cw8: Yes. Mostly because of the dark, bloody lab environments.
Even Dragon Age Origins had its 1 dreadful moment which was very well done, the approach to the Broodmother.
Gonna see her again soon, this time with my uber dual-wielding warrior.

Lou: I must say that the first time I met that Ogre at the top of the Tower of Ishal I nearly wet my Mage Robes. I had no idea if I was prepared or ready to kill something like that.

Lou: I must say that the first time I met that Ogre at the top of the Tower of Ishal I nearly wet my Mage Robes. I had no idea if I was prepared or ready to kill something like that.

Aliasalpha: I remember having that "Am I supposed to be level 10 already??" feeling. Especially with a mage, its an amazing transformation, when you hit level 12-15 you just petrify and shatter ogres without thinking

nondeplumage: I totally agree. I think there's so much room for innovation that it's sad to see so many games always following the same routine. I know it's the safest option, and usually guarantees a return on investment on an established franchise (just look at Halo, same crap, different title each time and yet it sells incredibly well). A game of cat and mouse with a killer or a monster -- werewolf, please! :D -- would be awesome, or even a kind of call back to the movie Psycho, where a game totally screws with your head by having you play through several well-developed characters, and you play through a game designed to kill off some and let you survive as others. Look how well that very idea worked in Modern Warfare, where *SPOILERS* in the middle of the game one of your main characters you play is killed off in a nuclear explosion in an incredibly involving way. */SPOILERS*

It's like we need to sit all these developers in a room with nothing but books by Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft and say here, read these until you get the idea.

nondeplumage: I was looking at Dead Space 2 from PAX today, and from just about the beginning of the demo I saw, I was bored to death. Monsters jump on you. You shoot the monsters. Monsters are weird looking. You shoot the monsters. There are bigger, weirder looking monsters. You shoot them too. Everything's bleak looking and the spaces are compact, meant to look claustrophobic because hey, it worked in Alien, right?

It was the same with playing Resident Evil 5. And Predators Vs. Aliens. There isn't even an attempt at psychological horror. It's just design an abnormal thing, have it pulse and bulge in random places, there's your monster. Don't forget to shoot it.

A few months ago, I picked up an old Xbox title called Call of Cthuhlu: Dark Corners of the Earth, along with a Gamecube title called Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. If I can chase down a copy of Silent Hill 2 and 3, I'll be getting those as well. And I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. In these games, I'm hoping to find out what's missing from the new ones.

In these new horror games, you're well prepared, whether you know it or not (like having a natural weapon perfectly suited to your environment of evil monsters even in Dead Space). At the start, you get an idea what's coming, and although you might not know the when or exactly where, you're on your toes, you're keeping your gun close at hand, you're surveying your surroundings. You're going to kill them before they kill you. You are in control.

You also get a really good look at the monsters you face. The design theory across the board for horror games seems to be the more abnormal a creature is with recognizable human or animal features somewhere on its body, the more freaked out you should be. It may be over-saturation or desensitizing of monsters that make them less exciting for me, but I think the real problem is in their application.

I haven't had a chance to sit down and play those horror games I've picked up, but from everything I've seen of them, they'll manage to screw with my head and leave the monsters just off screen when I've been knocked down and can't get up in a hurry. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.