Up until now, I often found myself wading through gaming sites where I would skip the review and jump right to the numerical score just to find out if a particular game was worth buying. The reviews that I actually read seemed to be dry and all too verbose.

But with this article, I mark the advent of a new monthly feature on AllYourTech.com that I'd like to call "Game reviews for people who hate game reviews" in which I will mainly deal with graphics and gameplay. While other elements of a game are important to some people, most of us only care about graphics and gameplay, so extended discussion about sound, performance specs and other details would only be more text that the average gamer will have to drudge through.

If you want details on polygon counts and frames per second, you have come to the wrong place. If you just want to know what games are worthy of your valuable time, enjoy.

F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) has been out for a few months and to anyone that has not had a chance to play it, I say to you, "buy this game!" Simply put, F.E.A.R. is an excellent first person shooter full of haunting atmosphere and excellent shootouts. In F.E.A.R., you take the role of an elite soldier who has just been assigned to the First Encounter Assault Recon unit. Some government-engineered psychic has decided to get uppity with his army of clones and F.E.A.R. is sent in to investigate.

Not enough to get you excited?

Monolith landed some A-list talent for F.E.A.R. in the form of the Creepy Little Girl; you may know her from her previous work in horror films such as The Grudge and The Ring.

If that is enough to convince you into sinking your hard-earned cash into a game that will make you cower before every seven year-old girl you ever meet, please quit reading and buy it immediately as my job is already done. For you doubting Thomases out there, I will go into more detail about this paranormal adventure.

For the graphics fanatics out there, you will in no way be disappointed with what F.E.A.R. has to offer. The characters and environments look excellent. The environments do tend to get a little repetitive as most of the game takes place inside, but that wasn't a big detractor for me personally. If you are a graphics fanatic who loves a nice, big bucket o' gore splashed on each and every game you play, it seems you share that characteristic with someone at Monolith who decided that blood oozing out of bodies wouldn't be enough - things that don't even have blood vessels bleed in this game! Overall the presentation of F.E.A.R. creates a dark, moody atmosphere that will keep you grounded in its creepy story and environments and will probably have you reaching for the good old colostomy bag after enough scares.

The bread and butter of this game is quite arguably the excellent AI that greatly enhances the gameplay experience beyond the garden variety FPS. If you burst in a room spraying lead like Rambo, you may hit one or two soldiers, but while you are busy acting out your greatest testosterone-induced fantasy, their comrades will be busy taking cover, performing flanking maneuvers and making you have a bad day in general.

The game also likes to mess with the player's head to a point that makes me wonder whether or not some of the boys down at Monolith are sadists. I won't spoil any of the scares for you, but trust me, you will constantly be on your guard for something to happen!

As a result of the paranoia that will overtake you, you will not be bored while playing this game. That's even when you aren't busy blasting away at the enemy.

Monolith includes some of those overused slow motion effects in F.E.A.R. that had me rolling my eyes at first. But there are situations in F.E.A.R. where it certainly comes in handy. When a room loaded full of super soldiers decides it wants to help you carry those vital organs you haul around all the time, you'll be glad you have it.

All in all, F.E.A.R. is a frightening, action-packed psychological thriller that is more than worth your hard-earned cash (and your clean underwear if it so moves you). If you are a fan of a tactical shooting experience, a scary atmosphere, or a combination of the two, F.E.A.R. is the game for you.

Rating: Buy it now!

Ratings system explained: The ratings system consists of "Don't play", "Rent first", and "But it now!" Deciding between two great titles will be up to the reader as it is beyond the scope of these articles.