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This thread has been linked to the game 'Eternal Darkness'.
Oh don't we know it. Nintendo and their second party developers are infamous for bringing us a plethora of games full of cute characters, joyous sound effects, bright and cheery environments and colourful soundtracks. From Nintendo's very own Super Mario series and the Hal developed Pokémon series, to the Kirby range and ex-second party developer Rareware's Banjo Kazooie series. Although I am not complaining as these were all quality titles, it is just great to see Nintendo, with the aid of Silicon Knights, have come up with something that's dark, atmospheric and full of horror enough to make me wonder what that bump in the night was!
So what is Eternal Darkness? Well, for the Playstation 2 fans or the X-box fans who wont touch a Nintendo game, not even with an extremely long stick used for pole vaulting and comedy 'accidents', because of the image surrounding Nintendo, Eternal Darkness is a horror/action game in which you have to link to the minds of people fron the past, telepathically, to save the world from a great evil that would devour the Earth and keep it in a state of (you guessed it) eternal darkness. There's not one single cutesy character in the game, and there isn't an ounce of Mario Kart 64's brightly coloured settings to ruin the atmosphere generated by the audiable and the visual in game.
Hang on a second! Eternal Darkness, being a horror/action and survival game, has been released just over a month after Capcom's Resident Evil series. Both games are set in mansions and they both focus on mutated humans. Have Nintendo made Eternal Darkness too similar to Resident Evil? Suprisingly, no. Eternal Darkness goes a completely different route from Resident Evil, adding a few elements from role playing games such as spells and wizardry as well as bringing in something entirely new in such a game. A sanity meter.
The sanity meter is basically a bar indicating your state of mind, much like a health bar most commonly seen in games such as Capcom Vs SNK 2, decresing as you get hurt. How the sanity meter works is simple. You see some kind of horror, a zombie, a demon, anything living and out of the ordinary, and you lose an ounce of sanity, but there is one way to gain it back, and that is to 'finish off' your foes by making sure they're dead once they're slain. Basically, cutting them up into thin slices of meat fit to be served in a sandwich. If you lose enough sanity, you'll begin to hallucinate. The camera's angles will go wonkey and strange things will begin to happen. I was very suprised to see my TV suddenly display 'mute' and the sound go off, only to find it turn back on just before I had enough time to reach my remote. Five minutes later, the volume bar on my TV went down, and back up again. It wasn't until I decided to test to make sure my TV's settings were ok that I realised that my TV displays those messages in cyan, not the lime green in which they displayed! It got me freaked though! Ofcourse, a character from mid millenia A.D. wouldn't even know what a television is, so obviously the sanity meter works to effect you as well as your character.
Resident Evil worked in such a different way though. Resident Evil was slow, enclosed and had very little music or sound effects, only when needed. And with the limited ammunition and the fear that a zombie could jump out at you and start taking chunks out of your pulsating neck, you would feel the adrenaline rush in a much different way. Eternal Darkness tries to play tricks with your mind, Resident Evil just tries to scare you out of it, and they're both as effective as each other, despite being so completely different.
I have to say I am more than just pleasantly suprised by what Silicon Knights and Nintendo have achieved. I really did think Eternal Darkness was going to be a spinoff of Resident Evil, but Nintendo's first 'mature' (if that's what you can call it) title, for a long, long time anyway, is a quality piece of gaming that I am proud to have as part of my ever growing collection of videogames. Nintendo for babies? I think not. Nintendo only produces 'kiddie' games? I think not. Nintendo have done something out of the ordinary, and in turn have brought us a game that is way out of the ordinary junk that hits the shelves. I like it.
So what is Eternal Darkness? Well, for the Playstation 2 fans or the X-box fans who wont touch a Nintendo game, not even with an extremely long stick used for pole vaulting and comedy 'accidents', because of the image surrounding Nintendo, Eternal Darkness is a horror/action game in which you have to link to the minds of people fron the past, telepathically, to save the world from a great evil that would devour the Earth and keep it in a state of (you guessed it) eternal darkness. There's not one single cutesy character in the game, and there isn't an ounce of Mario Kart 64's brightly coloured settings to ruin the atmosphere generated by the audiable and the visual in game.
Hang on a second! Eternal Darkness, being a horror/action and survival game, has been released just over a month after Capcom's Resident Evil series. Both games are set in mansions and they both focus on mutated humans. Have Nintendo made Eternal Darkness too similar to Resident Evil? Suprisingly, no. Eternal Darkness goes a completely different route from Resident Evil, adding a few elements from role playing games such as spells and wizardry as well as bringing in something entirely new in such a game. A sanity meter.
The sanity meter is basically a bar indicating your state of mind, much like a health bar most commonly seen in games such as Capcom Vs SNK 2, decresing as you get hurt. How the sanity meter works is simple. You see some kind of horror, a zombie, a demon, anything living and out of the ordinary, and you lose an ounce of sanity, but there is one way to gain it back, and that is to 'finish off' your foes by making sure they're dead once they're slain. Basically, cutting them up into thin slices of meat fit to be served in a sandwich. If you lose enough sanity, you'll begin to hallucinate. The camera's angles will go wonkey and strange things will begin to happen. I was very suprised to see my TV suddenly display 'mute' and the sound go off, only to find it turn back on just before I had enough time to reach my remote. Five minutes later, the volume bar on my TV went down, and back up again. It wasn't until I decided to test to make sure my TV's settings were ok that I realised that my TV displays those messages in cyan, not the lime green in which they displayed! It got me freaked though! Ofcourse, a character from mid millenia A.D. wouldn't even know what a television is, so obviously the sanity meter works to effect you as well as your character.
Resident Evil worked in such a different way though. Resident Evil was slow, enclosed and had very little music or sound effects, only when needed. And with the limited ammunition and the fear that a zombie could jump out at you and start taking chunks out of your pulsating neck, you would feel the adrenaline rush in a much different way. Eternal Darkness tries to play tricks with your mind, Resident Evil just tries to scare you out of it, and they're both as effective as each other, despite being so completely different.
I have to say I am more than just pleasantly suprised by what Silicon Knights and Nintendo have achieved. I really did think Eternal Darkness was going to be a spinoff of Resident Evil, but Nintendo's first 'mature' (if that's what you can call it) title, for a long, long time anyway, is a quality piece of gaming that I am proud to have as part of my ever growing collection of videogames. Nintendo for babies? I think not. Nintendo only produces 'kiddie' games? I think not. Nintendo have done something out of the ordinary, and in turn have brought us a game that is way out of the ordinary junk that hits the shelves. I like it.
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That happened to me, but I have already look at what sanity effects can happen on a website and now I totally know it's not real, but they are fun to watch. I had when I went up a ladder the one where the limbs start falling off and then your legs fall over forward, freaky. I was really hoping for the one where your head falls off but you can pick it up and recite "Hamlet". "To be or not to be, that is the question..."
Whitestripes wrote:
> All I did was cast a spell, the runes appeared but then my characters
> body just fell in half! His torso fell off and landed on the floor,
> while his legs were still standing there with blood pouring out them.
> Then there was a flash and he was standing there as normal again.
>
> Bloody freaky, especcialy seeing as I hadn't saved for about an hour
> :)
The most scary part I find is the voices and noises you can hear when you go insane, yesterday I has someone screaming and baby crying at the same time, most un-nerving.
That sliced body thing happened to me in the middle of a fight once, ran away to recharge my health and whoop whoops, lost half of my body.
*insanity spoiler type thing*
Anyone else had the one that makes it seem like the Gamecube turns off? it lasts for about 3 secons, first time it happened I swore at the top of my voice...then realised it was okay.
> All I did was cast a spell, the runes appeared but then my characters
> body just fell in half! His torso fell off and landed on the floor,
> while his legs were still standing there with blood pouring out them.
> Then there was a flash and he was standing there as normal again.
>
> Bloody freaky, especcialy seeing as I hadn't saved for about an hour
> :)
The most scary part I find is the voices and noises you can hear when you go insane, yesterday I has someone screaming and baby crying at the same time, most un-nerving.
That sliced body thing happened to me in the middle of a fight once, ran away to recharge my health and whoop whoops, lost half of my body.
*insanity spoiler type thing*
Anyone else had the one that makes it seem like the Gamecube turns off? it lasts for about 3 secons, first time it happened I swore at the top of my voice...then realised it was okay.
Edgy wrote:
> Don't worry about mentioning the X-box here - I'm planning on getting
> one soon anyway.
>
> The only Nintendo fans that would have a problem with one or two
> mentions of other consoles would be die hard NOM fans who take their
> word as gospel.
TESTIFY!
*runs and kicks his XBox*
*Gamecube falls from the top*
*SCREAMS LIKE NED FLANDERS!*
*faints*
> Don't worry about mentioning the X-box here - I'm planning on getting
> one soon anyway.
>
> The only Nintendo fans that would have a problem with one or two
> mentions of other consoles would be die hard NOM fans who take their
> word as gospel.
TESTIFY!
*runs and kicks his XBox*
*Gamecube falls from the top*
*SCREAMS LIKE NED FLANDERS!*
*faints*
ah okies
well i have Xbox, GC, PS2 and Dreamcast and out of all them i think Xbox is most powerful, or at least uses it most so far, but GC has much better, more appealing games.
Halo is brilliant, but once i had completed it i didnt have much to go back for except multiplayer.
Im still waiting for Die Hard Vendetta on GC, it looks brilliant!!!
well i have Xbox, GC, PS2 and Dreamcast and out of all them i think Xbox is most powerful, or at least uses it most so far, but GC has much better, more appealing games.
Halo is brilliant, but once i had completed it i didnt have much to go back for except multiplayer.
Im still waiting for Die Hard Vendetta on GC, it looks brilliant!!!
I've played Doshin (when I last went to 'Dark' Mark's house) and I thought it were a good game - just not good enough to warrant a spend of £40 on it. If I get it, it will have to be less than £20.
Dringo wrote:
>
> Ahhh I never compleated Doshin... yet I never really wanted too.
*slap*
>
> Ahhh I never compleated Doshin... yet I never really wanted too.
*slap*
Edgy wrote:
> I still haven't finished Super Mario Sunshine yet (that's completing
> the game without getting all shines/blue coins). I'll have to get back
> to it sometime soon though, otherwise I'll lose the plot - as I have
> done Turok Evolution...
Ahhh I never compleated Doshin... yet I never really wanted too.
> I still haven't finished Super Mario Sunshine yet (that's completing
> the game without getting all shines/blue coins). I'll have to get back
> to it sometime soon though, otherwise I'll lose the plot - as I have
> done Turok Evolution...
Ahhh I never compleated Doshin... yet I never really wanted too.
Don't worry about mentioning the X-box here - I'm planning on getting one soon anyway.
The only Nintendo fans that would have a problem with one or two mentions of other consoles would be die hard NOM fans who take their word as gospel.
The only Nintendo fans that would have a problem with one or two mentions of other consoles would be die hard NOM fans who take their word as gospel.
im on the last chapter of Turok on the Xbox (sorry for awearing, lol)
im bored of it now though!
im bored of it now though!
I still haven't finished Super Mario Sunshine yet (that's completing the game without getting all shines/blue coins). I'll have to get back to it sometime soon though, otherwise I'll lose the plot - as I have done Turok Evolution...
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