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[The descriptions have been copied from Wikipedia. Like, no duh!]
WARNING.
There are some spoilers so if you're planning to play one of these games, I don't suggest reading the description of the game.
Gitaroo Man
Gitaroo-Man is a video game for the Sony PlayStation 2, published by Koei. The player character is U-1 ("Yūichi": a common Japanese boys' name; pronounced "you-one" in the North American and European releases), a young boy who is frequently ridiculed by classmates and passed over by Little Pico, the girl of his dreams. The story proper begins when Puma, a dog with the capability to speak, teaches U-1 to play the guitar--simultaneously teaching the controls of the game to the player--and subsequently revealing to him that he is the last legendary hero of Planet Gitaroo, a title which sets him up as a target by many varied individuals.
Despite a number of positive reviews, the North American and European versions of Gitaroo-Man were produced in very low quantites by Koei and, as a result, have become somewhat rare, and is regarded as a cult video game.
Around November 2005 in North America, copies of Gitaroo-Man were popping up in GameStop game stores. This was a reprint by GameQuestDirect, similar to what happened with PlayStation RPGs Persona 2 and Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, both of which were previously very rare. Due to this reprint, the game can generally be found in most EB Games and Gamestop retail stores in North America.[citation needed]
There is a sequal to this game which is also found on the PSP (Playstation Portable) called "Gitaroo Man Lives". In Japan it is called "Gitaroo Man Live"
Ōkami
Ōkami (大神, Ōkami? lit. "great god") is a video game developed by Clover Studio for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It was released in 2006.
Set in an unspecified period of classical Japanese history, Ōkami combines several Japanese myths and legends to tell the story of how the land was saved from darkness by the Shinto sun goddess, named Amaterasu, who has taken the form of a white wolf. It features a distinct sumi-e-inspired cel-shaded visual style and the Celestial Brush, a gesture-system to perform miracles.
Ōkami was one of the last few PlayStation 2 games selected for release prior to the release of the PlayStation 3. Clover Studio was closed by Capcom a few months after its release. Although it suffered from poor sales, Ōkami earned high acclaim from reviewers and earned, among other awards, the title of IGN's 2006 Game of the Year.
Story [Not the whole story. Just the beginning.]
The quiet village of Kamiki, filled with beautiful cherry trees, had a price to pay in order to maintain their peace. Each and every year a festival is held, during which a maiden must be sacrificed to the eight-headed serpent, Orochi, signalled by a white arrow being launched into the house of his chosen sacrifice. In the 100th year since Orochi's arrival, as the time for the sacrifice drew near, a pure white wolf the village dubbed "Shiranui" would appear and stalk the village's streets at night. A swordsman in the village, Nagi (Izanagi in the Japanese version), detested Shiranui, believing her to be one of Orochi's agents, and repeatedly tried to drive the wolf away. When the night of the festival finally arrived, Nagi's beloved, Nami (Izanami in the Japanese version) was chosen to be slain. Determined both to save the woman he loved and to put an end to the village's burden, Nagi went to Orochi's lair to slay the beast. Alas, he was defeated and about to be killed when Shiranui stepped in and took over the battle. Using strange skills, the wolf battled valiantly against Orochi, but still could not defeat the serpent.
Battered and beaten, Shiranui released a powerful howl to the heavens. Strengthened by the howl, Nagi struggled to his feet and took up his sword once more, leaping onto Orochi and defeating the creature. Shiranui, filled with poison and fur dyed crimson with her own blood, was carried back to the village by Nagi where she was praised as Kamiki's savior - and then died. A shrine was built in the image and honor of Shiranui, and the sword that had saved the village was interred in the "Moon Cave" where the battle had taken place, and used to seal Orochi away. One hundred years of peace passed, and a man disturbs the sword at the "Moon Cave", unleashing Orochi, who is not quite as fictional as the intruder had believed. Orochi immediately begins covering the entire world in darkness and evil. In response, Sakuya the wood sprite, guardian of the village, goes to the shrine dedicated to Shiranui and brings the statue to life as Amaterasu, the Ōkami, reincarnation of Shiranui and sun goddess incarnated in the form of a white wolf.
Silent Hill-series
Silent Hill (サイレントヒル) is a survival horror video game franchise developed and published by Konami. As of 2007, most installments have been created by Team Silent with the exception of two upcoming titles, Silent Hill: 0rigins, which is being developed by Climax Studios, and Silent Hill V being developed by The Collective from Foundation 9 Entertainment.[1]
There are currently five Silent Hill games available with three under production (although one title, Silent Hill: Play Novel, was released exclusively in Japan), all of which were released to strong sales and critical acclaim.[citation needed] The success of the series has generated several comic books, one movie adaptation (with a second release under development), and novelizations.
The gameplay includes frequent horror elements, action, various puzzles, detailed and disturbing environments, chilling background music provided by composer Akira Yamaoka, and a complex storyline revealed through numerous cinematic cut scenes and in-game documents and notes. Each game unfolds like a movie with several possible endings; the player's choices during the game determine which ending is shown.
Silent Hill (1999)
Seven years ago Harry Mason and his wife found a baby by the road and adopted her as their own, naming her Cheryl. Though his wife soon died, Harry Mason continued to love Cheryl as his own daughter.
At the start of the game we find Harry Mason and Cheryl going to the resort town of Silent Hill. Strange events occur before they have even entered the town. A cop on a motorbike drives past them and only moments later Harry sees the bike lying by the side of the road and the cop is nowhere in sight. Soon afterwards a figure suddenly appears on the road (arguably Alessa Gillespe), causing Harry to swerve the car and slide off the road. When he regains consciousness, Harry discovers that Cheryl is missing and that he has slipped into a strange dimension shrouded in fog. It's soon clear that this place is unlike any place he's been before. Strange creatures lurk within the fog and as Harry follows what he thinks is his daughter's silhouette all over town, he realizes that the town has a darker and more dangerous side to it.
Silent Hill 2 (2001)
At the beginning of the game the player is introduced to the main character, James Sunderland, who has come to Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his wife, Mary, despite the fact that she had apparently died from an unnamed illness three years prior to his return. When James first enters Silent Hill, he immediately realizes it is not the same beautiful town from his and Mary's past. In addition to the strange, omnipresent fog, the whole town seems to be rotting away and abandoned. Bizarre, vaguely humanoid monsters are also wandering the streets and most of the buildings, waiting to attack James. With his path to his first destination, the lakeside Rosewater Park, cut off, James enters an apartment complex, whose back alleys have the only other available route to reach what he believes could be the "special place" Mary says she is in the letter.
Silent Hill 3 (2003)
The game is staged seventeen years after the first Silent Hill game,[1] and is centered on a teenage girl named Heather who is drawn into Silent Hill's bizarre reality and must enter the town itself to resolve the situation. She ultimately discovers she is a part of the plans of the town's cult and becomes caught in a conflict within the cult itself.
Heather is a seventeen year old girl. One day, while running an errand for her father at the local mall, she falls asleep inside a restaurant known as Happy Burger and dreams about Silent Hill. She finds herself wandering through the nightmare version of Lakeside Amusement Park, armed with a switchblade, a length of steel pipe, a pistol, and a submachine gun. After fighting her way past several demonic-looking monsters, Heather makes her way up the stairs where the 'Monster Coaster' is located, and is almost mowed down on the tracks by a roller coaster.
Silent Hill 4: The Room (2004)
Henry Townshend is living in South Ashfield; a town half a day's drive away from Silent Hill. One day he finds himself mysteriously locked in his own apartment. He cannot escape through either the windows or his front door, which has been chained shut from the inside. No one, not even people standing directly outside the door, can hear him when he pounds on the door and cries for help. After five days of entrapment Henry finds a hole that has opened up in his bathroom wall. Armed only with a steel pipe that broke loose when the wall opened, a carton of chocolate milk, and a bottle of wine, he proceeds to venture into the hellish madness of "Silent Hill".
The hole leads Henry to a variety of strange areas, inhabited by dangerous and sometimes immortal creatures. In the first four worlds, he witnesses the murders of four people who are stuck in corresponding realms like him. The murders then happen in the real world, too. As Henry ventures further, he learns more and more about Walter Sullivan, a serial killer that terrorized Ashfield several years ago and left certain numbers carved on his victims. Walter was arrested and committed suicide. However, new victims bear similar numbers, and different events suggest that Sullivan is not really dead.
Walter Sullivan was born in the same Room 302 (where Henry lives now). His parents fled the scene soon afterwards, as the baby was unwanted. Superintendent Frank Sunderland handed the newborn to the medics, and so Walter found his way to the "Wish House" orphanage in Silent Hill, where he was taught occult rituals. Later, Sullivan began to believe that the Room itself was his mother. Therefore he decided to "wake" it up through the "21 Sacraments" ritual, which required, in particular, 21 murders. Walter killed 10 people, taking their hearts out. He then went through the ritual of Assumption, which allowed him to make himself the eleventh victim yet stay alive and even become immortal. His goal is to kill another 10 people to complete the 21 Sacraments. Henry meets two Walters: one adult (real) and one child, an image conjured by real Walter's reminisces.
The four victims that Henry encounters in his wanderings are numbers 16 through 19. The twentieth murder, however, is interrupted, and the victim (Henry's neighbour Eileen Galvin), still alive, is taken to the hospital. Henry rescues Eileen and together they try to stop Walter, while Henry's apartment becomes increasingly haunted and dangerous.
Metal Gear Solid-series
Metal Gear Solid (メタルギアソリッド, Metaru Gia Soriddo?, commonly abbreviated to MGS) is a tactical espionage action game directed by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It was well-received publicly and critically, shipping more than six million copies and scoring an average of 94% in the review tallying website Metacritic's aggregate. It is the third title to be released in the Metal Gear series and a direct sequel to Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
Metal Gear Solid's story centers on Solid Snake, a retired soldier who infiltrates a nuclear weapons disposal facility to neutralize the terrorist threat from FOXHOUND, a renegade special forces unit. He attempts to liberate their two hostages, the head of DARPA and the president of a major arms manufacturer, and stops the terrorists from launching a nuclear strike. Snake also confronts and defeats members of FOXHOUND.
The commercial success of the title prompted Metal Gear Solid to be enhanced and re-released on PlayStation, and Windows PC under the name Metal Gear Solid: Integral; a remake, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, was later released for the Nintendo GameCube. The game has also spawned sequels and spin-offs. A PlayStation 2 sequel, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, was followed by two prequels — Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops — on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable respectively. Game Boy Color spin-off Ghost Babel was joined by Metal Gear Acid and Metal Gear Acid 2, both on the PlayStation Portable. Another home-console title, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, is dated for release on the PlayStation 3 in early 2008.
In 2005 (six years after the events of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake), FOXHOUND and the genetically-enhanced Next-Generation Special Forces unit lead an armed uprising at Shadow Moses, a remote isle located in Alaska's Fox Archipelago and the site of a nuclear weapons disposal facility. In the process, they acquire Metal Gear REX, a nuclear-capable bipedal tank, threatening the U.S. government with a nuclear reprisal if they do not receive a large cash ransom and the remains of the "legendary mercenary" Big Boss. Solid Snake, in retirement at Alaska's Twin Lakes, is forcibly dispatched at the request of Colonel Roy Campbell to penetrate the terrorist defenses and neutralize the threat.
Snake first locates hostage Donald Anderson, the DARPA chief. After he informs Snake of Metal Gear REX's deactivation procedure, he mysteriously dies of what appears to be a heart attack. Following a brief encounter with Meryl Silverburgh, who aids their escape from the base prison, Snake continues on to find the other hostage, ArmsTech president Kenneth Baker. He is used as bait by Revolver Ocelot, and Snake is challenged to a gunfight, interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious cyborg ninja who severs Ocelot's arm before escaping. Snake is again briefed on the Metal Gear project by Baker; much like the DARPA Chief, he dies of a sudden heart attack just before revealing key information.
Snake then contacts Meryl via Codec, and agrees to meet her in the base's warhead disposal area on the condition he contact Metal Gear's designer, Hal "Otacon" Emmerich. While searching for him, he encounters the giant Vulcan Raven in an M1 Abrams tank, which he swiftly disables, and locates Otacon in his lab. The cyborg ninja Snake previously encountered reappears, and after a hand-to-hand battle reveals himself to be Solid Snake's former ally Gray Fox, who Snake believed he had killed years earlier. Before they can settle their score, the ninja vanishes again. Otacon, while safe, is unaware that Metal Gear is to be used as a nuclear delivery system, and breaks down when Snake informs him that he is continuing his family's close involvement with the US nuclear program. He agrees to aid Snake remotely, using special camouflage to procure information and supplies while remaining unseen. Snake then meets Meryl, and they discuss their differing roles as soldiers- Meryl having joined the military to feel closer to her father, an Army officer killed in action. Ultimately he allows her to accompany him on his mission. Their reunion is brief, and after being telepathically coerced by Psycho Mantis to attack Snake, Sniper Wolf ambushes them, wounding and capturing Meryl and eventually Snake following a sniper's duel.
While imprisoned, Liquid confirms Snake's suspicion that they are twin brothers. He hands Snake over to Ocelot, who tortures him, but Snake quickly escapes, and after being chased to the top of the base's Communications Tower, he encounters Liquid again, in a Hind-D attack helicopter. Despite being outgunned, Snake shoots it down, and upon descending the tower is yet again ambushed by Sniper Wolf, and kills her following a second duel. Otacon, enamored with her, is overcome with grief, but continues to assist Snake.
Snake descends into the bowels of the Shadow Moses facility, first cutting through the base forge then down into the warehouses below. Here he encounters Raven again, this time face-to-face, and kills him. Before he dies, Raven reveals that the DARPA Chief who Snake encountered was actually FOXHOUND member Decoy Octopus in disguise. Shortly after, Master Miller calls and reveals that Dr Naomi Hunter, a support agent, had given Solid Snake the genetically engineered virus "FoxDie" during his mission preparations, and is sending coded messages into the facility- Campbell swiftly orders her arrest. The virus, designed to kill people with particular genetic markers via cardiac arrest, was responsible for the deaths of Octopus and the Armstech president. Naomi, struck by guilt, contacts Snake in secret and confesses that she joined the mission to sabotage it, as she is the adoptive sister of the now barely human Gray Fox. However, upon learning of Snake's own tragic past through the current mission, she no longer has the heart to kill him directly, having reprogrammed the virus.
Infiltrating Metal Gear's hangar and following the supposed procedure to disarm the warhead, Snake unknowingly activates Metal Gear REX, after which Master Miller reveals himself to be Liquid in disguise. He informs Snake that his entire mission was manipulated by the renegades to allow the launch of the nuclear weapon. As a parting gift as he boards REX, Liquid explains that they are the product of the 1972 Les Enfants Terribles project, a government sponsored effort to clone legendary mercenary Big Boss. However, part of the process requires that their genes be altered, Solid receiving all of Big Boss' dominant genes, and Liquid receiving all the recessive genes.
Drawn into battle with Metal Gear REX, Snake manages to disable the machine's sensors with the aid of Otacon, and Gray Fox (who admits to being "Deepthroat") manages to destroy its radome, but is wounded and crushed by its foot. REX is destroyed, but Liquid survives, challenging Snake to a final fist-fight atop Metal Gear, where Snake succeeds and is reunited with Meryl- possibly for the final time, depending on the player's actions (see below). After a protracted jeep-chase with the seemingly unkillable Liquid, Snake finally escapes the facility, and his brother collapses, killed by FoxDie. Colonel Campbell, briefly ousted from command of the mission, calls off a nuclear airstrike intended to obliterate the evidence of the day's events, and officially declares Snake killed in action to prevent the US Government returning for him in the future. In the immediate aftermath, the player finds out Snake is actually genetically inferior to Liquid and has an indeterminate amount of time left before FoxDie kills him.
Depending on the player's actions during the game, there are two possible endings: in one ending, Ocelot kills Meryl and Snake escapes with Otacon, while in the other ending, she survives and escapes with Snake. Meryl's survival is recorded as canon by In The Darkness of Shadow Moses, a story featured in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
A telephone conversation following the credits reveals Ocelot to be a double agent for the President of United States, the "third", Solidus. Ocelot's intention was to gain Baker's disk containing Metal Gear specifications and deliver it to the president.
Computer games
These are games which you can play on your own computer without needing to move your ass from your chair.
[Of course you run away once you've played The House, that is...or then not.]
Copied the descriptions from JIG.
The House
Built in 1970, and deserted some time after that, no one has entered the house since the entire family committed suicide due to reasons unknown.
Point-and-click your way through the house to unfold the mystery of what really happened to that fateful fictitious family. Best viewed alone, late at night, in the dark, and with the sound turned up.
Created by 25 year-old Sinthai Boonmaitree (xin) of Bangkok, Thailand, this interactive narrative combines excellent use of sound, animation, and timing to produce a very creepy atmosphere and a few very startling effects. Although the horror piece is similar to the previously reviewed NFH Propaganda and 99 Rooms with its loading screens that interrupt the progression from room to room, there are far fewer rooms for it to matter much at all. The House is much more like a game than the others, though there is nothing very difficult to figure out. Random clicking should get you through the whole 10-minute presentation without any trouble, save for a few frightening moments.
Here's a stylish and unusual game, simple called AOOA, in which you embark on an adventure by dialing in destinations. The destinations are 3-digit telephone numbers you find in each 'level' that take you to the next. Each destination is unique in its objective, sound, and interface. For example, one destination requires you to win a game of rock-paper-scissors 3-times to advance to the next. It's a very simple premise for a game; one that allows for a free-form expression of creativity and art: And it works.
A remake of last year's Penguin tossing games, Nanaca † Crash adds depth to the original by featuring nine (9) different characters that affect game play in unique ways. The characters are actually from a Japanese PS2 adventure game called Cross†Channel: To All People, developed by Flying Shrine and targeted at the mature market. This game, however, is definitely safe for all ages.
Nanaca†Crash begins with a click of the mouse. Simply click and hold the mouse when the meter shows the desired angle, release it at the desired power. Nanaca will then come barreling in on her bike from out of nowhere to send Taichi flying via her AERIAL CRASH! ability. The object is to make Taichi travel the farthest.
Once in the air, Taichi's flight may be influenced by any of the characters standing on the ground when a collision occurs, or from additional aerial crashes you can activate with a click of the mouse. When the word "AERIAL" highlights in red or blue, clicking the mouse will summon Nanaca to teleport in and give Taichi an additional boost. Red aerial crashes launch him upward, blue aerial crashes boost him at an angle towards the ground.
You have only three (3) Red AERIAL crashes, use them wisely. You may use as many Blue aerials as you wish, but they take some time to regenerate.
Five Finger Fillet
And what would Halloween be without a little gore? Five Finger Fillet, from the now defunct 13th Street website of Universal Studios, is a Shockwave game to test your reflexes and your stomach. Once the game begins, simply click the mouse to stab the table in between your fingers. Obviously, the object of this rather simple game is to miss your fingers while racking up the points. Hit a finger, lose a finger. Eeeeww.
The Museum of Broken Memories is a beautifully woven interactive narrative that may even be considered a work of art.
It is a point-and-click game, yes; and yet it is so much more than that. It is available as a free download for Windows only.
The game consists of five (5) starkly different levels, or vignettes, that explore feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness, anguish, loss, and the like. The images and words expressed may seem familiar to anyone that has found themselves slowly sinking into a world of depression or self-doubt. But in the end it is a soulful journey that must be experienced to appreciate the unique form of narrative that the author, Jonas Kyratzes, has constructed.
When told his creation was more art than game, Jonas responded:
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"I'd just like to slightly disagree with your use of the terms game and art. The way I see it, they are not opposites at all. Games are interactive art. Art implies only a work's nature, not its quality or seriousness. Games are still a very new art form, but so once were movies. Within that great realm of possibility that is interactive art, there is space for all kinds of stories and experiences. This is a more sombre one, true—but I wouldn't say it's not a game."
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Like any work of art, personal interpretation plays an important role here, as there are many images and words to browse through and interact with, and an array of emotions that will be evoked. The storyline is sometimes clear and sometimes vague, and there is much symbolism present and references to other works to support a wide range of perspectives. It's both short and fairly easy; the joy in this one is the feeling of awe upon the game's denouement.
My only complaints are that it requires a download and anyone without a PC is out of luck. For what it's worth, though, the modest wait for the game to download is far shorter than actual gameplay time, and at 100% free the price is definitely right.
Mere words cannot describe the sheer complexity of this experience. Try it out.
