2012: THE YEAR OF THE VIDEO GAME

As part of BJ-C's personal list of resolutions for the New Year, I am going to be updating every single day for 2012.  You heard me right. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. You may be saying to yourself "but, BJ-C, it's the 2nd, and you missed yesterday." Well, I spent my first of the year the same way the rest of you did, hungover.  As far as I'm concerned, the new year doesn't start until the 2nd because we're all too dead to the world to function the day of the first.  ANNNNNYWAY.  

As a college student, I'm not ashamed to admit that I surely know my way around a video came controller.  As much as I love horror films, I have gone on record before saying that horror video games scare me more than movies ever could.  There's just something about the interaction that just makes my mind lose all sense of control.  If 2011 was the year of the horror TV show, 2012 is destined to be the year of the video game.

If I ever needed another reason to invest in a 3DS, this is just putting the nail in the coffin.  Ladies and Germs, the eighth installment of the Resident Evil franchise is coming to our fingertips...in 3-D.  I don't know if you've had a chance to play a 3DS, but the visuals are brilliant and the graphics are clear as a whistle.  I've been creeping on the previews for this game, and I'm mighty impressed. The game is beautiful. BEAUTIFUL. The game play looks very reminiscent of the fifth game and the creators have promised that Resident Evil: Revelations will have a return to the fear and puzzles of games past. I'm down. Also coming out this year is Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City which doesn't seem to have been generating nearly the same buzz as Revelations.  This one will be released for XBOX 360, Playstation 3, and Windows, meaning it's not going to require an investment into a ridiculously expensive gameboy. The plot is from the perspective of a security service member of Umbrella corp and your job is to destroy evidence. A bit of a different play on the usual perspectives of the game, but I won't be waiting outside Gamestop at midnight for this one.

Resident Evil might be bringing us two game, but Silent Hill is bringing  the bitch slappery by delivering THREE games. We'll figure out what the world would be like in a multiplayer setting with Book of Memories.  A lot of people are really hesitant about it being a multiplayer game, but I'm weirdly excited about it. Horror games don't really work that well in a multiplayer setting, but I'm not going to write them off.  Silent Hill is notorious for blowing my mind, so we shall see.  Konami is finally giving Silent Hill 2 & 3 the HD treatment and they're given a hell of a facelift with The Remastered Collection.  The one I'm really excited for is Silent Hill: Downpour.  Goodbye fog, hello rain. Yes, please.  I've gotten so used to the fog that I can predict where the monsters are coming from and it takes the fear factor out.   It'll be a nice change of pace and the gameplay looks BEAUTIFUL. 

Alright, Alan Wake is the shit. There, I said it. Alan Wake was beautiful, interesting, eerie, and a hell of a lot of fun.  The game was seriously the Arrested Development of horror games.  Don't know what you've got, 'til it's gone.  Anyway, the creator obviously knows that despite sales, he's got a gem and we are lucky to have Alan Wake's American Nightmare.  The game seems to take place in the nightmare version of Pee Wee's Playhouse.  I say that in the sense where as Pee Wee's Playhouse was filled with talking and laughing objects, Alan Wake is overrun with objects of EEEEEVIIILLL. Birds, satellites, and even your own soul is an evil entity hell bent on destroying you.  Grab your flannel, it's go time.

Have you ever seen a film that you thought to yourself "Yep. I could totally make sweet, sweet love to a video game".  Well, that's how I feel about Lollipop Chainsaw.  This game is seriously a giant wet dream for any fanboy or fangirl.  You play Juliet Starling, a bad ass cheerleader from Sam Romero High school armed with a chainsaw and gymnastics skills.  The game is filled with bright lights and giggling laughter to contrast the groaning zombies and blood splatters.  Zombie jocks and undead faculty, and a bigger challenge, zombie rock lords. ZOMBIE. ROCK. LORDS. This game looks perfect.

Two other games I'm pretty stoked about are AMY and The Secret World.  Amy is a survival-horror game where players escort a strange 8-year old autistic girl named Amy as they try to get her out of a city overrun with wild creatures and enemies. The player can control Lana, the woman escorting Amy, and protecting her.  In the attempt to escape, they have to fight monsters, the military, and other crazed creatures.  Extra points for Amy having supernatural abilities.  The Secret World looks like what could very well be the start of the next franchise of horror video games.  This game has been in production for what seems like forever.  It's an MMO which means we could very well be looking at a game that could attempt to turn horror fans into the realm of WoW.  The game is set in modern times but incorporates history (both real and fake), urban legends, ancient mythology, and extinct civilizations.  I'm all for this game.  I don't care if I have to become a hermit addicted to the computer in order to pl-oh wait.

HORROR VIDEO GAMES: THE KRYPTONITE OF HORROR FANATICS EVERYWHERE

For as much as I like to talk the talk on being a horror aficionado, I will be the first to admit that I can't necessarily walk the walk.  I'm an absolute pro at sitting in the theatre in a calm position while the rest of the audience is jumping and screaming in their seats, and I'm the person who's left laughing at the insane deaths in gory films like SAW or Hostel.  I will be the first to admit that you practically have to drag me kicking and screaming into a Haunted House. There, I said it.  When I'm in the comfy confines and safety of my dorm room or a movie theatre, you can bet your ass that I'm the cockiest person in the room.  If you put me in an interactive scenario where I have to watch out for demented clowns peering in from the corners of the room or demons jumping out from the walls, I very well might scream and cry in a public setting.  Not that I know from experience or anything....Anyway, the same thing goes for video games.  I might still be lucky enough to be sitting on the comfort of my XL twin bed, but I assure you I'm most likely extremely tense and on the verge of pooping my pants in fright.

There's something about the interactivity of a video game that instills a fear within me that is beyond compare.  As I type this I am seated on a ninety-nine dollar futon riddled with Pringles crumbs next to a feisty ginger boy playing Silent Hill: Homecoming with the only light illuminating the room coming from a thirty-two inch SONY.  That's a lie, my Macbook is doing a mighty fine job keeping me occupied and well-lit.  Consider my Mac to be the equivalent of watching a movie in Eli Roth "chick vision" while he plays this game.  I'm watching everything that happens, my heart is racing like a Bronco on Interstate 405, but I find myself slowly concentrating more and more on this entry and less and less on the television screen.  Maybe it's the fear of the unknown, or maybe it's the horrifying music Silent Hill composes to accompany the spine-chilling game play. I fully accept the pathetic statement of admitting to be afraid of some moving pixels on a screen, but horror video games are my ultimate kryptonite. Never mind, I spoke too soon.  It's the combination of all of these factors with some of the more innocent sounds like a child's laughter or a sweet lullaby softly humming in the distance that give me the heebie jeebies.  I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who laughs in the face of a special edition Blu-Ray of a horror film but cries like a girl without a prom date in the presence of a horror video game, so here's my thoughts on why horror video games induce a small stroke during game play. 

First of all, video games don't necessarily have to end.  When we watch a horror movie, we can safely assume that we will have a beginning, middle, and an end.  This is in no way the case when it comes to horror video games.  If you don't use a walk-through, you could be playing a game for hours, days, even months.  This means there is a constant sense of dread whenever a controller is picked up.  They're absolutely unpredictable.  The scares in a horror movie remain the same, while depending on which way you turn in a video game, you could narrowly escape danger, or come face to face with a blood-thirsty boss.  Speaking of, Pyramid Head just made an appearance and I just experienced a small coronary.  My apologies, I am most likely going to digress on the occasion as the boy progresses throughout the game.  This is a perfect example of it's unexpected outcomes.  Neither of us had the slightest notion that he was to appear, and he did.  Which of course, made me want to cry like a Girl Scout with the inability to sell cookies.  I'll address the concern that I'll ultimately receive which is "BJ-C, how can you be such a wimp about Silent Hill when you were a SH Nurse for Halloween?".  The question pretty much answers itself.  I'm remarkably fascinated with the world of Silent Hill, simply because of how much it horrifies me.  The nurses are both sexy and scary, and this is why I chose to dress as one.

Back to the games.  Another reason we're so scared by the games, is the fact that we are directly associated with the character.  We as the holder of the controller are responsible for whatever happens in the world of the game, and our skills as a player are a direct correlation to the survival of our virtual character.  It is because of this that we find ourselves almost morally invested into the situations at hand.  Horror movies are in a sense, an outsider looking into another place unlike our own, while a horror video game seems to become a part of us.  We feel what our character feels and we see what they see.  Our full involvement in the life of the characters in the game causes us to subconsciously attach our emotions along with theirs.  When put in the world of horror or thriller video games, it makes it far more easy to walk around a corner and experience a jolt of adrenaline when a creature rears its disgusting head.

The more I analyze this, the less I feel like a total wuss.  I guess when it comes to horror video games, I'll stick to Left 4 Dead, Zombies ate My Neighbors, or DeadRising...so I can kill zombies with a Servbot head