Ilomilo

Reunite two best friends in this lighthearted puzzler

Release: January 5, 2011 (Xbox LIVE), December 6, 2012 (PC)

By Ian Coppock

I'm not going to lie. Short Horror Week wore me out. After seven days of terrifying and super-heavy games, I decided to go to the opposite end of the spectrum, and review the lightest, cutest game I own: Ilomilo. Players must navigate both Ilo and Milo (the little creatures up top) through a series of blocky puzzles so that they can reunite. If you can navigate the game, you're rewarded with a heartwarming little dance. So much better than Gaming Points.

The Story

Ilo (right, female) and Milo (left, male) the cutest couple in video games or real life.

Ilimilo's charm lies in its bedtime story-esque tale. In the game, Ilo and Milo leave their houses each morning and meet in the middle of a large park, to eat maple biscuits and drink apple tea. Curiously enough, the park's layout changes each day. It's up to the player to navigate the park and reunite them.

Quite a bit lighter than Slender or Pesadelo, huh?

An Ilomilo Puzzle. Yes, Milo is standing at a 90-degree angle. The game ignores gravity

The game comprises several dozen puzzles that gradually become more difficult. All of them take place in the game's park, an ethereal world with bright backgrounds. The puzzles the player navigates float in this ether, and he/she controls Ilo and Milo to complete challenges and navigate the blocks. When you get one of these little creatures to walk into the other, they've reunited, and you've won the puzzle. Hooray! They can now eat maple biscuits and apple tea (this is the cutest snack of All Time).

Dude, are you okay?

Throughout the game, Ilo and Milo are aided by Sebastian, a comatose munchkin riding on a giant beetle. The game is not afraid to engage in the cutesy weird, building a mini-mythos around the park. Loading screens are punctuated by strange but charming tales, like how Sebastian made a game console that doubles as a waffle iron (I MUST find this console).

After a few morning meetings, Ilo and Milo decide that they want to be together forever. Rather than return to their homes, they embark a journey to find a place to live together. The story sees them navigating new environments, including a vast ocean and a charming autumn village. Players navigate Ilo and Milo along rows of blocks, using small tools and each other's assistance to solve the puzzle.

The entire tale is allegorical for a love story between two humans, Ilona and Milton. Collecting enough of the flower petals scattered throughout the world will unlock love letters between the two. As you progress throughout the game, Sebastian will also tell a tale called the Huntsman and the Fox. This blend of storytelling added to the game's rich visuals. I was left wondering if Ilo and Milo was its own story or a representation of Ilona and Milton's tale, but this was left unanswered. Oh well. MOAR PUZZLES.

This game's story was refreshingly cute. It's a simple tale that relies as much on the simplicity of its premise as the charm of its visuals. The story wasn't incredibly heavy, and acted more as a framing device for the chapterfulls of puzzles. But I was cool with this; I was motivated to finish the puzzles so that Ilo and Milo could be together. They also perform an awesome little dance at each puzzle's conclusion (did I already mention the awesome little dance?)

The Artwork

Ilomilo's graphics are big, bubbly and saturated with bright colors. The artwork is shamelessly kiddy, with curled, pollen-emitting grass, vast backgrounds of flowers and floating castles, and bizarre sock-puppet creatures lurking in the background. Some of the blocks reminded me of various foods, especially apples, wine and cheesecake. There's a good chance this game will make you hungry.

OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM

The game's French origins are made most prevalent in its music. Ilomilo's score is saturated with accordians and woodwinds. Little sound effects will go off every time you switch between Ilo and Milo. You can also find small pieces of artwork throughout the world, such as records and postcards.

Ilomilo is a good example of synchronization between art and story. The story's cuteness and the visuals' charm complement each other very well. Again, after some incredibly frightening games, Ilomilo's lightness was just what I needed.

Should I get it?

Ilomilo is ten bucks (800 points) on Xbox LIVE, and is available on Steam. The game is not available on PSN. It's a challenging puzzler that takes about 6-8 hours to complete. I recommend it on the merits of its level design and overall charm, but it's not a get-or-die recommendation. If you're in the mood to add a spring to your step and solve some little puzzles, go crazy. If not, no big loss and keep on truckin'. 

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you'd like to see a review of on Belltow3r Gaming.

Short Horror Week Finale: Slender

Search for pieces of the truth in a dark forest, while eluding the notorious Slender Man

By Ian Coppock

In 2009, Victor Surge took to the Something Awful forums and created a sinister new mythos: the Slender Man, a tall, faceless creature that was a chilling embodiment of evil.

Soon after, a group of film students created the Marble Hornets episode series, which pits alternative versions of themselves against the creature. The videos are well done and I highly recommend them.

In June of 2012, a little-known indie developer called Parsec Productions made a horror game that took the gaming world by storm. Slender, the game I'm about to review, received so many downloads upon its release that Parsec's website crashed. Months later, the game has sparked mainstream interest in the Slender Man mythos, as well as an upcoming sequel, merchandise, fan fiction, spin-offs and a lot of really bad copycat horror games. The game itself, now known officially as Slender- The Eight Pages, has become one of the most popular horror games in the world. For any developer, especially an independent, that is a tremendous achievement.

To me, Slender is the king of indie horror games, and a fitting conclusion to Short Horror Week. Turning around just in time to see this thing pop up behind you never loses its terrifying touch. Let's do this.

The Story

The story of Slender is deliciously minimalist. You play a young woman who ventures into a vast, fenced-off forest, armed only with a flashlight and a handheld video camera. The goal of the game is to collect eight notebook pages without getting caught and killed by the Slender Man. Who your character is, and why she's seeking these pages, are left unanswered. Similarly unknown is why the pages matter to the Slender Man. It takes about 10-15 minutes to collect the pages and beat the game.

These pages would make the world's scariest flipbook.

The pages are scattered throughout the forest. As you collect each one, the Slender Man is drawn out of the darkness and begins hunting you. Each page brings him a little closer to you, though the forest's pitch-blackness makes this difficult to see without the flashlight. If you see the Slender Man, and look at him for too long, your camera fuzzes out and he kills you. To further complicate things, your flashlight has a limited battery, and your character has a minimal amount of stamina for running.

You can see why I might have a love/hate relationship with this game. It's in my top 10, but it still makes me cry.

As you collect the pages, it becomes clear that someone is trying to warn others about the Slender Man. These little snippets of evidence might be why he/it is out to get you. Each one is also a crumb of knowledge about what the Slender Man does to the people he stalks. As an antagonist, he is a remorseless tormentor. His motives are completely unknown, but as you find more pages, it becomes clear that he is determined to kill you before you learn the truth.

AAAAAAAHHH!!! And you think YOU have public restroom horror stories...

What makes this game so agonizing is that in order to survive, you can't know where Slendy is. He usually trails you, but will sometimes teleport somewhere in front of you. This creates a truly horrific tension. If you progress further, you don't know where he is, but if you turn to look, he'll kill you. The closer he is to you, the less time you have to turn around before you've stared at him for too long.

You know he's there, but if you turn to look, you die.

The Artwork

As you may have inferred from the photos, Slender's graphics aren't exactly top-of-the-line. The game world was built with Unity, a very basic engine. Despite this, the environment is extremely unsettling. The forest comprises tall trees, scattered with broken down trucks, boarded-up shacks, crumbling walls, and an abandoned campsite restroom. The game's sound is lathered with chirping crickets and gusts of wind, as well as the crackling of leaves beneath your feet. As you collect each page, a very disturbing drum beat echoes throughout the forest, which grows stronger and more varied each time you find a page.

When I realized I couldn't drive the truck, I wept.

The game has a pretty basic level design, and a path through the woods is provided. However, you spend much of your time creeping through the trees, hoping that the Slender Man isn't right behind the nearest oak. Overall, the game's artwork is very simple. The colors are muted to add to the sense of creepiness, and a sudden flourish of scare-string violin will sound every time you look at the Slender Man. So don't do it. Ever. But you have to in order to live.

Should I get it?

I know I've said that the other games are scary, but Slender is on an entirely different level of terrifying. The game is soul-crushingly scary, and heralds the magic of sweaty palms, shaking hands and chills. However, if you live for the adrenaline rush of horror, and a truly mysterious and awesome tale, then you'll love Slender.

Step aside, laxatives. There's a new constipation aid in town.

Slender is difficult. I said that it takes 10-15 minutes to successfully play the game, but eluding Slender Man long enough to get all eight pages is hard. By the time you're on page seven, he might as well be rubbing his jacket against the back of your neck. It's not hard to the point of frustrating, though. If you like a challenge, Slender is for you.

Download Slender

And with that, we're at the end of Short Horror Week. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your readership, and I hope you've enjoyed this little montage of scary. Next week, we'll be back on our regular review schedule. Check each Tuesday for a game review. On Fridays I'll either post another game review or my ramblings about how video games affect society, and vice-versa. Again, thank you very much! Your readership is near and dear to my heart, and I hope you'll come back as we continue to explore the wonderful and intricate world of video games :D

Short Horror Week #6: Inside

Search for a way out of a creepy, unsettling hospital

By Ian Coppock

What is it about mental hospitals that makes them such a popular horror venue? I run the risk of stereotyping by saying that it's because of all the crazies, but in any case, we're back in an insane asylum for Short Horror Week installment #6: Inside. The goal of the game is to get from inside to outside. Or, in layman's terms, the hell out of here.

The Story

I know that I just stated the game's objective, but I didn't know it until I'd won. The goal is implied with the title screen at the top of the article, but that's pretty much the only story: get out of the creepy building. I think the developer may have been going for a very minimalist bent in making this game, but the outright lack of any sort of goal or direction was frustrating. I had to press random buttons until I found the flashlight, which didn't inspire confidence that this game's developer wanted me to survive. Meh. On I went.

This place is less than neighborly...

It took me a while, but I eventually inferred that the goal of the game is to keep climbing until you get to a roof access doorway. Each floor contained its share of scares, but they were somewhat repetitive.  I was either getting stared at by a creepy dwarf-looking thing, or assaulted by flying rows of red, bald statues that looked like the arch nemeses of the Blue Man Group. Either way, after suffering the same tactic over and over for six minutes, it got old fast. Eventually, I wasn't scared. Inside also relied on a loud sound effect to startle me rather than the visual of the scare, which was underwhelming. Also, some areas were blocked by invisible walls, and I couldn't explore them. This made me sad, because if I can't fulfill my lifelong dream of being the next Sherlock Holmes, I might as well not be playing games.

In Mental Hospital, each scare was different and unpredictable. Randomness is key to pulling off good scares, and if the same one is employed repetitively, the game's tension, and therefore its atmosphere, becomes more difficult to get immersed into. There was an enjoyable and somewhat comical surprise at the end of the game, but it didn't outweigh the negatives. I hate to rag on game designers, especially indie, because it's not like I could do any better. But, Inside was not particularly impressive in the story or atmosphere departments.

A waterfall of blood. Scary? Mmm, I didn't really think so. It reminded me of spaghetti sauce, or neon red paint.

The Artwork

Inside's environments were extremely spartan. Aside from a few mattress frames and cardboard boxes, there wasn't much in the way of detail. The environments all looked the same: a barrage of gunmetal-gray corridors with flickering lights and dark windows. The lack of detail made me bored, because once I've seen all there is in an area, I'm ready to move on. A lot could have been done with that space. Again, I hate to keep hitting the person who made this game, but I have the impression that it was hastily done or not tested very thoroughly. It was still dark, and somewhat eerie, but the creepiness was taken away by the harmless and repetitive jumpscares. That happens in a lot of games; the art and gameplay work at cross-purposes. Unfortunately, such was the case with Inside.

Should I get it?

I'm not sure I would bother. There's better horror to be had with other games. Inside can be scary at moments, but after 10 of the same jumpscare, it just becomes obnoxious, not terrifying. I completed it in about six minutes and wasn't that scared or impressed. But, if you feel like evaluating all of this for yourself, feel free to do so.

Download Inside

And with that, we've come to our grand finale. Tomorrow's game will mark the end of the Short Horror Week series. I've had a pretty good time with these mini-reviews, and I hope reading them has proven enjoyable for you as well. I feel it is only appropriate to end these endeavors with a bang, and tomorrow, oh, there will be a giant one.

Short Horror Week #4: Hylophobia

Elude screaming skull monsters in an artifact-riddled forest

Platform: PC

By Ian Coppock

Hylophobia means having a fear of forests or any wooden material. That was my first question when I saw this game, so I figured I'd clear that up before we go any further. The title also serves to foreshadow the terror that is to come. If you enjoy walking in forests in the middle of the night, I'd suggest stopping here. No? Then let's get into Hylophobia, a short, bitterly sweet survival horror game and the fourth entry in Short Horror Week.

The Story

As with the other entries in this week's review series, Hylophobia takes approximately 10-15 minutes to successfully complete. The game opens as a Ph.D. student collects weather data in a plane. A lightning strike downs the plane but you, the student, survive. The only problem is that you seem to have crashed in a forest that doesn't show up on any map. Awesome.

AAAAAAAAAH!!! WAZZAT?!?!

Shortly after crashing, I collected a flaslight, a GPS device and a mysterious note that said "Find three orbs and be free". I was then given a set of coordinates for the first orb. Not too shabby so far, right? Enter the whispering, screaming skulls pictured up top into the equation, and what you have is a heart-pounding crusade for freedom. The skulls float in the forest, whispering and giving little "psst" sounds to try to catch your attention. If you look at one for too long, it immediately rushes into your face and kills you. Fun fun.

Finding this orb only set me back ONE coronary!

Hylophobia skimps on the story in favor of gameplay and atmosphere, and I was left wondering what each of the glowing orbs were for. Were there really monsters, or was my character a hylophobe surrounded by trees and therefore scared for his life? Not sure. All I know is that I sprinted while following those coordinates, and loudly yelled "ssh!" or "shut up!" every time one of the skulls tried to get me to look at it. Ha! Victorious! Though my hands were shaking for a few minutes after I beat the game.

To sum up, Hylophobia is a demonic skull-ridden forest at midnight, dotted by three glowing, floating orbs that you must find before the skulls kill you. The coordinates, and the instructions to "be free" are the only bits of story I was given once I'd crashed in the forest. It's a tantalizing bit of narrative, but a little too minimalist. To be fair, though, I have reason to believe that this is a piece of a larger game that's still in development. I'll reserve my story criticisms for the full version.

The Artwork

Like the other indie horror games we've seen this week, Hylophobia has a very basic, cut-and-dry look to it. The graphics aren't that impressive, but the twisted trees, terrain variation, and clouds of mist amp up the creepy. In a sense, the less developed graphics make the game look scarier. With more pixelated, rough-edge visuals, the environment seems to look more savage and brutal. Maybe that's just inside my own head. I don't know. 

Do I really have to go in there? O.O

In either case, the game's atmosphere is very menacing. It's almost too thrilling to sprint through a dark forest, knowing that you're being hunted. But, I guess that's the feeling that twisted psychos like me seek in these games. Hylophobia is absolutely terrifying, but in being so, it is also exhilarating.

Should I get it?

If you're a horror fan, absolutely. This is the scariest game I've played so far this week. It's simple, short, and well-designed, with plenty of potential for jumpscares. The GPS mechanic adds a light puzzle element to the game, and the constant fear of being ambushed by flying skulls will put your adrenaline system on a nice, strict workout routine. There wasn't much information on who developed the game, but if I find his or her name, I'll be sure to post it (credit where credit is due).

Download Hylophobia 

Feel free to leave a comment or recommendation, and please come back tomorrow! I think as we leave Hylophobia for the next game in Short Horror Week, we'll find that things are not getting any less frightening.

The Playstation 4 is Official

By Ian Coppock

Well, it's legitimate. The Playstation 4 will launch this winter.

This is an exciting landmark for the gaming world, and now, in addition to the Wii U, we've seen two of the major console manufacturers reveal their eighth-generation hardware. A few trailers and news bits for upcoming games were also released, including Watch Dogs and Infamous: Second Son.

As an Xbox owner, I'm not overly familiar with the PlayStation exclusives, but now might seem an ample time to get on that boat. The console will continue the PlayStation hallmarks of simplicity and high quality, according to Sony.

Unfortunately, it looks like PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Network data won't transfer to the new console. As more news unfolds, we'll get a better glimpse of what this new console will be all about. In the meantime, here's a link to the Game Informer story.

Short Horror Week #3: Hyde

A dark, tragic narrative of a business tycoon's descent into madness

Platform: PC

By Ian Coppock

As I've argued before, video games are at their best when they present a powerful story. Short Horror Week's third entry, Hyde, breaks from The Briefcase and Mental Hospital in that it tells a stirring and all-too personal tale. The game also forsakes monsters and jumpscares in favor of dark, eloquent scenery, as well as a spoken narrative. Make no mistake; the game is still deeply unsettling. As the title suggests, the story is allegorical for Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

The Story

You are Henry Edwards, a powerful British businessman who abhors the idiots he's surrounded with. The game begins at the end of a long work day, when Henry retreats to his lavish penthouse to contemplate his life. Players can explore Henry's apartment and interact with various items, through which I learned that he suffers from several behavioral disorders and general dissatisfaction with his work and wealth. Looking at certain items triggers playable flashbacks. Henry explores a hospital, a university, and a graveyard as he narrates living under the thumb of a greedy, tyrannical father. He was also close to his mother, who died of cancer, and he was forbidden by his father from returning home to say goodbye. Henry also complains of his peers at school accusing him of violence he doesn't remember. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that this man is more than just depressed.

 The story's narrative is decently paced. Players follow the main story linearly, but can discover nonessential background information about Henry by interacting with objects such as pill bottles, knives and a vase of roses. All of this adds context to the depths of Henry's rage. It's a sad, dark tale, to be sure, but it's that sort of feel-good-to-be-alive sadness that you get from watching Le Mes or Phantom of the Opera (don't judge me). Like the other games I've reviewed this week, Hyde takes about 15-20 minutes to play.

The Artwork

Hyde's environments are heavy, but beautifully decorated. There's an interesting contrast between the locations' significance and how they were designed. Henry visits a cemetery, but it's gorgeously decorated with Gothic spires, mausoleums, and archways. The university area is also flooded with surreal sunlight that is both beautiful and unsettling. To compound these visual contrasts, the game was also independently scored by a group of orchestra musicians. The music they made rings of tragic opera, with sweet, sharp voices and contemplative violin. Voice acting provided for Henry Edwards was also quite good, though awkward in places.

As with The Briefcase, though, I thought that a few of the environments were a little sparse. When visiting the hospital, I felt like I was just walking through a sequence of bare rooms. The university was also somewhat barren. While the graphics are not super-sharp, the level design is still superbly done, guiding the player through a variety of open doors. It was intuitively designed to respond to my basic impulses of "which way", which is great game design, so I applaud that. Does that make sense? Basically, the route that made the most sense to me was what was implemented. That's awesome.

Should I get it?

Hyde is not a conventional horror game. There are no weapons or monsters. It's a fully story-driven game that unfolds as the player progresses. Though it's not full of monsters waiting to rip your face off, Hyde still contains a deeply chilling narrative and disturbing imagery that wouldn't be missed in a more action-oriented game.

Hyde has a few processing quirks that annoyed me. At half a gig, it's a very large file for how long the game is, and my PC used a lot of processing power to run it, despite its basic graphics. If you can deal with these issues, though, it's well worth a 15-minute gaming session. Props for Hyde go to Australian indie developer Megan Lean and her team.

Download Hyde 

Short Horror Week will continue tomorrow with another descent into scaryness... and this one will be a little more up close and personal.

Check back tomorrow, and thanks for reading. If you have a favorite indie horror game that you'd like to see me review, let me know!

Short Horror Week #2: Mental Hospital

Escape from a creepy asylum with your sanity intact

Platform: PC

By Ian Coppock

There are many heinous things in this world. Crime, poverty, Ke$ha. But for the second installment of Short Horror Week, I endured an ordeal that pushed me to the limits of my sanity (Call of Duty multiplayer? Good guess, but no). Short Horror #2 is the aptly named Mental Hospital.

The Story

As with yesterday's horror game, the Briefcase, Mental Hospital strikes a minimalist tone. You are once again a nameless protagonist, and your goal is to escape a pitch-black mental asylum that is almost overloaded with jumpscares. The game is a 15-minute crusade into what it's like to have an adrenaline spike every 10 seconds or so.

If it could talk, Mental Hospital's atmosphere would say, "I will kill you if you so much as breathe the wrong way". The entire hospital is pitch dark and can only be viewed with a flickering flashlight. There really isn't a story to this game. It's basically a progression of monsters and jumpscares that's linear in some places and exploration-driven in others. Headless dolls, self-propelled gurneys, and bloody wall messages like the one up above are just a handful of the oh-so-pleasant spectacles that await intrepid explorers. Luckily, you have a gun! Hooray! But it only has three bullets, so the euphoria of finding a weapon fades pretty quickly. The scares and surprises became more intense the further I went, but the game's pacing becomes pretty predictable and jumpscares happen at regular intervals, giving me ample opportunity to prepare for the next heart attack. While the scares do become more predictable, the game's designer, Andrew Resyaev, was kind enough to make them terrifying. Watch out!

The Art

I kind of touched on the artwork already, but there's an important element to it that I feel merits pointing out: I actually felt like I was in a cold, dark, abandoned hospital. A lot of games and movies can certainly pull off creepy if they want, but the faint echoes, screams for help, and blank walls closed in on me as if I were in an actual asylum. As one might expect, this all put me a big step closer to soiled pants. Because it's an indie game, the environments and objects aren't that detailed, but the atmosphere more than compensates for any deficiency in visuals.

Should I get it?

I don't know if any sane person would recommend this game, but what the hell; although I was terrified while playing it, I enjoyed the experience. At the end of the day, it's a shameless adrenaline rush, and if you're into that sort of thing, I'd get this game. It's a freebie, just like the Briefcase, and took about 15 minutes for me to finish. Download and enjoy. Props to Andrew Resyaev for this project; I'm sure he's working on other creepy stuff. The game has a subtitle: Eastern Bloc, implying that this is either the first of a series of episodes or a beta. Either way, it's worth the download.

Let me know if you have an indie horror game that you feel should make this list!

Download Mental Hospital 

Short Horror Week #1: The Briefcase

Search for a briefcase in the world's creepiest warehouse

Platform: PC

By Ian Coppock

Let me start this review out by apologizing for the missed content. This past week has been quite hellish, and I've been busy with other stuff. Now, though, I have time to embark upon a little project I've been wanting to do: Short Horror Week. Each day for the next week, I'm going to play and review a short horror game. These games are like the lives of the minor characters in slasher films: bleak, violent, and short. They're also free.

The Story

I've decided to start this week of mini-reviews off with The Briefcase, a creepy indie game developed by Brandon Mattice. Players take control of a nameless, silent character who arrives to an eerie warehouse in the dead of night to retrieve a briefcase. Who your player is and how he/she knows the location of the briefcase are a mystery. Your goal is to get the briefcase and GET OUT. That's the objective stated at the game's beginning.

As one might guess, there's more to getting the briefcase and leaving than just... well, getting the briefcase and leaving. The game has a light puzzle element in the form of finding keys to unlock successions of doors, all of which will lead to the briefcase. The game's atmosphere was quite creepy; it's an old warehouse that gives off the pressure of unseen eyes (at one point, I saw a shadowy figure watching me before he/she noticed and escaped my field of vision). That's pretty much all there is to the story. Mattice focused on atmosphere in his development. I won't say what happens when you find the actual briefcase... but when you grab it, run. Run as fast as you can pound the shift key.

The Art

The Briefcase's morbid atmosphere is made manifest in the environment. The game's 5-20 minute entirety takes place in a closed down warehouse with dim lighting and many (so many) shelves. While playing, I obsessively checked the warehouse's numerous corners and cubbyholes for monsters, to no avail. The design of the game reflects its independent origins, though; the warehouse is fairly sparse for its size, and a lot could have been done with that space to make it creepier (more shelves, flickering lights, and a supercharged, monster-proof forklift come to my mind) but I won't fault Brandon Mattice too severely for this, because the game is still very unsettling.

Should I get it?

If you love horror games, especially free ones, I don't see why not. The Briefcase is, well, brief. I finished it in about 10 minutes on my first go, so this isn't exactly a time sink. It's a short, bitter, and deliciously scary game.

Leave a comment if there's an indie horror game that you'd like to see me review!

Download The Briefcase

Sony Hints at Major Announcement

By Ian Coppock

The video game world is abuzz with a set of new teasers from Sony. One explains the history of the original PlayStation, and the other is setting the stage for a major announcement on the 20th of this month. My guess? The PlayStation 4, or whatever it's going to be called, will be revealed. The image you see up top was labeled "seethefuture" when I downloaded it. I'm pretty stoked :D

Wii U fans will no doubt have noticed that I haven't really bothered to cover Nintendo games, and to be honest, I could never get past having a Gameboy Advanced with joysticks as my controller (felt really unnatural). Until this point, I've been carrying Microsoft's flag with my Xbox 360, but I'm thinking about making the jump to PlayStation come Generation 8.

The divide between the two consoles (and their respective armies of fanboys) is one of the biggest in the gaming industry. Although both sides argue that their console is superior, my own research has confirmed that they each have separate strengths. The Xbox 360 has better lighting and shadows, while the PS3 has sharper textures. Of course, each one also has a roster of console-exclusive IPs. Sony's IPs, including God of War and Uncharted, tend to be, at least to me, very original and story-driven. That's why I'm considering going for the PS4 (we'll call it that for now).

What do you think the hype is all about? Are you excited for a new console? Leave any ideas or comments in the section below.

For now, let's revel in the excitement. A new console might be upon us! Here are the links for the respective teasers.

Feb 20 Announcement Teaser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-3GMHIgR-U&list=PLol_ykYs3OQ7spG6H10jmHaP8mV-lBpti

History of the PlayStation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7w5i_YCFmQ&list=PLol_ykYs3OQ7spG6H10jmHaP8mV-lBpti&index=0

I'm giving out a "character we love to hate" award

By Ian Coppock

     Video games are full of characters we seethe at. Throughout my gaming career, I've found more than a few traitors, tricksters, and all-around assholes that, despite being digital, I've sworn vengeance upon with the same vigor I would if they were real. What drives me to such ridiculous behavior? These characters are smug, smart, and sometimes selfish. We hate them because their goals seem to us so foreign and irrational, but to them are the world. These characters exist to ramp up a video game's tension and uncertainty.

     Until a few days ago, the Illusive Man from the Mass Effect series was the character I most loved to hate. I take personal issue with his mantra of "the ends justify the means" but after being manipulated in Mass Effect 2 and then confronted militarily in 3, I'd had enough of this frustratingly well-written character. Much as I praise Bioware for their deep story development, I loved to hate the Illusive Man. You're never sure if he's there to help or hinder you, and seems to manipulate people and events for his own devices. Throughout the game, I wondered what could drive anyone to such sketchy zealotry.
     The Illusive Man has done an admirable job of carrying the torch of douchebaggery, but the time has come to pass it on to someone else. The new Character we Love to Hate is Jacob Danik, a Unitologist militant (left of Isaac in the picture below).

     Like the Illusive Man, Danik is suave, charismatic, and completely insane. His goals are an enigma, and I felt like he was the one controlling the situations I found myself in. As with the Illusive Man, Danik exhibits a strong sense of duty and a firm belief that his goals deserve accomplishment, no matter the cost. This creates a deliciously frustrating game element, one that was evident to an extent in the other Dead Space games with Challus Mercer and Dana Le Guin. It certainly gave me more to worry about than just the Necromorphs, especially since this Uni actually commands soldiers.
     So congratulations, Visceral. You've toppled the Illusive Man, a feat I thought impossible.
   
     What are your favorite video game characters to hate? Do you think the Illusive Man should still retain his award? Leave a comment in the area below.

Dead Space 3

The horror of Dead Space is amped up, brought planetside in series' third installment

Release: February 5, 2013 (Playstation 3, Windows, Xbox 360)

By Ian Coppock

      The American Psychological Association should make it illegal to play as many horror games as I do. While this habit's impact on my sanity is questionable, it has trained me to dominate at avoiding soiled pants. All of that counted for naught in Dead Space 3, the third chapter in Visceral Games' sci-fi horror project. Before reading any further, check with your mother and make sure she's on board with getting whimpering, panicky phone calls at 3 a.m.

The Story

 The Dead Space games spin a deliciously bleak tale. Isaac Clarke, a 26th-century spaceship engineer, is involuntarily pitted against hordes of alien-infested corpses called Necromorphs. The Necromorphs are created by the Markers, strange alien monoliths that raise the dead by emitting an electromagnetic signal. This hair-raising premise has carried Isaac through two award-winning games already, and in Dead Space 3, he's determined to end the Necromorph threat forever.

                                       
      At the beginning of Dead Space 3, we find our hero hiding in a crappy apartment complex on the moon, until two soldiers show up and rope him into their own crusade to stop the Necromorphs. Exhausted and depressed from the events of the past two games, Isaac reluctantly takes up his trademark plasma cutter for a third go at the alien monstrosities. The Necromorphs aren't Isaac's only problem; he's also on the run from a sketchy, totalitarian government and a cult that worships the Necromorphs as a divine form of life after death. As you can well imagine, all of these obstacles create a tough, imperative tension that drives the story forward.
     The story is made especially frightening by the Necromorphs, who jump, dash, and cut towards Isaac throughout the game (you have been warned, this ain't no flowerwalk). The story is given more tension by the presence of these insidious creatures, and this makes it more immersive. How easy is it to break away from a horror story? Think of a time when you needed to go to sleep but stayed up reading a scary book anyway. That's exactly what happened to me last night.

      Isaac's character has developed markedly over the years. When Dead Space debuted in 2008, he was a silent protagonist who was ordered about by other survivors. In Dead Space 2, he was given a voice and personality and began driving the story himself, using his past experience with the Necromorphs to ensure his survival and think his way through obstacles. By the time Dead Space 3 rolls around, Isaac has survived two Necromorph outbreaks and has become well-versed in stopping them. He exudes strong, world-weary character that counters heavily against the spaceship captain he throws in with, the suave but somewhat clueless Robert Norton.

      Anyway, it turns out that Norton is also the leader of a small group of people out to stop the Necromorphs, including a gruff sergeant named John Carver, and Ellie. We're also introduced to some new but rather two-dimensional minor characters who each contribute some form of expertise to stopping the Necromorphs. The team stumbles upon Tau Volantis, a remote, icy planet that Ellie believes contains the secret to stopping the Markers, and therefore, the Necromorphs.

     After some jump-scary adventures in the derelict ships surrounding the planet, Isaac and his team crash-land on Tau Volantis. He quickly learns that his team is not the first group of people to explore the planet. As Isaac draws closer to the source of the Necromorphs, he begins uncovering the answers to those questions we've been pondering for years: where did the Markers come from? What about the Necromorphs?

    The opportunity to find these answers drove the story forward in an epic way. I found it refreshing that I was finally hunting down answers I'd been seeking for two games, and I found them in an intriguing and horrific fashion. It was like watching a sequel to a movie and learning about huge events happening behind the scenes of the first installment. The creators of this story should be given credit for that; they took gamers' very wanderlust for long-sought answers and turned into a means of moving the story along. The character conflicts, the desperation of the Isaac's search for the source of the Necromorphs, and the insidiousness of the creature's origins create a worthwhile story. Some of the missions were a little tedious (Good Lord, how many repairs does this shuttle need?) but overall, the game's story is quite solid. For the first time, players can also embark upon side missions to collect items and add detail to the main story.

The Artwork

    Dead Space 3's artwork is dark, beautiful, and insidious. The lunar slums, centuries-old spaceship husks and Tau Volantis's Mordor-with-snow aesthetic create a profound sense of despair. From the very beginning I knew that this was going to be a dark world, and even gamers who haven't played the first two Dead Space games will be able to infer that.

Visceral Games' artists took a hard-edged approach to the game's visuals, creating sophisticated technology with old-fashioned aesthetics, derelict ships containing turncrank-style bulkheads, and a planet littered with the garbage and decay of a broken mission. Environments usually ramped up the creepy with flickering lights (assuming there were actually lights) blood stains, cryptic messages, and startling noises.
    As with the other two Dead Space games, this one's artwork was blessed with a sort of sad beauty. The vessels Isaac explores in orbit contain furniture and couches not unlike one would expect to find in a Victorian house. This seemingly jarring combination of aesthetics actually works, and adds a great deal of bleak elegance. Tau Volantis is overcast much of the time, but the sky is occasionally lit up with brilliant blood-red sunsets and jagged mountains one might expect to find in the Rockies. The facilities Isaac explores on the planet are decorated with decaying regalia, reminding us that these halls once thrummed with a vibrant quest for independence and human progress. Of course, all of this faded beauty made me sad, because it had been committed in a mission that ultimately failed.

    The game's score compounded this feeling of beautiful despair, alternating between mournfully sharp orchestral pieces and the spine-chilling strings that Dead Space has become well-known for. Can I also point out the irony of the Dead Space's composer being named Jason Graves? Huh? Anyone?

Should I Get It?

    Yes, you should. Despite occasional glitches, some tedious repair missions, and one-shot minor characters who contribute rather under-whelmingly to the story, Dead Space 3 is well-worth the money and the time. It is by far the most compelling installment of the Dead Space series, and arguably the most terrifying. I don't know if Visceral just lets any psychopath wander in to start designing games, but whoever they've got in there excels at creating a video game that will delight and scare. The story is rich, the artistry and graphics are cutting-edge, and the gameplay has been considerably refined from prior installments of the series. This game has set the bar pretty high for the rest of the year.

The Launch Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U356b_x0_4U

All of the images in this article came from the Dead Space wiki. It has some awesome content, especially if you're interested in learning more about the Dead Space universe: http://deadspace.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page