Am I Ready for Dead Space 2?

 

The hype train for Dead Space 2 has been gradually building for the past year or so. While the original game got off to a slow sales start, it eventually sold really well and won a lot of people over. I for one gave the game a shot around this time last year and was very impressed. Almost too impressed in a way. You see, that game was so good at being scary that I couldn’t handle the fear anymore.

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Impressions on Resident Evil 4 iPad Edition

Resident Evil 4 still stands as one of my favourite video games of all-time. When it came out on the GameCube, it featured hands-down the best graphics on any console game and basically gave birth to the third person shooter. I’ve played through this game at least three times and it will always hold a special spot in my heart.

The iPad edition of Resident Evil 4 is a weird product. It tries really hard to be just like the original version, but in some cases, to a fault. What you’re left with is a game that feels like a hollow shell of its former self.

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A Comfortable Sense of Deja Vu

I’m officially 1/4 of the way through Dead Space, and there was something about the overall feel of the game that I thought was worth mentioning: the underlying sense of deja vu.
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Dead Space: It’s Game Over, Man!

Back in 2008, I was very intrigued by Dead Space. After E3, the buzz going around was that it was like the evolution of Resident Evil 4. Since that game is one of my all-time favourites, Dead Space was very much on my radar. The reviews came out great and it eventually went on to sell at least enough to warrant a greatest hits re-release.

The Problem With Mediocre Games

When it comes to video games, it’s very easy to figure out what to do with games that are clearly good and games that are clearly bad. A good game will not let you go until you’ve squeezed every last bit of the experience out of it, while a bad game will eat at your soul until you get rid of it. But what are we to do with mediocre games? The games that aren’t bad, but aren’t necessarily good, either?

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There’s No Place Like Home?

Last time I spoke about Silent Hill: Homecoming, I focused mainly on how freaked out the game made me. It took a lot of will from within for me to overcome my psychological shortcomings to get through that opening sequence. As a survival horror game, I thought it started out really well.

Unfortunately, my mental fortitude hasn’t been pushed nearly as hard since. Part of that has come from growing familiar with the world. But most of my growing weariness towards the game comes from the game’s design faults and squandered potential.

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Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Flashback to sometime in the early 90s. I was between the ages of 8-10 years old around the time this happened. I was on a family trip, and we stopped at some souvenir shop that happened to have a haunted house in the basement. I guess it was more of a dungeon than anything. As a cocky kid, I thought I could handle it, no problem. Then I went down the stairs, saw a pitch-black hallway, and ran back up. I told my mom straight up, “I’m too scared to do this.” Wanting to get her money’s worth, my mom then came down there with me. This time, the lights were fully on, everything exposed, and nothing there that could possibly jump out of the blue and kill me. I think whoever was running the dungeon toned it down just so that I could get through it without messing up my underwear. I may have only been in that dark dungeon hallway alone for five seconds, but I still live with that fear to this day.

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