An attempt at an apology (and at a game review)

I truly apologize for the lack of updates as of late. Things have been incredibly hectic lately with me trying to find a summer job, and some last-minute college-related craziness. I will try to get on the ball, but suffice it to say that updates will probably be less regular until August, when I will actually be at college.

In the meantime though, allow me to assuage your boredom by discussing something many of us take for granted; Advergames.

You know, games that were created solely for the purpose of selling products. Like Sneak King, Chex Quest, and a whole bevy of horrible, horrible internet flash games.

The flash game I wish to discuss with you today, though, is not one of those. You see, apparently the good folks at Frito-Lay have a much different approach to making advergames than what you'd expect. Rather than creating a game where you play as (for example) a wizard who is searching for the seven golden bags of Fritos, to defeat the evil lord HUNGOR, Frito-Lay instead opted to make what is quite possibly the LAST thing I expected to find in an advergame...

A claustrophobic, psychological horror game that, in addition to having nothing whatsoever to do with Fritos, genuinely creeped me the heck out.

Anyone who has had the "pleasure" of discussing this with me will tell you that the idea of games that can genuinely scare the player is one of the topics I am most interested in (perhaps unhealthily so.) And I have to say, this game succeeded wonderfully at this. It's entirely live-action, utilizing real actors, it is only available to play between the hours of 6 PM and 6 AM, when it is dark, and in addition to that it reccomends that you play it with the lights off. This is not only easy to do, as it is entirely controlled with the mouse, but I HIGHLY reccomend it.

Not only does the game succeed as horror, but also, surprisingly enough, as an advergame. After I finished playing, I truly did want to go out and buy some fritos, if only to support the geniuses who made this game.