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[Borys]

First the eye-candy:

What we've learned so far is that you play as part of a small and highly elite task force put together to investigate paranormal activity, and your latest assignment is to launch a surgical strike to clean up a top secret military snafu. Apparently, a clandestine research project in conjunction with the government has produced a battalion of clone supersoldiers that follow the orders of a genetically engineered commanding officer with the power to broadcast his thoughts mentally. Unfortunately, the commanding officer (one Paxton Fettle) has, for some reason, gone berserk, along with the rest of the troops. As we'd heard previously, your primary mission is to neutralize Fettle before the rest of the clone army can do any real damage. We've learned more of the story, as we've now played through the first four levels of the game--though as we found, these areas raise more questions than there are answers for. Join us now for exclusive story details on what is easily one of this year's most anticipated action games.

...

As you may have already read about, or experienced yourself, the enemies in F.E.A.R. are extremely smart and will work as a team to outmaneuver you, pin you down, flank you, and destroy you. These guys will not only call out and run when you toss a live grenade at them (you can actually use a separate hotkey to throw grenades rather than switch out weapons), but they'll also call for help, peer around corners, and use move-and-fire tactics to hedge you in. They won't hesitate to also use their surroundings to their advantage. For example, they'll drag small fixtures like shelves and boxes in front of them for cover, or even hop over rails (or crawl on their bellies under low surfaces, like the boxcars in the courtyard) to get to you.

...

The voice message you pull from a nearby phone (some pencil-necked geek calling his coworker buddies about how "something crazy is happening there") shortly before walking out the door isn't much of a primer for the next battle. We have to admit that the fight in this courtyard is really, really tough. What appears to be a continuous stream of more than two dozen clone soldiers armed with assault rifles and combat shotguns comes pouring out of the far side of the courtyard, and they come after you from pretty much everywhere. The two levels (the upper walkway and the pavement below) in this courtyard have connecting ladders and stairways that keep you continuously moving, as well as piles of boxes on the ground level that provide temporary cover. However, there's no single safe haven in this area. Your aggressive and determined enemies can and do climb ladders and stairs to hunt you down and keep you on the move. We'd also guess that even the most experienced shooter veterans will need at least an extra try or two to get past this fight, if for no other reason than the clone soldiers' astonishing ability to sneak past you and flank you, (which can include keeping you away from descending stairs or ladders while they sneak up under you and shoot at you from below, or pinning you down behind a palette of crates while tossing a grenade down your throat).

...

Unlike the previous times we've seen it, this time the game had been clearly optimized and had hardly any frame rate problems (though we did play the game on a top-of-the-line PC setup). We're told by producer Rob Loftus that "if you have a computer that can play Half-Life 2, you can play F.E.A.R.," because even though the game has some support for older-generation DirectX 8.0 video cards, it is intended for use with DirectX 9.0 hardware. In the meantime, F.E.A.R. appears to be more fast-paced, violent, and thrilling than ever. The game has no shortage of adult language either, so make no mistake, it is definitely not for children. For the rest of us who can handle this kind of action, we'll unfortunately have to wait a bit longer, since the game is scheduled to ship in October.

G-Spot's Preview.

Can't wait for this baby to come out!

 

[ToyMachine228]

I played both the single-player demo, and multiplayer beta and there's no way I'm passing up on F.E.A.R. What's the official release date on this beast?

 

[llTll]

man. i dont have powerful pc to play this. but if this wont come to xbox 360 then i will kill someone.

 

[Ark-AMN]

Man, this is gonna be awesome. I've been sold on this game ever since I first saw it revealed at E3 2004, and of course playing it at GDC, E3 and the demo was just icing. If I was reading it right, then it appears that the demo that was released is not an actual level of the game, but rather some small parts of levels glued together. Of course, element could prove me wrong here.

 

[golem]

anyone see any benchmarks for the demo? wondering if going SLI will help framerates that much.. or 7800gt maybe

 

[Gantz]

No gibs?

 

[u_neek]

Looks better than most X360 games..

 

[Funky Papa]

No gibs?

It has, sweet, soft gibs

Proximity mines are mayhem in a can, amazing. And mangling people in slo-mo with your shotgun never gets old.

 

[LegendofJoe]

Looks Hawt!

 

[llTll]

Looks better than most X360 games..

funny. because its true. and this game was considered between current gen and next gen games

 

[Borys]

nvm.

 

[dark10x]

nvm.

I saw what you wrote...

Editing was smart.

 

[cybamerc]

That looks amazing? The soft shadow implementation is horrible.

 

[ManDudeChild]

With games like F.E.A.R and Age Of Empires III, I'm starting to seriously consider beefing up my PC, and passing on getting all three next-generation consoles. I'll get one at least, but it seems as though PC next-gen will be a lot farther ahead of console next-gen than it was this generation.

 

[DonasaurusRex]

That looks amazing? The soft shadow implementation is horrible.

wow thats all you could come up with?

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

I wonder if/when they'll start licensing this engine. It looks amazing.

 

[Tain]

The demo of this was the first time I saw real-time displacement mapping outside of footage. I do have a gig of ram on the way, so I'm looking forward to this game.

If Jesus were an implementation of a bitmap into a realtime 3D engine, he'd probably be displacement mapping.

 

[mrklaw]

With games like F.E.A.R and Age Of Empires III, I'm starting to seriously consider beefing up my PC, and passing on getting all three next-generation consoles. I'll get one at least, but it seems as though PC next-gen will be a lot farther ahead of console next-gen than it was this generation.

except there will probably only be about four games in the next 5 years that even slightly push the envelope. And don't take current X360 games as your benchmark.

Given the same basic spec (eg 7800 in PS3), consoles should piss over PCs for quite a while.

But if you can justify spending lots of money to pump up your PC, it may be worth it. Heck, I bought a 6600GT just for BF2 and HL2.

 

[shpankey]

after playing both demos... i am sold. this game kicks some fucking ass!

awesome news about them optimizing the game so much. my rig runs HL2 really well, so guess i'm set! w00t

 

[DonasaurusRex]

except there will probably only be about four games in the next 5 years that even slightly push the envelope. And don't take current X360 games as your benchmark.

Given the same basic spec (eg 7800 in PS3), consoles should piss over PCs for quite a while.

But if you can justify spending lots of money to pump up your PC, it may be worth it. Heck, I bought a 6600GT just for BF2 and HL2.

Uhh im not so sure about that, I guess that would depend on how good the dev tools get in the console space and they should. But that is a pretty big assumption, By the time next gen consoles are out and I dont mean OMG OMG i preordered a PS3 and got it for 800 bucks it was the LAST ONE on launch day, i mean its readily available and a good amount of games are out PC's will come a pretty long way as well. Newer video cards will be out, and alot of latency bottlenecks will be alleviated. AMD is RUMORED *and God I hope its true* to be working on a integrated memory controller that will encompass the north and southbridge of a MB. Meaning direct access to anything on the PCI E bus, HD, videocard, NIC everything. HD makers are also working on flash ram add in cards to work as large caches for HD's to bypass the large latency hit when accessing the HD, and when the fabbing process allows for it we may see dual core GPU solutions just imagine SLI with that setup. Also the usual will happen AMD is gonna break 3 ghz in Q1 06, Intel will finally fire back with a succesor to the pentium probably based on the pentium M, im sure more multimedia extensions like SSE will surface. Furthermore more games will be written to take advantage of X86-64 extensions and WindowsXP-64 which means more detail and geometry*atleast thats what it did for farcry* among other things. So i dunno if consoles from the next gen are going to own pc's for as long as some think, the pc industry is FINALLY working on optimizing their subsystems and really doing alot of housekeeping on bloated features.

 

[wonderfuldays]

This game is on FIRE!

 

[FightyF]

man. i dont have powerful pc to play this. but if this wont come to xbox 360 then i will kill someone.

Me too. That would make two innocent people that didn't have to die.

 

[EGM92]

I played both demos, loved the SP but was a too short to be considered a real demo.. but had a lot of fun with the MP demo Meele attacks are hilarious when you're obersving a game.

If the final version is much more optimized then the SP Demo I'm definitly sold

 

[dark10x]

It's a shame we're stuck with lengthy loads between levels, though. :\

In the last year or so, my patience for such long loads times has worn thin. Everyone hates Halo 2, but I'll be damned if they didn't nail the loading aspects. I want a seamless experience...

That said, I'm still looking forward to it.

 

[EGM92]

It's a shame we're stuck with lengthy loads between levels, though. :\

In the last year or so, my patience for such long loads times has worn thin. Everyone hates Halo 2, but I'll be damned if they didn't nail the loading aspects. I want a seamless experience...

That said, I'm still looking forward to it.

How much RAM do you have and what speed? my load times for this game are a hell of a lot better then they were with Doom 3 or in some parts in HL2

 

[Ark-AMN]

I have 1 gig of RAM (and its not the best ram either, since I brought this comp in late 03) and I didn't have a problem with the loading times on the demo (especially since unlike HL2, the game doesn't load during a level).

I'm still wondering if I'll get a new computer though, cause even though the demo ran better than I expected it to on my machine, I'd like to try using AA for once. And I'm also thinking that my machine won't be good enough to run Oblivion.

 

[mckmas8808]

FEAR's graphics would probably get an 8 on PS3's graphics scale. IMHO

 

[dark10x]

FEAR's graphics would probably get an 8 on PS3's graphics scale. IMHO

An eight? Not expecting much huh? The new consoles should be able to run circles around this...

 

[Borys]

FEAR's graphics would probably get an 8 on PS3's graphics scale. IMHO

Why the FUCK are you comparing graphics of a game that will come out in October 2005 to some MYSTERIOUS TITLE that will come out in October 2006?

Yeah I'm sure you will be playing your PS3 games when I will be playing FEAR.

The retardation (is this even a word?) of this forums is reaching new lows with each passing day.

 

[dark10x]

Why the FUCK are you comparing graphics of a game that will come out in October 2005 to some MYSTERIOUS TITLE that will come out in October 2006?

Yeah I'm sure you will be playing your PS3 games when I will be playing FEAR.

The retardation (is this even a word?) of this forums is reaching new lows with each passing day.

Err, that's insult to PS3...not FEAR. :\

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Lookin good. Can't wait for it.

 

[Luminescent]

Err, that's insult to PS3...not FEAR. :\

No, he meant that while the other guy enjoys vaporware PS3 games throughout the remainder of 2005, he will be enjoying an actual game, in this case Fear.

 

[dark10x]

No, he meant that while the other guy enjoys vaporware PS3 games throughout the remainder of 2005, he will enjoying the actual game that is Fear.

I was talking about this...

FEAR's graphics would probably get an 8 on PS3's graphics scale. IMHO

 

[mckmas8808]

I was talking about this...

I was trying to be conserative actually.

 

[Borys]

dark10x, some splainin':

Will PS3 games look better?
Of course! I would be damn pissed if they didn't.

Is there a point in comparing FEAR's graphics to PS3 E3 videos and saying it sucks cause PS3 is better? (what that guy did)
Nope, because FEAR is now and PS3 is in a year. See above.

Edit: or maybe I didn't catch the meaning?

 

[Barnimal]

Looks better than most X360 games..

looks like splinter cell and riddick combined with a sharper resolution. please.

 

[dark10x]

I was trying to be conserative actually.

So you really think FEAR represents the top end of what we will see on next-gen consoles? That's just crazy!

 

[Tain]

looks like splinter cell and riddick combined with a sharper resolution. please.

With higher polycounts, really really nice effects, and displacement mapping.

Most of those only show up in motion, though. Stuff this gen is going to be hard to judge via screenshots.

 

[Barnimal]

which means people bashing 360 should STFU

 

[CorruptionDee]

I downloaded the SP Demo the day it was released. Initially, It ran very choppy on my rig:

Athlon 64 3200
1.5 GB DDR 400 RAM
Radeon X700

Then, I played the game a day later and it ran much smoother, not Half-Life 2 smooth, but much more playable. My hypothesis is that there must have been a bunch of background tasks running the first time, bogging down the performance. In any case, although I'm a PC enthuiast, I'm not a hardcore PC gamer. F.E.A.R, however, will be purchased by me. It will be my first PC game purchase in quite some time.


In case anyone wants to know, I don't tone down the special effects of any recent games. I run Battlefield 2 at the max, with 4xAA and it runs smooth. Same with Doom 3, Half-Life 2, etc. With Half-Life 2, not only do I run it maxed out, but I run it at 1280x1024 with everything turned on. So I was a bit disappointed to see FEAR choke initially. Hopefully when the developers say "optimized", they mean it will run comparably smooth when compared to Half-Life 2. Awesome game, based on my short play time.

 

[Ark-AMN]

I'm always amazed how threads that simply praise a single game thats not even related to the "console wars" can so easily degenerate into pissing contests.

Oh well, Monolith has repeatedly stated that FEAR is for PC only and will not be coming to consoles.

 

[mckmas8808]

So you really think FEAR represents the top end of what we will see on next-gen consoles? That's just crazy!

I was saying that I wanted to give it a 6.5 or 7 on the PS3 list but bumpped the number up to 8. Games like WarDevil will put this game's graphics to shame. But FEAR does look like the BEST looking PC game ever to me.

 

[dark10x]

Oh well, Monolith has repeatedly stated that FEAR is for PC only and will not be coming to consoles.

Yeah, that's kind of a shame. PC games usually just flat out fail to nail presentation for a number of reasons. The wide variety of PC hardware generally means that they can't make any predictions about what that hardware will do when. I'd love to see a polished up console version...

 

[Nerevar]

that's amazing? I don't know, I'm not a hardcore techie, but I don't see those screens doing anything Doom 3 wasn't doing, and that title's like 2 years old now.

 

[Doom_Bringer]

that's amazing? I don't know, I'm not a hardcore techie, but I don't see those screens doing anything Doom 3 wasn't doing, and that title's like 2 years old now.

play the demo! The particle effects in this game are mindblowing!

 

[krypt0nian]

That looks amazing? The soft shadow implementation is horrible.

Step right up - more certs are handy folks!

 

[dark10x]

that's amazing? I don't know, I'm not a hardcore techie, but I don't see those screens doing anything Doom 3 wasn't doing, and that title's like 2 years old now.

Actually, to be fair, Doom 3 was released almost exactly one year ago (somewhere around August 4th of 2004).

 

[_PsiFire_]

A buddy of mine who was one of the lead designers on Matrix Online said he played an up to date (pretty much full) version before Sony purchased Matrix (thus leaving him without a job)..

He said it was a great game, no HL2 though..

After playing the demo, I somewhat agree, but that AI is out of this world!

 

[Applefiend]

Ran the demo on my rig

Athlon 64 3000 / X800XT / 1920x1200 23 inch monitor

Pretty smooth with occassional jerkyness where it loads a new level, or was that Jotaro paging me on AIM...

That was round about the best 10 minutes of shooter I ever played. Doom III graphics, HL2 physics, Resident Evil spookyness.

You can say "Well, it won't have the variety of HL2" but frankly...Who cares!

Done enough to get my time and money.

 

[Borys]

I was saying that I wanted to give it a 6.5 or 7 on the PS3 list but bumpped the number up to 8. Games like WarDevil will put this game's graphics to shame. But FEAR does look like the BEST looking PC game ever to me.

Heh, looks like I was right.

Enjoy your War Devil that puts FEAR to shame in about 2 months!
Be sure to post detailed impressions and screenies!