F.E.A.R.

I purchased F.E.A.R. for the PC yesterday …

F.E.A.R. Screenshot

F.E.A.R. Screenshot

This the perfect game to release within two weeks of Halloween, with an interesting combination of first-person shooter action and the atmosphere of japanese horror movies like Ringu or even American classics like The Exorcist. Evidently, the critics seem to agree.

The game isn’t perfect, of course. Monolith delivers some amazing graphics, particularly in their use of bullet time effects, but much of the game world really could have used a bit more of the polish that Valve put into Half Life 2. On the other hand, the game nails its target atmosphere and succeeds at the fear-factor the hype machine assigned to Doom 3 before gamers got a hold of it.

Another spot in which the game really shines is in enemy AI. Opposing soldiers will sneak around obstacles, move objects out of their way and into yours and generally be annoyingly good at close-quarter tactics.

If you’re looking for a good spot of intense single-player action and horror for the PC and have a machine with enough power to run it, get F.E.A.R. now while the Halloween mood is at its strongest.

Rumble Box

Rumble Box

Patrick Hackett and Joe Bourrie have released Rumble Box, a fun and free little 3D diversion that involves characters made of simple objects fighting to escape from a box. The landscape changes as you defeat your enemies, who leave being the objects they’re created from, eventually allowing you to climb out of the box to victory.

Ubuntu Breezy Badger Released

The Ubuntu Linux team has now officially released version 5.10 of their alternative operating system. You can download a copy for free here.

This release, codenamed “Breezy Badger” continues to improve upon one of the friendliest Debian-based Linux distros available, all while keeping the system open to customization.

In addition to the Gnome-centric base version, you can get a KDE-based version called Kubuntu, as well as Edubuntu, which is focused on children’s educational environments.