Ehhh, not really. The new x-ray vision is very similar to the old one, only not quite as ugly, and with a heartbeat effect which causes objects to "pulse" in and out of view. There's still no reason to ever play without it.

Is the combination for that safe actually hidden anywhere? I couldn't find it anywhere so I just left it unopened.

I've barely made any progress, and I've had it since Friday. I'm on mission 3 right now, because I got caught up exploring the dock area and was afraid I'd miss something (I did anyway). It occurs to that I'm going to have to change the way I play or I'm never going to finish it. It's kicked my instinct to explore…

I don't know, The Exorcist traumatized me pretty badly as a kid. When I watched it again as an adult (well, teenager) it didn't really scare me, but I definitely understand how others could perceive it as terrifying. As a bunch of other people have already pointed out, the medical scenes are pretty excruciating.

It's really hard for me to be genuinely scared by horror movies anymore. I don't mean that as a brag (I'm a total wuss in other regards), and it hasn't impacted my ability to enjoy horror at all. The most I really get these days is a sense of deep unease; The Witch did that really well, and watching a family tear…

Beema covers a bunch of good ones up above. I'd add Oxenfree, Stasis, Sylvio, The Swapper, The Fall and Duskers if you're looking for more off-kilter picks that don't all fall cleanly into horror.

Yeah, it makes a pretty bad first impression, especially with such an, uh, unique art style. I don't think the story holds up overall, but there are some really strong vignettes, and Susan is a surprisingly well-drawn character. If you can get past the first hour (or so? It's been a long time since I played it) it…

Until Dawn is a boatload of fun and works especially well if you're a big horror nerd like me. It subverts a lot of tropes, plays into others, and then does a bunch of completely bonkers shit towards the end. It's almost impossible to pin down until the very end. It's kind of like Cabin in the Woods, in that it's…

The Cat Lady is a good one that gets overlooked a lot. It's a point-and-click adventure that starts out seeming like it's going to wallow in misery and shock value, but actually ends up as a smart, completely horrific take on some pretty adult themes. Some of the imagery in it is just fucked up beyond belief. Its two…

It's not Limbo 2 at all. Similar gameplay, but it goes to much weirder and bleaker places than Limbo ever approached.

Oh man, SOMA is so, so good. I found the plot much more upsetting than the gameplay, but that's true of a lot of great horror games, e.g., Silent Hill 2.

I had the opposite reaction to Outlast, sadly. I loved it at first but towards the end I started to feel like I was peeking behind the curtain at the inner workings of the AI. I remember one part, in an auditorium, I think, where I realized that I could essentially run in circles around an enemy and as long as I did…

I'm really conflicted about Isolation's length. The alien definitely becomes less scary as you progress and learn how to deal with it (there's an item you get later on that can make it especially trivial), but it also taps into certain kinds of horror that usually go unexplored in games. Like, you actually feel hunted…

The first time I played Amnesia was a pirated copy (sorry! but I did buy it later) on a crusty old laptop with integrated graphics. It couldn't could run the game very well, so when I got to the cellar I wasn't sure if the monster was supposed to be invisible or if it was glitching out. I didn't get much further than…

I really liked The Innkeepers, though more for the characters than the actual horror elements. But I also thought It Follows was great, so different strokes and all that.

This is why 3 will always be my favorite. The plot isn't perfect by any means, but it generally holds together as long as you approach it in good faith, and I'd argue it had the best gameplay in the series until Phantom Pain came along (or maybe Peace Walker, but that's another conversation). I don't think they hit on…

It was almost worth keeping Roxxxy around just for the conversation about what would happen if she won. Almost.

At the risk of getting a bunch of snake emojis sent my way, I've gotta say I really loved this season and I was very satisfied with the way the finale played out. This is the first full season I've watched since six (seven pissed me off early and lost me, and by the time I heard eight was good I didn't have as much…

I don't have any first-hand experience with addiction, but I still recognized some of my own past behavior in Alaska. Sometimes when you're hyper-critical of yourself (which it seems like she is) your first instinct when facing outside criticism is to slash and burn and make yourself look as bad as possible in order…

Some random thoughts: