Games

Silent Hill 2
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami TYO
Platform: PS2
Genre: Adventure
Rating: Mature

Since Hollywood stopped making real horror movies in lieu of the more portable teen slasher ick, connoisseurs of the genre have been relegated to rewatch the classics on DVD or go out and discover completely new ways to get the creeps. Silent Hill 2 is the latest entry in the “survival-horror” genre of video games made popular by Resident Evil. The big difference between Silent Hill 2 and the Resident Evil games is that SH2 is actually scary. No guff. This game has a sophisticated horror aesthetic that will scare the shit out of you. You play James Sunderland, who one day gets a letter from his wife suggesting they meet on Silent Hill. The catch? James’ wife has been dead for three years. Letters from dead people usually mean some nasty evil-dead shit is going to go down, but you go meet her anyways, andshit goes all out from there. The graphics in SH2 are tight, and really add to the story and the extremely claustrophobic atmosphere. There is A LOT of fog in this game. Unlike the old days where fog was used in games to cover up the shortcomings of the 3D engine, SH2 uses the fog to create an eerie environment where the player never really knows what’s coming next. The gameplay is decent, if not derivative of previous games in this genre, and my one big complaint is some fussy camera angle issues. Dramatic camera angles are one thing, shitty angles that get in the way of gameplay are another. In the past, the biggest plague on these kind of games was the lousy voice acting. Since most of these games originate in Japan, you wind up with some bad kung-fu style overdubbing that ruins any kind of atmosphere, and usually makes the characters seem awkward. SH2 has escaped this pitfall, and it makes a huge difference.



Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis
Publisher: Codemasters
Developer: Bohemia Interactive
Platform: PC
Genre: Action/Strategy
Rating: Teen

0600 hrs: My platoon assembles for a briefing. We have to infiltrate the nearby city of Houdan. We have zero intelligence reports, and are going in cold. There are 16 of us. Sarge seems worried. We board the truck and head to Houdan. 0700 hrs: We arrive at our destination. The city is surrounded by hills, and we begin our ascent towards the top of the southernmost rim. 0730 hrs: Out of nowhere we hear gunshots – everyone gets down. I see two men down. One’s dead. We continue to crawl our way into the city, but run into tanks on the outskirts of town. Three guys are down. There’s gunfire all around me. I don’t know where Sarge is, my radio is out. Shit, where’s the medic? I grab ammo from a dead soldier and make my way toward the town. Maybe I can find someone. 0745: More gunfire. ACK! Just got shot in the leg. Where’s the medic… shit…it’s all over, man, it’s all over….
Operation Flashpoint is a first-person shooter/strategy game set in the last days of the cold war. While the politics are dated, the game’s ultra-realistic approach to simulating the experience of war is top-notch. You get everything: bootcamp, infantry missions, flying a chopper, you name it. Top that off with a mission editor that lets you create your own levels, and you have something more addictive than crack. The graphics and sound effects are crisp and minimalist in favor of realism, but the voice acting is a joke on par with Saturday morning cartoons. All the fun and excitement of blowing shit up and killing people in a strange land, without actually having to go there and die.
 

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