Lurker > Snake5555555555

First song I listened to in the New Year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njk2YAgNMnE

Something in the Dirt came out at an awkward time but it's gonna be among the first movies I watch in the new year for sure.

Violent Night

My favorite album this year is pretty easily Miranda Lambert's Palomino. Man I played that front to back so many times this year. I did feel it was just a tad bit of a stepdown from Wildcard but regardless Miranda's delivery, lyrical storytelling, and the instrumentation were all just so amazing as usual.

Yule

Noelle

Violent Night

Felt like have a little topic to just write about stuff. Was initially going to discuss The Devil in Me in my horror topic but it just purged so whoops. Here it is instead.

The Devil In Me + The Dark Pictures Anthology Overview

This original horror anthology video game series developed by Supermassive Games is such a baffling franchise. Why? Perhaps because they're a developer who keep riding off a very successful one-hit wonder - that being Until Dawn. Maybe they just don't have the same Sony budget they had back then, maybe different creators within the company shifted around or left, or maybe the focus was always on cheap scares and wacky fun, so this new direction just works better for them.

Either way, the Dark Pictures series is a franchise I find myself playing with each new release. I'm hopelessly devoted to horror games, the good and the bad. And I do think there is some good in these games to go along with the vast globs of terrible. I think they try to make each game stand out on their own, even if they are never as scary as the inspiration they're based on. There is always something interesting to take from each, even if you won't be scared to death by the end of them. They present decent mysteries the keen-eyed player can make their way through if they're diligent enough.

There are four games in the series currently - Man of Medan, Little Hope, House of Ashes, and the most recent, The Devil in Me. This series has been cheap to get into, with the releases costing around $40. It's a nifty idea, really, a small anthology of creepy video game horror stories with mid-sized budgets. I approve and it feels perfectly line with the anthology film format in franchises such as V/H/S or Creepshow. It's easy to see why they hook so many player, whether you're a horror fan or not.

But to me, it's also a franchise that needs better quality control. For example, this most recent instalment, The Devil in Me, boasts expanded gameplay features like platforming and balancing. Each character also comes equipped with their own unique abilities - Mark, for example, has a camera you can use to take photos, and a monopod to reach items just out of your grasp.

Except these features only serve to pad gameplay, not drive the narrative forward. It would have been better to drop these entirely and let the story come through. Maybe it's just how I played but I only really found most of these abilities to be used three times at best throughout the game's six hour runtime. Hell, the example I used in Mark's camera isn't even something necessary you need to use to complete the game or to contribute to any endings, it's merely for collectible purposes only.

The Devil in Me, like the rest of the franchise, also relies too heavily on jump scares and it's constantly the same one throughout the game. There was one or two I found clever throughout but overall it just gets tired. There's no variation to the jump scares sound either, they're just the same bone-chilling sound effect re-purposed to the point of being redundant.

The jump scares are only a fraction of the problem of the game's horror. The plot bites off way more than it can chew, and the writing is an utter mess. The killer's ambiguity is presented as a compelling mystery, but despite being present on screen for most of the game's runtime, I never really cared about the killer's identity and his mixed bag of motives that run the gamut of "trophy kills" to a "troubled youth" or "abused child". If it was meant to be an intriguing take on the idolization of serial killers, mission failed because I found everything to do with the killer slapdash, lazy, and almost entirely devoid of any connection to the game's main cast. This type of storytelling is unfortunately all too familiar in this series.

Dark Pictures got away with doing the same twist twice initially - both Man of Medan and Little Hope have the horror playing out almost entirely in your head. I dislike this concept especially for replayability purposes, but the games just make less sense when you realize how little there was to be scared of to begin with. It's always these late-stage, last-hour twists that make the games all the more infuriating. These horror game stories really need to learn when to stop, lest they continue to drag out tired clichs for gameplay and narrative momentum's sake.

As expected, The Devil in Me also fails in its terrible directing. Terrible cuts, confusing character placement, overwrought horror cinematography, and terrible dialogue can sometimes leave the player being baffled as to who, what, why, where, how and when something happened. You know, I'm so sick of the magical teleporting killer who's omnipresent and can just appear as the plot needs. The Devil in Me suffers from this issue in no small way - it very much leads to even the characters wondering if it's more than one killer - because he just keeps appearing without any real logic.

The Devil in Me is not the worst entry in the series by any means. I adore the environments here, and despite all the clunky writing, the game's art design manages to hold it together as a whole, and actually impressed me greatly with its lighting and claustrophobic interiors in particular. The game stars Jessie Buckley as Kate, and well, she's one of those actresses who could star in just about anything and ace her role with immense talent. She takes an otherwise pretty bland character and infuses her with strong individuality, vulnerability, and charm. She almost single-handedly saves the games' case for me.

One way or another, Dark Pictures will continue to lumber on with a whole new season in the works. Next year, we already have two games to look forward to (or to suffer through, your choice) - Directive 8020, which looks to be a sci-fi horror tale, and Switchback VR, which is a spiritual successor to the horror rail-shooter Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, which was actually a pretty fun experience. I wish both games well, and I will be playing both, and I hope this franchise can take its storytelling to the next level instead of rehashing its same old predictable beats and tired horror tropes.

Noelle

Violent Night

Yule Man

For me it's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. What a fucking slog.

Noelle

Violent Night

I see what you mean about the ending to In Cipher I Weep but I think it works perfectly with the passage that comes before - it's a violent and rude awakening, the dream-like lull and peace of death are abruptly torn away, illustrating that even in death ones' soul is subject to the pulls and demands of the afterlife.

I'm guessing TP lost since it was the GC version in the match and not the Wii version.

Violent Night

Yule

Zero

jcgamer107 posted...

Just saw Violent Night and it was great. I could see it potentially cracking my top ten, too early to say. At least 11-15 range. Krampus also just missed the cut.

What do you think of the original Black Christmas?

Noelle

Second that I absolutely loved Speak No Evil and I still think about it often after seeing it months ago now.

Violent Night

It's a Wonderful Life

Yes, got one back in October

Shadow

I'm rerunning two prior album picks, seeing as it's a new voting format.

The first is Miranda Lambert's Wildcard, what I consider her magnum opus. It's a collection of songs written with her trademark wit and honesty but also more contemplative and narrative, with lyrics that genuinely touch the soul one line and make you bust a gut laughing the next. It's backed with a full-on country rock production, and catchy hooks, riffs, and harmonies galore. I've played this end to end countless times and still can't get enough of it. It's perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka7gRrEy0JM

The second is The Birthday Massacre's Walking With Strangers, the band's third studio album, and in my humble opinion the best encapsulation of their sound to date. This album is firmly rooted in synthpop, the Gothic melancholy, and unconventional hard rock & metal music that has become so synonymous with the band. Its dark subject matters bounce between light-hearted theatricality to almost nihilism, recalling influences such as The Cure and Nine Inch Naills. There's a bubbling energy, a definite edge, which evokes imagery in the imagination. This is a dark album, but not in a negative sense; this is about capturing beauty in the darkness. If you're new to the band and need a primer on The Birthday Massacre's music, this album is a good place to start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1PtpjMMnr8

My last, all-new pick, is Handguns' Life Lessons, one of my all time favorite albums. Life Lessons is one of the most impactful pop punk albums I've ever heard. The musicianship is raw and accessible but also dynamic. This album makes me feel inspired - it makes me want to fight, scream, and just live life without fear. It's uplifting, nostalgic, almost triumphant in parts, as the band navigates from the post-teen problems of their debut album Angst to more grown-up obstacles and simply feels so genuine. It was hugely formative to me as a young adult and has played an important role in shaping my life and my worldview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqVmUYi8fTc

Christmas C'mon
I Saw Three Ships
Warmer in the Winter
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
Carol of the Bells
All I Want for Christmas
Jingle Bell Rock
Angels We Have Heard on High
Time to Fall in Love
What Child Is This
Let It Snow
Silent Night

Christmas C'mon is definitely a huge bop. The rest of the album is pretty great but hardly any I would name as superior versions of the songs however.

Evil

Quick top 10:

Chris Rea - Driving Home for Christmas
Eagles - Please Come Home for Christmas
The Pogues - Fairytale of New York
Taylor Swift - Christmas Tree Farm
Elton John - Step Into Christmas
Hot Dad - Christmas Pain in Christmas Town
Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Wizards in Winter
Michael Buble - Cold December Night
Ice Nine Kills - Merry Axe-Mas
Set It Off - This Christmas (I'll Burn It to the Ground)

Quite the toss up between ER and GoW.

Yes

Nuttin' for Christmas

Batman vs. Sherlock Holmes
Stephen King vs. Edgar Allan Poe
Darth Vader vs. Hitler
Einstein vs. Stephen Hawking
Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noMGiIs9V00

Yule Man

Prince

Violent Night

kateee posted...

ohmigosh it's a bop

A BOP

EXACTLY

kateee posted...

i love the aesthetic of this so much

Hell yeah!

Santa's Slay is fun but Yule Man is the superior horror Santa concept.

Yule Man

Gear

Noelle

Santa Claus (Violent Night)

Just watched this last night and I'm in

I've never liked the official way to say Rayquaza.

Also Cait Sith is pronounced Ket Shee

Punnyz posted...

can you redeem these on the website? Sorry if asked

I'm gonna go visit family for the next few days

Yeah you can

Self-employed, might have to tend to a few things but won't be a full day by any means.

Fantasy

Boooooo