For one last hurrah, here is Kirsty Watkinson’s final guest blog- the ten best horror games…

10:- Call of Cthulhu – Dark Corners of the Earth
The allure of this relatively unknown game is how incredibly realistic the gameplay is. The lack of a health bar means you have to rely on the sound of your heartbeat and breathing to know how badly hurt you are, and one of the biggest challenges is keeping your head – as you play the role of a former police detective who was committed to an asylum.

9:- The Suffering
Morality is one of the key incentives in this prison-based first-person game, as the protagonist is plunged from death row into a nightmarish battle for survival. Faced with the loss of his family, and no memory of how they died, the outcome of the game relies on your choices as you unravel your past. Will you keep your humanity intact, or give way to the monster within?

8:- Eternal Darkness
When the main protagonist of this psychological horror finds a book bound in human skin and bone you are plunged into the past, in a game that follows the historical tale of death and deceit surrounding three artefacts and the ancient spirits they represent. By playing the role of several characters throughout the story, you begin to piece together the past and find that it is down to you to prevent the summoning, while maintaining your sanity in a world full of bleeding walls and monsters that aren’t always real.

7:- Dead Space
Strategy is essential in this space adventure as you fight your way through a hostile-infested mining ship in an effort to fix it and find a way home. The beasts filling your path are called Necromorphs, human corpses infested by an alien organism and mutated into enraged beings intent on your destruction. Shooting the wrong part of these creatures could make your fight much worse, since it’s easier to incapacitate them than kill them. The odd zero gravity zone is even thrown in to make this a challenging survival game.

6:- Doom
Suspense is not focus for this classic first-person shooter as the gameplay is less about the noises from the monster around the corne and more abut the monster already chewing on your leg. Doom makes the most of the shock element of horror by forcing you to battle demonic foes in the corridors of a Martian base. Despite being one of the oldest games chosen, it remains to be one of the most fright-inducing memories for seasoned players.

5:- Condemned
Inspired by such films as Se7en, the gameplay of both Condemned games is strikingly different to the conventional first-person shooter, mostly because of the distinct lack of guns. The protagonist is forced to use any means of weapon necessary from the environment to fight relentless, and often supernatural, onslaughts of criminals and foes. Low lighting makes visibility difficult, and aids to keep this series a tense, terrifying experience, as you dodge the danger to gather evidence and unravel the truth to prove your character’s innocence.

4:- F.E.A.R
When the First Encounter Assault Recon (FEAR) team were called to investigate the suspicious actions of villainous Paxon Fettel, chances are they didn’t expect to be haunted by the chilling visions created by the spiritual remains of tormented psychic, Alma. Despite the onslaught of creepy events and uncertainty of reality, nothing is more chilling than the ghostly apparition of a small child capable of single-handedly destroying an entire military team.

3:- Resident Evil
The fixed camera angle of the original Resident Evil is one of the reasons it remain such a frightening experience for gamers. While the later instalments take a much more action-led approach, navigating your way around the creepy mansion makes this game a horror classic that is hard to beat. Hearing the groaning from off the screen stops you in your tracks, as you work up the courage to turn the next corner, only to be grabbed by a zombie from behind that wasn’t in view.

2:- Fatal Frame
With an original game based on myth and legend, the phenomenon of Fatal Frame has captured a cult western following since the dubbed release of the Japanese classic. Full of psychological tricks and suspense-filled settings, the only weapon arming the fearful protagonists throughout the series is a mysterious camera, capable of neutralising any ghostly threat that’s in your path.

1:- Silent Hill
Dim lighting, spooky children, white noise… the Silent Hill series has everything that could possibly be used to chill the spine. As you guide the protagonists through an ever-changing environment, which shifts from the ordinary into a rust-glazed nightmare world full of horrifying monsters, the suspicious sounds and low-level visibility keeps the player on edge throughout, creating one of the most terrifying game experiences ever made.