Halloween's coming up. For most people, I guess, that means thoughts of candy and jack-o-lanterns, and perhaps inappropriate uses for cartons of raw eggs. For me, it means a chance to celebrate the darker side of video gaming, which is something I thoroughly enjoy.

Problem is: there's really nothing scary coming out this year.

Sure, we've got DOOM 3. And it's pretty creepy. But it's not a horror game, really. It's sort of a survival-horror FPS that's set in space, and it has moments that are genuinely spooky, but it's still a shooter at heart. It's just a shooter where more things jump out of closets than normal.

I'm looking for games like Nocturne, or Clive Barker's Undying (a title which despite its flaws, did a very good job of being just, well ... unnerving). I'm looking for something like Silent Hill or the Resident Evil remake, or even a title like the horribly ill-advised Nightmare Creatures 2 back in the Dreamcast days.

Nightmare Creatures

Instead, this year's Halloween releases include an NBA game and a bunch of (surprise surprise, and if I hadn't already ranted about this, I would now) World War II games. Oh, and the winner for "scariest title" but not actually a horror game itself: Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo Dasshutsu!! Hajike Rowaiaru.

I'm not making that up, by the way. You can check our release dates page.

I wish more companies -- American companies anyway -- would understand that there are other settings beyond sci-fi, fantasy, and military combat. It sometimes seems like developers sit down in a conference room at the beginning of a project and throw darts at a board containing only these three options.

And then the publisher comes in and tells them to scrap it and just make a World War II game instead.

I wants me some werewolves! Vampires! Demons and imps and ghosts! I want zombies and hellhounds and things that go bump in the night. It's Halloween, and I want a game that makes me sleep with the lights on. Is this so much to ask?