20 Mode – A love letter to FNAF haters

Posted on August 15, 2015 by fictionalpenguin under Uncategorized

Five Nights at Freddy’s Haters: Can’t we all just get along?

I feel like it’s appropriate to make this the 20/20/20/20 Mode night topic because addressing how the anonymity of the Internet turns people into dicks is a terrifying, difficult process. Granted, I also think that Scott Cawthon having to address the level of vitriol people spew is absurd because that kind of thing shouldn’t be happening.

Love FNAF? Hate it? Indifferent? Let others do what they want regarding it.

People who love Five Nights at Freddy’s definitely put the fan in fanatical. I speak from personal experience. I also know that before I really gave the games a try (and once again, Markiplier’s videos are to blame and I will gladly say that to his face on the day I never see him to avoid such a confrontation) that I thought they were overhyped and probably awful. I’d voiced that opinion to people, accepting that those people liked the game and letting them do their thing. They accepted that I didn’t like those games (based on assumptions and so on) and let me do my thing. At no point did either party feel the need to verbally berate the other.

What Scott Cawthon did is kind of amazing

It’s really amazing, actually. He created four games in, what, the span of two years? Each one was a fresh look at the franchise. The first one was a pioneer in its genre, forcing players to sit still and wait for the bad things to happen. FNAF 2 gave that new life and more ways to potentially poop yourself over loud noises. And so on. However, the detail that seems to get overlooked is that Scott Cawthon made these games. There was no big budget studio responsible, but an indie developer who undoubtedly slaved over these games. To that end, no matter if you like or hate the series, I think we can all agree FNAF is a huge success. Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 is especially impressive given the surprise early release, how polished the end-result is, and the promise of DLC. Most importantly: even if you don’t like the series, that’s no excuse to resort to personal attacks on its creator. Complain about any gameplay aspects, complain about the fanatical nature of people who love these games, whatever. However, just like everything else in life: don’t be a dick to a person over your views.

6a.m. and still alive

This week of posting has been a lot of fun. I think the Five Nights at Freddy’s series really did a lot for indie gaming and the horror genre. With the movie and FNAF 4, we see the likely end of this series once the DLC is done with…

As seen on ScottGames.com

…unless the 5 fans have found in the latest image on ScottGames.com is an indication of more to come.

Either way, this series is phenomenal. The anxiety and stress of gameplay, coupled with childhood fears and easy frights (jumpscares are the worst), make for top-notch horror gaming. Thank you, Scott, for giving us the heebly-jeeblies with some frustrating-but-ultimately-fun games. As many Steam reviews have said, these are some of the best Escape key simulators on the market.

Night 6 – Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Movie

Posted on August 15, 2015 by fictionalpenguin under Five Nights at Freddy's

Five Nights at Freddy’s – A movie?

Historically speaking, movies adapted from video games have tended to run the gamut from moderately acceptable to unspeakably horrible. Mortal Kombat holds a special place in my heart even if it was a little lackluster (at best) Wreck-It Ralph was Disney elevating video game concepts to an amazing level, but without focusing on one specific game or franchise.

Then, of course, there’s the Super Mario Bros. movie that no one ever wants to talk about because talking about it can only be done so with the worst kind of anger. Even with how wonderful Dennis Hopper and Bob Hoskins were.

My sister, who was well aware of my then-new obsession with Five Nights at Freddy’s, told me Warner Bros. had announced they would be making the game into a movie. I was tremendously excited at first, but almost immediately became apprehensive. How would a first-person game where the player sits in one place all night, checking cameras and doors, turn into compelling cinema? Seriously, I need to know.

Strong potential

It has been made very clear that Scott Cawthon will have a large role in this movie, and that he will be heavily involved in making sure this turns out to be true to the games. That right there should be enough to sell quite a few tickets. No one knows the Five Nights at Freddy’s lore better than Scott (I feel like a “No shit, Sherlock” moment has just occurred and I’m sorry for that). That was enough for me to go see the movie in theaters. The next announcement I saw regarding the FNAF movie sold me entirely.

Fully-realized, fabricated animatronics created by the Jim Henson Creature Shop. Even if the plot turns out terrible, it’s safe to say that everything will look absolutely amazing. Granted, I also feel like this is the movie magic equivalent of summoning Bloody Mary; making real versions of Freddy Fazbear, Chica, Bonnie, and Foxy is just asking for problems. I’ve not yet seen anything that indicates this will draw exclusively from the first game. With four games worth of lore, plus DLC for FNAF 4, this movie could really tell one Hell of a story. If it ends up being a companion piece to the games, that would be even more amazing.

…and also the potential for failure…

Please, oh please, don’t let this be horrible. Please don’t let this turn into something that is campy and not frightening at all. Don’t let it be Five Nights at Thomp-Stompers.

What this can do for movies adapted from video games

It’s amazing that an indie series like FNAF is getting this much attention (even if it’s because Hollywood loves chances to fill more swimming pools with money a la Scrooge McDuck). If this turns out well, it could mean more well-done movies based on video games. If it’s amazing, just think of how much further this could distance us from Super Mario Bros. the movie? Because seriously, that’s what we’re all quietly hoping.

…

But seriously. Please let this movie be a collection of pants-shitting moments of anxiety and terror. Please don’t mess this up, Hollywood.

Night Five: Dissecting the Horror Behind Five Nights at Freddy’s

Posted on August 14, 2015 by fictionalpenguin under Uncategorized

Five Nights at Freddy’s: A Mastery of Anticipation Horror

The Five Nights at Freddy’s game is a lot of things. It has proved to be surprisingly polarizing among gamers, with some loving it and some absolutely hating it. While I’m not big on speculating about the lore of Five Nights at Freddy’s, as I feel like I don’t fully understand it (having not beaten the games).

I have, however, been thinking a great deal about what goes into making these games so effective at drawing out fear, anxiety, stress, and frustration in gamers. Obviously this isn’t concrete, and it’s well past when it should have been posted…but it’s been a long day.

Moving on! Continue reading →

Night Four – Five Nights at Freddy’s 4: My, what sharp teeth you have

Posted on August 13, 2015 by fictionalpenguin under Misadventures in Non-Fiction

Five Nights at Freddy’s 4: Closure…?

Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 feels like a fully-realized vision for what Five Nights at Freddy’s could have been. It’s the best possible progression from the first game in so many ways. Writer’s Note: any instances of the animatronics’ names implies, unless said otherwise, that I’m talking about the Nightmare versions in this game. I realized I omitted that title a few times and I’m just too tired to fix it. Not even sort of sorry.

The Plot

FNAF 4 is unique in that it’s played with a child for the main character. The story begins with a Fredbear plush trying to calm down the protagonist who is crying because he’s been locked in his room again. It becomes clear that there is a party in five days, that the protagonist’s older brother torments him regularly by preying on his fear of the animatronics, I won’t really say much more, as the game is still new enough that I’d hate to spoil even a little of it. Just know that this game seems to be another prequel-sequel.

Bonnie, overall, has always been my favorite in terms of creeping me out. This? Damn it, Scott Cawthon.

Continue reading →

Night Three – Five Nights at Freddy’s Three: Springtrap haunts my nightmares

Posted on August 12, 2015 by fictionalpenguin under Uncategorized

Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 – Springtrap is more than enough to kill you

Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 takes place thirty years after the original game, with Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza having become a distant memory surrounded by horrifying rumors and children disappearing, murders, and so on. Like any local legend, someone decided to cash in on this by turning one of the old buildings into Fazbear’s Fright, a horror attraction based on the murders and disappearances and less on the warm and fuzzies people might have felt surrounding good old Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.

The attraction itself is full of artifacts from the old restaurants, and players get to act as the night guard (mostly to make sure no one steals anything, the new phone guy says, or makes out somewhere in the attraction). There’s some disappointment, however, because though the place has an authentic–and creepy–feel, it lacks one thing: animatronics. Night 1 goes smoothly, with no jumpscares or horror. The ambiance of the attraction is one thing, but having to check the cameras for both the attraction and the vents throughout the building, the doorway to the office, and maintain various systems (audio distractions, the ventilation system, and the video feeds for the cameras). Because the building is so old, if the vents stop working things get even more pants-shittingly terrifying.

Night 2, however, is where the real terror begins. Phone Dude informs players that some of the old training tapes were found from back when there were wearable suits that doubled as animatronics. Even better, however, is that they found one. A real one. They found a working animatronic from the old restaurants.

This is a moment I’ve gotten used to seeing. God damn it, Springtrap.

Continue reading →

Night Two – Five Nights at Freddy’s Two: the Sequel-Prequel

Posted on August 10, 2015 by fictionalpenguin under Uncategorized

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 – An Involved Prequel-Sequel

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 takes place before the first installment in this series. This is the first of the series with a more developed, more involved plot, and plenty of new ways to die. To combat this, there are new mechanics designed to help players–now playing a different Night Guard–make it through the week (and beyond, really).

The old meets the new with more animatronics than ever before. The original animatronics return, consisting of Withered Bonnie, Withered Chica (not an official name, but she’s missing her hands and some other bits so it seems fitting), original Foxy (who is still Out of Order). and Freddy Fazbear. Each of the original animatronics now has a Toy counterpart, save for Foxy who has a sort of alternative (The Mangle). The doors are gone, the flashlight is more important than the door lights ever were, and Foxy is far more of a pain in the ass than in the first game.

The Plot

Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza is sparing no expenses in 1987, investing heavily in facial recognition software for their signature animatronics–the Toy animatronic line-up. The originals, featured in the first game, are out of order at the time of the game. Bonnie is missing a good portion of his face. Chica has no hands. Foxy looks about the same as in the first game, given that nobody apparently felt like fixing Foxy. Freddy’s about the same, if only a bit worse for the wear, while Golden Freddy and Shadow Freddy are appropriately creepy. All of this creepiness makes sense as it surrounds the disappearance of five children and a series of cover-ups. Mini-games made available between death screens–which will be something players become familiar with, as this game is significantly more difficult than its predecessor–give some insight as to who killed these children and why the animatronics are behaving as they are.

The Mechanics

This is where Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 makes me a little less thrilled than other installments in the series. There are ten animatronics out to kill you. Checking the hallway, the vents, the cameras, and keeping the music box wound so the Marionette doesn’t pop up and insta-kill you. Golden Freddy, The Mangle, and Foxy complicate things by being a bit erratic, and the possibility of the Exoskeleton just popping up to be creepy and distracting. It’s easy to die to the old animatronics (Foxy aside) because putting the Freddy Fazbear head on even a second late means death.

The Rookie Killer

I’ve only played Night 1 of this game, and it was spent dying a whole lot. The old animatronics never really got a chance to off me. Balloon Boy ruined my shit more than once. Paying too much attention to one area was made worse by someone popping out of the vent and killing me. And so on. Alternatively, I did get to see all of the death minigames. I think the best summary of how frustrating FNAF2 can be is Markiplier’s 10/20 Mode playthrough, which shows just how wicked this game can be.

Misadventures In Failure

Not even getting past Night 1. Good god. That’s so embarrassing.

Overall Rating – Buy This Game FIRST

Shocking, I know, but it can’t hurt to play this game before the first one. It gives more backstory to the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise while adding its own fun (and frustration) to the series. The mix of new things being bad while old things fall apart (I won’t go into game theory stuff here as there are more posts to be had this week) is fun, but Mangle is like the older, more awful version of Foxy that I think most players are happy to never see again. There are few things as terrible as shining light on the right vent and seeing that damn thing. The jumpscare noises are significantly less painful on the ears, but the flash of time between Withered Bonnie or Withered Chica appearing and putting on the Freddy mask is always a tense moment. Those things in mind, this is still my least favorite installment in this franchise. I have tremendous respect for Scott Cawthon for creating this games in such rapid succession, but this one feels out-of-place compared to the others.

Night One – Five Nights At Freddy’s: Horror Game Success in Simplicity

Posted on August 9, 2015 by fictionalpenguin under Uncategorized

There are times when I just really need to go fanboy crazy over something. Age of Ultron was a pretty good example of this. So is the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise.

I’ve made a terrible mistake.

That’s why I’m devoting a week of posts to Five Nights at Freddy’s. One for each night you have to survive, culminating with the dreaded sixth night and 20/20/20/20 Mode for those of you who are brave enough.

Five Nights at Freddy’s – The Original

Touted as one of YouTube’s favorite jumpscare-based horror games, Five Nights At Freddy’s is the start of something special. A horror game that allows players to flee with one press of the Escape key clearly knew what it was doing and who it was catering to from day one. It’s five nights of surviving four animatronics and one sneaky Golden Freddy, followed by one extra night and an adjustable AI difficulty. 20/20/20/20 Mode is a strong representation of the relentless difficulty video games used to have, and should have for people seeking a real challenge. Hell, Scott Cawthon even added an extra star for people who beat the original 20/20/20/20 mode because he didn’t think it was possible. Continue reading →

A little bit of all-over-the-place

Posted on April 29, 2015 by fictionalpenguin under One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0

It has been a productive day, but I’m now at the point where my motivation is somewhere between “Eh, I guess I could do that” and “**** it, it’s my day off and it’s time to be lazy”. Mostly because I’m a weird, semi-grumpy mood. Five Nights At Freddy’s taunts me from Steam, but I can’t bring myself to play it at the moment. (Sorry, Bonnie. You can kill me another day, you sneaky bastard.)

Mowing the lawn is admittedly not the best for keeping me ready to seize what’s left of the day, unless what I’m really seizing happens to be blankets and I’m curling up in my bed for a nap. It’s way too early to be thinking about sleep, and yet here we are. Today’s post will be a hodge-podge of whatever I want, as it’s the last real post I’m making. Tomorrow’s, as I’ve said, will be me snarking it up a little bit, and then Friday is May 1st. The first day of me being free from blogging on a daily basis. We’ll see how that works out. Anyway, on to the various things I want to post about. Continue reading →

And so it goes: surviving stress…sort of

Posted on April 16, 2015 by fictionalpenguin under One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0

I figured this post could use as much punctuation in its title as possible, and also I forgot about having to write a post still because I worked the closing shift at work and had all sorts of other things on my mind. None of those things are worth mentioning.

It is, however, worth mentioning that this week has kicked my ass in a way that makes me hesitate to sit down, albeit not in a literal sense. There have been plenty of problems and surprise-issues and so on and so on. I am, surprisingly, the least stressed about these things that went wrong that I have been in a long time. It’s uncharacteristic of me, but also extremely liberating. In a moment of I-wish-I-were-joking so profoundly stupid it might make at least one person’s head explode, the biggest concern on my mind is “I’d really like to get some more time to play Five Nights At Freddy’s”. This is because I’m still stuck on Night 4, and so help me God I’m going to beat that ****ing game. You’re on notice, Bonnie. No more sneaking into my goddamn office and murdering me. Subsequent thoughts are focused on wondering why places like Pizza Hut and Taco Bell don’t deliver this late at night, as I am both hungry and lazy.

These thoughts are worthy of note because I’m normally, especially during stressful weeks, prone to dwelling on shit like it’s not only my job, but my job, my favorite hobbies, and a surprisingly effective form of nourishment. I am so far removed from feeling stressed that being stressed and I presently exist in two separate dimensions.

I’m also tired, I still feel sick, and I have some more cleaning to do before tomorrow morning, so that’s enough of this post.

All Aboard the Hype Train – FNAF Edition

Posted on April 5, 2015 by fictionalpenguin under One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0

Naturally, the best way to approach this horrible idea was to buy all three games.

Happy Easter, or happy Sunday if Easter isn’t applicable. Either way, I hope you’re all having an at least moderately enjoyable weekend. I’m distracting myself with buffalo chicken dip as I write this, so there are no complaints here.

Instead of dancing around today’s topic, let me get to the point: I finally caved and bought the Five Nights At Freddy’s (FNAF for short) trilogy (or, rather, the three games that presently exist in a series that could continue) on Steam. I’ve mentioned, at least on two occasions, that I have a strange fascination with these games and how much of a following they’ve accrued, but I’m also terribly susceptible to jump scares. Not exactly the makings of a good purchase, so I instead lived vicariously through YouTube videos of people playing FNAF. After multiple viewings of Markiplier swear-babbling his way through all three games, as well as seeing The Completionist’s videos on this trilogy, I finally decided to take a chance at being the night shift security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Continue reading →

Phil's Misadventures In Fiction

My ongoing misadventures, both in writing and life in general

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