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I watched a lot of horror films as a kid. I really enjoyed them–but something little known about me was that some of them also scared the hell out of me. It’s those films which stuck with me the most. But horror concepts are very hit-and-miss. Different people scare differently.

The same is true for games. I, for one, have had a fear of total darkness (or more specifically what could lurk in it)–fortunately for me, that’s an extremely common way many films and games alike create fear. It’s an effective way of making sure the character–or player–doesn’t know what’s waiting for them. In a movie, this is effective because I empathize with the character on the screen, experiencing similar feelings of fear and dread. In a game, I am directly controlling the experience, and it’s so effective because it forces me to willingly advance into something I know I’m going to be afraid of–essentially, to face my fear.

I believe that this is the reason that horror games (or games with horror elements) in general seem to get by with less scary elements and original ideas than horror movies–it’s simply easier to scare people when they are directly involved instead of passively observing. Hollywood needs to think of ways to scare people who are sitting in a chair with no control over what’s happening other than to leave the theater or turn off the television. A gamer has many options, but knows the only way to progress is to cause more scary things to happen–a powerful scare tactic in itself.

I’ve finished every horror movie I’ve started, aside from the few that were simply so bad that I did not want to continue wasting my time watching them. I had no problem getting to the end, regardless of whether or not or to what extent they scared me.

Games, however, are a different story. I am much more of a game buff than a movie buff, but I’ll let you in on a little secret–I could never make it all the way through System Shock 2. I’ve never seen the ending of Doom 3. I played about an hour of Dead Space and have barely touched it since. Hell, I barely made it through the F.E.A.R. games.

Hold on now, I’m not saying every horror game I play simply makes me stop playing. But I can safely say that all of those I’ve listed are some of my favorite games of all-time. They are the ones I remember playing the most, and they have certainly affected me more deeply than almost any other game, because they tap into some primal sense of dread and oppression that I can neither explain nor understand. It would seem so complex, yet most of the games I listed use very simple concepts such as darkness, evil things jumping out at the player, ominous sounds and oppressive atmospheres. Top it off with limited ammunition and other resources, and you’ve got the majority of survival horror games in existence today. Yet–cheap tactics or not, many of them still succeed in scaring me.

But many people are not affected by the same things as me, and do not get scared by cliche things such as monsters in the dark. Others have already learned to overcome those fears and simply push on. The former often do not enjoy many horror games–many reviewers seem to look at horror games in this light, as well (either because the conditions and mindset they are playing the game in is not ideal or simply because they are not scared by the tactics being used). But that’s great, actually–it’s because of these types of people that the horror genre in general must advance–game developers need to think of new and less gimmicky ways to scare their players. And that should make for a continually evolving and ever-more-interesting genre of games.

Recently I have started to revisit many of the titles that I inadvertently abandoned due to never working up the willpower to click on them again. It’s truly satisfying to finish such a title and achieve the real-world benefit (by accident, of course) of pushing myself to overcome my fears.

First up, Dead Space…

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I can’t explain it–I just keep coming back for more. After an hour or two, I’m left wondering why–it’s a very simplistic game full of simplistic game mechanics that have already been done in almost every way imaginable.

But not (arguably) since Diablo have these elements been combined in such a fun way that works so incredibly well. An overly simplistic game is no problem if that game is ridiculously fun–the point is to make you enjoy it and want to continue playing it, and in that sense Torchlight succeeds with flying colors.

The game has been out since October 2009 and it has been on my short-list of constantly-played games ever since. Big-budget $50-$60 titles fall to the wayside to other big-budget $50-$60 titles on an almost-daily basis, but here is this little $20 gem that seems to float to the top against any and all competition.

I am on my third or fourth character, not all of which have reached the end, and each experience is unique. Each class is challenging in somewhat different ways. The loot is simply amazing; that feeling you get when you find a really badass gun in Borderlands–that feeling was here first, and it sure does feel good.

The music is the best thing to happen to fantasy RPGs since Diablo’s music so many years ago (in gaming years, of course). It sounds very much in the same vein as Diablo/Diablo II, which isn’t a bad thing–in fact, it’s a magnificent thing. The soundwork in general is good and lends itself well to the fast-paced action during battles as well as the lull during a trip to town.

The graphics, while being a bit cartoonish as stated, are actually quite nice to look at. The effects make every battle a treat. Take a level 20 or 30 alchemist into a battle, and you’re going to be in for a spectacular light show. Everything just looks like it belongs in the world, and it very quickly stops looking cartoony as you start seeing some of the giant evil creatures and amazing scenery all around you. The variety of the environments between stages can also be quite staggering, and keeps things interesting.

I will admit–it took me a while to get into the game. Before ever trying it, I dismissed it as a low-budget Diablo-wannabe with cartoonish graphics that couldn’t possibly be a deep and engaging experience to even come close to the big-budget titles that have tried to touch Diablo before, let alone surpass most of them and come closest to reaching the original’s greatness. But I’m glad I stuck with it–within an hour, I was fully hooked.

If anyone out there gave any of their life to Diablo (or any number of “clones” since then–Titan Quest, Sacred, etc…) then it would be a shame if you did not give Torchlight a couple hours of your time to try it out. Not the 15 to 30 minutes I see many people giving it before deciding it’s not for them.

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Let’s face it–whether or not you’re a fan, it’s hard to pass up all of the massively multiplayer online games both in beta and being released this season. Just to name a few, check the below lists.

Recently released MMOs:

• Champions Online by Cryptic
• CrimeCraft by Vogster

MMOs Coming Soon:

• Aion (Release: September 22) by NCsoft
• Fallen Earth (Release: September 22) by Icarus Studios
• Global Agenda by Hi-Rez Studios
• Huxley: The Dystopia (Release: November)
• World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion by Blizzard
• Alganon by Quest Online

Other MMOs probably not releasing this fall:

• Star Trek Online by Cryptic
• Star Wars: The Old Republic by BioWare
• Stargate Worlds by FireSky
• A new Lord of the Rings Online expansion

As we have the chance to try out all of these exciting titles, we will post our thoughts, and eventually our full reviews here. Check back for updates!

It’s been several days since the start of Aion‘s Open Beta, following closely their highly-successful Closed Beta, and I must say–so far, so good! As is expected with an MMO launch, and even more-so a Beta launch, Aion has had, and continues to have, its fair share of issues.

The number of people pounding the game login servers, Aion’s Open Beta forums, and NCsoft’s Account site brought each of those services to their knees for a while. These issues were cleared up in a matter of a couple of hours for most people.

Next, there was random spikes of terrible and debilitating latency upwards of several seconds that prevented some users from playing the game for periods of time. Most of these issues have been resolved, but there are still reports of random lag throughout. I’m sure the developers will continue to tune their servers up until and continuing after the official launch in less than two weeks (September 22).

Some players were unhappy about some of the changes made to the game (PvP damage has been lowered significantly, many balance changes have been made, etc), but the general consensus is that almost all of them have made the game better and more fun overall.

In the Closed Beta I focused on the Asmodians, and thoroughly enjoyed leveling my characters. Now, in the Open Beta, I am focusing on an Elyos character, attempting to experience as much of the game as possible from the other side of the Abyss before the official launch.

I can’t comment yet on PvP or any sort of end-game experience, but working my way up to it has sure been a fun ride, and is thus far recommended for any MMO player looking for their next fix–especially WoW players wanting something a bit different that has a similar charm to it.