Ben Kuchera of Ars Technica fame took a moment to explain to us how scary EA's upcoming epic Dead Space is.  Here's part of what he had to say.

"Do yourself a favor when you get the game: make the room as dark as possible. Turn the sound system up. Allow yourself to be swept away in it. So far Dead Space has been a great experience, just for the horror."

This begs the question that I so commonly ask myself, "Why do I play scary video games when I don't like to be scared?"  Frankly, I don't like watching anything scary.  I'll only watch scary movies if I can mute the sound every so often.  For some reason, I love scary video games.  I enjoyed the latest Silent Hill and I remember forcing myself (literally forcing myself) to play through Fatal Frame 2.  Dead Space interests me to no end, since I'm a huge fan of the atmosphere the game presents.

I still don't know why.  Are the mythos in these games really enough to make anyone sit through them all the way?  I remember playing the first Resident Evil and being scared to death, but I was still interested in what the Umbrella Corporation and Wesker were up to, horrible dialog be damned.  I've played all but two Silent Hill games and I'm already looking forward to the next fog-smothered city.  I still find myself jumping and creeping myself out.

My point is that as per Mister Kuchera's request, I can't find myself turning the lights off and turning on my surround sound in order to enjoy myself.  If anything, I'll be doing the opposite of those things.  Does this mean I can't "fully" enjoy games like Dead Space?  I'm really not sure.  Maybe I'll try it through the first chapter, but after that I'm going right back to holding the remote control between my clenched knees.

I think I know what you mean.
Nowadays, when I buy a game I buy it to complete it and I first picked up Bioshock thinking it was stupid. Then I started to get scared and forced myself through it. But I enjoyed it, and ever since have been challenging myself with survival horror such as Condemned 1, 2 and soon Dead Space.
It's always been a weakness for me, I got far too scared, but recently I've been able to overcome it. I still get terrified, but I don't let it stop me ^_^

I don't want to be totally blunt.  But, yeah.  I really don't think you'll be fully enjoying the experience if you don't let go and just turn the lights off and turn the sound up.  Sure you could "do it the second time" - but the problem with horror games is that once you know where the "Boo" scares are it'll lose some of it's horror-esqu atmosphere or appeal.  I hate horror movies to an extreme, but I love horror games because *I* am in control.  So I always make sure that the first play through is never until the sun goes down, and then double check to make sure every speaker is hooked up properly in 5.1.  (So - "Go for it!!" ... or something... :P)