No One Is Eating My Brother!

I've loved Halloween since my diaper days, and it's a safe bet that most of us remember the thrill of buying/making our obviously awesome costumes, going door to door trick-or-treating, eating our body weight in candy, and getting just a little freaked out by the decorations that people put up all over the neighborhood. (To those of you whose family didn't celebrate Halloween: I am so, SO sorry.)

Unfortunately, as the years go by costumes tend to give way to fashion, candy is replaced by booze, and trick-or-treating is no longer a viable option for us anymore. Now personally, I will dress up and eat candy until I'm dead, but there are a few parts of the Halloween experience that have to be heaped onto the nostalgia pile. Thankfully, the game developer Double Fine has come up with a great way for us to relive them: Costume Quest.

Run n' Gun... Nope, Just Run

Hi everyone. I know it's been... two years, since we talked. It's ok, you can blame it on me. I'm not pointing fingers at anyone. Except you. Yeah, you. The guy in the Suspiria shirt. You think you're so much better than the rest of us because you watch old-school Italian horror and nothing else? Big bloody deal...

I recently completed Amnesia: The Dark Descent, a PC-only horror title released by Frictional Games. While it's been out for a couple of years (in fact, the sequel drops next month, but more about that in a minute), I only got the chance to play it this summer. Many gamers and horror fans alike were praising its creepy environments, haunting music, and Lovecraftian story nods, so I waited until it went on sale and jumped right in.

Now I can't sleep. 

When it comes to video games, horror protagonists aren't the victimized targets you usually come across in most movies and TV shows. No, our pixelated heroes are armed to the teeth from the start, making most of the "terror" rather anti-climactic. Sure, they may work in a decent jump scare or two, but the sense of dread doesn't last when I can just unload every machine gun round I have into the guy's/monster's/demon's face. This is the way of things because a game, any game, has to have a sense of fun and control for the player (not to mention many of them are "watered down" for the snot-nosed brats who con their folks into buying Mature-rated games). Most developers want to ensure an enjoyable and exciting experience for each person who picks up the controller, so gameplay can often surge ahead of story and/or any chance of lasting fright.

Not pictured: fear.

Except the Ones Who are Dead

As many of you may know, Portal 2 came out a short time ago. Being a gamer who loves puzzle games (especially the humorous ones), I ran to the store to buy it the first day. I have been playing it ever since. As such, I have had one thing on my mind: Portal 2. Still, the Drive-In needs a show every night. And I need to keep up my end of this partnership with Rabbi. So, I've been thinking. And while I would do a Moonlight Spotlight on GLaDOS (and there's little doubt I will in the future), I think I've had enough of looking at why certain characters are scary for a while. Instead, let's look at something that, to my knowledge, hasn't been talked about on the Drive-In before. Let's look at a song. A perfectly harmless and catchy song to anyone else, but for me, this song is terrifying: Still Alive.