"i got this" - Kenny Wyland
This isn't where I thought I was going to be when I looked forward into my life, but here I am....
Yes We Can
Mood:
Still a little on edge
Silent Hill 2
So, after having a little vacation from Silent Hill 2, Jenn, Nancy and I decided to jump back in. We each got a blanket, turned off all of the lights and curled up somewhere in the living room. We turned on the stereo hooked up to the TV to give us the best effect for scary sounds and continued our saved game. We are SO stupid. (Disclaimer: You may read this and think, "Geez, you're lame or really scared easily." You don't understand until you have played.)
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Silent Hill2, it is a PS2 horror game. If you know it, skip to the next paragraph, this one is long. :) You play a guy who received a letter from his wife that said she was in the town of Silent Hill... waiting for you in your "special place." Problem is that your wife died three years ago. The world of Silent Hill is very eerie. They do an extremely good job of controlling light, sound, and perspective to make you uncomfortable. When you are walking down a path through the forest just outside town, you'll hear rustling in the bushes just out of sight, or when you are walking through Woodside Apartments (an abandoned apartment building in Silent Hill) the music will slowly rise followed by a slightly asychronus heart beat sound. The noise will get louder and louder as you approach the door, and then suddenly disappear, as if something is about to happen... but then nothing. Then the next door you open up, you find a dressing mannequin wearing the clothes your wife is wearing in an old picture you have of her..
Last night, we played through the scariest part thus far. We are beginning to uncover the dirty past of Silent Hill... but here are a few highlights:
We found a door to a huge room, so large we couldn't see the other end. It looked like it may have been a huge courtyard. We were happy to find it, because the scary music and eerie noises had stopped. We turned to follow the edge of the courtyard around... when we heard something running towards us, we turned around only in time to hear its retreating footsteps after it ran by. We ran back to the door! :)
A long hallway of prison cells, backed by a strange thumping sound... followed up, every once in awhile with the sound of something almost human trying to talk.
Did I mention that none of the lights are on in this place, and that we only have a flashlight which sheds lights in a very small area, and scarily represents how flashlights work very well? Have you ever walked through a dark place, having only a flashlight... it's really scary.
Having said that... we enter a small room, looks like it might have been some of solitary confinement. My earlier statements to Jenn saying, "I doubt the flashlight is ever going to 'run out of batteries' this game would be impossible to play without it, it's a neccessary mechanic" suddenly come back to bite me when our flashlight suddenly gets dim and goes out. I try to turn it back on, and it gives a bit of light and then dims out again. Thankfully though, we have found a battery during this adventure, and so I put the new battery into the flashlight. I turn the flashlight back on, and suddenly the walls are crawling with a hundred foot long bugs! They are biting at my feet, and the controller is actually shaking in my hands! (the PS2 controllers are called DualShock, because they have a vibrating mechanism in them to give you a more real effect... it worked, it scared the living bejesus outta me). Nancy starts whipmering, Jenn starts screaming, and I'm completely unable to act. Jenn has well described why this game is scarier than any movie. In the movie, all you have to do is hold your breath and wait, and the scary bit will end. In this, you have to take action, you are the one who has to open the door and then act on what you find behind it. You aren't allowed to be passive, you are the one in trouble. So, Jenn continues yelling at me to run, when I finally get my senses again. We run over to the door, but we're locked in! The bugs continue to bite as we scramble to find something that will work... !! ACK!
It was terrible, and extremely fun at the same time, we played longer than anticipated and we cheered when we found a save point, so we could stop playing and play Monster Rancher 3 to brighten the atmosphere. :)
I know... extremely long entry for something as trivial as a video game.. but trust me. You weren't there.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Silent Hill2, it is a PS2 horror game. If you know it, skip to the next paragraph, this one is long. :) You play a guy who received a letter from his wife that said she was in the town of Silent Hill... waiting for you in your "special place." Problem is that your wife died three years ago. The world of Silent Hill is very eerie. They do an extremely good job of controlling light, sound, and perspective to make you uncomfortable. When you are walking down a path through the forest just outside town, you'll hear rustling in the bushes just out of sight, or when you are walking through Woodside Apartments (an abandoned apartment building in Silent Hill) the music will slowly rise followed by a slightly asychronus heart beat sound. The noise will get louder and louder as you approach the door, and then suddenly disappear, as if something is about to happen... but then nothing. Then the next door you open up, you find a dressing mannequin wearing the clothes your wife is wearing in an old picture you have of her..
Last night, we played through the scariest part thus far. We are beginning to uncover the dirty past of Silent Hill... but here are a few highlights:
We found a door to a huge room, so large we couldn't see the other end. It looked like it may have been a huge courtyard. We were happy to find it, because the scary music and eerie noises had stopped. We turned to follow the edge of the courtyard around... when we heard something running towards us, we turned around only in time to hear its retreating footsteps after it ran by. We ran back to the door! :)
A long hallway of prison cells, backed by a strange thumping sound... followed up, every once in awhile with the sound of something almost human trying to talk.
Did I mention that none of the lights are on in this place, and that we only have a flashlight which sheds lights in a very small area, and scarily represents how flashlights work very well? Have you ever walked through a dark place, having only a flashlight... it's really scary.
Having said that... we enter a small room, looks like it might have been some of solitary confinement. My earlier statements to Jenn saying, "I doubt the flashlight is ever going to 'run out of batteries' this game would be impossible to play without it, it's a neccessary mechanic" suddenly come back to bite me when our flashlight suddenly gets dim and goes out. I try to turn it back on, and it gives a bit of light and then dims out again. Thankfully though, we have found a battery during this adventure, and so I put the new battery into the flashlight. I turn the flashlight back on, and suddenly the walls are crawling with a hundred foot long bugs! They are biting at my feet, and the controller is actually shaking in my hands! (the PS2 controllers are called DualShock, because they have a vibrating mechanism in them to give you a more real effect... it worked, it scared the living bejesus outta me). Nancy starts whipmering, Jenn starts screaming, and I'm completely unable to act. Jenn has well described why this game is scarier than any movie. In the movie, all you have to do is hold your breath and wait, and the scary bit will end. In this, you have to take action, you are the one who has to open the door and then act on what you find behind it. You aren't allowed to be passive, you are the one in trouble. So, Jenn continues yelling at me to run, when I finally get my senses again. We run over to the door, but we're locked in! The bugs continue to bite as we scramble to find something that will work... !! ACK!
It was terrible, and extremely fun at the same time, we played longer than anticipated and we cheered when we found a save point, so we could stop playing and play Monster Rancher 3 to brighten the atmosphere. :)
I know... extremely long entry for something as trivial as a video game.. but trust me. You weren't there.
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