RipTen Videogame Blog » Halloween

Five O’Clock Fan Art: A Very Mario Halloween

Dave Oshry — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:36 +0000

In case you’ve been living under a pumpkin, you’re probably aware that today is Halloween! In celebration of this spooky celebration of sugary snacks, we bring you some very Mario Halloween fan art.

Five O’Clock Fan Art is perfect for wrapping up the work day. You don’t want to think anymore, you just want to look at awesome things. And there’s nothing more awesome than a well crafted piece of videogame fan art. If you don’t agree, what the hell are you doing at a gaming blog?

BOO!

Get Some Sex, Blood and Rock n’ Roll With Lollipop Chainsaw This Halloween

Dave Oshry — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:05:35 +0000

You’ve got to hand it to Suda 51, the man is a dreamer. A crazy, sexy, violent dreamer.

In this latest trailer for his latest brainchild, Lollipop Chainsaw, watch as Juliet slices, dices and dances her way through the zombie apocalypse.

Yep. This is a thing that exists, Don’t you just love Japan?

Stay tuned to RipTen for continued coverage of Lollipop Chainsaw.

Rift Calls Upon The Caped Crusader in New Halloween Video

Jensen Walker — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:50:38 +0000

Batman and Rift. Perhaps two franchises you never thought you would see together. Well, now you can.

Echoing the gloriously campy 1960′s television program, Trion’s trailer follows the dynamic duo of Batman and Robin as they fight the crime ridden paths of Greenscale’s Blight.

Watch it. It will make you smile. Or shake your head. One of the two. POW!

TERA Treats Viewers to a Cautionary Tale With New Halloween Trailer

Jensen Walker — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:30:37 +0000

Forthcoming action MMO TERA has today revealed a spooky new trailer featuring some of the creepier characters from the game’s cast.

A re-imagining of famous tales of the Brothers Grimm, ‘The Old Witch’ tells the story of a girl who disobeys her parents and travels into dark woods. There she comes upon a witch, whereupon things take a turn for the worse.

You can devour the Halloween treat from En Masse Entertainment below.

Killing Floor Promotion Resurrects Summer Sideshow Event

Sam Naylor — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:02:34 +0000

Halloween brings with it another chance to get all those Killing Floor achievements you missed during Summer when you were outside.

Killing Floor, the superb co-op survival horror title, has been updated with all your favourite monsters from the “Summer Sideshow” event hard at work trying to kill you on the “Abusement Park” map.

The update brings the Frankenpound and Vampatriarch back, with a few others (all reskins of existing monster, of course) both to the Abusement Park map and also Bedlam. The existing achievements will return as well as 7 new ones exclusive to the Bedlam map, with an unlocked character skin as a reward for unlocking them all. It’s a chicken suit.

Thanks to the Steam Halloween Sale, too, the game is currently 66% off. The game is on sale from now until the end of the event on November the first.

Geeked Out: Amazing Gaming Jack-O’-Lanterns

Catherine Cai — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 04:00:51 +0000

Halloween is a special time every year that I look forward to. When else would you have socially acceptable excuses to: 1) look at scantily clad women or dress like one 2) beg your neighbors for food without fear of being labeled as a hobo 3) scare the piss out of small children until they begin to cry, and best of all 4) take your anger out on a pumpkin by stabbing it until it has that grinning excuse for a face. Sure, you don’t get any days off of class or work, but I think it’s still safe to say that Halloween is a pretty awesome holiday.

Pumpkin Phelps Agrees

One of my favorite Halloween things to do is to carve pumpkins, but I’m a liberal arts/pre-med major for a reason: I can’t art. I know our resident artsy, grammar Nazi editor Steph Gutowski is reading this somewhere yelling at her screen, “But art just takes practice!”… which I’m sure is true at some level. Sure, the technical skills of art take practice to perfect, but you need at least some level of talent to capitalize on before you can actually ‘do’ art. Alas, I’m a hopeless cause (sorry to let you down, Stephiroth), and so I can only experience the joys of pumpkin carving vicariously through other people on the Internet. That being said, as a person who likes video games, I really appreciate pumpkin carvings of video game-like things.

Whilst lurking on the mean streets of Reddit, I found various pumpkin carvings of game characters that really tickled my fancy, but I hit the jackpot here with Ceemdee’s collection of mutilated fall squash. There’s something akin to twelve pumpkin carvings, so obviously the carver had a lot of time on their hands.

Then How Am I Reading This... ?

My favorites are the L.A. Noire, Minesweeper, Bastion, and Worms ones, although they’re all fantastic. Worms and Minesweeper, I admit, I picked based off of personal bias and nostalgia, but L.A. Noire and Bastion both look like the carver easily put in 5+ hours into both. The artist had to carve friggin’ people. If most tried to duplicate the feat, they’d end up with a miserable, pulpy mess.

Anyway, so far this collection of pumpkin carvings has me most impressed. Anyone out there planning on doing some vidjeogame character pumpkin carving? Tell us about it!

Hungry for more hand-made swag? Take a leisurely stroll through our Geeked Out collection.

Steam Kicks off Haloween Sale With Scary Good Deals!!

Dave Oshry — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:17:01 +0000

It’s that time of year again. A time to stay inside and play games because those damned zombies are eating everyone’s brains!!

Steam is having a Halloween sale, and have slashed (get it?) prices on dozens of titles!!

Here are some notably spooky deals!!

Resident Evil 5 – $14.99

Overlord + Overlord II – $7.49!!

Left 4 Dead + Left 4 Dead 2 – $14.99!!

Bioshock – $4.99!!

There are tons of other titles at bloody good prices up until November 1st!! What are you waiting for!?

It’s Team Fortress 2 Halloween Special Time

Sam Naylor — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 09:47:31 +0000

Valve have officially begun the second annual Halloween event in Team Fortress 2, bringing new achievements, hats, gameplay features and maps into the game.

The event map is Mann Manor, although there is also another brand new community map being added, Mountain Lab. Both came out of the “Art Pass” mapping contest as winners, and are therefore being added into the game.

The event map is haunted by the “Horseless Headless Horseman,” and the map will randomly drop gifts while the event is active. There are four new achievements to get while you can, as well as new Halloween hats and a weapon.

Full patch notes are here. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to have myself a good ol’ Halloween time.

New TERA Halloween Trailer is Spooky

Dave Oshry — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 21:31:12 +0000

En Masse and Bluehole Studio’s highly anticipated MMO, TERA may not be out yet, but that doesn’t mean they can’t join in on the ghoulish festivities this week!!

Ripten Review: Costume Quest (XBLA)

Ripten Staff — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 22:08:53 +0000

By Stephanie Gutowski

I developed an obsession for Costume Quest shortly after Double Fine released its initial screen shots of the Halloween-themed game. Considering my terrible phobia of cel-shaded graphics, I was surprised to find that the cartoony style did not offend me. Rather, it added to this inexplicable sense of joy that overcame me when I finally downloaded the game on Xbox Live. For those of us who spend months planning our Halloween costumes and scouting out the best possible candy varieties to pass out to trick-or-treaters, this game is a warm welcome home. A loving, but dysfunctional home.

You begin in your new neighborhood. It’s a quiet opening as this game is completely devoid of voice acting. It’s not a detractor, but it would have been nice to allow us to speed through or slow down chunks of text in these cut scenes. I found myself either racing to keep up, or slamming the A button, ready to rob the next house of all its Snickers. Your mother appoints one of you in charge of the evening’s festivities and this is where Double Fine cleverly hid the option to play as a boy or girl. I’m always appreciative of a developer’s effort to make each game a more personal experience for a player. I’m sure I would have been fine with playing as Reynold, questing to save Wren, but hey. I’m a girl. Of course I’ll jump at the chance to pick a character that better reflects me. Regardless of whoever you pick, Wren or Reynold, the costumes and story remain the same. The pronouns just switch around. It’s still believable.

Off We Go On A Quest For Candy!!

Anyhoo, you start off your night with an unmitigated failure. The neighbors hate your brother/sister’s candy corn costume and you must suffer this outrage without receiving any candy. However, a grubbin mistakes the short kid for an actual piece of candy and whisks it away to be eaten by… something. You have to fight. How, exactly? I mean, you’re like eleven years old or something. You transform into the ultimate form of your costume. The cardboard robot becomes a giant blue mech, capable of laying waste to even the most shallow and pedantic of middle-management goblins. Which you will find yourself doing repeatedly. Anyway, the dust settles and an awful witch gets all up in your business as you set off on the quest to rescue your charge. You’ll recruit other party members and assemble more costumes, each with their own special abilities and attack types. You must open special gates in order to reach the goblins that have taken your brother, but this can only be done by trick-or-treating at every house in the neighborhood until all the candy is gone. Some of these houses, however, will be more about tricks than treats.

I Have The Power!!

The combat itself was surprisingly simple. I expected the “your turn, my turn” mechanic, but not quite this stripped down. There’s no menu, but rather buttons that hover over your character. Usually, it’s a one-button ordeal. X to attack, followed by a randomly generated button to defend. When you’re charged up enough, you can release your special attack. These range from special damage moves to support skills. It all depends on the costume. While this takes a lot of the sometimes tedious strategy out of the mix, it does reduce battles to simple battles of endurance. There are no healing items, so you just have to stick it out until the end of the fight, and then your health will be restored. If your partner dies in battle, you just have to hold on and survive. As long as the enemy is defeated with one of you left standing, it’s a total victory. If you all die, then too bad. You just reappear behind the enemy and try again with a different strategy. It’s a forgiving, but not-so rewarding system.

Excelsior!!

Costumes definitely feel unique from one another. I had acquired four costumes by the time I’d decided to deliver my verdict and found the space explorer costume was my favorite. Melee and ranged costumes execute attacks differently with timed button events. None are difficult to land, but they make battles a bit more exciting. Battle stamps help boost your prowess in fights, but you’re limited to one stamp per character (at least early on in the game) and this left me feeling totally under-equipped for most of the encounters. So, no, combat isn’t really this game’s strong suit. Yet, it’s entertaining enough and easy to get the hang of, but nothing all that revolutionary.

The atmosphere is where this game truly shines. Double Fine, while not known for high-brow humor, has a way of making me snort out loud. I had one such moment after trick-or-treating at a house (there’s an orchestral swell before each door opens, so you never know whether or not you’ll be facing a goblin in battle) and out popped a grubbin. He yelled at me, “Ah, you look like my parents, FROM WHOM I AM BITTERLY ESTRANGED!” The battle commenced and I had to compose myself. The irreverence and absurdity Double Fine brings to the game just adds to the fun. You may want to sit back and pick out all the imperfections- there are many, trust me, but then you eventually find yourself sucked back into Halloween, scouring the neighborhood for that next quest. The downside is that you’ll be doing this again… and again… and again.

Candy is Dandy

There are smaller mini games and objectives within the game. Trading candy stamps with other trick-or-treaters usually gets you bag upgrades and costume materials. Using candy as currency, you can buy more battle stamps to pimp out your team with. You can bob for apples, play hide-and-seek, wash, rinse, and repeat throughout the county until you’ve completed all the neighborhoods. Each neighborhood has a boss waiting for you at the end, each with minimal strategy required.

The only serious gripe I have about this game is its total lack of a manual save. You have to either complete a quest or do something totally momentous in order for the game to decide you’re worthy of a checkpoint. Time to go to work? Too bad. You have to finish building your Statue of Liberty costume or it’ll all go to hell. No one wants to be told when they’re allowed to stop playing or that their past ten minutes of work was in vain. The auto save is just not frequent enough to help me overlook this problem. While I’d love to disappear into the whimsy of fake Halloween, I can’t. For me, the quests aren’t about rewards- they’re about activating an auto-save. Come on, that’s just wrong.

I love Halloween and I love games that can capture the atmosphere and spirit of the day. Double Fine does this well. It doesn’t, however, give me the means to enjoy this world in spurts. A game of this size should be something you can pick up and put down whenever. When you deny the player this, the game suffers. It’s still worth a go, but those who are less-than-obsessed with Halloween might not get the same enjoyment out of it as others. Happy Halloween!!

The Rundown:

+ Great dialogue and ambiance
+ Simple but fun costume combat
- Absolutely no manual saves
- Trick-or-treating gets repetitive

Second Opinion (Aaron Alexander)

Costume Quest is an Adventure RPG, in which two children set off to trick or treat but are quickly confronted by an Alien race named the “Grubbin”. This confrontation leads to a variety of often funny and exciting events that fuel a somewhat basic RPG game along the way. Costume Quest is the creation of the fine-folk of Double Fine who also put out such titles as Psychonauts and Brutal Legend, so expect their distinct brand of humor to shine throughout this simple downloadable game.

Costume Quest opens with two children about to go out for Halloween, who happen to be Brother and Sister. The game will quickly ask you which character you want to control for the rest of the journey, either Reynold, the young man or Wren, the young lady. Soon enough after your choice you’re off to the first house to trick-or-treat and when the door opens it reveals a Goblin like creature – stylistically reminiscent of enemies found in Dragon Quest games. The “Grubbin” is quick to snatch whichever sibling you did not select when prompted earlier and speeds off toward an ominous gate near the edge of town. Now this is where the actual questing for costumes begins.

As the title implies the main quest revolves collecting different costumes which in turn grants you more combat powers and new abilities that eventually help you through the gates. To do so you travel around 3 different areas (Suburban, Shopping mall and Farmtown/Carnival), completing quests such as trick or treating and bobbing for apples. Knocking on doors to trick-or-treat can go one of two ways – either a person will open the door and throw a bunch of candy in your bag ( which is used as currency to buy stamps) or it will be an enemy raiding the houses for candy, which results in a fight. Quickly you’ll see how the child’s imagination guides the game, he will become gargantuan in size and your enemy will transform into an even more grotesque giant version of itself. The sheer ridiculousness of the fight-scenes is often hilarious whilst still being a charm filled experience, however the gameplay becomes very basic and formulaic. Each costume has a basic attack, of which has a different quick time event such as rotating the stick or a timed button press to cause critical hits. After three turns fighting back and forth with your basic attacks you’ll eventually be able to use your costumes special move. For example the Robot costume will launch a barrage of rockets at an enemy whilst the Statue of Liberty costume uses “Anthem” which causes the American colors to appear onscreen, as well as a photo of Abe Lincoln and an Eagle which lets out a deathly scream. It heals you and your parties HP, obviously. For winning each encounter you’re rewarded with more candy and XP which levels you up in traditional RPG fashion. With the candy you have procured you may purchase stamps from a local vendor. The stamps grant stat bonuses such as more attack and some even grant new abilities like “2 Ply Toilet Paper: Stuns enemy for 2 turns”. The combat system all feels very basic, however it becomes less of a chore when you have a variety of costumes, stamps and some more Children in your party to work with.

The costumes also grant benefits in the Overworld as well, such as rocket booster skates or a shield to block water from dripping on you. Most of these abilities are essential in the quests, and often times I’d forget to use them as the game does a poor job of telling you where to go next and what to do. It’s only a slight problem though as each overworld isn’t very big and are easily fully-explored, however that’s a problem in itself. The game could have used more variety, such as a team-up attack or an extra variation of mini-game side-quests or two. That being said, whatever the game lacks in quantity certainly more than makes up for itself in quality. From the delightful cell-shaded models, hilarious animations and mischievous feeling soundtrack it really does make for a game to remember. On top of all that, pile on a hearty serving of Double Fine’s signature brilliant writing and you’re sure to be smiling the way through the night.

Even though the combat eventually feels stale and tedious and the quests basically repeat themselves 3 times (once for each Overworld ) something about Costume Quest kept me playing. It could be the charm and personality oozing throughout the games design, or the Bully like musical chimes playing throughout your escapades during the night. Perhaps it’s the well written and actually funny dialogue the game delivers. Whatever it is, it’s absolutely worth checking out if you’re a fan of Double Fine’s previous work or if you’re a fan of charming, funny games. However if you have low tolerance for repetitive game play mechanics then maybe Costume Quest is worth a pass for you.

Here’s The Rundown:

+ Cute and charming characters
+ Well written dialogue. No lack of funny and humourous moments
- Gameplay can feel repetitive and tedious at times
- Lack of innovative quests/minigames towards the endgame

Costume Quest was developed by Double Fine for Xbox Live Arcade/Playstation Network. The game was released on October 19th (Playstation 3) and October 20th (Xbox 360) 2010, with a retail price of 1200 MSP ($15). A download code was provided by THQ for the purposes of review. The game was finished with all side quests complete in about 7 hours.

Creepy Fan-made Dead Rising Trailer

Garrett Hartman — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 21:18:36 +0000

It’s October and Halloween is near. Time for Ghosts, Ghouls and everyone’s favorite blue collar monster – Zombies.

Check out this creepy Dead Rising fan-made trailer created by Ripten friend Nathan Aaron:

Read Ripten’s Dead Rising 2 review here.

Team Fortress 2 Halloween Special This Weekend

Sam Naylor — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:28:00 +0000

Boo! I hope that didn’t completely scare you, what with Halloween coming up and all the ghosts that totally aren’t fictional and monsters that totally exist coming out to haunt us. To celebrate this rather ~~pointless~~ special time of year, Valve have announced that Team Fortress 2 will be having a spooky update weekend.

The update will add five achievements to unlock some new ghostly hats, a new King of the Hill map (Harvest, a Halloween-themed map with a roaming ghost that will scare players stiff) and Pumpkin-bombs. It also seems that dead players will be able to interact in some way with the living. Not sure if this is restricted to this one map, but either way it sounds brilliant. The special runs October 29th-November 3rd.

Update: The game is also super cheap from now until 2:00pm PDT; go buy it!

Sega’s Bayonetta Make-A-Witch Foundation Wants to Make You Over This Halloween

Chad Lakkis — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:40:21 +0000

Tired of the same old “bad cop”, “naughty school girl”, and “sexy french maid” Halloween outfits? Me too! Okay… not really, but either way, Sega has got the perfect pick-me-up guide for your last minute Halloween costume conundrum … Bayonetta!

That’s right ladies (and men if this is your sort of thing), firmly pack your boobs and butt into a full body leather suit, twirl your hair up in a Bouffant (think Marg Simpson only much sexier), throw on a pair of high heal boots, black rimmed glasses, and grab a handful or two of candy red colored fire arms to top it all off.

Hit the Halloween kid infested streets this year with a look that says “I’m smart enough to know better, but reckless enough to destroy anything that gets in my way.” The Bayonetta makeover is sure to have the men in each and every household rushing to the door for a chance to put their Snickers bars in your sweet sweet candy basket.

For some step-by-step tips on how to pull off the “Bayonetta” look, head on over to Sega’s Bayonetta “Make-A-Witch” Foundation website.

Happy Halloween! Share Your Scary Game Moment

Ripten Staff — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:49:00 +0000

Halloween is upon us, and we thought it would be a good time to share some “I just shit myself” scary video game moments. Turn the lights off and inch yourself closer to the warm inviting glow of our web page — Boo!

Alright, not so scary. Hit the jump to find out what games scared the crap out of our writers and share your own moment with us. Happy Halloween.

from Emily
I’m trying to think of something that creeped me out more than Bioshock the first time through, but having trouble. I inched my way along so slowly through the medical ward in case something would pop out. Dead Space was actually supposed to be scary, but it came off more eerie for me, I think. Spaaaaaaace.

Somebody eat a pile of those peanutbutter taffy things for me–have a good Halloween.

from Sam
The scariest videogame moment I have experienced was the first time I reached Ravenholm in Half-Life 2. Of course, the actual playthrough of the abandoned town was creepy, but the real horror lies in the beginning of the chapter. Alyx says to you earlier in the game “We don’t go to Ravenholm…”, with a shudder of terror at the prospect. At this point, I thought nothing of it and carried on with the game. However, when I was forced to go through Ravenholm after a tunnel collapse, I slowly came to the realisation that it would not exactly be a pleasant experience, especially as the name of the chapter faded on to the screen and subsequently revoked memories of the terror Alyx faced when even thinking about the place: “We don’t go to Ravenholm…”

And with that, dear readers, *Puff of smoke* Happy Halloween! *He’s gone!*

from Chad
This is going to sound soooooo weak to you guys but I haven’t played a lot of scary games. I’m going to have to say that the scariest gaming moment for me is something that has happened more often than I would like to admit. My silly ass will be sneaking around trying to find the last dude in a Gears of War multiplayer match. Of course, I’m the only one left on my team, so I’m trying to be extra careful not to fuck it up, and then I hear it — the all too familiar sound of a chainsaw revving up from behind me — nothing left to do but scream “aww shit” and watch myself get cut to pieces.

I’ll be sitting on my couch watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” with a mouth full of candy. Whatever you do, make sure to enjoy yourself. Happy Halloween!

from Dan
My scariest moment was way back on the NES. We had a subscription to Nintendo Power back then, and one of the things you got for subscribing was the original ‘Dragon Warrior’. Yes, they gave people a free game. This was really the first RPG I ever played, and I believe it’s what started my love affair with the genre. Anyhow, long story short, going through the castle at the end of the game leading up to the main bad guy was incredibly tense.

I was standing in front of my TV the whole time, buttcheeks clenched tightly, heartbeat racing. I finally got to the boss, and it was ridiculous. He would smash me and I would be on the verge of death, then I would heal myself and smash him right back. I thought for sure I was going to fail and have to replay the whole thing again, and I was truly frightened by the thought of my character’s death. I’m sure part of the reason is because I was only 10 years old, but I still vividly remember that experience and how it made me feel.

I have played countless other RPG’s since then, and games in general. Even though it would seem like I’ve done this same thing, had this same ‘boss battle’ experience in a hundred different games, at least on paper, none of them truly scared me the way Dragon Warrior did.

Honorable mentions include the dogs jumping through the window in Resident Evil and the first time a Berserker busted through a wall in Gears of War. I also get incredibly frightened for 3 seconds after turning on my 360. Having to wait for the ring to turn green is not good for my heart. Happy Halloween!

from Chelsea
Ha well, my scariest moment wasn’t technically in the game…

My friends and I were playing the original Fatal Frame. It’s pretty much how we played all horror games at parties: one person place while the rest watch, lights off late at night. My friend was at a particularly tense part of the game when suddenly, the back of the futon we were all sitting on gave out! We all tumbled backwards, screaming and freaking out for a bit until we realized what had happened. It was awesome. Happy Halloween!

from Sean
My scariest video game moment immediately jumps out at me since it literally scared me out of the room, out of the house, and ultimately out of town. I was twelve years old when I was allowed to purchase my first ‘M’ rated game within the company of my father. Upon putting it in my Playstation, I was riddled with anxiety as I didn’t want to get in trouble for anything inappropriate that might pop on screen, but I also wanted to experience the game in its entirety. I wasn’t allowed to play it alone so my Dad was in the room with me at the time I watched the opening cinematic of Parasite Eve. Within minutes, an entire audience of Carnegie Hall is liquified into a red goo reminiscent of blood. The theater begins to crumble and the actors depicting an opera appear to metamorphisize. I had a feminine moment and froze up. My Dad, muttering curse words under his breath, took the game out of the console and flipped over the box. After reading ‘Sexual References’, we made our commute back to Manhattan to return the game where we had bought it. We lived out of town, and I was still frozen. Later that night, I had nightmares of turning into red goo.

from Demi
I’m not a huge fan of any game that could scare me, so I don’t play horror games as often as I’d like to. Honestly, I think the most scared I’ve ever been from a game is a tie between Bioshock & Resident Evil 4. In Bioshock, I was turning the corner, and not really paying attention, and then as I started to walk down a long corridor, out of nowhere, a splicer jumps out and hits me. I totally lost my shit and started screaming, but easily dispensed of him. Resident Evil 4 was creepier because I was really into the game, and was standing close to the screen. (I was playing the Wii version.) I wasn’t too far into the game, but as soon as I saved, I left one of the rooms, and Dr. Salvador (also known as Mr. Burlap Sack Head) turned the corner and just cut right through me. I hate when enemies turn the corner and attack you.

I planned on dressing up as Batman, just so I could punch everyone I see dressed as The Joker, but instead, I’m just going to sit home and catch up on stuff. Happy Halloween, everyone!

from Andrew
When I’m not manning the door to give out candy to trick-or-treaters, nothing beats a scary First Person Shooter like System Shock 2, FEAR, or Doom 3 on Halloween. This year I’m jumping at my own shadow while playing Fallout 3– there’s nothing particularly scary about a sunny, open wasteland, but once you start getting into those abandoned subway tunnels and creepy haunted office wrecks, nearly every screaming zombie ghoul or hulking super mutant makes me go a big rubbery one. Maybe I’m just a wuss, but I’ve never been so happy to have the option to pause the action and target those buggers’ heads.

Happy Halloween, gamers, and try not to overdose on Fun-Sized Snickers bars.

from Beau
The scariest moment for me in a video game was during the re-make of Resident Evil for the Gamecube. Those Crimson Head zombies or whatever they were called just wouldn’t die. The first time one of those jerks got BACK up after I killed it and started chasing me with those huge claws – yeah, I was an 18 year old who soiled their parent’s couch. Happy Halloween fellow geeks!!

from Dylan
I remember playing Resident Evil 2 for the first time when I was a wee lad. It was released in January ’98, so I must have been 13. I think I was pretty far into the game, on the verge of beating it. Then there was a loud external “boom” and my mobile home shook. I nearly shit myself. For whatever occasion, there was a fireworks display going on down the road from my home. So there I was, playing Resident Evil 2 in my dark living room, and every now and then a firework would explode outside and shake my house, making the game scarier than it should have been. I probably should have held off on playing, but I’m stubborn like that.

Living in a small town, I’ve always been envious of people who can go to massive costume parties and see a ton of awesome videogame costumes. Go to one of those parties and live my dream. Live it!

from Sean
My scariest video game moment happened when I was about ten or so. A friend and I had rented the Jason video game for NES. I know what you’re thinking “Jason isn’t that scary.” Sure not now he isn’t, but back then is a totally different story. So anyway we are playing a long and it is rather late at night. We go up into one of the cabins and the music for its 8 bit generation is doing the job of keeping things right on the eerie side. We turn around and BOOM there’s Jason ready to cut is up.

Now a days, that wouldn’t scare a flea, but when I was a kid, it was a whole different ball game. Happy Halloween!

from Roly
So there I was, minding my own business, playing the very beginning BioShock and getting acquainted with Rapture. Mere minutes in, I came across a seemingly normal woman singing to a baby carriage. But, it’s Rapture; there just has to be something that’s genuinely fucked up. Little did I know my older brother had ever so silently snuck into my room, for anyone who’s played 15 minutes of BioShock can probably see where this is going.

For the rest of you, when you approach the woman you cross a proverbial trip-wire and the woman singing to the baby carriage turns, let’s out a shriek, and loses it. Just as she shrieked, my brother grabbed me, yelled loudly, and covered my eyes. If there has ever been a moment that I let out a scream that could be described as school-girl-like in nature, this was that time. Fuck my brother.

Moral of the story? Wish a person of your choice a Happy Halloween as I did my brother by jumping on their bed at 3am. Happy Halloween!

From Zungre

The original Silent Hill. I remember, early in the game, you walk into a highschool locker room and one of the small lockers is rattling like its packed with rabbid animal trying to get out. When you open it up there’s nothing inside. And the sound has stopped. As you leave the locker room and dead body falls falls out of a big locker in front of you. That definitely got me.

–

We’ll be adding more scary moments to this just as soon as more of our writers pull themselves away from the giant candy dish. In the mean time, feel free to share a few of your own in the comments section below.

The Watercooler – Special Halloween Edition

Dan Landis — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:04:40 +0000

The Watercooler, as always, is the best thing you will see on the Internet today, mainly because it is the best thing I saw yesterday, or since the last Watercooler at least. There is, however, the possibility that you will see tomorrow’s Watercooler today, in which case the best thing you saw today is not today’s Watercooler but a future Watercooler. You may think you read that yesterday, but that was actually your future self trying to warn your present-day self that you would be reading this… again.

Today’s special edition of The Watercooler features something a little different. Usually for Halloween, people like to dress up in all kinds of super-neat costumes. This is my suggestion for the hot costume of Halloween parties this year: German school teacher. You will be dressing up by dressing down.

Very slightly not safe for work, but that’s why The Watercooler goes up so early.

What you just saw was a crappily shot cell phone video of a German school teacher (as in a teacher in Germany, not a teacher of the German language) playing ‘Truth or Dare’ with her students at some kind of assembly. Had this been the case in my high school, I would probably have felt more inclined to attend. This is the type of sacrifice teachers should be making to get kids interested in learning again.

Do it for the kids! And, you’re welcome.

Think you have something that could be Watercooler material? Send it to dlandis@ripten.com. If your submission gets featured, you will win a prize package full of pride and accomplishment.

Mirror’s Edge Demo Hits PSN and XBL Just In Time For Halloween

Chad Lakkis — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:04:19 +0000

EA has got a little something for your Halloween goody bag — when you’ll get it depends on which console you own.

PlayStation 3 owners will get a head start on their Halloween treat fest with an opportunity to download Mirror’s Edge on October 30th, while the Xbox 360 “Faith”ful will get their shot at the first person rooftop runner October 31st. Time Trial mode will also be available on both versions of the demo for those who pre-ordered the game.

A bag full of chocolate sounds and a screen full of virtual acrobatics — sounds good to me. Hit the jump for the full press release.

Take A Leap Of Faith Before Mirror’s Edge Hits Retail Stores In November With Downloadable Demo!

This week gamers can ‘take a leap of Faith’ with a special demo for Mirror’s Edge™, available at the PlayStation® Store on October 30th and on Xbox LIVE™ Marketplace on October 31st. The demo will feature the prologue of the game, a tutorial and a segment of the single-player story mode. Now is your chance to experience the action that has GameSpot saying “Unlike anything we’d ever played before.”

Players who pre-order the game* will also receive an unlock code for exclusive access to the Time Trial mode. Time Trial is an addictive mode that challenges players to use their speed and best moves to find the fastest routes throughout the city. Gamers can upload their best time to the Mirror’s Edge online leaderboards for their friends to download and compete against. Players can see their friend’s ‘ghost’ run as they race to the top of the leaderboards.

The Watercooler – 24 October 2008

Dan Landis — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:04:25 +0000

This is the best thing you will see on the Internet today, mainly because it is the best thing I saw on the Internet yesterday. What is it? It’s The Watercooler, bitch!

I’m going to make a few assumptions here and post some words that should be enticing enough to make you want to watch this video: Olivia Munn, Playboy Bunny, sexy librarian, In-N-Out Burger, Chun-Li.

Intrigued? Of course you are.

You’re welcome.

After watching this the first time, I was torn between whether I thought Olivia was being funny or if she was actually kind of a bitch. Then I watched it again and decided that it didn’t matter.

Think you have something that could be Watercooler material? Send it to dlandis@ripten.com. If your submission gets featured, you will win a prize package full of pride and accomplishment.

Wade Larson’s Amazingly Awesome Halloween Gaming Lineup Extravaganza!

Wade Larson — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:17:49 +0000

Its getting cold, the leaves are turning orange, and your neighbor just put out a jack-o-lantern with Pacman carved into it (what a lazy ass). So, now you want to one-up the ante. Well, to help get you into the Halloween spirit, here are the best new games sure to get you in the mood for scaring small children or giving them candy, whichever seems less perverse to you.

5. Silent Hill Homecoming. Ok, you saw this one coming. Take a trip back down foggy memory lane which is, unsurprisingly, foggy. If you want an atmosphere creepier than a Halloween party with a guy dressed as Peter Pan in a room full of trick-or-treating kids, look no further.

4. Portal: Still Alive. Getting more Portal on Xbox Live Arcade is like going to your neighbor’s door and asking for a damn candy bar before you break his outside lights with eggs, and then he gives you a king-size Reeses peanut butter cup. Score! Added bonus: you don’t have to worry about finding syringes in your Halloween bucket (or loot sack, if you’re one of those who goes for the long haul), only homicidal robots.

3. Fable II. What?! A non-survival horror game in a Halloween list?! Hold the inquisition, this isn’t blasphemy, simply a lack of scary games dictating my list. Look at it this way: you get all dressed up as a fairy, or a pirate or a ninja (or a slutty fairy, slutty pirate or Gloria from Devil May Cry 4, if you’re a lady) so why not play a game where you can choose more than your costume?

2. Dead Space. “Hey, there’s a game about space zombies, it should be on the list.” Thank you for that astounding observation, Captain Obvious. Seriously, what Halloween list could go without space zombies? It’s zombies. In space! Hot damn! Plenty of creepy atmosphere, illegible blood scrawling, face-eating zombies and foreboding… well, everything make Dead Space a dead ringer for scariest game of the season. Forget everything you know about fighting zombies, because in space, no one can hear you shit your pants in terror. And we’re glad for that.

1. SpongeBob SquarePants featuring Nicktoons Globs of Doom. Terror incarnate. The lost souls of seven and seven innocents were corrupted to make this abomination of a game. And they’ll ship out another one in two weeks. Upon playing this game, people have gone instantly insane, others have killed and maimed themselves, and others have simply vanished, leaving only footprints leading into the darkness. A darkness only matched by the hole in your wallet where the money you paid for this game used to be. But don’t bother trying to destroy it, they’ll release another one in two weeks.

(Honorable Mention: Barbie Horse Adventures.)

Star Wars Death Star Pumpkin Carving Instructions to Nerdify Your Halloween

Beau Rosser — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:47:07 +0000

Halloween is next week, which means the time has come for wicked pumpkin carvings.

Sure, you could make the typical owl, or “scary” face, or whatever, but a true nerd would make something far more radical out of their pumpkin.

What You’ll Need:

A pumpkin (duh)
Cereal sized bowl
Sewing tape measure
Color Magic Fright Lights
Something sharp (ideally equipped with maximum carvability like this)
The following instructions

In time, you’re going to have yourself a pumpkin that gleams creditability, and you’ll ask yourself in the mirror: “How are my balls so big?” And late at night, when the youngsters are out smashing the neighborhood’s jack-o-lanterns, they’ll see your lit up Death Star, nod with approval, and leave it be.

Respect.

Have something you think we should show on Geeked-Out? Email it to us.

Source: Fantasypumpkins

Want To Bribe Your Girlfriend Into Wearing A Sexy Peach Costume?

Chelsea Thompson — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:22:49 +0000

Then tell her it’s for a good cause (and you won’t be lying). costumestudio.com, launched by Seattle-based outfitter GoodSociety, is planning on donating 100% of the profits from their costumes sales to help children in Uganda. Buying the “Pretty Pink Princess” costume above would set you back about $60, but one third of that goes straight to a noble cause. Being charitable never looked so good.

With Halloween just around the corner and with a projected $5 billion in holiday sales, the charitable folks at GoodSociety are hoping to help out a lot of needy children.

“We did the quick math,” says Fashion Director Quang Dinh, “five billion dollars would feed over one hundred million starving children for an entire year. I love Halloween more than most, but something needed to be done.”

The site itself is quite impressive. As I was browsing the 500+ women’s costumes, I saw a lot of outfits I’ve never seen before. Their Jessica Rabbit costume is amazing, and I am unbelievably tempted to drop the $100 for the pleasure of walking around all night as a sexy, red-headed vixen with Furry tendencies (I mean, she did marry a rabbit).

The kid’s and men’s costumes are a bit less expensive, so don’t be discouraged by some of the high price tags on the women’s costumes (though all women’s costumes tend to be pricey, no matter where you go). Again, their selection is HUGE and they have plenty of options for those of you who want something strictly game or nerd-culture related.

Don’t let the kids hog all of the Halloween charity spirit with their trick-or-treating UNICEF boxes. Simply buy a Halloween costume from CostumeStudio.com and give yourself a pat on the back for helping out those in need.