Be Excellent To Each Other

The demo's hit Live and I've had a play.

First impressions:

oooh.. arrrgghh...fuck me! wow! dakka-dakka-dakka, eeek!

Seriously:

Enemy AI: Present and correct, the first FEAR was king of making you paranoid, this seems to be continuing the trend.
Spookyness: far more on the freaky scale, the jump scares and visions are there still, but there seems to be far more 'real world' paranormal activity, things moving around etc.
Weaponry: Mostly the usual FPS fare. Nice meaty shotgun, and a laser, which seems like it might be interesting. Oh. Big stompy mech too.
Controls: Seem like they might need a touch of tightening up, but I didn't mess with the settings. Some nice touches, like how your character vaults through windows, rather than having to fiddle around jumping through them normally.
Graphics: excellent. Interesting use of colour.

Seems pretty good!

But it still features evil little girls with posh voices, which makes anything shit.

I've finally got around to playing the first game today. It's quite fun, but the bad guys take about a million bullets before they slump to their knees.

As a big fan of the original (and even FEAR Files, which is more enjoyable than many would dare to say), I was underwelmed by the demo. Movement seems slower than before and a bit clunky-er. Dunno why though. I think I might go back and have another look at it, as I had a crack at it during the day and the curtains were open and the screen was a bit hard to see. Like the original, it'll be loads better played in a dark room with the sound up.

Major plus points though for correcting FEAR's shitest elements: Having to press X to pick up anything rather than just walking over it; subtitles for the great sounding but incomprehensible messages; being aware that you're getting tapped up with bloody splashes rather than your health counter just zipping down with little warning.

Shit bits: The new health bar, which I couldn't understand; seemed harder to frag the baddies into bloody messes even with a close-up shotgun blast through the cranium; the sights on the assault rifle - too obstructive and clearly nicked wholesale from Condemned 2 - never, EVER, a good thing; the robot suit thing which was just boring.

I'm quite looking forward to it though. The replica's must surely be up there in terms of terrifying design and sound with Killzone's baddies. Colour me interested.

Umm, I'm playing the first one now. You can either press X to pick things up, or just walk over them... as long as they're already in your inventory. If you're going to discard a weapon to pick up a different one, it forces you to press X.

I quite enjoyed this demo. I played the first one and was a bit nonplussed by it all but this seems much improved. The scary bits seem a bit scarier, they just weren't in the first game. It's a definite one to pick up when it's £20 or less.

Is it still entirely set in a painstakingly generic industrial estate like the first one was?

Also: I've heard disturbing rumours that you can't karate kick people in the chops any more (AND IN THE GAME), any truth to that?

The demo is set in a school of some kind and then you get in a big robot and walk around the streets blowing stuff up.

Does this have zombies/aliens and such? I'm bored witless of FPSs which rely to a great extent on little monsters or aliens jumping out at you.

It has bad men and ghosts.

I liked it, but slo-mo mode seems borked compared to the first game.

I'm not quite sure what they are as I tend to largely ignore the actual plots in games. But yes, there's supernatural stuff leaping around a lot. Ghosts or some such. It's very well done though and quite unnerving.

It scares the fuck out of me! The first one did as well.

Strange. I remember it differently. Even the boosters and bodyarmour?

P.S. If you want some FEAR multiplayer action sometime this week, hit me up!

Yep, everything. Perhaps they patched it to add in that support. I'd be up for some multiplayer, deffo.

So, Eurogamer have given it 5/10, despite the review reading like a solid 7/10 all the way through. I'm currently near the end of the first game, and I have to say I love it (then again, I do like my corridor shooters).

My opinion thus far: s'very good indeed.

I can't decide which version to get though: PS3 or 360?

Why, oh WHY, OH WHY, does the PS3 version only support up to 720p (according to the back of the box) whereas the 360 supports up to 1080p? Does this matter? Which version is better? Is there anyway to find out by resorting to some kind of site that does a compare and contrast? Can anyone tell me what that site is? etc...

I've been looking at the back of PS3 boxes a lot these days and it appears that most PS3 games only display up to 720p. I though the PS3 had the best display ... um ... technical thingys. It's got that Blue Stringray thing in it so surely it'll do 1080p without breaking into a sweat.

Anyone know anything about this?

Might be better to hold off to see if the multiplayer is any cop, apparently theyve done a point experience kind of game ala call of duty so might be decent for bexxie stuff. Otherwise I'd imagine this is the type of game that will drop to 20quid soon enough.

Yeah, isn't it because developers find it really difficult to work with the PS3, and in order to get decent framerates, etc, they have to use 720p resolution.

Tbh, I don't think it matters much. Most 360 games are native 720p anyway.

played the demo and thought it was shit. Basically the combat doesn't feel as tight as the first one, and the enemy AI is also much inferior.

Besides, the game as some consolitis problems. Impossible to keybind extra mouse buttons, horrible HUD, simplistic textures (the whole game looks outdated). And the ghost parts are also less effective than the first. The fact that they can attack you was a bad move.

Yeah, because a PC game can suffer from an inflamed consol. Whatever that is.

Weirdly, I really didn't like the demo of this. Whether it's because it's a demo, I'm not sure, but it felt unfinished, and it didn't "handle" very well as a shooter - like the FPS equivalent of a Chevrolet. Also - too much reliance on darkness and "boo!" jumpyness.

To be fair, I didn't like the demo of the original game all those years ago, but I love the full game.

Yeah, the demo is basically a collection of setpieces from all through the game, lumped into one level.

Yeah, I guessed that, as they did that with the first game's demo. They should really stop it.

CASTING: R A I S E D E A D on thread.

I'm actually playing through this again, as it is such a solid shooter, initially spurred on by that DLC (which is alright, but too short, and seems to consist of 'right you know those horrid things in the campain which were hard to kill on their own... now try doing it with abominations/ninjas too!' The story is interesting though, and could have repercussions for FEAR3
, but is probably not worth the Microsoft Moon Money.

Yes, fucking solid shooter.

This is for sale for 12.95*. Worth it?

*http://www.thegamecollection.net/fear-xbox-p-2744.html

I'd snap it up at that price!

It's one of the best games I've played on the 360. Well worth £13. I shouldn't have sold it.

Cool, ordered it shall be.

Mine came today. On a whopping two dual layered DVDs. This will take a while. Doesn't help the activation code was fucking misprinted though. The G looked dead like a 6. Assholes.

Install - 12gb
Install gave me 91% of the latest updated game.
198kb download speed, game will be ready to play in 2 hours and 43 mins. That's one almighty fucking update. About 3gb methinks.

Well, it was worth the wait. I like this game. Good olde worlde FPS. It runs really well too, cranked everything to max and have never seen less than the cap (60FPS).

I don't like the weapons very much. They feel too light and the sounds are pathetic, but I do love the freaky weird cut scenes. They are just building the tension as to what the fuck's going on.

I likey. A lot.

Holy shit this game is nothing short of spectacular.

I had a four hour session on it last night and it's just superb. I am becoming strangely compelled by Alma. I just want to see more of her. It's very clever how you never get a proper glimpse. I think they stole the idea from The Ring tbh. I switched my headphones into 5.1 last night and honestly I just couldn't get enough. I must have jumped out of my seat at least three times.

Best moment so far was the horror filled strobe lit scene. Absolutely jaw dropping.

http://www.beexcellenttoeachother.com/forum/download/file.php?id=4751&mode=view

Is it like Limbo then? Man, I gots to plays it if it is...DEFO.

Um, no. Very much not.

From the opening level you are taken to that weird world. As the game progresses Alma shows up. Sometimes she lays on an attack but it's obvious she doesn't want you dead.

The ending is absolutely cracking...



Creepy, weird, but ultimately absolutely fantastic. I really enjoyed it, and for a fiver delivered it was the best 7 hours I have had since I finished Mirror's Edge (last week )

Oh. I enjoyed it so much I put a bid down for the original (99p) and won !

I don't know how I managed to completely miss the original game. Looking at the release dates though it would have been right around the time the wife buggered off. At that time I had a shite celeron D based PC with onboard video and was moving around a lot.

It's better on the 360, mind.

Just to warn you the first is a very different game, taking part in what is essentially a largely identikit office environment for the bulk of the game. It's also a lot harder than the sequel, but it does have the same decent AI though the enemies are a bit like bullet sponges. Still, for 99p I don't think you'll have much to complain about.

Sounds good to me. The only gripe I have with the second is the fact that there are med packs everywhere. This made it a little easy, tbh it was just a romp through and I only died twice by accidentally standing next to gas bottles. The only enemies that really sucked were the electric clones. Absolute fuckers they were !

I hear in the first one there's more Alma and more story, and you turn out to be her son. In the second -



I had this feeling of intuition from the beginning about Alma. For some reason I didn't find her scary and had a feeling she was really sad. My instincts turned out to be correct too

If the first is harder I will be a happy bunny. More than seven hours would be great Does it have the mech scenes where you just go balls out and smash and blow up everything? God those scenes were amazing in the second.

I also loved the nuke part, and how later in the game people were frozen into ash statues. The part where you go to ground zero and see all of the spirits whisping around sent tingles down my spine.

Alot of the variety is missing from the first and it's a much longer game as it's much much harder. I don't think I ever finished it. It's good, but a little monotonous IIRC. YMMV

I played all the way through Doom 3. TBH there really isn't anything more boring and monotonous than that

I'll give it a bash. It was less than £2 all in and builds my collection

kinda want to try fear 2 now. I liked 1 at the time, think ive still got the retail version somewhere.

edit: found:)

That's how I found the first, too, and likewise never managed to bother completing it. I was a little hesitant to buy the second game, but it turned out to be miles better. I enjoyed FEAR 2 a lot.

I just thought of something else. I know where they got a part of the story from.

Years ago it was headline news in the U.S.A that there was a little girl (who oddly looks like Alma) who could see the dead. They made a documentary about it. Any way, the similarity is that -


I'm pretty sure that's where they stole the storyline from tbh.

As she grows up it obviously leans heavily on The Ring for ideas and looks, but the early story really reminded me of that little girl

Get it. IMO it pisses on Crysis for play and story. In parts it even looks way better too, with minimal strain put on the GPU.

There were many things in it that I have not seen before tbh. All of which made it well worthwhile.

Hey John, I don't know about the PC but the 360 has some DLC for it in the form a further Act that expands on the story.

I can't remember what it was called but it's pretty decent and another couple of hours playtime.

Here we go, it's called FEAR 2: Reborn and is available on Steam.

Also, the first FEAR's ending is one of my all time favourites. It just works.

Yeah I will get that soon

The ending in FEAR 2 is just awesome tbh.. God I can't wait for the first one to arrive now !

I think it was me crowing about how good FEAR 2 was that tipped you over. Along with Dead Space it was one of my games of last year (when I played it, obviously — I'm constantly dismayed to find games came out much earlier than I thought and I'm not bothering to check and find out that they both possibly came out in 2008!)