Women will go places that men find fearful - such as exploring their dreams or the occult. Women know how to suspend disbelief and let things happen, like believing in intuition. Men are often freaked out by intuitive things that women can do quite naturally. No one really knows why, but women are drawn to mystery-related entertainment.

Women like surprises. It isn't so much the blood and wall-spattered gore in games that we go for - it is the surprise, the suspense, and then having the weapons to do something about it. "What is around the next corner?" "What happens next?" Those questions keep us interested. I believe that's the factor that has kept TV shows that women follow - such as Dark Shadows, Bewitched, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The XFiles, and Charmed - running for so many years.

With that in mind, let's take a look at a few games in the horror genre that will appeal to the female audience.

Siren

Siren was published by Sony Computer Entertainment last spring, and was released in the US in April 2004. It isn't a popular title, but copies of it are now showing up used, so it would make a fine rental. If you are fond of Japanese horror movies like Ju-on or Ringu then this game will please you. The game was directed by Toyama Shûichirô. He directed the first Silent Hill game, which is considered a corner stone of the genre. Siren has its share of spooky girls with long hair and accompanying hellhounds. Bad mojo is stirred up in the sea around a town, and red rain falls. They all become "shibitos" - the undead. The Japanese word "han-shibito", means half-person-cadaver. The game heavily borrows from Japanese traditional imagery and the graphics are really good.

In Siren, every character is played by actors who also provide the voiceover work. They were motion captured and character modelled, and there was clearly much effort put into the details of the game. During game play you take the part of ten different characters throughout the game; two are female. Of the ten playable characters, most don't have weapons, and even if a select few of them manage to find some along the way, the game isn't about that. It is a creepy game like Silent Hill of course. Each level is a quest where you have to accomplish something, and like Japanese movie storytelling, the levels are not linear - but rather, the story skips around. It is one of those games where you have to make sure that you get all of the pick-ups in order to advance. If you manage to you'll be rewarded with a bonus video at the end.

It is a very difficult game. It is immersive and has a sense of eerie realism that should please gamers who are looking for a challenge. There are no healing items in the game; all the items you will find will be connected to the mission, even the ammo. The game doesn't glibly leave ammo out on empty shelves that are sparking with clue lights. The ammo is only found in the places where you should find it, which makes it rare and forces you to think before you shoot. There is no life bar in the game - the character can die instantly if shot.

What drives the player to want to finish the game is the suspense of trying to discover what the whole mystery is about. The story line is the strongest part of the game; some levels will need to be played many times in order to acquire everything. You'll have to use evasion and stealth to sneak behind unsuspecting enemies. All the horror games have a M for Mature rating, but this one has several of the ESRB Content Descriptors: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs. Siren 2 will be released in February to coincide with a release of a Siren movie in Japan. Right now Siren is a PS 2 exclusive.