61 Frames Per Second : atari

8-Bit Love: The Ten Greatest Vintage Game Songs to Have Sex To, part 2

John Constantine — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Cyriaque Lamar is a New York-based writer with a New Jersey-bred weltanschauung. He’s had original work published at Cracked.com and performed at The New York International Fringe Festival. Cyriaque is thrilled to contribute to 61FPS, as it brings him one step closer to his childhood dream of living on the set of Nick Arcade.

5.) Final Fight CD – “Walk In the Park (Bay Area)”

System: Sega CD (1993)
Sounds Like: A sweaty nooner with Don Johnson.
I always loved the premise of Final Fight. The idea of a city’s mayor stripping down to his underjohns and beating the shit out of unemployed people in order to stimulate job growth was really ahead of its time. Wait? Mike Haggar was actually fighting to save his daughter from an evil street gang? And here I thought the game was some kind of radical Objectivist propaganda. This Bay Area theme is classic whatever console you play Final Fight on, but the Sega CD version pushes it to the limit with gale-force porno guitars. Seriously, these riffs are like an F4 on the Fujita Scale. In my mind’s eye, the person who would get the most out of this track wears a ton of sea foam green and frequents Fort Lauderdale whorehouses. Sometimes, you just gotta be that person. When it comes to the Sega CD, the only thing sleazier is Night Trap.

4.) Chrono Trigger – Schala’s Theme

System: Super Nintendo (1995)
Sounds Like: Ravi Shankar, Level 12 Bard.
Another track from wunderkind Yasunori Mitsuda? Man, I should just wear my Chrono Trigger fanboyism on a t-shirt. Or a hat! Yes, a big fucking sombrero like those worn by morbidly obese stockbrokers at Jimmy Buffet concerts. My sombrero will depict the final battle against Lavos, with Robo, Lucca and Magus executing the Omega Flare triple tech. After I conceive my first-born son wearing this sombrero, I will store it in the broom closet until his first day of middle school, at which point I will place my abomination of a hat on his head and send him on his way. When he inevitably comes home tearful and bruised, his Chrono Sombrero torn asunder, I will embrace him and say, “Today you learned what it is to be a man. We’re ordering pizza tonight.”

3.) Streets of Rage 2 – S.O.R. Super Mix

System: Sega Genesis (1992)
Sounds Like: The Madchester music scene mashed into a Mega Drive cartridge.
I lived in Baltimore a few years ago. My neighborhood was more Pink Flamingos than The Wire, mostly pleasant with pockets of dicey urbanity. This track by the great Yuzo Kushiro (Actraiser) syncs up with that time in my life rather aptly. I had the streets and I had the rage. I also had the sick piano breakdown at 1:36. That emotional miasma and sweet key work made for a heady love making combo. Still does. It was a weird time in my life, but not Streets of Rage 2 weird. Game’s about a twelve-year-old in rollerblades who dismantles a heavily-armed crime syndicate. Go figure.

2.) The Last Ninja 2 – “The Mansion”

System: Commodore 64 (1988)
Sounds Like: Coming home from work, only to discover John Carpenter banging your wife.
Matt Gray’s soundtrack to The Last Ninja 2 is one of the better things in life, and “The Mansion” is one of its most memorable tracks. Its utility goes far beyond the bedroom. Sure, you and a buddy can thrust away to this instrumental’s nearly eight minutes of analog acrobatics, but why not use it for a more grand occasion? “The Mansion” is a more than adequate proxy for Pachelbel. It’ll make your nuptials more like the wedding scene from Big Trouble in Little China.

1.) Tetris – “A-Type”

System: Game Boy (1989)
Sounds Like: Tetris. Duh.
There’s nothing inherently sexy about the Tetris theme. Thing is, everyone knows “A-Type”, and if you blast it in the sack, you will be your partner’s most memorable lover ever. Period. It doesn’t even matter how good or bad the sex is. Every time this pops into an ex-lover’s head, he or she’ll have no choice but to sigh, “[Your Name Here] balled me to the Tetris theme.” Decades may pass, but once they recall those opening Bolshevik bleep-bloops, a mnemonic trigger will kick in and your shining nudity will be all they have ever known.

Part 1

Previous Top Tens:

The Ten Greatest Ice Levels in Gaming History
The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels
The Ten Videogames That Should Have Been Controversial
The Ten Greatest Opening Levels in Gaming History
The Ten Most Adventurous Sequels in Gaming History
The Ten Greatest Fire Levels in Gaming History

8-Bit Love: The Ten Greatest Vintage Game Songs to Have Sex To, part 1

John Constantine — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Cyriaque Lamar is a New York-based writer with a New Jersey-bred weltanschauung. He’s had original work published at Cracked.com and performed at The New York International Fringe Festival. Cyriaque is thrilled to contribute to 61FPS, as it brings him one step closer to his childhood dream of living on the set of Nick Arcade.

There are three reasons this list exists. First, I felt obliged to highlight 61FPS’s distinction as the gaming apparatchik of an internet sex publication. Second, I wished to showcase the unsung virtuosos of yesteryear who made masterworks using a limited palette of sounds. Finally, I intend to rebut those critics who still dismiss video games as low culture. Using the below examples, I intend to reclaim the carnal legacy of video games by evincing how early console music illustrated the gamut of human sexuality, from atavistic, heteronormative modes of eroticism to polymorphous perversity as delineated by Freud.

Plus, the thought of people sticking penises into vaginas to Nintendo music is funny.

10.) Radical Dreamers – “The Girl Who Stole the Stars”

System: Super Famicom Satellaview (1996)
Sounds Like: Koyaanisqatsi composed on Mario Paint.
Since roughly 95% of all human lovemaking involves someone with a XX chromosome pairing, I thought it necessary to seek out my female associates’ thoughts on which game music best applies to amore. The suggestions I received were few yet incisive — responses ranged from “the Kid Icarus theme” to “Who the eff effs to video games?” Ultimately though, I deferred to my own instincts and picked this pan-pipe jam from the Japan-exclusive, text-based sequel to Chrono Trigger. Composed by the legendary Yasunori Mitsuda, “The Girl Who Stole the Stars” is easily the most romantic theme on our list.

9.) Pole Position – Background noise

System: Atari 65XE (1985)
Sounds Like: Skynet becoming sentient.
The way I see it, there are two types of lovers in this world. The first type does it to The Whispers and The O’Jays, whereas the second diddles to Autechre, Radio-Activity-era Kraftwerk and the hum of AC units. The grating 8-bit drone of this Namco racing classic, is dedicated to the latter group — those who bang to cold, robotic minimalism. It’s also worth nothing that “PREPARE TO QUALIFY” is perhaps the best pre-coital war cry I’ve ever heard, particularly when your partner has no clue what you’re yelling about. Nothing improves foreplay like car metaphors and total incoherence. Remember the make-out scene from Gone In 60 Seconds?

Editor's Note: The Nerve and 61PFS by-laws state that no mention of Pole Position may go unaccompanied by this link.

8.) Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake – “Night Fall”

System: MSX2 (1990)
Sounds Like: Passion. Yearning. Crates.
Solid Snake, Big Boss, Naked Snake. Nobody pens phallic codenames quite like Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima. This harmonica-fueled ditty is from the Japanese version of Metal Gear 2. “Night Fall” is the only song on this list with an in-game pedigree as a sex jam — it plays when Solid Snake angles for some love during wartime. He totally strikes out, but what did you expect? With all that spying and peeping he does, I always figured Snake likes to watch.

7.) Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II – “Dungeon Theme #2”

System: Nintendo (1994)
Sounds Like: Vicki Sue Robinson’s “Turn the Beat Around” sung by an alcoholic Speak & Spell.
Most of the songs thus far have a “Quiet-Storm-meets-Q*Bert” vibe, so we’re going to shake it up with a certifiable club banger. When it comes to dance floor heaters about time-traveling teenagers fighting crudely-animated yetis, “Dungeon Theme #2” is impossible to trump. Play it at your next party and bookend it with some Crystal Castles and Futurecop. If some loser balks, matter-of-factly reply, “This is some old-school Japanese shit. Kanye’s totally sampling this for his next single.” You’ll only be half-lying.

6.) Donkey Kong Country 2 – “Stickerbrush Symphony”

System: Super Nintendo (1995)
Sounds Like: Massive Attack’s “Heat Miser” driven by a Casio horn section.
What the hell is this? This is a game about a pair of simians wearing Payless sneakers. It’s borderline profane to have a track this Sade-smooth in a Donkey Kong game, but consider the alternative — the DKC2 soundtrack could well have been five hours of the Donkey Kong Rap . Credit goes to Rare composer David Wise for making a bramble maze filled with bees sound downright silky. So silky, in fact, that it's perfect for exploring your partner's very own bramble maze.

Part 2

Previous Top Tens:

The Ten Greatest Ice Levels in Gaming History
The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels
The Ten Videogames That Should Have Been Controversial
The Ten Greatest Opening Levels in Gaming History
The Ten Most Adventurous Sequels in Gaming History
The Ten Greatest Fire Levels in Gaming History

Ghostbusters: There Are No Words For How Good Bustin' Makes Me Feel

John Constantine — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:30:00 GMT

Guest contributor Adam Rosenberg resides in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, where he slaves away daily as a contributing editor for UGO’s Gamesblog as his dog Loki looks on in bewilderment. In addition to the noble pursuit of video games, Adam enjoys spending time with fine film, finer food and his fine fiancée Bekah.

I haven’t seen shit that will turn you white. The shit I have seen, namely a fresh build of Ghostbusters: The Video Game for Xbox 360 and PS3, will make you green. With slime. And envy.

Last summer, a preview build featuring a portion of the widely seen New York Public Library level made the gaming press rounds. The unfinished code appeared out of thin air, its sender listed only as “Evil PR Monkey”. The demo was raw. Very raw. But not so raw as to diminish Ghostbusters’s promise. There were Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddmore (noVenkman in the demo), fully voiced by Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson. Aykroyd and Ramis’ script, even just that tiny chunk, was characterized by the same wit that made the original films such classics. Then a few weeks later, Activision announced that, following their merger with Vivendi, they would not be hanging onto the Ghostbusters license.

News on the game since, even following Atari’s confirmation that they would be publishing Ghostbusters in June 2009, has been disturbingly light. No more of the actual game has been shown since that messy preview code. Until last week. While I didn’t actually get to go hands-on with it, I did get an eyes-on playthrough of the remainder of that library level. And now… well… I ain’t afraid of no Ghostbusters.

The presentation — third-person perspective, story, voice actor/likeness participation, core ghost-wranglin’ mechanics — are unchanged. What’s fresh is a new sprint button and a multi-directional quick dodge. Both significantly tighten up the gameplay. If you haven’t gotten a look at any video of play, there are two types of spooks and specters to combat.

First are capturable Ghosts, boss and mini-boss-style baddies. You wear them down with the Proton Beam — Or another weapon. More on those in a sec. — and then snare them in a Capture Beam. The captured ghost has to be slammed into walls until it is weak enough to be pulled into a trap. Then there are the more common Entities, supernatural conglomerations of physical objects, such as books, papers, lamps, and the like. These spirits can be flat-out destroyed (or is that neutronized?). They typically have shields that must be stripped away before they can be taken down. Still others manifest as hulking beasts; these must be worn down with sustained attacks until their head – glowing lamps, during the library demo – can be ripped away with the Capture Beam.

That’s the talent, so what about the tools? Weapons stem from the Proton Pack which, along with a dangling PKE Meter, serves as your HUD. The pack itself changes appearance depending on the beam type in use, and each beam now features primary and alternate modes of fire. The vanilla Proton beam is supplemented by the Boson Dart, a concentrated burst shot which works like a rocket launcher. The newly introduced Dark Matter Beam fires either a damaging shotgun-like spread or a sustained stasis beam which has the effect of slowing down targeted enemies. There’s also a Slime Blower, which is used to clear away dark, red-tinged slime. No “Higher and Higher” to accompany it though. Throughout the game, you can upgrade the ‘busters’ equipment with money earned from capturing ghosts and collateral damage. The bill for the latter goes to one Walter Peck, by the way. It’s true what you’ve heard about his genitalia. Just saying. The demo ends with a knockdown boss fight against a familiar supernatural librarian. Cornered in a cavernous space tucked away in a distant corner of the NYPL’s sub-basements, the librarian ghost mounts a final offensive from behind her shield of floating books and candelabras. After finishing her off, the team moves to investigate a trans-dimensional portal which has appeared in the center of the room. The walls peel away to reveal a hellish landscape and… the pause menu pops up. Demo over. A good portion of the game will send the Ghostbusters hurtling into these Otherworlds, though the “what” and the “why” of them remain a mystery for now.

It’s clear that Atari is giving Ghostbusters: The Video Game the triple-A attention it deserves. The publisher switch has resulted in remastered FMVs, newly written and recorded lines of dialogue, additional mo-cap work, and an apparent tightening of the gameplay. Plus, even though it wasn’t shown, I was told off-duty Ghostbusters will be able to explore the team’s iconic firehouse. No concrete details were shared, but I was promised that “rewards” await those who take the time to explore. As long as we can use the pole, all is good. The mid-June release date is creeping ever-closer, and I have to it’s very exciting to see this polish applied to Ray, Egon, Peter, Winston and Nameless New Guy’s (i.e. You) HD-console adventure.

Related links:

NYCC 2009 - Ghostbusters Wii
Screen Test: Ghostbusters
Films to Games: Ghostbusters Really is Ghostbusters 3!
Ghostbusters. Peter Venkman. Walter Peck. The World is Just.

NYCC 2009 - Ghostbusters Wii

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:00:00 GMT

All New York Comic-Con weekend, there was sure to be a huge crowd at the back half of Atari's booth. What was causing all of the hubbub, distracting from Ready 2 Rumble Revolution, The Chronicles of Riddick and the nearby masseuse? Ghostbusters: The Video Game, of course! All three current-gen console SKUs were up and on display, along with the crystal Slimer seen at right and, of course, dudes in jumpsuits and proton packs. Graphical polish aside, the PS3 and XBox 360 builds looked just about the same as when we saw them last May (though the 360 version seemed to be flaunting more bloom lighting), so of course I was most interested in the Wii version. Come on, you know you've wanted Ghostbusters on Wii ever since you first saw Elebits! In my mind, Wii is the only platform worth making a Ghostbusters game on (though PS3 gets a pass as Sony owns the rights to the films).

I was fortunate enough to chat with developer Red Fly Studios' James Clarendon, a programmer and designer on Ghostbusters for Wii, as he played through the ever-popular New York Public Library level for me. Atari are still keeping a relatively tight grip on in-game footage, which relieved James as he told me repeatedly that the game as he last saw it two days before the Con looked "totally different" from the demo, which used the game's build from December.

James explained to me how Atari is heavily focus testing the Wii SKU in particular, making sure it appeals to all sorts of gamers, especially those who are unfamiliar with the films. "The Wii has a great install base and people are hungry for these games and we desire to make them that way too. We want to release some games that average people can enjoy and that are going to get some depth out of it rather than a mini-game compilation."

As we've heard elsewhere, the Wii version of Ghostbusters features the same story as the PS3/360 version, with more puzzle elements. Most interestingly, while Terminal Reality is still keeping mum about multiplayer in their higher-resolution busting of ghosts, Red Fly has already confirmed both co-op in the main game's story as well as competitive multiplayer to be detailed later. The biggest draw for the Wii version, naturally, is the controls. "We tried to exploit the Wii as much as we could," Clarendon explained, stating that the team at Red Fly had learned a lot from their previous title, the technically impressive Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars. "We really put you into the jumpsuit and make you feel like a real Ghostbuster. The Wii remote becomes your Neutrona Wand, and you throw out a trap by performing a bowling motion with the nunchuck." Watching him capture ghosts look intuitive and natural, though James was noticably upset when he realized that the demo build featured neither rumble nor speaker support in the Wii remote, a fact he'd clearly forgotten from time spent with a significantly newer build in his office.

Blasting through the library, it was easy to forget that this was an inferior build of a game with months of refinement still ahead of it. The physics were expectedly sublime from the team that made Mushroom Men, lighting was gorgeous, the various ghosts encountered were both entertaining and exciting, from small flying imps throwing books from above to a spectral beast with a body built from the hardcover Shakespeare shelf to the eventual librarian boss, punishing you for making too much noise (and, I imagine, chewing gum). The Ghostbusting tools were fun, including spectral goggles that revealed ghostly platforms and PKE meter that resembled a monochromatic early 90's PDA, and the bits of dialogue we heard from the fellow 'busters was expectedly hilarious. Ah, the voices, of course! Surely the Wii can't come close to the higher-def versionsof the game regarding the audio, right James?

"You've got just as much voice and in fact probably a little bit more on the Wii. We've got custom lines recorded just for the Wii version that are in here. Storage capacity, we've still got a DVD just like the 360 does so we've got just as much room on there, we're doing some interesting streaming techniques, a wonderful audio tool called Wwise and our audio guys are going nuts! It's really awesome. If you liked the audio in Mushroom Men, you are going to be blown away with Ghostbusters. Out guys at Gleek, the sound crew, have done an amazing job."

Wow. It really looks like Ghostbusters is getting the A+ treatment on the Wii. If high-def uncanny-valley graphics really matter to you thank much, PS3/360 have got you covered, but from what I've seen, Red Fly's Wii version looks to be the best all-around Ghostbusters game of the bunch. I very much look forward to its release this June, tying in with the 25th anniversary of the original movie.

Related articles:
NYCC - Comic Authors Love Video Games!
NYCC - Sega <3s Wii
NYCC - A Brief Overview of Games
NYCC - DC Universe Online
Screen Test: Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters. Peter Venkman. Walter Peck. The World Is Just.
Ghostbusters is Really Ghostbusters 3!

Nolan Bushnell Joins GameWager

Cole Stryker — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Kotaku reports that Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell is dipping his toes back into the gaming industry.

From the press release:

Designed for gamers of all skill levels, GameWager’s platform introduces a reward system that lets gamers earn virtual tokens for completing in-game actions like kills, objectives and team wins in multiplayer PC games like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2. Earned tokens can be redeemed for a chance to win sponsored prizes like Alienware laptops, Nvidia graphic cards, a Hypernia hosted server for 1 year and much more. Nolan serves as an “executive advisor” to the company that has seen over 60,000 gamers earn 25 million tokens since its’ launch last July.

Xbox Live's achievements system never motivated me much, but I can see myself putting a few extra hours into a game if it meant a chance at a video card upgrade. It's a material reward, a big improvement from ethereal achievements. Of course, being good at video games only scores you a chance at prizes. They are guaranteed to no one, but the better you perform, the higher your chances of getting rewards.

With sponsored giveaways, GameWager's reward scheme is completely free. I'm not quite sure how they plan to profit, but if Nolan Bushnell's involved, expect plenty of corporate drama.

Screen Test: Ghostbusters

John Constantine — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:30:00 GMT

Ghostbusters: The Videogame is a videogame based on Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters is a movie. Or a documentary shot in real-time, depending on who you ask. Ghostbusters: The Videogame, had it been a movie/documentary, would have been called Ghostbusters 3 as it follows the events of Ghostbusters 2 and the adventures of beloved characters like Ray, Winston, Egon, and Venkman. Yeah, that’s right. I’m on a first name basis with the ‘Busters. We hang out on weekends. We go to Coney Island and swim together. It’s awesome. Their videogame is going to be awesome. You’ll see!

*runs away crying*

Anyway *sniff* these new shots of Ghostbusters: The Videogame are exciting. The delay from last fall has let Terminal Reality continue to improve the game’s presentation, and it’s looking more detailed and more polished with every new look. Check out the detail on those proton packs. Sweet. There is something off though. It isn’t the cartoony exaggeration of the characters. It’s that nothing casts a shadow! Where are the shadows, Terminal Reality? Unless… unless everyone’s a ghost in Ghostbusters: The Videogame! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

*runs away crying*

Previous Screen Tests:

Duke Nukem Forever
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Takahashi’s Nobi Nobi Boy
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe
Oboro Muramasa
Fable 2
Final Fantasy Dissidia
Fragile
Final Fantasy Versus XIII
Silent Hill Homecoming
Fallout 3
Alone in the Dark
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

New Year’s Resolutions For a Few Of Our Favorite Publishers

John Constantine — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:30:00 GMT

Now, to close out the first full week of 2009, we will do for videogame publishers what we did for console makers: we will tell them how to live their sordid, godforsaken lives! You’d think developers would make the list, but no. No, I tend to trust them, so they will be left to their own devices, free from the crushing logic of advice from 61 Frames Per Second.

In 2009, the following folks should resolve to do the following things:

EA – Stick to your guns and keep investing in new IP. 2008 was good stuff, Riccitello. Keep promoting Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space, they will find their audience. And EA Sports? How about SSX4 already.

Capcom – Resolve to support Dark Void with an aggressive marketing campaign and release it during the summer. Do not let this one die during the holiday rush. Also, Street Fighter III HD Remix. You know it would be sweet.

Atari – Do not release Ghosbusters until it is perfect.

Namco – Push Klonoa like you have never pushed a game in your entire lives. Tell people it will make them lose weight, tell them it will make them smarter. And knock it off with the nickel-and-dime DLC already, what is this, 2006?

Square-Enix – S-E, I want you to go out tomorrow, hop on a train, and pay Jupiter Games a visit. You cut them a check, and you tell them to make whatever they can imagine. The people who made The World Ends With You should be allowed to make whatever they like.

Konami – Release a press statement claiming you were forced to make Rock Revolution at gun point.

Midway – Um. Hang in there?

Activision – Give Neversoft the vacation they so desperately need and deserve.

Atlus – More PS1 reprints!

Take-Two – If Bioshock 2 looks stupid, don’t be afraid to cancel it.

Ubisoft – Release Beyond Good & Evil 2 by the end of the year. Please. PLEASE!

XSEED – Keep on keepin’ on, you guys. Can’t believe you actually localized Retro Game Master. Just awesome.

Tecmo-Koei – No Dynasty Warriors: Dead or Alive games. Just don’t. I know you're thinking about it.

SEGA – Disband Sonic Team. It’s over. Enough.

And that about covers it. Happy New Year, everyone.

Related links:

Microsoft’s New Year’s Resolution
Nintendo’s New Year’s Resolution
Sony’s New Year’s Resolution
Virtual Console New Year's Resolutions

Microsoft’s New Year’s Resolution

John Constantine — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:00:00 GMT

For the second time in history, an American company has created a massively successful videogame console. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is, without doubt, America’s greatest triumph since the Atari 2600. Of course, this is discounting personal computers of all stripes, and even the achievements of Microsoft’s first green-tinged box devoted to gaming. But 28 million consoles sold worldwide is a monumental feat for any gaming machine and, contrary to some speculation late last year, it looks like the system’s sales have yet to plateau. As far as creativity and growth of the medium, Microsoft pioneered downloadable content on home consoles, established one of the first easily accessible independent games services, and brought online gaming into more homes than ever before. Not to mention how they’ve published some of the most enjoyable traditional gaming fare — shooters like Halo 3 and Gears of War as well as RPGs like Fable 2 — of the last two years. Yes, kudos to you Microsoft. Ya done good.

BUT YOU CAN DO BETTER! What’s up with 2009, guys? Halo Wars? That’s what you’ve got? Where’s Alan Wake, you punks! Ninja Blade? How about a freaking action game without a ninja in it?! Geez!

Okay, okay. I am calm now. I am fine. Announcing some great first-party software for the 360 would be a pretty logical resolution for Bill Gates’ house of pancakes. But I was thinking more along the lines of modernization.

Microsoft should resolve to make Xbox Live free to all Xbox 360 owners in 2009. At the very least, they should expand on Xbox Live Silver Memberships, allowing more games to be played online at no additional cost as they did with Street Fighter HD Remix. Alternatively, they could start adding more perks, such as free Arcade downloads with Gold memberships. Regardless, now that Xbox Live has proven itself, it is time to stop charging players needlessly. There is absolutely no reason that Xbox owners should have to pay for multiplayer in 2009. Hell, if nothing else, making Xbox Live free would give the entire world one fewer reason to buy a Playstation 3.

Think about it, Microsoft. Oh, and announce some more first-party titles already. Not Too Human 2.

Related links:

Virtual Console New Year's Resolutions
Nintendo’s New Year’s Resolution
The New XBox Experience: A Brief Reaction

Ghostbusters. Peter Venkman. Walter Peck. The World is Just.

John Constantine — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:15:00 GMT

There is a reason that this new trailer for Ghostbusters: The Videogame is not getting posted under the Trailer Review banner: I am completely incapable of judging this game with any kind of objectivity. Don’t you see? It has Walter Peck, a William Atherton voiced Walter Peck, cowering in fear and then getting possessed by a ghost. It has the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man tossing police cars about Manhattan and Ray Stantz, a Dan Ackroyd voiced and written Ray Stantz, saying it isn’t his fault this time. It has Peter Venkman.

It’s true, your honor. This game is amazing.

Related links:

Films to Games: Ghostbusters Really is Ghostbusters 3!
Film to Games: Ghostbusters is the Beginning of a (Hopefully) Beautiful Friendship
Dear World, Find Ghostbusters a New Publisher Immediately

Trailer Review: The Chase - Felix Meets Felicity

Derrick Sanskrit — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Look, Atari has a new DS game coming out! Oh, and its a platformer about a boy and girl who fall in love? Yeah, and the graphics are the kind of saccharine sweet that are rarely seen outside of Barbie's Horse Adventures? Surely this will appeal to nobody except for the kids who buy the Suite Life of Zack & Cody games and all those Ubisoft pet simulators that end in the letter Z. Ah well, here's the trailer, I might as well watch it to confirm all of these suspicions.

Hmmm... this is actually pretty fast-paced looking, and the music is sort of exciting. Hey, you draw platforms just like in Kirby Canvas Curse! I loved that game. Woah, look at that jump, these kids are serious about OH MAN did she just swing on that? DAMN, look at him slide through those WAS THAT A ZOMBIE???

I may have prejudged this game too harshly. This looks... kind of... sort of... completely awesome...ish.

Previous Trailer Reviews:

Yakuza 3
Dragon Quest IX
TGS Trailer Time: Resident Evil 5
Retro Game Challenge
Golden Axe: Beast Rider
House of the Dead: Overkill
Riz-Zoawd
Idolm@ster PSP
The Last Guy
Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff
Captain Rainbow
Mega Man 9 and Chrono Trigger DS
Densetsu no Stafi 5
Sonic Unleashed
Infinite Undiscovery
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Street Fighter IV
The Conduit
Mirror’s Edge

The Videogame Ages, part 2

John Constantine — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:00:00 GMT

In part one of The Videogame Ages, I discussed the inadequacy of “generation” language in gaming, and laid out The Golden Age of gaming. In part two, I look at the Silver and Bronze ages before taking a look at the modern era and the future.

The Silver Age – 1983 to 1996
8-Bit, 16-Bit, Early Handheld, Early 3D, Advanced PC and Arcade

The silver age of games is defined by expansion, in not just playability but breadth of experience. When home computers became affordable and home consoles began diversifying, games started transforming from immediate, single-mechanic experiences into more lasting forms. Silver age games were still about escalating challenge, but high scores ceased being the goal, replaced by definitive endings. Games started becoming more explicitly narrative-driven, as aesthetic justification on consoles and as the focus of many PC games (see the entire adventure game genre.) Portable gaming also started to rise to prominence during this period, early single-screen LCD games replaced by multi-game consoles like the Game Boy and Atari Lynx. Arcade and PC game technology pulled far away from home consoles, but all games were shifted from the rough visual abstraction of golden age games, into more aesthetically recognizable presentations – albeit still cartoonish impressionistic rather than realistic. The rise of polygonal 3D graphics, both real-time full 3D (Yu Suzuki’s Virtua series) and pre-rendered (Myst, etc.), at the end of the silver age marks the transition to bronze. In 1996, with the release of Mario 64, Tomb Raider, and Quake, the silver age comes to a close.

The Bronze Age – 1996 to 2006 (maybe)
32-bit, 64-bit, 128-bit, Death of Arcades, PC Equalization

While golden age games’ boundary was a single screen and silver age games were largely confined to movement from left to right or down to up, the bronze age is the birth of 3D space as gaming’s chief concern. This isn’t to say that games that take a place on a 2D plain ceased being important or a valid medium for experimentation (though they certainly became marginalized on consoles, PCs, and in arcades.) But creating spaces with depth similar to the physical world took center stage in design. This push toward realistic spaces is mirrored in game aesthetics. Nearly all the technological benchmarks of the bronze age have come from creating as lifelike a facsimile of real life as can be achieved on any technology. PC games typically set that high water mark, though by the end of 2006, home consoles had largely caught up to PCs, much as they did with arcade games during the first few years of the 20th century (arcades are close to extinct now.) Game narrative started heavily borrowing from film’s storytelling language, relying on scripted scenes voiced and acted by digital characters in an attempt to tell deeper stories, but games also started developing there own unique storytelling language during this period, some games allowing the player to always be immersed in drama through play (see: Half-Life.) Multiplayer games no longer required physical proximity with the rise of online play on both PCs and consoles, and portable gaming started offering richer, longer play experiences, akin to those found on consoles.

I’m not totally convinced that the bronze age has ended yet, but the telltale signs of gaming’s latest age-defining shift have been popping up with some frequency over the last few years. The argument can be made that the Heroic Age of gaming is one of community via online networks and MMOs, user-generated content (see: Spore, LittleBigPlanet, Halo 3, Boom Blox, etc.), and experiential gaming. Experiential gaming is a big one whose mettle has yet to be tested, whether or not broad physical activity, from waving a Wiimote to playing fake musical instruments, will catch on. It’s certainly a dramatic shift to see experiential gaming leave its one-time home, the arcade, and transform into a driving force of home gaming. Then again, who knows? Maybe the golden age of gaming has only just ended, and its now, when players can finally build games themselves inside of other games, that the silver age has begun. Let me know, dear reader.

Part 1

Related links:
Comparison of Wiki Articles Proves Geeks Inherited The Earth
MMO Predicts Life in 10 Years
Men Are From Hyrule, Women Are From Simville: If Gender Defines the Games We Play, Why Does Everyone Play By the Same Rules?
9/9/99 9 Years Later
Fix It: Alone in the Dark, Tiger Woods, and the Death of the Glitch
Everyone Will be Able to Rock

The Videogame Ages, part 1

John Constantine — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:30:00 GMT

This past Friday, I tried to slip a little piece of language into a discussion about game emulation that I was wary about using at all. At this point, the go-to boundaries for discussing videogames’ admittedly small history is console-technology generations. We say 8-Bit or 16-Bit because these are easy identifiers based on competing, contemporary technologies. But the language “The 8-Bit Generation” doesn’t account for arcade technology, PC games, or portable gaming. Now that Bob Dvorak’s Tennis for Two is officially fifty years-old, I think we can finally start applying broader terms to gaming’s evolutionary eras. Obviously history is fluid, and chances are these classifications won’t hold true in 2050, but for now they work. The Hesiodic ages, as laid out here, consider games on every platform; the rigid parameters of home consoles, the advanced nature of PC and Mac gaming throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, the fast strides made by arcade technology throughout that same period, and the predominantly inferior technology available in handheld gaming. Unlike Hesiod’s Ages of Man, however, the videogame ages are (mostly) a positive progression. Please note: these are not strict definitions. This is a discussion, and I want everyone to make their opinions heard in the comments section. Now then, onward to the Golden Age.

The Golden Age – 1958 to 1983
Dvorak, MIT, Early Arcade, Early Home Console

The golden age of gaming began in 1958 and was, for almost a decade and a half, almost exclusively concerned with tennis. It took Nolan Bushnell getting clever for us to start calling it Pong. Tennis for Two, Magnavox’s Odyssey, and Bushnell’s advice to “avoid missing ball for high score” was pretty much the only game in town until the mid-70s with some notable exceptions. The second videogame ever made has a more recognizable legacy in today’s games. Steve Russell’s Spacewar!, started in 1961 as a side-project of the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT (history’s first hackers, dontchaknow,) shares the two-player, two-object dynamics of Pong but the gameplay focused on actually destroying your opponent in a science-fiction setting. These games set the standard for the golden age: individual play mechanics presented on single screens. By the late-70s and early-80s, as Atari and other early consoles that could play multiple games were becoming common, games started expanding in both scope and ambition. Adventure, Pitfall, and others introduced continuity in their worlds, while Pac-man and Donkey Kong made the first stabs at introducing narrative. On the technology end, 1980 saw scrolling action in Defender and the larval form of 3D play, vector graphics, in Battlezone. The game industry crash and the release of the Famicom in 1983 mark the end of this period.

Part 2

Related links:
Comparison of Wiki Articles Proves Geeks Inherited The Earth
MMO Predicts Life in 10 Years
Men Are From Hyrule, Women Are From Simville: If Gender Defines the Games We Play, Why Does Everyone Play By the Same Rules?
9/9/99 9 Years Later
Fix It: Alone in the Dark, Tiger Woods, and the Death of the Glitch
Everyone Will be Able to Rock

Square-Enix's Prez Sez: "Japan needs to be #1 in gaming again, homeslices."

Nadia Oxford — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:37:00 GMT

Square-Enix's President, Yoichi Wada, had a few things to say about Japan's lagging game industry at Tokyo Game Show 2008. Namely, "'Eeeeey man, this isn't cool!" and "Let's get off our asses and do something about it."

I personally find it unfortunate that Japanese game development has been lagging behind North America and Europe. I want to see Japan's industry thrive for a couple of reasons.

First, having grown up with the Nintendo, gaming (to me) will always feel like the domain of the Japanese. God knows America failed me for my fix of mushroom-jumping Italian plumbers, so pardon me for sleeping with the other side. Really though, there was something extra special about our elders being baffled by Japan's bizarre concepts.

"Frog-men? Shape-changing leaves? What the hell is a 'Tanooki?'"

(They were just lucky that Mario's tanuki suit lacked the mythical creature's trademark: gigantic testicles. Actually, I think we're all lucky for that.)

Unlike Atari, Nintendo's early games did not emerge like Venus from a cloud of marijuana smoke. Regardless, Super Mario Bros first captured me because it felt so different from my Atari games while it still managed to be, well, classic. "Rescue the Princess" wasn't very new to anyone who's grown up with fairy tales (or its delightful twists, like The Paper Bag Princess--anyone?), but to me, it offered something Atari games rarely did: a goal. An end. Something more than "Get a high score, wank off to it."

I am, however, still happy to see that other countries are bringing their ideas to this beeping orgy we call game development. This comes to my second point, in which I am going to argue that losing any culture's gained influence would be a bad thing. I doubt Japanese game developers are ever going to go away entirely, but it's sad to see it trickle off. We all must agree that there is a certain, er, charm to Japanese games that no other country is going to emulate. Man, who's going to cater to my fruity-wooty JRPG fix? Rockstar? Oh wait, that might be interesting.

Wada has the cure, however. Or at least he thinks he does. From the article:

Wada pointed out that this problem is "not limited to the game industry," but rather structurally to the entire Japanese nation. He went on to look at possible solutions -- mainly an opening up of attitudes.

He specifically referenced the potential "psychological resistance" of the Japanese developer to achievement based on "standing on the shoulders of giants," -- that is to say, using external tools and building on top of them.

The CESA chairman attempted to psychologically define and split out the technical and creative parts of game development, and a key point was to be that overly rigid definitions of roles and a lack of willingness to use outside technology are hobbling Japanese companies.

Square-Enix has never been shy about putting on shiny new clothes and screaming, "Lookit me!" The DragonQuest series has always been pleasingly spartan, but DragonQuest would sell millions in Japan if each game came packed with a rabid weasel. Final Fantasy, on the other hand, dresses up and stresses innovation with each new title since VII. So I can see why Wada thinks that aiming for Bigger and Fancier is the way to go in this situation, but one comment on the article, left by "Sjors Jansen", brings up an excellent point:

"I am slightly disappointed by this stance. IMO Shadow of the Colossus and Killer 7 have not yet been surpassed by games with more modern/advanced technology. I think the 'japanese way' of creating games should not be written off that easily. Especially not now that we are seeing more acceptance for technologically less impressive games like megaman 9 and the wii platform. I'm not saying we should go totally retro. I'm saying new technology in games is overrated as the audience for wii, indie and retro games is growing. And that if "we change ourselves" it is possible to lose the uniqueness of the 'japanese way' of game making."

What thinkest thou?

Related Links:

Square-Enix's Coup Brings Back Memories
Turning Japanese: Microsoft's Last-Ditch Effort to Win the East
Know Your Final Fantasy IV Trivia. It Could Save Your Life.

Question of the Day: How Do You Make a Horror Game Horrifying?

John Constantine — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Don’t be afraid. There are no ghouls here. Just nerds.

‘Tis the season for delighting in frights, is it not? That time of year when Halloween is just around the corner, the days get darker, and the things that go bump in the night start getting goosebumps, because, hey, it’s cold out there. As I mentioned last week, it’s also the beginning of game season. Horror, as a genre, doesn’t have quite the presence it did in gaming a few years back, but autumn 2008’s seeing a number of high-profile scary games hitting consoles across the land. Silent Hill’s back after a four year absence, EA is releasing their brand new IP Dead Space in just over a week, and Atari is re-launching their ill-fated Alone in the Dark on PS3. Horror games are an absolute favorite of mine. There’s a visceral thrill they provide that is distinct to the medium, mixing the tension-and-release dynamic essential to horror in any medium with the deep satisfaction of accomplishment that comes from successfully playing a game. The best of them are unique amongst videogames for being almost exhausting to play. The original Silent Hill excelled at this; it made me physically uncomfortable after a certain length of time, further enhancing the reprieve of safety in the game world. This is an essential ingredient in making a horror game truly scary. If it doesn’t make you uncomfortable, if it doesn’t put you, the player, in the shoes of that character compelled to discover what’s making those noises in the dark, it fails. But that’s just my opinion. What is essential to making horror games scary to you, reader? Is it making the game difficult to play on a mechanical level, making it unfair, as Jenn Frank from Infinite Lives hypothesizes? Is it making dogs jump through windows when you totally don’t expect it? Let me know in the comments.

(Note: The image above is from the glorious mess of a horror game called Rule of Rose. It is one of the best games I have ever played. It also happens to be one of the worst.)

Related links:

Gears of LittleBig Fable Music: Considering the First-Party Blitz
OST: Rule of Rose
Overworld: Friday the 13th
Screen Test: Alone in the Dark
Silent Hill: Homecoming is, Thankfully, Both Silent and Hilly

Fix It: Alone in the Dark, Tiger Woods, and the Death of the Glitch

John Constantine — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Today was an interesting day for getting a keen look at what happens when games come to the public in less than perfect shape. For starters, Atari and developer Eden took the middling reception of Alone in the Dark to heart. They’re showing off the Playstation 3 version of the game in Leipzig at the moment featuring in-progress fixes to the game’s unmanageable, glitchy camera as well as the iffy driving and inventory control in the game. They will also be releasing these fixes as a patch for the Xbox 360 edition of the game. Of course, Eden didn’t have to do this. They could have just gone the EA route, and (hilariously) said that those aren’t glitches! That’s just the way the game’s meant to be played.

Chances are though, EA will go ahead and patch Tiger Woods ’09 regardless of the funny marketing. This is the way of it with games in the age of net-enabled consoles; ship the game as soon as you possibly can, fix it later if you have to. PC games have enjoyed patching for well over a decade at this point but it’s still a new phenomenon in the world of devoted gaming machines. It’s a good thing, ultimately. If NES games with crippling slow down could have been patched, they would have been. The romantic in me, though, can’t help but be sad to see console games lose their permanent state. Glitches in classic games have a rich, memorable history. Take the classic infinite 1up exploit in Super Mario Bros.

Or, my personal favorite, the Mega Man 3 “pit” glitch.

Glitches may break some games, but they also have the capacity to add an entire layer of interaction with a game that the designer never even intended. The fact that games are now fluid objects and can be changed limits, to a small degree, how we can interact and explore within their boundaries. Not to mention how fixing glitches alters speedrunning. Patches are great, but game developers would do well to remember that not everything broken needs to be fixed.

Our thanks to Joystiq, Eurogamer, and YouTuber pabrtrky.

Related links:

Screen Test: Alone in the Dark
Follow Up: Mega Man 9 and Design Resurrection Part 2
We Are Watching Many, Many Speedruns. Join Us in Some Castlevania!
Free Running: How Speedruns and TAS Make New Games

You're a Filthy Cheater! ...Right?

Nadia Oxford — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:01:00 GMT

It's like yin and yang, light and darkness, vanilla and chocolate: wherever there are rules directing life, there is a means of going against those rules. Since video games' conception, enthusiasts have proved themselves champions of cheating and game-breaking.

But it's not as if cheating at video games is as simple as being cheap about tag-backs or peeking during hide-and-seek.

I wrote an article for 1UP that looks at the long, twisted history behind game breaking. I'm putting the link up here because I'm a pimp, but also because I find the subject matter pretty fascinating. It's very difficult to draw a line between "Cheating" and "Okey-Dokey" with video games because there are so many variables to consider. Is it "cheating" if you use an in-game trick like the exhalted Konami Code? Or is the term reserved for third-party peripherals like the Game Genie and Gameshark?

How about the exploitation of game mechanics? Put Mario Kart DS and "snaking" in the same sentence on any game-related message board to launch a war.

Gamers are often rewarded when they (to quote Miss Frizzle) take chances, make mistakes and get messy. Consider Adventure, the grandfather of console RPGs. By meeting certain requirements and going off the game's beaten path, players revealed the text "Warren Robinett", the name of Adventure's lead programmer. Not an impressive trick by today's standards, but it was an early indication that there was more to games than meets the eye...and that contrary to what Atari wanted people to believe back then, video games were programmed by human beings, not robots.

Players began to wonder: "What else do games have in store for those of us who think outside the box?" Thus began the sport of banging on buttons and keys to see what kinds of rewards would be yielded. Most of the time it was a trip to the return counter with a busted game, but as games became more complex, efforts became more fruitful.

My favourite Game Genie memory is finally taking down the wretched Thunderbird that lorded over the Great Palace in Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link. Zelda II not a forgiving game; the path to the Great Palace was hell, but it was a trek through Eden compared to the Palace itself. So what if I cheated a titch and employed the Genie? In the end, Hyrule was saved and I got a kiss from the original, somehow-not-mummified Princess Zelda. That's what counts, right?

...Right?

Psht, if Ganon had a Game Genie, you know he wouldn't hesitate to give himself eternal life and totally wreck Link.

Chiptune Friday: Crystal Castles

Cole Stryker — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Derek said I could hijack his 'Chiptune Friday' feature on the condition that we brand this very special double-dose edition, "IndepenDANCE Day", so that's what I'ma do.

Crystal Castles hate videogames, and roll their eyes at journalists who attempt to lump them in with other bands who make either video game music, or music with game electronics. They use a keyboard equipped with an Atari 5200 sound chip to create their relentless sound. They have acheived notoriety in the chiptune world not so much for their music, but for a well documented plagiarism controversy.

Last weekend I went to the UK's annual Glastonbury Festival. The highlight of the weekend was a short set by the Crystal Castles, a chiptune dance duo from Brooklyn. Vocalist Alice Glass, who looked as though her tiny body was just dug up from a grave, almost immediately launched herself into the crowd, which resulted in hand-wringing from a bunch of goateed AV dudes who were worried about her mic chord. They finally persuaded her to return to the stage, where she climbed the lighting truss. After twenty minutes of mayhem, the AV guys got their cargo shorts in a bunch and pulled the plug. It was the only moment of unbridaled rock 'n roll energy the festival had to offer, and it was awesome.

Games to Film: Leo DiCaprio to Play Nolan Bushnell in Upcoming "Atari" Flick

Cole Stryker — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT

According to Slash Film, Paramount has secured the rights to an upcoming film starring Leonardo DiCaprio as freewheelin' gaming impresario Nolan Bushnell. Screenwriters Brian Hecker and Craig Sherman hope to incorporate elements from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Tucker.

Bushnell was responsible for Pong, often credited as the first video game ever (untrue, but it was the first game to acheive widespread popularity among the general public). Bushnell went on to found Atari and Chuck E. Cheese. Now he's working on a restaurant franchise called uWink, a sort of Chuck E. Cheese for grown ups, where you place your order and play games on your table's touchscreen.

I recently watched King of Kong, a fascinating glimpse inside the world of competitive gaming, which focused on a few dudes shooting for the Donkey Kong high score. The movie was riveting becaue it showcased these super-nerds oozing hubris in a world commonly percieved as childish. These guys see themselves as Greco-Roman gladiators sparring under Nero. Nerds in the limelight are hilarious.

That's why I have high hopes for this movie. Bushnell is renowned for his flamboyant personality and for being, well, kind of a dick. Plus, his illustrious career is pockmarked with scandal, finger-pointing, ill-conceived flops and bankruptcy. I'm seeing the Boogie Nights of gaming, here.

Personal Firsts: My Gaming Scrapbook, From A to Wii

John Constantine — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Written by Amber Ahlborn

At some point in the 1980s, the year nebulous in my memory, my mom bowled with her team every Thursday night. I loved Thursday nights because dad let me stay up late to watch M.A.S.H. and Benny Hill. Sometimes he and I would hop in the car and go visit mom at the alley, and that was the best. Dad would sit and watch mom bowl. Me? I would squeeze every last quarter I could get out of him. With a fist full of change and dollars soon to be converted into change, I’d walk down to the alley’s hamburger bar, snag a stool, and drag it through the glass doors into the arcade. Without deviation, I’d position my stool in front of the “Ostrich Game” and stay planted there until I ran out of money. I’m speaking of Joust of course, but at that age I could neither reach the controls without a stool to sit on nor read very well.

The Atari 2600 became my first home console. I had around a dozen games for it. I owned the usual suspects like Pac-Man, Pitfall, and Frogger, but I especially enjoyed playing Kaboom with my half brother. He was over ten years older than me and I put everything into trying to beat his high scores. Super Mario Bros. 2 ushered me into the NES era and I became a dedicated platformer fan with a little beat’em up on the side thanks to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The Super NES became the first home console I bought with my own money (well, technically about 40% of it was my lunch money). With the SNES came a host of more firsts that introduced me to some of my greatest gaming loves. I discovered Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, and Mega Man X. Star Fox lead me into the third dimension and Chrono Trigger showed me that RPGs were not boring. While the N64 and Playstation fed me more of what I liked, the Gamecube and PS2 broadened my genre horizons even further.

Ico was the first game to give me a naturalistic puzzle environment to climb all over, and ever since I have loved these types of games. Pikmin primed me for future strategy titles and Katamari Damacy helped form my love of the really weird. With the advents of the DS and Wii the firsts keep rolling in.

What are your firsts? Did your tastes progress to ever widening genres or have you stuck with one obsession? Are you so new to gaming that everything is a first? It feels appropriate at this point in time to pause since the industry has recently experienced a few firsts itself. For the first time, graphical prowess is not the only draw for home consoles. The evolution of what games are and can mean to people marches on.

Looking off towards possible future firsts can be both encouraging and disheartening, depending on your perspective. As a primarily Wii gamer I’ve certainly hit both extremes. I’ve had the pleasure of playing my first “casual” games. I’ve also suffered my not-so-first frustrations with seeing deeper games watered down or shuffled to other systems. Even so, I keep a positive outlook and encourage all gamers, veteran and newcomer alike to keep the door open to firsts. You can never tell what your new love will be if you never bother to look. Give a try to that game you might be inclined to write off as “just not your thing”. It might be the very best thing you ever played.

For the first time ever, I played a video game with my mom. Every Sunday night we go bowling in my living room… and I always thought I hated sports games.

Screen Test: Alone in the Dark

John Constantine — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:00:00 GMT

As a youth, conceptual horror was enough to scare me into insomnia. Violence was one thing - I could process that as fantasy - but lurking terror was too much. If someone said that they were going to watch a horror movie or tell a scary story, I would freak out. It was right around pubescence, when my capacity for abstraction was growing exponentially, that I developed a taste for fear. Like any other extreme emotion, fear can be delightfully narcotic. After watching It (yes, it scared me. You look at Tim Curry in a clown suit without shitting yourself, I dare you,) I was finally clued into what everyone else seemed to know: being scared is fun. It wasn’t until the late ‘90s, with early Resident Evil and Silent Hill entries, that I started getting my fix from videogames. So those games’ shared ancestor, Alone in the Dark, is an unknown quantity for me outside of reputation. The new Alone in the Dark from Atari, after a couple of years of development purgatory (not quite hell), is looking like it will live up to that reputation.

At first blush, it looks like average scary stuffs with dark, foggy environments. But it’s when the screens actually show off some specifics of the New York Central Park setting that it hits an unsettling stride. From Eurogamer’s preview, where these screens come from, the game might just be a diamond-in-the-rough during the slow summer season.