I’m currently right in the middle of Warner Bros. and Day 1 Studios’ F.E.A.R. 3, and my favorite new feature in the game is its persistent scoring system that rewards you for completing performance challenges with upgraded stats. If, like me, you are obsessed with piling up high scores, take a look at this extensive list of tips and tricks straight from the developer to help up your game. I haven’t tried my hand at multiplayer just yet, but if you need a helping hand in competitive online play you’ll find some aid for that side of the game as well.

If you’re still on the fence about whether you should bother buying the game to begin with, check back next week for my full review. So far, my experience has been extremely positive, but I still have a lot of the game left to see before reaching a final judgment. All’s I can say for certain at this point is that it’s much improved from F.E.A.R. 2.

Now for those tips and tricks!

1. Maximize your score by fulfilling multiple challenge requirements, playing on higher difficulties, and completing each level as fast as you can. Use your special abilities often and combine the challenges to make sure you maximize each kill.

2. Exploration is crucial – search each level extensively for hidden ammo caches, psychic link bodies, and the all-important Alma doll. The psychic links and Alma dolls appear in random locations, so make sure you fully explore on each playthrough.

3. When playing co-op, psychic links can be shared or stolen. If you’re looking to set an individual high score, steal them. If you want to set a team high score, share them. Even though you only get 750 points for psychic links, since you both receive the reward it adds a total of 1,500 to your team score.

4. Ranking-up improves various stats including things like ammo capacity, health, and slow-mo. Maximizing your Rank is essential to play on the Insane difficulty. Replaying a level with a higher rank also makes it easier to set a high score and compete for the top position on the leaderboards.

5. The ranks are determined by your total score and the perks are universal in main campaign, co-op, and multiplayer. If you are having trouble in one mode, go spend some time in another to rank up and then try again.

6. The Arc Beam weapon reflects off of walls and floors to hit nearby enemies, and can hit more than one at a time – very useful when Armacham Soldiers are hiding behind cover.

7. The Phase Caster is one of the toughest enemies in F.E.A.R. 3. Make sure you kill him as soon as possible. The Phase Caster will keep calling in reinforcements as you take them out.

8. The Scavengers can be difficult for Fettel to defeat. One method to quickly dispatch them is to levitate the enemy, get close, and push melee for the instant kill. At the same time, if there are multiple Scavengers, you can always suspend one while killing another with the stun blast.

9. In multiplayer mode ‘F**king Run!,’ sending a teammate ahead with a Riot Shield is a good way to add an extra layer of protection to the rest of the team.

10. Also in ‘F**king Run!’ multiplayer mode, the slide tackle is your strongest asset. Not only does it keep you moving forward, but it also takes out enemies.

11. Plan ahead when playing multiplayer mode ‘Contractions.’ Storing all of your ammo on the top level of your safe house will take longer, but pays off in later waves.

12. Don’t try to stay in one body when playing multiplayer mode ‘Soul King.’ Body to body possession is a strategic part of the mode. You can escape other players by jumping from body to body across large portions of the maps. If you’re going to die, possess a new body with full health. If you see an enemy getting the drop on the competitor, possess it and get the kill.

13. Multiplayer mode ‘Soul King’ is designed to be competitive all the way until the end. The last 30 seconds of each round are the most hectic and critical. You should try to stay in second or third place so that you can sweep in for victory in the closing seconds of the round by killing the King.

14. In multiplayer mode ‘Soul Survivor,’ getting a kill while in Last Stand will revive you. However, ammo is limited, so try not to use your Last Stand handgun ammo unless absolutely necessary. Have squad members revive you whenever possible.

15. The “We’ll Try Again Tomorrow” achievement / trophy is easiest to get in the first 3 waves of The Commute multiplayer map.

After an award-winning debut on the PC in 2005 and a successful port to the Xbox 360 late last year, F.E.A.R. has been deployed on its third platform, now landing on the PS3. Unfortunately though, Sierra Entertainment and developer Day 1 Studios failed to properly optimize the title for the PS3 hardware, and the result is a shoddy port of what is still an exhilarating shooter.

In F.E.A.R. you take on the role of the point man for a fictional special forces team specialized in combating paranormal threats to the U.S. government known as First Encounter Assault Recon. As the story opens, a military commander with a few screws loose named Paxton Fettel takes control of the Armacham Technology Corporation with an army of cloned super-soldiers that he is somehow able to command telepathically, and from there you and the rest of the F.E.A.R. team are called in to put an end to Fettel and his scheme, at the same time dealing with a creepy little girl who constantly crosses your path.

The narrative work here is quite strong — albeit a bit confusing at times — striking an engrossing balance between smart character development, hectic action and supernatural thrills and chills. F.E.A.R. oozes with atmospheric brilliance as well, be it the terrifying use of horror movie scare tactics such as ghostly figures suddenly popping up or the impeccable sound design that brings together unnerving ambiance, sinister music, exquisite sound effects and top-notch voice acting. To this day you’d be hard pressed to find even a few games with an audio package this impressive.

Every bit as engaging as the story and atmosphere is F.E.A.R.’s gameplay, which takes first-person combat to cinematic new heights. Being a straight port of a near-two-year-old game, this PS3 version still has the same flaws as the PC original, those being linear level design and lacking enemy variety (you are fighting clones after all), but just like before these are nothing more than minor blemishes on what is one of the most intense action games around.

Even if the enemies are largely the same throughout the entire game, the firefights in F.E.A.R. are every bit as challenging and unpredictable from the first to the last, due in large part to enemy AI that is easily among the most advanced in any game ever. Additionally, the weapons, though nothing innovative at all by any means (the usual pistols, shotguns, machine guns, etc.), pack a satisfying punch every single time you fire away and just have this powerful feel to them that not many shooters can match. Combine the blissful shooting with the bullet time-esque slow-motion mechanic and you get a game that depicts violence in a remarkably elegant style – it’s like a SlowMo ballet of death and destruction!

As chaotic and heart-pumping as the core F.E.A.R. experience is, Day 1 Studios left this PS3 port inexcusably unfinished. First and foremost, the game looks nowhere near as good as either the PC or Xbox 360 versions, and that is simply unacceptable given the PS3’s immense power. Compared to the other platforms, the lighting is noticeably subdued and the textures are kind of blurry and washed out on the PS3, and there also seems to be some aliasing issues that I don’t recall from playing on the other platforms. Graphics aren’t the only porting misstep either. The game also suffers from an unstable frame rate (which makes no sense given the muddy visuals) and frequently atrocious load times. F.E.A.R. PS3 at least has a solid control scheme, an exclusive bonus mission and action-packed 16-player online play (though there is no voice chat), but in large part every element of the game has taken a hit in the porting process.

For all the porting woes that it suffers from, F.E.A.R. does make it to the PS3 with its gameplay, story and sound intact, and because of this it remains one hell of an entertaining game. If the PS3 is your platform of choice and you’ve never played the previous PC or Xbox 360 versions, F.E.A.R. will treat you to a good time and is a game I suggest taking a look at. But if you have experience with its previous incarnations, F.E.A.R. on the PS3 will only frustrate and disappoint.