Frosty's Journal
[Most Recent Entries]
[Calendar View]
[Friends]
Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Frosty's LiveJournal:
[ << Previous 20 ]
| Friday, November 6th, 2009 | | 7:27 pm |
Silent Hill 2 Review
Inspired by several “scary Halloween game” articles, I chose to delve into a horror game that seemed to be near the top of everyone’s list: Silent Hill 2. And although I don’t often write about games anymore (something I’m intending to change, but that’s another topic) Silent Hill 2 left enough of an impression for me to want to say a few words about it.
Let me get the bad stuff out of the way first. This is by no means a perfect game. The gameplay can be a bit linear, involving a lot of backtracking and key-collecting. The game is a bit old and although the graphics are still fine, they are starting to show their wear. The port to PC (this is the version I played) is, as is often the case with console to pc ports, not too great. There are no mouse controls and the keyboard controls feel sluggish and unintuitive at times. The camera angles are often stuck in a way to intentionally obscure your vision, but just as often you do have to manually adjust the camera in order to see ahead of you. Also: bugs. If you’re unlucky it might take some work to get your pc version running without glitches. Fortunately the game ran mostly fine for me. One movie was skipped for some reason and I had a few occasions where the sound entered some sort of loop and I had to reset the game, but other than that I had no problems.
Now the good stuff, which is fortunately also the important stuff: Story and atmosphere. As Yahtzee pointed out in his review, the atmosphere in this game is amazing(ly depressing). Wandering through Silent Hill invokes feelings of loneliness and loss unlike any other game I know.
The story revolves around James Sunderland. He’s received a letter from his wife:
“In my restless dreams,
I see that town.
Silent Hill.
You promised you'd take me
there again someday.
But you never did.
Well I'm alone there now...
In our 'special place'...
Waiting for you.”
And so he’s traveled to Silent Hill, wondering all the while which “special place” she’s referring too (be more specific, woman!). Only problem is: His wife died 3 years ago!
All too soon it becomes clear that James is a protagonist who doesn’t have too much regard for his own life, as even warnings of the many strange happenings in the town do nothing to deter him. Here is a man who has nothing left to lose.
As usual in Silent Hill games, the town is filled with a thick fog and truly disturbing creatures wander the streets. This is no Resident evil, however. Most of the creatures are easily avoided and combat takes a backseat to careful exploration and puzzle-solving. As you progress through the game, things become more and more surrealistic. More and more it seems as if you’re truly descending (sometimes quite literally) into the nightmarish mind of a truly disturbed individual. Everything is drenched in symbolism. This is true for the locations James visits, but also for the monsters which you slowly come to suspect might be nothing more than demons created by James' own mind. Unlike most horror stories that focus on cults, hauntings and resurrecting ancient demons, Silent Hill 2 takes its themes of loss, guilt and lust, and explores them to almost uncomfortable levels. There are some horrific images in this game, and I can safely say it's earned its mature-game rating.
I was hesitant to try this game, as it’s a bit older and a console port of a genre I don’t usually play, but I’m really glad I did. It’s by no means perfect, but I definitely enjoyed the experience. Should you be hesitant to try it due to the gameplay issues, I can fully recommend watching the “Let’s play” by Lordvega, to be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgRaZFp6uWE
There, another game gone from my “game-classic, must play” list. Now I'm all ready for Dragon's Age! Current Mood:  impressed | | Sunday, June 28th, 2009 | | 7:04 pm |
Droomkronieken
Got to love having a camera. It allowed me make a gazillion pictures of the Changeling midsummer-night's Larp session. If you played, or are just curious, here they areNeedless to say: we had fun! Current Mood:  cheerful | | Friday, June 12th, 2009 | | 7:16 pm |
Super fast linky update
So, I haven't updated in a while (except for attempting to plan seeing the Startrek movie). What else have I been up to? Well: We visited Vienna! Pictures are here. We played tourists in the city, seeing the sights and also played board games with Namy and his friends. Special thanks to Richards parents for buying us a camera. Now we can make pictures of interesting buildings when we go on vacation and of Ruri, the rest of the year. Talking about board games, the BSG board game is really fun! And there's an expansion on the way for increased fun-potential. :) Aside from board games and computer games ( ATITD still rocks!) we haven't actually been roleplaying as the exams are upon us and we finished our Exalted campaign. New games will start in a few weeks though. My one exam "inleiding tot de wijsbegeerte" (studying for fun, really) is done, but Richard still has two more to go. In the meantime I've added another useless skill that's good for cocktail parties (too bad I don't drink cocktails) to my resume: talking about famous philosophers. I must say I actually enjoyed learning about them. :) Current Mood:  okay | | 3:16 pm |
Startrek: The final confrontation
Hi all! Going to give it one more try! Who wants to come to Startrek? Designated place: Kinepolis Leuven. Designated day: Sunday 14/6 Designated time 16:30 (movie starts at 16:45). It's a bit of an annoying time, but it's also the ONLY time the movie still plays. Richard and me have by now seen it in Vienna and can vouch for it being a fun movie (even if you dont usually like Startrek). Current Mood:  energetic | | Sunday, May 24th, 2009 | | 11:47 am |
Startrek problem
Got a problem with the movie tonight. Kinepolis sneakily went and changed their schedule behind my back! The movie is no longer playing at 19:45. Instead it's playing at 16:45 (too early) and 22:30 (too late). So I'm afraid I have to cancel. Really sorry about the misunderstanding. :( Current Mood:  uncomfortable | | Saturday, May 16th, 2009 | | 1:17 am |
Another season of Lost over and done with. Only one more to go. I know I'll miss it when it's gone. Seeing how I'm probably the only person left on the planet actually still in love with Lost, I won't write too much about it here. Especially since there are wonderful blogs out there, like the one of Doc Jenssen, whose recaps and theories are a must-read for anyone still watching the show. I really like his thoughts on the season-finale: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1550612_20245769_20278837,00.htmlHe might not be 100% right, but I do think he's on to something with his theories regarding Jacob's visits and what we might see happen next season. It would be an interesting direction for the show and I could see it leading towards a wholly satisfactory ending. Whether he's right or not, I'm sure we're in for quite a ride... next year. Next year... that's so far away! There'd better be some good shows in the meantime. I might try watching Dollhouse. Anyone got other suggestions? It seems I have a year to kill... Current Mood:  creative | | Thursday, May 14th, 2009 | | 7:47 pm |
Brainwash
Brainwash in Leuven is usually a great place to get a haircut. No appointments, fair rates (same cost for men and women) and fairly friendly staff. Brainwash in Leuven is not a good place to go to on a thursday when they're understaffed. The very friendly, but stressed out barber totally didnt understand that I wanted blonde and red stripes in my hair, as usual. He thought I wanted blonde stripes, then have them painted over with red, resulting in this:  Figured I should share this picture, before I decide to wash my hair a gazillion times. ;) Current Mood:  weird | | Saturday, May 9th, 2009 | | 2:39 pm |
| | Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 | | 5:03 pm |
Vice guide to North Korea
I've always been somewhat fascinated by North Korea. Mostly because no-one really seems to know anything about it. What's going on in that strange, strange country? Strange, strange things according to this documentary: http://www.vbs.tv/shows.php?show=1442318652If you have as much as a passing interest in North Korea,I can fully recommend checking it out. (Note: there's a "skip ad" button at the top left of the movie screen, which you'll be grateful for since there are 14 - 5 minute episodes, with an add in front of each one). Current Mood: weird | | Thursday, April 16th, 2009 | | 11:36 pm |
Wow
Wow, this reminds me of that guy singing opera on (I think) the same show, a while back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY(Sorry, another un-embeddable movie, you'll have to click the link). Current Mood:  enthralled | | Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 | | 11:54 pm |
Small update
I hate to say it, in case I might jinx it, but it seems my computer may be fixed! It now has a different processor and a different video card. Also Erno updated the bios, which might've helped. That is to say: it worked fine for a few weeks, but the past few days I've been getting bluescreens. I think those are unrelated to my previous problems though and probably much easier to fix, so yay! Thanks so much to all of you who helped me out! Love you guys! I'll leave you with a totally unrelated (but very enjoyable) link. All the classics in one place:
http://www.youshouldhaveseenthis.com/ | | Thursday, March 12th, 2009 | | 8:28 pm |
Linkies
Thanks to Richard pointing out the site http://www.419eater.com/ I've now wasted two evenings reading the letters there. The owner of the site has an interesting hobby: He baits scammers. Nigerian e-mail scammers to be exact. By turning the tables on them in various clever/silly/creative ways, he gets them to sent him money/pictures/paintings/record audio-books for him/ re-enact the monthy python parrot sketch. Recommended reading (under the "letters" section) is " Busted!" and " The tale of the painted breast", but they're all great really. If you're still bored after all that I can recommend playing Blush. You can play it in your browser. It's a very pretty little game that plays a lot like the cell-stage in Spore (but then fun). Current Mood:  giggly | | Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 | | 9:30 pm |
Bork?
This might be old news... but when I tried changing my google preferences from Dutch to English, I noticed some straaange languages in the selection screen. My favourite so far is "pirate" ("I be feelin' lucky!) because it's more understandable than "Klingon" (jlSuDrup!) or "Hacker" (EyE Am ph33|1n6|u(ky). And what to think of "Bork bork bork"? ("Ee'm feeleeng loocky!") or Elmer Fudd ("I'm Feewing Wucky!") I love google :) Did you find any others? Current Mood:  silly | | Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 | | 10:53 pm |
| | Friday, January 23rd, 2009 | | 1:20 am |
nine
While I'm posting trailers, I must say I'm really impressed with the teaser- trailer for the new Tim Burton movie: "9" It's still a while off, but I'm looking forward to it. I usually dont care too much for computer animation, but this looks beautiful. Do yourself a favour and watch this one in hd (preferably full screen). Find it here Current Mood: impressed | | Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 | | 11:24 pm |
Lost season 5
It's that time again. That time when Tv shows that were on hiatus are restarting and I spent several livejournal posts venting my excitement at the new episodes. I was going to talk about the great new BSG episode, but then I watched the start of season 5 of Lost and I remembered why this is my favourite show! Here's a trailer: Spoilers below the cut: ( Read more... ) Current Mood:  entertained | | Thursday, January 8th, 2009 | | 1:36 am |
Aquaria!
More indy games! There's just so many good ones out there! I've been playing Aquaria. So far it's been a wonderful, beautiful game. But I'll let the trailer speak for itself. (Not embedding it, because I never seem to get that right and you're going to want to watch this one in HD anyway.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyZJo7RpCwo Current Mood: impressed | | Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 | | 5:35 pm |
VGL ftw!
Just checked the videogameslive website and look what it said under (late) 2009! Belgium date: TBA Holland date: TBA Videogameslive is coming here! Who's going? I know I am! :) Current Mood: excited | | Friday, January 2nd, 2009 | | 1:41 pm |
Sleep paralysis: I can has it
Something strange happened last night. I woke up in the middle of the night, feeling like something was wrong. I was having that uncertain, frightened feeling you have when you wake up from a nightmare (altho I couldnt remember any dreams). Ruri was sleeping on my left arm and my right arm was a bit tingly, as if I had been lying on it. So I decided to crawl up against Richard to calm down and continue sleeping.... but I couldnt move. I tried moving my right arm, then my left. And putting some force behind it, but to no avail. Starting to panic a bit, I tried to call Richard, but I couldnt make a sound. After a few minutes of frantically trying to move and increasing panic, it suddenly went away. Sleep paralysis is a bitch. This is the second time it happened. But I had dismissed the first one as a dream. This time I was clearly conscious. I could see the room, hear Richard breathing, feel Ruri on my arm. Freaky stuff. The internet (wikipedia) teaches me this: "Sleep paralysis is a common condition characterized by transient partial or total paralysis of skeletal muscles and areflexia that occurs upon awakening from sleep or less often while falling asleep. Stimuli such as touch or sound may terminate the episode, which usually has a duration of seconds to minutes. This condition may occur in normal subjects or be associated with narcolepsy, cataplexy, and hypnagogic hallucinations. The pathophysiology of this condition is closely related to the normal hypotonia that occur during REM sleep.[1] When considered to be a disease, isolated sleep paralysis is classified as MeSH D020188.[2] Physiologically, it is closely related to the paralysis that occurs as a natural part of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is known as REM atonia. Sleep paralysis occurs when the brain awakes from a REM state, but the body paralysis persists. This leaves the person fully conscious, but unable to move. In addition, the state may be accompanied by terrifying hallucinations (hypnopompic or hypnagogic) and an acute sense of danger. [3]" I'm just happy I managed to skip the "terrifying hallucinations" part. ;) Edit: For those of you who are interested in some follow-up reading, there are some interesting articles here: http://www.dreamsnightmares.com/sleepparalysis.htmlhere: http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa112000a.htmand here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2001/nov/18/life1.lifemagazine7 Current Mood: uncomfortable | | Monday, December 22nd, 2008 | | 5:13 pm |
Parisathon, day 4 - Paris
We couldn't go to Paris without seeing well... Paris. We took a long walk past the Seine, saw many beautiful places and made many more pictures. ( Read more... ) Current Mood:  accomplished |
[ << Previous 20 ]
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
frostyjournal's journal
curious