Fatal Frame IV Reviews - "It's an essential purchase"

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Famitsu Reviews Fatal Frame IV - Gives it 34/40 !

The latest issue of Famitsu magazine is out and survival-horror fans will be pleased to know that Fatal Frame IV recieved the excellent score of 34/40!

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The Japanese game industry has its audience covered on both ends with the titles coming out August 7 in the country, and Japan's Weekly Famitsu magazine took a close look at the bigger titles. First up was Fatal Frame 4 for the Wii, known as Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen over there. The latest in the series of nightmarish camera-enthusiast adventures did pretty well in the reviews, scoring a total of 34 out of 40 points and earning a Gold reward. The universal verdict was that while the game's nothing terribly new, it's still a rewarding experience. "There are no revolutionary changes; it's just a well-made product," one reviewer wrote. "The fighting is difficult, but fighting in the point-blank ranges that you do is still fun in the end...if scary."

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NGamer's full Fatal Frame IV review - "Forget Online Complaints You May Have Heard (About Gameplay)" - 90%

Hadrian of the gbatemp.net forums has scanned NGamer's full Fatal Frame IV review. The magazine loved the game, giving it an overall score of 90% and praising it's graphics, gameplay and innovation, even going so far as to chastise IGN's critisism of the controls by saying "forget any online complaints you may have heard - if either tool (camera or flashlight) was pointer-aimed the game would fall into dud FPS territory".

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In-Depth Fatal Frame IV Review - "It's an essential purchase"

Excerpt: "So, while Mask of the Lunar Eclipse has the best gameplay mechanics of the series, is the same true of the writing? Given how high the second title in the series has set the bar, the answer is less clear cut, but Eclipse just wins out. The game doesn't quite reach the peak of emotional involvement found in Crimson Butterfly, but that title draws the vast majority of its storytelling weight from its punch-to-the-face, did-they-just-do-that ending. Everything in Butterfly is a lead-in to that moment. Eclipse, however, sustains a far more complex plot while adding a greater depth of personality to each of its characters. To borrow a metaphor from Noise To Signal's more usual territory, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is the Blink to Crimson Butterfly's Utopia. What would otherwise be an acceptable trade off of complexity for emotion is rendered mute by the universal roundness of character amongst the residents of the island. In previous titles in the series, more three dimensional characters were supplemented by stock ghosts such as "Villager #3" or "Broken Neck". The slightly wooden quality of the previous protagonists is just a memory, with the unfolding story superbly involving.

Even prior to this title, the Project Zero series towered above its competition, thanks to the vastly superior writing and atmosphere the series contained. The removal of legacy gameplay niggles while retaining its trademark superior storytelling means that Mask of the Lunar Eclipse will be an essential purchase on its western release".

source <- slight spoilers

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Edge Online reviews Fatal Frame IV - Gives it 8/10

Popular UK gaming magazine Edge recently reviewed the upoming horror title Fatal Frame IV, and they were very impressed, giving it an overall positive score of 8/10 ...

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We've trodden these creaky paths before, but with a Resident Evil 4-styled shift from fixed camera to over-the-shoulder character trailing, the ornate mansions and hospital corridors are near unrecognisable.

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