F.E.A.R. Series Catch-All

Yeah, what's great is that I feel like I'm learning from them. Fighting the troopers has me doing things like smashing through the glass from office to office to stay out of the hallways, banking remote detonation grenades through doorways, and even leaning out of cover (a feature I never understood in other FPS games.) It's a far cry from finding a doorway, popping out and hoping to headshot someone, stepping back and repeating, which still seems to be a viable tactic even in newer games with indoor fire fights.

Puce Moose wrote:

The battle I just finished had a single trash can with its lid swinging as the dust particles swirled around it; I'm sure there's a powerful metaphor lurking in there somewhere.

I guess that's what they call...taking out the trash

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/c8yvs.jpg)

Scratched wrote:

Generally the reason the AI in FEAR is considered so clever is that it can use the environment properly, as in find routes to flank the player. In FEAR2 there's less routes around the world, and from what I remember is a lot more scripted.

That's right. Steve Gaynor (Lead designer for BioShock 2: Minerva's Den DLC, now employed at Irrational) actually blogged about this very thing. "Bad A.I." is in some cases actually bad level design.

I skimmed. I also bought the whole series in the Steam sale. I look forward to screaming like a little girl when I burn through them.

kaptainbarbosa wrote:
Scratched wrote:

Generally the reason the AI in FEAR is considered so clever is that it can use the environment properly, as in find routes to flank the player. In FEAR2 there's less routes around the world, and from what I remember is a lot more scripted.

That's right. Steve Gaynor (Lead designer for BioShock 2: Minerva's Den DLC, now employed at Irrational) actually blogged about this very thing. "Bad A.I." is in some cases actually bad level design.

That's where I read about it too.

All I'll say is that I was pretty damn shocked the first time a FEAR 1 trooper dove through a glass window in order to reposition himself to attack me. Shocked and impressed.

Grenn wrote:

I skimmed. I also bought the whole series in the Steam sale. I look forward to screaming like a little girl when I burn through them.

I want to play FEAR 2 again but lost discs. Want to pull trigger on steam but I know the second I do it will go on sale the next day. Murphy and his laws.

Bean wrote:

I want to play FEAR 2 again but lost discs. Want to pull trigger on steam but I know the second I do it will go on sale the next day. Murphy and his laws.

For what it's worth, my disc version of FEAR2 is a steam version, so if you have the code available then try it. However not all versions of FEAR2 are steam versions, I know the D2D versions isn't.

Scratched wrote:
Bean wrote:

I want to play FEAR 2 again but lost discs. Want to pull trigger on steam but I know the second I do it will go on sale the next day. Murphy and his laws.

For what it's worth, my disc version of FEAR2 is a steam version, so if you have the code available then try it. However not all versions of FEAR2 are steam versions, I know the D2D versions isn't.

Seems to be about 20 everywhere (cheaper for boxed copies in some places, but by the time shipping kicks in, still close to that $20. I should just bite the bullet and buy it on steam. I am in consumer paranoia. I think I'm going to try and overcome my steam sale phobia and just buy it tonight. /fingers crossed

I've been working my way through Perseus Mandate. I can't understand all the hate for this one! It's had voice mails, plenty of scares, and some good engagements. Granted, I'm only in Interval 02, so it may start making some unforgivable mistakes later on. There have also been numerous non-combat sections, which seems to run counter to what I read in numerous reviews. So far it doesn't seem any more combat heavy than Extraction Point. I also ran across this chalkboard which amused me (highlighting mine):

IMAGE(http://www.pucemoose.com/pics/gijoe.jpg)

Is this a reference to the awesome GI JOE PSA parody (WARNING: NSFW language)? That's the only reference that comes to mind, though there might me a meme or a trope or a mime or a rope that I've overlooked.

I also enjoyed the title of one of the books: The decline of DVD-ROMS (sic.) I guess the writing was on the wall even in 2007!

It pleases me when we can read movie titles displaying on the cinema marquee as well.

IMAGE(http://www.pucemoose.com/pics/cinema.jpg)

Some videos on Fear 3's multiplayer.

Im glad they added some Coop modes, thats always a good time. Hopefully the versus modes are fun as well.

Link Here

OK, finished up F.E.A.R. 2 last night. Didn't think it was as bad as I had been afraid of after some of the comments here but it didn't hold up to the first. And yeah, that HUD was annoying.

Liked the bits where you get to run around in the power armor. Didn't like the battle on the tram (man, that thing took forever)

I also didn't like the way they inserted the story bits. In the first game you listened to the voicemails or you uploaded something and your handler told you what they contained. Here you find "intel" but it just gets stuck in your PDA and you have to stop and read it to find out anything. Much less immersive.

And I'm still not totally sure what the frelling plot is about. The fact that they retconned out the first two expansions probably doesn't help there. But creepy pregnant Alma is still creepy.

I assume that the two people with Alma in the F.E.A.R. 3 teasers are Pointman and Beckett? Presumably Fettel is dead? (Since his "resurrection" in Extraction Point got retconned away?)

I kind of liked the tram, because it made you move around and the enemy was able to flank you, rather than letting you sit and snipe.

I'll agree on the plot. I liked that FEAR1 could be just played as someone clearing up the mess of Armacham, but it had the background if you wanted it. Keeping it against conventional soldiers most of the time kept it grounded. After FEAR they kind of had to do something to justify continuing the series, and it does get ridiculous at times.

In FEAR3, it's Pointman and Fettel. Fettel gets 'reborn' in the FEAR2 DLC of the same name.

I thought the plot was ridiculous from the word "go" in FEAR 1 but the shooting and the set piece battles were so well done that I didn't even give it a thought. Sure, there are voicemails but they were just Umbrella Corp. washouts bickering at each other about whose bad decision it was to end the world. Alma's dad? What the hell was he thinking? What was he even doing? Doesn't matter because I was leaping through windows and shooting clone soldiers in slo-mo. I thought that the story would matter more. As it is, it's an excuse to have rooms full of blood flashback over you periodically. Continuity? Meh. Once again, I'm leaping through windows and shooting clone soldiers in slo-mo!

In an alternate universe, I'd be interested to see what could have been made of the premise of the 'secret military unit investigating the paranormal' as the focus of the series rather than Alma. However as a shooting game, it would be kind of odd when every paranormal event ends up killing legions of enemies, the replica soldiers fill that role quite well.

I just finished Perseus Mandate tonight. It was a lot better than I expected! Based on the reviews, I was expecting an unnecessary poopy rehash of the events in F.E.A.R. Well... not sure the story it introduced was needed, to be honest, but it was a good ride. There were more voice-mails/computer messages to listen to than Extraction point, and some challenging fights. I also thought it had some great scares. One of the new monsters looked a lot like the

Spoiler:

scary subterranean dwellers from The Descent. That movie scared the beans out of me (being quite claustrophobic probably helped contribute to the scares) and inadvertently stumbling into the rank miasma of one of those unfortunate beast's micro lairs triggered many an erratic discharge (not like that) of ammo from me

.

The last part did get a bit more combat heavy than I would have preferred, and though the ending was sort of ...hmm (though the stinger after the credits was pretty neat), here come the credits, I certainly don't think it deserved the savage pistol-whipping it was handed by most reviewers.

Heads up if you play the game & expansions on STEAM; if you uninstall Extraction Point (as I was trying to do prior to playing Perseus Mandate to free up some hard drive space) it uninstalls THE WHOLE FREAKIN' FEAR INSTALL, including the expansions. Thankfully I still had the discs stuffed away to save me a day or so downloading 16+ gigs (!) to reinstall it all.

I snapped this screen shot while playing (when else would I snap it?), and while it was a pretty cool scene, I couldn't help but think that there should be a disco strobe light ball thing where that vent is in the background. Someone should get on that.

IMAGE(http://www.pucemoose.com/pics/spinny.jpg)

Puce Moose wrote:

The last part did get a bit more combat heavy than I would have preferred, and though the ending was sort of ...hmm (though the stinger after the credits was pretty neat), here come the credits, I certainly don't think it deserved the savage pistol-whipping it was handed by most reviewers.

Yeah, all of the FEAR games have "something" after the credits. That one was interesting but since the plot from Extraction Point/Perseus Mandate was thrown out with FEAR 2 I suppose we'll never know where they were going with that one.

Looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer for F.E.A.R. 3.

Gamestop is offering a copy of FEAR 2 for those who pre-order FEAR 3. I'm under instructions to review it for the blog because of John Carpenter's involvement in directing the cinematices, but I can't help but be a little worried when a $20 gift accompanies a $60 purchase. Especially when the gift is an underperforming title in the same series.

FEAR2 wasn't that bad. At the time it got a bad reputation for being beaten a bit with the 'consolisation' stick and comparsions to FEAR1, which I think was held a bit too highly by some. FEAR was great in 2005 when it was released, but it's not a timeless great. They're both good shooters.

Fear 1 was a great shooter with boring/monotonous settings, but it was an outstanding horror game. Fear 2 looked to be much better but I didn't play it, just tried the demo and almost had a heart attack at the school and the theather. This Fear 3, from what I've seen on screencaps I don't like much, it doesn't help that the story makes no sense at all, even considering the amount of non-sense the original game made. I'm not sure what is Monolith up to this days, but I hope they take this opportunity to leave Fear behind as it's becoming unrecognizable.

I think the problem with FEAR2 and probably what you're seeing with FEAR3 is that they had to follow the ending of FEAR1. I'll just leave this here. They can't go for a reasonably simple 'shoot the bad guys, track down their leader' plot that they did with FEAR1.

(I was going to link that and some Aliens stuff (Gearbox are doing another rape Aliens game) in the DNF moral high horse thread, but I think people would have had a sense of humour failure)

Feeank wrote:

Fear 1 was a great shooter with boring/monotonous settings, but it was an outstanding horror game.

I'd argue that FEAR was a much better shooter than it was a horror game. It used the *language* of horror, but it never managed any of the *substance*, because the horror segments all exist outside of the gameplay. It certainly pales if you compare it to bona-fide horror games like Fatal Frame, or even the horror tinged levels in Thief.

Feeank wrote:

I'm not sure what is Monolith up to this days, but I hope they take this opportunity to leave Fear behind as it's becoming unrecognizable.

Yeah, Monolith isn't developing this one. Last I heard, they were working on Gotham City Imposters, which actually might be something of a return to their silly roots.

I had a hell of a lot of credit at Direct2Drive to use up so it looks like I'll be trying out the PC version of F.3.A.R. next week, even though I was planning to wait for reviews and/or a sale.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:
Feeank wrote:

Fear 1 was a great shooter with boring/monotonous settings, but it was an outstanding horror game.

I'd argue that FEAR was a much better shooter than it was a horror game. It used the *language* of horror, but it never managed any of the *substance*, because the horror segments all exist outside of the gameplay. It certainly pales if you compare it to bona-fide horror games like Fatal Frame, or even the horror tinged levels in Thief.

My pants beg to differ.

I get your point but for me the memories about FEAR are all Alma-incidents related. I confess being scared sh*tless with japanese horror films.

Has anyone found any screenshots revealing the HUD of FEAR 3 (PC)? I've seen a couple of movies, and several screenshots, and they've been gloriously HUD-free - but I don't trust that bullsh*t for a second. The same thing happened with FEAR 2 - these movies with a magnificent lack of overlay, and... BAM! no way to disable/opacity fade the glow/HUD in game - it was all a cruel, cruel tease.

There was nothing scary about FEAR. You're a walking arsenal with magical slow mo abilities and enough firepower to level a small city, how exactly are you supposed to feel scared in that kind of scenario? This is compounded by the fact that the main source of terror is a small girl walking around.

Sinatar wrote:

There was nothing scary about FEAR. You're a walking arsenal with magical slow mo abilities and enough firepower to level a small city, how exactly are you supposed to feel scared in that kind of scenario? This is compounded by the fact that the main source of terror is a small girl walking around.

There was nothing funny about Day of the Tentacle. You're a cartoon character with nerd glasses and a Toilet-time machine, how exactly are you supposed to laugh in that kind of scenario? This is compounded by the fact that the main source of fun is a Purple Tentacle walking around.

To each its own. I guess.

Podunk wrote:
Feeank wrote:

I'm not sure what is Monolith up to this days, but I hope they take this opportunity to leave Fear behind as it's becoming unrecognizable.

Yeah, Monolith isn't developing this one. Last I heard, they were working on Gotham City Imposters, which actually might be something of a return to their silly roots.

I'd love a new NOLF game, we need more humor in shooters and those two games had some of the best "overheard dialogues" ever.

Puce Moose wrote:

Has anyone found any screenshots revealing the HUD of FEAR 3 (PC)? I've seen a couple of movies, and several screenshots, and they've been gloriously HUD-free - but I don't trust that bullsh*t for a second. The same thing happened with FEAR 2 - these movies with a magnificent lack of overlay, and... BAM! no way to disable/opacity fade the glow/HUD in game - it was all a cruel, cruel tease.

The HUD is more similar to FEAR1 - I've watched the first 25m or so from a leaked copy/beta here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnRYK...

To me the game seemed kind of like midway between 1 and 2, with some new stuff from day one. I've read comments that it's 'consolised' with a low FOV (although that could be the PC gaming master race talking) and is extremely linear, although FEAR never struck me as a game that made a great deal about alternate paths, etc. They've got rid of normal health and health packs and replaced it with guns that shoot strawberry jam in your eyes, and there's a cover system that looks similar to Crysis2's.

edit: also this video: http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/action/fea...