Shadow of the Colosuss was, by far, my pick for best game on the PS2.  The title came from Team ICO, the masterminds behind the early PS2 cult classic, ICO.  Much has been made about the developer’s highly anticipated third title, a game shrouded in mystery until now.  Who knows how the guys at PlayStation LifeStyle got their hands on the teaser-trailer for Project TRICO–it’s just great to see that Fumito Ueda and his team are very deep into production.

If we’re to believe this is in fact the next Team ICO game (and I do), you need to play ICO and Shadow of the Colossus (especially the latter) to appreciate what’s going on here.  So go out and play them right now if you haven’t already.  OK, good.  Welcome back.  Weren’t they awesome?  What we take away from these two titles isn’t necessarily their storylines alone, but that combined with their gameplay styles.

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There’s something to be said about a video game that forces you to keep the lights on when playing at night.  While F.E.A.R. 2 didn’t necessisarily have me sleeping with a night-light, there’s enough screamer moments embedded in the eight-plus hours of gameplay to satisfy most horror fans.

I’m not going to lie, the story in F.E.A.R. 2 is forgettable.  Besides the fact that you’re constantly being telepathically poked by a half-dead she-zombie named Alma, there’s really no background information you need to know in order for things to make sense.  For some reason, you’re special and she wants you.   That said, there are some really cool creepy moments that make for fantastic displays of technical eye-candy.  Some of them feel a bit cheap, but most are welcome moments of legitimate fright.  Calling the game “gory” is a bit of an understatement.  F.E.A.R. 2 has some scenes of straight-up maniacal carnage.   These scenes become truly disturbing as some of them are set against paradoxical backgrounds like an elementary school.

Gameplay here is solid.  F.E.A.R. 2 controls just as you’d expect with a few wild cards thrown in meant to separate the game from other generic shooters.  Enemy variation is weak, as I can’t recall more than four character models I had the pleasure of shooting.  Level design gets a bit redundant–something the original game suffered from–but there’s a good enough change of pace to keep the action moving along smoothly.  I personally enjoyed the mech segements of play, where the main character is thrown inside a seemingly indestructible steel robot that fires all kinds of rockets and bullets.

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I remember when Gattaca was being advertised back in 1997.  Everything about the movie was right up my alley:  sci-fi movie; takes place in the future; Danny DeVito involved (producer).  Somehow, with all of these qualifications, I never got around to seeing it.  Not only that, I never rented it.  I’ve received and mailed back over 300 DVDs from Netflix–none of which being the Andrew Niccol film.

Alright, so let’s talk about the movie.  Get lost if you haven’t seen it already–but I guess I shouldn’t be talking.  The film definitely has a noir feel to it.  Even though it takes place years from now, it borrows a very 50’s-gangster look which occassionally comes off as confusing.  I just chalk the art direction up to the fact that maybe a few years down the road we suddenly decide embrace that time in American history.

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