Throughout I Am Alive’s long development cycle, the idea of surviving in an earthquake ravaged urban landscape remained a strong one. The title and initial trailers pointed to something more than a “blow up everything that moves” scenario. It looked like survival horror with a realistic edge. It hinted at the need for a man to find his way in a destroyed city, to battle the worst of humanity even as he chokes on poisonous dust. The game has finally arrived, albeit in downloadable form, and for the most part, it delivers on its promise.

Read the rest of this entry »

The hunt for the ingredients to the perfect horror game is as arduous and trap-laden a path as the one we end up walking when that experience comes together. The rustling bushes. The distraction of fast moving shadows. Mundane combat that stumbles gracelessly into dull repetition. The shock of cheap scares. Those looking for the true call of horror find it somewhere else, wrapped up neatly in nine simple, blood ridden words. “Is it really going to make me do that?” As a community built Half-Life 1 mod, Cry of Fear arrives with as much an opportunity to solidify genre clichés as it does to break free from them. Fortunately it manages, early, to scare that other form of fear away. Read the rest of this entry »

The following is a transcript of audio recordings made by the attending psychiatrist Dr B. Head of the ACT’s primary mental health care facility. It documents games writer Matt Hewson’s decent into madness. Read the rest of this entry »

Capcom and Namco Bandai come together with the aim of delivering the ultimate fighting game, one designed to delight followers of both series’ while picking up new fans along the way. Capcom is no stranger to the crossover concept, with its characters clashing with those from Marvel and Tatsunoko for a few years now, but it has never been able to take on its chief rival until now.

Read the rest of this entry »