Lovecraft Would Dig these Video Games

[Bulbatron]

Anybody else getting 'The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim'?

The main reason I ask is that both of Bethesda's last two games 'The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion' and 'Fallout 3' featured sections which were obvious references to Lovecraft.  So of course, now I'm wondering if Skyrim will have any HPL references for us to discover?

I still haven't played 'Fallout - New Vegas', so I don't know whether or not that had any HPL references.

[Lambda]

Apparently COD is lovecraftian now 

http://propnomicon.blogspot.com/2011/10/call-of-duty-from-beyond.html

[Yojimbo]

I found the Dunwich Building in Fallout, but what was the reference in Oblivion?

[Genus Unknown]

Anybody else getting 'The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim'?

Oh yeah, Skyrim ate my weekend. I remember putting it into the Xbox on Friday evening, and then looking up to find that I needed to go to work.

I'll let you know if I run into any Lovecraftian sections.

[Bulbatron]

I found the Dunwich Building in Fallout, but what was the reference in Oblivion?

In Oblivion, there was a short quest called 'The Shadow Over Hackdirt' in which you had to rescue an Argonian girl from the half-ruined village of Hackdirt, before she was sacrificed to the 'Deep Ones'.

Hackdirt is a little south of Chorral, if I remember rightly.

[Kaelestes]

I've put an unspeakable number of hours into Skyrim now and haven't noticed anything overtly Lovecraftian. Granted there are still an obscene number of quests and locations to explore, but my hope is dwindling.

EDIT: Ok, so there is the Temple of Mehrunes Dagon, but this isn't a Lovecraft Dagon even if the name was inspired by such. Mehrunes Dagon, one of many otherworldly beings known as the Daedra, has been in every Elderscrolls game since the beginning - he was even the final boss of the main quest in Oblivion - so he's nothing new.

[Yojimbo]

I found the Dunwich Building in Fallout, but what was the reference in Oblivion?

In Oblivion, there was a short quest called 'The Shadow Over Hackdirt' in which you had to rescue an Argonian girl from the half-ruined village of Hackdirt, before she was sacrificed to the 'Deep Ones'.

Hackdirt is a little south of Chorral, if I remember rightly.

Ah, okay. I haven't been able to trigger the Hackdirt story. I was forced to slaughter everyone in town, but I didn't rescue any one. Maybe I should go back and check...

[Bulbatron]

I found the Dunwich Building in Fallout, but what was the reference in Oblivion?

In Oblivion, there was a short quest called 'The Shadow Over Hackdirt' in which you had to rescue an Argonian girl from the half-ruined village of Hackdirt, before she was sacrificed to the 'Deep Ones'.

Hackdirt is a little south of Chorral, if I remember rightly.

Ah, okay. I haven't been able to trigger the Hackdirt story. I was forced to slaughter everyone in town, but I didn't rescue any one. Maybe I should go back and check...

Speak to the Argonian shopkeeper and she will ask you to find her daughter - that's if you haven't put her to the sword already during your slaughter-spree!

[Chrizzie Frizzie]

It's been mentioned before on the thread: Amnesia - The Dark Descent
I finally managed to play through it last week. I was only able to play about 20 minutes per go before I would have to stop., so it did take a while to complete.

I appreciated two things in particular:
- The insanity system requires you to look away from monsters if you at all can. This means that your imagination is kept working just as when Lovecraft described Curwen's beasts as 'unfinished'. Also, since you have to rely on your hearing, you engage in a broader sensory experience than the traditional adventure game. Overall, the sense of trying to sense other beings but not allowing yourself to fully SEE them fits in with my ideas of the 'unnamable', 'unknowable', 'unmentionable'...
- The occult aspect is definitely of the 'Dunwich' and 'Dexter Ward' variety, based on corrupting lore and inhuman investigations. The theme is very much that of knowledge->corruption.

Definitely the scariest game ever.

[Manndroid]

Indeed; and if you enjoyed Amnesia and haven't played at least Penumbra: Black Plague, you should.

Amnesia is getting a sequel, "A Machine for Pigs," but Frictional is outsourcing it to another developer. Not sure if that's good or bad, yet.

[Bulbatron]

Hopefully, more Amnesia will be a good thing.  The Penumbra series is indeed definitely worthy of being played.  They're pretty scary and there are plenty of Lovecraftian references.

[Genus Unknown]

"Lovecraftian" is a bit of a stretch, but the Dark Brotherhood quest line in Skyrim (and presumably the other Elder Scrolls games) reminds me of the Mythos a bit. An ancient cult that worships a formless god of death and entropy by working as assassins for those who know the proper rites and spells to contact them. Reminds me a bit of the Cthulhu cult in the original story.

[Bulbatron]

It's interesting that the Dark Brotherhood questlines from Oblivion and Skyrim are among the most fun of them all.

[Genus Unknown]

Another Lovecraftian touch in Skyrim is the fact that nothing you do actually matters or changes the course of the world at all. 

[Bulbatron]

I suppose that's true in a way.  You sort of have to wait until the next game in the Elder Scrolls series to find out what long-lasting changes occurred as a result of your character's deeds in the previous game.