THE PARK: Fear Rides The Fairway in Funcom’s New Horror Quickie

Posted on October 28, 2015 by geelw

A trip to the amusement park really goes off the rails in Funcom’s new short first-person psychological horror experience, THE PARK, now available for PC on digital platforms Steam, Humble Store, NVIDIA GeForce Now Store, Green Man Gaming, and GamersGate for $9.99, a 23% savings on the game’s $12.99 MSRP. If you’re like me and thinking “Hey, doesn’t Funcom only make big-budget MMO experiences these days?” Well, you’re not 100% wrong there. And you’re not 100% correct, either. Funcom wants you to know they’re not all about those expensive to produce and addictive online time-sinks these days:

“Thanks to similar games in the narrative space, such as ‘Gone Home’, ‘Dear Esther’ and ‘The Stanley Parable’, we are confident that there is a place in the gaming industry for shorter, intense experiences,” says Funcom creative director Joel Bylos. “Technically, it explores the limits of what is possible for a team to achieve with a small budget, short deadline and a strong focus.”

Aha. Well, short and horrific seem to be selling well these days, Funcom does have the talent to make it work and hey, at ten bucks… that’s less than a movie ticket and you don’t just get to sit there and get scared while choking on your popcorn. THE PARK seems like a game that while brief, is going to get people talking. Or in this era of social video site streaming, sitting down in front of their monitors watching someone play and freak out. Hmmmm. You can probably have someone feed you popcorn while you play this one. Just don’t be surprised at all if that a piece of that slimy “buttered” junk ends up shoved into a nostril at some point because Fatima peeled out of the room in fear an stuck that corn in the first orifice he or she could reach.

Sometimes, it’s best to experience certain types of horror alone. Or at least after you have your popcorn.

Blu-Ray Review: Edgar Allan Poe’s Black Cats

Posted on October 25, 2015 by geelw

What’s black and red and giallo all over? Ha. If you’re still reading this, you’ve just survived a pun to the head without any ill effects. Anyway, arriving just in time for Halloween, Arrow Video’s Edgar Allan Poe’s Black Cats: Two Adaptations By Sergio Martino & Lucio Fulci makes for another fine Blu Ray/DVD set to add to your collection.

The two films, Sergio Martino’s sexy/scary Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972), and Lucio Fulci’s flat-out weird The Black Cat (1981) are two more variations of Poe’s popular horror tale that’s been the subject of a number of horror films and anthologies. The interesting thing about all the Black Cat films throughtout cinematic history is how different they all are and how each director takes the parts of the story they (or the screenwriters) felt worked for what they were attempting. Continue reading →

Playmates Has Your All-Season TMNT Solution Wrapped Up Nicely

Posted on October 21, 2015 by geelw

Clever, Playmates, clever – making those Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Power Sound FX Combat Gear sets (MSRP $19.99, ages 4 and up) arrive just in time for not only Halloween, but in more than enough time for Christmas gift-giving. Leo, Mikey, Raph, and Donnie’s Battle Gear are all available now and combined with a few of Playmates other cool TMNT items, make for excellent costume enhancers (or can double for actual costumes if the weather is warm and the kids don’t want to sweat it out in full regalia).

(Thanks, TMNTToys!)

Add in the Deluxe Role Play Shell (MSRP $14.99), one of the Deluxe Masks (MSRP $15.99), and maybe a set or two of those short range Walkie Talkies (MSRP $19.99) so everyone can keep in touch (although you’ll only be a few feet maximum from your pack, right? Good.) and you’re good to go for some quality trick or treating. If you’ve got one kid who’s a big TMNT fan, picking out his or her favorite Turtle should be pretty easy going. On the other hand, if you’re the proud parent of a small brood that just so happens to number between two and four, things could get slightly tricky if the kids tend to like the same turtles and get a little cranky if they can’t all be the one they like. Below the jump is a quick and fun solution to that issue. Continue reading →

READS: The Haunt of Fear Still Packs A Moldy Wallop

Posted on October 19, 2015 by geelw

Sometimes a good old scare is all you need and with Halloween right around the corner (with a baseball bat in claw), you can stay safely indoors and get your fright on thanks to Dark Horse Comics. They’ve been reprinting a bunch of lovely volumes of classic EC Comics and the latest, The EC Archives: The Haunt of Fear Volume 2 comes highly recommended. Coming to a comic shop near you October 28, this 216-page full color hardcover collects The Haunt of Fear #7–#12 and features art from Johnny Craig, Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, Jack Kamen, George Roussos, Ed Smalle, and Joe Orlando. I’ll tease you with a page from the very first tale in the book, a real corker called Room For One More:

I think that rather unbalanced Rodney needs to reconsider his greed for that last space in the family mausoleum before it’s too late, right? As usual, the book compiles the issues in their entirety including all the original ads, text pieces, and letter columns. Nope, you can’t order anything from those well-aged adverts, but reading the letters should get you smiling at how some took these illustrated tales of terror to heart back in the day. Feel free to also check out previous volumes in Dark Horse’s EC Archives for even more variety in classic horror, sci-fi, crime, humor and more stories from the pre-Comics Code days.

READS: Contemporary Krampus Will Put You In The Proper Holiday Spirit (OR ELSE)…

Posted on October 19, 2015 by geelw

Mike Drake (photo: Peter Keehn)

Just in time for Halloween and definitely an excellent Christmas gift that’s actually a reminder to watch your back and be good (or else!), Contemporary Krampus: A Modern Look At An Ancient Legend ($24.00) offers up a collection of professional and fan art that makes for quite a memorable chunk of nightmare fuel. Curated by Mike Drake (who did that stupendous cover above), you’ll get almost 70 striking images from traditional drawing and painting, to sculpture and even a few takes on the ugly Christmas sweater (but you’ll probably want one of the ones in the book).

Drake also contributes a nifty into to Contemporary Krampus and how this Anti-Claus has slowly but surely seeped into American culture over the years to the point that we’ll be seeing a Krampus horror flick hit theaters in time for Christmas. Nicely naughty AND not a low budget schlocker judging by the cast.

You should run out and buy this book just because it’ll make you grin and cringe simultaneously. But if you’ve read this far, live in one of the 50 states of the U.S. of A. (Yes, you need to have a US shipping address!) and want to WIN a copy of the book, just respond below with I WANT KRAMPUS! and I’ll pick ONE lucky winner tomorrow from those who’ve entered.

Want more fun? Well, if you’re a card-carrying adult and just so happen to be in the New York City area for Halloween, you should attend the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Times Square Halloween Party.

This adults only event will feature not only Drake signing copies of Contemporary Krampus, but also giving away a life-size Krampus (!) to one lucky attendee. Additionally, over 45 “special” exhibits will be pulled from the Ripley vaults and displayed exclusively to those brave enough to attend. The event will also feature:

A twisted game show
Psychic readings
Hypnotism shows with audience participation
Close-up magic
Day of the Dead candy celebration (at midnight)

To purchase tickets for this exclusive event (and they’re selling out quickly!), fans of the macabre need just click HERE (Boooo!)

BUY IT! Neverending Nightmares Gets a Halloween Sale on Steam

Posted on October 30, 2014 by geelw

Shhhh. I’ve got a secret! I actually have yet to PLAY Neverending Nightmares, Matt Gilgenbach’s psychological horror game based on his struggles with mental illness. However, I’ve gotten a few friends to buy the game and all of them have thanked me sarcastically for giving them all some pretty wild nightmares. Of course, my response was “Is that good or bad?” or “But, did you like the game?”. And the answer was always the same “Yeah, but…” followed by descriptions of stuff that happens during the horrific journey into side-scrolling madness. So, yeah, I guess I need to grab this soon over Steam, huh?

My problem is my backlog is SO bloody huge that I’m behind on stuff I need to review and I probably won’t get to this one for a few weeks at best. Well, this 25% off sale is kind of twisting my arms (ouch!),so I better make a decision soon, as I kind of NEED my arm. Um, and the other one, too (ouch!)…

Halloween Bundles Offer Up Tricks and Treats to Keep You Up All Night…

Posted on October 30, 2014 by geelw

If you’ve no plans to venture outside on Halloween or this weekend when the clocks slow down an hour in some parts of the country, here’s an idea: why not grab some cheap games and scare yourself half or more to death without ever leaving the comfort of your own home? Here’s what’s up on a couple of indie game bundle sites for the big day:

The IndieGala Halloween Bundle has nine games up for $3.29 with two surprise games to be revealed next week (take a chance!, take a chance!). Most of the games here are scary, but there’s a goofy puzzle game as well as a very non-scary retro platformer here if you’re a total fraidy cat.

The Humble HalloWeekly Bundle features the usual sliding scale pricing, but I say drop down the $15 just to play Among the Sleep, a nicely unsettling and really beautiful game where you play as a two-year old child. Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly), this one works quite well on a number of levels.

Finally, The Carnage Bundle over at Bundle Stars has a whopping ten games for 2.99 that are guaranteed to creep you out or make you laugh (or both!). Well, that Zombie Bowl-o-Rama game is probably the only intentionally funny game, Warehouse and Logistics Simulator is exactly what it says (and that Hell’s Warehouse DLC would make Sisyphus proud) and Greed: Black Border is more of a RPG in the Diablo vein (with less scares).

Remember, some of what you pay goes right to charities and in this case, giving money to those causes is better than giving BLOOD. Anyway, get to the buying and installing and playing and screaming and dying stuff already!

Spooky’s House of Jump Scares: Oh, It SURE Looks Cute At First…

Posted on October 27, 2014 by geelw

(Thanks, Akuma Kira!)

Ha and double ha. For a while, Fridays over at Desura have been interesting thanks to the site dropping four free indie game downloads for all in their Freedom Fridays promotion. Some of these games have been clunkers, others have been classics and a few defy a proper description because they’re so weird or unfinished or both that they feel like experiments that have taken a life of their own, bumped off their programmers and just forced themselves onto the site leaving a trail of corpses in their wake. Thankfully, Lag Studios‘ unique Spooky’s House of Jump Scares doesn’t fit into that latter category.

As you can see from that trailer above, the game starts off cute and simple-looking with cardboard monsters popping out of walls to maybe make you jump a little. But at some point during its thousand rooms, things take a decidedly dark turn as actual monsters drop onto the scene and give chase to your nameless character, a plot of sorts comes into play in the form of discovered notes and all of a sudden, the game with the dopey name you got for no money is freaking you out and you have to keep playing just to see what horrors that next room reveals. Okay, it’s no P.T. or Outlast, but the game will run on nearly anything and has enough tricks up its sleeve to be a nice little Halloween surprise. Anyway, go get Spooky and let her get under your skin. Hey, even if it doesn’t scare you at all, it’s FREE and you can’t be afraid of that price point at all…

Sunday Gives Me Both Barrels, But I’ll Be Quite Alright…

Posted on October 26, 2014 by geelw

(Thanks, John Thomas!)

And how was/is YOUR Sunday? Mine is pretty lousy at the moment, but pretty much everything’s fixable with some time and a bit of money. My home PC decided to flip out and not want to boot up properly, my backup solution isn;t working (thank goodness for the laptop), the connection today is super-slow, I accidentally broke the paper holder on one of the printers here (nothing a little glue can’t fix, but it was a total “DUH!” moment when it happened), my Logitech G15 finally died, I can’t find the driver CD for my gaming mouse, some of the plants I was growing decided to keel over thanks to the temperature changes this past week and I still need to get to that pile of laundry I was supposed to do last week, but kept putting off because of so many games coming in and me needing to get to them. Yaaaaah. There are a few other things going on as well, but those are for me to know and you to not find out.

(Thanks, DreamWorksTV!)

Eh, small world problems, but all happening around the same time makes for a REALLY annoying day. Eh, here’s a little laugh for you while I get back to trying to actually be something resembling “productive” today. Back in a bit…

BUY IT! Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut Gets Price Slashed in Time for Halloween

Posted on October 24, 2014 by geelw

In case you missed this great and epic oddball horror adventure from Access games and the mind of Swery 65, well, you now have ZERO reason not to want to try it out (well, unless you don’t have a decent enough PC to run the game, of course!). Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut is now (well, from now until October 27) a measly $2.49 on Steam! That’s like $24.99 with a “9” missing! Or 90% off, if you actually know how to do math better than I do it. The Steam version adds some new content and nicer visuals than the console versions, but don’t go in expecting the most stellar looking game that’s perfection in all areas.

Come visit Greenvale for the weird people and offbeat vibe and stay for the surprisingly more compelling and poignant tale that unfolds as the game progresses. DPTDC has surprises in store for those who stick it out and survive each chapter and by the finale, you’ll emerge as someone who might want to try more games in this vein because this one went above and beyond the call in a few key areas. Anyway, enough rambling from me – go get this game!