Cool Use of HORROR by Crispin, Porter + Bogusky for Doritos

Hotel626.com

Most Junk Food commercials range from the stupid to the stupidly funny
that's because it's junk food
and since you can't sell trans-fatty acid as a proposition
you sell the so-called fun you get when you ingest this apparently hallucinogenic manna from heaven
Every brand's guilty of this angle - drink/eat my beverage/snack, and you/your friends/your surrounding/your life/your waistline and cholesterol level will transform.

That's why from the outset,
The idea that CP+B (that's the cool way to name drop Crispin, Porter and Bogusky) came up with from the start - Bringing 2 long-dead flavours back from the dead
was already so refreshing

My web-savvy copywriter Rudy (follow him at rudylafaber @ twitter) is a huge fan of CP+B
We all are
and after visiting the website so will you
we did
at 3am in the morning at Pixelpost
numb from 12 hours of post work
we checked-in to Hotel626.

God damn.
This is by far one of the best effort in the horror genre gaming by far
not even full-length games can come close
the gameplay's pretty straightforward
but what's fantastic is the level of detail being layered unto your gambit through the hallway
every room is a puzzle to solve, to escape and to throw yourself into another agonisingly creepy room/puzzle.

What's amazing as well is the amount of effort they make you put into the game
here're a few that just blew my mind
1. You can only log on between 6pm to 6am (hotel626 ma...) - this immediately limits the engagement to hardcore late-night gamers/youth. Freeing up significant amount of server space for the highly detailed environment.

2. when you log in, the system takes a photo of you. Halfway into the game, your photo is hung out to dry in a creepy darkroom/stairwell. Making you wonder WHAT THE FUCK WHEN DID THEY SNAP MY PIC!

3. the game uses every arsenal in your laptop. You have to 'sing' the baby to sleep, and you do so by using the built-in mic on your laptop (if you don't, shame on you. get a macbook)

4. It's terribly hard to finish. Specifically one stage when you have 2 or 3 tries to decipher what the madman is saying, and make sense of it through his manic sketches on the hotel room wall. Failure to do so results in him devouring you (it's up to your imagination... personally i think i could've taken Skinny in real life) - This provides participants a reason to blog/discuss and talk about hotel626. Trust me, google it, there are pages upon pages of discussions.

The user experience in Malaysia's horrid unless you've got a 4MBPS line. But try it in the office. If it's before 6pm, just adjust your computer's internal clock.

While Malaysia's winning gold for web banners (But it's a gold because of the idea!), Hotel626 is picking up awards from judges, gamers, bloggers, web designers, brothers, sisters... basically you end it with an 'er'... chances are, they'll love hotel626. It's definitely way ahead of its time in terms of redefining the web experience (microsites specifically).

And that is why, Hotel626.com is totally godlike. A great idea. Fantastic attention to details. Immersive storyline. Easy to learn hard to complete gameplay. May I apply for an internship CP+B?

check it. Hotel626.com
(can't tell enough people about this website!)