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Watcha Playing: The Palette Cleanser

The past six weeks have been teeming with meaty, action games. I’ve been working through them slowly but surely, like an elegant seven course meal. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was thick, hot comfort fare, a brief appetizer of sloppy design coated in delicious Stormtrooper and rancor killing action. The game’s a buggy mess, really, the gaming equivalent of empty calories, but definitely satisfying. Then there was the dynamic horror duo of Dead Space and Silent Hill: Homecoming, a soup and salad combo built to terrify. They didn’t really scare, but instead delivered visceral body simulations. Both games succeeded by making you constantly aware of your avatar’s physical presence and the heft of their actions, and they achieved this through a careful synergy between atmosphere and play. Yakuza 2 was truly the main course, a game I had no expectations for whatsoever that turned into an all time favorite. Its broad adventure, pulp tale of cops and crooks, and simple but ceaselessly engaging fisticuffs were nourishing, more substantial than anything released on current gen consoles. For dessert, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Another bonafide surprise, Ecclesia turned out to not be another retread through Igarashi’s decade-old formula, but a challenging successor to Castlevania 2 with fierce action whose variety and elegance was exceeded only by the game’s environments. Yes, it’s been a great month of big games, but it’s been the small things I’ve played in between them, games I’ve played for no more than a handful of minutes here and there, that have given the most *ahem* food for thought.

Yahtzee's Homecoming

I love the Silent Hill series, but I've never really been able to play any of the games; the music, characters, mythology, and storylines are all fantastic, but the actual playing process scares the crap out of me. Well, maybe "scare" isn't the right word. My last attempt to work through a Silent Hill game happened in 2002, when I tried as hard as I could to overcome my wimpyness--only to find Silent Hill 2's unique atmosphere of loneliness and dread leaving me feeling physically ill and mentally dirty. But my near-nervous breakdown is a credit to how effective Silent Hill 2 is; and this title's spectacular atmosphere is also one of the reasons why SH2 is a favorite of gaming curmudgeon Yahtzee (of Zero Punctuation fame).

But since development house Team Silent has been disbanded (or since they broke up, it's never really been clear), the future of the Silent Hill series has been hijacked, first for the PSP's Silent Hill: Origins, and now with the new PS3 release, Silent Hill: Homecoming. While the latest Silent Hill doesn't have the hubris to slap a "5" onto the title, the aforementioned Yahtzee finds quite a few problems with Homecoming's lack of authenticity:

Will there ever be another Silent Hill game as good as the second one? It seems unlikely, but I'd certainly be happy if it happened. Of course, I'd be appreciating it from afar.

Screen Test: Silent Hill Homecoming

The recent announcement of a Richard Kelly-less Donnie Darko sequel reminded me of a universal truth: just because something’s good, just because that something’s profitable, does not mean there should be more of it. The original Donnie Darko was a deeply personal work and it was that creator’s touch that made it such a wonderful artifact. S. Darko may be end up being a fine film but what’s the point without Kelly’s voice? Silent Hill without Team Silent has already proven to be just as questionable a proposition.

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.