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 First Encounter Assault Recon; it’s kind of a stupid name but the acronym fits better : F.E.A.R. It’s a first person supernatural shooter that came out the beginning of the PS3 era. You play as Pointman, the new guy on the F.E.A.R team who deal with paranormal phenomenon. He has heightened reflexes and a strange connection to Paxton Fetel, a psychic psychopath with a small army of cloned replicants at his disposal. As Pointman gets closer to his target, he keeps getting followed by Alma, a projection of a young girl. What ties this all together? I admit, I think this game gets a little too much credit in the horror department but its still creepy full of dark atmospheres, eerie noises, and a few good jump scares. One of Alma’s last appearances is pretty chilling (just not the ending). The shooting is simple but trusty, but the true fun comes when using your adrenaline fueled reflexes to slow down time. Trust me when I say you will need to use this ability, your flashlight, and your ammunition wisely because it can all run out in a blink in a eye. My problem with the first F.E.A.R as well as the trilogy itself, I’m not really invested in the story. Much of the story has to be uncovered via files and answering machine tapes as well as radio broadcasts; as for characters, I got four characters and a couple of names. There’s a twist at the end that’s fairly disturbing but falls flatter than it should. Overall, the first F.E.A.R is worth a once over but that’s as far as it should go, so may the gaming gods guide you away from creepy ass Alma.

I have a history with this game going all the way back to its original PS2 release. I remember buying Dragon Quest 8 just because it came with the demo, and actually ended up really liking DQ8. I can not say the same for Final Fantasy 12. While I enjoyed the more adult and political story to it but that was about the end of it. The characters all seemed boring I hated the gambit system even tho it was very easy to use and very well explained. The battle system also left much to be desired as most fights until mid game can many times be beaten if you simply don’t touch anything. I can’t comment on much after that, I got so bored i stopped playing around the mid point 3 separate times. My two biggest complaints tho were the fact that there was very little reason to customize characters outside of weapons and armor every one ended up with every ability and spell in the game. My other complaint was the maps were huge but empty and took forever to navigate.

I took a chance on the PS4 version because my two biggest complaints were addressed. The new job system would create some variety and the new speed button lets me zoom around much quicker, 2 or 4 times faster to be precise.  And both are successfully done, the job system absolutely gives some variety and traveling around is easier than ever. If you were a fan of the original release you should absolutely pick this iteration up. That being said, if like me you found it boring and uninteresting these updates both graphical and overall improvements offer nothing to really change that view point. As always thanks for reading and may the gaming gods bring you glory.