Support NeoGAF

[matmanx1]

"The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" is my favorite Lovecraft story although "Shadow over Innsmouth" is not far behind. It's a shame the man's life and work were cut so short as he really is completely unique in what he created.

I approve of any game or movie that successfully recaptures the type of work he was so good at but sadly that is a very tall order and not often done.

 

[Night_Trekker]

Since I see it hasn't been mentioned, I'll also put Siren out there (the PS2 original... haven't played 2 or Blood Curse).

This one probably requires an explanation. I consider Siren "Lovecraftian" in the sense that the evil is otherworldly and unbeatable for most of the game, and most importantly

Spoiler

nearly every character is doomed despite their best, futile efforts

.

That fact that you can fight the enemies in DCotE seems counter to the genre. Especially one particular boss fight.

Also the whole FBI subplot is really kinda "why is this in my Lovecraft game?"

I thought the writing was pretty bad, honestly. None of it was scary. Most of the game felt derivative and didn't live up to my expectations.

I remember getting to the point where

Spoiler

the creature attacks the military ship you're on and you have to fight it off. It kills or runs off all the soldiers on deck first, of course. Right before the first soldier bought it at the hands of the creature, I distinctly remember thinking, "What would be really cliche in this scenario? One of the soldiers is probably named something you'd hear in a generic military movie, like 'Johnson'. 'It got Johnson!'"

And I swear to god right after that someone in the game says exactly that. I was shocked that I had called it, but honestly not surprised at that point.

DCotE is a decent game. I wouldn't even call it "solid"--I think it squanders and fails to effectively implement many of its great ideas--but Lovecraft fans looking for a decent FPS/adventure hybrid really can't go wrong by giving it a try.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

"The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" is my favorite Lovecraft story although "Shadow over Innsmouth" is not far behind. It's a shame the man's life and work were cut so short as he really is completely unique in what he created.

I approve of any game or movie that successfully recaptures the type of work he was so good at but sadly that is a very tall order and not often done.

I approve of YOU and your great taste in HPL.

Though honestly, "The Very Old Folk" is a fucking underrated gem.

 

[ArjanN]

Since I see it hasn't been mentioned, I'll also put Siren out there (the PS2 original... haven't played 2 or Blood Curse).

The mood is pretty similar, even if is based more on japanese mythology.

 

[Daigoro]

Oops

 

[Daigoro]

I havent played Arkham Horror yet, but i really want to pick up a copy soon. Looks like a lot of fun.

Id certainly be interested in an XBLA adaptation of it if they could pull it off. Id buy it in a heartbeat.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

I havent played Arkham Horror yet, but i really want to pick up a copy soon. Looks like a lot of fun.

Id certainly be interested in an XBLA adaptation of it if they could pull it off. Id buy it in a heartbeat.

It's awesome! Downright and bloody.

 

[Imbarkus]

I'm post-whoring, but in case anyone's interested, here are some thoughts I had about a Lovecraft game which I posted in the last thread we had on this subject...

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=402026

An interesting idea there. Looks like you got some lively responses in the thread you posted.

Make it massively multiplayer and you have the groundwork for the "World of Lovecraft" title I was bandying about here. Honestly I think that's the only way something of the magnitude you described would get designed. And even so, the "hub world" of New England seems to be the stumbling block--so many boring, untainted ancient farmhouses between the tainted ones, ya know?

Perhaps an action-RPG that comes in modules you can engage, that almost spiral you off into an instance of the locations you describe, yet all discoverable from a smaller, more eventful central location: Miskatonic University!

 

[Philthy]

The racism thing always comes up in every Lovecraft thread. He really wasn't overtly racist. I've read pretty much every book that contains his letters to and from other authors of the era and he pretty much didn't hate any specific race. He hated the entire human race. Period. He was disgusted with humanity itself, and it really shows in his writings. Everything he writes about deals with the world on the edge of being wiped out from some unknown horror. I guess what I mean to say, he equally hated all races, including his own. He was a man trapped in a world he loathed which made him very bitter.

 

[Imbarkus]

:lol

I've just opened a general Lovecaft thred in the OT for discussing the man and his works not related to gaming influences:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=409244

We have an OT now to use for discussion of his racism or lack thereof. That said, our culture has rapidly changed its view on race relations and gender relations. I'm not sure how you can read anything written a hundred years ago and expect to find progressive attitudes that conform to our current viewpoints.

To keep this thread related to the games, we can at least be glad no makers of Lovecraft games have decided to bring over any of his views on race.

Although I did find it interesting that DCotE did reflect the dim view of the thick-necked, swarthy natives (fishmen) of Innsmouth that was fairly faithful to the source material. Some of that voice-work and the effects placed on them really enhanced the sense of fear for me...

Also, for some slight political overtones, Eternal Darkness did make one of its main characters a firefighter fighting the oil fires set in Iraq around the time of our first police action there, seeming to cast the era as a dark time in history to stand alongside World War One, the Inquisition, and the murder of Charlemagne also depicted in the game.

 

[Safe Bet]

He was a man trapped in a world he loathed which made him very bitter.

trapped within someone else's dream...

That said, our culture has rapidly changed its view on race relations and gender relations.

Victor Roma

 

[Keikoku]

The racism thing always comes up in every Lovecraft thread. He really wasn't overtly racist. I've read pretty much every book that contains his letters to and from other authors of the era and he pretty much didn't hate any specific race. He hated the entire human race. Period. He was disgusted with humanity itself, and it really shows in his writings. Everything he writes about deals with the world on the edge of being wiped out from some unknown horror. I guess what I mean to say, he equally hated all races, including his own. He was a man trapped in a world he loathed which made him very bitter.

And most importantly, he lived in a different time. Judging former authors with our current moral is the most retarded shit ever. Even if he was racist towards black people, pretty much everybody was back then. You can't except people to be visionaries.

 

[Prime crotch]

And most importantly, he lived in a different time. Judging former authors with our current moral is the most retarded shit ever. Even if he was racist towards black people, pretty much everybody was back then. You can't except people to be visionaries.

I don't buy it, his views and more importantly his fear seem more pronounced than other authors from his era, in Call of Cthullu he called an assortment of people "low blood" "degraded and ignorant"; heck, he made a poem called "On the Creation of Niggers"

 

[Safe Bet]

People from New England are Anglophiles

More at 11..

Edit:

I'm not trying to condone racism with the "he was a man of his times" excuse because The Golden Rule isn't a new concept.

 

[Imbarkus]

Some news pieces today tangential to the upcoming Del Toro project on 1up.com

Ken Levine responds to Guillermo del Toro's new involvement with THQ:

Reacting to the news of del Toro's foray into game development, Levine said, "...I'm thinking... he's never made a videogame. Maybe he's got a genius for it. But games are really, really hard to make well. In our industry there's too many people star-struck of the movie world, jumping into deals with some big movie director just because they're big film directors."

Original Article: http://www.1up.com/news/developers-star-struck-hollywood-bioshock-creator

Del Toro defends games as an Art Form:

"Videogames are the comic books of our time," del Toro began, reportedly perking up quite a bit after the question was posed (via Shacknews). "It's a medium that gains no respect among the intelligentsia. They say 'oh, videogames.' And most people that complain about videogames have never f***ing played them." He continued by saying that videogames "are an art form and anyone saying differently is a little out of touch because they are a narrative art form."

...Del Toro also said he expects to officially announce the THQ partnership in two weeks, so hopefully more details on the projects will be announced as well. The only previous details we've heard about his first game is that it's a horror title, but "not survival horror. It's truly a strange, geeky mix. It's a Lovecraftian thing."

Original Article: http://www.1up.com/news/guillermo-del-toro-defends-games

Look for updates to the Original Post in this thread when Del Toro makes his announcement.

 

[Imbarkus]

Game: UPDATE 12/16/2010:

http://www.1up.com/news/thq-insane-trilogy-del-toro
Hmm. Silicon Knights made Eternal Darkness, and then moved on to Too Human, which they originally announced as a Trilogy. Now THQ and Volition pitch the upcoming Lovecraftian horror game 'Insane' as originally designed as a Trilogy, and a "multimedia event," with Del Toro retaining film rights. Del Toro: "With this new series of video games, I want to take players to a place they have never seen before, where every single action makes them question their own senses of morality and reality."

http://www.1up.com/news/guillermo-del-toro-announces-insane
Guillermo del Toro uses an appearance at the Spike VGA's to announce "Insane," his upcoming Lovecraftian game, with a Teaser trailer that shows nothing but a logo and an anticipated launch date sometime in 2013. Release is expected for PC, XBox 360, and PS3.

 

[Imbarkus]

BTW I bought Amnesia and then I got promoted. Haven't had time to play but when I do I will add to the OP. It was just on sale for 50% off on Steam recently, too. Plus, it got a good Game Informer review, and seems to be doing well for Fractional.

 

[Sniper McBlaze]

Didn't find a good place to ask, but does anyone know how long Dark Corners of the Earth is?

 

[Dascu]

Didn't find a good place to ask, but does anyone know how long Dark Corners of the Earth is?

Not too long at all, less than ten hours.

 

[jgkspsx]

Hey, this thread came back just at the right time. I've been reading a lot of Lovecraft lately and have been wondering about it could work in a video game. I just finished "At the Mountains of Madness" and thought "There's no way this could work as a movie, but maybe as a game..." Modern hardware, I think, could come close to realizing the environs of "At the Mountains of Madness." I think Metroid Prime and Bioshock provide a pretty decent template of how to do it.

Amnesia seems like it's actually in the spirit of the work. I would just end up like the guy in that video you've all seen, though. "Ohmygod WHAT IS THAT?? ohmygod etc."

Now, to rant in a different direction:

The Mythos-heads piss me off. (Not the people who enjoy it, but the people who took Lovecraft's work and turned it into something it wasn't intended to be. If you enjoy it, I'm happy for you.) The whole process of systemization carried out by Derleth basically destroyed the ambiguity and confusion that Lovecraft intended the Mythos to carry. He wanted it to be a half-forgotten, half-imagined, incoherent mass of contradictions (which is why he gave his writing buddies free rein to do whatever they wanted with it). Derleth wanted an encyclopedia, apparently.

I guess Lovecraft doesn't really scare me, so much as evoke feelings of vastness and undiscoverability. Which might be a bit much for a pulp novelist - with a really annoying habit of repeating the same things over and over - but like a critic said, "The man had a vision."

That's why the "action oriented" side of things that focuses on weird critters you can kill irritates me. Quake, Eternal Darkness, etc. (It didn't help that whoever named characters in Eternal Darkness was historically/linguistically illiterate - "Pious" my ass. I couldn't take that kind of thing after the first few chapters. Lovecraft would not have approved.)

 

[Crash Station]

Ooh, good timing with the bump. Just finished Saya no Uta which draws a lot of inspiration from the Cthullu Mythos. Need more stuff like that.

 

[Chiggs]

Dark Corners of the Earth is a really well done game. Lots of cheap deaths and harrowing difficulty, but the story is well worth it.

Spoiler

J Edgar Hoover showing up halfway through was a great touch.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

Ooh, good timing with the bump. Just finished Saya no Uta which draws a lot of inspiration from the Cthullu Mythos. Need more stuff like that.

Thanks for the plug, going to check this out actually...

I'm not as impressed/excited about Eternal Darkness as I thought I'd be. I agree, the action-oriented games really have a minor place, if any, in the vein of Lovecraft. Dark Corners has done it the best so far and even that wasn't ideal.

I've been reading some of his shorter stories/letters lately and my god, he is the master of subtlety and setting a mood. If you don't agree/believe me, just go and read "The Thing in the Moonlight". He still puts most things horror to shame with his verbiage.

<3HP!

 

[Mockingbird]

http://www.hulu.com/watch/58787/nig...e-big-surpriseprofessor-peabodys-last-lecture

Lovecraft fans, see: professor peabodys-last-lecture from Rod Serling's Night Gallery

 

[indigo-cyclops]

http://www.hulu.com/watch/58787/nig...e-big-surpriseprofessor-peabodys-last-lecture

Lovecraft fans, see: professor peabodys-last-lecture from Rod Serling's Night Gallery

Great episode and tribute. Don't forget to check out Pickmans Model episode!

And yes OPplease don't forget the GREAT Darkness Within games! Also Sherlock Holmes The Awakened has a Cthulhu cult storyline I believe...

 

[Noisepurge]

i had this game at one point but could never finish it

 

[ArjanN]

i had this game at one point but could never finish it

I liked Prisonor of Ice, very true to the Lovecraft setting and a pretty good spirtitual sequel to Shadow of the Comet, but there are a couple of annoying pixelhunt moments in there. At one point you need to get a pin from a notice board or something and it's like literally 1 pixel big in a room ful of other stuff.

Of course nowadays you can just resort to gamefaqs if you get stuck.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Can Prisoner of Ice be legally bought from any DD store, and does it run on Windows 7 x64?

 

[nickcv]

i just love Arkham Horror, but i don't think i'd enjoy it as much as a XBLA game.

I like having cards, tokens and so on, and playing it on tv would make it feel less like 1920.

 

[Suairyu]

i just love Arkham Horror, but i don't think i'd enjoy it as much as a XBLA game.

I like having cards, tokens and so on, and playing it on tv would make it feel less like 1920.

Yeah, a massive part of Arkham Horror's appeal are the various chits and cards. Something about the physicality of that game that makes it more immersive; I think it'd lose something in the translation to computer. It'd be a lot easier to play, though. No lengthy setup or need to find loads of space. I'd buy it for solo runs or quick practice, but it wouldn't replace the game itself.

 

[Gorgon]

Hey, this thread came back just at the right time. I've been reading a lot of Lovecraft lately and have been wondering about it could work in a video game. I just finished "At the Mountains of Madness" and thought "There's no way this could work as a movie, but maybe as a game..." Modern hardware, I think, could come close to realizing the environs of "At the Mountains of Madness." I think Metroid Prime and Bioshock provide a pretty decent template of how to do it.



That's why the "action oriented" side of things that focuses on weird critters you can kill irritates me. Quake, Eternal Darkness, etc. (It didn't help that whoever named characters in Eternal Darkness was historically/linguistically illiterate - "Pious" my ass. I couldn't take that kind of thing after the first few chapters. Lovecraft would not have approved.)

These two statements are contradictory.

 

[jgkspsx]

These two statements are contradictory.

I suppose they are, aren't they :lol I meant just from a story-telling perspective. I also think the first-person perspective helps induce panic, which is good. It would be even better if a second player could play the grad student.

Gameplay-wise, I think a Sierra-style unforgiving point-and-click-minded adventure is probably the most promising direction to go. People who read the novella will definitely have an advantage, though... although finding interesting ways to die could be really cool as well!

I don't think such a thing would be commercially viable, but I think it's the only way to do it justice. Pointless fantasizing ended

 

[Imbarkus]

Yeah, a massive part of Arkham Horror's appeal are the various chits and cards. Something about the physicality of that game that makes it more immersive; I think it'd lose something in the translation to computer. It'd be a lot easier to play, though. No lengthy setup or need to find loads of space. I'd buy it for solo runs or quick practice, but it wouldn't replace the game itself.

Well hey let's not forget online play, too.

I also think you guys are underestimating the potential for mood-creating audio and animations. The card art in Arkham Horror is great, but imagine unique ambient audio for each location, animated horrors, heck even a unique overall theme for the board depending on which Old One is the prime nemeisis.

I'm not saying it would completely replace the board game for when you get a room full of people. I'm not sure a board game for a Microsoft Surface can do that.

But it would extend that experience into new areas and get more people to play it.

 

[Imbarkus]

The Mythos-heads piss me off. (Not the people who enjoy it, but the people who took Lovecraft's work and turned it into something it wasn't intended to be. If you enjoy it, I'm happy for you.) The whole process of systemization carried out by Derleth basically destroyed the ambiguity and confusion that Lovecraft intended the Mythos to carry.

This is more than fair. If you stick with Derleth's early stuff, before he began to systemize the mythos, you can see what it may have been like to have pure Lovecraft-style horror, but penned in a less... obtuse writing style. Then again, sometimes the "undiscoverability" of the writing itself supports the feelings the story conveys, right?

That's why the "action oriented" side of things that focuses on weird critters you can kill irritates me. Quake, Eternal Darkness, etc. (It didn't help that whoever named characters in Eternal Darkness was historically/linguistically illiterate - "Pious" my ass. I couldn't take that kind of thing after the first few chapters. Lovecraft would not have approved.)

Hey pardon my ignorance but school me a bit on the "Pious Augustus" problem?

Anyway I guess I have to agree. In gameplay, or more specifically in combat, Eternal Darkness is pretty much a Resident Evil with better limb-specific targetting, at least until you get further on it the game and start relying on magic a bit more.

That's why people keep coming back and pointing out Amnesia: The Dark Descent, because the game essentially has no combat. You can't even fight the beasts. This is a lot more true to the Lovecraft feel than the Old Ones bothering to spawn a bunch of zombies for you to hack through.

It's not really a new idea, though. I've been ineffectively running from monsters through the whole Clock Tower series too. Similarly, everyone acted like Alan Wake had some gameplay innovation by having you use a flashlight to shine the darkness off of enemies before you could shoot them. And I was like, hey, I did that already in Obscure.

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth does a pretty good job of keeping the Lovecraft feel in an action game. I mean, for an FPS. You spend the first third of the game without a weapon at all. It does eventually devolve a bit and give you a crazy gun to dispatch Deep Ones with with impunity, but the mix of stealth and exploration elements until the last quarter of the game keeps it from being too much of an an "actiony" Lovecraft game.

I think I can play Amnesia (once I finish the Mass Effects and Dead Spaces I have lined up now), but I'm just not sure I will have the patience to go back and try those old point-and-click adventures. I guess I honestly am an action gamer, who still wants his share of Lovecraftian scares.

 

[Unison]

Certainly not trying to equate Lovecraft and Del Toro, but there's a good New Yorker profile on the latter this week:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/07/110207fa_fact_zalewski?currentPage=all

a cool video peek into his sketchbooks:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/01/zalewski-guillermo-del-toro.html

 

[shuyin_]

Did you guys see AM1200? It reminded me of Lovecraft's stories

 

[jgkspsx]

Then again, sometimes the "undiscoverability" of the writing itself supports the feelings the story conveys, right?

I would agree with that. As much as "I... cannot describe the horrors" gets old, Lovecraft's weird formalism adds a lot to the atmosphere.

Hey pardon my ignorance but school me a bit on the "Pious Augustus" problem?

"Pious" is an English word. "Pius" is Latin, but it's not a noun, it's an adjective, and if it's meant to modify the noun it should come after it.

Besides that, "Augustus" (also an adjective, not a proper name) meant the emperor of the Roman Empire. Full stop. No dumbass centurion would be named "Augustus."

It's just a suspension of disbelief thing. They were so lazy with names, writing, history, etc., that I felt... "why should I take anything they have to say seriously?" I tried not to, but the tone of the game was so self-righteously serious...

I also felt the gameplay to be uninspired. The sanity effects were awesome and all, but I liked them better from Psycho Mantis.

That's why people keep coming back and pointing out Amnesia: The Dark Descent, because the game essentially has no combat. You can't even fight the beasts. This is a lot more true to the Lovecraft feel than the Old Ones bothering to spawn a bunch of zombies for you to hack through.

Yeah, I'm thinking I will need to try it. But I'm scared. But... I feel it... calling... is this... AUGUHhhhh

 

[Imbarkus]

Welp. So much for THQ releasing InSane. Things weren't looking good for this project with THQ's financial troubles, so they're done with it now. Del Toro has the rights to it. Who knows if it will ever be a thing. Maybe Ubi will pick it up?

http://www.giantbomb.com/news/thq-cancels-insane-rights-transfer-to-del-toro/4317/

I'll update the OP.

 

[Philthy]

nm

Thread necromancy caught me off guard.

 

[Carcetti]

The Secret World is a better Lovecraft game than any 'official' Lovecraft game, and I've probably played all of them.

I guess I should clarify and list others I like.

1. Amnesia (Madness, mood and setting)
2. Eternal Darkness (amazing pulp stuff, and wonderful insanity)
3. Alone in the Dark (classic style)
4. Shadow of the Comet (great clicky adventure)
5. Dark Corners of the Earth (too action-y especially at the end, but good effort)

 

[Imbarkus]

The Secret World is a better Lovecraft game than any 'official' Lovecraft game, and I've probably played all of them.

I guess I should clarify and list others I like.

1. Amnesia (Madness, mood and setting)
2. Eternal Darkness (amazing pulp stuff, and wonderful insanity)
3. Alone in the Dark (classic style)
4. Shadow of the Comet (great clicky adventure)
5. Dark Corners of the Earth (too action-y especially at the end, but good effort)

I should try Secret World. I need a new video card to do that, though. Bummer.

 

[Carcetti]

My display card which seems to do ok in the game would probably get laughed out of any pc thread, but I don't really know for sure as I don't keep track of that hardware stuff anymore. It's a Geforce GTX 460.

 

[Imbarkus]

I just missed the free weekend, didn't I?

 

[Carcetti]

Yeah, it just ended. There's the buddy code system but I'm not actually sure how it works and who got a code. I might even have one and not know it.

 

[Imbarkus]

Epic Bump. As part of putting together a series of videos, I ended up using a good deal of help and information from this thread (not my intent when I made the thread, I swear). So thanks to everyone here!

I should probably update OP to reflect Insane being cancelled, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, and Shadow of the Eternals (if it's backed).

Here is my video segment highlighting Lovecraftian horror in movies and games:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk2KigdcNxU

 

[Imbarkus]

Nearing the end of the Shadow of the Eternals Kickstarter and it will need a miracle to be backed:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/617502838/shadow-of-the-eternals-0

I made a second in my series of videos on the subject, this one all about Eternal Darkness:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTaGn4fKsiM

Del Toro's INSANE is obviously totally cancelled after THQ blew up.

Looks like Amnesia: Machine for Pigs is about it for now. Hope it's good.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

The Secret World is a better Lovecraft game than any 'official' Lovecraft game, and I've probably played all of them.

I guess I should clarify and list others I like.

1. Amnesia (Madness, mood and setting)
2. Eternal Darkness (amazing pulp stuff, and wonderful insanity)
3. Alone in the Dark (classic style)
4. Shadow of the Comet (great clicky adventure)
5. Dark Corners of the Earth (too action-y especially at the end, but good effort

Totally agree with this. People who love love heavy games, and Lovecraft need to give this game a chance.

Shadow of the Comet is fantastic. Also, the Dark Seed games. Sherlock Holmes the Awakened is based in the mythos. Darkness Within games, too. And I just realized I already suggested the last two years ago.

Or are we only suggesting games based on actual Lovecraft?

 

[Imbarkus]

Totally agree with this. People who love love heavy games, and Lovecraft need to give this game a chance.

Shadow of the Comet is fantastic. Also, the Dark Seed games. Sherlock Holmes the Awakened is based in the mythos. Darkness Within games, too. And I just realized I already suggested the last two years ago.

Or are we only suggesting games based on actual Lovecraft?

Based on your advice here I bought the latter two above, though I haven't played them yet. Sherlock Holmes was part of this Lovecraft Bundle:

http://vodo.net/hplbundle?referer=igb

Pretty good deal. Steam Keys for Sherlock and Cthulhu Save the World, stand-alone DRM-free installer for Call of Cthulhu: Wasted Lands.

Darkness Within games I got a collector's bundle of both together pretty cheap off Amazon.

So thanks to you and everyone in this thread who helped inform my first video, very fun to make.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

Based on your advice here I bought the latter two above, though I haven't played them yet. Sherlock Holmes was part of this Lovecraft Bundle:

http://vodo.net/hplbundle?referer=igb

Pretty good deal. Steam Keys for Sherlock and Cthulhu Save the World, stand-alone DRM-free installer for Call of Cthulhu: Wasted Lands.

Darkness Within games I got a collector's bundle of both together pretty cheap off Amazon.

So thanks to you and everyone in this thread who helped inform my first video, very fun to make.

Enjoy them all. I think you will like the Darkness Within games. A very small Turkish team, like 3 guys, managed to make a few compelling games. The first game is very eerie.

The Awakened is just amazing.

 

[Imbarkus]

Cool. I also bought a boxed copy of the Penumbra collection for $15.

Now it's like $5 on gog.com.