Do you think games can be scary? Have you been affected to the point of fear or even terror during the playing of a game?

I have been, most notably by games such as F.E.A.R, Resident Evil IV and dare i say it even Doom 3 at rare intervals.

F.E.A.R was an odd one for me as it wasn't so much the scripted events that were scary though some were somewhat jumpy, like bodies smashing through windows... but it was mostly the soundtrack that freaked me out, especially after getting 5.1 surround sound speakers. Pretty much always, after about an hour or so of gameplay the music and sounds would have gotten to me to the extent that I had to a have a break to continue because I was too on edge and it would effect my aim from jitteryness. Just something about the grating music put me off...

Resident Evil IV was much more straightforward, people bursting out of ovens on fire and killing me, big clawed nasty people decapitation me and the intensely creepy "regenerators" were the mainstay of the fear inducing things. Also somewhat worrying was the bit where the bad guy kills someone with a spiked tentacle appearing out from under the centre, bottom of his robe... which just raises too many questions... :S.

Doom 3, less notably, just had lots of zombies beat me over the head with things when I wasn't expecting it as well as Imps jumping out of here there and everywhere as well as, in hell, it being somewhat... unwelcoming and leaving me feeling a bit perturbed. This along with flying screaming faces...

So yeah, that's me, has anyone else experienced particular bouts of fear or anxiety during a game? Or am I just marginally a wuss... As well as any opinions on the ability of games to induce fear are more than welcome.

Fatal Frame. Never has a game freaked me out to the point of where I cannot play by myself or just cannot play period. Maybe it's due to the fact that the only thing I have as a weapon is a camera, maybe it's because none of the characters really know how to do more than a slow jog. Maybe it had to do with the fact that the game has by far the freakiest audio/sound effects I have ever heard, not to mention hauntingly beautiful visuals. I'm unable to play the first one for more than a few hours because it freaks me out after awhile and I haven't bothered to play any of them at night. No way in hell.

Condemned. This game itself uses more jump moments than fear, similar to Resident Evil IV. However, some of the levels are just terrifying. Considering the game is darker than hell (if you think F.E.A.R. was dark, wait until you play this game) and there are crazy bums running around everywhere and the game has a STRONG focus on melee, it's truly one that can only be taken in small doses. What's even better about Condemned is that it's made by the same awesome team that did F.E.A.R., Monolith. I've only started playing the second one and I've already found it to be just as terrifying, if not even more than the first one.

Ever fought a Berserker in Gears of War? Enough Said.

Usually I start getting scared when I have to balance at a very high point or I fall into a hole that I didn't notice.
Also when I get chased by a T-rex and it almost gets me(I'm looking at you Turok).
Other then that I don't really get scared. In doom3 there was one instance where I got a fright.

Oven Man from RE4, Nuff' Said

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGYzQ8aN0Lw

Over playing Silent Hill, I've found myself with cold chills

Diablo 1, long time ago, in dark cold room... sigh, these times ill never come back

Games that make me nervous as hell isn't the fear factor in the likes of horror games, per se. Although I love being scared by masterpieces like Silent Hill, nothing makes my heart pound as much as being just this close to beating an insanely difficult boss in games that kick my ass like Ninja Gaiden. I still remember the heart attacks that game used to give me...

Fortunately, I won't be playing that game anytime soon. (hint: HULK, SMASH)

The only games I can recall were Resident Evil and F.E.A.R. when they first came out. We liked playing them at night in the dark so you did get that chill down you back feeling sometimes after you turned off the game, and they did a pretty good goods and popping things out to spook you.

I don't really get scared much by games so I can pretty much recall every time I've been genuinely shocked by something in a game. From memory that would be:

Resident Evil Remake: First Crimson Head scared the hell out of me, wasn't expecting it
Resident Evil 4: Oven Man
Silent Hill 2: Pyramid Head first encounter when he's behind the rails and just staring at you and doing nothing else and the radio is going haywire, that disturbed me for a whole night.
Silent Hill 3: The Haunted Mansion. I don't know why, I was joking around about it with my friend but the actual scares did actually make me jump somehow.
Silent Hill 4: Eileen's giant head staring at me, sounds stupid but you try not being creeped out when you enter that room.

No so much I can think when playing PS2 games with sweat, fear or terror. The best example horror game that make me terrified last time was Resident Evil 4.

Times that I've crapped myself during games...hmm?

First time playing Resident Evil 4, when I saw the new enemies I was worried, but when I first heard the chainsaw, that was when I started to crap my self, the fact that they just kept coming and coming also contributed.

Another time was when I played Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. The monsters weren't really that scary, but when the sanity effects started to mess with my game and my head, that was what made me crap my pants(figuratively).

Then there was when I played the first Fatal Frame. The atmosphere, setting, and graphics, all those combined made it so that I couldn't even play the game again after the first time I played.

Then there's the time which, while not really a game moment, but when I had improperly hooked up my 360 and got a red ring, I thought it was the red ring of death, I really freaked out when that happened.

And that's about it, for now.

Sadly, I don't think I'll ever get as scared as I did when I first played Resident Evil 3 or the first Silent Hill. One of the parts that scared me the most in RE3 was after your first encounter with Nemesis, in the Police Station when you're about to go downstairs and you hear the sound of a glass breaking. Then you go downstairs all scared and just as you past a window Nemesis with his bazooka jumps from it =D
And in Silent Hill I don't remember a precise scene that scared me the most (probably because I was too scared to play it myself, and most of the time a friend of mine was playing) although I do remember the baby ghost that can't actually harm you in the game but they still are quite disturbing.
I pretty much agree with Deer in the scenes he mentioned from the rest of the SH series, but I would add that room with a mirror in the hospital of the 3rd one (if you played it you should know what room I'm talking about o__o). Also in SH4, in one of the endings

SPOILER (click to view)

when Eileen walks into that giant pool of blood, the way she screams if she gets there made my soul shrink a little. :'D

And honestly, RE4 didn't really scare me. I was more nervous during Ravenholm in Half-Life 2 that in any part from RE4. It was too much of an action game to me to make it believable as a scary game.

I got scared in many of the games you mention, like Silent Hill, Doom 3 and Resident Evil. But i think the most scary part i had ever play in a videogame was in RE2, the part when you enter the interrogation room and a licker attacks your breaking the glass. I was playing that part alone at night in my computer and i feel back the chair when he jumped from the glass. . Hehe, remember it sound funny but i hit my head and the licker kill me. Those where the good times.

Silent Hill 3: the memories of Alessa battle, from start when you kill the horses to Alessa herself.

Silent Hill 2: Pyramid head sneaking up on you on the hospital rooftop.

Resident Evil 4: The farmer in the bathroom, goh my heart bumped for a minute there.