10. Dino Crisis 2 (Playstation 2, PC) 2000
I couldn't sit through most of Jurassic Park. I was a generation behind by the time I was bored enough to rent it, and spent most of the time wondering why Spielberg didn't fire the props master and get a better one. Strangely enough, I can still play this gem despite its near-decade age, although not by much. In its original release, Dino Crisis plugged itself as "panic horror", and being directed by "Resident Evil" creater Shinji Makami goes a long way to accomplishing that. Special Ops investigates a fictional island , find living, hungry dinosaurs brought outside their time by technology, and now must attempt to survive. Not the deepest storyline, but the game remains nonetheless engaging for its utilization of well documented fear of a creature that might as well be mythical to all us non-palentologists, and splicing it with some quasi-functional space jargon. The graphics have aged into a somewhat blocky nature, making the dinos look particularly mechanical (which is creepy), but the surroundings lose a sense of immersion, with levels becoming repetitive to our current-gen eyes. If only for its past endeavours, however, we salute those that have been brutally maimed and torn apart by dino fangs.

7. Parasite Eve (Playstation) 1998
I love the weird. More than the morbid, the profane, and the perverted. The controls were a bit hack-kneed on this one, and Square Enix attempted to border the line between this game and its prequel novel by adding far too many cutscenes for the amount of gameplay, but what is there, is fascinating, absorbing, and abso-freaking-lutely weird. Allow me to just briefly sum up the introduction for you as an example. You, Aya, are attending an opera with your date as an actress steps onto step. Without warning, the entire audience spontaneously combusts (save for you, your date, and the actress), and the star morphs into a winged beast and flies away, loudly preclaiming herself as "Eve," despite being well known by her real name, Melissa. Yeah, that's how it starts. You, being the NYPD officer you are, take up the case of finding "Eve" and the answers to a mysterious string of deaths around 1997 New York. Its extremely linear and really not all that scary, but compensates for the lack of intensity by keeping players constantly guessing at what's next in true nervous, offputting fashion.

3. Fatal Frame
aka
Project Zero (Playstation 2, Xbox) 2002
Admit, you always knew cameras were cool. Couldn't pinpoint the reason, but...you knew. Fatal Frame is a truly unique staple in that the only way you engage an enemy is through a first-person perspective antique camera. To destroy one of your ghostly foes, you must get close enough to get a decent shot, without being privy to attack. Combining all of the languid beauty and sharp style of J-Horror (thankfully not the American re-makes thereof) and old Japanese architecture, the game unfolds like a wonderfully paced story, told through the pen of an experienced paranormal writer like Lovecraft or Poe. The game loses points because its subject matter and visual style are severely isolating, and it takes a bit for those not rushing out for copies of Juon to acquire the taste. The series has remained strong through its sequels however, and for those willing to give the time, relinquishes a spooky and beautiful experience.