#cold fear

Pix: Videogames that deserve a 2nd chance!!

Intro:

While it's true that games fail all of the time, it's not because they're all terrible to play.

There's various factors that cause such failures.

Usually, only a select few even know that these titles ever existed!

This is sad because some of these games actually were ahead of their times, introducing game changing mechanics that others later popularized.

These games suffered from low sales, killing off any chance of building a franchise.

But, a few have still gone on to achieve cult status.

These titles are now seen as excellent entry points for gamers who are new to survival horror...

A. System Shock 2 -

Seems to have inspired Bioshock & Prey.

Tense, painful crawl thru a derelict space station while trying to outwit a malevolent AI.

B. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem -

Toys with players by breaking the 4th wall thru its game mechanics.

Time/space spanning adventure, jumping from a Persian temple to a French cathedral & finally ending at a Rhode Island mansion.

C. Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason -

Cult classic that failed due to being an exclusive.

Takes place in a derelict ship around the North Pole & uses a "Mental Echo" mechanic to see the crew's memories!

D. Rule of Rose -

Had a limited release & relies on deep psychological themes, rather than just monsters.

Also criticized for it's sluggish controls.

A girl's trapped in an orphanage, with an unfinished fairy-tale book...

E. Forbidden Siren (series) -

Has the rep of being a 'unique' game...

Players are trapped in a haunted valley, evading 'zombies' & going on interconnected missions.

Part 2 was never released in the US but, Part 3 was well received here - just not enough to save its own prequels.

F. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth -

Actually, this game is a better adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's "Shadow Over Innsmouth" than the title story!

A detective visits a delapidated mansion & fights cultists, monsters &, finally, the Great Old Ones!!

Innsmouth is a 'joy' to 'explore' - fighting Deep Ones, seeing horrors & learning man's true place in the universe...

Sadly, even good reviews saw this game sink out of sight & mind.

G. Haunting Ground -

Tried hard to recreate the Clocktower formula with a more grounded experience but, still came up short.

The player wake up in a strange mansion - after a car crash!

They befriend a dog - who's trainable to defend & help you survive against the various villains hiding out - inside the building!!

Sadly, the creators over sexualized the female lead & the whole situation became rather 'off-putting.'

H. Evil Within 2 -

While its 1st part sold 4 million copies, it's sequel fell victim to changing players' taste.

This game is a rare open world scenario with well balanced proportions of psychological horror & its highly visceral sense of combat.

J. Cold Fear -

Suffered for being released after Resident Evil 4.

It didn't help that both titles shared similar game mechanics.

A Coast Guardsman boards a derelict ship (How many of these are out there in game land?) to find out what happened to a US Navy Seal Team.

The Navy Seals turn up dead or mutated by an unknown virus!

K. Condemned 2: Bloodshot -

Sequel, banned in Germany, to Condemned: Criminal Origins, where an FBI agent tries to catch a serial killer of serial killers!

Though a decent game, it failed to sell well & killed off its own sequels.

All of the above video games are good enough to deserve a 2nd chance to delight their audiences.

Help make it so!

Longplay:

Dino Crisis 2 Gunvalkyrie Cold Fear Time Crisis Time Crisis II Time Crisis 3 Titanfall 2 Super Monkey Ball Deluxe The Suffering The Suffering: Ties That Bind

On the Fifth Holiday Boycott, I bring from the Archive unto thee...

FIVE DEE-RECT SE-QUELLS~!

Four bloody roars,

Three black lagoons,

Two Marvel animes,

This Month's Fighters....

Not Important vs Tom Hansen!

Conditions:

No Other Reserictions

Scenario:

After Not Important's raid on the army base, Tom Hansen is sent in to stop his rampage.

Analysis: Hansen

The ocean depths are a mysterious and dangerous place. At the lowest survivable levels of Earth's surface, strange creatures straight out of Lovecraft's nightmares evolved to survive the dark, cold, crushing depths of the ocean floor. And humanity was about to unearth some of its most dangerous creatures.

In the coldest parts of the Atlantic Ocean, Russian oil diggers discovered a new form of life within the ice they were mining. Exocels. Parasitic creatures that were completely uncategorized by existing scientific theories. Capable of overtaking the higher brain functions of their host and mutating them in response to dangerous external stimuli. Naturally, the crew of the Star of Sakhalin begain trying to weaponize these new creatures to sell for a profit. Predictably, it didn't work out. The ship was quickly overrun by mutant zombies and a distress call was sent out.

The call was answered by Tom Hansen, an officer of the United States Coast Guard who really wants to be Leon Kennedy. He and his crew were sent to rescue everyone on board, only to find everyone already dead or zombified. Narrowly surviving the massacre of his crew, Tom was left alone on the ship as the only thing stopping the Exocels from falling into the shadowy hands of the CIA.

Luckily, Hansen comes equipped with every weapon a survival horror protagonist could ever need. He comes decked out with the usual affair of pistols, shotguns, and automatic weapons, each laser scoped to ensure perfect accuracy. Even his standard M1911A1 can completely pop a human’s skull like it was made from confetti, to say nothing of his MP5, AK47, and Benelli M4. But all of that pales in comparison to his sawed off M79 Grenade Launcher to blow apart any Exomutant that gets hit by it, even shredding through Exo zombies that evolved specifically to withstand bullets and fire arms.

Tom would quickly adapt against the rapidly evolving Exocels, using a modified harpoon gun whose harpoons emitted a protein gas, allowing his shots to distract Exocels with delicious smelling harpoons. Perfect for luring them into a trap or grouping them together for a grenade. Hansen has fought through squadrons of Russian mercenaries, defeated invisible Exocel zombies, dodged a steel door that was blasted at him by an explosion, and survived getting infected by an Exocel that tried to eat him alive from the inside out twice.

With nothing but raw wit, determination, and witty one liners, Tom rigged the entire ship to blow with C4 and faced down the man behind the entire disaster. Kamsky, the mad scientist turned sentient Exomutant out to replace humanity with his zombified master race.

Ultimately, Hansen defeated Kamsky, blowing the Star of Sakhalin to pieces and exterminating the Exocel threat once and for all.

Analysis: Not Important

"My name is not important... What is important is what I'm going to do. I just fucking hate this world and the human worms feasting on it's carcass. My whole life is just cold, bitter hatred... and I always wanted to die violently. This the time of vengeance and no life is worth saving. And I will put in the grave as many as I can. It's time for me to kill... and it's time for me to die."

There is absolutely nothing to Not Important other than that quote. He is a hateful man who wants the world to die, and in the span of single day he will come as close to that goal as he can. All that's none about him is he stepped out of his house one day, tripped out with guns, and began slaughtering everything in sight.

Not Important is carrying enough firepower to seem overdressed for a Texan wedding. He regularly carries a several military grade fire arms, ranging from a Glock 17 to an M16 rifle. He also carries improvised molotov flame grenades, regular grenades, and flashbang grenades. While Not Important is superhumanly durable, he relies heavily on SWAT armor to deal with bullet barrages. If he does need to amp up his assault, however, Not Important does have flamethrowers to spread chaos up close, as well as rocket launchers to obliterate vehicles.

On top of that, Not Important is blatantly superhuman. He can crush a human skull in only three stomps as well as keep up with police, SWAT, and the army in open fire fights. On top of that, he's smart enough to drive a variety of vehicles including tanks, operate nuclear reactors, as well as sneak around and ambush SWAT officers. His guns can shred through walls while his explosives can destroy tanks, when combined with his superhuman capabilities, Not Important is capable of slaughtering an entire army base singlehandedly. Is stamina is decidedly inhuman as well, with Not Important capable of slaughtering several towns full of thousands of people in a single day.

Not Important is pure, unyielding Hatred given flesh, and he has more than enough fire power to reign that Hatred down upon anyone he meets.

Throwdown Breakdown:

This fight is pretty simple. As both Fighters have very basic gun kits, and the Exocel harpoon doesn't help Tom here at all, this fight comes down to who is better in a gun fight.

Not Important has some very distinct showings in this area. Outmaneuvering entire SWAT teams by exploiting the sewers labyrinthine layout and gunning down an entire army base showcase his tactical use of hit and run tactics. But even then, he's not untouchable. He was still eventually cornered and gunned down at the power plant, boxed in with nowhere to run due to his fixation on his goal. And, more importantly, Hansen has demonstrated himself against more impressive competition.

The Exocels were so dangerously effective, that the CIA considered them to be a worthwhile superweapon to use against hostile nations despite the threat they posed to humanity at large. The fact that Hansen can still find ways to gun them down even as they actively evolve to counter his tactics speaks to his superior adaptability against far greater threats. Meanwhile, once Not Important's usual strategies stop working, he's more or less out of tricks.

The main thing that does Not Important in with regards to most of hid fights, be it this one or Michael Myers way back, is that his single minded focus on dealing out sadistic death and destruction leaves him vulnerable to being outsmarted and exploited by more experienced and subtly intelligent opponents. Not Important is a raving madman openly gloating about listening to your guardian angel cry as he shoots down your family. He's a one dimensional edge lord on purpose. That's not a knock against the guy, it's just who he is. Which leaves him with a very shallow pool of tactics against more nuanced fighters and characters.

This fight would largely be Hansen responding to Important's edgy threats with cheesy action movie quips as the two exchanged pot shots at each other, until Not Important's mounting irritation and bloodlust left him open to making a fatal mistake.

This Throwdown's Winner is....

Tom Hansen!

You know what? This game kind of owns, actually.