Making a horror game for a "casual" audience requires a reorganization of priorities. While something like Resident Evil is intent on scaring the player, there are a lot of gameplay elements aside from fear, like inventory management and even accuracy. These elements make for a well-rounded game, but they can actually prevent the player from experiencing all the game's scares.

AQ Interactive's Ju-On: The Grudge, being released in North America this October by XSEED, takes out all the "survival" from a survival horror game to create what XSEED calls a "haunted house simulator," focused entirely on scaring the crap out of players over and over again. And from what we saw, it works.

You read about people watching a new Alan Wake trailer. You may have even watched people watch the trailer on video streams. And now, you can watch the trailer, just like you were sitting at Microsoft's E3 keynote! Except it's not followed by several minutes of searching for "Rusty." And also it's probably not on a gigantic screen with an executive standing in front of it. Maybe it is. We haven't been to your house.

If the trailer isn't Wakey enough for you, check out our gallery! And then download this Xbox Live Premium Theme!

We were minding our own business, not really paying attention, when an XSEED press release JUMPED into our email inbox and scared us half to death. Feel Fear: Ju-On, a teaser for which was just released in Europe, is coming to North America to scare our North American pants off (and imported pants as well) in October of this year.

The press release announcing Ju-On: The Grudge offers a few new details about the gameplay. To the dismay of those expecting a third- or first-person survival horror game, XSEED bills Ju-On as a "haunted house simulator," in which players explore scary environments with a pointer-controlled flashlight, driven to "proceed forward even after being frightened and running away from the initial threat." The game includes the ability for a second player to trigger scares using a second Wiimote, causing the other player to "jump and hate you forever."

So if you want your friends to hate you forever, check out Ju-On: The Grudge this October!

Rising Star Games sent out a video teasing the announcement of a new game at the upcoming London MCM Expo. The video features people holding Wiimotes in a dark room in front of a flickering TV, and then having the crap scared out of them -- an idea last used for Nintendo's hilarious Fatal Frame IV commercials.

A brief image shown at the end of the trailer pretty definitively confirms the mystery title to be Kyoufu Taikan Ju-On (translated by Siliconera as "Feel Fear Ju-On"), the Wii horror title being made under the supervision of The Grudge director Takashi Shimizu. If Rising Star is picking this up for Europe, we should be able to expect a North American version from either XSEED, who works with Rising Star owner Marvelous on North American publishing, or Ignition, who publishes many AQ Interactive titles like Blue Dragon Plus and Boing! Docomodake DS. The video is available after the break.

Sadness "developer" Nibris sent out a message to its YouTube channel's subscribers, indicating that something related to the developer will be shown at E3 this year. Note that the message doesn't specify the vaporous Sadness game, or that a game will be shown at all -- merely an "update." Which means that even in the unlikely event that Nibris shows up and displays something, it could still be disappointing.

Nibris is still holding to a Fall 2009 date for Sadness, so it's quite likely that this "update" is intended to be related to the mythical horror game. We hope Sadness actually does show up -- we'd love to add the day the game becomes real to our timeline (which we posted in 2007).

In the IGN video interview embedded after the break, Dead Space: Extraction producer Steve Papoutsis discusses the motivation for the "guided first-person experience" design for the Dead Space prequel, as well as the storyline, the controls, and the co-op modes. That's great, and of course it's wonderful to hear such ideals behind the game's design.

But the real attraction here is footage. The video is interspersed with gameplay footage from Extraction, mostly consisting of the disarming (and dislegging) of creepy spider-dudes. In our estimation, at least, EA is delivering the graphics it needs to ensure that the game is appropriately atmospheric. And by "atmospheric" we mean "eeeeeeeee."

Konami's upcoming Silent Hill "re-imagining" doesn't mark its only forthcoming foray into the horror genre. According to The Cut Scene, the publisher has confirmed that it will seize Saw for an upcoming licensed game, hoping to balance the film franchise's gore and depraved puzzles with ... well, the gore and depraved puzzles one might expect to encounter in a video game.

Konami's marketing director, David Daniels, saw fit to label the move as a no-brainer, what with Saw having seen ticket sales of "over $600 million worldwide" and having sold over 16 million DVDs. Once considered as deceased publisher Brash's last chance at rising above mediocrity, the Saw game will be completed by developer Zombie and released alongside the next film -- Saw VI, in case you lost track -- this Fall on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Tasking you with navigating an asylum and defusing Jigsaw's trademark deathtraps, the Saw game promises to adopt an overt style of horror and make you "turn away from the screen for just a moment because of the visual intensity." Experience some of that visual intensity for yourself in the gallery below:

Fresh Alan Wake information text has made its way online, with a cryptic message appearing on the official Alan Wake forums. The paragraph, penned by Alan Wake himself, was posted by the forums' community manager and supposedly comes from developer Remedy Entertainment. It reads:

"The amount of pages keeps growing each night. There are also new edits on the old pages. They keep getting more aggressive. The story is rewriting itself. The protagonist is now my namesake, and his wife is called Alice. The most worrying aspect: the genre seems to be shifting. It's turning into a horror story. I can no longer be certain whether the hero can succeed or even survive. Apart for jumbled fragments of bad dreams and an oppressive feeling, I can remember nothing of the process when I wake up. But this morning, a breakthrough! When I came to my senses, I could smell her perfume on my shirt. I am close. I know it. I must push on.

- Alan Wake"

So, some pages are being re-written, a horrible horror story is starting and there's perfume that smells like shirts ... or something. Honestly, we have no idea what this all means, but feel free to share your thoughts. Who knows, maybe there's a new trailer or a release date hidden in there somewhere.

[Via IGN]

Using a laser sight we point you in the direction of GameTrailers' educational retrospective series that pulls back the eyelids of the Resident Evil franchise. Part one of the (alleged) six part zombie-retrospective, "Horror Stories", takes a stroll through Resident Evil's history, how it pioneered the survival horror genre and how laughably bad the voice acting was.

Putting aside all discussion regarding the direction Resident Evil 5 has taken with its control mechanics, the video will evoke deep rooted nostalgic feelings and renew your phobia of human-sized arachnids. It did for us. Once comfortable -- and with an ample supply of herbs by your side -- find the 17+ minute video after the break.

With yesterday's announcement that EA's very creepy, very good Dead Space would eventually make its way onto Wii, it seems the community has been left with nothing but questions. Well, we can't answer any of those questions right now, but we can present to you the next best thing: a video of someone playing the game with a Wiimote. Head past the break to check it out.

WayForward Technologies has announced a North American release date and price point for their horror action puzzler LIT. One week from today (barring any interference from Nintendo, of course), on February 9th, the 3D WiiWare title will be available for just eight dollars. That's right, 800 Wii Points, the same amount you could pay for Pong Toss: Frat Party Games, for an original action game from the developers of Contra 4. We won't expect Contra 4 levels of awesomenes -- but the level designs were extremely well-thought-out in that game, which bodes well for this title's puzzle setups. And if this game turns out as hard as Contra 4, you can justify your tears by saying that you're roleplaying the emo protagonist!

According to the website, LIT features "light puzzling" as well as "5 boss battles against dark faculty members, an unlockable challenge mode, multiple endings, level select mode, and a second playable character." That sounds like an awful lot of content for a relatively cheap downloadable game.

[Via WiiWare World]

Maybe it's just us, but we really feel for Alma and the situation she was put in. If we were in charge, we'd get her get cleaned up, make sure dinner was eaten by 7PM and have her in bed by 9PM. Kids need structure.

While everyone's upset about the loss of n-Space's survival horror title Winter, it's fairly comforting to remember that the Wii has another survival horror game about enduring a desolate winter environment on the way, with no discernible signs of trouble so far. In fact, in the space of just two trailers, Cursed Mountain has been upgraded in our estimation from "not bad" to must play. This looks incredibly atmospheric, and just plain technically beautiful!

In addition to ghosts, players will apparently have to contend with hallucinations due to the altitude and oxygen deprivation from the harsh Himalayan mountain that serves as the game's backdrop. Which leaves us to wonder whether the creepy dudes in these new screens are real bad guys or not. Either way, yikes.

Which is why we were so surprised to see the above screenshot of Isabella in the latest set. Capcom could have chosen to release any screenshot they liked, and they picked that one, in which her chin appears to have been airbrushed on to give the illusion that she had a neck. Even she looks disgusted with her own appearance. The worst bit is that this is probably just an awkward frame from a cutscene, and thus prerendered.

The rest of the new screens are okay.


[Via Kotaku]

Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop may not feature the epic hordes of zombies found in its predecessor, but Capcom has delivered one shambling mass -- of media. If it enhances your appreciation of the Wii adaptation, you can imagine each of the thirty-nine screenshots featured in the latest release dragging its way out of our gallery, moaning eerily for your clicks.

After the break (on account of the gore and all), we have one brand-new trailer, and one very welcome repeat performance. The new trailer shows one of the trademarks of the game: using random junk around the mall as weaponry. The not-so-new trailer? The GaGaGa SP theme song video with subtitles!

[Update: the "new" trailer turned out to be a repeat as well. Very sorry about that, but the GaGaGa SP video is still as fun as ever, at least!]