Maybe it's just that I've been in an odd mood recently, but it occurs to me that I spend a lot of time being critical of the game industry in it's desicians and business practices. It's rare when I give any unmitigated praise. The positive things I acknowlege are usually part of some very mixed rants (at the best).
I just wanted to say that I obtained a copy of "Dead Space 2" fairly recently, and there is an area of the game that I think might be being overlooked that deserves some major kudos for the company in question.
In "Dead Space 2" you have all those necromorph children you get to blow away. This might seem like an odd thing to praise, however understand this is supposed to be a horror game, and one thing that really cheezed me off was how Konami decided to edit "Silent Hill 2" to remove the killer undead children that were present from the first game. The school section in the original Silent Hill, not to mention the very beginning of the game, were part of what made this game such a horrific experience. Since backing down it seems that most game companies have been backing down in the presentation of child-monsters, largely because they tend to be disturbing, and that's what horror is supposed to do.
What's more this isn't the first time EA has decided to pull this trigger, they had killer kiddie monsters in "Dante's Inferno" too, and it got a lot of attention as it (along with Cleopatra) were among the more disturbing aspects of what was supposed to be a disturbing and horrorific setting. Amazingly EA did not back down with it's later attempts to produce horror games, realizing that this aspect at least was getting a lot of the reaction such games are supposed to elicit.
Now, I could be critical of the company, how I think their horror games are little more than action games with a few jump out moments, and other things, that isn't the point of this thread however, and I think that in this small way we're seeing that there is a company that is at least trying to shock and disturb us with games that are supposed to do that. I think that's worthy of praise in this current enviroment. Now if someone could blend the intensity of "Dead Space 2" or "Dante's Inferno" with other elements of horror we might see a renaissance in horror gaming. Perhaps the company to do that will be EA.
I know a lot of people might disagree with me, but I also know a lot of people have noticed the same trend beforehand, criticized the horror genere, and even the Silent Hill 2 editing when they were aware of it. A lot of people are critical of EA, and both of their most recent attempts to do horror-type games for their failings, but rarely seem to bother to look at the big picture and where they did things right, and where they were actually standing up for the medium against what had become industry standards in a very real way.
Something to consider, and I think EA deserves some praise here.
I just wanted to say that I obtained a copy of "Dead Space 2" fairly recently, and there is an area of the game that I think might be being overlooked that deserves some major kudos for the company in question.
In "Dead Space 2" you have all those necromorph children you get to blow away. This might seem like an odd thing to praise, however understand this is supposed to be a horror game, and one thing that really cheezed me off was how Konami decided to edit "Silent Hill 2" to remove the killer undead children that were present from the first game. The school section in the original Silent Hill, not to mention the very beginning of the game, were part of what made this game such a horrific experience. Since backing down it seems that most game companies have been backing down in the presentation of child-monsters, largely because they tend to be disturbing, and that's what horror is supposed to do.
What's more this isn't the first time EA has decided to pull this trigger, they had killer kiddie monsters in "Dante's Inferno" too, and it got a lot of attention as it (along with Cleopatra) were among the more disturbing aspects of what was supposed to be a disturbing and horrorific setting. Amazingly EA did not back down with it's later attempts to produce horror games, realizing that this aspect at least was getting a lot of the reaction such games are supposed to elicit.
Now, I could be critical of the company, how I think their horror games are little more than action games with a few jump out moments, and other things, that isn't the point of this thread however, and I think that in this small way we're seeing that there is a company that is at least trying to shock and disturb us with games that are supposed to do that. I think that's worthy of praise in this current enviroment. Now if someone could blend the intensity of "Dead Space 2" or "Dante's Inferno" with other elements of horror we might see a renaissance in horror gaming. Perhaps the company to do that will be EA.
I know a lot of people might disagree with me, but I also know a lot of people have noticed the same trend beforehand, criticized the horror genere, and even the Silent Hill 2 editing when they were aware of it. A lot of people are critical of EA, and both of their most recent attempts to do horror-type games for their failings, but rarely seem to bother to look at the big picture and where they did things right, and where they were actually standing up for the medium against what had become industry standards in a very real way.
Something to consider, and I think EA deserves some praise here.
