Survival Horror Origins

The subgenre for videogames known as Survival Horror, is in essence actually what the Horror genre of cinema tends to be; all kinds of monstrosities, fears and such combined together in order to make you feel unpleasant, disgusted or scared.

First officially coined by Capcom during the marketing release of Resident Evil, what defines survival horror is more or less resource management, scarcity in defense options, fear of the unknown and creepy settings.

Before Resident Evil, there was Sweet Home, which I already reviewed, and it remains the prime inspiration. However, before Sweet Home, there is an era starting in 1980's that remains the origins of Survival Horror, and yet, this era is quite obscure nowadays.

One example is Haunted House, released in 1982 for the Atari 2600. The player, represented by a pair of eyes, much uncover 3 pieces of an urn inside a haunted house while avoiding enemies like bats, tarantulas and a ghost.

What really worked here in how the player navigates through the rooms, which are very dark. Creeping through them and occassionally seeing the rooms flash with light was a nice touch for the early 80's.

Then there's  3D Monster Maze, developed by Malcolm Evans for the Sinclair ZX81 in 1981, where the concept is that a Tyrannosaurus Rex is chasing you through a maze, which only has one exit, and it is played from a first person perspective.

The fear of encountering an intimidating and undefeatable foe such as this is nerve wrecking, and it continues to be used in independent video games in particular today.

Or, instead of all of these names dropped, what about Project Firestart for the Commodore 64 released in 1989 and is inspired by the Alien movies? Some groups feel that this is where the genre really started.

As a side scrolling 2.5D action adventure, it also features logs and journeys of the personnel on the research ship Prometheus, which provide lore and background to the game, which was revolutionary for the late 80's, and is another feature still used today.

As we can see, there is a dispute as to where Survival Horror truly started. It reminds of the debate if Pong is truly the first video game. How would you see the beginning for both cases, and what was your first horror video game?

The 7th Guest & The 11th Hour

These are classic point and click horror adventures from the early to mid 90's, developed by Trilobyte. I experienced the sequel briefly as a kid, remembering being in awe, while I beat both of them this month.

It was a successful hit the moment it got released, and Bill Gates quoted it as setting the new standard for interactive entertainment. The 7th Guest is an adventure inside a haunted house where various guests are present in order to keep themselves and you company.

Featuring puzzles ranging from logical to downright absurd, I found them to be both simplistic and confusing at times. This is usually what drew me and other 90's gamers into disgust and discontent regarding continueing to play games like these.

The music is also of simple quality, and yet it's moody for it's time. Obviously, the presentation wowed the demography back then, with a mixture of 3D and live action graphics creating a good combo of storytelling.

In overall, I would not really recommend it because of the puzzle argument, as the audible hints and the puzzles themselves are sometimes too vague. It's playable though, and it played a part for being somewhat significant.

Rating: 6.4

Obviously being more memorable, I also am more enjoyed by this naturally.

Despite the FMV scenes being terrible, I was still drawn into them while venturing through the same mansion once again. At first, they are convoluted for deliberately having been edited and put in separately during the gameplay, but at one point, it will all click.

There are still puzzles to be solved, and this time, they are more pleasant and visually appealing. Where as The 7th Guest was more of a old school approach towards a haunted house, The 11th Guest is that also, but with touches of horror comedy and even more naughty stuff.

The sequel can also basically be seen as a more advanced or even enhanced/remastered/remake/reimagination/reboot of The 7th Guest(just wanted an excuse to throw all of the similar buzzwords together!).

The 11th Hour is a commercial failure, and another sequel never was fully realized, as several attempts such as Uncle Henry's Playhouse, Infection and The 7th Guest 3 all failed to gather interest back to their only time of true fame.

Rating: 6.7

Heart of Darkness

 

The horror...the horror.

Heart of Darkness is a late 19th century novella by Joseph Conrad centered around Charles Marlow taking over the crew of a steamboat on a great river in the free state of Congo(nowadays known as Democratic Republic of the Congo), and his obsession with Mr.Kurtz.

It's powerful message has inspired dozens of future projects for various mediums, such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God(1972) and Apocalypse Now(1979) in Cinema, and Spec Ops: The Line(2012) and Far Cry 2(2008) in Gaming.

Profound important themes playing for this novel including racism, imperialism, xenophobia and worst of all, colonialism, which is the indirect reason why the charming foreign leader Mr.Kurtz utters his most famous words just before passing away.

Charles Marlow is fascinated by Mr.Kurtz's unique position, being able to bring the best out of his pilgrims and followers, while his philosophy makes him ponder and criticize civilization back in the Western world.

Heart of Darkness is elegantly and intelligently written by Conrad as literature, and it has been studied by scholars for decades. It makes parallel comparisons to England and Congo as places of darkness, where ingredients for injustice are blooming, give the right circumstances, and they can make any man go insane.

Rating: ***(out of 4)

Tucker and Dale VS Evil

 

Hilarious horror comedy, making fun of the very essence of horror and comedy combined portrayed in classic films, as well as college kids, hillbillies and other things.

The two groups, well mainly the college kids completely interpreted the actions of the hillbillies as evil, while pretty much all of it are funny accidents.

But once the hillbillies user their bias as well and conclude the kids as a suicide club, I laughed even more of that thought.

The acting and graphics are surprisingly well done, and the gore effects are intentionally a laughing matter. Tucker and Dale VS Evil is an effective tribute for horror fans of any kind, and even ends with satisfaction.

If you are craving for a similar horror movie tackling on Horror's tropes, go check What We Do in the Shadows(2014).

Rating: 7.5

Resident Evil 7 Teaser: Beginning Hour

 

The bold new direction for the franchise just might be the next messiah happening in early January next year, just like part 4 revolutionized the horror subgenre, hopefully, part 7 will do so too, making the brand feel right where it originated from; survival from actual scary events.

Resident Evil 7, stylized as VII alongside using the subtitle of Biohazard or Resident Evil depending on if you live in Japan or the rest of the world, is depicted in this Beginning Hour teaser from a first person perspective, which is a first if you count out the light gun spin off titles like Dead Aim.

Unlike actien oriented part 5 and 6, 7 will as promised by Capcom return to the roots of the series, with puzzles, resource management and scarcity making truthful returns. Although I must applaud the Revelations sub series inbetween for having a great balance of survival and action, I am very intrigued by the developer's decision.

It is something that fans have asked over the years, and clearly, especially 6 went too far with what made the intellectual property so good in the first place. Beginning Hour is merely a touch of what the final game will be, and it apparently won't be included as a part of it.

Reminiscent of Sweet Home, the Famicom's plot summary, Beginning Hour features a film crew and a paranormal female presence in the old farmhouse, where something horrible has happened. There are interactive objects and key items to be used by the player, and the lighting and camera work are good.

The atmosphere in the demo is splendid, and the teaser teases merely with effective cat and jump scares of creepy imagery, featuring no true enemies to defeat. It also has several endings, and subtle hints, clues and references to the current plot and past games.

Although Playable Teaser had in my opinion a bigger impact for the gaming community and myself, Beginning Hour actually has the advantage because of the fact that Resident Evil 7 will actually release in 2017, unlike the tragic cancellation of Silent Hills.

Therefore, I am eagerly awaiting the release of this much beloved series, and I sincerely hope that the final product will deliver on the promise of bringing authentic horror really back to the franchise, as well as the sub genre itself, in order for both of them to get rejuvenated.

Boss Battle BOOM!

Here's part three of this mini series! This time, no more gimmickal boss stereotypes, no more projecting, I will simply show you six of my favorite boss battles of recent memory:

 Jasper Batt Jr

1 

As the final boss of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Jasper has a laughable and over the top reason for acting revenge; Travis managed to kill of his father and 2 brothers, who were the other shareholders of the pizza company owning Santa Destroy.

With his 3 forms each getting more ridiculous, the battle can either be a breeze on Easy, or a serious challenge on Normal. Add in a kickass theme and you've got a worthy yet quirky foe.

Orphan of Kos

2

Rounding up the end of The Old Hunters, Fishing Hamlet is the final area where intimidating fish men will fuck you up, especially the giants. At the beginning of an ocean, a child is born from what seems to be Kos, or Kosm's corpse, and it's desperate for parenting.

In fact, the Orphan of Kos is so pissed of at your presence that he uses his massive placenta to break you. He is my favorite (final) boss fight of Bloodborne, has a delicious twisted lore background, a great design, and with his high difficulty, he is easily one of the best boss battles ever for me.

Sigma

3

The rebelling Reploid leader known as Sigma has a tragic past and a relentless tendency to keep returning from the death with a new body in order to rule over mankind. In part 4, he is the mastermind that manipulates Repliforce and Maverick Hunters to go to war with each other.

His 3 battle phases are varied, challenging and scary, and especially his final form is an intimidating and confusing battle, which is comprised of several grotesque Sigma forms which was actually epic in design back then, that it's still a fight well worth revisiting, despite the terrible voice acting and dialogue of preparing to become "space dust".

Jack Norman

4

Resident Evil is well known for it's great creature design, and has seen plenty of memorable boss fights, such as Nemesis, Birkin, Krauser and Albert Wesker. But a lesser familiar final boss just might be my favorite in terms of challenge, score and buildup.

Of course Chris's "Disco ball" quote is amazing, but the epic score, the pain in the ass on Infinite mode, the teleporting movements and the realization that we are dealing with the most advanced tyrant yet makes Jack Norman a worthy way to finish of Revelations.

Death

5

Castlevania is another franchise well known for it's boss fights, and there are many incarnations of Dracula, but also others like Medusa, the Mummy, the Creature(Frankenstein) and the most prominent and prince of darkness's right hand is Death.

My favorite incarnation of him is in Dawn of Sorrow, where a new sick battle song accompanies the difficult fight, as he uses his scythe and sickles to keep you running, while occassionally morphing into a monstrosity further.

Dark Samus

6

Sometimes, all you need to carry a boss battle is it's theme song.

Despite being a cliche clone version of a protagonist like SA-X before it, Dark Samus is actually the final boss Metroid Prime from the first title, and remains the main antagonist throughout each part until the very end of Corruption.

Lenovo ThinkPad

 

Let's talk about my current work a bit.

My current client is Capgemini, which is a global consultancy and IT corporation operating on 3 continents and having 180,000 employees in over 40 countries. Being detached through my own IT company, I have been working there since last year's november.

The team rotates between Capgemini's NL headquarters and Sogeti's NL headquarters, which is a sister company and the original name for the whole organization, as envisioned by the late Serge Kampf.

While we perform local support towards end users, we all work with Lenovo's ThinkPad brand, which are business oriented notebooks that are designed to look like Japanese lunchboxes, also known as Bento.

Interesting trivia also says that Lenovo's ThinkPad series are the only laptops certified for use on the International Space Station. The Chinese company have good success with them towards companies and school because of their durable design and aftermarket replacement parts.

The brand splits up further into the subseries of X, T and W. The X's are intended for traveling and mobile usage, the T's are for the majority of professional employees, and the W's are for high end usage, with intended goals being for instance programming development, and managing virtual machines.

The ThinkPad I personally use for work is a T450, which has an Intel i5 2.30 GHz processor, a 250 SSD, 8GB of RAM and W7 Pro 64 bit. It has a functional internal camera, a smooth trackpad and a suitable touchpad. I had to get used to the Fn-Ctrl association, but then I learned.

What I like about ThinkPad and Lenovo in general is that they have developed an interest from me into notebooks, even though I got myself an old HP Elitebook 2530p already as a gift, unfortunately, the license of Windows 8 on it has expired, and upgrading towards 8.1 or 10 is not possible.

I might have to renew it, or perhaps go into uncharted territory further and install Linux on it. But to get back on-topic with ThinkPad, I'm glad to have gotten knowledge and experience supporting them, and yes, they are good companions in the big world of information and communications technology.