In space, no one can hear you pussy out.

I am highly impressionable when it comes to scary games. Years of gorno and video nasties have long since de-sensitised me to what cinema can offer, but when I have the pad in my hand and i'm responsible for the protagonists every action... the curtains must be opened.
Silent Hill is a prime example of my lack of gaming backbone, as is Forbidden Siren and its sequels, but the game that I remember fearing most, the experience I like to blot out of my mind lest the cold sweats begin anew, is Alien Versus Predator. Here is a game that is built around playing the 3 baddest motherfuckers in the whole universe; a Xenomorph, a Predator and a Colonial Marine. Trouble is, one of these guys just isn't like the other. Sure Hudson et al are absolute badasses, but when your'e controlling a lone, faceless grunt (AvP forgoes the usual gaming narrative, instead choosing garbled video messages and disembodied screams to usher you along) against 2 species of intergalactic everything exterminators, the thought of Vasquez barking 'Lets rock!' just fades away.
I recently purchased AvP again thanks to a generous STEAM re-release in the hope that its now primitive graphics and sub-par sound would reveal a much tamer experience than I remembered. Not so.
Rebellion seemed to have crafted a future proof frightener that is still terrifying nearly a decade on, thanks largely to an ingenious lighting system and some great sound design. The marine's flares should be used sparingly but I often find myself hurling one of those glowing beauties around EVERY corner, everything is swathed in darkness and acid spitting death is always close by. I've also committed n00b suicide on more than one occasion when a shrill sound has caused me to unload my projectile grenades into a wall, fragging myself into non-existence. At least death offers a breather, as well as a warp to the beginning of the level to re-live the nightmare over again.
Fortunately AvP comes with the ultimate antidote to hours of terror-the Predator campaign. There is nothing, absolutely nothing I have come across during my gaming life that rivals stalking hapless marines as everyone's favourite intergalactic rastafarian hunter. Hearing that familiar crashing sound effect as you engage infra red, aiming that shoulder cannon and watching the human explode, popping those wrist claws and cleaving someone in two, christ, the Predator even sounds mean when its healing.
Lets hope Rebellion can reclaim former glories with the new AvP and wash away the taste of those godawful films.