I must say HL2 has been my favoritegaming experiance and some of it was tense, and the prison got pretty scary, but it was a little to 'clean' to be really frightening for me, just fun. In Fear the combat wasn't as good because the environment was less real: barrels dont move, etc. which seems unimportant in HL2 when your fighting, but without it something seems not right in Fear. the non-combat parts were very disturbing though.
I wonder has anyone else here played Condemned? that game really gets the scare you to death atmosphere right. I jumped and felt crazy when a 'dead' body fell out of a locker and grabbed my arm...