Pick you own path through Silent Hill

The Escapist has a little Halloween treat for us, a pick your own path hypertext adventure in Silent Hill. Happy Halloween!

They Live at Halloween

Great find from Sucker Punch: They Live costumes.

The garden path less traveled

One of the many things about Silent Hill that fascinates me to no end, is how the games use history as a tool to weave their stories together. The past deeds of the game's characters, the past that is represented by the history of the town--these things bring a more complete sense of place and horror to the player, as the town slowly reveals itself to the player.

History as a recurring theme in the game, is something which we can relate to in real life as well. And, every time a player stumbles across the history of real life horror, we have those "Silent Hill in the real world moments."

Neatorama brought us a recent link to the always fascinating Atlas Obscura, website, with a link to an article on some of the amazing gardens that can be found in the real world, including the Alnwick Poison Garden, which features plants that can kill you. That such gardens were actually more common, and were destinations to visit, I find endlessly fascinating. They reflect man's struggle with how he faces his own mortality in a world that is not necessarily interested in keeping him alive. Click on over for photos of amazing gardens around the world, and to read about the history of death by vegetation.

Agent Cooper is not happy

Recently spotted this wonderful GIF at Sutured Infection. NOTE: Sutured Infection often features graphic, medical images, and is not for the faint of heart.

Abuse

If there was ever a game that should not fade into obscurity, Abuse is it. Fortunately for us, Sam Hocevar has got our backs.

This little game made by Crack dot Com was published by EA, Bungie, and Red Hat. How about that for credentials? A darling of the young Linux community when it debuted, Abuse captured the imagination of everyone who saw it--a fast, 2D sidescrolling shooter, with you as a Predator fighting Aliens. Not licensed Predators and Aliens, but who needs a license when your game looks and plays this good?

The objective of the game is to run around the map and shoot anything that moves, and there are plenty of things moving. At one time this game even featured multiplayer.

Abuse's source code was released years ago, and various people and projects have tried to keep it alive since then. I haven't been successful trying to play it since Apple OS 8 when I bought my copy from Bungie. Now, Abuse has been ported to the iPhone and to the Wii, my preferred platform for retro console emulation. Regardless of which platform you play it on check it out.

It happened on the way to Thor's hammer

Not Silent Hill related, but still incredibly cool. See what Agent Coulson was up (video taken down for copyright reasons) Buy the DVD to watch what Agent Coulson was up to on the drive to see what that "meteorite" was about. Thanks to Fanboy.com for posting this bit of awesomeness.

Lone Survivor

Wow. Just wow. Jasper Byrne loves Silent Hill and it shows. Game Set Watch remind us of his passion by bringing us new details on his upcoming game Lone Survivor. Jasper is working hard to finish this game as his entry for the 14th annual Independent Games Festival in March 2012. Both the game and the festival deserve your attention.

First the game. Lone Survivor is a retro inspired Survival Horror game set in a devastated near future after civilization has collapsed. As the protagonist, you will need to survive encounters with monsters, rotting food, other humans, and drugs of various kinds. It looks all kinds of incredible.

Now, lets talk about the Independent Games Festival. If you don't pay attention to the IGF, you should. Past winners include Minecraft, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Limbo, Machinarium, World of Goo, Braid, Alien Hominid, the list goes on (and it will melt you brain with its pixelated goodness). Pay attention to the IGF every March. Its where the future comes from.

The Brain Bats of Venus

In the world of vintage horror comics, you just can't beat Basil Wolverton, and The Brain Bats of Venus is one of his best.

Monsterpiece Theatre

I stumbled across the Twin Beaks episode of Monsterpiece Theater the other day. Its brilliant.

The Cat Lady cometh

This one is creepy. Under development for a year or so, The Cat Lady will be bring horror to the PC. Featuring a cut-paper puppet animation style, and some truly disturbing visuals, this adventure horror game deserves to be on your radar. Check out the trailer that Rely on Horror posted recently for a taste of this game.