The church on Church Road in North Berwick finally put out their ‘Autumn Harvest’ display, created by local kids….
I’m never sure with these skelly filled pumpkins if the skull is meant to be in the pumpkin’s mouth or if it’s some sort of hat for the skull….whatever the case it kinda looks like this one either has horns (which is kinda weird for a church piece)…or slightly formed Mickey Mouse ears!
This one above has a wicked grin….and some pretty groovy eyes!
Ah, a more traditional variant here! I must try and get a shot of them all lit up at night….I already tried but it was raining and my camera was having none of it!
Look at this dapper chappy with his moustache and monocle! Love it!
And this one reminds me of the Headless Horseman’s head, with the creepy almost stitched mouth…
Something different this year is this utterly awesome Haunted house display!
Look at that starry background!
Taking a closer look you can see the little cotton wool ghosts, tiny pumpkins and a bat motif above the door! Love the effort that’s been put into this!
A great display again this year, I’m sure you’ll agree!
I feel I'm going to have to put a note here to explain something...I got the utterly devastating news that my great nephew had passed away this morning. He was only twenty two, so it came as a massive shock to everyone.
This will obviously have an impact on the rest of my Countdown this year.
If I'm a bit quiet over the rest of the week, you'll now understand why. I also didn't want anyone to worry about me if I'm not posting, as I put up a couple of messages about my health, but as far as I know, I'm fine other than my usual crappy immune system nonsense I get at this time of year as the weather gets colder, and some dental issues....
I am still going to try and post (if anything, it will help take my mind off things) but it's just that a couple of the posts I had planned I can no longer go near, as they involve ghosts and deaths, and I'm not sure I'm in a place for that right now. And likewise there may be some posts that some of you might put up that I won't be able to look at for a while. I will get to them eventually...but it's going to be a rough few weeks first, I think....
Thankfully the other issues I'd hinted at in my first post on the Countdown seemed to have quietened down for now, or it would have almost been impossible for me to deal with everything...
Thanks, in advance, for understanding, as I know you lovely lot will!
And for anyone who isn't a regular, click the badge below so you can go meet the fine folk I'm talking about....
Had little to no sleep at all last night, and the blog is hurting my eyes, so have another quick selection of Halloween cards! Normal service wll hopefully resume tomorrow!
Been a while since I did a proper Gruesome Games post, which is odd because I've been collecting more horror-filled games than I even was before...so let's knock a few more of them of the top of the blog backlog!
Baron Frankenstein has decided it is about time he got back to working on his favourite hobby, monster making...but as usual, the lazy bugger has decided that he needs to focus on the important task of building of the monster itself, and sends off poor Egor, his ever faithful assistant, to do all the busywork of finding the tools and body parts required for the experiments.
After getting physically booted off screen by the Baron to start your quest, you, as Egor, must wander all throughout the castle, surrounding grounds and village and gather everything up. Frankenstein will tell you what he needs next, and you have a bag to pop whatever item he's after into when you find it. And when you do, you have to travel all the way back to the lab to find out what's next on the list.
Egor doesn't even have a weapon to fight off all the horrible characters he'll meet along the way! All he has is a pathetic jump with which to try and avoid contact with the enemies, and so he'll forever be getting harassed and terrified by all manner of beasts.
This constant fear is what works as Egor's health, as every time he touches an enemy or trap, he'll become ever more frightened, going from being okay to a full blown panic! If he can find one of the local barmaids before he reaches a panic, he'll calm down a bit though. And if he successfully manages to bring the current item back to the lab, the meter will also reset to calm. If he does manage to lose it and freak out completely though, he'll run straight back to the Baron in the lab and be punished by squish-ment from a cartoonish anvil that the baron will drop on his head.
The nasties are a varied bunch, with rats and bats, killer plants, ghosts, angry villagers, knights in armour and severed hands among the things you'll be facing, and everything has been designed well with all the characters and backgrounds having a nice spooky, cartoony feel to them.
However, sometimes there are far too many enemies in one tiny area, and you'll get frustrated as your fear bar rapidly shoots towards panic and there's no way you can really avoid hitting the baddies. Also, whenever Egor does his jump move, the Amiga blurts out a horrible spring-type noise, and given the amount of jumping you'll be doing in this game, it can get very annoying, very quickly!
Having said that, it's still fun enough for a few goes, and it's interesting to see all the new enemies in the different areas and how well they fit into the cliches of our favourite made-monster tale! It's just a pity it wasn't a little bit better and less frustrating......
*~*
The Cabin Factory (PC, Switch, Xbox One & Series, Playstation 4 & 5) :
This is a game I only found out existed today while watching Mr. SteJ's morning stream, but after watching him play, I headed straight over to Steam to pay the very reasonable price of £1.86 to enjoy it's random spookyness for myself!
You take on the role of a Cabin Inspector at a factory that designs horror cabins for the movie and theme park industries, and it's your job to find out if each cabin is currently haunted or clear of spooks! Sounds simple enough, right!?
Well lets just say it becomes apparent very quickly, that there's a little more to this story, but because of the nature of the game and it's short length, it's probably best to say very little about what takes place once you get into the cabins themselves....
Once you exit the cabin, it's a simple push of a button to say whether or not it was filled with spooks, and then the next cabin will be brought along on a conveyor belt for you to check.
Taking it's cues from the many, many horror-themed walking sims that have come before it, The Cabin Factory still manages to put enough cool scares into the game, and surround it with a suitably spooky story that makes it worth way more than the asking price!
If this still doesn't convince you that it's worth your time and money, well maybe this clip from Mr. SteJ's stream this morning will convince you instead...
(** LOUDNESS WARNING!!!**)
Once you finish a day of work, you'll get to go and test more cabins to see all the 'anomalies' (scares) and try and collect all the achievements, which helps give the game a bit more longevity and replayability....and also gives more clues as to the deeper story behind it all...
Go pick it up! It's super cheap, and perfect for Halloween!
*~*
Forgotten Forest (Commodore 64) :
Forgotten Forest is a game that was originally made for the 2011 Sideways SEUCK competition, by one of the masters of Shoot-Em-Up Construction Kit developed games, Alf Yngve. I remember playing his 'Cops' games back in the 90s when I first picked up a C64 after years of being a ZX Spectrum collector, and every few years since I'll discover more of his games as he's continued working on them pretty much since then!
This one takes it's inspiration from the Forbidden Forest games, and sees the protagonist enter a spooky forest filled with giant spiders, bees, bats, frogs and haunted trees amongst other...things....
As with most SEUCK games, it's a rather simple affair, with you pretty much going left and right and shooting a barrage of enemies with your weapon, but somehow they usually seem to remain fun, especially Alf's games...and this one is no exception.
Another staple of these games is there difficulty, and again there are no surprises here as it can be really challenging trying to get to the next level as the relentless creepy crawlies try to stop you in your tracks. Thankfully the version I have came with a couple of cheats that let me see a bit more of the game than I usually would, so that was nice! :D
As always, I'm a sucker for a horror-themed spin on things, and the spooky trees, creepy beasties and the dark atmosphere throughout the game give it extra brownie points when it comes to me recommending it, and that is exactly what I'm going to do....along with....
Forgotten Forest 2 (Commodore 64) :
Yes! A Sequel, also by Alf, but this time going back to the more traditional horizontal scrolling that SEUCK games had back in the day, before various improvements and modifications were added that allowed the side scrolling scene in the previous game.
Again, it's pretty simple stuff! You're back in the forest, but this time werewolfs, floating skulls, creepy slendermen type things and other grisly ghouls are all out to put a stop to your journey ever-upward beyond the trees!
Once again it's the spooky atmosphere and graphics that make this stand out to me, but that basic old-skool shooting action remains fun and challenging enough to make me keep coming back for another go. And this one has a slightly better soundtrack to bop along to as you shoot your way to victory (or, in my case, inevitable defeat)....
Both games are well worth a go, and are very well suited to the Halloween season, so go stock up on ammo and get wandering into the Forgotten Forest via your C64 or suitable emulators!!
*~*
Lucius (PC) :
As you can probably guess from the images of the game and artwork of Lucius dotted around this post, the game is basically an unofficial "The Omen" game....which naturally got me very interested in it! Buying it several years ago in a sale, it has sat in my Steam library until I had a computer capable of running even a game this old. And last year, that became the case!
As Lucius, we are the son of Lucifer, born into an unsuspecting wealthy family with various servants and visitors who start to annoy poor Lucius. One year, our real father visits us on our birthday and suggests we start following a dark path, giving us a few birthday gifts to get things started and some tips on how to get things done....
One accidental death in a walk in freezer later, and an ever-increasingly-suspicious detective shows up for the first of what is likely to be many unfortunate incidents. Can we keep up the facade of being a "good little boy" and tidying our room, doing our chores, etc, whilst also getting rid of annoying people and avoiding the bumbling detective??
When it first appeared, this game had very mixed reviews, mainly due to some shoddy mechanics and laughable dialogue. But as you probably know, I love a bit of bad dialogue and slightly iffy mechanics, so long as the rest of the game is fun and entertaining enough to keep me busy for a while.
And Lucius does a fair job! Wandering around trying to not be too obvious when setting traps, and using some new found powers like telekinesis and mind control to help us in our quest can be quite funny, as can the over-the-top death scenes...
I'm only a little bit into the game so far though, to be fair...so I'm not sure how long it will continue to be interesting. Just be aware of that when I recommend it, and also be aware that it does come with some janky controls or mechanics in some sections, and very often little idea of what you're supposed to be doing. But somehow, I still just really like it, so....
Phew! That took a while! But it's done...another Gruesome Games post! Yay!!
Be sure to go check out what the other Cryptkeepers taking part in the Countdown to Halloween are up to by clicking the badge below to be whisked off to the Countdown hub, where you can find links to all their pages!
I missed posting yesterday…I was travelling back to my flat. I had intended to take some photos of random Halloween decorations around North Berwick when I got back, but there doesn’t seem to be many up yet! I’m hoping that changes at the weekend!
But for today I thought I’d show you some things I’ll be using to spook the place up a bit while I’m here (will probably be heading back to my parents for Halloween itself)…First up, here’s a chap that might have popped up before! You can hang his skeletal form from a ribbon tied to his hat, and he has poseable limbs, although he has lost one hand and most of his fingers on the remaining one!
Then there’s these Halloween juggling balls…I can’t juggle, so I’ll just be sticking these around the place tomlet there little spooky faces peek out at passers by!
Then there’s this creepy little guy. He’s still a bit dirty, as I rescued him from being thrown away from a random house I was visiting years ago, after he got a bit of water damage.
His head is attached with velcro so you can knock it off if the mood takes you….a truly bizzare little monster thing, isn’t he!?
Then there’s a gaggle of Gizmos…well, two….lets just pretend the big one got hit by a drop of water or something. Don’t worry, I locked up the food…..
And last but not least today, is someone who I’m sure I must have shown on the blog at some point before, but can’t remember if I definitely have. I’ve had him for years and he’s a cd case that I store some of my spooky PS2 games in!
He sometimes looks a bit sad, which isn’t helped by the fact I removed a piece of nasty wire from his antenna so it didn’t stab my nieces and nephews when they inevitably picked him up, but it’s all about what angle you look at him from, as sometimes he looks like he has a massive grin….
At least, I hope thats why he seems to change his face…Maybe he’s a bit more sentient than I realise!!
Blimey! Not long to go now is there? Just over a week until Halloween! Hope you're all nearly ready for it! while you wait, be sure to go and check out what all theother Cryptkeepers are up by clicking the badge below and heading over to the Countdown Hub!!
