Tag: Horror Games

Eric Swain External Sources

Critical Distance Confab – Minisode 07 – Horror Games

It was October, so of course, I had to do a theme minisode on Horror Games. This was the hardest minisode to set up yet. Mostly because October is a notoriously difficult month for people to schedule time, because every game publisher decides now is the right time to release their game. Way back in the beginning of the year, March I think, when I was recording the first minisode with Danielle Riendeau I mentioned that I wanted to see how long I could go without having another cis-straight white guy on as a co-host. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

NPC – Non Play Criticism: The Paradox of Horror

October 31, 2014 | Filed under: External Sources, Recent Posts and tagged with: Horror Games, Non Play Criticism, Philosophy It is a truism in video game circles of serious thinkers that video games are a young medium and that we are forging new territory with our criticism. That is of course bullshit in both respects. Video game critics are often cut off from other mediums. | more

Eric Swain Game Issues

A Cultural History of Horror

Horror stories are meant to be dark reflections of ourselves or rather more importantly a dark reflection of what we fear most as a society at the time. This isn’t true on an individual level, because what one person finds scary, bores another and what may be a broken taboo for some, is just par for the course for others. But in the aggregate, trends pop up and these are what succeeds in scaring a great majority of the populace. Thus reflect the thinking of a society as a whole. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

‘Silent Hill 2′: The Oppression of Atmosphere

Also known as, Experiencing the Atmosphere First Hand. I close out horror month with the big fish, the granddaddy of all horror games: Silent Hill 2. So much has been written and said about this game that coming at it almost 11 years after the fact I wondered what there was left to say about it. I was honestly hoping that the game would just drop something into my lap as I played. Of course, I didn’t get to play much as the power for pretty much my entire state went out the day before my column deadline. | more

Eric Swain Critical Responses

October ’12 Round Table Entry – Thinking on Horror

It’s the end of the month and that means it’s time for BoRT. Being October, this month’s topic suitably fits the season, Fear and Loathing in Game Spaces: “Since their inception, games have explored that most primal of human emotions: fear. Whether it’s shambling zombies, ghosts, relentless killers or arachnophobia, we’ve never been short of scares. Some can’t stand horror games, while others thrive on them. Are games uniquely suited to instil fear in the player, beyond a film or a Stephen King novel? | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Fear is Gone: Reconsidering the ‘Left 4 Dead’ Series

It’s October and so begins a month talking about horror games.  It seems only fitting. First up are the Left 4 Dead series. Always one to be oh so punctual, I was looking over the list of horror games or at least games with tangentially connected horror elements and for some reason couldn’t find an angle to write about any of them. I have three or four false starts hanging around in word documents. But in thinking about Left 4 Dead I reminisced on my changing attitude to the game over time. | more

Eric Swain External Sources, Recent Posts

Horror Games – Top 25

So, I wrote a piece for Gameranx called Top 25 Horror Games of All Time. Not the most enthralling piece I’ve written, but then that isn’t the purpose of top x lists. I was given the assignment from my editor there and I managed to get it out in about 12 hours. It got lost in the shuffle, so it was published about a month after I wrote it. But that is not why I mention it. I mention it because I wrote it, but I’m going to keep going on about it because when I was writing it, it brought to mind things I’d like to talk about. | more