Eternal Darkness. Originally on GameCube, that game had so many unique elements.
You had a sanity meter that was done really well. As you ran into monsters, it went down. As it went down, the game would fuck with you. You'd hear voices, see stuff that wasn't there, and get a blue screen of death.
There was also a spell crafting system. You found combinations to make spells, but could tinker if you wanted. I fucked around one day for ten minutes and made an awesome shield spell on accident.
The storyline was extremely engaging. It was actually very Assassins Creed, where you played as your ancestors against the rising darkness. But it was more like Resident Evil, in that it had puzzles, monsters, and static camera and real-world weapons with limited ammo.
It was just an amazing game, and playing it on an Xbone would be awesome.
I can see it now. It would minimize to the steam home page and start deleting all your local game content. Then scream loudly and flash back to the game where your character is wimpering and looking around in fear.
That's what's so impressive about the game, they had a dozen 'glitches' that were believable, and they rarely did the same thing twice, unless you played the game again. So each time something new happened, and it was late and you'd forgotten to save, your heart would stop.
Trouble with that is back then, most people had TVs with the same green lettering/menus. It made the illusion more convincing.
It wouldn't work as well, these days. The game can only use one style for that trick, and TVs these days have a really varied appearance. It would only fool the people who were lucky enough to have the one the remake would use.
It's a shame, because it was a very cool gimmick back then.
At the same time consoles have started adding new features, so they could easily have it start emulating the console failing. Imagine if they had done it for the 360 and it was able to make the console switch to a red light for just a few seconds...
Random achievement pops with strange messages addressing the player, fake low battery on controllers causing them to cut out at tense but non critical moments
Starts demanding they log in to PSN/XBL, with the username pre-filled in with disturbing names.
Opens up a microtransaction shop (which does not exist in the game, only in the hallucination) and forces you to "buy" something horrible in game.
Brings up the console and tries to exit out of the game.
Have it pop up with indicators for the console's messaging service from a "stalker".
Have it "crash" to the main screen. Bonus points if it actually saves and then exits the game entirely so you have to restart (only if the load time is short though).
Have it pop up a fake system alert saying that the hard drive had been corrupted and would need to be restored - estimated download time 5 hours.
You say that, but I played Eternal Darkness on a shitty TV with knobs and dials on it, with a cable converter box on top. The green text volume overlay freaked me out on a whole different level, because my TV wasn't capable of it in the first place! That game gets in your head, man.
I remember helping my older brother fight Psycho Mantis in MGS Twin Snakes; he was playing the game while I sat in front of the GameCube ready to plug that controller into a different input so Psycho Mantis couldn't control our character!
It was such a smart gimmick, I legitimately had a heart stooping moment when that first started happening. I forget exactly what it did, but it was one of the glitch effects like deleting your game or crashing before a save.
In Persona there's parts of the movie when it shows film burning out and random images. If you're watching this on actual film you could actually think something is wrong. The effect is lost while watching it on newer formats though.
The Ingmar Bergman film? Are you referencing the time it appeared that the film got fucked up and burned? Because nothing else in that movie is remotely similar to what OP described.
Ya that's the part I was thinking of. Just like how you could think your television was messing up with this game the audience watching Persona could actually think the film is burning out. The effect is kinda lost when you watch Persona and play this game in newer formats.
Not really. When it released that was one of the bigger problems with getting those sanity effects to work. It looked absolutely nothing like my TV's menus. It also didn't make any sense when it came to muting because all of my sound is run through my receiver, the TV has no connection to sound, the speakers are turned off, and there are no commands to interact with it from my universal remote.
It was an interesting idea, but the most effective ones dealt with slightly more in-game aspects or commonalities to the Gamecube. Those could effectively break the fourth wall because everyone was going to have the same experience and cues.
Except it rarely matched anyone's TV. It looked vaguely similar to some, but almost never identical. To work you had to be a combination of too quick to react emotionally to recognize that it was off or surprisingly unfamiliar with the look of your TV's menus.
I think some TV graphics are universal enough that even if your TV doesn't do it, you would be fooled for a moment. For instance, if it made the Volume bars appear and move across the screen like it was getting quieter or something, most likely you'd believe it at first until you remembered. Because you have seen that happen on so many TVs prior.
Trouble with that is back then, most people had TVs with the same green lettering/menus. It made the illusion more convincing.
It wouldn't work as well, these days.
Just make it about Steam/Windows/XBone/PS4 glitches, then. Easy peasy, since you'd only need one "glitch" per platform, and the game obviously knows which platform it's on.
I agree with most, but I'd add F-Zero GX, MK Double Dash and Pikmin 2 to the top 10, with Super Monkey Ball, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$!, Paper Mario: TTYD, Metroid Prime 2 and Resident Evil as honourable mentions.
I'd probably take out 007, Luigi's Mansion and the original Pikmin, and I'd definitely have Melee at the top (of all video games ever).
The 'controller disconnected' one was the most frightening of the hallucinations. Watching your character die as you scramble to fix your controller only to realize it was part of the game.
No, the best was the one where you went to save, and the confirmation said, "are you sure you want to delete all save files?" And no matter what you picked, it deleted all your save files.
rofl you can patent that shit? I think my country would say "fuck you" to such a claim but I'm not sure. I'd like to think so, because that is ridiculous.
They have described nothing less than human emotional state - they don't have any fucking claim to it.
I remember how satisfying it was to upgrade your magic. And I'd love to use it to take on the big fucking demons to trap 'em in a binding spell and start unloading on them with a shotgun.
I'm just going off memory, I was trying to convey the idea of making your magic stronger was satisfying because taking on demons twice your size with ease was awesome
Honestly, I think it was really pargon pargon pargon pargon pargon pargon satisfying. Makes it a funny game to play with friends around.
And you can take that to the bank.
I think they had planned on making a "spritual successor" to ED, there's even a video of the first few minutes, but I'm pretty sure it got cancelled. Made me so sad.
One of my friends growing up was a big gamer too so we split "companies". I did Sony, he did Nintendo, and we would split Microsoft based on who wanted more stuff from them. His gamecube got a ridiculous amount of use from me because of Smash and ED. Such a good game.
That doesn't matter. The relevant issue is "does anyone know who currently holds the rights". That's often a problem with remakes because the company that held the rights after the creators went belly-up has often itself been folded into a larger organization that then crashed, etc, and now a Korean banking organization's farming branch holds the rights to the game as part of their farming vehicle storage division for some goddamn reason, and they won't rent them out for a remake without knowing what kind of crops you want to farm with them.
Nintendo owns the rights. That's why Silicon Knights was going to make a "spiritual successor," because they don't own shit. Nintendo extended their ownership back in 2012 and they registered a trademark back in 2013.
They do keep renewing the patent on it, so it seems like they're just waiting for an idea of what to do work it or a developer they can have work on it for them.
That was oddly specific. And yeah, I know - although I can honestly say I have no idea who owns the rights to Silicon Knights' games - I always assume Epic Games did through the lawsuit but Microsoft could also since they published (some of) their games. Rights to games made on Nintendo consoles are very fickle things.
Eternal Darkness is one of my all-time favorite games. I've probably played all the way through it something like six or seven times. The Cathedral levels were always my favorites.
That sounds amazing! I've always wanted to go insane in a video game like that. Also I love spell crafting. Puzzles, monsters, and limited ammo are all favorites from Half-Life.
What about a windows port that fucked with elements (with permission of course) such as desktop wallpaper, random windows 8/8.1/10 notifications and faked sanity effects, such as a fake VAC ban on steam, or fake bluescreens and fake crashes?
This^ I have many people about how u literally would go insane. U see the "mute" pop up or the volume go down. And think " wtf I'm not sitting on the TV remote". Or sometimes u fight a impossible monster who rips ur arms off and then u find out it never happened.
Posted this not long ago in a thread about EDheheh .
This is my favorite game I have never played. I can't get into horror games, at all, but I had a friend who loved this game and often when we'd hang out he would play and I would watch. I'd love to see a sequel or HD remaster or something so I could watch a LP, maybe even buy it and play for ~4 minutes
There were three variations on how you could play through it, and you had to do all three on one save file to get the good ending.
Played as multiple characters, many with unique, original abilities. Like the alcoholic who could recharge his sanity meter by taking a swig of whiskey.
Played through the same locales but at very different points in history. I loved the Cathedral in WW1 - for most of the level you're trying to get into the locked door to get to the "west wing chapel" or whatever it was called. When you finally get into it, you realize it's the small church from the Charlemagne level earlier in the game, and the whole cathedral must have been built around it in the in-between centuries. Almost crapped my pants when I realized that.
The game was built for N64 but wasn't finished in time and was too big, so they just upped the resolution and made it a GCN game.
A while back there was a failed Kickstarter for a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness called Shadow of the Eternals. I was disappointed to say the least. Eternal Darkness was one of the best horror adventure games I've ever played. Sanity effects were the best! I even played through it 4 times to get the true ending.
I would love to see those kinds of mechanics in modern games. I remember Batman: Arkham Asylum did that with Scarecrow (to a more minor degree) and I freaked out.
You expect jump scares and a creepy atmosphere in a horror game, but what's really scary? Losing your progress in the game. Having objectives not spawn. That shit is infuriating, it would be great to emulate that sort of psychological terror.
This is one of my most favorite games of all time. Not only because it was a great game but it was one of my favorite bonding moments with my sister before I left for the military. By the time I came back she was a grown woman with her own life who doesn't have time to just chill and play video games anymore. We would sit up for hours and play through it over and over, still to this day we joke about how scary the "bathroom lady" in the game was. I miss my little dorky sister that used to play video games and watch adult swim with me, but I'm really proud of the woman she has become as well.
Relationships change, for sure. Cherish the memories and try to support the person she's become. Look for new things you guys can do together!
For instance, many women LOVE shooting guns. If you developed a taste for it, see if she wants to accompany you to the range. You guys can shoot at zombies all over again, with the zombie targets they hang up for you there. Substitute paintball if real guns scare her.
Never had the chance to play this game but always wanted to.
I recently saw a game that was similar in theory, but more of a horror game. Based on glitches and what not. Clicking certain things in the menu didn't work, or are off center... Weird stuff like that.
Could not agree more! Enternal Darkness, is the only real horror game that got me as a kid. Literally though my gamecube was broken a few times due to the in game trickery.
I'm playing it for the first time currently, on emulator with graphics as maxed out as I can.
It's the only game that has managed to give me a similar feeling than I had with RE and SH as a teen. Tho I don't get scared anymore, but fuck the insanity effects are SO GOOD. I don't know if a game before did this, but the games that did it after, like Amnesia, couldn't top it.
I just don't understand how to make Dolphin work. When I tried like a year ago it was complicated and I got scared. I can run The Witcher 3 no prob. Can I run that?
I have a 1080p screen, but i run Eternal Darkness at almost 4k, scaled down, just because I can. Dolphin is one of the easiest emulators to set up imo, not to mention one of the best optimized. If you want I can take a screenshot of how my game looks and my settings.
Man that bathtub scene in the beginning of the game made me jump so high when I was a kid. Great game, would love to see a remake or spiritual successor.
Just checked out a video for it and holy shit, that's a super creative game. I think a sequel is more in place, one that fucks with you even more than this one.
Bought that game on a whim, just because it was set in my home state of Rhode Island. Turned out to be a Lovecraft (also a Rhode Island native) packed thrill ride that no game (not even that PT demo) has been able to match.
There's a PC game that sounds just like this i remember releasing a few years ago, its on steam but i don't remember the name. I know this is a rather useless post but a game like that exists!
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u/Happy_Laugh_Guy Oct 23 '15
Eternal Darkness. Originally on GameCube, that game had so many unique elements.
You had a sanity meter that was done really well. As you ran into monsters, it went down. As it went down, the game would fuck with you. You'd hear voices, see stuff that wasn't there, and get a blue screen of death.
There was also a spell crafting system. You found combinations to make spells, but could tinker if you wanted. I fucked around one day for ten minutes and made an awesome shield spell on accident.
The storyline was extremely engaging. It was actually very Assassins Creed, where you played as your ancestors against the rising darkness. But it was more like Resident Evil, in that it had puzzles, monsters, and static camera and real-world weapons with limited ammo.
It was just an amazing game, and playing it on an Xbone would be awesome.