Whenever I think of the Grudge series I always remember one particular scene-towards the end of the second movie, the ghost, Kayako, actually appears in front of one of the victims in her actual human, non-ghostly form, and sort of peers at her, in a sort of 'what have I done' kind of way. I really love that scene because it showed some sort of humanity in the main antagonist who is otherwise killing people for absolutely no reason.

But don't worry. You won't see any of that in the next movie, or in this game. Today I'm reviewing Ju-On, a game where Kayako and Toshibo try and slaughter you for absolutely no reason, and they dick around with you first because they're also bored. I have played almost every single horror game out there, and this is both the best and the worst game I have ever played.

Ju-On advertises itself as a haunted house simulator. And by that I mean it means you play in a warehouse, a hospital, a factory, and an apartment building. Actually hang on...let me get my red crayon....




You can only play in a house if you collect secret items during the game, a fact it forgets to tell you. In fact, this game forgets to tell you about a lot of things. Like what the plot is. Or who the characters are. From what I can guess, this game takes place sometime before the first movie, and that's only because the house itself doesn't look burned down yet. A family moves in, and shortly afterwards Kayako tries to kill them. That's about as much plot and character development you're going to get.

This is the one and only good point of the game-it's very scary. It was so scary that I didn't want to play it again after five minutes. During the first level, everything is thrown at you-bloody handprints, boxes falling over, Toshibo's haunting pale face, and Kayako's long brown hair covering the exit as she reaches for you...Regrettably, this game really throws everything at you during the first level, and after that the levels seem a little milder. That being said, there are still a couple of scenes that are still cringe-worthy. To make things more interesting, the wii controller actually measures how often you tremble and develops a 'sissy meter' to judge how terrified you are. Unfortunately this meter is also completely bogus, and I will explain why shortly (and no, I'm not a sissy. The meter's broken I tell you!)




Unfortunately, this game fails in virtually everything else. Your only goal is to proceed through the level with only a flashlight. If you don't find enough batteries for your flashlight, Kayako comes out of the shadows and kills you. Okay, this idea doesn't work for so many reasons. First of all, despite what this game may think ghosts are not vampires. They exist both during the day and the night. It is only our visual perception of ghosts that changes -ie, they are more easier to see at night. No ghost is going to get scared away by a wimpy flashlight.



Secondly, we have seen Kayako easily kill people in the movie, and it didn't matter to her whether the lights are on or off. Forgetting all of that, your flashlight still runs out of power on a constant basis, and the player needs to replace the batteries. So, what, did Kayako not attack during that brief minute the flashlight was off because she didn't think it was sporting?

The wii controller in this game is a dark and cruel mistress, working only when she feels like it. You might spend half the game spinning in a circle, or spending a lot of time admiring either the ceiling or the floor. I had to replay a level no less than seven times because the wii couldn't sense my movements during a cutscene. This also renders the interesting 'sissy meter' useless, because it often mistakes my desperate flailing motions as someone scared instead of attempting to get the game to work for one minutes.

FINAL GRADE: 1 ½ out of 5. For what it's worth, this game is genuinely scary. But it's easily a renter.

You know, I really love animals, but if my dog runs into an abadoned factory and I start seeing pale dead faces and bloody handprints, it's every man for himself at that point.

http://darkwyrmreads.blogspot.com/2010/07/review-of-war-of-soulites-2-ouroboros.html

Blogger's note: The full review contains spoilers.

I got a great review today for my second book, War of the Soulites 2 : Ouroboros. The full review is below:

'With War of the Soulites, Natasha Bennett threw out all the stereotypical characters and created something new and interesting. With this second installment in the trilogy, Ouroboros, she completely trashes the cliched story-lines and delivers something a little darker and edgier than expected from the sci-fi genre.

In book one, we saw Captain Osirus grow from being a puppet for the powers-that-be (NAVA) and become a true leader. He continues his valiant journey in book two, showing that the higher-ups seriously under-estimated him when they thought it would be a joke to put an accountant in command of a starship. He continues to be my favorite character.
 
Aside from blowing many pre-conceived notions out of the water, I thoroughly enjoyed the story...and even enjoyed (on some masochistic level) having those pre-conceived notions destroyed. It leaves me wanting more because there is no way to guess what will happen. The genre-specific formula is gone and it's a whole new universe to explore, and I'm looking forward to continuing my exploration'

Hi everyone,

Two weeks and no updates? Yeesh, I am a very bad blogger. Rest assure I have been severely chastised.

Unfortunately I haven't had much time to do any horror movie reviews due to RL issues (I became a first-time aunt yesterday, which is incredibly awesome!), but I will be updating this blog again very shortly. I have some upcoming news for War of the Soulites 2 which I will post on Friday, and another piece of exciting news later. My month is kind of a little crazy but I will update this blog more often, even if it's just to prattle about nothing. Promise! :)

Blogger's note: Minor Spoilers for Dead Space Extraction.

I initially bought Dead Space: Extraction with extreme reluctance. I gave the original game an unfavourable review, after all. Sure it was a challenging game to play, but the characters were bland and the plot was either a rip-off or incomprehensible. Why do people care about this franchise? It's not like Extraction is going to be something awesome that will totally restore my faith in the horror game-

Wait...are those actual characters? With realistic emotions? People I could care about?





Dead Space Extraction is a complete reversal of the first game...which is good in most respects and bad in one. Released solely on the wii, it is a first person point-and-click shooter game. Taking place before the events of the first game, you play (primarily) as Nathan, a detective who gets caught up in the events of the massacre/monster/zombie apocalypse of a space colony. And unlike the first game, you actually play as someone who has a voice. And a personality. And a costume that doesn't make him look like a dork.

The worst problem of this game is simply this-movement. You will have no control of your movement ever. Instead the game will move your character for you, and you simply have to point and shoot. Occasionally the game will pause to let you grab a few vital items from the floor. While this makes sense because it's on the Wii, it doesn't make any sense from a practical point of view. "There are thousands of monsters outside the door, but oh no! You only have ten seconds to raid the storage locker before the timer runs out! What's that? You didn't grab the medical kit in time? Too bad!"

The voice acting has improved dramatically from the first game. Heck, even the dousebag and evil government official made me believe he was a decent guy for at least half of the game (that is, right until the point he shot me). In Dead Space Extraction you play with three other characters most of the time. All of these characters develop the cunning stragedy of cowering behind you whenever a monster is near, including the Chief of Security I might add. But maybe this is for the best, because the one and only time I saw one of these characters shoot they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. They would probably shoot me by accident.



Atmosphere is excellent in this game. While there are not quite so many jump-out-of-the-closest scenes as the first game, this one did immerse me quite a bit. There was one particular scene where you end up in the middle of a riot with people running everywhere, and I could honestly believe I was there. The game isn't long-about four or five playing hours. But maybe that is a good thing too, because like Heavy Rain I couldn't actually stop playing from start to finish.

FINAL GRADE: Four stars out of five. You lose a great deal of the gameplay which made the first game cool, but you gain a comprehensible plot and likeable characters. Personally, that beats gameplay every single time.

How long has it been since I last ate anyway?