The Scariest Thing In Hell

Sometimes, panic inducing terrifying can be the unseen nightmares that lurk in the shadows…


Other times, it can just be realizing you’re stuck
with an empty roll of toiler paper in a public bathroom

As I continue to deconstruct Doom: The Dark Ages, in all of it’s meaty glory, I march on myself within the game’s glorious battlefields, fighting hell unending, discovering new insights everyday. I thought for sure I’d have more time today to really dig in deeper to the metaphysics of hell itself, piggybacking off of my last post, but that more thorough theoretical posit will have to wait until tomorrow. Since I am currently short on time, I figure I would just briefly muse upon the notion of how often media properties seem to up the ante as time goes on, in some ways quite understandably so. One must continue to raise the bar, you see, and with a bigger crowd comes more people to please, and this increase in demographics, usually in combination with budget, and the need to big or go home usually has the story reach new scales of impossible standards, with endgame standards being ridiculously demanding.


The Russo Brothers probably got an endless amount
of emails from Disney reminding them they couldn’t afford
to just assemble half of Hollywood everyday for the MCU finale

Another strange happening I find that parallels this same notion in a similar manner is the “despoopifying” of games and movies as any series continues, almost as if the scary gets scared away by crowds itself. Both in the video game realm as it is within cinema, you will see a lot of survival horror and movies of a haunting persuasion that go for suspense or macabre early on that tend to drop the premise in favor of bigger, more explosive set pieces and action extraordinaire. I think there is no end of examples in video games, with Resident Evil being an obvious go to, and I’d say even Silent Hill, maybe perhaps for more rocky behind the scenes then mindful intent, went way harder on the action than sheer atmosphere over time, for better or worse.


Definitely for the worse if sales are anything
to go by. When it rains, it pours

I think within the movie realm, the two most obvious examples to me would definitely be the Alien series, and as a worthy other to mention, The Evil Dead. Endless debates galore usually echo throughout the hallowed halls of cinema fandom as they debate which movie reigns supreme, Alien or Aliens, with most peoples tastes of either action or suspense usually signaling the obvious preference. Not that either are any less than masterclasses in their own respective genres, but most certainly different approaches with the same formula. I cite the latter of my cinematic series as the example in comparison to my citations of Doom, as The Evil Dead series has quite obviously had no shortage of influence over the demonically fueled slaughter-fests the series has been known for.


One would be hard pressed to find a groovier inspiration

Much like Evil Dead though, Doom kind of dropped the more tensely creepy tone early on (and sporadically returned to), trading in methodical isolation against undead hordes for more explosive action. That sense of creeping death atmosphere does tend to flare up from time to time, as we see in minor examples throughout the series. Whether or not it was an enhanced sense of claustrophobia the hallways induced the 3D environment put forth, or indeed a concerted effort to do a proper send up to the original of the series in terms of level layout and aesthetic, Doom 64 kind of resparked the notion Doom could be unsettlingly intimidating, and the game feels decidedly more distinct as a result. Doom 3 very obviously went full gusto with this idea as well, with the darkened corridors of the Mars base giving way to a tense environment and uncertain dread stalking you around every corner.


A hyper advanced Mars base with inter-dimensional
portal capabilities and yet not a single ream of ducttape
kicking around to affix a flashlight to a gun. Scary indeed.

All of this has sadly gone to the wayside, with 2016 only having hints of it, and Eternal straight up going full chaos mode, with Dark Ages maintaining a sense of epic bravado and grandiose presentation with mythical visual trappings following suit. Is the series so divorced from these old school notions of bump in the night sensibilities, that having a Doom that leans more heavily into it’s horror visuals and brooding sense of atmospheric tension feel too off base for the series at this point? Would fans reject the very notion of what Doom would become in this resurrected attempt at going for the gruesome facade or the chance at gripping tension, due to what they perceive as the very DNA of the series being too tampered with? I’m not entirely sure, but I’m guessing since the Doom series will likely go dormant for a time, and lie in wait after the success of this recent trilogy, the whole approach will likely get rejiggered once again, as they will likely have to reimagine just what Doom can be for a new generation.

After all, as the Doom series has proven time and time again, the scariest thing in hell at any given moment is Doomguy/The Slayer…why not really sell the idea with a gratifyingly horror-show design to back up the notion?

The eventual rebirth will leave us with horrifying results either way.

~Pashford

Raccoon City Limits Pt.2

When life imitates art…


We all see bad box art Mega Man in the mirror

During my recent attempts at writing about replaying the Resident Evil 3 remake, in regards to my annual observation of the significance involving September 28th, I’ve been detailing elements of the game I feel just don’t quite hold a candle up to the original. Not because I dislike the game on any real level, mind you, but the fondness I have for classic Resident Evil throbs in my veins to this day, and that sort of energy is harder to beat into submission than a Nemesis that just won’t take the hint.


It sucks when someone misses out on hints of subtleties

While I have enjoyed the bite sized addresses to the elements I speak of, and they have fittingly run alongside the track of the days involving the demise of Raccoon City itself, it also comes at a time when my schedule has turned completely upside down, with me waking up mere hours before midnight to complete a list of activities I prefer to have done by midnight, so my time conjuring thoughts on Jill Valentine and her heroics involving tenure as a S.T.A.R.S member have been not unlike the nightmare of keeping a schedule in order while fighting against the hordes of the undead.


The textbook definition of no chill

I plan on doing some compartmentalizing of my thoughts into one super-cut article here in the next day(?) to tidy everything up a bit, given that I’m nearly out of time to write anything of long winded merit here, but I will leave you with yet another point of disinterest related to why the remake of Resident Evil 3 was kind of a step down from the original in another regard, as the game reduces a players autonomy by dispensing of the branching story options of emergency the original provided. While some were of small note in their implementation, others provided large deviation to the overall pacing of the narrative at hand, and in terms of how you went about navigating the back alleys of Raccoon City.


I hate when they don’t include the relevant number
of self-defenestrations needed when navigating a map

Just another element I’ll have to roll up into the eventual equivalent of a Resident Evil 3 Remake burrito for your enjoyment. To be continued…

~Pashford

Raccoon City Limits

Last time, on Resident Evil Z!


The crossover you never knew you needed

As I was saying yesterday, due to the exuberant vibe emanating from within me to celebrate September 28th by starting a replay of RE3 (remake), I was still of the mind to take the game to task on some of it’s failings, so that we may collectively find benefit in the experiences blemishes. The pacing issues are of a wild sort from moment one, and the game never fully recovers from that point of ingress. I know that modern day Resident Evil, even the remakes of the classic titles that possess a more survival horror oriented bent, tend to trend repping the RE4 formula, more boom than bump in the night, but the totally absent build up to the eventuality of Nemesis’ appearance is such a fall from grace for what should be the main contingency of the entire foundational merits of the game in itself, one can’t feel the developers were off the mark from moment one.


Not all Kamehamehas are created equal

And perhaps I’ve erroneously pegged Resident Evil over the years as being narratively driven, as the game marched forward in the spiritual wake of Night of the Living Dead in the virtual interactive space as the flag bearer for what was, but the complete lack of re-canonization involving the nittier, grittier details in the wake of the Arklay Mansion facilities demise, and the soon to be obliterated Raccoon City seems as if such an embarrassingly wasted opportunity in setting the record straight for the series moving forward. If nothing else, the time when one looks back on the value of life and the quality imbued with the merits of the very soul of an individual, should be within the last moments of remembrance involving the eulogy and the day of mourning, and October 1st leaves nothing but a Raccoon City crater sized hole in the heart of Resident Evil history.


The cost of corporate hubris

To be continued…

~Pashford

My Kingdom For A Chao

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!


Crack open a cold one using a boy to celebrate

Damn shame the Friday the 13th game went through licensing hell, effectively kneecapping it’s chances at enjoying a regular shelf life. Great asymmetrical multiplayer game cut down before it’s prime. Bloody shame. *I would* suggest playing Dead by Daylight to get your fix in, as it has a similar approach to the Ft13th title in being within the conceptual camp of a survival horror based asymmetrical multiplayer game, but the same litigious disputes have prevented Vorhees from appearing in that game as well, which is nuts, as in Dead by Daylight, you can play as Freddie, Ghost Face, Michael Myers, Chucky, a Xenomorph, Pyramid Head…hell, they just recently added Dracula if I remember correctly.


At least Jason is available in Multiversus I guess?

Go crack some spines in celebration of the day: it’s how his mom would have wanted to remember him. Putting aside the spine tingling delight of a random day of note, I have only a brief moment to spare in discussing video games, but that is how it rolls sometimes. Usually in these moments, I have to utilize a radically reductionist tactic to see what is worth discussing: does it make me giggle or at least horrify me? The answer becomes clear quickly.


Probably why I’ve been writing about Elden Ring so much
recently

To that point, I definitely gave out a slight chuckle when I read that Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka essentially said a stand alone Chao game spinoff, split apart from a possible Sonice Adventure 3, was not possible (paraphrase). The quote comes from an interview with VGC involving the Sonic boss’ thoughts involving rumors behind a potential spin off, a new Sonic Adventure game, and more.


I very much made the same face as Sonic is making when
confronting the news involving more Chao in my gaming future

The Chao were fan favorites from the Sonic Adventure series, which saw you dive into a massive meta-game involving an almost Pokemon like system involving raising, training, fighting, and competing the Chao against each other, totally aside from the main Sonic experience. You could still gather resources for Chao in the main game, but they felt fundamentally separated in most ways from each other, which begs the questions as to…why one couldn’t just split the two into separate experiences? The Sonic Team boss says it’s just not possible:

“When we talk about Chao Garden specifically, I know everyone’s like ‘I want Chao Garden, I want Chao Garden’,” Iizuka replied (via an interpreter). “But Chao Garden is a piece… it’s part of the whole Sonic Adventure series of games. It’s not a standalone game, it’s integrated into the whole Adventure series gameplay, so we can’t just break it off and make it a thing. And so it’s like, alright, well, if you’re asking for Chao Garden and Adventure 3, then that’s pretty much asking for Adventure 3.“

So the logic he provides just isn’t really there, hence why I giggled when I read it. The whole thing comes off as kind of as nonsensical, as I could think of many ways you could split off the Chao Garden from the Sonic Adventure series itself, turn it into a mobile game, and likely make truckloads of money. But I guess for some reason, in Iizuka’s mind, the “integration” of the two makes it infeasible due to reasons of being packaged together?



It must be just like when you want just the cream in the Oreo,
but not the cookie itself, you know? You just can’t separate the two
entities, because they’re just a sandwiched deal.

It’s a laughable response, and basically just an obtuse way of saying “we don’t care about working on Sonic Adventure 3”, which is understandable on multiple levels. Not only has the studio moved onto bigger and better things, the Sonic Adventure series, outside of the Chao Gardens, has not aged well, and has held up quite poorly to the test of time, with most having mixed reactions to how uneven the games really were. Having said that, Iizuka does go on to say the equivalent of “never say never”:

“At some time, yes, because we hear the same thing. Everybody wants it! I think at some time I’d like to say ‘hey, yeah, we’re making Adventure 3’, but we don’t have plans for that yet. It’s just one of those things that if, if the stars align and it can all happen, then yeah, we’d love to make it.”

C’est la vie, as the Sonic community continues to await with baited breath for the day that never seems to come. Fingers crossed we will all be able to return to the Chao Gardens revitalized and anew one day, and spend time with our favorite little karate chopping, speed racing, demonic little bundles of joy once more.

~Pashford