<html>

<head>

<title>loonygames - print happy version</title>
</head>

<body leftmargin="10" topmargin="10" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<table width="100%" border="0" height="58" bordercolordark="#000000" bordercolorlight="#000000">
  <tr> 
    <td height="57" width="26%" align="left" valign="top"> 
      <div align="left"> 
        <h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i><a href="../../index.html">loonygames</a><br>
          <font size="1">a <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">blue's news</a> 
          publication</font></i></b></font></h1>
        </div>
    </td>
    <td height="57" width="74%" align="center" valign="top"> 
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p><a href="../2.12/boag/index.html">&lt;&lt; Back to Normal View</a></p>
<p>URL: <a href="../2.12/boag/index.html">http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.12/boag/</a><br>
</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>Vol. 
                2, Issue 12<br>
                February 15, 2000<br>
                </b>
              <b> 
                </b>
              
                <b><i>Birth 
                  of a Gamer:</i></b></p>
                <b><i> 
                  House of the Dead 2: <br>
                  It's the Cheesiest!</i></b></p>
                by 
                  Heather &quot;elki&quot; 
                  Haselkorn</p>
              
              

<!--
       function gotoSite(obj)
          {
          var s;
          s=obj.options[obj.selectedIndex].value
                         location.href=s;
          }
// -->


              <?
              
              include("/home/loonygames/loony.timedoctor.org/includes/boag.htm"); 
              
              ?>
              
              
               My 
                exposure to horror movies began at a very early age. Remember 
                that scene in <i>The Shining</i> (the Kubrick version) where that 
                gross zombie woman comes out of the bathtub? That gave me nightmares 
                for years. And the sight of blood on screen makes my stomach turn. 
                But there is one type of horror movie that has never, ever scared 
                me. And that, my friends, is the zombie movie. I laugh in the 
                face of <i>Night of the Living Dead</i>, and also at any other 
                cheap B-movie knockoff of it. And that extends to video game knockoffs 
                of B movie knockoffs of good horror flicks.</p>
              </p>
              <b>The 
                House of the Dead 2</b> 
                for the Sega Dreamcast is just that...a video game version of 
                a B movie. You can either play the game with a gun or with the 
                controller. At first I decided to play with the gun. The drawback 
                to playing with the gun was that it took a long time for me to 
                be able to aim, but I got the hang of it eventually. And shooting 
                off screen to reload actually makes it feel more, I don&#146;t 
                know, real, I guess. </p>
              </p>
              As I expected, 
                there isn&#146;t much plot here. You are James, part of some type 
                of law enforcement operation, or maybe some private zombie hunter 
                ring. I don&#146;t know because, frankly, I wasn&#146;t paying 
                much attention. All I know is that I couldn&#146;t get over the 
                fact that James looks like one of the Baldwin brothers. Alec, 
                I think. As I played the game I began to realize that all the 
                male characters looked like some variation of the Baldwin brothers. 
                I&#146;m not too sure about the female characters, though. There 
                seemed to be enough of a difference in them so that I couldn&#146;t 
                narrow it down any actresses in particular.</p>
              </p>
              So anyway, 
                Alec, I mean James, has to go to the library to meet G (maybe 
                short for G-man?). James pulls up in his car and to his surprise 
                he is accosted by zombies. I guess he didn&#146;t notice on his 
                way to the library that the entire city was burning and all the 
                citizens were undead. He enters the library, finds more zombies, 
                and G, who speaks his dying words. </p>
              </p>
              The boss 


                for the first level has to be the dumbest thing I&#146;ve ever 
                seen. A giant headless body comes at you with an axe while a purple 
                gargoyle darts around the screen and flies at you. James thinks 
                aloud here: Maybe that&#146;s his brain! You know, there&#146;s 
                something to be said for leaving a game player to figure certain 
                things out for herself. We&#146;re not talking brain surgery here 
                (excuse the pun). As if that&#146;s not enough, you&#146;re also 
                given the boss&#146;s weakness, so there&#146;s absolutely no 
                guesswork involved. In the second level you learn that the name 
                of the bad guy is Goldman. If that doesn&#146;t strike terror 
                into the hearts of all humanity, I&#146;m not surprised. </p>
              </p>
              I got 
                bored with single player, so I grabbed a bud and played multiplayer. 
                We only had one gun and one controller, so we had to make do with 
                that. The thing with the controller is, there&#146;s actually 
                a sight! Now there&#146;s even less thinking to do: all you have 
                to do is put the site on your target and fire! And there I am 
                with my gun, with decent but not great aim. I got jealous, of 
                course, and we switched. Now I had the site and I was doing worse 
                than when I had the gun! I&#146;d gotten so used to just aiming 
                and shooting that I couldn&#146;t control my aim with the controller. 
                Oh, well.</p>
              </p>
              Now here&#146;s 
                something about this game that I thought I&#146;d hate but discovered 
                I really liked. The game moves for you. You don&#146;t actually 
                have to make your way through the maze of the city to get to the 
                boss at the end of the level. As you progress, the game scrolls 
                for you, and you go in different directions depending on which 
                people you save from zombies. Save the girl, go left. Accidentally 
                shoot her, go right. Considering that I still get dizzy on occasion 
                and sometimes have trouble walking and shooting simultaneously 
                (a problem I face in real life as well), this is an amazing innovation! 
                All I have to do is shoot. I can&#146;t get lost no matter what 
                I do! All I have to do is be on the lookout for zombies to kill 
                and people to save.</p>
              </p>
              Yes, the 
                plot of <b>The House of the Dead 2</b> is dumb. And yes, the acting 
                is terrible. You don&#146;t have to think at all to play this 
                game. All you have to do is aim and shoot. You don&#146;t have 
                to figure out any puzzles. If you&#146;re a brainless slob, you&#146;ll 
                love this game. Then again, if you&#146;re tired after a long 
                week of work and school, no longer have the brain capacity to 
                solve puzzles and navigate mazes, and just want to play a game 
                and relax, you&#146;ll love this game. That was the case with 
                me. Sure, it&#146;s the dumbest game I&#146;ve ever played, but 
                it&#146;s so stupid that I just had to enjoy it.</p>
              </p>
               </p>
              </p>
              </p>
              </p>
              
               
              <i>-Heather 
                &quot;elki&quot; Haselkorn 
                actually enjoys this.</i> </p>
              </p><br><p>&nbsp;</p> 
<p><a href="../2.12/boag/index.html">&lt;&lt;Back to Normal View</a></p>
<table width="100%" border="1" height="29" bordercolordark="#000000" bordercolorlight="#FFFFFF" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
  <tr> 
    <td height="20" width="99%"> 
      <div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i>loonygames 
        - the best damn gaming magazine online </i></b></font></div>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Print CGI is 
  &copy; 2000 <a href="http://www.square8.com">Square Eight</a>. Used with permission. 
  Article is &copy; 2000 its original author. All other content is &copy; 2000 
  loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. You got that??</font></i></p>
 