DOCSLIB.ORG

Silent Hill: the Terror Engine

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Silent Hill: the Terror Engine Perron, Bernard. Silent Hill: The Terror Engine. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2012, https://doi.org/10.3998/lvg.11053908.0001.001. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Silent Hill Perron, Bernard. Silent Hill: The Terror Engine. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2012, https://doi.org/10.3998/lvg.11053908.0001.001. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution LANDMARK VIDEO GAMES The Landmark Video Games book series is the first in the English language in which each book addresses a specific video game or video game series in depth, examining it in the light of a variety of approaches, including game design, genre, form, content, meanings, and its context within video game his- tory. The specific games or game series chosen are historically significant and influential games recognized not only for their quality of gameplay but also for setting new standards, introducing new ideas, incorporating new technol- ogy, or otherwise changing the course of a genre or area of video game history. The Landmark Video Games book series hopes to provide an intimate and detailed look at the history of video games through a study of exemplars that have paved the way and set the course that others would follow or emulate, and that became an important part of popular culture. Myst and Riven: The World of the D’ni by Mark J. P. Wolf Silent Hill: The Terror Engine by Bernard Perron DIGITALCULTUREBOOKS, an imprint of the University of Michigan Press, is dedicated to publishing work in new media studies and the emerging field of digital humanities. Perron, Bernard. Silent Hill: The Terror Engine. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2012, https://doi.org/10.3998/lvg.11053908.0001.001. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Silent Hill The Terror Engine Bernard Perron The University of Michigan Press • Ann Arbor Perron, Bernard. Silent Hill: The Terror Engine. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2012, https://doi.org/10.3998/lvg.11053908.0001.001. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Copyright © by Bernard Perron 2012 Some rights reserved This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America A Printed on acid-free paper 2015 2014 2013 2012 4 3 2 1 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Perron, Bernard. Silent hill : the terror engine / Bernard Perron. p. cm. — (Landmark video games) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-472-07162-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-472- 05162-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-472-02783-5 (e-book) 1. Silent Hill (Game) I. Title. GV1469.35.S54P47 2011 794.8—dc23 2011028327 Perron, Bernard. Silent Hill: The Terror Engine. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2012, https://doi.org/10.3998/lvg.11053908.0001.001. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Acknowledgments I would like to thank: Shantal Robert and Léa Elisabeth Perron who let me spend sleepless nights in Silent Hill throughout the years; My parents, as always; Matteo Bitanti and Costa Nolan who published an earlier version of this book in Italian in 2006; Thomas Dwyer and his team at the University of Michigan Press for their great support regarding this current version; Shanly Dixon and Kelly Boudreau who have revised the manuscript with care and, above all, have helped me have clearer thoughts all along; Clayton George Bailey for his initial and much appreciated literary advice; Sébastien Babeux for his comments and great help through our constant nocturnal correspondence; And everyone else that helped me in one way or another: François Lévesque, Lorenzo Bassanelli, Jean Châteauvert, Carl Therrien, Dan Birlew, Peter Nguyen, Mark J. P. Wolf, Pierre Fontaine, Serge Cardinal, Serge Fortin, and Andréane Morin-Simard. Perron, Bernard. Silent Hill: The Terror Engine. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2012, https://doi.org/10.3998/lvg.11053908.0001.001. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Perron, Bernard. Silent Hill: The Terror Engine. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2012, https://doi.org/10.3998/lvg.11053908.0001.001. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Contents Introduction 1 1. Survival Terror 10 2. Characters’ Nightmarish Delusions in a Resort Town 33 3. Designers’ Cinematic Depiction of a Game World 65 4. Gamers’ Terrifying Exploration of Silent Hill 95 Conclusion: An Endless Nightmare 126 The Silent Hill Franchise (1999–2009) 136 Notes 139 Glossary 149 Bibliography and Ludography 151 Index 159 Perron, Bernard. Silent Hill: The Terror Engine. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2012, https://doi.org/10.3998/lvg.11053908.0001.001. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Perron, Bernard. Silent Hill: The Terror Engine. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2012, https://doi.org/10.3998/lvg.11053908.0001.001. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Introduction The way is the goal. —Theravada Buddhist proverb The typical starting point for any discussion about Silent Hill is a compari- son to Resident Evil. Given that Capcom’s big hit console series (1996) was introduced before Konami’s Silent Hill (1999), it was and still is the obliga- tory reference. However, as the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine stated on the cover of its issue of March 1999, SH11 was “more than just a Resident Evil Clone” (quoted in Davison 2001, 130). At the time, the technical and aesthetic progress was the first thing noticed. The 2-D prerendered real- istic backgrounds of Raccoon City were replaced by Silent Hill’s real-time 3-D environments. In addition, the fixed camera angles began to move in a dynamic fashion. Although both titles aspired to create a cinematic horror experience, the references were not the same. Resident Evil has always been compared to Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968) and Silent Hill to The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973). This comparison also enabled the differentiation of the overarching scenario of each series: in one, mem- bers of Special Tactics and Rescue Service are progressively uncovering the evil doings of “the Umbrella Corporation” and battling a cadre of flesh- eating zombies and biotech monstrosities; in the other, ordinary individu- als2 are caught up in the evil plan of a religious cult known as “The Order” and have to battle monsters and other humanoid creatures that spring forth from the supernatural power of tortured minds. These narrative frame- works eventually gave birth to two different games. Resident Evil is more Perron, Bernard. Silent Hill: The Terror Engine. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2012, https://doi.org/10.3998/lvg.11053908.0001.001. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution 2 • Silent Hill action-oriented, focusing on quick thrill jumps, scares, and gory images, while Silent Hill is devised to be more psychological in nature, more about character and atmosphere, intending to convey a tone of dread, anxiety, and helplessness. Since playing games can become a passion, discussing Silent Hill with specific reference to Resident Evil (or vice versa) often leads to inflamed debate. Various fan sites and discussion forums are the theater of such clashes. Reviewers also frequently refer to one game or another to express their opinions. For example, Michael Riser’s web review of SH3 (2003): Stretching aesthetically beyond the confines of the genre, the first two Silent Hill games occasionally felt more about experience and reflec- tion than actual gameplay, but they have enjoyed a large cult following since their inception. Whilst I loathe making this completely inevitable comparison, there are still many who continue to hold Resident Evil’s zombie-blasting mediocrity in higher regard simply because the game- play can feel a touch more focused. These are the same people who don’t really understand what the Silent Hill games are all about, either because they don’t try very hard, don’t want to, or simply don’t (personal taste plays a part in all things, no less here than anywhere). This isn’t to make fans of the series sound like elitists, for all the Silent Hill games have had their share of flaws, but this is more to show that it takes a certain kind of person to enjoy a trip to the Hill. No matter how much the games are praised or chastened, there will always be those who hate or love them for various and completely valid reasons. But if you’re one who’s willing (and brave enough) to spend some time in thought about the series’ demented subject matter, you may find yourself wallowing in a deeper experience than you bargained for. These remarks illustrate an ongoing polemical mode of inquiry that I will forego. I will however, use a portion of Riser’s comments as my point of departure. The extraordinary power of Silent Hill, as many reviewers have noted, lies in the fact that the series isn’t simply a game but rather a uniquely powerful emotional experience.3 In the Making of SH2 (Beuglet 2001), the subtitle Alchemists of Emotion really is an appropriate title, refer- ring as it does to the now famous “Team Silent,” the development team responsible for the first four games of the series.4 It is for this dimension that millions of copies of the Silent Hill series have been sold to date.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Page 22 Survival Horrality: Analysis of a Videogame Genre (1) Ewan
    Page 22 Survival Horrality: Analysis of a Videogame Genre (1) Ewan Kirkland Introduction The title of this article is drawn from Philip Brophy’s 1983 essay which coins the neologism ‘horrality’, a merging of horror, textuality, morality and hilarity. Like Brophy’s original did of 1980s horror cinema, this article examines characteristics of survival horror videogames, seeking to illustrate the relationship between ‘new’ (media) horror and ‘old’ (media) horror. Brophy’s term structures this investigation around key issues and aspects of survival horror videogames. Horror relates to generic parallels with similarly­labelled film and literature, including gothic fiction, American horror cinema and traditional Japanese culture. Textuality examines the aesthetic qualities of survival horror, including the games’ use of narrative, their visual design and structuring of virtual spaces. Morality explores the genre’s ideological characteristics, the nature of survival horror violence, the familial politics of these texts, and their reflection on issues of institutional and bodily control. Hilarity refers to moments of humour and self reflexivity, leading to consideration of survival horror’s preoccupation with issues of vision, identification, and the nature of the videogame medium. ‘Survival horror’ as a game category is unusual for its prominence within videogame scholarship. Indicative of the amorphous nature of popular genres, Aphra Kerr notes: ‘game genres are poorly defined and evolve as new technologies and fashions emerge’;(2) an observation which applied as much to videogame academia as to the videogame industry. Within studies of the medium, various game types are commonly listed. These might include the shoot­‘em­up, the racing game, the platform game, the God game, the real­time strategy game, and the puzzle game,(3) the simulation, role­playing, fighting/action, sports, traditional and ‘”edutainment”’ game,(4) or action, adventure, strategy and ‘process­orientated’ games.(5) These clusters of game types tend to be broad, commonsensical, and under­theorized.
    [Show full text]
  • Not of Woman Born: Monstrous Interfaces and Monstrosity in Video Games
    NOT OF WOMAN BORN: MONSTROUS INTERFACES AND MONSTROSITY IN VIDEO GAMES By LAURIE N. TAYLOR A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2006 Copyright 2006 by Laurie N. Taylor To Pete. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have many people to thank for this dissertation: my friends, family, and teachers. I would also like to thank the University of Florida for encouraging the study of popular media, with a high level of critical theory and competence. This dissertation also would not have been possible without the diligent help and guidance from my committee members, Donald Ault and Jane Douglas, as well as numerous other faculty members and graduate students both at the University of Florida and at other institutions. Thanks go to friends and loved ones (and cats): Colin, Jeremiah, Nix, Galahad, and Mila. And, thanks go always to Pete, for helping with research, discussion, giving me love and support, and for being wonderful. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..............................................................................................iv ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1 Introduction..............................................................................................................1
    [Show full text]
  • Ka As Shomin-Geki: Problematizing Videogame Studies William Huber 34 Rausch Street 401 San Francisco, CA 94103 USA +1 415 861 5863 [email protected]
    Ka as shomin-geki: Problematizing videogame studies William Huber 34 Rausch Street 401 San Francisco, CA 94103 USA +1 415 861 5863 [email protected] ABSTRACT The paper addresses limitations of strictly interactive theories of videogame genre, proposes a supplementary, historicist inter-media alternative, and interprets the videogame Ka as a ludic worked based in the shomin-geki tradition of Japanese cinema. Keywords Japanese cultural history, videogame genre theory, shomin-geki, domesticity, intertextuality Rather than looking at videogames in general, this paper examines one game in particular as a cultural artifact: Ka, produced in Japan in 2001, and later released in the US and Europe as Mister Mosquito. By bringing a historicist sensibility to the study of individual games in the aftermath of the initial ludology/narratology formalist discussions, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a way to access videogames as texts in ways that recognize their inherent, media-specific structure as videogames, yet also explore their inevitable intertextualities. To begin with, I look at some general aspects of genre theory as they affect the study of games. I then turn to the game itself, breaking out the structure in a table of interactive and narrative events. An explanation of the shomin-geki comedy drama follows, with attention to how the texts of that genre react to historical changes in the discursive field it tracks, ultimately to include Ka in its concern with the ongoing construction of domesticity in Japan. By tracking genre-formation to historical anxieties within cultural practice, and seeing game-texts as participants in intertextual, thematic genres, we can better understand how they generate discursive positions within gameplay.
    [Show full text]
  • Horror Videogames and the Uncanny Ewan Kirkland Kingston University London [email protected]
    Horror Videogames and the Uncanny Ewan Kirkland Kingston University London [email protected] ABSTRACT gaming community. Across survival horror can be observed This paper explores the uncanny dimensions of avatars and a movement from Sweet Home (1989) to Resident Evil 4 gamespaces in survival horror videogames. The avatar’s (2004) and Silent Hill Homecoming (2009) where playable combination of animation and lifelessness personifies characters evolve from being represented using a two- Freud’s notion of the uncanny. Simultaneously, the dimensional top-down perspectives, to fully three cybernetic interaction between player and machine, dimensional figures realised with complex texturing and whereby the digital figure appears to act with autonomy and lighting effects. In this respect the avatar has increasingly agency, unsettles the boundaries between dead object and assumed qualities of the uncanny in its close visual, living person. Spaces in survival horror games characterise auditory and perambulatory approximation to the human the uncanny architecture of horror films and literature. form – the sense of disquiet which Freud observes is Many suggest the unsettling psychological disturbance produced when ‘an inanimate object becomes too much like lurking behind the homely and the familiar. A recurring an animate one’ [5]. At the same time as becoming aspect of survival horror combines the investigation of a increasingly lifelike, there remains something unavoidably protagonist’s origins, a return to the family home, and the lifeless about the avatar. There is a robotic repetitive quality exploration of gynecological spaces – blood red corridors, to their movements – they are, in many ways, virtual womb-like caverns, bloody chambers – reproducing what is puppets.
    [Show full text]
  • User Profiling on the Basis of Interactions with a Computer Game
    FACULTY OF COMPUTING, ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY USER PROFILING ON THE BASIS OF INTERACTIONS WITH A COMPUTER GAME SIMON BILLINGS JANUARY 2013 Adapting computer software to the individual user during run-time could offer substantial advantages over the current practice of tailoring software to groups of users during the development process (Stewart 2007; Charles et al. 2005; Charles & Black 2004; Houlette 2004). In order to achieve this, the computer requires information about the user, yet its ability to perceive them is severely limited (Suchman 2006 p.167; Fisher 2001). In an effort to address this shortcoming, this dissertation examines the potential for determining an individual’s personality through analysis of their interactions with commercial computer games – which, in common with cinema and literature, work on an underlying model of reality – as well as their performance in game elements using an underlying general intelligence factor, and their emotional state from visual and physiological cues. Through a program of original primary research, it demonstrates that data pertaining to several of the big five personality factors can be captured from interactions with a commercial computer game, and explores methods for predicting these personality traits using regression analysis and clustering techniques. It also employs a series of factor analyses to investigate the latent variables present in interactions with a computer role-playing game, as a foundation for further work. A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF STAFFORDSHIRE UNIVERSITY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PAGE│I ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish acknowledge, with immense gratitude, my debt of thanks to Dr. Len Noriega for his counsel, aid, and encouragement; to my family and friends for supporting me during the writing of this dissertation; and to Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Company Profile
    ＣＯＭＰＡＮＹ ＰＲＯＦＩＬＥＣＯＭＰＡＮＹ ＰＲＯＦＩＬＥ ＭＡＹＭＡＹ--２００２２００２ Onimusha 2 – Samurai’s destiny MegaMan Battle Network 2 Devil May Cry 2 Resident Evil 0 Capcom's position in the video game industry （Unit: 100 Millions of Yen ） Nintendo Konami Sega Capcom Koei Enix Namco Square Net Sales 5,548 2,255 2,063 627 240 248 1,521 366 Operating Profit 1,191 268 142 97 91 74 61 54 of Operating Profit 21.5% 11.9% 6.9% 15.5% 37.9% 29.8% 4.0% 14.8% Net Income 1,064 135 -178 49 55 42 20 -165 ＊１．Source “Financial Statement for FY2001” by respective company 2. Ranked by Operating Profit JapaneseJapanese marketmarket shareshare basedbased onon consumerconsumer gamegame salessales inin FY2001;FY2001; andand U.S.U.S. marketmarket shareshare basedbased onon actualactual salessales inin FY2001FY2001 Japanese Market （ '000 copies） U.S.Market （Unit:US$1,000） Company Name Sales Units Share Company Name Sales Share １. Nintendo 7,615 16.50% １． EA 509,539 20.29% ２. Konami 5,366 11.63% ２． Take2 260,425 10.37% ３. Sony 4,553 9.86% ３． Sony 189,690 7.55% ４. Capcom 3,623 7.85% ４． Sega 185,899 7.40% ５. Square 3,591 7.78% ５． Microsoft 151,377 6.03% ６. Bandai 3,311 7.17% ６． Konami 132,735 5.29% ７． Enix 2,643 5.73% ７． Activision 119,624 4.76% ８． Sega 2,326 5.04% ８． Nintendo 109,888 4.38% ９． Namco 1,988 4.31% ９． Acclaim 98,277 3.91% １０． Koei 1,468 3.18% １０． Capcom 80,347 3.20% Others 9,673 20.96% Others 673,359 26.81% Total 46,157 100.00% Total 2,511,162 100.00% ※Source:Media Works co.,ltd "The Analysis of Consumer Video Games FY2001" ※Software sales for 32 bit hardwares or above.
    [Show full text]
  • GIN 02.Tesogfmr.Qxd 12/17/03 11:12 AM Page 1
    GIN _02.tesogfmr.qxd 12/17/03 11:12 AM Page 1 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2; DECEMBER 21, 2003 Happy Holidays? The bipolar pendulum seems to be swing- licensed properties, is finding that it’s possi- prices early in the year (definitely before ing back and forth so quickly that you’d ble to abuse franchises: Without a new book E3). THQ also said that it has PSP emula- think everyone in the videogame industry or film with which to cross-promote, Harry tors on hand and has begun development were wearing neck braces. Several months Potter: Quidditch World Cup is not perform- for that promising platform. ago, industry wags maintained that ing as expected. It will be interesting to see Nintendo’s third-place standing in the what EA learns about a movie tie-in game— In 2004, videogames will become even console race was permanent enough for without a movie to tie in with it—as it pre- more mainstream purchases. In a recent pre- the company to get out of the hardware pares a big Lord of the Rings game for next sentation, Electronic Arts CFO Warren business. Now, a huge price cut later, year, a year with no Lord of the Rings film. Jensen reminded an audience of institutional Nintendo will come out of the holiday investors that during the previous cycle, shopping season with a strong second- “I’m not sure how thankful I am,” an more than 90 percent of PlayStation 1 sales place showing. East Coast electronics-chain buyer told us in came after the price dipped below $149.
    [Show full text]
  • Aesthetics of Play: Online Proceedings
    Aesthetics of Play: Online Proceedings http://www.aestheticsofplay.org/perron.php You are here: AoP frontpage >> Paper: Bernard Perron Printer friendly version Paper presented at the Aesthetics of Play conference in Bergen, Norway, 14-15 October 2005 Coming to Play at Frightening Yourself :Welcome to the World of Horror Video Games ABOUT AESTHETCIS OF PLAY The computer game conference Bernard Perron (University of Montreal) Aesthetics of Play took place 14 - 15 October 2005, arranged by the In response to critics of supernatural horror tales, H.P. Lovecraft commenced his now famous work of Department of Information Science literature with this incisive reply: and Media Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway. The AoP Online The appeal of the spectrally macabre is generally narrow because it demands from the Proceedings include 14 contributions reader a certain degree of imagination and a capacity for detachment from everyday from the conference, including slides life. Relatively few are free enough from the spell of the daily routine to respond to and video from Jon Dovey's keynote tappings from outside, and tales of ordinary feelings and events, or of common presentation. We have also put up sentimental distortions of such feelings and events, will always take first place in the taste some pictures from the conference. of the majority... ([1927] 1973 : 12). For more information, please contact Reformulated nowadays, Lovecraft might as easily have suggested that the appeal of the spectrally Rune Klevjer [rune dot klevjer at macabre demands that one plays its game. Because, while it is true that all genres are characterized infomedia dot uib dot no].
    [Show full text]
  • Time Crisis Ps2 Cheats
    Time crisis ps2 cheats click here to download Clear Rescue Mission Story Mode with an accuracy of 75% or higher. Complete "Arcade Mode's" "Story Mode" without continuing to unlock Mirror Mode in "Arcade Mode's" "Bonus Options". Complete "Rescue Mission's" "Story Mode" without continuing to unlock Mirror Mode in "Rescue. For Time Crisis II on the PlayStation 2, GameFAQs has 14 cheat codes and secrets. Get all the inside info, cheats, hacks, codes, walkthroughs for Time Crisis II on GameSpot. Time Crisis II Cheats For PlayStation 2. When you battle the machine guns on the side of the helicopter, just use your grenade launcher and blow up the middle one. all three should explode. do the. The best place to get cheats, codes, cheat codes, walkthrough, guide, FAQ, unlockables, tricks, and secrets for PlayStation 2 (PS2). Shoot the hole in the center of the letter "R" in the word "CRISIS" twice, then shoot inside the cross hairs that are next to the word "TIME" twice. A cheat menu. The best place to get cheats, codes, cheat codes, walkthrough, guide, FAQ, unlockables, tricks, and secrets for PlayStation 2 (PS2). Successfully complete the Rescue mission, and the Time Crisis 3 title screen will show Alicia. Boss title. One Stage Trial for both Arcade and Rescue Mission Mode. Either play in the stage or just beat the entire mode. PS2 | Submitted by GamesRadar. Time Crisis II Questions. We have 3 questions and 2 answers for this game. Check them out to find answers or ask your own to get the exact game help you.
    [Show full text]
  • Remothered: Tormented Fathers
    Remothered: Tormented Fathers Nella mia storia di gamer ho vissuto un periodo (neanche breve) in cui mi sono allontanato dai videogame. Non è stato un momento dettato da ragioni di stanchezza nei confronti del medium, né una scelta dovuto a mancanza di stimoli: senza troppi giri di parole è stata una forma diself- punishment, dovuta a una serie di circostanze che hanno caratterizzato una transizione particolare della mia vita. Il ritorno all’ovile videoludico è avvenuto in un momento ancora più critico, un frangente in cui ho capito la reale dimensione dei videogame nella mia esistenza: quella di scialuppa di salvataggio, asse di quella Pequod che, irrobustita da scrittura e letteratura, mi ha permesso negli anni di restare a galla nell’eterna lotta contro i miei capodogli umorali. In quel frangente difficile, in piena epoca PS3, mi ritrovai a rispolverare la mia vecchiaPS2 come fossi ancora lo studente dei primi anni di università. Capii tempo dopo le ragioni della scelta, che risiedevano in un bisogno di ritrovamento di un “Io originario”, lasciato forzatamente per anni in un ripostiglio della coscienza. Ricordo che entrai in un negozio e, ravanando tra l’usato, trovai una copia diHaunting Ground, che si rivelò il mezzo necessario per l’apertura di quel portale temporale: è curioso che, in un momento simile, nel quale molti penserebbero come necessaria la serenità piuttosto che un concentrato di tensione e immagini cupe, siano stati i survival horror a tornare in mio soccorso. Dico “tornare” perché il lato gotico del fantastico è stato un po’ il mio portale d’accesso a tutte le arti: quello di racconti e arabeschi di Edgar Allan Poe della SugarCo è stato il primo libro che ricordo di aver amato, così come nel cinema dei quei primi anni ’90 rimanevo folgorato da IT.
    [Show full text]
  • How Long to Beat Resident Evil 4
    How long to beat resident evil 4 Continue 22:19 Average time 01:01 Minimum time 200:00 Maximum time is not recorded yet. Resident Evil 4 makes the jump in the Nintendo Switch today, and if you haven't played before then you're in for a real treat. One of the best records in the series, Leon's adventure to save Ashley from the clutches of Ganados is a proper rip-roaring affair. However, with a high asking price many players are probably wondering how much time they will be in should they pick it up. Fortunately, like an older title, the completion clock is already well documented. Whether you're just here for a major story or want to collect all the treasures and finish the DLC, here's how long to beat Resident Evil 4. As Resident Evils go, Leon's journey is one of the longer games to beat. © Capcom With more than 700 users surveyed, popular hour-tracking website Howlongtobeat puts the average completion time for a Resident Evil 4 story at a solid 16 hours, making it a fairly lengthy title compared to others in the series. There's still plenty to enjoy in Resi 4 though, including an excellent mercenary mode and a separate DLC path that lets you play as the elusive Ada Wong. Put the time into all these and hunt down a treasure or two and you will most likely gain about 20-22 hours. Of course, some of us are here to see and do it all. Resi 4 contains many treasures, weapons and other secrets for you to find, and some can only be obtained by taking certain paths or fulfilling odd requirements, all of which will increase the amount of time you can expect it to take to beat.
    [Show full text]
  • Resident Evil Series
    Zombies, Phallic Monsters, and Rocket Launchers: An Examination of Gender Representations and Simulations in the Resident Evil Series Christopher Alton A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Communication and Culture, York University, Toronto, Ontario May, 2020 © Chris Alton, 2020 ii Abstract Capcom’s Resident Evil series (1996-present) is the second longest running horror video game series, following Konami’s Castlevania (1986-present). The series has, from its beginning, offered a choice of gendered protagonists with associated unique narrative and gameplay experiences, to say nothing of the gendered nature of the series antagonists. In this dissertation, I examine how gender dynamics, norms, expectations, and subversions are depicted and represented across the games in the Resident Evil series. I use an approach which embraces presentation (the ways characters are depicted in audio/visual terms), narrative (what roles characters play in the stories), and gameplay aspects (what the player is tasked with in the games, and how they are expected to succeed) of the main games in the Resident Evil series. Using key texts on the ontology of video games, gender/sexuality in the horror genre, and intersectionality/international feminism, I examine the whole of the Resident Evil series, as well as the guides and making-of materials, spin-offs, offshoots, and contemporary reviews. How the choice of male versus female protagonist choice is delineated, paired with the ways in which characters, male, female, and otherwise, are portrayed in relation to one another is the larger focus of this dissertation.
    [Show full text]