PC GameSource Blog

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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• Talking about Horror from Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer (philgamer.wordpress.com)
• Horror needs to mature (gonintendo.com)
• F.E.A.R. 3 shots arrive from E3 (vg247.com)
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• Scared Now? (blogcritics.org)
• The Tragedy of Alone in the Dark (gonintendo.com)
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If you think of yourself as an RPG fan and haven’t had the chance to check out Dragon Age: Origins or its expansion, Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, then today is the perfect opportunity to do so.

Until tomorrow morning at 10 am on Monday the 21st, all of the Dragon Age titles in all available versions are on sale on Steam for a substantial discount. Check out the sale here.

• Dragon Age: Origins – $26.79 (33% discount!)
• Deluxe Edition – $33.49 (33% discount!)
• Awakening – $29.99 (25% discount!)
• Dragon Age: Origins + Awakening – $47.99 (40% discount!)
• Deluxe Edition + Awakening – $53.99 (40% discount!)

I’m not normally one to hype such promotions from this blog, but I’m not making any money from this and it’s a deal that anyone who wants but does not own these titles should not pass up. I would like to reiterate that the above sale link will likely only be valid until tomorrow morning, so hurry!

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• Dragon Age DLC Leliana’s Song announced (vg247.com)
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• Dragon Age “Leliana’s Song” DLC Arriving Next Month (1up.com)

All bugs aside, I had a lot of fun with Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening. Ok, so the writing wasn’t quite as good. Alright, fine–there wasn’t enough talking and decision-making for the amount of combat the game throws at you. I’ll concede that the game is far, far buggier than I would expect from Bioware, even in an expansion. But it was obviously rushed, so some bugs are to be expected, and will hopefully be fixed if they haven’t been already.

But on the bright side, players get to delve back into Ferelden for the second-greatest adventure you can find in the kingdom, and chances are if you’re interested in the game you’ve already finished the first at least once.

Chances are also quite good you’ve also read a number of reviews far more thorough than this. So, to cut to the chase–I’ll confirm what many of those reviews conclude–if you’re into the game, you should definitely give it a shot. If you haven’t played or didn’t enjoy the original, then there is no reason you should play or would enjoy this one either. But if you’re one of those people, I really think you should give the first game another look–it’s truly a deep and rewarding experience.

A word of caution–I did run into a couple of game-breaking bugs. Spoilers follow. Check the Dragon Age Wiki’s Bugs page for full details. Mainly, be careful when and how you complete the Amaranthine smugglers quest, because it can break other parts of the game and ruin your experience as it did mine (the quest ended early and all of the guards in Amaranthine hated me even though I meant to help them). Additionally, toward the end of the game when I chose to help Amaranthine instead of the Keep, the game map indicated the keep was destroyed by darkspawn, while the ending credits confirmed it remained standing strong thanks to the defenses I purchased. All in all, it ended well, and you wouldn’t have had a chance to go back there in the game anyway.

Bioware, I want more large Dragon Age DLC!

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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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Major online distributor Steam has moved their release date for Alpha Protocol from this month out to March of 2010.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the delay is inevitable, or accurate in any sense of the word, but it does mean that the publisher does not plan on releasing the game on Steam this month.

While this is sad news for those eagerly awaiting the release (like us), we are also grateful that the publisher is not forcing Obsidian to release an unfinished game, as seems to be a growing trend these days with games that take longer than expected.

We’re still hoping for official word from Sega and/or Obsidian to confirm or deny the delay. Look for more news as it is made available.