Lovecraft was quite good at writing when you consider his works are over eighty years old. Different times, different settings - it all changes a lot.

I cannot agree with your statement that Lovecraft's works aren't scary. Once you get into the mindset, they turn out to be among the best horror stories produced by a human mind. Compared to his writing, some of the books by King and Masterton look like child tales.

When I've been playing WoW for hours, and my eyes are getting tired, and something levels higher than me jump at me and attack me. Especially if there are 4 beasts or more. I can scream like the little girl I am...

Then you are playing it on the lowest detail and the sound off! :D

And I love AVP but AVP-2 ist scary at all... The missions are boring, or i like the Predator missions but Humans and Aliens missions suckz... But I like the Minigun! >:)

It's actually kind of paradoxal with me, since when I first played games like Doom, I wasn't scared at all. ( I was about 4 or 5 years old by then) Now when I play them, they sometimes just scare my pants off.

The latest game that has been scary was probably Fatal Frame.( A.K.A Project Zero) The only thing that is between you and all the nasty ghosts is a camera. Yes, a camera. Plus, the scenes in this game create and excellent atmosphere.

The ropes... the ropes.... the ropes!! There are more ropes now...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(the_fifth_horseman @ Oct 26 2006, 08:47 AM) [snapback]263630[/snapback]</div>Fair enough, all I meant was that they don't scare me, and I don't particularly enjoy the style of prose. Besides, I just can't get the image out of me head of that photo of him where he's wearing that silly triangle hat, and kind of grinning - it ruined the " dark mystery" of him for me.
Also, I think that a fair portion of his "Sex Magick" theories were daft. But going into that here would be rampantly off-topic I guess :whistling:

Bearing in mind that I detest the writings of Stephen King anyhow.
For me, Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" gets me going every time, as do some of the other "gothic" writers such as Henry James and Robert Louis Stevenson. Despite some of their books containing actual monsters (i.e. Not Human) the actual horror comes from the running theme of the "monster within" which exists in all of us - and that scares the bejeesus out of me :)

Kind of like that jabba-the-hut plant-type-machine dude in Dreamfall, he was so vile and vicious, yet humanly fragile, that I found the character pretty horrific.

Doom is scary, cause if oyu play with gamma correction off it's quite dark. then you press a button or enter a certain area and suddenly a door opens behind you but you dont' know untill you hear the horrific sound. then you turn arround thinking it's maybe one or two beast waiting for oyu there but you quickly find out there is a whole bunch of them.

Hexen does it similar, only in Hexen there are more ambient sounds, there is the mist and quick smashing maschines. i remember there is one level where you press a button to open the doors. offcourse you then turn arround and step towrads the open door when suddenly your character goes aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh while he is falling in the chasm. it scared me. ok so i loaded, jumped the chasm. but wait i see a powerup on a bed. i think "cool" and step on the bed. a quick SMASH! and i am splashed under the roof that came down on me.

there are also some creepy parts, like those ghosts comming out of the grave or when you walk and then suddenly got hit by salva of plasma/magic from behind etc.

The only game that made me have nightmares is Silent Hill 4. :) The creepyest thing I have ever played. The movie is good also. Silent Hill 1 was great too.

And I remember jumping from the seat playing Resident Evil (the second part)

Few days ago I was playing Doom 2. Speakers were on, I was walking on a dark corridor, almost reached end of the level, there was totally silent. Then suddenly one of those Barons from Hell started screaming when it spotted me. I almost felt from the chair <_<

@Lulu: Yes I have, pixels = not scary, as for the second game, bad FMVs = not scary.

Highly detailed monsters with Surround Sound blasting on full volume in the middle of the night, deep dark shadows and a limited arsenal of powerful but unaccurate weaponry = scary.

I find translating some reviews here at abandonia downright scary allright, but that's another matter.

The dense atmosphere in Silent Hill series is what I call "scary". Maybe disturbing would be a better word. I like games which don't resort to cheap tricks like: (silence) BOOO - Be scared now!
I mean games which you play, (and you dont have to fall from a chair or something) and feel uneasy wondering what the hell is that strange shape you see in your living room. :ok: