After years of hiding away in Shanghai and delivering beyond-terrible gaming with Bad Day L.A., the veteran behind Doom, Quake and Alice - American McGee - has emerged back into the land of the living with his uniquely twisted take on the already-twisted Grimm Brothers’ Tales. The first of 24 tales in the series, A Boy Learns What Fear Is, is out today on GameTap, with the others set to release consecutively with each passing week.

All the games will be free to play for the first 24 hours, after which players will be required to fork out $3.99 per episode. A Boy Learns What Fear Is, like all the other tales that are set to follow, should offer around an hour’s worth of play and is loosely based around a cruel, sadistic and blood-chilling version of Katamari Damacy’s gameplay style – according to the official website, a boy who wants to learn the true meaning of fear goes around “hanging gallows, a haunted house and even a wedding, but doesn’t truly encounter fear until Grimm decides to enter the story.” After all the terrifying nursery rhymes and the sheer violence and terror of having gone through the original stories once, I am most definitely staying away from these games. But then again, it’s not like I really have a choice – GameTap still refuses to serve gamers outside the United States. Thanks a lot, guys.

The episodic experiment began in mid-2006 with Half-Life 2: Episode One and SiN: Episodes - Emergence. Grand stories were told about how episodic gaming would mark a major shift in the way games are developed and delivered. All fine and dandy, but a year and a half since all the grand posing, where exactly do we stand?

WARNING (and Disclaimer): Personal opinions, long sentences and an abrupt ending to follow!

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