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Blog entry by Joe Wylie

Best Games That Survived Development Hell
Best Games That Survived Development Hell

Frictional Games made a name for itself with Amnesia: The Dark Descent , a title that is largely responsible for the resurgence the horror genre has enjoyed in recent years. Its followup effort, Soma , may not have generated the same kind of buzz as Amnesia , but it is arguably the better, more polished game. Set in an underwater research facility filled with strange creatures, Soma is less about jump scares and more about building tension and scaring players with pure psychological hor

While not every title is so lucky, there are some games that rise from the ashes and escape the dreaded development hell, arriving late but welcome to store shelves to the delight of their patient fans. These are the best games to have escaped development limbo and how long they were trapped th

After the franchise went with a more action-oriented approach for a few entries, it was clear that the Resident Evil series needed to get back to its roots. Capcom did exactly that with Resident Evil 7 , delivering an overwhelming survival-horror experience full of exploration, deadly traps, and horrific monsters for players to contend with. Especially brave players can even play through the entire game with PlayStation VR , transporting them directly into the hellish world of the Baker family plantation and all the terrors that come with

March and April may not hold as many options as previous months, but there are still quite a few good picks available. Suits returns to USA; Whose Line Is It Anyway? proves what works, works (even on the CW); PBS finally premieres the BBC mini-series Mr. Selfridge starring Jeremy Piven; Orphan Black returns to BBC America; and Game of Thrones season 4 premieres… at some po

There will be several different killers in the game, each loosely based on different classic horror movie villains, but only one was featured in the PAX demo, a hulking Jason-like with a machete and bear traps. As the killer, you can always see where the generators are, so you have a good idea at least where to patrol. If a survivor makes a loud noise, like from failing that generator prompt, a prominent icon shows up onscreen giving you the exact location. Likewise, when a generator is fixed, it turns on and gets highlighted in your view. Show up to the generator and see a fading red trail leading away and you know a survivor is very close. Chase them down and give them a good slash and you’ll injure them, making it much easier to catch up with them again later. A second slash will down them, making them eligible to be picked up and carried to a meat hook to be "sacrificed" upon death as tendrils take them away. The whole concept of needing to hang the survivors up on a hook instead of just killing them right then and there is a little silly, of course, but it provides good tension for the game on both sides.

The third title in the single-player RPG is perhaps the longest-developed slg game Beginner Guide of all time, leaving fans waiting for over a decade. Mother 3 takes place on Nowhere Island, an undetermined amount of time after the events of the previous game, Mother 2 . Lucas, Claus, and their mother Hinawa are preparing to journey home before the evil Pigmask Army strikes, bombing Tazmil Village and eventually taking it o

Your goal is to fix five generators in the level that will power the door leading to safety and get out. The levels are procedurally generated each time, though, so you’re never going to be able to memorize the layout and map the most efficient routes; you’re going to need to balance exploration with stealth in order to find the generators without getting spotted and winding up on one of the killer’s meat hooks. Every time you run, you leave a trail through the woods the killer will see and follow straight to you, so when you’re looking around, tread lightly. Fixing a generator doesn’t require much more than time and a bit of timing as a prompt similar to the Gears of War active reload pops up occasionally to make sure you’re still paying attention. Missing that prompt is a surefire way to get the killer on your tail as it causes the generator to make a loud noise with a visual icon on the killer’s display.

L.A. Noire was an ambitious project from the get-go, spinning the narratives of multiple mysterious murders that fell to Cole Phelps to solve. Players would scope out crime scenes for clues, investigate bodies, and question possible witnesses to piece together the puzzle. Most witnesses even had tells eagle-eyed players could detect to see when they were lying, and certain dialogue options could be selected to try and deduce what was t

Once you’ve fixed all the generators, you can escape via one of two doors, each of which takes a bit of time to open — during which, of course, the killer will be making one final mad dash to kill you. At some point if you play Dead by Daylight, you’re going to be faced with an open escape door and a fellow survivor in need of help behind you, and which you choose is going to reveal a lot to me about your character.


  
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