I've had the game since the day it was released, but just didn't have the right time to start it. It came out too close to Trapt (stupid Tecmo!), so I had that locked up in the ol' PS2. I usually only like one game on deck per system. Trapt is now a thoroughly cooked goose, having been through the storyline several times... so now FF3 gets awarded primary status.

The Fatal Frame games are also a highly personal experience for me, which means I need to choose my time investment very carefully. I know that this game will haunt me - I want it to haunt me - so I like to finely tune the environment for maximum impact. To begin, the game is always played at night. It has to be so quiet that I can hear Annie snoring in the kitchen, and so dark that the shadows of the house around me almost seem as part of the game. When I quit for the night, I want to still be jumpy and sensitive. I also don't want any other serious gaming distractions, hence the recent polishing-up on Trapt and Gun. They are out of the way now. Playing Fatal Frame concurrent with something like GTA would be unthinkable. (Only Animal Crossing: Wild World, a game about as diametrically opposed to Fatal Frame as possible, remains... but AC exists on its own astral plane.)

If you'd ever want to seriously fuck me up, ring my phone at about 2am when I've been deep into Fatal Frame for a couple hours.

I'm at the first break, where you get to hang out in Rei's apartment a la the level interludes in Silent Hill 4. The apartment (right now, anyway) is a safe zone where you can talk to Miku, do some research, and look at Rei's pet cat. This is also when you start to see how FF3 intends to connect the dots between all the Fatal Frame games, which is going to be super-cool.

The cutscenes are beautiful. I hope there's a movie viewer that can be unlocked somehow.

One item to note is that the FF games like to include ghostly children. Kind of a series tradition, because the only thing more poignant than a tormented-and-confused spirit (Fatal Frame's stock and trade) is a child's tormented-and-confused spirit. So when Clark moans in his sleep in my shrouded Fatal Framed house, guess what he sounds like?