So the lack of time to put the blog together this year has meant that the Gruesome Games section has been somewhat lacking....to make up for this, have a post that brings together links to all 253...yes 253....games that I've covered so far!
I had big plans for another list this year, but it looks like you'll need to watch this space next year...there's still plenty more where these came from! ;)
The first 202 games are listed down from 100 in their order from the first two lists, and then all the other games I've covered since then are numbered after 202..if that makes any sense? (It probably doesn't, but it does in my head...so...)
Click the name of the game you want to read about to be whixked away to the appropriate link!
Halloween again! We made it another year! I might still have time to do one last story from the Digital Comic Museum later, but just in case I don't let me just wish everybody a Happy Halloween! It's been great fun taking part in the Countdown once again....please go visit the other bloggers taking part by clicking the badge below! Have a good one everybody!
I was devastated when Xbox Live Indie Games ended, and all those games of varying levels of greatness were lost to the mists of time. Where would I go to get my fix of cheaply made indie games that potentially hold the key to the next big gaming revolution, or even better, are so crap as to be amazing works of art and somehow defy all logic and manage to be fun!
And then I got an Xbox One and stumbled upon the Creators Collection section of the store, which is similarly hidden away from plain sight as the indie game section on 360 was. But will it prove to be the same type of experience, or does it hold false hope...let's have a quick look at some of their tiny selection of horror games and see!
Grinded Meat (Xbox One) :
First up, we have a game that I thought I would never see the like of again after Xbox Live Indie Games bit the dust! It's another one of those live-action, Quick Time Event games...and even better, it's directed by the very same Claudio Battiato who directed Bloody Death and Hell's House, previously covered on this very blog!
As you can see from the video above, it's very much a case of business as usual, with you essentially watching a movie and pressing button-prompts every now and again to avoid death, as a slasher attempts to thwart our Sheriff hero from solving a missing person case.
This one feels a lot shorter than even the previous games though, but for 79p/99c I suppose we shouldn't expect much more. Worth a go, if only to give Claudio some money so he can save up to make a proper movie one day!
The Unknown City - Horror Begins Now...Part 1 (Xbox One) :
It's probably better telling you to watch the video below to see how terrible this game is rather than try to describe it in text. The text-to-speech dialogue, the sloooowww intro, the animation, the text-to-speech (oh wait, I already mentioned that...oh well, it's worth mentioning twice)....
And yet I almost found myself liking it because of how bad it was! I was going to recommend it just so you could experience for yourselves the hilarity of the rubbishness of it all! And then it got me trapped in a menu that I couldnt get out of, just as I finished recording the footage. I had to quit to the dashboard to leave the game. Dunno why this happened....maybe it was due to bad weather....
This game would normally cost you £9 (or $9), but its currently on sale for £1...don't even spend that on it. If you've watched the video here you've experienced about all the entertainment available from this game. A shame really, as it's rubbishness was almost endearing.....
Okay, I've saved the best for last! This one costs absolutely nothing! It's totally free, and out of the trio of games here it has by far the best gameplay! You take on the role of the great old one, Cthulhu, as he decides to unleash his fury on the foolish mortals of earth by smooshing them into the ground with his fists!
You control our cosmic chum's arms independently with the left being controlled with the left joystick and vice versa, and likewise the two triggers smash the left or right fists into the puny humans trying to attack the elder god!
And attack they do with guns, helicopters and tanks, which makes the game feel a bit like a Lovecraftian version of old classic Rampage, only with less buildings and movement. Its all a huge load of fun for about five minutes, but it is a game that you feel you could come back to and play quite a bit when you're bored and just want to kill some time. And as mentioned before, it's totally free! Go download it now before the deep ones crawl ashore and try to mate with you......
Hmmm, so one game that's alright but woefully short, one that's utter crap and one that's actually quite groovy and playable and shiny looking! It would seem that the spirit of XBLIG lives on! I'll need to keep an eye on this Creators Collection section and see what wonders appear in future...
While we wait for that though, you may as well go see what everybody else is up to in the Countdown To Halloween by clicking the badge below and being whisked off through some sort of space-octopus dimension portal to the countdown hub!
I've picked up quite a few things recently that have been of a slightly spooky nature, so I thought as I'm a bit busy today, I'd just share a few pics of those! As always, remember to click the pics to make them bigger...
First up, I found a load of horror comics in a charity shop yesterday! £2.50 each...and most of them are old Alan Class comics! Alan Class Comics were mostly random collections of old reprints from various American sources, and were my first introduction to the wonderful world of 1950's horror and sci-fi publications.
Among the stories were quite a few early Marvel comic-strips, and a fair few by Stan Lee with art by Steve Ditko......
The DC comics in the bundle had a few interesting ads..one for a comic I've never seen in the wild (above) and this great Slim Jim Werewolf ad (below)....
Here's some pics of a full strip for you to read...The Man Who Saw Too Much!
I particularly like the odd Slender-man style insect weirdo on the cover of this issue of Sinister Tales below....sadly, if he's from an actual story I didn't notice it in my quick flick through the comic....
This werewolf I found in another charity shop for £1 is apparently a Dr.Who toy....I haven't seen the episode it's from though.
The werewolf is rather well articulated, perhaps a bit too well articulated! It's feet and hands bend in ways I'm pretty sure a real werewolf's wouldn't....then again, I've never actually met a genuine werewolf yet...
This next toy was a bit out of my usual price range at £12, but I couldn't pass it up when I saw it!
It's only the bloomin' Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in die-cast metal! I've been keeping him in the box, but he's even better out of it!
I finally picked up Resident Evil - The Darkside Chronicles on Wii, but as I'm planning on covering it (eventually) in the Gruesome Games, I won't go into much detail about it here...
Likewise with the Evil Within 2, but if it's as good as the first game I'm in for a treat! As you might have noticed from this pickup, I have managed to get an Xbox 1 since last year, so perhaps a few other horror titles on that system might be making appearances in Gruesome Games soon (okay, not perhaps...definitely..)
As a little bonus to finish up, here's a doodle below by the excellent artist Mike Ploog of his Werewolf By Night that I picked up a Comicon a few years back...I didn't find out until afterwards that he had also done a lot of work on Dark Crystal or I would have got him to draw something from that! Gutted! But also, not gutted because look at that werewolf!
So there you go! Hope you enjoyed those!
Be sure to keep checking out everybody else's work on the countdown via the hub badge below, and as My Two Yen Worth gave me a special shoutout yesterday, let's return the favour! Click the name to hop straight over to a post about a certain smiley-faced chap who likes to torment bats!
