Shocktoberfest: Enter The Nightmare -- A Month-Long Journey Through The Horror Game Genre

When does this start?

Shocktoberfest begins on October 1st, and will last the entire month of October, ending at 11:59 PM on Halloween night.

What should I play?

Anything that falls under the classification of a horror game. Survival horror, action horror, a horror-themed FPS, anything with zombies, etc. In the interest of having fun, this can be more of a loose definition of what defines a horror game, and constitute anything that is more-or-less "horror themed". So games like Gears of War or even Luigi's Mansion are fine.

For me, it's very much the same outlook as Backlaugust -- I've got horror games in my backlog, and it's time to play them. How many games you want to play is up to you, whether that's just one game or a few games. Any platform, doesn't matter. They can be new games, old games. Even horror games you've already beaten long ago and want to replay. You don't have to choose all of your games up front; you can if you want, but it's fine to just take it one-game-at-a-time.

Who should participate?

If you:

a. Enjoy horror games
and/or
b. Have at least one horror game in your backlog
and/or
c. Plan on buying a new horror game (such as, I don't know, ZOMBIU!!!!!!!!)

you should do this.

The purpose of this is a little less about seeing how many games we can beat, but for everyone to share in the experience of playing something scary. A good horror game can be a tough thing to get all of the way through to the end, but with some moral support from the rest of the community that's going through the same thing, maybe we can all make it back into the light by November! That's what it comes down to -- having fun, and being scared shitless. And being scared shitless is a lot more fun when being scared shitless as a group.

One last thing -- for your fellow NW-er who hasn't played every game, try using spoiler tags whenever possible for anything major that's story-related, or just in general anything that should not be spoiled. So, "I can't believe Leon died at the end!" instead of "I can't believe Leon died at the end!"


Completed (18)



Kentucky Route Zero, Act 1 (Secret_Tunnel, 10/6)
The House of the Dead: Overkill (GameDadGrant, 10/7)
Dead Space (PogueSquadron, 10/11)
Kentucky Route Zero, Act 2 (Secret_Tunnel, 10/14)
Fatal Frame (TheBigG753, 10/17)
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (PogueSquadron, 10/20)
Dead Rising 2 (Zero, 10/20)
Dead Space Extraction (Mop It Up, 10/21)
Super Castlevania IV (Het_Nkik, 10/23)
Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir (GameDadGrant, 10/24)
Zombies Ate My Neighbors (Het_Nkik, 10/26)
ObsCure II (r_hjort, 10/26)
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (Jargon, 10/26)
Resident Evil: Revelations (ludist210, 10/28)
ZombiU (Mr_Mustache, 10/29)
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (TheBigG753, 10/31)
Project Zero 2: Wii Edition (r_hjort, 10/31)
Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen/Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (Het_Nkik, 10/31)


LEFT 4 DEAD (10)

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (Secret_Tunnel, in progress)
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (GameDadGrant, *has thrown in the towel*)
Dead Space: Extraction (chrisguy, through 5 levels)
Doom II (Pokefreak911, 12 levels in)
Resident Evil Zero (gojira, at the Training Facility)
TellTale's The Walking Dead (Zero, finished Episode 3)
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Pokefreak911, through Stone Tower)
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (Zero, finished first run)
ZombiU (gojira, Tower of London)
ZombiU (r_hjort, whack-a-zombie)


The Players (20)

chrisguy: Dead Space: Extraction
deathly_hallows: Cult County, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence
DrFinkelstein: ZombiU
GameDadGrant: Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir, The House of the Dead: Overkill, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
gojira: ZombiU, Resident Evil Zero
Hero_of_Hyrule: Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
Het_Nkik: Super Castlevania IV, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen
Jargon: Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Dead Space, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
kriswright: ZombiU
ludist210: Resident Evil: Revelations
Mop It Up: Dead Space Extraction
Mr_Mustache: ZombiU, Castlevania
PogueSquadron: Dead Space, Castlevania 3
Pokefreak911: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Bioshock, Bioshock 2, Doom II
r_hjort: Obscure 2, Project Zero 2: Wii Edition, ZombiU
Secret_Tunnel: Dead Space 3, Kentucky Route Zero, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare.
Shadowlink: ZombiU
Stephen: Alan Wake
TheBigG753: Fatal Frame, Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, Fatal Frame III: The Tormented
Zero: Dead Rising 2, Castlevania (III or Adventure Rebirth), Virtue's Last Reward, The Walking Dead


LAST YEAR'S THREAD

URL to share (right click and copy)

I'm going to work through Resident Evil Revelations on Wii U. Finally.

chrisguy said:

I will start with Dead Space: Extraction.

I'm interested to see how you enjoy it. I played it last year during Shocktoberfest...I thought it was pretty good.

I think I saw Fatal Frame 1 and 2 were up on PSN not too long ago. I never played that series, so I may do one or both of those, once I'm finished up with GTA.

GameDadGrant said:

chrisguy said:

I will start with Dead Space: Extraction.

I'm interested to see how you enjoy it. I played it last year during Shocktoberfest...I thought it was pretty good.

I think I've played through 3 of the 10 (?) chapters in the past. I can't remember what level of difficulty it was. I enjoyed it, but for whatever reason never got back to it.

I think this time around, I'll play it on the lowest difficulty and try a chapter a night until I'm done. And then decide if I want to replay it on the higher difficulties.

Do the Zero Escape games count as scary?

Because Zero should play Virtue's Last Reward already.

Wanted to play some Zombi U to start off Shocktoberfest, but my gamepad was dead. So while I'm letting that charge I started up Resident Evil: Zero. Only played a little bit so I don't really have anything to say. Just wanted to bump up the thread because I love me some Halloween and scary stuff.

Oh SNAP, its SHOCKTOBER.

EDIT- How many people are starting Zombi U from the start? Perhaps I'll begin anew myself.

@Mr_Mustache

I've only played about 20mins-30mins of the game when I got it almost a year ago so I'll probably start over.

Does working on my Animal Crossing New Leaf Spooky Room count?

I might play some ZombiU this month... I never finished it.

Hmm, should I start tonight? I'd like to knock out some of the stuff on my plate quick before starting this.

HMM.

Is it time to bust out the Halloween icons? Alright... let's do this thang.

@GameDadGrant

I tried finding your old post cause I swear you started this movement, but I couldn't find it. So I just started the ball rolling this year. Figured I'd switch mine up from the old Banjo as a Pumpkin one. But there's still a lot of October left.

@DrFinkelstein

Jack kinda freaked me out when I saw him this morning. I've never played AC during this time of year so it was my first time seeing him. I'm looking forward to buying all his stuff.

Started Majora's Mask last night. Gosh I love this game so much. Oozes atmosphere and character.

I wish I still had my Friday the 13th game. SAVE THE CHILDREN!

@d_Artagnan

If you still have your NES, you can probably go to a used game store and find one for under 5 bucks. There are always like 2-3 copies at mine. Want me to take a look for you?

EDIT- I'm going to restart ZombiU on Saturday Night, I believe.

Maybe I'll do a stage or two in The House of the Dead: Overkill tonight. If I can tear myself away from Project X Zone. Speaking of which, I just finished up the "Ghosts & Goblins" section of the game last night, which would have been appropriate for Shocktoberfest!

@ Mr. Mustache
Thanks, but that's not necessary. Hell, I don't even know if my NES works.

@d_Artagnan
NES units don't stop working. They just lay dormant. Like Cthulhu.

@d_Artagnan
@r_hjort

But it does take a bit to wake them sometimes!

A trick I've learned: unlike other systems where you generally will remove a disc or a cartridge from it, its actually "beneficial" to leave the cartridge exactly as is when you're done playing your NES. Just turn the power off, and when you're ready to play again, just power back on. Game should pop right back as usual. Even if you don't want to play that game, and you want to play another, fire it up for a few minutes and let it warm up. At least thats how MY system goes. I can get *knock on wood* pretty much any game working in under a minute. Some are a beach though. I remember Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt taking me a LONG time to get going when we were doing those speedruns.