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   Dark Ocean sites are down but are working on new link. Part 2 isn't available yet.

   CNET
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   Funhouse of Horror 2012: Top 10 free scary ...

   Funhouse of Horror 2012: Top 10 free scary games on Download.com (part 1)

   Budget gamers don't have to look any further for cheap thrills this Halloween season. Five games -- Inside, 1916, Dark Ocean, Hide, and Erie -- aim to scare the pants off you.
   by Tuong Nguyen
   October 19, 2012 3:54 PM PDT

   It's the Halloween season, and Download.com has you covered with a collection of the greatest free horror games in our extensive (and unusual) catalog. If you're a fan of free games and/or horror, you've come to the right place. The games are in no particular order. Start with any one you feel like, or do a Halloween Gauntlet and run through them all in one night, alone in a dark room, with your back to an open door.

   10. Inside
   (Credit: CNET )

   The story behind this game is as enigmatic as the game itself. From the developer's description, Inside was made in four days. No game page nor developer's site exists. You are stuck inside a building trying to make your way out, armed with only a flashlight. Explore every shadowy corner, darkened room, and frightfully long hallway as you desperately seek the exit.

   Inside is a simple game but that's no reason to write it off. If you are afraid of the dark, Inside is the game for you. Inside had us cringing every time we approached a door. It is one of the shorter but more frightening one on this list.

   Scare Factor: 9/10
   Creativity: 6/10

   9. 1916 - Der unbekannte Krieg (PC, Mac)
   (Credit: CNET )

   The Download.com directory is chock full of World War II games, but rarely do we get one set in the First World War, not to mention one with a horror element to it. In the midst of the Great War, you play a young German soldier as he navigates the trenches. With bodies of fallen comrades lying all around and shells constantly dropping, surviving the trenches is no easy task...then the pack of dinosaurs arrives. Your objective is to make your way through the trenches while avoiding bombardments, mustard gas, and velociraptors (no joke) to find the exit ladder.

   1916 is not the average war game. The music and visual styles are impressive for an indie game -- overall, it does a terrific job creating a gruesome atmosphere. Our German-speaking readers will enjoy an even higher level of immersion as everything in 1916 is in German. The dinosaurs add an surreal element but that's a good thing. The true horror is that there isn't an English version yet.

   Scare Factor: 7/10
   Creativity: 8/10

   8. Dark Ocean
   (Credit: CNET )

   Disappointed fans of the Resident Evil series who didn't get their scare fix in Six might find some consolation in Dark Ocean. The action takes place aboard an ocean liner where something has gone horribly wrong. (SPOILER ALERT: Everyone on the ship has been turned into zombies!) You play a young woman, a lone survivor who must find a way to escape the nightmare and solve the mystery of the infection. (Why not, right?) It's not like she has better things to do, like keep on living.

   You navigate your way through the liner armed only with trusty flare guns and a flash camera. The camera flash can temporarily stun undead assailants, but it must recharge. Your flare gun can set them ablaze but ammo is limited. Years of survivor horror have prepared us for all sorts of Zombies Apocalypse scenarios, so we found Dark Ocean not too scary, but there's a decent amount of shock factor to make up for it. You might notice a sly nod to older games in the action-horror genre in one familiar scene. Final verdict: not too shambling for indie zombies, but not the scary sprinting zombies either.

   Scare Factor: 6/10
   Creativity: 7/10

   7. Hide (PC,Mac)
   (Credit: CNET )

   At first glance, Hide appears to be a simple scavenger hunt. Underestimate Hide and you could be in for a nasty surprise. Beneath its 8-bit texture, Hide is an amazing thriller game. It continuously builds suspense without allowing the player a moment's rest using simple visuals and well-timed sound effects.

   The task is simple. Collect five pieces of paper with less than cheery writings on them -- all done while trudging through a snowy forest with air-raid siren blaring that would bring tears to any Silent Hill's fan. Also be sure to hide (name drop!) from the mysterious figures tracking you through the woods. Hide is one of those times when it's not a good idea to go toward the lights.

   Scare Factor 8/10
   Creativity 8/10

   6. Erie
   (Credit: Utah Game Forge )

   Not too often do we see professional quality games as freeware on Download.com. Thanks to the distributing platform Desura and the University of Utah, you can play Erie for no charge. In the first-person action game, you are Oliver Victor, a Red Cross Investigator sent to find locals who have been slowly disappearing after their neighborhood nuclear generator had a slight meltdown. Upon arrival, Oliver realized that his rescue mission has quickly turned into a race for survival.

   Beyond the outlandish setup (why didn't Oliver call the police or why did he waltz into a nuclear power plant in the middle of a meltdown...without a radiation suit), Erie's creators know a thing or two about scaring their players. The graphic and sound are a cut above the other games on this list. The Unreal Engine has been twisted and manipulated to give players a convincing scare. If visuals are high on your list, Erie is definitely (dare we say it) eerie enough to check out.

   Scare Factor: 8/10
   Creativity: 7/10

   Look forward next week to more bad puns and more horrifying (and possibly horrific) free games when we release the second half of our top 10. Got a scary game of your own that you want to share? Sound off in the comments.

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   Posted 12 years ago #
2. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   You can find more info, you tube videos and images about Erie HERE

   Posted 12 years ago #
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   Anonymous
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   CNET
   Download
   The Download Blog
   Funhouse of Horror 2012: Top 10 free scary ...

   Funhouse of Horror 2012: Top 10 free scary games on Download.com (part 2)

   Now with even cheaper thrills and lesser frills. The second part of our Halloween list and final five includes Which, Devil's Tuning Fork, SCP Containment Breach, Paranomal-Beta, and Slender: The Eight Pages.
   by Tuong Nguyen
   October 26, 2012 1:53 PM PDT

   As promised, we are here to deliver to you, our beloved readers, the second installment of last week's Funhouse of Horror 2012. If the following games can't get even a tiny whimper out of you, then you are made of sterner stuff than our editors or, most likely, are dead inside.

   5. Which
   (Credit: Mike Inel)

   This is a short indie game that pushes pixel-shading limits to create a unique atmosphere and provide an effective fright. Much shorter than most of the games on this list, Which takes place in a locked house from which you have to escape. Saw what we did there? Moving on, you have to explore the small house room by room to find keys hidden in cupboards/shelves and look for a way out.

   The simple design of this game, from the minimal visual and sound, only add to its character. Depending on the choice you'll make, the game will end differently. This is not a game that relies on cheesy music or jack-in-the-box popup antics to scare you. It may not even give you a scare, but Which will leave you feeling a bit uneasy after finishing. Beware of the slight gore, but it isn't anything R-rated, we promise.

   Scare Factor: 5/10
   Creativity: 9/10

   4. Devil's Tuning Fork
   (Credit: DePaul Game Elites)

   What if you can use your ears to see the world? That is the question posed by the students at the DePaul University, creators of Devil's Tuning Fork. Winner of the 2010 Independent Games Festival Showcase, Devil's Tuning Fork was conceived from the creators' goal to make an original game in six months. That they did, and so much more.

   A mysterious illness is causing children everywhere to fall into a coma. The player takes on the role of a child who wakes up in an alternate reality, a world engulfed in darkness. By the use of the Devil's tuning fork in your possession, the dark world is slowly revealed with each tone of the fork. You must find all the other children and wake up from the coma.

   With its soft melodies, sinister overvoicing, and visuals inspired by dolphin echolocation, DTF does an impressive job creating a spine-chilling atmosphere. Although not a true horror game, Devil's Tuning Fork was an eerie enough play to warrant a spot on this list, if not for its creativity alone.

   Scare Factor: 6/10
   Creativity: 10/10

   3. SCP Containment Breach
   (Credit: SCPCB Game)

   Containment Breach is part of a series of games based on the SCP mythos. In the SCP universe there is a secret society named the SCP Foundation that has numerous facilities to house strange entities deemed unsafe to be left in the wild. These SCPs, something between humans and creatures of paranormal in origin, are ranked from harmless but not fully understood to the dangerous and lethal that must be kept under surveillance at all time.

   You are D-9341, an unwilling test subject in one of these containment sites when the unthinkable happens: there is a containment breach. Of course it's not much of a horror game if the cute misunderstood ones got out so you're left running from the insanely murderous ones. SCP-173, a statue-like entity that instantly kills everyone it encounters, SCP-106, a human-shape creature covered in shadow capable of moving through walls, and SCP-079, an Artificial Intelligence bent on taking over the facility. You must find a way to get the heck out of Dodge. Behind every door or the end of every dark hallway could be a terrifying death.

   Scare Factor: 8/10
   Creativity: 9/10

   2. Paranormal Beta (PC, Mac)
   (Credit: Matt Cohen)

   Inspired by pseudo-documentary horror films like Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch Project, Paranormal bills itself as a "fully dynamic, haunting-simulator." The game promises you won't get the same experience twice. You play as an artist who is convinced that his house is haunted. When none of your friends believe you, the next logical thing to do is to spend some quality alone time there while recording your experience. The game starts you off slowly -- moving objects, flickering lights that escalates quickly into disturbing sacrificial images, and violent screaming in the middle of the night. You quickly get a sense that something or someone is watching you, and maybe even catch a glimpse out of the corner of your screen.

   Paranormal does a fantastic job of simulating a haunted house as each time you play, it's a bit different from the last. This gives it a high replay value, a quality missing in most games on this list. Grab it now in beta while it's still free.

   Scare Factor: 9/10
   Creativity: 9/10

   1. Slender: The Eight Pages (PC, Mac)
   (Credit: Parsec Productions)

   If you have never heard of the Slender Man, we suggest you do a quick Google search or head here since it really adds to the mood of the game. What started out as a contest to make creepy-looking images has evolved into an Internet cult hit. Many indie games have spawned from the Slender Man myth but none quite as polished and disturbing as Slender: The Eight Pages.

   The premise of the game is simple -- equipped with a flashlight, you must collect eight pages scattered about in a forest. You can't interact with the environment in any way except to move about it and turn on and off your flashlight. Battery is limited so conservation becomes an issue. After collecting your first page, Slender Man, a tall dark figure with tentacle arms, will appear. Looking at him for too long or being too close will cause you to lose Sanity. As you gather more and more pages, Slender Man will begin to chase and random teleport around, sometimes near the player. The game ends when your sanity runs out or you've collect all of the pages.

   Needless to say, Slender is one of the Web's favorite free games and also one of ours, due to the chilling gameplay and creepy back story.

   Scare Factor: 9/10
   Creativity: 10/10

   That's it folks! The top 10 horror games brought to you by our Download.com team. Hopefully we can at least lessen the boredom of sitting at home handing out candy because you were too lazy to go buy a costume this year. Play them alone, play them with friends, or make your friends play them alone while you watch from underneath the covers, it doesn't matter how you do it there is no wrong way to enjoy a free scare. Keep sounding off in the comments about your favorite horror, paid or unpaid. We need ideas for Christmas gifts!

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   Posted 12 years ago #

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