alone-in-the-dark posts

On Monday we began a fond look back at the 1990s, when Star Trek was well into The Next Generation and The X-Files was our favorite way to get scared. PC games also came into their own in that decade and to prove it we picked 15 titles that were released between 1992 and 1993.

It was the time period where adventure games were all over the place and an odd PC hardware add-on called the CD-ROM would make us forget floppies. Shareware was also making a huge impact on gamers, including a little game called Doom. Let's head back about 16 or 17 years and take a look at the 1990's games that we still like to play today.

Click on the image to read more of We Love the 90s (for PC Games): 1992-1993

The folks who write about games for a living can be very guilty at times for hyping a game before its release. Sometimes theymake it sound like it's a done deal that it will be the greatest game ever made when it come out.. Heck, some folks even give out awards at E3 for games that are not even completed or just shown in trailer form. So you have to expect that on occasion a game comes out that, for whatever reason, doesn't quite live up to all of its promise, previews and PR.

In the past decade there have been many such PC games like we have described. These are titles that are not bad per se (that would be Daikatana) but just didn't have what it took to live up to the expecations that gamers and especially game journalists had for it. Big Download decided to pick 10 such games from the past 10 years that, for one reason or another, had high hopes but just couldn't cut it.

Click on the image above to continue reading 10 games that didn't rise above the hype

How often have you groaned at seeing that one of your favorite movies, books, comic books, or even TV shows was going to be making the jump to video game status? How often have your fears been justified? Perhaps a better question would be: How often have you been pleasantly surprised by a video game adaptation?

It's an all-too-common scenario: based on the sales numbers of a given property, a media conglomerate will sell a license out to whomever thinks they might do a good job of spreading the brand to different markets. A movie will turn into a novelization, a comic book adaptation, a spin-off television series, a direct-to-DVD movie, a line of toys and assorted merchandise, and eventually, a video game. The wisdom of this approach seems to lie in the idea that "If they liked it once, they'll like it again". In many cases, adapting a book to a movie is relatively innocuous; many survive the transition quite well. When it comes to making a video game from a movie, or book, or any other medium, however, all bets are off. Why? It's because the strengths of one medium are not the strengths of another.

Common wisdom has it that if you don't learn from history, you're doomed to repeat it. What, then, should we think of the recent trend in gaming to bring back, and in some cases revamp past video games? I'm thinking here mostly of Bionic Commando's recent upgrade to be both a completely new reimagining of the franchise (yes, now it's a franchise at last) and an update of the classic arcade hit which itself includes a version of the original. Developer Grin is covering all bases, giving die-hard fans what they want while at the same time bringing in new fans who may never have played the first release.

Is it a good idea to keep mining the past for the hits of the future? How much life do these games still have in them? Is it possible to revamp an old game sufficiently to make it feel new while retaining its old-school flavor? Let's take a look.

Hell can apparently freeze over. How else do you explain how Atari, which has been bleeding money for years, finally generated a profit for its last financial quarter that ended June 30? Yet the publisher announced late on Wednesday that it indeed generated a profit of $3.5 million for the quarter, compared to a loss of $11.9 million for the same period a year ago.

Revenues for Atari were $40.3 million for the quarter, a huge improvement from revenues of just $10.4 million for the same period a year ago. It's likely that the jump was due to sales of the survival-horror title Alone in the Dark which was released in the last few days of June. Atari is scheduled to completely merge with its parent company Infogrames before the end of September.

Publisher Infogrames was apparently happy with its revenues for its last fiscal quarter; in a press release today the French publisher and parent company of US based Atari announced that revenues for the quarter that ended June 30 were 95.9 million euros, up 91.4 percent from what they were in the same period a year ago.

Revenues were up thanks in part to the release of the new revamp of the survival horror series Alone in the Dark. The company shipped 1.2 million copies of the game in its various platforms, including the PC, at launch. Actual sales figures for the game were not revealed. Infogrames also didn't reveal if the fiscal quarter was profitable or not. They did say that their merger agreement with Atari was moving foward; it's expected to be complete later this year.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	Preview: Call of Duty: World at War Not so with Call of Duty: World of War. Developer Treyarch is not at all nervous to follow in Infinity Ward's large footsteps -- after all, they've done it before, and the decision to take the series back to its WWII roots doesn't require nervousness so much as it requires guts, determination, and the hope that players who are apprehensive about leaving Call of Duty 4's phenomenal playground will give Call of Duty: World at War's jungle gym a chance.
	Big Versus: Alone in the Dark Released on the PC, Xbox 360 and Wii, Alone in the Dark is likely the final full featured title from Atari (also known as Infogrames) who have announced to focus on smaller titles. After playing through the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the title we compare our experience in our newly formatted feature, Big Versus. Shying away from our original concept of which is better than the other, Big Versus has transformed to a comparison piece regarding our overall experiences.
	Pyro Achievements Round-Up You've now hopefully finished reading our wonderful guide to pyro achievements. Will this make you a better pyro? Indubitably. You will have better weapons, better skills, and generally be a sexier pyro for all to see. Well, maybe not the last one. However, if you took our advice, you should now have three new weapons: the flare gun, axetinguisher, and backburner. If you haven't been reading our guide that we spent so much time on (tsk tsk) then we will save you the effort of digging them up. First, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth parts are all viewable here on Big Download.
	Rise of the Argonauts gods trailers released Impudent mortal! Do you think yourself wise enough to know the will of the gods? Hey, maybe you do, and maybe you don't. Developer Liquid Entertainment and publisher Codemasters have released two new trailer for Rise of the Argonauts, each exploring the nuances of the various gods.

While most of the 3D survival horror love thrown around the industry is shoved in Capcom's corner with Resident Evil, Alone in the Dark was the first series to take the genre into 3D when it released in 1992. For the majority of the series, which has spanned over five games, players control Edward Carnby -- a professor and paranormal researcher. Originally set in the 1920s, gamers were thrust into a strange world of haunted mansions and disturbed characters. Sixteen years after its original release, Edward Carnby awakens in modern-day New York and must recover his lost memories to unlock his dark and mysterious destiny.

Released on the PC, Xbox 360 and Wii, Alone in the Dark is likely the final full featured title from Atari (also known as Infogrames) who have announced to focus on smaller titles. After playing through the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the title we compare our experience in our newly formatted feature, Big Versus. Shying away from our original concept of which is better than the other, Big Versus has transformed to a comparison piece regarding our overall experiences.

Welcome to the new Big Versus.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	Diablo II PC, Mac demos available on Big Download For many PC gamers, this weekend's official Diablo III announcement instigated a resurgence of Diablo purchases and re-installations across the globe. If you're interested in Diablo III but haven't partaken in the previous two installments, Big Download will happily take you back in time eight years with the Diablo II demo, which is available for PC and Mac gamers.
	In-Depth: Alone in the Dark It goes without saying that Alone in the Dark was one of the most intriguing games from Atari (see also Infogrames), in what seems like eons. Initial information released regarding the revival of the original survival horror title had gamers genuinely excited to step back into the shoes of the mysterious hero, Edward Carnby. So how did the franchise reboot turn out?
	Mac Monday: Freeverse's Neon Tango "If Chuck Norris had his action removed and hot-glued onto Jack Bauer, and then Mr. Bauer was blended into a protein shake, it would be called "The Neon Tango" and ... it would be Delicious!!!" It would also be extremely difficult to come up with a greater summary for any game than this one, posted on the homepage of Freeverse Software's Neon Tango.
	Hands-on: Space Siege Space Siege, the latest Gas-Powered Games title designed by Chris Taylor, looks to fill a void for action-RPG fans who prefer guns, grenades and aliens to bows, spells and dragons. But whether you prefer fireballs or flaming gas canisters, snarling aliens or slobbering orcs, Space Siege is a click-fest at its core, and it is that tried-and-true mechanic that should entice all breeds of action-RPG players to Space Siege.
	Guide to TF2 Pyro Achievements, Part 6 We have crafted for you this very guide to ease your attempts to fulfill the strange objectives given to you. You have read the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth parts, so here is the sixth and final installment. Now you are ready to go and purge the world of flora, fauna, and anything else flammable.Firefighter

When the original Tomb Raider was released in 1996 it was hailed as a marvel of game design. Playing as Lara Croft gamers were thrown into a 3D world that, at the time, was state-of-the-art. The only problem? Controlling the infamous Ms. Croft was akin to turning a tank in quicksand. At the time we weren't aware it could get any better, so poor control was ignored in the majority of the game's critiques. Resident Evil, Dino Crisis and Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare all cloned this control mechanic when released and still found success. But then things began to change as gamers realized how archaic the scheme was. Resident Evil 4 evolved the series, Dino Crisis 3 killed it and the new Alone in the Dark tries very hard to be relevant.

It goes without saying that Alone in the Dark was one of the most intriguing games from Atari (see also Infogrames), in what seems like eons. Initial information released regarding the revival of the original survival horror title had gamers genuinely excited to step back into the shoes of the mysterious hero, Edward Carnby. So how did the franchise reboot turn out?