Freedom fighting at home and a momentary glimpse of a frame most fatal

Spent most of the day going online to websurf but also finished a Playstation 2 game called Freedom Fighters by EA Games, developed by IO Entertainment. Playing this game would harken you back to that 80's movie, Red Dawn and other similiar scenario movies involving a Russian invasion of the U.S. Of course, it would seem very familiar to the more recent generation and crowd to the premise in the Command & Conquer's Red Alert 1 and 2 storyline. High-tech fluff of Red Alert far removed in this game, Freedom Fighters is a more straight-forward tactical real-time squad game. You play the hero Christopher Stone, a New York Plumber (Imagine a better looking non-mustachioed Mario with an AK-47, Molotovs and his trusty monkey wrench, and there you go), who's thrust into the role of a Freedom Fighter to liberate New York from Russian Occupation Forces due to circumstances of him being at the wrong place at the wrong time. He doesn't fight the never-ending fight alone for freedom and the American way, nosirree, he has help. Of course, that help requires charisma, (Its an attribute or quality, not a woman as you think, sheesh) that grants you the force of personality to recruit other like minded people to your cause, the kind who has guns and knows how to use them too. The plot is rather thin but serviceable to make you go through the trials and turns of the liberation campaign called for. As to the other item in the title, I popped in another Playstation 2 game disk into the console, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly by Tecmo, for a look at the game in its demo mode. Letting the demo movie play was pretty intriguing yet unsettling to say the least. This game has a direct tie-in to its predecessor title Fatal Frame. Under the survival horror genre, this game is far different than the likes of Silent Hill or Resident Evil. As I recall a comment on some message board or review: "If Silent Hill is like watching a David Lynch film, then Fatal Frame is like Ringu". (Ringu is the original Japanese movie that inspired the Hollywood version called "The Ring".) As I can vouch for the game itself, this game is creepy like heck. Tecmo really did an outstanding job on using the Japanese folklore and ghost stories to full effect as well as the intent of evoking psychological terror for our fear of the unknown. The unique trademark of this game is that the only weapon you use in the game is a camera. "A camera?!" you'd say. Its no ordinary camera to say the least, it has supernatural abilities to exorcise and sense supernatural entities or phenomena in range of its viewfinder. Watching or playing the game with or without people nearby is pretty startling enough. The game is something that few people would dare play without the lights on and with full sound at maximum. It would probably scare the daylights of most people except a jaded minority for sure. I'll touch on other things next time since I note that this day's entry is long unto itself. Till next time. Loads up a Machinegun and packs a camera as afterthought and trudges back into the doghouse.