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VGH #27: Bat-curious

VGH #27: Bat-curious

Everyone is a little bat-curious, right? In this week’s show, we’re talking about the Uncharted 3 theater events, our favorite scary games, and Batman: Arkham City. We’ve also got Aliens, Creepers, psychics, headcrabs and a Last Call that goes OONTZ.


Episode Timeline:

Intro: 0:00
Uncharted 3 Events: 2:50
Hangover: 19:30
Scary Games: 38:46
Last Call: 72:50
Outro: 77:42

iTunes

Please, for the love of Steve, follow the links above and post your reviews of the show on iTunes and the Zune Marketplace, or subscribe to our Youtube channel at youtube.com/vghangover! It’d be super nice of you to recommend us to your fellow game-loving friends, as well.

This Week’s Music:
“Unleashed” and “Phantombs” by DJ Finish Him, from the upcoming They Bleed Pixels, by Spooky Squid Games

Links: 

Randy recommends some groovy music: VNV Nation and Skinny Puppy

13 Comments

  1. Piel
    Piel October 28, 2011

    Great show guys.

    I’m a really big fan of the Silent Hill series and I have to note here the awesome game Silent Hill Shattered Memories, where they took the idea that when you see a monster you need to run and explored it really well. There are no weapons except for flares, which just keep the monster away for a short amount of time, so you’ll just need to run as fast as you can through frozen maze-like schools, malls and all the usual Silent Hill places.

    And for a scary sequence in a game I’ll have to choose the Mass Effect 2 DLC Overlord.

    • Matt Kernan
      Matt Kernan October 28, 2011

      I’ve always heard good things about Shattered Memories, but I personally haven’t ever played *any* of the Silent Hill games. I know, weird, right?

      I loved the Overlord DLC too.

    • Randy Dickinson
      Randy Dickinson October 28, 2011

      Thanks for commenting, Piel. I haven’t played Shattered Memories but it sounds really cool. Did you play on Wii or PSP? I may have to track down a cheap copy.

      • D.J. Ross
        D.J. Ross October 28, 2011

        I’ve heard reviews of Shattered Memories on of both ends of the spectrum, but I’m still curious. I’d go with the Wii version solely because you control the flashlight with the wiimote.

      • Piel
        Piel November 4, 2011

        I played it on the PS2 and the PSP, but I have to try at least once on the Wii. The flashlight mechanic sounds great and receiving calls on the Wii Remote must be scary, the crappy speakers will sure help making soundd creepy.

  2. StrandedBrit
    StrandedBrit October 30, 2011

    Heavy Rain. I know it’s not a ‘horror’ game, but the game had so many tense moments where you had to make quick and agonizing decisions, get out of life and death situations …. this game is one of the few that actually made me jump.

    The other being Dead Space. Atmosphere is untouched by any other.

    • Matt Kernan
      Matt Kernan October 30, 2011

      Yeah, Heavy Rain was pretty amazing. I think it’s definitely more affective to those who have children, but I was pretty terrified when I played it.

  3. Courtney Parker Sandhu
    Courtney Parker Sandhu February 8, 2012

    Ok, I have many things to say!

    First, I really liked this episode, because I love scary stuff. Sadly, I have to wait til my brother is in town to have a scary stuff buddy, because Paul really is a chicken. 🙁

    Silent Hill: I had never played it! I recently bought it for PSP! I started playing it and you guys were wrong about the controls on this episode. You have to do that whole press the left and right dpad buttons to turn around and face the direction you want to go in, then press up to run. It was really hindering my enjoyment, and I didn’t get very far at all before quitting to move on to another game. I’ll still go back to it, but probably when I run out of other games to play.

    I also really liked the question you guys posed about what kind of scary game would you like to play. It got me thinking. While aquatic mammals really kind of freak me out (I had a totally unexpected fear when I was at sea world and it was time to feed the dolphins…I just couldn’t do it), there is one thing that consistently freaks me out and still gives me nightmares at age 29: outer space.

    I know it sounds weird, but as a kid/teen I would get really freaked out by just laying on the trampoline in our yard at night and staring at the stars for hours and pondering infinity. The movie Fire in the Sky freaked me out as a pre-teen, not because of the aliens, but because he woke up in this weird unknown. And recently, I watched the movie Melancholia which is about the upcoming end of the world due to a giant planet being predicted to collide with the earth. I watched that a few months ago, and I actually had a nightmare about it.

    So I said all that to say this! There are plenty of post-apocalyptic games out there, but has there ever really been a game where you are about to experience the end of the world? I would really love a game that explored that. It could kind of be inspired by a Melancholia or comet heading toward Earth scenario. As I was thinking about this, I realized that there was one game that kind of of did this: Majora’s Mask. And it was actually kind of creepy, but the game was far too whimsical to be a scary game.

    Imagine you were a normal person who just woke up and heard the news. I would love a game that focused more on the personal drama, characters, and decisions made by you. It could be a short game where at the beginning you simply wake up in your house. You can then do things like turn on the radio, tv, call a friend, call your mom, go outside. And whatever you do is how you will learn of the news. Then you have to make decisions. Maybe you have a kid. Maybe you can be so freaked out you kill yourself. Maybe you kill your kid to spare him/her from being scared. Seriously, there aren’t’ many games that have these sort of scenarios. It could a short game with 100 endings. Maybe you can figure out how to leave the planet, but then die in a rocket because there’s no where to go. I don’t want there to be a futuristic way to blow up a planet/comet, or escape to the moon. I want it to be real, scary, this is happening right now today and you’re screwed because the earth is going to explode in a week scary.

    So thanks for tickling my brain on my boring drive home from school.

    • Matt Kernan
      Matt Kernan February 8, 2012

      There was one really awesome game about the end of the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Behind:_Eternal_Forces

      • Matt Kernan
        Matt Kernan February 8, 2012

        Ha, just kidding… that game sucks. What you’re describing almost sounds like Heavy Rain set during the apocalypse, which sounds pretty awesome to me. Also, Dead Space is probably worth taking a look at if ‘scary’ and ‘in space’ are up your alley.

        • Courtney Parker Sandhu
          Courtney Parker Sandhu February 8, 2012

          Lol! Yes, I kept thinking I needed to try dead space! Sounds terrifying.

        • Anonymous
          Anonymous February 9, 2012

          I can confirm that Dead Space is, in fact, in space.

    • Anonymous
      Anonymous February 9, 2012

      Thanks for the awesome comments, Courtney!  Have you ever played Fahrenheit, aka Indigo Prophecy?  It has sort of a twisty, end-of-the-world vibe that might be right up your alley.  It’s from the same dude that made Heavy Rain, as well.

Comments are closed.