DUHH

And when you´re at it, why not System Shock 1? It´s got more survival horror aspects than the sequel, and even though that graphics are laughably old, ans the controls overly cumbersome, it is still totally playable, dripping with atmosphere, excellent at providing jump-scares, and probably more innovative than any game today. It´s totally shocking how groundbreaking that game is. If you gave it a graphic makeover, some new physics, tweaked the controls and interface a bit, and released it today.... It would still be ahead of the times.

No, but you could hear where they where being uncrumpled. Through the amazing technology of 4D. At least I think that was what the Eidos pamphlet said.

Didn´t the 4D gaming-era begin with Thief: The Dark Project?

Ossk: I actually played through Eternal Darkness six times. You see... I lost the save with the original three times.... And you know... I couldn´t have the game without a complete save, now could I? I have Penumbra installed, but haven´t gotten to it yet. I did play the demo, and it does seem somewhat Lovecraftian. But there´s a lot of confusion in what should be called Lovecraftian. In my opinion very few of the authors who are claimed to be Lovecraftian actually are. They often pay homage to his dreamland stuff, which when Lovecraft wrote it was, as it is now, very Dunsanian. Or they use the setting and the language, both of which are very Poe´ish. As I see it... the truly Lovecraftian tale is a sci-fi horror tale, most often set in contemporary times, using the newest of science, and mixing in real-world events and objects with imaginary ones, in order to paint a convincing picture of nightmarish images where the futility and unimportance of human existence in the endless universe is put into focus. Or at least that´s my two cents. So, even without having read it, I can say that I don´t think A Night in the Lonesome October seems like something I´d describe as Lovecraftian. But then again, many of of Lovecrafts short-stories were not terribly Lovecraftian either, at least up until 1927 or so.

Hi. I´m new people. Didn´t know about Idle Thumbs until the new podcast started casting the pods. Probably got to know about it either through Shacknews, which I´ve read since... well since I got internet sometime in the late 90´s? Either that or through NeoGAF, which I´m lurking.... but it´s much to scary to even consider joining. Anyhow... I like... games. I listen to podcasts all the time when I work. Idle Thumbs is a podcast about... games. And it´s actually quite good. Cheers.

This game looks incredibly good. The art-style and layering and effects are just lovely. And even though the gameplay looks to smart for me, it looks fun. I must get my Wii back. I don´t have any experience with the original ones though. Because at that time I knew that Nintendo consoles were for kiddies and Commodore was for the cool kids.

Eternal Darkness is one of my all time favorite games. Again I would argue against the Lovecratianism of it, but it sure did make the Lovecraft-fan in me giggle like a little school girl on many occasions, and I got my biggest ever Video game scare one time I played it for way to long, being way to stoned, and when I finally had to pause to go to the bathroom the hallucinations didn´t stop. "THIS CAN´T BE HAPPENING!" .

Well, I suppose you hint, instead of show. And even though the game does an admirable attempt with the Shoggoth, and a wise choice in basing the story on Shadow Over Innsmouth(One of the few Lovecraft stories than don´t feature anything unimaginable), I think it still fails. But then again, Lovecraft himself failed in most of his stories. Doing Lovecraft in other formats is a formidable challenge, but over the last decades we´ve slowly seen better and better attempts, and I hope people will keep on trying, as I will keep on trying. And CoC: DCotE is an very good attempt, all in all. But I do think Lovecraft would be better suited to games with less action, and more adventure. Even if the adventures have to resort to Sierra-like instant death to provide most scares.

Being a humongous fan of Lovecraft(Or to say it more pompously: A fledgling scholar), this game is a kind of guilty pleasure for me. Though the developers tried very hard to be Lovecraftian, they do fail utterly in most parts. The opening and the first part of the Innsmouth chapter are the only parts that really do capture some of the spirit. Cliché noire dialogue not withstanding. The parts that fail to capture the spirit are also the parts that fail gameplaywise: The stealth, the action, the bossbattles. The most dissapointing part isn´t that they don´t manage to capture the unnamable horror that Lovecraft tried to describe, but that they don´t even hint at the fantastical wonder that he so often invoked to counter the horror. But... massive amounts of warts, rage-quits and all, the game is still quite fun, and throws a lot of references to Lovecrafts stories. Most of all it makes me wish someone would do an old-school adventure game based on the Shadow Out Of Time. It´s basically the perfect story for it.