The 13th episode opens with a montage of Call of Ctulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, for the PC and Xbox. A first-person horror game inspired by, you guessed it, Lovecraftian writings. It would appear that the montage consists of early footage from the game mixed with some later footage. I wouldn't say that it has the immediate, "something is very, very wrong" sense that Silent Hill has, but it looks innovative and moody. The editors seemed to choose an interesting piece of strings-laden, public domain music to accompany the montage.
Timecode: 4:29: Ah... Facade, an infamous indie game for the PC. This game placed you as a random friend of Grace and Tripp, a couple that's more troubled than they seem at first. The game is notable for having a powerful text input system that recognizes many words and phrases. How many? Oh, you'll see. Your responses to them could determine the fate of their relationship.
The graphics are... not good. Everything looks oddly flat, and Grace and Tripp don't seem to have backs.
12:05: More from Call of Ctulhu. This montage features the main character's color commentary on certain objects and areas in the game...
- [in a bathroom] "The bath is encrusted with filth, and there appear to be sheds of - human skin!"[looking at a bench] "It's an old park bench."[looking at a grandfather clock] "An old grandfather clock."[looking at stove] "It's an old stove."
12:48: The "Bonus Room" song from Skullmonkeys, played to random gameplay footage. Skullmonkeys was a strange platform game with claymation graphics. If that were creepy enough, the "Bonus Room" song itself is Accidental Nightmare Fuel. LOOKLOOKLOOK
17:38: The David Bowie Video Game Montage! No, seriously. Three games featuring the musician/actor/Memetic Sex God himself. Two of them are based on Labyrinth, but whatever. They show a darling Famicom game based on the flick resembling an overhead RPG. The little superdeformed character in the game doesn't really resemble Jennifer Connely's character from the movie, but has a cute flower in her hair! The character of Jareth just looks like a bishi. Who says movie games aren't faithful to the source material?
The Apple IIe version of Labyrinth is a text adventure game that must be beaten within 13 hours. Jareth looks more realistic here, but Connely... ugh. She looks more like Mr. Bill than anything else.
And now, for something completely different: Omikron The Nomad Soul! This game, from Quantic Dream, had Bowie play a revolutionary on the run, and a nameless lead singer of a band that performs illegal concerts. And neither were the main character. Huh. Cinematech presents one of its rare pop-up facts here: "David Bowie wrote several songs for "Omikron", and even did some motion capture for the game". His likeness was also provided for the two characters that he played.
19:15: Kuma Uta (or Bear Song, one of the most boring things ever shown on Cinematech ever. It's just... a bear... singing enka music, with creepy mocapped animation. They showed this game way too many times for my liking.
21:37: Wanna know the fastest way to end a game of Facade? Just type in something like, "what up my [EXTREMELY CENSORED]?" Tripp immediatly shuts the door in your face. Oh, Cinematech Nocturnal Emissions.
Next time: The tragic tale of Galerians.
Comments
