Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (5000)

Content

The Sea Change

Joanna Rossiter

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

A Richard and Judy Summer 2013 Book Club pick. The Sea Change by Joanna Rossiter is a haunting and...

Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated the PlayStation version of Silent Hill in Video Games

Jun 26, 2020

Silent Hill

Action/Adventure

8.5

(8 Ratings)

Video Game Rating

Psychological horror (2 more)

Twisted

Multiple endings

What Dreams Are Made Of

Silent Hill- is one of my all time favorite games of all time. Its also one of my all time favorite psychological horror games. Its twisted, suspenseful, insane and very very foggy. So much fog in this game, you dont even know were your going. Its a plus cause it adds to the atmosphere to the game. The downfall, you probley get lost. Other than that, its a excellent game.

The Game: you play as Harry Mason as he searches for his missing adopted daughter in the eponymous fictional American town of Silent Hill; stumbling upon a cult conducting a ritual to revive a deity it worships, he discovers her true origin. Five game endings are possible, depending on actions taken by the player, including one joke ending.

The objective: The player is to guide main protagonist and player character Harry Mason through a monster-filled town as he searches for his lost daughter, Cheryl. Silent Hill's gameplay consists of combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving.

The Gameplay: The game uses a third-person view, with the camera occasionally switching to other angles for dramatic effect, in pre-scripted areas. This is a change from older survival horror games, which constantly shifted through a variety of camera angles. Because Silent Hill has no heads-up display, the player must consult a separate menu to check Harry's "health".

If you play the PS3 verison, the DualShock controller is used a heart beat rhythm can be felt signifying that the player is at low health.

Visibility is mostly low due to fog and darkness; the latter is prevalent in the "Otherworld".

Navigating through Silent Hill requires the player to find keys and solve puzzles.

Its a excellent game, that pefectly represents the psychological horror genre.

Kudos

ClareR (5911 KP) rated Luckenbooth in Books

Feb 14, 2021

Luckenbooth

Jenni Fagan | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, LGBTQ+

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

I love a book that takes me by surprise and is a bit off centre; something a bit different from books found on the bestseller lists (which is where I would hope this will end up!!), or the supermarket shelves. Luckenbooth is one of those books.
Luckenbooth piqued my interest as soon as I saw the cover photo - and then I read the synopsis. How could it possibly NOT appeal to me? I mean, the devils daughter rows to Edinburgh in a coffin to work for the Minister of Culture. I was hooked. It’s not all about her though. The book is split into three sections, each section revolving around three different characters, and we see glimpses in to their lives. There are people from all walks of life: strippers, spies, maids, a black human rights lawyer with a bone mermaid, drug addicts, poets, a medium. These are all people who live on the edge of society (within No. 10 Luckenbooth Close, anyway!), people who have little - and they live in a tenement that has been cursed by the devils daughter.
The stories seem not to be linked to one another, and their only link is the fact that they all live in the same tenement building. I really enjoyed these snapshots, any one of them could have been longer and I would have enjoyed them just as much. This fed my love of short stories though, and I really liked how reality was mixed with the more supernatural elements.
I will have to dig out my copies of Fagans books The Sunlight Pilgrims and The Panopticon, languishing in my Kindle library - this has really made me want to read her other books.
Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book through NetGalley.

Kudos

BookInspector (124 KP) rated A Nearly Normal Family in Books

Sep 24, 2020

A Nearly Normal Family

M.T. Edvardsson | 2019 | Mystery, Thriller

8.8

(5 Ratings)

Book Rating

As it is said in the blurb, this book is told from three different perspectives: father, daughter, and mother, all three are sharing their sides to this story. The father’s part was the least interesting to me, he sounds quite boring and not very eventful. We do find out some interesting aspects of their life, but otherwise, he mainly seems lost and confused. The daughter’s part was the most interesting to me, we have the chance to see what the accused murderer is actually thinking, and what was her take on the life she is living. This part shines a different light on her father and other very important events. The mother’s part was the most logical one, I believe. She is a lawyer, so she knows how to deal with evidence. I liked her side of the story and the thoughts she shared from her life. The characters are well developed and intriguing, but sometimes some of their thoughts about “I need to save my daughter, it wasn’t her” felt repetitive and overused.

The narrative of this book keeps changing, depending on the characters views, and that was what got me going throughout the book. We do find out some spicy and interesting details throughout each part, that makes this book deeper and more personal. If you ever have read Nordic Noir, most probably you noticed, that this genre has a specific feeling about it. It normally involves exotic names, woods and coldness. This book for some reason managed to avoid that feeling. It is a Scandi Noir and it does have those exotic names of the places, but this book feels modern and doesn’t have this gloominess surrounding it.