Two Sides of the Horror Coin, Part 2:Eternal Darkness:Sanity's Requiem

Imagine a game that combines Resident Evil (prior to RE 5) with the stories of HP Lovecraft. Sounds cool, right? Well, Eternal Darkness:Sanity's Requiem is even better than that. One of the very few M Rated games for the Gamecube, Eternal Darkness:Sanity's Requiem (one of the best videogame titles ever, IMHO), is a horror game that transends space and time to weave an engrossing story. That's not hyperbol; the story extends over thousands of years and takes place all over the world. It begins in the present day (well, the year 2000, but close enough). Alexandra Roivas gets a call that her grandfather has been gruesomely murdered in a locked room (poor guy lost his head) and goes to his estate in Rhode Island in order to help the police find out who, or what, killed him. Exploring the mansion in order to find any clues, she comes upon the Book of Eternal Darkness. Reading it, the book tells the tragic stories of several people who have come in contact with the book and their horrible fates. Some of the pages have been torn from the book, and Alexandra finds them as she explores the mansion. The characters in the stories, all of whom you you control as their tale unfolds, are touched by a supernatural evil. And soon, Alexandra finds that she may be the only one able to stop the coming darkness and the destuction of mankind... I don't want to say much about Eternal Darkness' story, except to say that it is excellent and genuinely terrifying. You will fight gruesome horrors (the RE influence) and steadily lose your mind as you do so (the Lovecraft influence), There is much more, but again, I don't want to give anything away. The sanity meter and what happens as your sanity drains away has been been much hyped about, and it is a cool concept. Basically, the game will screw with your mind; at one point, I thought I had accidentally deleted my saved game and was actually pissed about it, until I realized that, yes, the game was screwing with me. The fact that I actually believed it for a moment is a testament as to just how imgenius this game is. The graphics are unifomaly excellent, and help draw you into the game world. The music, too, is very well done,. Very eerie, as it should be. Throughout the course of the game you will also learn magic spells that will give an edge against the coming evil, and believe me, you will need them. If you like horror games at all, I strongly recommend Eternal Darkness. Hell, if you like good games, you should play this. Just try not to be too scared...you might lose your mind forever. Oh, the horror, the horror....

Finish it!

I read on the internets somewhere that only 10% of game players actually finish the games they play. I am definatey NOT one of those 10%. My so-called 'pile of shame' is more like a 'mountain of shame.' I did finish the excellent Darkwatch on the XBox a few weeks ago, and yes, that game is over 6 years old. Before that, I cannot remember when I have beaten a game. (Except for FFVII. See below.)


It's never the game itself; I usually either get stuck at a certain point where I keep dying and give up. I then fire up another game which I hopefully won't suck at (those are very rare.) This is often a game I just bought at a cheap price. (I enjoy buying cheap video games for the PS2, XBox, Gamecube, and DS just as much as as I enjoy playing them...to a point, obviously.)

Although knowing that close to 90% of gamers don't finish the games they buy, I still feel like a loser. I sure as hell will never finsh current gen games if/when I get a 360 or PS3, as I would never take the time or effort to get all the trophies or achievments, which seems to be the mark at which the game is finished. Not that I have anything against trophies or achievements, I'm certain they add to the gameplay.

Also, in my case, I love JRPGs, but most of them take 40-60 hours to complete. That's a lot of time for me to get bored, stuck, or distracted by another shiny disk. In fact, last JRPG I finished was FFVII...no joke...and I have at least 50 excellent JRPGS that I have barely gotten into. Sounds screwed up...and it is...but damn I like JRPGs. (And since fewer and fewer are being made, never mind being ported to North America...well, at least I have a stockpile that I can enjoy in the meantime. Gotta think positive.)

Then there is the ongoing debate of whether games, especially open world ones, just take too long to finish, and many people can't because of time restraints. That seems like a good topic for another blog, though.

So are you able to finish most games you have? If not, why do you think that is? I could chaulk it up to Adult ADD, or the fact that as I've gotten older my reflexes have gotten slower, or I have less time to play....



.....



Yeah, I just suck at video games.

Shootin' In Style

I recently played the game P.N. 03 after having bought it a year ago (yeah, I'm retarded) for about 4 bucks at Gamestop. I had read horrible reviews of the game when it had come out, as one of the infamous "Gamecube-exclusive Capcom 5". We all know how that turned out.

Anyway, I did not have any great expectations for the game, having almost stole it from Gamestop. But I quite like it. Basically, you're shooting bunches of robots wearing one of several versions of a mechanical suit, called an Aegis suit. Each suit having one "special attack" at the onset, although you can buy more special attacks for the suits. You can also power up the suits in different parameters and even buy extra continues at a shop. (Yup, this game has limited continues.)

You're "currency" is points you get by blowing up robots, and if you shoot a bunch of them in an alloted time limit, you rack up a "combo" and get bonus points. Frankly, this hooked me, as points mean something, and there is plenty to buy from the store (much of it expensive.) You can even do trial runs between missions to rack up extra purchasing points.

The graphics aren't anything spectacular, but they are well done, and the techno sountrack is nice to listen to while blasting various robots. What I really like about this game, besides the point system, is it's simplicity. You shoot and dodge missles and lasers, (or duck and take cover), and blast the 'bots with your own laser or special move (which are like the special moves in street fighter:up, down, shoot or something to that effect.) I am just so tired of all the overly complicated games made nowadays where you have to remember 20 different button combinations to play a damn game. With P.N. 03, I can just zone out and trash some bots, trying to get enough points to get the next cool Aegis suit.

Also, the heroine of the game, Vanessa, seems to be dancing along to the beat of the music as she turns robots to scrap. That's just cool.

So yeah, I recommend this game if you have a Gamecube or a (yuck) Wii. It's cheap enough, just don't expect to get your mind blown, and just enjoy the dancing. And shooting.