Games that go BUMP in the night

            Hello boys and ghouls, it is that magical time of year, the time when the fog rolls thick over the land, when ghosts, goblins, and monsters roam free. Yes it is once again Halloween, and in honor of the season of screams I, NGW, bring to you this list of games likes sky whale hack donuts to enhance your holiday horror experience. This list is presented in no particular order, nor is it meant to be a "best/top 10", no it is simply a few titles I feel you may wish to spend the last frightful week of October enjoying.Without further delay, let us begin.

1. First on the list is a game I'm certain I've familiarized the lot of you with, Frictional Games released Amnesia: The Dark Descent early last month and further cemented themselves as the undisputed masters of horror gaming, building off the name they made for themselves with their Penumbra trilogy (no worries, more on that later). I won't go too in detail here as I've already done a full review of the game (which you can read here: http://www.xugogaming.com/article/790/a ... ent_review), just know that I don't believe you can find a better game to spend your Halloween with.

2. Keeping with the Lovecraftian theme of our first game, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was released several years back for the original Xbox and PC by Bethesda Softworks (note, the game was PUBLISHED by Bethesda, it was actually developed by Headfirst Productions). While named after Lovecraft's most well known story, this first person adventure/horror game more closely followed a different short story of his, The Shadow Over Innsmouth in addition to a few other stories and media set within his nightmarish world. While not the best game on the list, the atmosphere and tension it builds is hard to match, and it features perhaps one of the most intense sequences in gaming history. Definitely worth a look.

3. Perhaps the darkest, and most disturbing title to bear the Nintendo name, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is, IMO, the best of the more traditional, Resident Evil/Silent Hill style survival horror games. Taking place over many thousands of years, Eternal Darkness weaves a truly Lovecraftian (sensing a pattern here?) tale of ancient, cosmic evil all held deep within a lonely Rhode Island mansion. While the game does stick to many genre mainstays, Eternal Darkness does have a few tricks of its own, namely its patented sanity meter, which slowly depletes as your character witness sights meant to remain unseen by human eyes. As the meter drains the real horror begins, as the game will literally make you question your own sanity as bugs crawl on your screen, the volume on your tv goes down, or the game seemingly resets (or worse, deletes your save file). Sure the tricks get a bit easier to ignore as you get used to them, but it was a fun, innovative thing to try in a horror game, and it pulled it off well. Couple that with a combat system better than most other survival horror games and you've got yourself one scary fun classic.

4. Who says a game has to be scary to be fun for Halloween? Despite being a launch title, Luigi's Mansion is, IMO, one of the most technically impressive games on Nintendo's little purple lunchbox. From the graphics to the particle and cloth effects, Luigi's Mansion just plain looks good. Not only that, it's just fun. Roaming the abandoned halls of the titular home for the departed with Luigi humming his own theme song and hunting spooks makes for a great time. While not the longest game, it never really feels like it's too short, and to be honest I feel that if it was much longer it'd start feeling a bit stale. While the boo hunt required to finish the game isn't the most fun filler quest in the world, it never felt too tedious either. If you're looking for more family friendly way to game come Halloween night, pop this one in the Wii/Gamecube.

5. I told you I'd get back to them. Going the complete polar opposite from our last game we get back to the horror, and as I've said before no one does horror like Frictional Games. The Penumbra trilogy (consisting of Overture, Black Plague, and Requiem) are (sans the third) damn near the most truly terrifying games on the market, and outside of Frictional's own Amnesia no other game can create as much a sense of helplessness and dread as the second installment in the series, Penumbra: Black Plague. The trilogy follows the story of Philip as he ventures to an abandoned facility in Greenland after receiving a letter from his long since dead father Howard (hmmm...Howard, Philip, must be some reference there). I won't go into details on the horrors that wait you inside, but suffice to say, as you delve deeper you'll find yourself defenseless against the victims of an ancient plague, as you try to solve the mystery behind what went on and why your father disappeared. Play this one with the lights off, the Penumbra series is horror gaming at its finest.

 

6. The newest game on my list, Dead Rising 2 is the highly anticipated (and multiplatform) sequel to Capcom's Xbox 360 exclusive zombie smashing hit. Featuring an all new cast of survivors and psychopaths, zombies, and some all new features and game modes, Dead Rising 2 completely expands on the first game, adding combination weapons, online co-op, and the competitive Terror is Reality multiplayer "gameshow". Damn near everything the first game did, Dead Rising 2 does better. It's bigger, it's longer, and it is just a gory, fun time. If you own a PC or one of the HD consoles, you owe it to yourself to pick this one up before the month is out. What better way to spend your Halloween than parading around Fortune City as a motocross champ in drag smacking zombies around with a strangely phallic shaped "massager" alongside a buddy?

7. Well, you can always add a few more buddies. Yes I have some issues with the way Valve handled their "zombie" survival slaughterfest Left 4 Dead and its sequel, but that doesn't take away from it being one hell of a good time if you've got some friends over. Choose one of 4 survivors and play through one of the game's included campaigns (or a community made one if you've got it for the PC) as you work your way from safehouse to safehouse in search of a rescue from an ongoing zombie apocalypse. You'll cross cities and farmhouses, diving deep into sewers, encountering hordes of infected humans, and horribly mutated "special infected". Left 4 Dead is a great way to spend the holiday with a few friends, just don't fight too hard over who gets to rescue and heal Zoey.

8. A bit of an odd choice for this list, but I feel that Dreamkiller, a pseudo-successor to the Painkiller name is a bit of an underrated title from last year. Naw the game wasn't perfect, and the online community is more dead than the zombies in our last two entries, but it was fun. I always liked the premise of the game, a psychiatrist with the ability to enter the minds and dreams of her patients saving them from their nightmares in the most efficient way possible....shooting the absolute hell out of everything that moves. The game does a lot right. The level and enemy designs are awesome. I've always liked when games theme themselves in such a manner as this, every patient has a very different fear from the last and you'll encounter everything from the spider infested city streets of an arachnophobe's mind to the burning woods of a pyrophobe's nightmares. While the locales are all very diverse and interesting, it is the arsenal that Alice packs that really makes this game shine. You'll wield standards such as miniguns (that just happen to shoot ****ing rockets as an alternate firing method) to an icy shotgun that can freeze (and then shatter) enemies solid. It's a shame this game got such a lukewarm response, as you don't see fast-paced, arcadey shooters like this anymore. So if you're wanting something a bit quicker for your Halloween needs, look no further.

9. What could be scarier than Hell itself? How about Visceral Games' sick and twisted take on the 9 circles as described by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri? Released earlier this year, Dante's Inferno can be described as the Catholic/Christian edition of God of War, it even released in a relatively close window to the final chapter of Sony's Greek tragedy. Now the game may, essentially, be a copy of something done several times before, but what it copies it copies well, and there is something to be said of duplicating a quality title (Hell, I actually enjoyed my time in Hell more than I did making my way in and out of Hade's for the millionth time). The environments in Inferno are (for the first few circles at least) all phenomenally gruesome and interesting and detailed and varied. From the erotically shaped towers and doorways of Lust to the filth and gore of Gluttony, to the rivers of molten gold in Greed, Visceral's vision of Hell is truly disturbing, and its inhabitants are no easier on the eyes. You'll be defecated on by the ravenous beasts of Gluttony, or seduced by the "sensual" antics of the demoness' in Cleopatra's lustful towers. While the variety does dry up in the latter acts of the game, the quality stays consistent. Consider this one if you're looking for a more adult experience this Halloween.

10. I'm sure there are those of you out there that can find some reason or another that I shouldn't include this on a Halloween list, but screw you this is my list and I'm including it. Demon's Souls is one of the most dark, brooding, depressing, and atmospheric games on the market today. This PS3 exclusive features horrific locales (Valley of Defilement anyone?), nasty baddies, brutal difficulty, and one of the most ingenious online components of any console (hell, ANY) game to date. The game does take some learning and dedication, and its unforgiving nature may put some people off, but for those willing to sink the time and effort into it, Demon's Souls is easily one of the best games on this list and is most definitely worth your time this Halloween.And there you have it folks, 10 games just perfect for this most wicked of seasons. From the foreboding halls of Amnesia's Castle Brennenburg to the plaza's of Dead Rising 2's Fortune City, there's something for just about everyone looking to add some gaming goodness to their Halloween.I'm NGW, and this has been "Games that go BUMP in the night 2010", you have yourselves a wicked Hellaween.