Ever since I finished F.E.A.R. 1, I’ve been itchiny myself to get into F.E.A.R. 2. Now I have! Well, I’m not sure I really feared Alma in the first place, more feeling sorry for her then fear. So let’s pick up where we left off with the previous article. F.E.A.R. was something to behold in it’s time, but as time went on, it seemed to be less and less impressive, there’s no real fault to cause that, it’s just how technology advance. The main question I asked myself while playing F.E.A.R. 2 was how much like F.E.A.R. 1 was it?

F.E.A.R. 2 starts out half an hour from where you finished in F.E.A.R. 1, so there is a great continuation in the storyline from another point of view. I personally admire the approach from a different angle, but it handicaps the story. The story in F.E.A.R. 2 is much like the first, in the way that it essential is the first. The whole storyline from F.E.A.R. 2 is essential F.E.A.R. 1 but without a backstory, and that really ticks me off. There isn’t much new content to low and behold.
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Apparently, Snack Strong Productions (a thinly-veiled group of people at Frito-Lay) want to scare the pants off of you with a game called Hotel 626.

And from the reactions that the browser-game community (if you can call it that), it seems like the chip makers did a pretty damn good job. I haven’t got too far in myself, with a lot worse things on my plate than horror games, but I can tell there’s a lot of effort put into this, and it’s worth your time.

You can only play the game from 6PM to 6AM, but if you’re really bored, you can fudge it by changing the clock on your computer.

As far as I can tell, there’s no mention of any kind of product placement other than the name of the “developers.” This might be the least-effective viral marketing game ever made.

Something that should be noted is the game’s use of microphone and webcam (which creates one of the most frightening player-photo collages ever made at the end), which doesn’t happen all too often. If you happen to live in the US, you can also give a phone number for extra layers of immersion.

Go on, give it a try. But if you scare yourself to death, I’m taking your doritos.

A celebration, and a well deserved one. The young man who had been the catalyst for all the madness of the past few weeks had achieved everything he set out to do, rebuilding his family and building a strong legacy. Never again would harm come to them, even in his absence. But how had he done it? It seemed even when the odds were impossibly stacked against him, he always found a way through. He should have been dead by now, although he seemed to be the only one who noticed the way he had been seemingly whisked away from the cold grip of death in the countless gunfights he had been caught amidst. How many lives had he taken? He’d lost count, it felt like he’d been the only one to walk away from battles with entire hoods. No man could accomplish such feats alone, and for such assistance a price must always be paid. As the party continued around him, few would have noticed a solemn calm falling on his face, and a truly fearful look in his eye. “Carl, where are ya off to now?” his sister called to him, noticing him heading away from the revelers. “Fittin’ to hit the block, see what’s happening” was his only reply as he strode purposefully out of the door.

Carl “CJ” Johnson was never seen or heard from again after that fateful night. At least, that’s what people believed, for the unfortunate souls walking late at night who caught a glimpse of something on the road they couldn’t quite make out, and yet made every muscle in their body scream at them to run until they passed out would never make that connection.

I’m going to start off by saying that scaring people is hard, do you want to know what is harder? Making a video game that is scary. Condemned: Criminal Origins is nothing short of terrifying and knocks the socks off any first person shooter out there. Now before I go on about how amazing it is, first I’ll talk about the story for those who haven’t had a taste of the cake.

The story begins with your average FBI agent named Ethan Thomas who has been after a mass serial killer known as “The Match Maker”. While on duty, Ethan encounters The Match Maker, who throws Ethan out of a three-story window. Later that night Ethan wakes up at his apartment not knowing what has happened. Still weak from the fall, Ethan is told, by a man named “Vanhorn” that he has been framed for the death of his partner. He also gives Ethan information about his past and how it connects with the total chaos within the city.

The has you running from the cops and abandoning all connections with the FBI while retracing your steps in a corrupt city filled with cracked out civilians. When I said that this game is scary, I meant scary as in the levels are based off of real buildings and environments.  Condemned has a little bit of every thing from investigating crime scenes, crisp next gen graphics that are stunning, and acquiring new weapons like the stun gun; which adds a cool feature that I’m calling the crack and stack system, where you are able to finish off the enemy but preforming lethal blows that will have your stomach turning. One of the main highlights of Condemned is the stare and tear engine which will leave you asking yourself, “Did i really see that?”

Another major pro to the game is that almost every item can be used as a weapon, such as a 2×4 on the ground with nails protruding from it. You’ll also find other useful weapons such as a sledge hammer, crowbar, and fire axe. Now don’t get me wrong there are ranged weapons – I mean, you can’t be an ex-cop and not own a gun or five. Now that we are on the subject of gun play, I must start off by saying that it’s almost flawless. In combat it is very important to have the melee and ranged fighting flow together smoothly and that’s exactly what Sega has done with this game. At one point in the game you are searching a rundown mannequin store. As if that wasn’t creepy enough during the level you will catch tiny glimpses of the mannequins moving, I know right? Farther through the level you reach a part where the mannequins appear behind you every time you turn away!

Condemned was more or less pushed to the side as the 360 got older, mostly because of the releases of Halo 3 and Gears of War. However, Condemned has garnered a cult following by gamers everywhere.

Ok so in all fairness Condemned didn’t really do anything that we haven’t seen before, but not saying that that’s a bad thing. Bringing back the basics for a good solid first person shooter is just what needed to be done, and Sega hit it right on the money. All in all I’ll leave with this: if you are looking for an affordable game of great qualities, then go to your game store and join the horde of fans that have been hypnotized by the intriguing and heart stopping story of Ethan Thomas.