F.E.A.R.

As a couple of you know I've been in a gaming slump for a bit. I don't like it and I wish I could get out of it.

I have many games to play and at least 4 new ones and I just don't care about any of them at the moment. I'm bored. I'm tired of the same old methods and formulas. I know the tricks and games styles and I want a shake up. I have 5 different games right now that are sitting unfinished. Not because they're bad games, but because I'm bored to death with them.

Brjahu even sent me Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and I can barely bring myself to play it. It's the EXACT same as the others. That wouldn't be so damn bad if the games had a larger space between releases, but it feels like the series isn't growing at all. It's been CoDied.

A little over two weeks ago, after the release of FEAR 3, I got a strong hankering to replay the original FEAR. In a way I was hoping that it would shake me out of my slump. I have beaten the SP on the 360 version four different times and I've always loved it. I haven't touched the game in well over 2 years now.

I'm about a quarter way through it and for a 5 year old game it still owns! I'd even go so far as to say it's easily better than any Triple A shooter that's come out this generation.

Allow me to explain myself. FEAR isn't a wide open sprawling game. It's not a shooter of epic proportions with you pitted against the world or an alien invasion. It doesn't even have a huge orchestral score. What it does have is phenomenal gun play, the best AI I've ever seen, excellent maps, amazingly paced tension, exploration and unnerving terror!

The game pits you with finding and killing a mind psychic named Paxton Fettel. Fettel has gained control of a psychic army and it's up to you to stop him. Along the way you keep running into a little girl that's always watching and haunting you. And the flashbacks....or are they visions??? "What's the first thing you remember? (cue creepy scream thing)"

My wife was taking a bath the other day when I came upon a vision/flashback. You're at the end of a long dark hallway that is tiled in dark blue. There's a hospital gurney with blood on it against the left wall. At the end of the hall is a double door, with windows you can see through, with someone's back to it. They are hunched over and working at something. You hear a woman scream and the sound of....something....human??? Lori yelled to me if my son was crying, he was asleep upstairs, to which I replied that it was just my "creepy ass game" and she said "yeah....that's messed up."

The game is truly astonishing as an entire package. What could've easily been a cliched story turns into a sordid nightmare that actually manages to be both immensely sad and revolting at the same time.

While I know the game has a large following I'm pretty sure that none of you have played it and it's a disservice to yourself if you don't. If you're tired of the same old thing all the time give this game a rental or purchase or goozex trade.

I must sadly admit that the PS3 version is not as good as the 360 with inferior graphics and longer load times, but it's still amazing on the PS3 nonetheless.

If you don't take my word for it read this amazing article by one of my favorite Gamesradar editors, David Houghton. He basically says everything I say, but with pretty screenshots and the stellar opening cinematic.