pubs
by Eric-Jon Rössel Waugh
I have been away for a few days. On the bus today, as I reflected on my return, I began to tense up. It was strange to feel; I thought I was cured of this. I haven’t had this sensation since I left home and found my own apartment. Then it struck me: bills. Obligations. I don’t have the rent this month. Reality. Fuck.
As long as I’m away, at least I am removed from these problems. I might be hit by a car, or I might get jostled by a street person or yelled at by a light rail employee or frowned at by a cashier at the market, or I might just lose my way — yet it’s a fantasy violence. I grit my teeth, shudder a bit, and move on. None of it matters.
When I come home, it matters. It’s all that matters. Home is reality. Today, I’m safe. No bills. There are no new surprises. I can relax. I am safe, for now.
This is the kind of horror that The Room depicts.
Damn you make me want to play that game bad. That is one hell of a damn good review.
Konami should use that on the back of their box. I’m serious.
I like it. It is the most focused-feeling of your reviews I have read.
And it reminds me: I still haven’t played Silent Hill 2. I really need to take care of that.
I like the ending of your review.
Silent Hill 4… seemed to me to be a game of busywork. Meaning a game I know I could beat, but I just can’t get up the energy to do all that crap over again. Go through all the peeping again. The exchanging the keys so the forest doesn’t become infinite again. It’s just not fun. Actually, it’s reminding me of the bad points of Metroid, now that I think about it.
Silent Hill 1 & 2 I could still play through because they had more of an interesting storyline, but 3 & 4 are lagging here.
I haven’t played a Silent Hill game (I usually shy away from horror/freaky stuff)
You captured the feelings and emotions that lie underneath the exterior freakishness of the horror cliches like monsters in the darkness. Makes me want to play the horror genre (and see some movies I’ve put off seeing) to better understand my own fear and where it comes from.
Bravo.
There’s more. I just focused on some personal details. Yeah, though. This is a pretty deep series, psychologically. Resident Evil is stupid; Mikami’s going the right direction with the fourth game, turning it into an action game. No more pretending.
Silent Hill, though — it not only gets it; each game (except the third one, which kind of missed the point) explores a different spectrum of emotion, in a different way. It’s pretty nice, and it’s pretty darned sophisticated for where videogames are right now. I want to say it’s ahead of its time; it’s not. It’s just one of the few series that’s doing what it might be doing, with the tools at hand — whether those tools are ideal or not.
Metal Gear is another one. Interesting how Konami is with this stuff.
Yeah. It’s not a game that’s conducive to replay. Then again, it seems to realize that; it only has a couple of endings. So it doesn’t even provide much reason to play again.
And, y’know, that’s fine. I have other things to do.
Yeah. It’s not bad. I had another ending ready, to placate some complaints I’d gotten. Brandon didn’t think I needed it, though.
It would need an awfully small typeface.
Neither was Silent Hill 3, really. There aren’t any fun scenes until you actually get to Silent Hill, and even then there’s still a lot to do. Run around and fight your alter-ego, for example. (And that had even less endings thatn SH4.)
SH2 was a fun game to play over, I think.