Slender

Being scared is fun.  I wrote recently in an article about E3 that I was concerned that legitimate scares are going the way of the dodo in gaming.  Resident Evil has co-op and is more action, Dead Space 3 looks like it’s following that trend more and more every time I read something new about it……where are the scares?  Where is the game that you want to play at night, with the lights off, alone?  What will take you back to that first time you played Resident Evil or Silent Hill and even though the graphics were lame and controls were wonky, you felt like you were THERE and not just sitting in your living room?  Oh, that game is called Slender?  And it’s free, right here on the internet?  Yes.

Dear E3

Dear Electronic Entertainment Expo:

Hey, it’s Elrood, your faithful follower.  I always get excited for you, ever year!  New games, new consoles, industry trends, giant enemy crabs, the list goes on.  I’m with you on this year too, excited.  But I have some concerns.  I see things…happening that YOU are all excited about, but it’s leaving the rest of us kind of worried.  There’s so much to like, so I’m writing to you in hopes that we can discuss a few things.  But don’t fret E3!  Positives and negatives.  I just want you to have a good show and really knock our socks off this year.

Faceplant 300! MILESTONES ON THE INTERNET!

Hello Faceplant readers, it’s that time again.  Where as we hit our 300th post, we stop writing articles that you know, MEAN something and instead turn to you.  The dear folks who happen to visit our site.  All of us have visions of people coming to Faceplant for the amazing prose we string together three times a week.  But, if this many articles has taught us anything, that is not to be.  How do most of you end up getting here?  Easy….really dumb search terms.  Seriously.  I remain amazed by some of the bizarre things people search for and I’m even more disturbed that the search engine gods somehow sent you HERE.  But there you are, cautiously wandering the internet, only looking for 300 faceplants.  What the hell does that mean?  I don’t know.  I’d like to think that the picture above represents that yes, life can hurt sometimes, but you CAN overcome.  But I don’t think it does.  I think it’s a sweet picture of a dude totally ramming his face into the ground that has a silly spelling of the word factory in the background.  So here we go into the world of the weird stuff people searched for on the internet to find us.  Onward!

Dead Space 2: I am still scared

I was a huge fan of the original Dead Space.  Visceral Games put together a true survival horror game instead of the action style games with creepy looking enemies that seemed to call themselves survival horror in this generation.  It was moody, brooding, and most importantly, had a great atmosphere.  So Dead Space 2 has pretty big shoes to fill.  Luckily for us, it absolutely keeps the high standard set by the first game.  There is no reinvention of the core gameplay, but a couple of shifts in philosophy and small refinements make Dead Space 2 not QUITE as scary as the first, but it’s also prettier, has better controls, and a more compelling story.  And trust me, when I say not QUITE as scary, I don’t mean its become Hello Kitty island adventure.  The scares are still delightfully disturbing.

Post 100- Everything you want to see

Okay, this is it!  The 100th post of Faceplant!  Enosh, Elrood and I are pretty excited about it, though that’s mainly because I’m pretty sure all three of us never actually expected to be able to keep up the 3-post-a-week schedule that you guys have come to expect out of us.  It’s been a trial, no, a journey, and I don’t think we’re done quite yet.  The three of us decided that we need to do something unique for our first sketchy foray into triple digit posts.  Elrood suggested we actually do a second General Mishmash podcast (god forbid!).  Enosh…  probably suggested something else when I wasn’t paying attention.  Unfortunately for all of you, post 100 lands on a Tophat Monday, so instead we’re going to take a look at YOU GUYS instead, interspersed with my awesomely awful MS Paint skills.

Dead Space: I am scared

I’m not really a scary movie type person.  It’s not that I dislike being scared but I feel like finding a good horror movie amidst the giant sea of absolute crap that comes out is very difficult.  I want the scares to be EARNED.  I want a plot that at least makes sense.  Most movies fail miserably.  One game that surprised (and scared!) the hell out of me though was Dead Space.  An original property from EA (weird, I know) that supposedly was less about action and more about making you curl up in the fetal position had me intrigued.  If the now Gears of War style Resident Evil games make you angry, Dead Space is what should be in your console.

What is the best game IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE?!

And now for something completely different!  The debate over the best game ever will never be settled of course, but it is always a fun discussion.  All three of us faceplanters take to the interwebs to discuss the matter.  Elrood (THAT IS ME HI I’M WRITING THIS INTRO LOL) will start, with Tophat then Enosh responding, then back to Elrood again, then another round until the question is settled or we’re all not friends anymore.  Onward!