Let me be frank about F.E.A.R. on XBox 360.

F.E.A.R. is a standard first person shooter with some horror/slo-mo elements added in. In general, I never felt very polarized either way about FEAR, neither loving or hating it. Nothing much stands out in the game, run through linear passages through office/industrial/slum environments shooting enemies with a variety of weapons.

The enemies are quite smart and did surprise me several times when I was surrounded before I realized it. The problem is that the closed in spaces you fight in rarely have enough different passages to take advantage of the AI. FEAR's weapons are all standard fare, SMG, Rocket launcher, Pistol, Shotgun. Weapons do control well and feel powerful. Two that stand out were the penetrator, which fires metal projectiles that make for some humorous looking enemies pinned to walls, and the laser sniper rifle which makes enemies explode in a bloody mess, going against any kind of stealth or subtlety long range rifles are suited for.

Another way in which FEAR attempts to be different is by including a slow-motion ability which basically means you can move faster than enemies, see them being blown apart (literally) by your attacks in slow motion. Nothing too exciting. The few scripted hallucination events in the game seemed tacked on and if you've played Eternal Darkness, will seem like nothing special. These could have made the game much more interesting, but seem like yet another missed chance.

I thought multiplayer was more fun, if also basic. The standard Deathmatch, TDM, CTF gametypes are provided, also with slow-mo variants that nobody plays. Speaking of which, not many are playing online except for peak periods and weekends. Nothing much impressive here, just running around maps mostly taken from the single player game competing for kills. Weapons are pretty imbalanced and from my experience the AR/Penetrator dominates the game.

Lastly, graphics are good, but not great (noticing a trend here?) with some good lighting that never really is taken advantage of, nice detail on characters, and lots of objects that blow up and go flying when firefights take place. I didn't notice any framerate issues or glitches in my play through or time with multiplayer.

The 360 version includes two very forgettable extra modes, instant action which places you in areas from the single player game with a number of enemies. It's a lot like a terrorist hunt on Rainbow Six, without as much customization, and only single player. A "bonus mission" of sorts which took all of 10 min and made little sense, not to mention taking place in familiar recycled environments with recycled enemies is included as well. On the topic of not making sense, the story doesn't. I wanted to understand it and I did, but only after a quick trip to wikipedia where someone had written a synopsis. What I understood is the story borrows pretty heavily and blatantly from The Ring and The Grudge.

Final verdict? I'd say 5 of 10, meaning it' s the perfect average FPS. Nothing here done wrong, nothing here done very right or exciting either. It's hard to recommend FEAR with better shooters like Rainbow Six:Vegas out and Half Life Orange coming out. I'd say pay no more than $30, and don't set your expectations high on this one.

Let's paint a dystopian future: What if the Wii reaches PS2 levels?

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Seeing week after week in japan, and month after month in US, Wii and DS sales keep dominating, doing very well in a traditionally slow season for gaming. The software isn't quite there in the US yet for Wii, but rarely are more than 5 of the top 20 software spots in japan belonging to non-nintendo systems. Traditionally, NA has followed japan's lead in sales. We all were convinced that the "superior" PSP would stomp on the DS in NA, at least, but after a brief period of competition, the DS pulled away by far.

Some people can call it a fad, say it'll trail off, but let's say it doesn't, what does this mean? If Wii breaks the 3rd party curse of Nintendo consoles, which it certainly could, if exclusives keep coming, I don't think anything could stop it this generation.

So what then? What does this mean for 3rd party development on the HD systems? Look at PS2, last generation. Which system were 99% of 3rd party titles originally made for? If Wii becomes this benchmark, with other systems getting upgraded verisons, it could seriously retard the potential of the other two systems. Could you really see UbiSoft/EA/others ignoring a console with sales the size of the original PS2?

Alternatively, this could create a huge split, with lower tier developers working on Wii/PS2/PSP, extending PS2's lifespan to that of Wii's, and keeping Sony in good shape while the PS3 struggles to find acceptance over the next few years. An ironic development, considering PS2 ports have helped give Wii a hand up while developers recover from the shock at Wii's success.

A 360/PS3/PC segment that shares versions of 3rd party games would be the other side, with far fewer titles, but those being of blockbuster quality, at least in production values. In this scenario, 360's ease of portability from PC would be a huge advantage.

I see Wii dominating sales in a near PS2 like fashion, PS2 continuing to sell well at $99 or less to those even more price conscious, getting non-motion versions of Wii titles.

360 will likely benefit from ease of development and ease of portability from PC, doing well, but not as well as last generation, and the PS3 mainly becoming the high end video nut's console for blu-ray and the highest of visual quality in the fewer games made to take advantage of it.

It could all be BS, but this is my "expert analysis" as it were. I could be wrong, and PS3 could take the lead, and the benchmark for development, giving 360/Wii gimped versions of PS3 titles without Blu-Ray storage size.

Any other thoughts on what it'd be like with a Wii winning generation? Or even.. GASP, a one console future? j/k on the last one.. at least for anywhere outside japan..