Grandma Buys Fatal Frame III

Grandma made a trip out to Gamestop in Aurora last night for one reason. She didn't go through the usual browsing of new titles, playing the kiosks or bullshitting with the sales associates, she had come to buy one game, pay quickly, and leave so that she may begin.

That game is Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented. Her photographic war against the spirit world has commenced once again.

It must have been a new guy up at Gamestop, newly hired holiday help; the company preparing for Black Friday and the ensuing mobs of game hungry fanatics, i.e., our sort of people. He kept asking me if there was anything more we needed to buy, if we wanted to reserve any games or systems, if it was I who wanted a bag for the cursed disc for which Grandma had just traded currency. Grandma didn't have time to explain it was her game, that she was really excited after the terrifying ordeal she experienced with Fatal Frame II: The Crimson Butterfly. I only politely answered his questions by pointing to Grandma and saying simply "it's up to her."

When she arrived home, the game was in the Playstation 2 and spinning before she removed her coat.

My, oh my- how the series has grown.

We turned off the lights and cranked up the surround sound. In a matter of minutes, Grandma was moving through a Japanese house with angry ghosts attacking her throat as she desperately tries to get their image on film. The thing no one told Grandma about the beginning of the third installment is the woman begins with a camera, only it's very much NOT the Camera Obscura. So you can take pictures of your attackers all you want, but it won't damage them; only provide a bit of Blair Witch footage for the investigators to find after your strange disappearance.

Grandma's first impression is that the graphics have improved somewhat. The opening CG video and the "JESUS-CHRIST-WHAT-THE-HELL-IS-THAT!?" sequences that appear periodically when you open doors or find some creepy shit are sharp at first then trippy when they need to be. The audio, like the first two, is beautiful. The voice talent on this game is so wonderfully appropriate.

Grandma is jumping left and right, scaring herself into little yelps and screams followed by a slight chuckle to relax; so the game has already achieved its presumed goal in Grandma's first six hours of gameplay.

Grandma likes.

I want to put another video up for you, but I don't know if I want to risk the new camera you all bought for us by making the same mistake of trying to film Grandma playing Fatal Frame. I'll leave it up to you. Should I try, or should I respect the haunted qualities of the game and film something else?

Game on!