October Gaming - Be Very Afraid

[Sharecrow]

Hi everyone! I thought, with October and Halloween coming up, it'd be a good time to see if anyone has any gaming plans for the month as part of your celebration.

Last year, I played Haunted House (Atari 2600) and got literally a few pixels away from beating it in the hardest mode. I had a great time, though, and that game was surprisingly disturbing considering what it is. I also started Fatal Frame but stalled about halfway through it....due to....yeah, well, I guess I convinced myself I'd rather play the less-frightening Dead Space instead and started my platinum run in that. By the time I had wrapped that up, it wasn't October any more and I never booted Fatal Frame again.

This year, I am going to start Fatal Frame again (from my last save if I still have it) and I'm going to start and hopefully finish the episodic Siren: Blood Curse on PSN (I understand it is some sort of Japanese themed horror something that I grabbed but haven't touched yet - I have no idea what it is about or like, which is kind of cool). If I happen to finish both of the games before the end of the month, I'll probably take Resident Evil 4 for a spin as I haven't really played anything from the series before.

Halloween used to be one of my least favorite holidays because it struck me as nonsense. It's now an anniversary of one of the happiest days of my life when, about two years ago, my son was born. So I'm all for celebrating it.

Does anyone else have some creepy games in mind to take on during October? Share your thoughts and experiences here!

[Kong Wen]

Costume Quest 2 is coming out in early October!

[VictorViper]

Thanks for setting this up, Share! It'll be pretty easy for me to join in this year, since Don't Starve is going to be in my regular rotation for a while, but I'll toss Lone Survivor into the mix for Vita. As for including a "big boy" game, I'm going to peruse my PS3 and 360 libraries for a good choice, so I'll report back in once I've made a decision.

Looking forward to some collective creep-outs!

[Kong Wen]

Halloween used to be one of my least favorite holidays because it struck me as nonsense. It's now an anniversary of one of the happiest days of my life when, about two years ago, my son was born. So I'm all for celebrating it.

Pretty much every holiday is nonsense, apart from the meaning we inject into them (an excuse to have a nice dinner with the extended family, for example), so I'm glad you found a reason to celebrate this one.

Halloween is one of our favourite holidays here. I like decorations and candy, and Mrs. Y loves everything about it. Over the past couple of years I've done Demon's Souls and Walking Dead. Walking Dead 2 won't be cheap enough in time for me to play it this month, so that's out... I'm really not sure what creepy options I have in my library right now.

Maybe I'll go back and knock out and old classic I missed in the early days?

[Claytone]

Echoing KW, that's definitely a great reason to celebrate, Share!

Also glad you made this thread. I'm a big fan of the campy horror that Halloween invites (not so much a fan of legitimate horror). I like the ghosts and skeletons and pumpkins. It's a good-natured holiday that I really enjoy quite a bit more than pretty much any other. The past few years, I've tried to do something gaming related to celebrate, so I, too, would love to hear everyone else's plans for this month.

Last year, Pokemon came out in October, and I absolutely blazed through it in about 9 days. Now, this may not seem relevant, but you must bear in mind that Ghost type Pokemon have been my very favorite since I was small! Fully embracing this in the spirit of the season, I managed to have a party of 4-5 Ghost Pokemon at any given time. This was hell on my party balance, but I had a lot of fun with it, and it was a nice way to keep Pokemon interesting after all these years of play. I also put some time into the TF2 Halloween update, as I do every year. I also made a pretty decent Gengar jack o lantern. Gonna need some inspiration on what to carve this year. We shall see.

As for this year, a chunk of my video game collection that often gets neglected is my digital library. It's not there looming on a shelf, so there are some great games I've got that slip away into the rarely-checked depths of my memory. To rectify this, I'm going to try to whip, javelin, and bash my way through Super Castlevania IV, Super Ghouls'n Ghosts, and Splatterhouse (TG-16) on the Wii VC. I may also see if I can beat the arcade version of Ghosts'n Goblins on PSN. If I somehow manage to get through all of that, I'll come back and ask for some suggestions.

[Sharecrow]

As for this year, a chunk of my video game collection that often gets neglected is my digital library. It's not there looming on a shelf, so there are some great games I've got that slip away into the rarely-checked depths of my memory. To rectify this, I'm going to try to whip, javelin, and bash my way through Super Castlevania IV, Super Ghouls'n Ghosts, and Splatterhouse (TG-16) on the Wii VC. I may also see if I can beat the arcade version of Ghosts'n Goblins on PSN. If I somehow manage to get through all of that, I'll come back and ask for some suggestions.

Those are awesome picks. Keep us posted on your thoughts.

I forgot about the PSN Ghosts n Goblins - I may take a crack at that, too.

[VictorViper]

I found Siren: Blood Curse going through my PSN download list, so I'll be digging into that over the next few days. I'll be careful not to spoil anything in case I get ahead of you, Share. The first episode was incredibly short and I was too busy futzing with the stupid controls to really get spooked, but it shows promise. I like what it's trying to do.

[Sharecrow]

I found Siren: Blood Curse going through my PSN download list, so I'll be digging into that over the next few days. I'll be careful not to spoil anything in case I get ahead of you, Share. The first episode was incredibly short and I was too busy futzing with the stupid controls to really get spooked, but it shows promise. I like what it's trying to do.

I had very similar thoughts and experiences in that first chapter. In the second, they introduce a really neat mechanic where you can see through someone else's eyes while still seeing through yours (a non-stationary NPC through a split screen). It makes it really disorienting in an unsettling way. I was just tickled by that.

Be sure to check out the archive. It populates with all kinds of extra goodies to add color to the story (articles, voicemail messages, etc). I think like six or seven things got added for that first brief chapter. I wonder how much of that is missable...oh well, that's what a built in stage select is for.

[Kong Wen]

I figured I would continue slowly picking my way through Diablo III: Reaper of Souls: Ultimate Evil Edition (or whatever), given that it's full of terrifying demonic content, but Sharecrow has ordered me to play Outlast, which I have on PS4 and haven't started yet because it looks too scary.

So I think I'll be alternating between those two games with the aim of at least beating both of them before 31 October. If I do beat them, I'll either find another scary game, or I'll work towards completion and trophies (Diablo in particular looks like an unreasonable grind).

I think last year is the year I was too scared to push through Dead Space (another Sharecrow recommendation), so we'll see how well I do with this one.

[Sharecrow]

...but Sharecrow has ordered me to play Outlast, which I have on PS4 and haven't started yet because it looks too scary.

...

I think last year is the year I was too scared to push through Dead Space (another Sharecrow recommendation), so we'll see how well I do with this one.

I think you bailed on Dead Space even before it got good . But to each their own - it's understandable. Outlast is a very different game, but disturbing more than frightening. It does make you jump sometimes too and you'll have some "oh shit!" moments. Enjoy! I'm in the latter part of the game on my collectibles run. I hope I didn't miss anything.

I'm a fourth of the way through Siren: Blood Curse now. What a neat game. Good tension and good variety, which leverages different playable characters' perspectives and story lines and different environments. I'm enjoying the heck out of it. I've missed about half of the collectibles so far but am more focused on staying alive than exploring.