You know, the more I play the Silent Hill Series, the more it feels like I’m playing the same game over and over again. A hospital level? Where have I seen that except Silent Hill 2, 4, 7 and the movie. A deserted town? Silent Hill 2, 3, 7, anyone? Or how about the movie? The mall? Could it possibly be in Silent Hill-yeah, you get the idea. I’m excluding Silent Hill 5 and 6 an account that I haven’t played them yet, but I’m sure they’ll be barrels of fun. My point is that the Silent Hill series doesn’t stray too far from each other in terms of plot and location.


In Silent Hill 1, a man named Harry Mason is missing his daughter Cheryl. Oh no! Someone is missing in Silent Hill? Where have I seen that-okay, I’ll stop now. This is the first Silent Hill game with similar controls to Silent Hill 2 but with a few extra bugs, such as a glitchy auto-aim focus and a new and annoying feature to the inventory system. Every time Harry wants to pick up something, the game thoughtfully asks him if he’s sure. Keep in mind that Harry has unlimited inventory slots and will need every item he can get his grubby little paws on. And of course, being on the playstation 1, the game suffers a graphical downgrade.



OH DEAR GOD THE POLYGONS!!!!!

The plot to Silent Hill is...confusing. Oddly enough, the first half of the game is almost solely gamely, and the second half spends more time on dialogue and plot. It actually helps to watch the movie first, because that helps explain half of what is going on. As for the other half...I really didn’t understand it. There’s a sub-plot about drugs even though everyone's dead and a doctor either trying to help you or sabotage you...wha?? Not even the great powers of Wikipedia could explain what I was missing.

Despite this, I actually enjoyed this game more than Silent Hill 2. Maybe because it was more of a challenge, and it didn’t feel like I was replaying the same levels...much. Or maybe because the ending didn’t leave me feeling incredibly awkward and the characters were more likeable.

Or maybe because the game was shorter. Yeah, I’ll go for that.

FINAL GRADE: 3 1/2 out of 5. The gameplay and levels are entertaining, but the plot is confusing.

Now I'm off to play Silent Hill 3, which starts off in a mall. Oh joy.

It’s not long that Jessie finds herself racing against the waxing moon to stop an ambitious gang of monsters with a sinister agenda.


This is a relative short read (about 70 pages long) giving Jessie enough time to complete her mission and not spending too much time chatting with the locals. Not that doing so would be entirely beneficial to her, since many of the humans she later encounters know a great deal of vampires and wouldn’t mind giving her a free stake (no pun intended). I have to say that the prose in this book is excellent, giving a good balance of detail and dialogue, never favoring one over the other.

I also liked the chemistry between Jessie and mild-mannered reported Brandon, and Bring on the Night does avoid the usual clichés that come from a vampire/werewolf fic. Admittadly I would have liked to see more of a development with the antagonist, who, while being a sympathetic character in the beginning, quickly fills the typical villian role. Overall however, this is a very entertaining read.

FINAL GRADE: 4 ½ stars out of 5.

Hello everyone,

Lately I've been watching several trailers for multiple games coming out, notably ones with a horror theme. Here are my thoughts on some of the trailers for games recently released.

WARNING: Most of these trailers contain disturbing images.

MORTAL KOMBAT-????



This is by far, the most awesome trailer I have ever seen, and no one seems to have any idea what this is for. Is the trailer advertising a new movie? A new game? Although this quality of work can very occasionally be made by a fan, I can't imagine that same fan also calling in Jeri Ryan from Star Trek Voyager.

Regardless, this trailer is certainly well done, especially the fight sequence between Baraka and Johnny Cage. I can't quite picture Jeri as Sonya Blade, but maybe I'll change my mind if I see more for a potential movie. I can hope, anyway, because this series needs a desperate revival.

HYPE METER: 5 out of 5

FEAR 3



When I saw this trailer, I thought it was also fan-made, but this is not the first time the F.E.A.R series has dabbled into live action. Is it terrible for me to say that I prefer something that isn't? While this trailer is extremely well-done, it's basically a pregnant woman in a dark room. The F.E.A.R 2 trailer explored a world that had been turned into a wasteland...and we get a screaming woman in a dark room.

Also, I couldn't help but notice there are only two or three scenes of the actual gameplay, which looks exactly the same as F.E.A.R two. Shouldn't a sequel improve over the previous game? Good of them to finally continue the storyline from F.E.A.R 1 though.

Hype Meter: 3 out of 5.

BATMAN ARKHUM ASYLUM 2:



I'm cautiously optomistic about this game. Batman Arkhum Asylum was an amazing game, and now they seem to take it outside the Asylum. Is bigger going to be better? Also, it looks like Scarecrow's being booted as the main protagonist and we're back to the Joker. Ah well. I'm a fan of the Scarecrow but the Joker is a better antagonist. Hopefully it won't run stale.

Hype meter: 4 out of 5

SAW 2 THE VIDEO GAME



Well, this scene looks a little familiar, doesn't it? Where have I seen it before-oh yeah, Saw 2 the movie. Only this time, you play as someone new (David Tapp's son, for those that care). Gee, I wonder how this will turn out. The gameplay looks exactly the same.

Well, I guess that's not entirely true. In this game, the circuit puzzle will now use different colors instead of the same ones. WOW! Try and hold back your creativity, guys. Unless this game gets overwhelming positive reviews, I probably won't play this at all. Or maybe I will just to laugh at it.

Hype Meter: 1 out of 5

Next on the B-movie Blogroll of Blandness: The Legend of Lucy Keyes.

Desiring to build eight windmills in the town of Princetown, a man named Guy Cooley moves into an abandoned farm with his family. Why he has to relocate with no construction crew in sight, I have no idea. Anyway, the family receive a chilling reception, partly because his daughter, Lucy, has the same name as a girl who died hundreds of years ago.

If I had to describe this movie in one word it would be a giant ‘meh.’ This is really B-movie and by that I mean the actors and a director working in a true amateur fashion, creating a movie that should be on television rather than a movie theater. The Legend of Lucy Keyes feels like it should be an episode of Tales of the Crypt…and even then it would be a pretty lame episode.




Most of the film is spent with the family trying to fit in with the neighborhood. There are maybe four or five scenes with a ghost actually present, and the effects are so terrible it’s more laughable than scary. What really slows this movie down to a crawl is the amount of recapping. A neighbor threatens the family, the couple talks about it. The town votes on the windmills, the couple talk about it. Lucy gets mad, the couple talk. You know movie, I am actually paying attention. I don’t need a constant reminder of what’s happening every five seconds!




It doesn’t help that the two main characters are uninteresting and never go beyond the practical-but-concerned-mother-and-father role. We get one or two snippets of backstory which could have made these two more interesting, but they never come to fruition. The only actress pulling her weight is Cassidy Hinkle, who plays cute-as-a-button Lucy Keyes. Until she throws an occasional temper tantrum, which did wonders for my migrane last night. Her sister Molly really should have been cut from this movie. The poor kid has no plot in this movie, and her only lines were telling her parents where Lucy was. Oddly enough this ranges from not caring to crying hysterically in concern…and then back to not caring.

The ending is actually a little disturbing. Most horror movies and books draw a line at child abuse, and rightfully so. While this film is not gory in any way, it does skirt close to this line with what they put Lucy through by the end.

FINAL GRADE: 1 star out of 5. If you have any wimpy friends who want to just say they watched a horror movie, I would recommend this film.

Holy crap! A movie that is honestly based on a true story!