Welcome back! After my weekend break, its back to the blog. Which means back to information, tunes, and fun for you!
Today's topic on Extra Credits is all about where the survival horror genre went.
"As an interactive medium, video games are perhaps the best medium ever created for experiencing simulated scenarios of dread."
This statement means a lot to me, and is a definite part of what got me started in writing this blog. Video Games have the potential to show you things you would never be able to (or would maybe never want to) experience in real life. In being an interactive medium, the player is in control of what is happening during a given sequence. Yes, you can turn off the movie or close the book. But when you eventually decide to open it back up again, it will continue exactly as it was intended to. But with games, you must yourself decide to push forward. Literally, you will be pressing forward on your controller, watching whatever horror or splendor get closer. Hearing it approach.
I think this kind of experience is unparalleled in any other medium. We have the ability to really take a good look at what makes us scared, and how we react. Do you look away, and let the thing kill you? Scream in shock? Or do you charge right in, hoping like hell that you don't die?
The experiences we craft for ourselves aren't specific to survival horror, but are present in many games. The choices we are given and the situations we are put in are unlike any experience (outside the real world) you can have. Because in this medium you are in control- you are not someone sitting outside the character thinking "Why would you do that?", you are the character, and you are the one in control.
Unless you're stuck in a cutscene. If that is the case, ignore everything I've said because generally, these are pre-scripted and you won't have control over your actions, save for the random quick-time event.
But that is a whole other topic to discuss another time with Extra Credits.
For now, lets get back to the topic at hand - survival horror games and their general exit as a genre. This is somewhere where I think I have to disagree with the show on the graphical front. I think that you can have something have great fidelity, and great aesthetics while still making it just as dark, hazy, scary and otherworldly as the older generation games like Silent Hill. While it may have been a convenient design choice to have it so foggy, because of hardware issues, it doesn't have to mean it can't be done on purpose to the same effect. We can still have lower draw distance, or just have things fade off into obscurity and with today's generation of systems we have the capability to make fog and darkness look great while still having a great looking aesthetic.
Anyway, go have a watch and enjoy the episode. Also, if you're not clicking the links at the bottom of the videos, the music they put at the beginning and end of their shows can be found there. Give them a listen too!
This week's music comes from Ninja Gaiden II and III. Or 2 and 3, if you're not roman numeral savvy.
And this time on Video Game Reunion we have the entrance of Mega Man! Plus, I love the little Carmen Sandiego bit in the news. Gives me the lols.
Video Game Reunion Video Game, Episode 1-3 HD | Video Clip | Game Trailers & Videos | GameTrailers.com
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