Players

Squidge

Jay

The B

G

If you wish to support the Waffling Taylors, and the other shows in the network, you can over at Ko-fi.com/jayandjaymedia. However, supporting us is completely voluntary and not required at all.

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Also, The B was one of the contributors towards a wonderful new book by Meagan Marie called “Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play”. Do check it out, it really is amazing.

Content Warning

At 27 minutes and 10 seconds, I describe a piece of music used in Shadow Man. The piece of music is uses in the Playrooms area of the game, and the music itself is gruesome. If the following sound effects could upset or trigger you at all:

  • Dentist drills
  • Flesh being torn apart
  • Maniacal laughter
  • The sound of blood splattering on the floor

This discussion then becomes the main discussion topic of the rest of the podcast.

As this is a spooptober episode, it’s all about spooky/scary games. So please feel free to skip this one if you could possibly be triggered by those topics.

Notes

We jump straight into gamer confessions for Squidgey and myself. As a reminder from the previous episode:

  • The B’s confessions were related to him having only recently completed a small number of Resident Evil games
  • G’s were about the number of Bioware RPGs he’s completed

My gamer confession is about how I made my Dad think that I’d died whilst playing Alien vs Predator on the Jaguar.

we’ve covered AvP n the Jag before, here’s a link to the post

A screenshot from the Atari Jaguar game: Alien vs Predator showing a facehugger on screen, attacking the player

Which leads us into a discussion about how, when I was a child, I was a complete mess of jelly when it came to scary stuff – then G drops is Mum in the cacky

that’s British English for poop, by the way

when he tells us about a story involving American Werewolf in London.

And that starts our journey into Spooptober-land

it’s not a real place, honest

But not before Squidgey throws me under the bus, by telling a story about how I was scared stiff by the music vide for Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

And then Squidgey drops The B in the cacky by talking by retelling a story about when The B was playing Dead Space and had Squidgey on TeamSpeak.

also, My Little Pony: Dead Space Edition sounds like it would be an interesting cross over

And that reminds G of the famous Alma x ladder jump scare, leading to a discussion about Alma’s appearances in the first F.E.A.R game.

It’s at this point, around 15 minutes into the episode, that we double down on our discussion of video game violence, scary games, and creepy things in gaming.

Please feel free to skip this episode if you think it might trigger you in some way.

And Squidgey asks the room:

Squidge's Avatar Squidge

What is your favourite spoopy game for whatever reason?

Whilst G thinks about his answer, I talk about how I don’t tend to play games specifically in order to scare myself. Although, I do decide that there are two scary games that I can play:

  • Parasite Eve

I’ve also discussed the book that the game is based on

  • Shadow Man

Shadow Man is one of my favourite video games, ever. So much so that I’ve written a two part article on the game

part one

part two

It has everything: horror elements, Biblical references (even though Legion is a bit-part character in The Bible), the music, the characters, and the story are practically perfect.

Seriously if you have a chance to play this game, do it. But take a moment to really take in what’s happening in the game rather than run through the game.

For the folks who want to hear the music that’s played during the playrooms, here’s an embedded player from the OST:

G then tells us that both F.E.A.R and Spec Ops: The Line would be his choices for favourite spoopy games.

His description of Spec Ops: The Line contains major spoilers for the game, so if you haven’t played it and don’t want the story spoiled, then please skip over his discussion on it

I would skip to 41:20

G then brings up The Last of Us, and we talk about how none of us have managed to finish that game yet.

Seriously, Naughty Dog are absolutely brilliant at telling a story. Which is one of the reasons why none of us have managed to finish it.

And G then reminds us that Phantasmagoria exists, which leads to Squidgey teaching me the word:

G's Avatar G

gorenography

The B then sets us off discussion Alien: Isolation and just how wonderfully faithful to Ridley Scott’s classic space horror movie it really is. And Squidgey drops a knowledge bomb about how one specific cinema owner had removed the chest burster scene from the film in order to keep his bathrooms clean.

Oh, and The B has only made it into the third or forth stage in the game. Which isn’t that surprising, really. And Suidgey wants to play it on super hard mode: in that it monitors the microphone on your Kinect/PS camera:

The B's Avatar The B

if you make too much noise [when playing] the Xenomorph will find you faster

The B then talks about Dead Space 3 and just how terrible it was

I mean, you have to kill a planet?!

the story, setting, atmosphere, and everything that made Dead Space 3 good were completely removed from from the 3rd game in the series.

Squidgey then tells us how the OG Silent Hill is one of his favourite spoopy games, and I drop a little knowledge on just why Silent Hill has the fog

although, I’m sure that most folks know why it’s ever present in the outdoor scenes by now

Squidgey then says that he loves to play Diablo III with The Unforgiving by Within Temptation providing the background music. He also reminds me that I used to play Alien3 on the Mega Drive

which he has written about before

with Lighthouse Family’s Ocean Drive album providing the background music.

G's Avatar G

Now there’s a commentary on psychological horror

And I talk about Eternal Darkness on the GameCube and how the game is designed to make you, the player, lose it. In much the same way that Batman: Arkham Asylum “crashes” part way through the game, Eternal Darkness has effects which represent the psychological effects that the scary events have on the main character.

here’s a link to one of the memory card sanity effects we discuss

Squidgey then talks us through some of the things which happen in the Resident Evil 7 DLC: Zoe’s Escape. Which leads us into a discussion about Resident Evil 7 and how it managed to bring Survival Horror back to a series of games that had very quickly become an Action game series.

And G reminds us of the amazing VR game Duck Season. We discuss the game, and some of the points in the story of the game. If you’re at all interested, here’s a Game Theory video on it that we would all recommend watching:

G's Avatar G

It’s like The Ring of the NES

Remember to check out the new book by Meagan Marie called “Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play”.

Music

Links to the music used in the podcast can be found below. Definitely check them out, because they're amazing tracks by awesome musicians.

All copyrighted material contained within this podcast is the property of their respective rights owners. Please see the above list for copyright details pertaining to music used.

Games Covered

We mentioned 20 games in this podcast. In the following order, those games where: