Xbox360: Choice cuts for Halloween

With just a few days to go before Halloween, we thought it’d be a good time to kick back and enjoy this season’s scarefest, with a few choice games and an equally spooky game room atmosphere to get your heart pumping, and your feet jumping out of their boots.

For the gaming atmosphere, we recommends the following things to do before your spook-trip:

1. Turn off the lights – This should be a no-brainer. There’s a big difference between playing the likes of RE5 or Silent Hill in broad daylight, with the blinds up, and playing at 12 midnight, in your house…alone…on a stormy night…you get the idea.

2. Pump up the volume: From the juicy, squishy sounds of zombies, to the faint, barely-audible whispers of malicious spirits, horror games are just more fun when the sound setting’s maxed.

3. The Phone: No need to disconnect it. Rather, park it next to you  as you play, and remember to max its volume too, so you’ll be sure to get a coronary the next time it rings while you’re at a tense gaming moment.

On to the games after this jump!

With just a few days to go before Halloween, we thought it’d be a good time to kick back and enjoy this season’s scarefest, with a few choice games and an equally spooky game room atmosphere to get your heart pumping, and your feet jumping out of their boots.

For the gaming atmosphere, we recommend the following things to do before your spook-trip:

1. Turn off the lights – This should be a no-brainer. There’s a big difference between playing the likes of RE5 or Silent Hill in broad daylight, with the blinds up, and playing at 12 midnight, in your house…alone…on a stormy night…you get the idea.

2. Pump up the volume: From the juicy, squishy sounds of zombies, to the faint, barely-audible whispers of malicious spirits, horror games are just more fun when the sound setting’s maxed.

3. The Phone: No need to disconnect it. Rather, park it next to you  as you play, and remember to max its volume too, so you’ll be sure to get a coronary the next time it rings while you’re at a tense gaming moment.

Now, on to the games, according to their horror genres:

1. Survival Horror: For the dudes who freaked at movies like “Saw” or “Suspect Zero”, we thought you’d welcome our suggestion of Condemned: Criminal Origins  for this horror genre. You’re FBI agent Thomas, and you must navigate your way through a maze of a prison in pursuit of a serial killer, all the while running into other equally freakish inmates.

2. Zombie Army: Zombies and horror are like  peanut butter and jelly, so for those dudes who want a “Dawn (or Sean) of the Dead” taste in their gaming, we recommend Dead Rising for this genre. It offers plenty of zombie-bashing, and all the improvised weapons that a fully stocked mall can offer. i.e. Baseball bats, hedge clippers, chainsaws, electric guitars, lady’s handbags, and some diamonds…

3. 1st Person Fright: Condemned too slow for you? There’s always F.E.A.R. and its generous supply of guns, soldiers, and malevolent apparitions as you blast through level upon level of abandoned offices and blood-spattered clinics. Just remember to keep alert for those quiet moments –  this game’s scare style draws inspiration from Japanese horrors like “The Grudge” and “The Ring”, so dead silence does NOT mean all’s clear.

4. Gore fest: If you’re a Jason Vorhees fan, then we’ve got the game for you. Sure, Gears of War won’t be out until after all the candy and  parties, but that won’t stop us from suggesting this title as it launches. It’s you and your team against the unrelenting hordes of the Locust, and  sure enough there’s plenty of ammo (and blown body parts) to go around.

If you guys out there have any other uber-scary ideas for good games to play this coming Halloween, feel free to post them.

Via Xbox.com