When it comes to horror video games, Resident Evil tops the chart, nails the head shots, and splatters the screen with blood and gore. Although the popular series changed its mainstream viral formula with the “action horror” award-winner Resident Evil 4, fans still consider the second game a hot favorite. Leon S. Kennedy may be a teenage girl’s knight in zombie gut-stained armor now, but he wasn’t always such a looker who rolled with Umbrella’s punches as slickly as the bad puns and bingo jokes. Once upon a time in Raccoon City, he was a rookie cop whose first day on the job ended in city-wide decimation. He slogged through grimy sewers, followed a corporation’s blood trail, befriended Redfield’s sister … and fell for one dangerous lady in red.

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One decade ago, Konami left a neoteric imprint on the survival horror genre with Silent Hill, a video game that would inspire a number of future titles, a movie, and several books and comics. But Harry Mason’s investigation into the fog-covered town and its strange occurrences accomplished more than just a household name among the likes of Resident Evil. The heart-pounding adrenaline rush introduced gamers to a nightmare founded on psychological Japanese horror and an equally unnerving musical score by composer Akira Yamaoka.

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Few video games arouse genuine nirvana in players, but even less promise a blossoming underwater world only to swallow gamers whole and leave them wanting more wretched decay, both lovely and sanguine. BioShock is one such praised gem, and experiencing the game without feeling like the developers literally poured their souls into its creation is virtually impossible. Indeed, BioShock at its very core flourishes as a polished experience, and quite a mighty one at that.

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From childhood to adulthood, Naughty Dog has remained one of my favorite game developers out there. As a PlayStation owner for the majority of my life, it brings me the faintest amount of self-indulgent pleasure that all the alternative console elitists out there (the ones who refuse to pick up a PS3 for reasons other than price or dwindling ports on their television) don’t get to experience the exclusive Uncharted series. The sequel recently took the charts by storm as it featured a multiplayer option that only added to the wealth of praise Among Thieves received. As dandy as that is, I took the time to sit down with the first installment before charging toward the latest and greatest.

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Video game based movies drag around an embarrassing history with a charm akin to a rotting corpse that was left in the sun, and frankly it’s not all that surprising. Some things own too much baggage to survive the transfer from medium to medium without dropping a few key items here and there, and oftentimes what does worm its way through the wreckage resembles a hideous mutant spawn that can barely manage intelligent human speech let alone impress anyone as some lovable lost puppy. Not much else needs to be said: Video game films are practically doomed from the start screen, much to the frustration of hundreds of controller-wielding fans.

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When Chrono Trigger graced the SNES in 1995, it soon became one of the medium’s most beloved games of all, well … time. Today the game still shines as an epitome of the RPG genre, combining all the right gameplay, visual, and auditory elements into a meticulous balance that brings the player just shy of nirvana. Last year the game was imported to the Nintendo DS, and after craving that nostalgia like a hero itching for adventure, I finally plunked down the cash for the handheld console and curled up with the old school game laced with a modern twist.

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Cue the cliché jaw drops, because what has been shown of the Italian Renaissance-themed Assassin’s Creed II does just that. I walked into the ACII panel on Thursday of San Diego Comic-Con with a sense of uncertainty and lukewarm feelings about what I was about to attend, but the immediate showing of the trailer nearly blew me away from the beginning.

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Many people did not welcome Silent Hill: Homecoming, and it’s understandable considering the odd influence of the film adaptation on the game. Despite the lukewarm reception, I found it to boast yet another psychologically twisted and enjoyable Silent Hill story—if not smoother and better paced than any one before it. While it may not focus entirely on the overwhelming feeling of isolation, the game does something unique to the series: taking a darkly close look at the founding families of Shepherd’s Glen, who are just as deranged as the infamous town from which they came. But most importantly, Homecoming still plays with ideas of personal hell and madness—this time with the protagonist Alex Shepherd.

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Speak. I am the Crimson One.

The Lies and the Mist are not They, but I.

I shall bring down bitter vengeance upon thee and thou shalt suffer my eternal wrath.

Thou shalt ever call upon me and all that is me in the place that is silent.

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