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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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oh god yeah!
i dont like that!
or the footsteps and creaking floors, or the blood dripping dsown paintings!
oh and the heads turning on the statues!!!
eugh!
i dont like that!
or the footsteps and creaking floors, or the blood dripping dsown paintings!
oh and the heads turning on the statues!!!
eugh!
Those turning heads on the statues look so realistic! I didn't even notice til I saw it in the corner of my eye, then I looked again and it freaked me out! The most a game has ever done to me is make me jump (like when dogs jump through the window on Resi' Evil) but Eternal Darkness has brought gaming to a new level for me!
it certaily has!
the atmosphere is so real, its weird and hard to explain in writing, but it really gets your heart beating
resi made me jump and stuff but never made me break out in a cold sweat, or shivers!!
some may call me sad, but if you havent played it then you dont know!!
the atmosphere is so real, its weird and hard to explain in writing, but it really gets your heart beating
resi made me jump and stuff but never made me break out in a cold sweat, or shivers!!
some may call me sad, but if you havent played it then you dont know!!
Hal developed Pokemon series?
You mean Pokemon Snap?
The Pokemon series is made by Game Freak.
You mean Pokemon Snap?
The Pokemon series is made by Game Freak.
Most Pokémon games have Nintendo, Hal LAbratory, Creatures and Game Freak as a part of them.
I just went with the first one I could remember - anyway, this topic ain't about Pokémon, so why pick up on that?
I just went with the first one I could remember - anyway, this topic ain't about Pokémon, so why pick up on that?
Dringo wrote:
> Hal developed Pokemon series?
>
> You mean Pokemon Snap?
>
> The Pokemon series is made by Game Freak.
um, sorry, where did that come from?
lol
> Hal developed Pokemon series?
>
> You mean Pokemon Snap?
>
> The Pokemon series is made by Game Freak.
um, sorry, where did that come from?
lol
He picked up on something in the very first sentance of this topic - a very brief and mainly unimportant mention of Pokémon.
ahhh i see.
Edgy, could you post a reply to my GAD topic please?
i think your the best to ask
cheers
What games are you waiting for then?
Edgy, could you post a reply to my GAD topic please?
i think your the best to ask
cheers
What games are you waiting for then?
Edgy wrote:
> Most Pokémon games have Nintendo, Hal LAbratory, Creatures and
> Game Freak as a part of them.
>
> I just went with the first one I could remember - anyway, this topic
> ain't about Pokémon, so why pick up on that?
Cause I'm an evil Nintendo know it all sod who loves nothing better than to wind people up when they get things wrong... to add more annoyance to it all...
Eternal Darkness doesn't involve you using telepathy to control a character in the past... Alex is reading a book and you are simply playing what she is reading...
> Most Pokémon games have Nintendo, Hal LAbratory, Creatures and
> Game Freak as a part of them.
>
> I just went with the first one I could remember - anyway, this topic
> ain't about Pokémon, so why pick up on that?
Cause I'm an evil Nintendo know it all sod who loves nothing better than to wind people up when they get things wrong... to add more annoyance to it all...
Eternal Darkness doesn't involve you using telepathy to control a character in the past... Alex is reading a book and you are simply playing what she is reading...
What games am I waiting for? So, so many....
Metroid Prime
Metroid Fusion
Batman: Dark Tomorrow
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda: Winds of Takuto
Mario Party 4
Super Mario Advance 4
Super Mario Advance 5
Super Mario Advance 6
Starfox Adventures
1080 White Storm
Resident Evil Zero
Resident Evil 2 + 3
Resident Evil 4
And many many more...
Whether I get them all, however, is another question which I'll answer in about five years time...
Metroid Prime
Metroid Fusion
Batman: Dark Tomorrow
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda: Winds of Takuto
Mario Party 4
Super Mario Advance 4
Super Mario Advance 5
Super Mario Advance 6
Starfox Adventures
1080 White Storm
Resident Evil Zero
Resident Evil 2 + 3
Resident Evil 4
And many many more...
Whether I get them all, however, is another question which I'll answer in about five years time...
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