike the last platform Metal Gear. And the ones before it. I sense I'm nearly complete with the main story missions and the games getting really fucking difficult. I'm a cool 90 hours in.

90 hours? Jesus.

Played a bit more today and it's gotten better. Still unsure if it's my kinda game (especially with regards to the stealth and base management aspects) and there have already been a few moments where I've been bored (which is unacceptable to me) but will give it more time.

**** Alien: Isolation!

I haven't played it in about a week, due partly to time and lack of energy, and partly to being a big pussy. But mostly the time and energy thing. So today was the first day I went back in a good while.

Tonight I loaded the game and pressed pause as soon as I could in order to procrastinate for a respectable amount of time: studying, eating, going for a cigarette, tweezing an eyelash that was curved down and annoying the **** out of me, checking MB, etc. But eventually I could put it off for no longer, and I was tense as **** when I pressed start again.

But Rudy the stuffed reindeer was with me!

Even with all that pussification I was actually feeling just a tad confident: previously I'd played through probably over half of the medical wing section, only dying once in the beginning, and I thought I could keep up my streak.

I'm not at all confident anymore. The alien has killed me twice within the same twenty feet area that I have not had to courage to move beyond for over an hour. There are dudes wandering around who want to shoot me, and while the alien has killed several of them, it's no longer in uber-hunt mode, so I have to do something to draw its attention to them... which is only half-good for me.

First time, I was hiding under two connecting desks and I shot this guy. I figured since I was under such a good hiding place, I'd be able to wait the alien out after it dropped down to investigate the noise.

Nope.

I shot the guy, turned around, only to see the door of the room start to open and realize that the doorway had a perfect view under my hiding spot. The door wasn't even all the way open before the alien dove under the desks to murder me.

I'm not sure what the exact sequence of events were next, but they involved me jumping away from the TV, pressing start, ripping my headphones off, and refusing to look at the screen.

I then heard my mother call out, "Is there a rattlesnake in there?"

Unbeknownst to me, I had "shrieked".

With my next life, I spent about twenty minutes hiding under the same bed in a hallway not ten feet from where I had been previously slaughtered. It's not that I couldn't bring myself to move, but there was just always something that required me to hide, and that bed just so happened to be the closest spot.

First was the guy I'd shot earlier. I wasn't going to make the same mistake, so I threw a noisemaker in his general direction, and watched with keen schadenfreude as the alien mutilated him.

About a minute later, after the alien had gone back into the ceiling, I was all ready to come out again when I heard screaming behind me as another person I didn't even know was there was ripped apart by the creature. So now there was an indeterminate number of hostile humans I had to negotiate.

I still wasn't able to cower my way out from under the bed, since another guy on the other end of the hallway discovered his murdered buddy (the one whom I had ****ed over) and proceeded to patrol the immediate area with the intention of killing the person responsible.

I waited until he was just far enough away that I could crawl out from under my bed, and hit the nearest surface with my wrench to attract the alien.

The nearest surface being my bed.

My brilliant scheme backfired however, as the guy was too far away for the creature to notice him, and so it just circled me for about two minutes while I repeated to myself over and over again, "Please don't get curious, please don't get curious, please don't get curious..."

I got lucky, and it went back into the vent. Then I wandered around for a bit, periodically cowering under various desks and beds and such, only to realize that I had gone in the wrong direction and needed to go back. Thankfully, due to my slow, terrified progress, I didn't need to go far to get back to where I had been.

But of course the guy I'd failed to lure the alien to was hanging around just past my home bed, and back under I went.

I didn't want to waste another noisemaker, but my mind was too dulled by constant panic to think of any better solution, so I threw another, with a delightfully successful outcome this time.

Unfortunately, as I hid under my bed, the alien finally got curious...

And now here I am. Going on and on, narrating a series of events no one will care about, just so that I don't have to look at the screen. I think I'll go for a cigarette. And then watch the first Alien again, so I can see some other people suffer for a change.

You can do insane things in that game, but it requires a lot of patience sometimes.

This is a common complaint against MGS games over the years where despite their gaming brilliance they've become more and more like cinematic experiences with an overly complex storyline that has become rather boring.

I still haven't played the latest MGS game but soon will I guess, but I know I'm going to become bored watching that story.

So I guess you prefer this game over Dead Space then?

I have SOMA installed on my PC now so I will report back later tonight on my experience. I've been hearing nothing but good things.

http://canadianonlinegamers.com/wp-c...a_43c94797.jpg

I played it for about two hours last night and it's pretty good, better than Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs but not as good as Amnesia: the Dark Descent. The game has continued the tradition of ditching a sanity meter, which I think is an overall good thing because I hate games trying to tell me that I'm scared because of a number. I'd say SOMA actually borrows a lot of inspiration from Alien: Isolation both in the sci-fi setting and in the aesthetic of long hallways and smoky and poorly lit areas. My only complaints thus far is the voice acting which is a basket of farts, the optimization which has my framerate all over the place, and well... it just lacks the main thing which made Amnesia: the Dark Descent scary, which was you never really got a good look at what was chasing you. This time around it's robots, sometimes fucked up robots, but robots all the same. I mean the first time you see an enemy it's in a large well lit room as you have to maneuver around it like in the one good section of Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. I guess that was the one good aspect of the insanity meter because it actively punished you for looking at the monsters and thus never could sit and comprehend what it was that was after you. On the plus side, the audio in the game is absolutely stellar, always keeping you on edge with sounds in the background that never let you feel secure. I would highly recommend playing it in the dark with a good pair of closed back headphones.

Idk how you guys can play horror or suspense games, i draw no joy from being scared. the only horror game i somehow got into was R.E: Code Veronica for the dreamcast.

Definitely, yes.

I don't understand it either. It's like I just want to punish myself.

Well it's def on my list to play real soon, which will be interesting as it got some pretty negative reviews on sites that I normally look at.

I'd be curious to see these reviews. If they say that it's frustrating, then I can kind of understand. The game doesn't really give you much in the way of tutorials, and it doesn't explain a lot of the mechanics and items you get, so you really have to do a lot of trial-and-error just to figure out how to stay alive for longer than five minutes. It's pretty unforgiving.

If I hadn't already learned some of the ins and outs of the game by watching Youtubers play, then I don't know if I'd still be playing. Sure, the story was kind of ruined, but at least now I feel like I have a fighting chance.

Just remember this one tip: never, ever run. In fact, just forget the run button even exists. You might get lucky, but chances are you'll be dead inside of five seconds.

Who says I draw joy from being scared? Fear is a primal emotion and I think horror games can in some ways help you as the player confront your own fears.

Do you really? i think its the opposite, i think horror games add more fodder to your fears cause the imagery stays in your head. (at least in my case)

Any reference i have to a monster has come from a movie or a game, on my own i woulda never come up with a monster to fear, my fears wouldn't have been embodied like that.

Dude, that's just corny.

It's more like Merzbow: unless you have a personality disorder it's not pleasant, but it provides an experience that you still may or may not finding engrossing.

Horror games give me an adrenaline rush. That's why I like them.

Unfortunately, when faced with fight or flight, I generally opt to hide under the bed and try to think happy thoughts instead. So horror games are really kind of self-abuse for me.

http://canadianonlinegamers.com/wp-c...a_43c94797.jpg
SOMA

Just got home and played about an hour of SOMA and so far, I can see this being a really good game. I do have a few complaints. For one, I think Pete mentioned this, but the game seems a bit poorly optimized. So far whenever i've run into some action, it seems to freeze for a few seconds than picks up again. Kind of takes away from the scare factor a little bit. The other thing I don't really like is the fact that when i'm walking, there seems to be a little glitchy line through the middle of the screen. Other than that, the game looks and feels pretty good. The controls are much like the Amnesia games which is good, because that just means I don't have to learn anything new. I haven't really run into anything too scary or difficult but I hear it can get pretty difficult in terms of puzzles and stuff. The ambient noises that surround you are also really cool and does the game justice. The long dark hallways and the little lighting that some areas offer really does add a bit of intensity to the game. As Pete also mentioned, I wish this game didn't really have any voice acting, and since it does, I sort of wish they kept the voice acting away from the main character. The other thing that sort of bugs me but i'm sure i'll get over it, is the fact that when you get hurt, you stumble around until you can find what seem to be these pods in the walls that will heal you. If anything, the things that come after me should just kill me and respawn me at the checkpoint like it does in The Dark Descent and Outlast. Otherwise, seems like this will be a good game, and i'm excited to see what happens as I progress. There's only 10 steam achievements so I imagine this game won't be very long, but I could be wrong. Anyway, definitely pick it up if you're a fan of the Amnesia games.

The glitchy line is screen tear, so you'll want to turn on your v-sync. Just out of curiosity how long did it take you to find the tracer fluid?

Sounds good. Also, I think about 15 minutes of the hour that I played was used trying to find the tracer fluid. I had no idea where to look and it ended up being in the most ridiculous spot. Who ****ing puts that type of thing in a kitchen cabinet ffs.

Cherry Boy playing right now.

According to Google, a Cherry Boy refers to a man who has never had sex.

I guess that's my new nickname now.

I'm playing SOMA some more tonight and i'm starting to really get into it. The underwater segment was cool and finally getting a flashlight is also really cool. I'll talk about this more in horror month, but at the moment, the game is pretty good. Don't know if it's better than I expected, but it's pretty good.

That's pretty cool but, as you allude to, probably takes a long time to set up.

I'm around 7 or 8 hours in now and there's a lot of what I call 'dull time' in the game - time where what you're doing isn't fun, interesting or entertaining. Consequently I'm close to giving up on it if I'm honest.

http://i.imgur.com/mrDDhpc.jpg

Robot Roller Derby Disco Dodgeball

Yes, robots on wheels in a disco playing dodgeball. It's as badass as it sounds. I picked up the game today because it was on sale. I've seen Northernlion do a video on it, and at the point that he was talking about it, I was a little bit interested, but not enough to spend the money on it. I got it on sale and I regret not getting it sooner. This game is a lot of fun and really easy to get into. There's a bunch of different game modes that you can play and you can set up a local multiplayer session to play with your friends. I don't really see anything about online servers or anything along the lines but apparently you can play online, I just haven't figured out how since whenever I go to "quick play" it doesn't work, but it doesn't take away from how fun this game is. That's really all it's aiming to do, be fun. Plus, the soundtrack is amazing.

TFW in Alien: Isolation the *******s you're trying to sneak around keep getting chased by the alien and try running right next to your dubious hiding spot, only to get butchered not ten feet away, almost in full view of YOU. And this happens, not once, but TWICE.

TFW you somehow don't get murdered and go through a twenty minute rigmarole sequence where you take out a Working Joe, start up some really ****ing loud machinery, and yet make it out with a nearly straight line to your save point.

TFW you walk under a vent...