Oh sure, you could spend this Halloween watching the same old "scary" films. Chances are you'll probably just end up getting really frustrated, yelling as the screen and angry that the idiots who keep splitting into groups, walking backwards into rooms and having pre-marital sex are. Clearly you're going to get yourself killed, you moron! That would never happen if you were in that position. That's what makes playing horror games way more fun. That way you can actually see how you'd fare in those situation and, usually, it's not a whole lot better. Much like horror films, though, a degree of familiarity will kill of any sense of dread. Comfort is the enemy of terror. There are people out there - almost all of whom record Let's Play videos - who can waltz through the latest Amnesia, or Alien Isolation, without a care in the world. They don't care. They've been through Outlast, Slender, all those scary hits. They're desensitised to it. They know how scary games work, and they're wise to their tricks. That leaves one option: seeking out the real scary stuff games have to answer. Developers love to hide weird extra stuff in their titles, even if they're totally at odds tonally with the rest of the game. The ghostly enemies that watch Mario, spooky cameos in FPSes, and a game that knows your name all figure into the twelve creepiest video game Easter eggs.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
