Quake 4 and FEAR first impressions (spoilers)

Dendrobius · Post by **Dendrobius** » 2005-10-19 04:36am

I got both games at the same time since I couldn't decide between them, but now I think I will be returning Quake 4 very soon and keeping FEAR. This is sad, as I was a very very hardcore Quake series player (1, 2 and 3) and I find Quake 4 to be terrible at this point in time.

FEAR runs well on my system and looks great. Quake 4 looks meh on my system and runs horribly. AthlonXP 2000+, 1.5Gb RAM, 6600GT, so I'm CPU bound, but I can run FEAR 1152x864 2xAA with details set to medium/high, and the in game benchmark returns min 18FPS max 83FPS average 34FPS which is fine. Quake 4? I've got it going at 1024x768 with everything down, and it's still slower than FEAR, so much so it's literally jerking its way past my screen. Running Quake 3 on my K6/2 450 and a TNT2 Ultra wasn't this painful!

SP, FEAR has been very entertaining so far, horror movie storyline + good action sequences. Quake 4 is still "too much dark". FEAR shows you that you don't need too much dark to scare the player good.

MP, FEAR is the usual, nothing special except the Slow-Mo which is an interesting powerup and very fun in Team DM and Team CTF, I didn't find anything to rave about but nothing to intensely dislike either, it's fun. Quake 4...well, there's just something off about it. Maybe I'm too familiar with Quake 3, but there was just something off about it. It wasn't FUN.

I should make a note here that Q4's netcode sucks goats balls for me. I'm on cable, I'm connecting to an Australian server from Australia, and I was visibly lagging. Even turning down the settings didn't help. That was ridiculous. FEAR ran silky smooth on a bloody American server. I made a comment in game about the weird lag, and some of the other players had the same issue, some didn't, so YMMV.

Overall, FEAR surprised me with its quality, and Q4 at this point in time is a massive letdown.

Oh well, probably back to flying online then after I'm done with FEAR, and return Q4 to get my $$ back.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-10-19 04:49am

Does FEAR hold up to extended play? The demo was okay, but the 'horror' thing was lame and unconvincing, while the shooty aspect was quite nice.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2005-10-19 08:40am

The action in FEAR is hectic and messy. Bits of everything flying everywhere.

The horror is...well, either you let yourself be scared by games or you don't. I was scared by games like Silent Hill, Undying, DOOM and Nocturne, but then, I've had years as a folklorist letting myself get into unreal ghost stories paving the way.

If you're like me, and you can put reality on hold and immerse yourself in entertainment, FEAR will scare the shit out of you. I've fired rounds at shadows already a dozen times. If you're the kind of person who watches horror movies and laughs it up, though, FEAR's tricks probably won't faze you after you see it two or three times.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2005-10-19 09:37am

FEAR is one of the best FPS ever!

But it makes my computer beg for mercy!

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2005-10-19 09:52am

FEAR should be showing up today. I got Quake 4 yesterday, and its better than I though it would be. There's nothing ground breaking, but the pacing is quite good and its got some character development. The engine might need some optimization (but I need to check and make sure I don't have Transparency Supersampling AA enabled).

Quake 4 isn't Game of the Year material, but it doesn't suck, either. And its definitly better than Doom 3.

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2005-10-19 09:55am

FEAR's slo-mo lets you fire an Assault Rifle at fullauto & empty the clip and score perfect headshots.

Now, the scary part is you need that to kill some of the stuff. Then you run into normal humans ala "minium-wage commandos" who go down to 1-2 headshots. Then you run into more of the tough stuff.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2005-10-19 10:06am

I already decided FEAR over Quake before they came out. The FEAR demo alone was just that good.

Problem is that I'll need more RAM if I want to play it to its fullest. But I have patience

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2005-10-19 10:14am

Faram wrote:FEAR is one of the best FPS ever!

But it makes my computer beg for mercy!

Buying FEAR has made me decide that it's finally time for me to upgrade my RAM; I have a 3.0 GHz processor but my RAM is so shameful that I don't even want to talk about it

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2005-10-19 05:06pm

I have played three hours of FEAR now. Up to Watchers, just found the umm.... Last location of the Recon team that headed into Armicorp(sp?)

I am a lean mean, slo-mo death machine! Nothing stand between me and my objective, for with the 10mm Railcannon at my size, none shall stop me!

...Except I'm running out of ammo for it, So I have to go more and more to my shotgun and my jump kick. Ahh well!

I have been truely and honsetly scared once or twice, and terrified jump out of my seat once. (A limp body followed by the jumper type baddie came out of where I was not expecting when I was not expecting it when I was reloading. He got the boot to the face but not before I was half way out of my chair.)

Enjoying every minute of it and at 1024x768 with all details on max I have not droped below 32 FPS once according to FRAPS and that was during a me vs eight trooper fight after I blew two barrels and shot a gernade in mid air after a twenty round burst from the SMG. Otherwise its been a steady 72FPS with dips into the high 40s.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-10-19 06:26pm

Installing the game now; I'm extremely excited. The demo was truely awesome, and I can't wait to find out how the final version of the game turned out.

Dendrobius · Post by **Dendrobius** » 2005-10-19 06:51pm

FEAR's team DM is funny, especially with Slow-Mo.

You may be in a firefight with two other bad guys...then your teammate activates Slow-Mo, and you literally can dodge all their bullets, run up to them and give them both a flying kick which kills them instantly. Action movie material baby!

Although of course if you're on the other end of the Slow-Mo, you kind of feel like meat on the table. No matter how good you are, if you've been slowed, you're screwed.

Quake 4's online still seems very odd. I'm sort of back to where I usually am, which is 2nd/3rd on the kills list on any random public server, but it just doesn't feel quite right as compared with Q3. Still can't quite put my finger on what the problem is.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-10-19 07:31pm

Okay, I've only played up to Infiltration so far, but goddamn, the game is kickass. Great atmosphere, awesome firefights (need I mention slow-mo jump kicks?)

I easily get 74fps with all settings at high, but for some reason, FEAR doesn't have a 1600+ resolution. What gives?

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2005-10-19 07:57pm

Captain tycho wrote:Okay, I've only played up to Infiltration so far, but goddamn, the game is kickass. Great atmosphere, awesome firefights (need I mention slow-mo jump kicks?)

I easily get 74fps with all settings at high, but for some reason, FEAR doesn't have a 1600+ resolution. What gives?

I can run at 1600x1200 just fine, not 1280x768 however.

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2005-10-19 08:50pm

And if you edit the config file (shared documents\monolith), you can run the game at 1920x1200!

I'm using 2x AA and 8x AF, soft shadows off (their nice, but enough bang for the buck) and everything else cranked. I usually get over 60 FPS, even during fire fights. I saw 25 FPS once while looking at an indoor pool that had a lot of lights reflecting off it.

The best fire fight I've been in was in a large yard with cat walks. I was getting attacked from three or four different angles, with two or three men at two of those angles. That kicked ass. I used a grenade to turn one soldier into soup. In another fight, the AI actually did what was advertised, and one soldier laid down cover fire and attracked my attention while another circled around and almost got me from behind.

Now, has anyone had an problems with this game lock up Windows once you quit? I have.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-10-19 09:10pm

I have no options in the graphics menu for anything above 1152x786.

I tried editing the config file, nothing.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2005-10-20 12:55am

You all make me cry. My average Framerate is 12 fps at 1024x768 with low details all across the board.

But I still managed to make it to almost the end of the game, and this weekend I'm going to finish it. Awesome game, btw.

Oh, and intensely satisfying shotgun, btw.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2005-10-20 01:29am

FEAR impressions:

I wish there were chapter selections.

Game hits a speedbump right at the end- goes all Doom 3 on you. Luckily, this is a very small part of the overall game, and it still ends up being pretty decent storywise and pretty freaky as well. The actual end after this part is freaking awesome.

The shotgun is your new God. Worship it. Master it. Bring it's message of holy destruction to the masses.

The horror aspects are usually freakier when the "scare slomo" doesn't happen. There were a few parts that genuinely freaked me out- a couple times I had to take a short break.

The firefights can get intense. Oftentimes, I would find myself standing among the bodies of my enemies, the dust settling, and then I would suddenly realize my head and heart are both pounding from adreneline, and I've been holding my breath for the past 45 seconds. Definately has replay value- I can't recall when last I had so much fun against AI opponents. So satisfying to actually outflank a patrol and lure the other half into a mine.

Julhelm · Post by **Julhelm** » 2005-10-20 02:15am

I really like FEAR, but I also think it suffers from some ill-thought out level design, as there are several areas where you get stuck simply because it's really hard to tell which way is the right one. And the environments are a little repetitive, but then again Monolith has spoiled me with the NOLF games before so I'll forgive them for that. Props for the melee system though, it really adds a whole other dimension to the fights, though it'd have been cool if they'd let you do flips and run-jump off walls like in The Specialists.

Wouldn't go as far as call it "best FPS ever"; that title is shared between HL, NOLF and OFP.

I won't be checking out Q4, because I always thought the strogg story was gay compared to the cool gothic theme of the original Quake.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2005-10-20 10:48am

I need more memory and a new video card for FEAR, which is unfortunate, because it is a great game. I can still play, but only at 640x480. Anything higher just lags my system to no end.

Quake 4, well, no demo, no game, as far as I'm concerned. Once they release a demo, well, we'll see, but at this point, it had better be fucking spectacular, especially after the crapfest that was Doom 3.

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2005-10-20 11:28am

i need to to get myself a new graphics card, i have 1.5gigs of ram and an athlon xp3200 and the game runs fine.. but on 640X480.

I need to get me self something better than a geforce 5600fx

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-10-20 12:09pm

Okay, a little mini review:

+Fucking awesome firefights. This has been said a thousand times before, but the action in this is just plain great.
+The AI is the first I've ever seen in any game that acts intelligently without scripting. They flank, supress, retreat, and its a handful to keep them at bay even on moderate settings. Very cool.
+Kickass graphics, physics, and sounds.

-Repetitive level design gets old fast.
-Why the hell isn't my flashlight working when I load a saved game?

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2005-10-20 12:23pm

I think the FEAR AI has scored more team kills via poor grenade handling than it has managed to kill me with.

Sure chuck a grenade into a solid wall which I'm behind and there is no way the grenade can reach me.

Is it just me or does the AI say "shit" a lot when you hit the slow-mo and they are out in the open?

Julhelm · Post by **Julhelm** » 2005-10-20 01:22pm

Speaking of flashlights, why does every game have to do it so your flashlight only lasts for 30 seconds at a time? It's annoying as hell.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2005-10-20 01:47pm

Julhelm wrote:Speaking of flashlights, why does every game have to do it so your flashlight only lasts for 30 seconds at a time? It's annoying as hell.

Because software programmers haven't figured out a better way to mix ambiance, a sense of danger, and functional playability in a game. Although, to be fair to F.E.A.R., a lot of their scares rely on the use of lighting tricks, which your flashlight might spoil.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-10-20 02:28pm

Wow, MP is much better than I thought it would be. Very fast paced and fun.