What is it?
Let’s catch you up on the Fatal Frame series: there’s an obvious lack of SMG-strapped burly men booting down doors and obliterating beasties. Playing immediately against type, you are thrust in the shoes of a fragile-looking Japanese girl wandering through an old ghost-infested mansion. Not to mention, you’re only armed with a camera - the only way to deal damage - and a flashlight. If that premise doesn’t immediately boot you out of your comfort zone, then Fatal Frame hasn’t done its job properly.

Fatal Frame is probably one of the scariest games we’ve ever played, partly because we spend most of the time creeping around corners in first-person camera mode. It’s a little like the end of Silence of the Lambs sans lotion on the skin. Even though we know a ghost will pop into view at any moment, the anticipation still gives us the willies. We just hope the recent game-crashing bugs discovered in the Japanese version will be fixed for the US release. 

Best way to play?
Right after watching a handful of movies about Japanese ghosts.

Fright Factor:
 

 
What is it?
Like a cross between Alien, Event Horizon and Gears of War, Dead Space places you in the boots of space engineer Issac Clarke investigating an emergency beacon on a nearby ship. Turns out, some fleshy aliens called Necromorphs have overrun the ship and are hiding in the shadows, awaiting their moment to pounce and literally rip you in half.

At this point, you’re probably thinking, “I should just shoot ‘em in the head.” Not so fast, Tex. You see, the monsters in DS need to be dismembered to effectively kill them. Shooting in the head might only make the enemy faster or even spew a ton of smaller monsters from the neck hole. Ripping the monster limb from limb is the only way to destroy ‘em for good. You can start being scared now.

Best way to play?
In Zero-G with an alien bursting from your torso.

Fright Factor:


Aug 19, 2008

6 Things You Didn't Know About Dead Space