Silent Hill 3 (PS2)

Play Silent Hill 3 and you'll never scoff at anyone that admits they got scared by a video game again: this isn't survival horror, it's full on survival terror. Away from the shlock B-movie stylings of the Resident Evil series, the Silent Hill games have carved, with a particularly rusty machete, a rather different niche for themselves with a line in taut psychological horror that really gets under your skin rather than just providing a few cheap shocks. The games' primary means of achieving this is via their superb graphics and sound which immediately create an oppressive atmosphere where you're constantly in fear of exactly what manner of evil will happen next.

• An all-new horror adventure with a sophisticated storyline
• New monsters, items and weapons, including a submachine gun
• Incredible high-resolution graphics on the PlayStation 2
• The most terrifying Silent Hill game to date
• For 1 player

Unfortunately veterans of the series will know that more often than not; nothing much ever does happen next, except maybe the appearance of one of the small number of stock enemies. They'll also be perturbed by the constant recycling of backdrops in this third edition--particularly in yet another visit to the Silent Hill hospital. The game does stop pulling its punches for the especially disturbing last third of the adventure though, and anyone new to Silent Hill is likely to be scared silly for its entire duration.

The game's other faults, such as a clunky control system and storyline are (for no apparent reason) stocks of the survival horror trade so it would take a particularly surly gamer to deny the game's obvious quality. It'll also take someone with concrete underpants to remain unfazed by the whole thing, particularly the church with the bleeding walls... --David Jenkins