14 DAY TRIAL // Andrei Dumitrescu: F.E.A.R. 3 might not be the best first-person shooter released in the last year or the most horrifying experience that I have encountered this year (for that, please see Martyrs and Triangle, both movies and not video games), but I will continue to play it throughout the weekend and see if I can get any friends or strangers to work with me in the cooperative mode.
The main reason for not abandoning F.E.A.R. 3 is the solid battles, which manage to use pretty smart enemies, a host of capable weapons, a cover system and the slow motion elements to deliver good tactical puzzles and quite a few surprising moments.
And when not-too-scary-visions begin to take their toll, I plan to jump over to a more cerebral experience and play Pro Cycling Manager 2011 from Cyanide and Focus, the management game which launched just before the start of the real life Tour de France.
There's also a new expansion, called For the Motherland, for Hearts of Iron III that I need to try out.
Andrei Dobra: I'll probably reserve this weekend to study for a big exam I need to take, but I might be able to squeeze in a few gaming time to let off some Steam.
I can think of no better way to do this than going into Red Faction: Armageddon's Ruin mode, taking a hammer, rocket launcher or plasma rifle to its in-game environment, and tearing it all down into tiny pieces.
If I can organize some time with my friends, then I might also take a run at the Infestation mode in the aforementioned shooter from Volition and THQ. I could jump into this sort of Gears of War Horde mode with strangers, but it's much better if you know who you're playing with and can easily formulate strategies on the fly in order to withstand the large quantities of alien monsters.