Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

All in all I think I dedicated about a decade of my life (between various groups of players) to the position of Call of Cthulhu GM (the paper and dice RPG), it's been about 5 years now since I last ran a session, my own interest subsiding somewhat, but after such a long break, and with global interest on the wane (or so I thought), here I find myself, all of a sudden, facing a *perfect* XBOX conversion of the RPG - completely summing up the feeling, the atmosphere, the **terror** and the hopelessness made so real in Lovecraft's work...Quite honestly, I'm thrilled that someone actually had the bollocks to make it and do so as perfectly as I would have done (had it been my job to do so)...it's nothing less than the survival horror event of the decade (in my humble opinion... ;) and a beautiful and realistic first person shooter to boot...

It's based (almost 100%) on the story "The Shadow over Innsmouth" but has some wonderful departures (like a really, really scary "thing in the attic", some very convincing "Yithians", a terrifying escape from the "locals" after an unquiet night in the town's hotel, and taking out "Dagon" with a deck cannon from a US Navy warship, classic!)...I'm at about 92% complete now, and I really don't want it to finish...(Luckily it looks like they are making a 2nd game based on "At the Mountains of Madness" which is one of my favorite stories, it reads a bit like the screenplay for "The Thing" at the start, so it should be a good!)...

Anyway, Dark Corners of the Earth has been sitting in the top 10 on GameFAQs for a while now, but got a lacklustre and poorly researched review in the (usually trustworthy) Edge (I'm getting a bit sick of game reviews being based on 20% complete games or 20% effort), and I've laughed and laughed at those on the forums begging for help - "What, if anything, is a 'zthulu'", "Who, or what is a Lovecraft?", "This game is stupidly difficult!", "Why can't I focus when I am injured?", "Why does everything go strange when I am looking off the top of a building?", "Why can't I aim my gun when I am insane???","Why do I have to apply bandages and splints when I am injured?"...and most amazingly, from Edge (oh dear!), that reloading the gun was too difficult (it's one button press instead of it being automatic btw)...I know it's not real life, but think how hard would it would be to reload a real shotgun standing up to your knees in seawater in the middle of the night while a DEEP ONE IS SHREDDING YOUR FACE...Yes, I think the reviewer rather missed the point there...one button push isn't much of an inconvenience really (and it was good enough for Half Life...*shrug*!)...If you can't put up with a re-load button then stay wrapped in your Doom 3 duvet in bed, Mr Edge reviewer...it's not safe out in the cold...you might slip over... ;)