Praenuntium is Just a Fancy Way of Saying Harbinger.

So as far as one of our final projects go, we are supposed to come up with a video game that will be presented to the class at the end of the term.

This is obviously my chance to let out every bit of odd I have.

Over the summer I started to think of a story that I had to write down. So I wrote down the ideas for some characters and enemies and wrote the first chapter from the perspective of one of the characters. When I gave it to some people to read (all not knowing each other mind you) they said it would be great as a video game.

And wouldn't you know I'm in a class that needs just that. So I present to you:

As a final stop on their great American tour, 8 friends find themselves at the Magnus Estate; a horror attraction where you pay to stay the night in a "haunted house"  and get scared by the employees. However things go horribly wrong as said employees use these 8 college graduates as fodder for a cult ritual that is meant to raise the minions of hell to do their bidding and they are plunged into an alternate world where their fears walk to torment them. How will they get home? Was it fate that drove them to this terror? And better still, do some of them want to stay?

Now I know this sounds like a horrible mash-up of every bad horror movie since 2010, but the magic isn't just in the plot but in the UI. At the beginning of the game, the player will be asked 4 questions that will determine their character, which will hopefully be a similar match to their personality. As the game progresses, it will analyze the player's fears (whether by the questions themselves, or by which enemies a player chooses to avoid) and make them confront them at crucial points in the game. Its meant to scare you in unimaginable ways as well as be a challenge with a great story line. Their are barely any weapons lying around (Like there is only one area in the game where guns can be found and it'll be harder than finding the treasure peng in Dead Space) and your actions during major events will determine the ending of some characters (there is a part where you have to choose whom you are going to save, leading the other character to either die or distrust you. I haven't figured out which yet).

This is a three-part series, with one of the parts being a DLC tie-in  between the two games (something along the lines of the mini-episodes between Alan Wake and American Nightmare) and is the plot is protected by the Creative Commons License.



Praenuntium by Brittany Williams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.

More like Wreck My Feelings

So in waiting to get back to the great state of Virginia, and having nothing to do since it was 11am and the bus didn't come until 2, my friends and I went and saw Wreck-it Ralph (Well, they slept I watched).

And as far as I was concerned, the movie was excellent. It was a great mix of funny, dramatic and heart-warming that made it easy to watch even in my sleep-deprived state, but obviously had enough humor to keep everyone happy.

However this movie wasn't for the kids by a long shot. It was a shout out to the adults that decided to see it with their kids (and the 10 or so of us that wanted to see it because of video games) and it did just that. There were countless references to other video games that children will never know about and graffiti that pointed to memes and youtube videos (which you'll miss if you're actually paying attention to the movie). And when you think about it, its sad that these kids won't really know about the majority of these retro game references, because to be honest, I barely knew about them myself.

In any case, a movie that gets an 84% from rotten tomatoes is a worth-while watch. So by all means go out, watch it and get emotional as they turn the hero into the good guy.

Survival Horror and the indie game.

Is a genre I don't think gets its day very often. Even in our text book the category is reduced to a small after thought in the corner. However, when you think about it some of the greatest games in recent times have been based in the survival horror category or even give hints to it (a la Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Dead Space and even, ugh, Amnesia the dark Descent). So why aren't they having their day?

Well, maybe its because you don't know about it. Because most of the great survival horror games to come out won't even register on your radar until they have long lost their shock value. Not every video game gets to have its day in the sun and it is very rare for independent companies and off-shoots to get out their product so they have to trust the quality of it. Well I think that's wrong. So I'd like to present 3 indie horror games that anyone/everyone should look into (In no particular order).

However, before that I would like to make a caveat. Seeing as we have to make and present a video game, I recently discovered a game creator called Unity, that has a free version and a 1500 dollar pro version which you can add things like the ability to make an app or make it flash capable. I have yet to use the engine to make a game but when I do, I will do my best to write a blog post about it.

Alright onward:

1. Cry of Fear-  Is a user made mod to the Valve hit Half-Life. It was made by Team Psykskallar A group from Sweden that basically gutted the game and changed it into a new entity. The story revolves around the protagonist Simon, a kid who just woke up in a city in Sweden and now has to figure out what's going on and how he ended up in that alley. The game contains little to no music, and plenty of jump scares as you traverse the air-ducts and empty rooms of abandoned graffiti filled buildings fighting whatever comes in your way. 
2. Rule of Rose- Is a game that came out in September of  2006 by Atlus and has been filled with controversy (at least in the Europe). The game centers around a girl named Jennifer and her dog Brown as she goes back to the orphanage that she grew up in, only to be tormented by past bullies and new horrors. However, many have looked past the basic plot line and only looked at the sexual themes (to which we look at two characters who were harboring a near-lesbian relationship and some minor themes of sexual abuse that tie into one of the boss fights) and violence involving children. It has caused it to be banned in several countries throughout Europe and you cannot buy a new copy on amazon for less than 99 dollars. However, that doesn't change the fact that the game is perfect in its use of psychological horror and as much as we hate to say it the facts are there; children are evil. And what's worst of all is that they don't care because they don't know.
3. Among the sleep- isn't even out nor fully developed and I am telling you to go and look at the trailer. AMS is being developed by Killbrite studios in Sweden and it has all the internet video game sites excited about it from the two minute trailer. So far, all that can be said is that you play as a two year old who decides to leave his crib to explore the goings on in the house, only to be plunged into a scary world of monsters and myth, with a possible teddy-bear companion. Currently they are only holding a beta within Sweden, but have plans to open up for testers world-wide as soon as next year. And as this game develops it should produce some great results. 

For a list of honorable mentions, please go to my Pinterest Board and look into other games, I will try to update that board regularly as new games develop and I remember other hits. And as always

                                                                      Happy Playing

The Best Game Ever?

A lot of hard-hitting questions are asked of us in life, and I can find no question harder than this one. The list of games that I have put on the pinterest don't even begin to cover the games I've come to play when I  feel particularly low. I didn't get to mention games like Dante's Inferno, Dead Space, Bastion, Amnesia and so so many others. But for the sake of your sanity and mine, I'm sticking to these 10.

And to further alleviate stress, I will stick to talking about the top 3 on here.

3) SILENT HILL 2

Everyone has that fond childhood memory of one of their family members screwing them up so that they can turn into the person they are today, and whilst my mother was educating me on the psychology of serial killers my uncle gave me my first video game (I was a late bloomer in that sense).

The Silent Hill series is the first to tread the waters of the Survival Horror Genre; a category that I am quite fond of. With the combination of mist covered roads, Disturbed NPCs, horribly mutilated enemies and eerie tonal music, this game will easily make you check before you turn a corner.

Most of all I love the psychology behind the enemies and characters, especially in 2. Each enemy was thought out and has symbolism for the inner psyche of the characters. Let's look at abstract daddy

(Cute Right)
The Abstract Daddy, is an enemy directly related to Angela Orosco, an NPC you encounter often in the Silent Hill 2 world. Angela's past is filled with sexual abuse that came from her father (and possibly brother) which is depicted in this creature (Whom is supposed to look like a man and woman in bed together.

Who thinks of that? Konami literally took psychological trauma and manifested it into your demons. It's pretty cool.

But let's move on.

2)HEAVY RAIN

There are two things that can draw me to a game: Graphics and a good plot. Heavy Rain has both. This game is essentially like playing Death Sentence, Saw, and  Law and Order. And who the heck doesn't want that? I will admit, the first time I encountered this game I didn't play it (I own an XBOX after all), but a friend put me onto it and I fell in love. The story completely depends on you and the gameplay is reaction command, which I'm a complete sucker for, my only caveat about the game is that QUANTIC DREAM DOES NOT PLACE THEIR WORK ON XBOX AND THEY'RE COMING OUT WITH ANOTHER GAME AND IT HAS ELLEN PAIGE IN IT AND WHY CAN'T THEY DO CROSS PLATform...
I'm sorry that got away from me.

AND NUMBER ONE

Bioshock. BioshockBioshockBioshockBioshockBioshockBioshock. My first tattoo was of the great chain. If you were to look at either of my desktops, you would see a bioshock wallpaper. This blog is named after the last plasmid you get in 2. My tumblr is 95% Bioshock. I am entered into a contest to win the special edition of 2. I have Infinite on Pre-order (I will have to apologize to my teachers and co-workers when it comes out and I don't leave my house). I know the lyrics to Rise Rapture Rise (The national anthem). I am adapting the game to a movie script for my screen writing class. I cried when I had to kill my father. I have every achievement, save for finishing the game without using a Vita Chamber and finding every recording. I recently found that the London Philliharmonic Orchestra did a rendition of The Ocean on His Shoulders and I remembered where that part came in and I cried even though the moment isn't particularly emotional. I am considering getting a third tattoo of the Insect Swarm Plasmid symbol. I might read Atlas Shrugged (Doubt it). I cannot play Minerva's den because I get so damn sad when you hear those last few Audio Diaries.

The basic point is that I am deeply in love with this game. It is MY best game ever. Bioshock has the lore, graphics and story that I need in order to play a three act game. Each game adds something new to this amazing world and makes you feel for the character and their (essentially tortured) existence. I couldn't have imagined that a game would hit me this hard, its on the same level people feel about bands or certain actors. If I know you like this game I will probably like you a little more, even if I think you're the scum of the earth. It also has the best fandom, in my opinion. It's small, people can come and go as they please, and the people that do stay love the game and understand the people that feel the same. Bioshock has brought me closer to other people and myself (my ideologies somewhat agree with Mr. Ryan's).

And I know that's a sad thing to say about a game but its the truth. I ain't even mad.