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Th3 Dumb3st G4me N4me 3ver

Is the next F.E.A.R. following in the footsteps of the worst naming concept of all time?

 D00D S1CK!!111111
 D00D S1CK!!111111
So this teaser image of a new game in the FEAR franchise popped up on NeoGAF yesterday. It's attributed to "a Spanish magazine," which isn't exactly the most solid of sources, so let's hold out some hope here. But, by the looks of this, there's some sort of chance that the next FEAR game is going to be called... F.3.A.R..
 
Of course, this isn't an officially released image. On top of that, reps for Warner, which would publish any sort of would-be FEAR successor, didn't offer any comment when asked about it. But doesn't your gut already hurt in that special way that tells you that this is absolutely legitimate?

Assuming it's accurate and official, I'm left wondering one thing. Why, exactly, does anyone still think that slamming a number into your title is a good way to make your sequel stand out? All I ever think of is DRIV3R, which (in case you forgot) was an utter trainwreck. It doesn't add edge to a game, it makes it look like it was written out by some script kiddie WH0 L0V3Z 2 B3 L33T S0N!!!!1111

While I'll give a partial pass to games that use them for dopey abbreviations (Left 4 Dead, Ready 2 Rumble), the numbered sequel thing sucks almost as hard as a thing can possibly suck.

More importantly, I wanted to point you to our page in the database that deals with this tragic topic, Letters Replaced by Numbers in Title. It's a pretty comprehensive list of this sort of thing. This awful, awful thing.
Jeff Gerstmann on Google+