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So I don't see any thread on this. Game just released in the local stores today. Been playing it most of the night. Fairly good game so far. The game play is very well done. Story is interesting so far. Couple gripes though. The game only supports three mouse buttons. Come on people, this is basic stuff here. Your telling me that none of your beta testers used 5 button mice? Absolutely no quick save feature or standard save at all. The game is entirely check point saves. Not a big deal so far, but on higher difficulties this could be irritating. The game runs with Film Grain and there is no option to turn it off.

I don't know whether to call the game a console port or not. The control setup and binding system freely changes. When you change the key, the in game prompts indicate the right key. The graphic options are fairly advanced. But then they seem to screw up on the little stuff. No option to turn off film grain. No mouse buttons above 3. No quick saves.

Something else. The game is set in a single FOV and single aspect ratio. The game is optimized for 16:9 resolutions. If you do not have a 16:9 monitor, the game letter boxes to keep the same aspect ratio and FOV. On a 16:10 monitor its no big deal. Its a little more irritating for those stuck on 4:3. The FEAR community seems to not understand aspect ratio. Those playing on 16:10 and 4:3 are demanding to get the black bars removed. They don't seem to comprehend that the only way to do that is either cut off the sides of the screen (which is the standard way) or to increase the viewable area. Increasing viewable area then becomes an advantage for standard monitors over wide screen. I think we have established that widescreen is supposed to see more then standard if anything. Traditional games handle widescreen by giving more viewable area to those with better aspect ratios. With FEAR 2 letterboxing, the entire issue is leveled. Everyone sees the same thing, no distortions.

Ha!

<snip hilarious bagging of engine, plot and general dated-ness>

The dropping of quicksave is probably a port issue; aside from making any game trivially easy (FEAR was the easiest shooter in a long time) consoles don't have it. It's ironic that it's broken to only work on widescreen when I think the original was broken to only NOT work on widescreen. <snip bagging of engine>

The latest patch for FEAR fixed widescreen and offered true support. All FEAR expansions had true widescreen support (Extraction Point did need an ini file change, but it was true widescreen). Letterboxing doesn't break anything. It preserves the aspect ratio and FOV. If old games did the reverse, widescreen would get black bars on the sides of the game instead of stretching it. The old method was entirely broken. The new method maintains FOV and aspect ratio completely while aiming for a widescreen display but accommodating 4:3.

When dealing with multiple aspect ratios, there are two ultimate choices. Give an unfair advantage to one display, or force uniformity. The old days forced uniformity because most games were programed for 4:3 and you had to stretch to get onto widescreen. When games started getting made with multiple aspect ratios in mind, they choose unfair advantages. Either lopped off tops and bottoms (Bioshock and Far Cry 2 initially) or standard widescreen support. Letterboxing offers uniformity while avoiding stretch. Its fair and usable on any aspect ratio.

Holy shit the ending.
Spoiler Also,
Spoiler Other things I noted:
Spoiler

Fuck FEAR2. I own it on Steam, and it says that it's available, but noooo... I can't have it, because only the US gets it on the 12th. I must wait until the 13th. No doubt that's the 13th in the US. Which means Saturday. Night. Which means I don't actually get to play FEAR 2 this weekend.

Fuck you faceless corporate overlords who demand shitty split releases and bogus price points to keep stupid fucking brick and mortar retailers onside.

Have fun with your ~11gb download as well.

Xon wrote:Have fun with your ~11gb download as well.

Yeah, it would appear that Steam isn't even letting me fucking pre-load this.

I really enjoyed the first FEAR game, but sadly I haven't been able to play it because, of all things, it doesn't recognize my keyboard.

I'll wait for FEAR2. It looks fun, but I've got other things to tide me over at the moment.

I really enjoyed the game on the 360. I really would of liked more scares and random things ( lights going out, things moving).

Does anyone know what alma says at the end? I can never quiet make it out.

( Damn, Alma in human form is kind of hot.)

Well that was an interesting ending. Anyway, very well designed game. Looking forward to the inevitable expansions.

Didn't the FEAR franchise get butchered a bit, with the universe going to the actual creators and the name to the publishers or something>

I played some of it today. It's amazing how 'old school' it feels, even with the halucinations and the otherwise futuristic-y stuff going on, like the guns, the interface and whatnot. It's just like playing Half Life 2. It's among the Electric Boogaloo of FPS games out there. It's still heavy handed, still relies heavily on stuff jumping out at you for 99% of your scares and is still inexplicably sci-fi. That said, there are some visually interesting things done in some scenes and if it's anytihng like the first FEAR (and it's everything like the first FEAR) I should eventually get sucked into its atmosphere, up until a giant robot leaps out of nowhere and fouls that up.

Tanasinn wrote:Didn't the FEAR franchise get butchered a bit, with the universe going to the actual creators and the name to the publishers or something>

There was a bit of a spat between Monolith and the publishers, but Monolith managed to recover the rights to the F.E.A.R. title.

That said, there are some visually interesting things done in some scenes and if it's anytihng like the first FEAR (and it's everything like the first FEAR) I should eventually get sucked into its atmosphere, up until a giant robot leaps out of nowhere and fouls that up.

Wait until you get to the elementary school. Shit is creeeeeeeepy.

Also, the giant robots are one of my favorite parts of the game. Especially when Spoiler

Peptuck wrote:Wait until you get to the elementary school. Shit is creeeeeeeepy.

I was actually amused to find that the stuff with Fox that happened in the Demo actually happened in the 'hospital' in Interval 02.

Also, the giant robots are one of my favorite parts of the game. Especially when Spoiler

you get to hijack them yourself.

One of those sequences was in the demo, and it was pretty fun. As I said my friend, I hope that they take the oppurtunity to pull of those hallucination ghost scenes with you stomping around in a giant robot.

So far I am impressed with playing this. The game plays very well on my mid-range computer even with the graphics set high. As Ford mentioned, the game feels much like the original F.E.A.R., I agree with that wholeheartedly.

Ford Prefect wrote: As I said my friend, I hope that they take the oppurtunity to pull of those hallucination ghost scenes with you stomping around in a giant robot.

Spoiler Interestingly enough, it looks like the giant robot romp-em-stomp-em sequences can also be fought on foot, if you have the brass clankers to do that. They stuffed a lot of missile launcher ammo in the various corners just in case you decided to go hardmode, which I like. Reminds me a bit of Halo 2, where going through the lengthy vehicle segments on foot was just as viable as going in a vehicle.

Also, something very interesting in the school I just found on my second playthrough.
Spoiler Not sure if these are easter eggs or something a whole lot more sinister.

Peptuck wrote:Spoiler

Unfortunately, they don't.

This is a pity. FEAR honestly needed to blend together the paranormal stuff with the high tech sci-fi stuff more. As it is now, it essentially swaps from 'ghosts and hallucinations' to 'clones and mecha'. If it felt like there was more weird stuff going on during cobmat sequences then it would probably be more immersive; I had the impression, before FEAR came out, that this is what it was going to be like.

Admittedly, before FEAR came out I actually expected FEAR to be a useful paranormal investigation squad, as opposed to completely out of their depth.

Ford Prefect wrote:

Peptuck wrote:Spoiler

Unfortunately, they don't.

This is a pity. FEAR honestly needed to blend together the paranormal stuff with the high tech sci-fi stuff more. As it is now, it essentially swaps from 'ghosts and hallucinations' to 'clones and mecha'. If it felt like there was more weird stuff going on during cobmat sequences then it would probably be more immersive; I had the impression, before FEAR came out, that this is what it was going to be like.

There is a little bit of merging of the two, but not a whole lot, unfortunately. For example, Spoiler I personally like the swapping out, to a degree. There's a great balance in-game between the horror and the combat, and when it feels like you're getting hit by too much of one it flips around and throws the other at you.

Then again, you do have sequences like the battles against the Abominations or Remnants, which are both pretty vicious figths and scary as hell. Even the Assassins are a lot more frightening now.

I'm yet to have a chance to play - but apparently there are references to Condemned in there. Can we get a cross-over game now?

weemadando wrote:I'm yet to have a chance to play - but apparently there are references to Condemned in there. Can we get a cross-over game now?

That sounds awesome! Do you know where I can find these references? On an aside, I have noticed that Monolith likes to cram all sorts of details into their games and I'm happy they continued the trend into this one. Little things like the TPS reports and magazines based off of crazy ideas spread about really help add a degree of humor to the whole game for those looking for such things. I have always loved that and this game reminds me of Blood and others in that respect.

I liked this quote from Snake Fist regarding you and Alma: You're like a pizza at an anime convention. She can smell you, and she wants to consume you.

I've never been able to get farther than a couple of missions into the first FEAR, as it gives me motion sickness.

Also, I like the little touches that make things interesting, like being able to shoot the cleanup grunt's fuel tank or shooting down a missile in flight, in the latter case immediately after it left the launcher, which rather nicely took care of the Armacham asshole holding it.

I think I just had the single most horrifying and pants-browning moment yet while playing this game. I'm in the elementary school, and I reach the part where
Spoiler Pretty standard fare, right?
Spoiler It was probably just a glitch, but I was honestly freaked the fuck out when it happened.

weemadando wrote:I'm yet to have a chance to play - but apparently there are references to Condemned in there. Can we get a cross-over game now?

What would it add? A protaganist who can slow down time for no reason, thus making the game laughably easy? A bunch of not-scary things? More clumsy attempts at psychological horror like in Condemned 2?

If you crossed the FIRST FEAR game with the FIRST Condemned, you could have something interesting (wierd magic ninjas under the ground destroying human civilisation from within while a team of four guys and one car try to save the day by loitering in warehouses) but the sequels have shown they have no idea what was successful about those games.

RE FEAR 2 - I pulled down the demo on 360 and it was massively boring. I can see where it's SUPPOSED to be all scary and shit (it's more hamfisted and obvious than even FEAR itself) but it's just so boring and generic. Wow, some more light industrial/abandoned buildings! I can't wait to see the ludicriously huge underground nuclear bunker this time.