Neverending Nightmares Out Now For Steam & OUYA (!): Welcome to a True Horror Game, Folks…


 
Sometimes, I’ll see a comment about a horror game or film where someone states that the creator(s) must be “mentally ill” or words to that effect for coming up with such visions that put audiences under or behind their seats (or both). Well, Infinitap Games’ President and creator of Neverending Nightmares, Matt Gilgenbach has struggled with OCD and depression for years and made this honest and outright frightening game in order to share the wealth in terms of showing how powerful battling an invisible enemy can be. From the game description:

Neverending Nightmares is a psychological horror game inspired by the developer’s actual battle with mental illness. In the game, you take on the role of Thomas who awakens from a terrible nightmare only to find that he is still dreaming. As he descends deeper through the layers of hellish dreamscapes, he must hide from horrifying apparitions and outrun his inner demons. He must discover which of the horrors he encounters are a manifestation of his own psychological state and figure out what reality will be when he finally wakes up.


 
As hellish as this looks, I absolutely have to give props to Gilgenbach for showing that people dealing with these conditions can actually be creative and necessary to this industry while creating content that’s deeper than it seems. Okay, for some of you the REALLY scary thing is this game is also on the OUYA because you most likely thought that micro console was DEAD and it’s clearly not going away just yet. Mua-ha-ha-haaaaa! Hmmm… perhaps Matt should have done a Wii U version as well just to cover the other console some people think is both feet in the grave. Anyway, get this game NOW for PC via Steam or if you have an OUYA, yeah, it’s a buy for that as well.

The Evil Within Tokyo Game Show 2014 Trailer: Run (or Roll!), Don’t Walk!


 

Okay, I laughed out loud when I saw this trailer because, well.. come ON now, people. Wouldn’t YOU just have jumped in one of those wheelchairs and rolled the hell away from what was chasing you? Yeah, I thought so. I know I’d be BLAAAAZING down that dimly lit hallway popping wheelies power-sliding past obstacles and generally confusing the hell out of that monster or whatever is chasing my character. Then again, I tend to look for the humorous side to any horror game or film, so if anything, I’d die laughing before anything else got to my soon to be doomed avatar. The Evil Within is out for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC on Tuesday, October 14. That gives you enough time to stock up on clean underwear and maybe a few spare controllers in case you’re prone to dropping them when you get scared…

Catequesis: Your Word of the Day & Retro Survival Horror Game of the…

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Hey, I didn’t PLAN on running three horror-related posts in a row! I just go through my inbox and start typing away about stuff I see that piques my interest. Anyway, Survival Horror Story: Catequesis has been in development for over two years and has a nicely nostalgic look to it while absolutely not being for the squeamish types out there. Developers Baroque Decay and Curved Cat games are looking to wrap this up and get it out on PC, Mac and Linux sometime in 2015, so if you like your horror games somewhat pixelated and “cute”, yet unsettling enough to make you maybe want to keep that security blankie on your lap as you play, well… here you go. If that three minutes of gameplay didn’t get your spine all chilly, this teaser might work on cooling you down some:

More on this one when my inbox gets another pointy news arrow from the dev team (ouch!)- stay tuned.

Fatal Frame 5 The Black-Haired Shrine Maiden Will Turn You Into A Shudder-bug…

(thanks, Dante Nintendo World!)
 
Hmmm… based on all that lovely English text in this gameplay video, I’m going to go out on a limb ans guess that this new Fatal Frame game is coming to North America at some point in 2015. I sure hope so, as a new console game in this series in the west is LONG overdue and the Wii U needs more games to hit the doomsayers over the noggin with. Granted, the characters in this game SHOULD be chased down by pissed off ghosts just for shooting images in portrait mode (“MOTHER, PLEASE! MAKE IT STOP!!”), but it looks as if this is part of the game so I’ll need to deal with it. Hey, I’ll put up with a lot if it means I get more solid Wii U titles coming this way. Back with more on this one soon – hopefully an announcement of a US release date, of course…

Resident Evil Revelations 2 Goes The Episodic Game Route. This Is A Good Thing.

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Excellent. I was wondering when Capcom would take a page from Telltale Games and start releasing episodic versions of its Resident Evil franchise, but I guess I can wonder no longer. Set for an early 2015 launch, the upcoming multi-platform game Resident Evil Revelations 2 is going to be divided into four digital chapters and like Telltale’s chapter-based game experiences, there will be the option to buy a retail disc version that compiles all the chapters plus any additional content Capcom plans to add to the package. I’m a physical media guy myself, so this is a great thing to see even if it means waiting until all four weekly episodes are out and people are spoiling the story all over the internet. With a game such as this (and Telltale’s The Walking Dead series), I tend to tune out those annoying blabbers who spill the beans anyway. So I won’t have a thing spoiled and I won’t have to go to gamer prison for beating someone senseless with an old controller for ruining any surprises Capcom has in store.

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RER2 is currently in development for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC. Nice work in progress screens up there, huh? Anyway, back with more on this one soon…

Slender: The Arrival on PS3: Return of the Jump-Scary (If You Like That Sort of Thing)…


 
Hmmmm. Sorry, but I’ve never really been a fan of this game or the many variants that feature one of the least “scary” urban myths I’ve ever heard. But hey, I’m an old fogey and prefer my scares a great deal more cerebral (or not so obviously made for the “Ooh, lookit my YouTube video where I leap out of my seat if FEEEEAAAAR!” crowd). Anyway, this one’s coming to PSN on September 23, so if that floats your boat and you’ve a PS3 at home, prepare to be scared out of your socks or whatever. Hey, I’ll give the whole Slenderman thing this, however: it gets some people so creeped out that they think some tall thing in a stiff suit is actually frightening. Maybe I can get in lines at movie theaters, post offices and banks dressed like that, say “Booooooooo!” a lot and see my place in line jump from last to first within seconds. That, or some kid with a can of mace will let out an screech, spray me and get in some cellphone snaps or a movie to post on facebook as they’re running away. Damn kids…

Resident Evil HD & Resident Evil Revelations 2: Capcom Serves Up Two Dishes To The Ungrateful Masses…


 

Wow. If I was working in Capcom PR and had a thin skin (which, by the way is a LOUSY thing for anyone working in PR to have), I’d be chugging Pepto all day and taking an aspirin ever four hours for my heart. You’d think that the company was out running a steamroller over baskets of puppies or something if you read some of the many inane comments on YouTube and plenty of websites about both the HD remaster of the former GameCube-only Resident Evil remake from 2002 and the concept video for (as in too EARLY to have actual gameplay footage from) Resident Evil Revelations 2. I, for one will be getting both games upon their respective releases because I know that the former hasn’t been on any other console platform to date and it’s a truly great game. As for RER 2, I liked the first one quite a bit, so this one’s going to be added to the “watch and BUY!’ list.

It’s THAT simple for me. I’m not silly enough to yell and scream about unrelated games, DLC from unrelated games, and so forth and so on. These announcements are about the games in question and Capcom just wants to show them off and know what you think about them, not listen to bitch-fest central about Monster Hunter, Mega Man, Street Fighter or worse, INCORRECT comments about this HD version Resident Evil being the same as the 1996 original or just a straightforward “port” of the GameCube game.


 

Eh, I shouldn’t be surprised at all at this reaction, as the company seems to attract some of the more passionate but woefully ignorant fans in gaming. Sure, they’ve made mistakes over the years, but some people need to just grow up and not continue to slam them on EVERY call they make these days.

Biohazard HD Remaster Offers Up A Great Reason To Import (For the PS3 At Least)

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Biohazard HD RemasterSure, you can hold out for the download-only North American release of Resident Evil HD Remaster, but I’m seeing the more hardcore fans of the long-running franchise and a few gaming friends running for the Eastern border and snapping up pre-orders for the Japanese or Asian versions of Biohazard HD Remaster instead. Why? Well, for starters, the game comes on a physical disc with a manual and as you know (or should know), PS3 games are region free, so the game should run on any console anywhere in the world. Both the Japanese and less expensive Asian version (which is for Chinese gamers and should come with an English manual or instruction sheet fold-out common to that region’s software) will have dual-language support (English and Japanese voice and text based on the console settings), so jumping back into this classic experience will be a breeze for anyone.

From what I see, that much more expensive E-Capcom Complete Edition is sold out in a few import shops, so folks who want that pack for all the goodies it contains will need to hold out and see if Capcom plans to get that out over here. Anyway, go take a gander at some comparison screenshots so you can see what you’re in for. We won’t be seeing this remaster in the US until early 2015 at the earliest, but as the import ships out this November, I have the feeling that a bunch of people will be grooving on this game before that and posting their impressions left and right in the usual spots. Will I be one of those people? Hmmm… we shall see…

Gamescom 2014: P.T. Is SH? Count Me IN!

I’d have to say the biggest new game news out of Gamescom was the surprise reveal of a collaboration between game creator Hideo Kojima, writer/director Guillermo Del Toro and actor Norman Reedus in the form of an all-new horror game called Silent Hills (currently) for the PlayStation 4. There’s a playable teaser (dubbed “P.T.”) up on PSN* as I type this and it seems that some players aren’t getting that it’s NOT supposed to be a demo of the FINAL game, but a teaser of what’s to come and may change entirely from what’s there. Then again, given the amusingly screechy reaction from YouTube user SoapyWarpig (the first person to discover what this mysterious P.T. was, congratulations, by the way!), I’m betting a lot of fans of that particular horror franchise will be plunking down some money towards a PlayStation 4 if they haven’t gotten one yet.

*Note: P.T. is a bit “tricky” to find on the PS Store if you’re just looking for it on your phone/tablet, laptop or desktop. However, if you log into your PSN account and use the search bar (type in PT), you’ll get sent to the demo page and all you need to is download away and get to playing. I think the jump scare stuff in that first video is funny because it might be Kojima poking fun at the endless stream of “let’s watch random guys and gals freak out!” videos that litter YouTube for every horror game these days. I found it more unsettling and bizarre than actually fly out of my chair frightening. Now, to find out if this is another PlayStation-only game or a timed exclusive that’s going to pop up on other consoles and/or PC at some point…

Gamescom 2014: Bloodborne and Until Dawn: Two More System Sellers For Sony? Could Be…

FromSoftware’s still in progress PS4 exclusive, Bloodborne finally gets a more gameplay focused trailer at Sony’s big media event and certainly looks fantastic. I actually got a Nightmare Creatures meets more deliberately paced Devil May Cry meets third-person Darkwatch vibe from this trailer, but I’m kind of nuts. Anyway, this one goes on the 2015 list. One more game for the backlog, whee!

Another work in progress, this time by Supermassive games, Until Dawn also looks pretty darn scary and cool, although it’s a different sort of game entirely. Clearly inspired by horror movies and a bit of classic adventure gaming, this tale of eight people meeting up at a mysterious shack in the mountains looks to give players a few choices in spinning fate’s wheel. Granted, I’m betting odds are slim everyone survives (what’s a horror game or film without a few demises?), but the replay value could be incredible if it’s more than a simple slasher story. Eight Little Indians getting it in so many ways is indeed intriguing…