F.E.A.R. SP Demo

[jackrabbit]

I just played the (short) F.E.A.R. demo (http://www.whatisfear.com/us/demo.html). It's more of the FarCry/Doom 3/Prey eye candy where science/hell/supernatural meets nature.

It looks prettier than Doom3 by a wide margin. It has some really wicked effects such as the damage decals appear 3D. It has volumetric fog and lighting, so firefights cause dust to rise. The guns are good choices for an FPS, and you can only carry 3, so you have to choose wisely. The gameplay reminded me of Killzone, a PS2 game that wen't overlooked. The gunfights were fast and furious, the enemy was (scripted) smart, diving over stair railings, tipping over cover, sniping. Overall I think this might be a pretty good game.

However, while even the minimal settings look pretty good, you'll need a hefty video card to really appreciate it. To get all the pretty, I had to play at 800x600 for the first time since I got my Radeon 9800.

Lasty thing... while the screenshots you may have seen make it look like a sci-fi shooter, it played more like a survival horror game interspersed with Half-Life-like gun battles. I liked it, but I fucking hate anticipating what and when something is going to scare me. It was more like Max Payne meets Silent Hill scary, less like jump out at you constantly Doom 3 scary.

If anyone else plays the demo, let me know your thoughts.

[pogozorro]

I'll give it a try tomorrow when I get back to my desktop. My laptop's 9700 is getting long in the tooth for brand new games.

[Medic]

I'm having a bit of an odd reaction to the demo; when I light the game up, the screen goes blac for about a second, then goes directly to a web page.

Anyone else have that problem?

Oh, and directx is just dl'd this morning, I'm running a 2.0ghz laptop (yea, I know) with 512 ram, on xp.

[Asuka]

it's really really short (the demo). at least from what i heard while the bf played it - i get startled easily and i don't like to wet my pants on the weekends, if i can help it

[Circuit]

I liked it. About the only thing I disliked was the fact that I couldn't choose 1280x1024, which seems just insane given the number of LCD monitors there are out there. It ran pretty well at 1252x864, though I had to turn down some of the fancier effects a little.

But the game seems pretty cool so far. It has the right amount of creepy moments instead of things just jumping out from the darkness all the time. It has absolutely great lighting, although I had to play with the gamma settings a bit because the dark areas just seemed way too dark. Also, the particle railgun thing has one of the cooler effects in an FPS weapon I've seen. It's neat watching the ripple effects from the grenades, too.

[F7]

Had a fun time with the short demo. The game was gorgeous but like Circuit I was disappointed in the lack of 1280x1024 resolution.

I do have a X800 XT 256MB card so no problems there. I did get some stutter occasionally especially when that dude breaks through the wall. I think at this point my processor is my bottleneck. Time to go the AMD 64/FX route soon.

[armerius]

fantastic demo.. nothing beats the fear experienced from the original Aliens Vs Predator.. but this had some genuinly creepy moments...

running it on my Xp2600 with a Radeon 9800 pro (128 meg)... it ran just dandy @ 800x600... real purty like.

and the sound... wow... i LOVED the sound effects in this game.. finally took advantage of the Audigy 2 zs... good 5.1 sound.

[sdrosenb]

looking forward to trying it out-- once its done downloading-- thankfully the simpsons and family guy are keepng me distracted

l

[Paladin]

It looks interesting, but I'll have to wait for Western Digital to get their s**t together and get my warranty replacement hard drive here before I can download it. Apparently they have staffed their shipping department with people who can't read, because I got someone else's drive and a third person got mine. The saga continues...

[jackrabbit]

What I didn't realize until early this morning, the version of DirectX 9c it asks you to install broke a bunch of stuff on my PC. After a reboot I had nothing but errors. It was to the point I thought I'd have to reformat.

However, several reboots later, a full uninstall of DirectX, then a reinstall from the website, and a 3 hour scandisk for good measure, my 3d apps all work again.

:(