From all of us to all of you: Hope this holiday season is all glitter and sleigh bells!

In preparation for raucous hauntings and fun frights I wanted to mention some of the games that have scared me throughout my illustrious gaming life.  These games are listed in the order in which I remembered them.  Perhaps that says something about how much they seared their brand of scary into my brain. Perhaps not.

That'll teach 'em.

Bioshock’s cast of splicers, Adam addled school girls and all-round maniacs definitely stressed my spook quotient.  Man, those splicers can be quick and slashy, appearing when you least expect them.

I know a good doctor that could remove that growth from your face

There were points in my Dead Space career in which I would turn off the game because I was too jumpy to continue.  The cinematic isolation, horrific deaths and anxiety-inducing soundtrack all led to me only playing this game during the day. A sunny day. With lots of birds chirping.

MAAWWWW!!!

Resident Evil 4 maybe isn’t the scariest game I’ve encountered but the ambiance and propensity towards large masses of evil dudes crunching on Leon Kennedy’s face did garner more than a couple of expletives from my maw.

I really doubt that pistol is going to have much of an effect....

Silent Hill 2 marks the only game on this list that I didn’t finish and only saw later levels while watching others play.  A video game that can scare the people in the room not playing it is a scary video game indeed.

BBQ! I love a good burnt briskett.

The Thing! This is one of themore successful movie to game imports.  Although it didn’t exactly feel like John Carpenter’s vision, it had enough craziness to turn the notch up on my anxiety meter.

I was going to mention Castlevania Symphony of the Night but honestly, I don’t remember it as scary as more vampire sexy.  I want to also say that the N64 game HeXen also disturbed me a little.  I’m not exactly sure why…

Happy Halloween!

At first, I was hesitant to get started.  I’ve been wronged by fantasy rpg’s before and I didn’t want to get my hopes up.  But this was Bioware, maker of my beloved Mass Effect.  They wouldn’t let me down. Well, I can say this about that, Dragon Age is freakin’ awesome!  I have been playing non-stop at the peril of my eyesight and personal relationships. (Why exactly does Bioware make their text in migraine font?)  In fact, I now have dreams with multiple-choice dialogs.

While I completely love Mass Effect, I get the feeling that the Dragon Age universe is deeper and more involved then what I experienced with Shepherd at the helm.  I suppose with 6 story lines to follow and 120 hours of gameplay, Dragon Age: Origins would have to feel huge.  My first dose of universe magnitude came after I restarted the game about 5 hours in.  I don’t know about you but I am one of those players that constantly battles the urge to restart using the knowledge of some outcomes to make what might be “better” choices.  I then do some quick calculations of how OCD I am verses how much time I’ve already spent playing.

Sometimes I win this battle.  This time I lost.  I basically remade the same character I had been playing but changed some of the stats.  On the second time through, most of my options were the same but not all.  The guard I had previously been able to persuade to release his prisoner was less open this time around and I had to bribe him.  While not exactly the outcome I was hoping to gain by restarting, it did point to the fact that the amount of gameplay I could see was disproportionate to the gameplay I was not seeing.  It’s the ole tip of the iceberg trick.  In other words, there is potential for an awesome amount of  replay value in Dragon Age: Origins. Maybe this game will actually help me save money by distracting me for weeks instead of hours.  I am already looking forward to checking out the other races and classes.  I know I should not expect wildly different experiences but I still look forward to comparing story tracks.  I feel that if the story is written well enough, then there should be a desire to see that story from every angle.  As opposed to Mass Effect, I get the feeling that my character’s background actually will effect the NPC’s.  I did not get that impression with Shepherd.  It didn’t matter if she was an orphan or a military brat.  In Dragon Age: Origins the racism against elves is palpable and nobody really wants to be seen with a Grey Warden.  This piques my interest into how the other characters experience will compare to my current elf lady mage.

My theory is that Mass Effect could have been Dragon Age: Origins but Bioware was courting different audiences.  Mass Effect might be a somewhat lighter experience so those intimidated or uninterested in the complexities of a full-blown rpg can have a product that also offers a richness to the experience through great writing, heroic themes and highly customizable characters.  Dragon Age: Origins is definitely intended for the WoW players and middle-earthians.  At this point in my life, I am sometimes turned off by the medieval fantasy setting.  This is due to the amount of hokiness I’ve had to put up with as a fan of the genre.  I am a grown woman who wants mature (get your minds out of the gutter) story-lines.  There is a small amount of damsels-in-distress that I can actually get behind and unicorns should be cruel and violent not virgin transportation (why else have the crazy, stabby horn?).  I am not ashamed that I am all sorts of “Huzzah!” for this game.  And now that I mention it, I have missed the pleasures of spell casting and flaming broadswords.

Man. I can’t wait to get out of work so I can go play me some game!

Originally, I had played God of War II with a ravenous excitement. God of War was one of my favorite games and I completely bought the hype for GoW II. I remember the opening fight with the Colossus had left me with a feeling that finally, a game has lived up to the hype. I had been impressed by the scale of the experience and the little to no loading times. I had appreciated that the button scheme supported both precision players (me) and button mashers (some others who shall not be named). I thought the story was continuous and kick ass. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire game and played each mode, including Titan. In fact, it is GoW II that got me this illustrious job at SMASHWORX. I was getting my haircut and talking to my future boss (my hair cutter’s husband) about my GoW experience. About a week later I get a call from Nik saying, “Hey, You seem to know a lot about games and you’re a good writer. Want a job?” So basically, my job came about because I had clear, discussable points about game mechanics and could crack a joke. Sometimes that’s all you need.

On repeat play I have to say, GoW II really stands up. It’s still brain-bustingly fun. GoW II’s set design, optics and art makes one feel that everything around you is massive and goes further than what presented on tv. Now that I’m in the business of making games, I’m perhaps more impressed than on my first play. GoW II is a tight, frenetic experience that is so damn satisfying. I’m impressed with how much fun the battles are and, besides a couple of duds, how well the puzzles work. The creature design is top notch and reminds me more of Ray Harryhausen’s Clash of the Titans than the new, terrible version. Honestly, GoW II looks better than some of the recent Xbox titles I’ve played.

The only disappointment I felt upon replay was actually quite surprising. Ahh, Kratos. If only you could take a little more responsibility in your actions…That’s right, folks. I’m beefing the ultimate Beefcake. Admit it. Kratos is a bit of a whiner. He’s always blaming the Gods, “The Gods are what they made me,” or crying foul over godly pettiness. Come on man. Maybe you should keep the “why me” act to yourself. We get it. The Gods are Jerks (with a capital J). But how about a little mystery, K-man? I know that I complained about Samus giving herself away last post but I can’t help myself. It’s hard as a player to completely agree with a character’s decisions. This is not true about movies, where the audience has no chance of physical interaction or input on unfolding events. As a game player, I am looking for a certain amount of autonomy that I can’t acquire through books or movies. I can’t quite remember if Kratos complained as much in the first GoW. Maybe I am mistaken and Kratos was always the petulant but I feel as if his defiant attitude was not properly addressed in GoW II. I don’t think that straight up story play through is dated, I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Bayonetta. It’s just some of the script in GoW II tries a little to hard to say something when maybe actions are all Kratos needs to express his point.

Honestly, a game is as good as it plays and GoW II plays mighty fine. I think it holds its own against newer titles and am interested in playing it in a year from now to again re-gauge the experience. Now to convince Nik that the office needs a PS3 and a copy of GoW III….

Check it out at

http://www.tapsynth.com/

Here’s the latest form Smashworx labs! We’re getting pretty close to the end of the project (if all stays on track) and looking back at the videos by the Smashworx fire has become an office favorite. This new video shows the spanking new title screen, some revamped enemies and the illusive water level.

You know you like it!

Music by the Beastie Boys and will not be featured in the game.