I used to believe that video and PC games couldn't be scary. Perhaps that belief was a product of my Nintendo upbringing - I loved Castlevania, but it's not the least bit frightening, nor are the later generation Nintendo titles. And I'm sure it had a lot to do with the graphics and visuals of the early and mid-90s. Doom was - and still is - a milestone achievement. But for all its thrills and action-packed gameplay, Doom wasn't a scary game.

Even after PlayStation was introduced in 1995, it took four more years for a game to make good on the system's potential; Silent Hill showed many gamers that the technology and, more importantly, skill level in game design had reached a point where games could create a highly immersive environment that swarmed the senses. And if we're talking about sleek cinematic sound and visuals, then the discussion must include Half-Life. We think of the PC game at a great first-person shooter, but we forget how Valve groundbreaking design created such a rich - and frightening - atmosphere.

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There were games prior to Silent Hill that featured their share of frightening moments - Resident Evil 2 comes to mind - but a lot of the games were still true action titles with some horror elements mixed in. But soon even games that were classified as FPS title, such as System Shock 2, became better known for its scares. It wasn't until the most recent decade that the production of full-fledged horror and horror survival genre titles kicked into gear. The Silent Hill series continued to roll, while other titles like Clive Barker's Undying (2001), Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (2002), and Fatal Frame (2003 ushered in the current era of bona-fide horror games.

It occurred to me recently that I've probably enjoyed horror games more than horror movies lately. That's partially attributable to the fact that most Hollywood horror movies these days are weak, but mostly attributable to the maturation of game design for the horror genre. I've dove into the horror survival genre head first, and here are the scariest games I've played over the last few years. Some of them are pure horror games, while others are FPS titles full of scary moments.

5. Condemned: Criminal Origins (PC, Xbox 360, 2005)

I'm not sure if this will make sense, but I didn't really like this game. The combat game play was weak, the tasks got a little tedious and there wasn't a whole lot of original elements in Condemned (in fact, it seemed to share a lot with another Monolith-developed title that will be featured later on this list). Yet the game still manages to construct an extremely detailed environment - condemned buildings, shadowy alleys, and dark subway stations - that maximizes the suspense and tension. The first time I had to track a blood trail with the UV light through a dark tunnel, knowing fully well that if someone or something jumped out at me I'd be completely defenceless, I was utterly terrified. There's a decent story behind the scares: you play an FBI forensic investigator who is tracking a mysterious serial killer through a crime-infested zone of a city, where a mysterious force has turned transients and junkies into violent killers. Instead of your usual point A to point B plot, there are many twists and turns along the way, which heightens the tension. You hardly get a moments rest, too, as you scour the depths of the city for the sinister killer. As for the ending, it's one creepy climax.

Number Four

4. Half-Life 2 (PC, Xbox 2004)

"We don't go to Ravenholm..."

Yeah, no sh*t. Half-Life 2 officially transformed into a scary game during the Ravenholm level, where Gordon Freeman navigates his way through an abandoned mining town at night that's infested with mutated creatures. Players are pretty much alone in this section of the game, and the terrain is dark and sinister. Along with being arguably the supreme shooter of the modern era, Half-Life 2 built upon the foundation of its predecessor by creating an all new world that's filled with old foes - head crabs and headcrab zombies - as well as gruesome new enemies like gonomes, antlions and shriekers. The Ravenholm environment is the best map of the game, as far as I'm concerned. But there are other scary moments later in Half-Life 2. For example, players are forced to deal with swarms of antlions (think the "bugs" from the movie "Starship Troopers") during the beach run, which erupt from underground. Later segment of the game puts players in underground sections of City 17, dodging fires and streams of toxic waste where zombies quietly and suddenly emerge from all around. Half-Life has the full package - brilliant visuals, excellent sound effects and eerie, pulse pounding music. But perhaps the best element, in terms of horror effects, is the richly designed City 17. Resembling a bombed-out Eastern European city, Valve created an ideal setting for its creepy narrative. A great FPS, yes, but Half-Life 2 is most definitely one scary game.