Horror

There have been some genuinely scary horror games over the years - everything from Silent Hill and Fatal Frame to PC titles like Clive Barker's Undying and so on. Each has worked diligently to merge the idea of the horror narrative with compelling gameplay in order to craft experiences that keep gamers playing even while they cower in fear behind their controllers. As great as some of those have been, few have been as perfect as Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

It's the Opposite

HIGH Clearing out the prison showers with impunity.

LOW Weapons unequipping in the middle of zombie gangbangs.

WTF Repeating ambush points until weapons degrade into useless scrap.

I haven't been up on my download titles and the way I should lately, so I've been trying to rectify that over last week or two. I decided to comb through the PSP Minis store alphabetically and see what caught my eye. There's a whole lot of junk in there, quite frankly, but there are some nice titles if you look hard enough.

If You Seek Amy

HIGH A great premise.

LOW Feels like it was designed ten years ago.

WTF Marcello is the creepiest good guy, ever.

After Amy, I took @KayinAmoh's advice and spent some time with Cabela's Survival: Shadows of Katmai on 360. You may not believe it, but the game is completely awesome.

Students in Hell. Horror Game Fans in Heaven.

HIGH The final chapter.

LOW No ability to skip scenes.

WTF Butter up my pooper.

We celebrate our podcast's third anniversary by ruminating on some historic game franchise anniversaries; which did we vote as most important? Plus, why Dead Island deserves a second look, and The Horror Geek addresses "6 out of 5" as only he can. With Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, and Tim "No Batman For You" Spaeth.

Download: Right click here and select "Save Target As..."
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Links:

• Dead Island Review
• Dead Island Second Opinion

Please send feedback and mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.

In Hindsight, I Should Have Named the Dog Toto

HIGH Those first three hours of gameplay were the most terrified I have been of a game in my life.

LOW Non-stop fetch quests

WTF Why is Daniel mute? He's monologuing in flashbacks the entire time!

As part of Kristin's Extra-Life 24-hour gaming marathon she had agreed to play Amnesia: The Dark Descent and stream it live over the Internet. A commendable endeavor on many levels. Marathoning a game like that would be no small task for anyone. Alas, our Kristin couldn't do it. But all is not lost. She was recording the whole time and has left the video up on YouTube for the whole Internet to enjoy.

Sun, Surf and Septicemia

HIGH Randomly finding scattered survivors in need of aid.

LOW All the pre-patch bugs and glitches.

WTF Using cash to repair and upgrade weapons makes no sense whatsoever.