Halloween is almost here so it's time to start bringing out all things weird and spooky. In a rather interesting blog, Kotaku's AJ Glasser brings up the quetion: What Makes A Video Game Scary? Go to the source for the full article.

How can a video game be scary? Unlike horror movies where you're stuck watching some hapless victim succumb to scary stuff, video games empower players to fight back. Or at least run away. It's October. Time to identify horror-gaming's essentials.

Some of the scariest experiences I've had in my life come from video games. I can remember running from the family computer room in tears after a wax skeleton in an Are You Afraid of the Dark game chased me through a basement.

My chest still gets tight whenever I hear a burst of radio static, thanks to Silent Hill.

And there is this one scene in Dead Space that gives me goose bumps whenever I think about it.

Horror in video games is more complex that what goes on in horror movies. True, the feeling of terror you're supposed to experience is similar. Scary video games and movies both rely heavily on pacing, shocking imagery and music. However, games are an interactive experience. There are consequences for the player that nobody in a darkened movie theater could relate to. Horror games need gameplay elements that don't distract you, level design that leads you into danger in ways you can't predict and art direction that plays with your head so that you buy into what you're experiencing instead of rationalizing it away as "just a game."

Miss Razz via kotaku.com »