Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Switchblade]

Can you say "freaky"?

seriously, scary little girls running crabwise along a corridor, leaping at your face and vanishing just before they hit, random moments when the world goes away and you're suddenly swimming through a corridor of blood towards an exit door that is on fire, which vanishes when you get there.

Also ninjas. No joke. Psychically-controlled clone ninjas that can make like a romulan warbird and move faster than the road runner on speed, with a little Spider-Man thrown in for good measure.

And bullet time.

There's also the small matter that the gun battles are awesome. Seriously, they feel so chunky and dangerous it's like dropping into a whole new world. You basically need to completely re-learn everything you know about FPS games to survive in a F.E.A.R firefight, because they're that vicious. if you're not hiding behind something solid, you should be, because those bullets hurt. Not to mention the pain should you be too close to a grenade when it goes off.

And getting pwned in the face with a plank during the first mission.

basically, it is a disk full of awesome. I recommend.

[nickb285]

I haven't played it much, but a few of us went over to a friend's dorm, drank, and watched him play F.E.A.R. It's honestly the only game I've ever enjoyed watching someone play. Badassery. And scary.

[Switchblade]

Mind you... once you get used to them, F.E.A.R gunbattles are HELLA fun. whilst playing last night, I got ambushed in some offices by a group of soldiers. Took down the two ony my left with a spray from the assault rifle at head height, took out the two on my right with a grenade, and then went into slow motion, ran straight towards the one who was blasting me from behind a desk, vaulted the desk, and took him out with a flying kick to the side of the head, before turning, chucking another grenade down the corridor to take out the last two behind me, ducking behind the desk, dropping out of slow-mo and reloading just as the grenade went off.

All without taking any damage at all. seven men, two grenades, less than a full magazine of ammo.

it was one of those "holy shit I'm good!" moments that I love so very very much.

[Bunnyman]

When I de-b0rk my display drivers, I'm seriously considering getting this.  The SP Demo was a riot of fun.  The sheer number of permutations in each gunfight are amazing...watching supersoldiers scatter like rabbits when you introduce a grenade into teh mix is always fun, and I was quite impressed by their agility...the leapthroughwindow is cool, especially when you take their legs out from under them with a sliding kick...

[Gryff]

This game sounds way cool. I would like to play…

[Jenno]

Yeah, I want. Just need to wait until my new dual-core box arrives.... mmmmmm X2

[kikanjuuneko]

I finished it in two days about a week or two ago, but man, is it awesome or what. My speakers seem to be fucked, though, so I kept having slight sound problems. But still: awesomely freaky.

[Switchblade]

hells yes.

I need to play some more, I've been working recently.

[ramenXnoodles]

I played this game at a gaming center yesterday.

All I have to say is holy fucking shit. It was so awesome. My main tactic for the gun battles is to go into bullet time for most of it, then occasionally go out of it to let it recharge.

How do you do all the kicks and shit?

[psilogen]

I just started playing this game yesterday. I am only running 512 megs of ram so the game skips a ton but it still manages to be completely incredible. I was floored by Half-Life 2, but FEAR is changing the way I think about First-person Shooters entirely. it's like the "The Matrix" game that should have been, blended with a non-shitty ghost movie

there are few things in this world as satisfying as leaning around a corner with two pistols drawn and dropping a couple guards before they even know you're there

although killing two of my buddies with one non-quad shotgun blast in Quake 3 was pretty satisfying too

[Spike]

I've lost count of how many times I've sat there and yelled out profanities when running away from an enemy squad, or a skeleton that rises up out of a hallway half filled with blood that grabs you.  I'd liken my F.E.A.R. experience to Red vs. Blue.  "SON OF A BITCH!"  Pardon my language.

[Switchblade]

I think my favourite touch has to be the AI - they fucking COMMUNICATE, man!

they'll yell stuff like "man Down" or "He's trying to flank" or "I need reinforcements!". One time, I even heard a sergeant order his lone comrade (I'd wiped out the rest of the squad) to try and flank me, to which the soldier responded with a "fuck you!" and stayed where he was because it was safer.

That's quality. whoever programmed the AI in F.E.A.R was a genius.

[streever]

jenno--have you had a dual core before? I am using one now, and imagine my surprise, most games stutter unless you set the affinity :)

apologies if you've heard this before--it really surprised me & made me waste 3 hours trying to "fix" CS:Source--but it turns out many, many games need to be set to one or the other CPU in the dual-core (press CTRL ALT DEL and choose "Affinity" when right click on the process)

Again, apologies if you've heard it before, you'll probably set the affinity anyway so you can take full advantage of dual core goodness, but if you'll like me, you'll get mad & waste hours ^_^

[jmrz]

Switchblade wrote:

they'll yell stuff like "man Down" or "He's trying to flank" or "I need reinforcements!". One time, I even heard a sergeant order his lone comrade (I'd wiped out the rest of the squad) to try and flank me, to which the soldier responded with a "fuck you!" and stayed where he was because it was safer.

Shit, that's good. I appreciate good programming, it also proves that game programmers are sexually deprived, and have nothing better to do with their time, either that or they are really good at their job, although i tend to think its the first one.

I have to admit, although i am a computer nerd, i have never played an FPS, i tend to stick to RPG's etc. Although, i am going to have to learn real quick, as i am attending a LAN on Wednesday night, and I'm going to be one of two girls who have ever gamed before. So i don't want to get pwned completely....

[Switchblade]

Get a copy of UT2004", and run a 1v1 instant action deathmatch with no time limit or frag limit. Set the bot skill to "Godlike" and drop yourself in there.

Don't stop playing until you've scored three consecutive frags without getting fragged yourself, or until you've scored 100 frags, or until your eyes bleed. whichever happens first.

Do this twice a day until the party comes around.

Watch as you pwn everybody at the party.

*reason this works*

Bots have pin-point accurate aim. The difficulty setting in UT2004 determines how likely they are to deliberately miss. At "godlike", their probability of hitting is something like 95%, and they always know where you are. If you can frag a perfectly healthy godlike bot, then you're beating THAT.

mere mortals will stand no chance.

[Jenno]

Streever - my previous box was a dual proc anywho But on an interesting note, I forgot to do this on the new one and I haven't actually noticed this problem yet. :-/

On the topic of FEAR, I've decided this game is way too creepy for my jumpy disposition. I've lost count of the number of times I've almost peed myself. I'm also very impressed with the way the enemy circles around to flank you and similar things.

[jmrz]

Switchblade wrote:

mere mortals will stand no chance.

These mere mortals are walking around with two 24 port managed switches... these guys are pretty good... im going to get pwned no matter what i do... i think ill just end up playing something old school with the other girls there... either that or i will be binded to my chair and made to play "proper games"....

It shall be an interesting night...

[Aram]

This game looks really really cool to me. What was that crablike girl thing in the corridor of blood about?

[Switchblade]

I'd tell you, but it'd be a spoiler.

[almost thursday]

i don't normally dig first person shooters but this one sounds awesome. i'll defintiely check it out when i get my shit together.

[blood_and_thunder]

I've been playing it, but I'm not massively impressed with it. Don't get me wrong, I think its a good game, but it doesnt strike me as totally amazing.

The AI is pretty good, but the enemy doesnt seem to leave their area - if I jump out from behind a wall and shoot a few of them, then run, the rest don't seem to follow when I withdraw, just stay in the same area instead of chasing me a little deeper through the level. It was annoying to kill a couple of guys, then hide waiting with my shotgun to take more out, just to wait ages for nothing to happen. There have been a few times where they have sneaked up on me and taken me by surprise, which was awesome, its good to see an AI actually using unpredictable tactics. They also use grenades pretty well.

The action itself is good, but I don't like the slow-mo that much, it makes the game feel too easy. See enemy, hit slow-mo, shoot a few guys, run away, wait for slow-mo to recharge, repeat. I'm finding it far more fun when I use the slow-mo as little as possible, the gunfights are fast and furious in real time, and make the game more challenging.

The weapons are excellent, they have a good balance of realism and shootyness, and the three weapons at any time system works well. The aiming mode could be a little more developed (like call of duty) but makes a fair amount of difference to combat.

The atmosphere is good, but hyped somewhat. The creepy parts don't seem too creepy, but they have their moments. I did have to turn down some of the graphical effects to make the game run smoothly on my pc. Maybe the atmosphere is better with the graphics turned up full, I dont know. The little girl who features in all the trailers and artwork is cool, I won't spoil any of the story behind her, but there are some totally awesome moments featuring her, the designers did this part really well.

I haven't finished the game yet, but so far I'm generally quite pleased with it. It's an enjoyable game with a good atmosphere, but has some areas that could have used more work before release. If you are interested try the demo thats floating around the net before you buy.



Christ on a bike, I didn't mean to type this much.......

[M3gaBigh]

The game is very visualy appealing indeed, they've done an awsome job with the sound too however I think this game is massivly over hyped. There are two main things that bug me about it:
1- you're part of a "squad" of these people, they kill everybody off in the first few minutes.
2- You're supposed to be investigating multiple phenomenon but you only investigate one over the whole game

It had potentional but they spent too long on making the engine and not enough time designing an actual game.

[Gryff]

I finally got my hands on this game over the weekend and I'm really enjoying the atmosphere of it. I like how you can't just run around wildly - the soldiers will kill you off pretty quickly - so you've got to carefully creep around and clear every area like a real "special forces" dude.

I quite like how the battles are very much cover-based. In other games you can get away with pretty much only hiding when you reload, but in FEAR you have to use cover all the time. It's cool.

Plus, I like how you are kept on your toes by the mix of soldiers and creepy shit. You never know exactly what you should be looking for.

Also, the ninjas are friggin' awesome.

[nihilist]

I got pretty tired of it.  I'm still putting in time here and there to see if there is a worthy ending waiting for me, but...  Goddamn it's not a very fast game.  No run-and-gun.  Yes, tactical, blah blah blah.  But it's so repetitive.  Find a corner, lean, pop guy in head, throw grenade at group, duck back into cover, lean out again, fire, run for another corner...

It's like Doom 3, but where I can actually see what I'm doing.  Most of the time.

[est]

Necromancy +1!

I just finished playing through this game. It took forever and it became rather tedious and boring in some places. Also, what you have to do in order to complete the game makes no fucking sense in relation to the storyline. I mean seriously, I didn't want to play out the entire final sequence of the game in the fashion that they expected me to.

I kept waiting for the turnaround in attitude, came to the final hospital sequence and thought "ok, now this is surely it". But nope!

I appreciate that they made an excellent engine and had a rather decent story to tell, I just think that they padded it out a lot more than they should have, and then ended it badly.

Also, I think that the "three weapon" system that other people have talked about is total balls.  I would have much preferred a "light", "medium" and "heavy" socket system where you can hold anything equal to or lighter than the socket type.  ie: only one of: rocket launcher/flak cannon/plasma gun at a time, two of: shotguns, assault rifle, rail gun and three of: pistol/twin pistol/sub-machine gun.  It's just funny to me to have to drop a pistol to be able to pick up a rocket launcher.  Feels completely arbitrary.

[Yasser]

^ agree with the 3 weapon thing. in fact, on my current play (3rd time through), i put on cheats so i have all weapons XD though i still use the shotgun mostly, the gun is BRUTAL! i shot a guy in the midsection and the top half of his body seperated from his hips! all in sweet slo-mo!

How do you do all the kicks and shit?

right-click. if does different attacks if you jump and crouch etc.

[Bastardous Bassist]

I've been avoiding the game, because the title was the most retarded thing I've seen in a while.  However, I've been told repeatedly that I need to try it.  I mean, I liked the atmosphere of Doom 3, and it seems to be built similarly to one of my favorite first person shooters ever (Ghost Recon) as far as combat goes.  By which I mean the fact that it's slow and tactical, because otherwise you die, hard, because you can't take much fire.

[Switchblade]

Multiplayer FEAR is insane! it's almost like first-person Matrix combat!

[Jenno]

Playing this game on a sugar and/or caffeine high is definately not recommended.

[BigSteve]

Just completed that game yesterday, and I loved every moment.

The ending was absolutely fantastic.

[Gryff]

Actually, I found myself getting bored towards the end. I think now I agree with Nihilist about how it gets too repetitive - I got tired of creeping through office building after office building, especially since the variety of bad guys is pretty minimal. One of the lamest bits <SPOILERZ> is where you have to run past a whole lot of snipers, and there just happens to be a shit-load of sniper ammo lying around. It would have been nice if there were multiple ways of taking them out.

And the ending sucked. The action sequence at the end felt completely tacked on, and the story was a giant cliche doughnut dunked in ripoff coffee.

[Switchblade]

*SPOILER*

The enormous thermonuclear explosion at the end rocked, though.

[Gryff]

I guess that was kind of cool.

[Kukushka]

The demo was omgwtfthisislieksoawesome! I played the demo and immediatly put the game on my list.

I was a little disappointed by the actual game. It felt like they took all the really good bits and put them in the demo and everything that was new wasn't so good. Then again, that's pretty common with demos.

I also noticed some features (like the fear breathing stuff) that was in the demo and that I thought was really cool, but that didn't make it into the actual game.

The AI was awesome. By far the best I've seen so far.

The plot had some really good ideas, but never really went anywhere with them. It was like... a whole lot of story and then just shoot shoot shoot with a few repetitive (and often predictable) dibbles of information, and then the game just ended. Like someone else said, there was no satisfying big revelation or turn around at the end.

SPOILER:
I found the end to be really bland. I guess I expected a crazy boss fight or something big plot-wise, but it just kinda stopped. There were a bunch of strings left untied (for example, throughout the game, you are told that you are also from the girl, yet there's no mention of a second birth or anything like that. So who are you? Why are you special? Why does the evil guy keep saying that you are part of the family?). There were also quite a few elements that I felt they should have gone into deeper.

I do also agree that variety in scenery would have been nice. We get the water treatment plant, we get a broken old hotel, and we get offices... lots and lots of offices.

All in all, I'd say it was a good game and I'm glad I played it. But I think that there was a lot more that they could have done with it and I was quite disappointed by the story and sudden ending.

[Bunnyman]

All these make rather more sense once one steps back a bit and realizes that it's a (really well done) tech-demo game for Jupiter.  Kinda like Far Cry, really.