# Survival/Horror Genre



## DT

So this is one of the gaming genres we __love__ (we're also big horror movie/literature fans, so I guess it makes sense).  This isn't always "supernatural", in fact, the RE series is really SciFi Horror!

Some games/series we've had a blast with, or are still enjoying:

Resident Evil
Silent Hill
The Last of Us
The Evil Within
Dead Space

Some old[er] school titles like Eternal Darkness (NGC), and Alone in the Dark (PC)


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## DT

We're currently replaying The Last of Us (PS4) since we only made it about 1/2 way through on the PS3 (it got a little janky ...), it looks pretty amazing with the PS4 update (and we're on a PS4Pro so the extra detail level is super nice), and we already have TLOU 2 purchased


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## Pumbaa

Ah, Resident Evil. So many memories!

Almost gave a friend a heart attack when I called him one evening just as a creature jumped him in the game. Impeccable timing. Those old phones were noisy as frak, and this particular one was right next to my unsuspecting friend…


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## DT

Pumbaa said:


> Ah, Resident Evil. So many memories!
> 
> Almost gave a friend a heart attack when I called him one evening just as a creature jumped him in the game. Impeccable timing. Those old phones were noisy as frak, and this particular one was right next to my unsuspecting friend…




The brand new game - Resident Evil Village - is getting pretty excellent reviews, since we're like 4 games deep in our queue, I guess we'll wait till sometime around 2023 to play it 

Hahaha, yes, and there's something sort of scary about that old school ring sound ...


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## DT

Funny enough, the other night we tossed on the first RE movie, it's terribly fantastic / fantastically terrible, I mean, it's great adaptation of the game, super entertaining, while not being a great film.  It can be __both__.


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## Huntn

I used to like the horror genre for gaming, but have mostly have sworn off it. I last played Doom3 (the one set on Mars) and Dead Space.

I played several of the Alien vs Predator games which are best described as SciFi Horror, and it made me so tense I ended up with a sore neck.  And that was with a pulse rifle. The sound of the motion detector is permanently engraved in my brain. And now I’m gearing up to self flagelate myself with *Alien Isolation*.


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## Pumbaa

I really miss the old school Resident Evil with its fixed camera angles. Felt like a horror movie!

Sure, the future with VR is interesting, but the restrictions imposed by carefully chosen camera angles sure was something else.


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## DT

We like slow burn, exploration, less run~n~gun, more story driven, specifically a scary, weird, creepy story  

I fucking HATE COD type games, same for GTA ...


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## DT

Pumbaa said:


> I really miss the old school Resident Evil with its fixed camera angles. Felt like a horror movie!
> 
> Sure, the future with VR is interesting, but the restrictions imposed by carefully chosen camera angles sure was something else.




Ha!  It was almost better.

Yeah, I haven't really enjoyed any extended VR gaming, I've tried a number of products (and was actually a partner in an AR/VR company ....), but it's not for me.  I only game WITH the wife (where we play a single player game collaboratively) or with the family (i.e., Mario Party/Kart).


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## Pumbaa

DT said:


> Ha!  It was almost better.
> 
> Yeah, I haven't really enjoyed any extended VR gaming, I've tried a number of products (and was actually a partner in an AR/VR company ....), but it's not for me.  I only game WITH the wife (where we play a single player game collaboratively) or with the family (i.e., Mario Party/Kart).



I’m sure VR is awesome for some things. Really looking forward to trying Star Wars: Squadrons and some racing games. Classics like Doom or Doom 2 would be interesting to try adaptions of.

Collaborative single player gaming reminds me, again, of Resident Evil. Some friends sitting on a bed, fully immersed in the game, following the protagonist‘s struggles. Low on ammo. Lousy weapon. Yay! Managed to kill the scary monster! …then one of the friends says “Wait! Weren’t there two of them?” milliseconds before the other baddie jumps in out of nowhere and promptly sends our poor protagonist to the afterlife.


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## Zoidberg

Not that I have the time for video games at the moment, but I've heard that DayZ was interesting.


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## tranceking26

I love Silent Hill 2, and 1,3 and 4 are pretty good too. Still yet to resume TLOU but also a good game.

I used to watch some Resident Evil games and they looked quite good. I know Village is popular right now.


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## Huntn

I just woosed out on playing *Alien Isolation*, I bought it on sale cheap for a day I might want to play it, got egged into playing it, installed it, loaded it up, found myself in a space station in distress, that alien music, about an hour later, shut it down. Did not see the alien, but I definietly had had enough. The real reason I quit? I had strange dreams the last couple of nights while I was preparing to play it, and I remembered last time I played an Alien game. On that occasion I had a pulse rifle. No such luck this time.


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## Pumbaa

Huntn said:


> I just woosed out on playing *Alien Isolation*, I bought it on sale cheap for a day I might want to play it, got egged into playing it, installed it, loaded it up, found myself in a space station in distress, that alien music, about an hour later, shut it down. Did not see the alien, but I definietly had had enough. The real reason I quit? I had strange dreams that last couple of nights while I was preparing to play it, and I remembered last time. On that occasion I had a pulse rifle. No such luck this time.



We’re all aliens to one another, aren’t we? Sweet dreams!

Got the same game myself for free a while back, still haven’t played it. Not sure if I should take your post as a recommendation to play or not to play, but thanks for the story.


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## Huntn

Pumbaa said:


> We’re all aliens to one another, aren’t we? Sweet dreams!
> 
> Got the same game myself for free a while back, still haven’t played it. Not sure if I should take your post as a recommendation to play or not to play, but thanks for the story.




If you really like getting immersed in your games, loved the first Alien movie and want to experience what the crew members from that movie experienced as the prey being hunted, without the proper equipment to fight such a creature, then it is highly recommended. It’s been well received in the gaming community as taught and scary.


​
I’d play if not for the related dreams I tend to get when immersing myself in such a story. I can watch such movies and not be bothered because the movies are relatively short. This is versus putting 20-100+ hours in a game, although Alien Isolation is not that long.


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## Pumbaa

Huntn said:


> If you really like getting immersed in your games, loved the first Aliens movie and want to experience what the crew members from that movie experienced as the prey being hunted, without the proper equipment to fight such a creature, then it is highly recommended. It’s been well received in the gaming community as taught and scary.
> 
> I’d play if not for the related dreams I tend to get when immersing myself in such a story. I can watch such movies and not be bothered because the movies are relatively short. This is versus putting 20-100+ hours in a game, although Alien Isolation is not that long.



Thanks, much appreciated dude!


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## DT

tranceking26 said:


> I love Silent Hill 2, and 1,3 and 4 are pretty good too. Still yet to resume TLOU but also a good game.
> 
> I used to watch some Resident Evil games and they looked quite good. I know Village is popular right now.




Yeah, there's something oddly compelling about Silent Hill, the story is usually a bit confusing, there's lots of weird, abstract concepts, but there's a visual design language that works, they have a bit of a Jacob's Ladder kind of vibe, it's creepy and dreamlike.

We STILL haven't made it back to TLOU, we got our "new" PS4P, played for a few hours (we replaced the PS3 game), we even have TLOU2 on deck!

Maybe this weekend, but we're SUP'ing all day tomorrow, so Saturday?  We're OOT Tue through Friday, we have a suite at the Hard Rock at Universal


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## tranceking26

DT said:


> Yeah, there's something oddly compelling about Silent Hill, the story is usually a bit confusing, there's lots of weird, abstract concepts, but there's a visual design language that works, they have a bit of a Jacob's Ladder kind of vibe, it's creepy and dreamlike.




I've been watching long playthroughs of SH 1-4 all week, Nubzombie is such a good streamer. 

Is it worth watching Jacob's Ladder? It's one of the main inspirations for SH.


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## DT

tranceking26 said:


> I've been watching long playthroughs of SH 1-4 all week, Nubzombie is such a good streamer.
> 
> Is it worth watching Jacob's Ladder? It's one of the main inspirations for SH.




Definitely, it's pretty terrific, specifically the 1990 film by Adrian Lyne as there's actually a remake (I wasn't even aware of for years) that's craptacular.

I mean, it's dark, confusing, horrific in spots, but once the credits roll, it'll all kind of come together.  That's probably enough said.


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## tranceking26

Sounds good to me, I'll give it a watch at some point.


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## tranceking26

_*Chernobylite*_ looks quite good, not the bestest graphics but that never bothered me. 

Trailer and info here:









						Chernobylite Horror Game Lets Players Fight Monsters in the Exclusion Zone
					

Chernobylite's latest trailer from the IGN Summer Expo shows off some glowing green monsters players can fight while searching for Tatyana.




					gamerant.com


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## DT

tranceking26 said:


> _*Chernobylite*_ looks quite good, not the bestest graphics but that never bothered me.
> 
> Trailer and info here:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Chernobylite Horror Game Lets Players Fight Monsters in the Exclusion Zone
> 
> 
> Chernobylite's latest trailer from the IGN Summer Expo shows off some glowing green monsters players can fight while searching for Tatyana.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> gamerant.com




Oh yeah, and this is super cool:



> One of _Chernobylite_'s main draws is its map, which contains a 3D-scanned recreation of the actual Exclusion Zone near Pripyat, Ukraine.


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## tranceking26

DT said:


> Oh yeah, and this is super cool:



Yes it's a fascinating place, and a safe way to see it all. That level in COD 4 was good too.


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## Chew Toy McCoy

DT said:


> The brand new game - Resident Evil Village - is getting pretty excellent reviews, since we're like 4 games deep in our queue, I guess we'll wait till sometime around 2023 to play it
> 
> Hahaha, yes, and there's something sort of scary about that old school ring sound ...




I'm so tempted to get this even though I'm not a RE disciple.  It is well reviewed and looks like it would appeal to my taste in horror.  The biggest issue and the main reason I don't participate much in this sub forum is I already have a large back catalog of games I haven't played for probably more than 4 hours.  It's not that the games are bad.  It's just that I don't have any gamer drive in me.  While gamers will lose track of time just playing games for hours on end, there have been many times I've set a timer for an hour, not to make sure I stop at that point, but to force myself to play for at least that long.  It's like I'm an inverse slacker with games, forcing myself to do something unproductive.


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## DT

Oh, this sounds interesting, under development by Bokeh Game Studio, who was founded by Keiichi Toyama, the creator of the original Silent Hill, so this also being horror survival, it's got some good DNA 









						Slitterhead Developers Reveal Details on Creature Design, Game Engine, Structure, and More
					

Bokeh Game Studio developers reveal several details about the upcoming horror game, Slitterhead, in a lengthy Q&A video.




					gamerant.com
				




Oh wow, and composer Akira Yamaoka (also of Silent Hill fame) joined the dev team as well.


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## Andropov

I'm not a fan of the horror genre myself but I watched a streamer playing Little Nightmares 2 and it got me interested. I may end up buying it as my first horror game. Really liked the art style and overall atmosphere of the game, seemed very unique.


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## DT

Wow, yeah, that's beautiful art direction and design.


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## MEJHarrison

I got notice this morning that I got into the beta for _Into the Radius_ on my Quest 2.  It's been a PCVR game for quite a while, but now they're bringing it to Oculus.

I'm really excited to try it out.  When I first got into VR, this was the one game that made me regret not having a PC.  I even began to price one out last fall until I saw the price of video cards.  Now I'm glad I didn't go down that path!


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## DT

Oh wow, I looked at a few playthrough videos, hahahaha, that would be spooky with a VR setup


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## MEJHarrison

DT said:


> Oh wow, I looked at a few playthrough videos, hahahaha, that would be spooky with a VR setup




That's what I'm looking for.  Nor horror.  But spooky and eerie and creepy.

If we weren't neck deep in a major project at work, I'd probably come down with a terrible headache this afternoon.  The kind where I'd just need to take the afternoon off.


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## DT

Epic Games freebie right now 



			https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/evil-dead-the-game


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## MEJHarrison

I never did circle back on _Into the Radius_.  The beta went well.  The game was released I think in September.  I'm _*still*_ playing it almost daily.  I've probably got well over 200 hours in it now.  So if you have VR, I highly recommend it.  Two thumbs up.


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## DT

MEJHarrison said:


> I never did circle back on _Into the Radius_.  The beta went well.  The game was released I think in September.  I'm _*still*_ playing it almost daily.  I've probably got well over 200 hours in it now.  So if you have VR, I highly recommend it.  Two thumbs up.




Pretty neat!  I see your post above from July.

It's funny, I was just talking about hooking up the HTV Vive to this notebook since it will easily drive it, I have a bad base, so only one functional, and it does work with __OK__ with one, but maybe I'll see about picking up a second, give this a shot


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## Colstan

Callisto is one of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter, and the furthest from the gas giant. Unlike Io, Europa, and Ganymede, its orbit is so far from its host planet that it has been virtually unchanged since Jupiter formed. Other than the multiple impact craters dotting its landscape, it's like a glimpse into the the infancy of our solar system.




I'm sure that Galileo would be shocked at the tremendous images and scientific advances that he could have only dreamed of when he first spotted the four Jovian moons in 1610.

Callisto is, by in large, the least studied and probably most boring of Jupiter's four major moons. That doesn't mean that a spotlight can't be shown upon this lonely, unchanging rock.

Say, something between "The Thing" and "Aliens"...






Unfortunately, no Mac version. Anyone interested? Release date is December 2nd. Apparently, it may be banned in Japan.


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## MEJHarrison

DT said:


> It's funny, I was just talking about hooking up the HTV Vive to this notebook since it will easily drive it, I have a bad base, so only one functional, and it does work with __OK__ with one, but maybe I'll see about picking up a second, give this a shot




On on the flip side, someone reminded me last week that work will reimburse us up to $500 on a laptop (but not a desktop oddly enough).  Unfortunately, I'm still ~6 months out before I can claim that benefit again.  But I was looking at VR ready gaming laptops.  At this point, I only have access to what's in the Quest store.  With the right laptop, I'd have access to the whole PCVR world as well.  Probably around the March-April timeframe, I should be ready to dive in.


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## DT

@MEJHarrison

There's some pretty outstanding notebook deals at the moment - especially if you combined it with your company $500 reimbursement - including Lenovo where I got this current machine.  20-22% discount right up top, then I stacked two other discounts and they had some triple point thing (so have $55 of credit) and I used Rakuten for another $120 (eventually sent as a transfer to PayPal, so for us, that's like cash).

I went Lenovo because it wasn't so "game-y" in terms of design/lighting, the price was excellent, they're a known brand with an OEM channel for an extended warranty option that's apparently very solid (I went 2 years + accidental damage).

I also wasn't big on paying an extra premium on something like a Razor.

Form my original post:



> The discount was nuts, it was bigger than the 5i Pro 15.6 or the AMD 16" models for some reason, even though it seems to be one that people want. With all my discounts, stacked a few different things, I wound up saving (or getting cashback), $853.49, plus I scored $55 of reward points so picking up a new printer later.
> 
> So that's a 5i Pro Gen 7, 12th gen i7-12700H, RTX 3070i (8GB), 16GB RAM, 2TB storage (2x1TB SSD, tests show 10K-12K throughout), and I added a 2 year premium onsite service and a 2 year full accidental damage coverage, free expidited shipping, so my door for [an effective] $1,896.47
> 
> RAM is fully socketed, so I can easily go to 32GB (with even higher performance RAM vs. OEM) for ~$150 at any time.




And I did wind up doing a Kingston 32GB upgrade (which is a faster spec than OEM), but the options for 32GB as built, are a little better now if you wanted 32 OOTB. 

And as you may have seen from the gaming thread, I've picked up like 70+ games (with a retail of about $2400), for free, and this machine plugged into the main TV, with Sonos audio, and using an XBOX controller is pretty stellar.


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## MEJHarrison

DT said:


> @MEJHarrison
> 
> There's some pretty outstanding notebook deals at the moment - especially if you combined it with your company $500 reimbursement - including Lenovo where I got this current machine.  20-22% discount right up top, then I stacked two other discounts and they had some triple point thing (so have $55 of credit) and I used Rakuten for another $120 (eventually sent as a transfer to PayPal, so for us, that's like cash).
> 
> I went Lenovo because it wasn't so "game-y" in terms of design/lighting, the price was excellent, they're a known brand with an OEM channel for an extended warranty option that's apparently very solid (I went 2 years + accidental damage).
> 
> I also wasn't big on paying an extra premium on something like a Razor.
> 
> Form my original post:
> 
> 
> 
> And I did wind up doing a Kingston 32GB upgrade (which is a faster spec than OEM), but the options for 32GB as built, are a little better now if you wanted 32 OOTB.
> 
> And as you may have seen from the gaming thread, I've picked up like 70+ games (with a retail of about $2400), for free, and this machine plugged into the main TV, with Sonos audio, and using an XBOX controller is pretty stellar.




There are some good Black Friday sales.  That would combine nicely.  However, I get the benefit every 3 years.  I got a MacBook Pro in March/April of 2020 (I'd need to check).  So if I pick something up now, I lose the $500 credit from work.  If I wait, I miss the Black Friday sales.  But there will be other sales at other times for the patient shopper.  That's not me.  When the time comes I'll get what I want and pay the asking price.  But the smart shopper would wait for a big sale at that point.  Regardless, it won't be till spring that I start looking into it.

I asked Google yesterday what it thought was the best laptop for VR game.  It led me to a few articles.  I noticed Acer popping up a few times on multiple lists.  Regardless, I'll start my research anew when the time comes.  I'll keep the Lenovo in mind too.  I also saw that one popping up.

As for features, I'm looking for PCVR.  That's it.  I'm not even overly interested in flat screen gaming.  Not to say I wouldn't play flat-screen games, but that's not the goal.  The rest of my digital life is on my Mac.  So it doesn't need to do anything else particularly well as long as it does PCVR well.  I don't need a massive hard drive because it will be a uni-tasker.   I don't even care what it looks like because when it's in use, I'll have my eyes covered.


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## DT

Oh yeah, this was fun!

Machine was excellent (see Mac PC gaming thread), but the game was super neat, it's The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (Redux).  It's older like 2014/15, but the game engine is still plenty decent, we were interested because of the generally good reviews, and the design which is very non-linear, and very "game transparent", i.e., there's really only your FOV on the screen, except for the occasional visual cue to check something out, there's no inventory type system, no hit system, it's really an investigation game, and it has a neat sort of "think out loud" as the main player/character mulls over events from the past.


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## Huntn

I was fairly far advanced in *Dead Island Definitive Edition* when I got sucked back into *Cyberpunk 2077* (the latter not horror). I can remember when this game from years ago was scary, but I’m so acclimated now to the zombie genre, that’s it feels mostly like adventure/management, and it’s in a beautiful location. 

These don’t seem to be traditional zombies in that they can be killed, by kicking the crap out of them. The character I chose (the girl) is trained in martial arts so I typically save a lot of ammo kicking. 

​An observation, comparing Cyberpunk 2077 to Dead Island, there are distinct advances in character interactions, Red Projekt has upped the standard for  video games.


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## DT

Huntn said:


> I was fairly far advanced in *Dead Island Definitive Edition* when I got sucked back into *Cyberpunk 2077* (the latter not horror). I can remember when this game from years ago was scary, but I’m so acclimated now to the zombie genre, that’s it feels mostly like adventure/management, and it’s in a beautiful location.




That looks pretty fun!  Hahaha, is that zombie in the back, just chillin' under an umbrella having a pina colada?


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