Has anyone heard of the new game, F.E.A.R. (http://www.whatisfear.com/us/)?
It's a new FPS from Sierra and Monolith.
Here's what it says from their site:
QuoteYou aren't a soldier. You are a weapon.
F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) is an intense combat experience with rich atmosphere and a deeply intense paranormal storyline presented entirely in first person. Be the hero in your own spine-tingling epic of action, tension, and terror... and discover the true meaning of fear.
Hyper-stylized combat for breathtaking cinematic quality action
Gripping supernatural storyline for spine-tingling intensity of play
Multi-player action with multiple gameplay modes and all single player capabilities
Advanced graphics and physics for visceral movie-like experience
Enemies with special abilities and A.I. so intuitive it's like battling living, breathing players
"This game looks frighteningly good."
The trailer looks amazing and the demo is available here: http://www.whatisfear.com/us/demo.html
Mindnumbingly boring, slow, ugly and generic!
Leave LGM alone!
I'm downloading it now but I trust Ghormak's judgement to the ends of the earth, he's never steered me wrong in the past...
Except when he said Carnivores: Ice Age was "Actually kind of neat."
I'll grab it when it comes out. I've liked almost everything Monolith has released -- with the notable exception of Blood 2 (though that was redeemed with the add-on pack).
The game was well received at E3 and the trailers have really looked interesting to me. I haven't really liked many shooters since Half-Life or AvP2 so I have high hopes for this one.
- Ponch
Quote from: [lgm] on Sat 06/08/2005 18:04:23
It's a new FPS from Sierra and Monolith.
Sierra's dead. They've been dead for years. It annoys me so much when the name is used to sell games.
when was the name not used to sell games?
When my great-grandfather crossed the Sierra Nevadas by pack-mule. Everytime since then, only games.
I'm looking forward to the game if only for some WTF moments and hopefully a bit of genuine creepiness here or there. Since things have dried up so much on the adventure front (aside from half-assed Myst clones) it's left me with little interactive multimedia to enjoy.
I'd prefer something a touch deeper than an FPS but the last time I got my hopes up, it was for Deus Ex: Invisible War... 'nuf said.
Quote from: Helm on Sun 07/08/2005 16:11:53
when was the name not used to sell games?
THe name's always been used to sell games. But back in the 80s and early 90s, the games were actually made by people who worked for a company named Sierra. So they were called Sierra games. Now games are produced by smaller companies, then published by Vivendi Universal who bought out Sierra, and every so-often they'll slap the "Sierra" name on it. The game has nothing to do with the old company, but people will recognize the name, and buy the game.
So the name is being used to sell the game, and for nothing else. The game isn't affiliated with "Sierra" in anyway, and therefore shouldn't be called a Sierra game.
QuoteThe game has nothing to do with the old company, but people will recognize the name, and buy the game.
Are you serious? People who were into sierra's adventure game period got wiser after the last King's Quest game or something. Nobody will guy a game because it will have the sierra name on it thinking it will be an adventure game, or even good for that matter.
Quote from: Helm on Sun 07/08/2005 18:48:12
Are you serious? People who were into sierra's adventure game period got wiser after the last King's Quest game or something. Nobody will guy a game because it will have the sierra name on it thinking it will be an adventure game, or even good for that matter.
One of the last games Ken Williams was interested in when he was CEO of Sierra was an unknown game by a small company called Valve. The game was called Half-Life. Last I checked, it had the Sierra name on it. And I think the sequel did too.
"So, there's a new First Person Shooter coming out, and it has the name Sierra on it! Didn't Half-Life 2 have that name on it? Man, this is probably just like Half-Life 2!"
Sierra name being used to sell the game.
Got the demo yesterday and I must say they are doing a good job on it. There were some OH SHIT WTF WAS THAT moments that really set the mood. You have to get used to it in the beginning, but it looks pretty promising.
It's so... Far Cry in Doom 3
Pointless detail and hardcore CPU/Video load where it's not needed (human faces, sick lightning) and no light and detail where it IS actually needed (The map)... I felt sorry for my machine.
Bullet time? Seen it in Max Payne
Ragdoll physics? Seen it in Hitman and HL2
Bump/etc wonder mapping? *sigh*
Poinlessly megadetailed characters with 30000 vertices or something thus slowing CPU to ice age? Seen it in Far Cry, hated it
It seems like lots of tech wonders just thrown into a blender and added a bit of C code. AI didn't impress much neither... and my sound card produced painful noise all the time, though it's a good card and up to today's standards...
Also, what's this fever to throw video effects into games nowadays? All this noise and blur crap... my eyes hurt.
No, thanks.
I like the site (especially this trailer and music) but probably will never be able to play the game personally. Simply, I have an old and crappy Athlon 1GHz with GeForce 2 64MB card and 256MB of RAM abroad.
Althrough to me it seems that "F.E.A.R." will be just a copy of the excelent Doom3 with some new but sparse elements. Anyway, looking on screenshots of that vibe I'm thinking rather favourably:
(http://www.whatisfear.com/us/screens/images/FEAR02.jpg)
I was really impressed, pushed all other generic fps out of the window, with a really nice animation ... and then it ran round the corner to meet you without you having a chance to think.
The AI was most impressive, and i loved the bumpmapped bullet holes.
Played it and it did not disappoint. The AI was particularly impressive to me. The bad guys react to me differently every time I play it. The effects are nicely done and the mood is really creepy. I love the hell out of the slide kick/smg combo.
It's probably the most promising demo I've played since I played Half Life: Uplink way back when. I absolutely will buy this thing when in comes out in October.
As for what others have posted here:
I think it's more than a Doom 3 wannabe. Doom 3 was a Doom 1 wannabe. FEAR (I hope) will be what I wanted Doom 3 to be!
As for containing elements also seen in other games -- well, isn't that always the way? It's not like there's an unwritten rule that if somebody uses ragdoll then no-one else may ever use them again. Or that dynamic lighting is only up for grabs to the first person who uses it but then never again. Everything builds on whatever came before it. Innovation is using something you've seen before but using it at least as well as before and preferably better!
Honestly, after The Matrix, look how everybody started working "bullet time" into everything - even potato chip commercials! The trick is using it well! Atari's own Enter the Matrix game is a perfect example of how having a wicked set of tools at your disposal can still result in a crap game if you just throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks.
Half Life was a great game and really set the standard for a while there but (let's be honest), it wasn't very original. But by mixing together story elements of Stephen King, The Outer Limits, and The X-Files into the old-fashioned Doom experience and layering in some scripted sequences that were far above anything anyone else had done to that point, Valve took all the best bits of their predecessors efforts and produced something that was really interesting and forced everyone to play catch-up for the next few years. Now Half Life 2? That's a different story...
As for Sierra, that name should have been retired when the company ceased to exist (for all practical purposes). Using it now just seems like a cheap marketing tool. "Ooh, Sierra! They made Half Life! They're the roxXors!"
Of course, I think the LucasArts name should be retired too, so what do I know?
All in all, I'd recommend the FEAR demo to anybody who likes atmosphere, scares and gunfire. I hope the full game lives up to the promise.
- Ponch
Re: F.E.A.R. - If it's only brighter than Doom 3 it's infinitely better.
Re: Sierra - Well it's probably difficult to sell a company if you tell the buyers that they can't use the old name.
I too have played the demo now. I am impressed. The combat is slick and the bullet time is very fun. Sure, it's a "rehash" of what's come but I personally think that F.E.A.R is building on the success of Far Cry, Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, not leeching off them.
I can't wait for the release of this game. I'm sure it will be mega-awesome. (But a 700MB download for the demo was quite annoying.. I barely got to play anything.
700 Mbs for a TINY bit of gameplay? Oh great... 5-8 CD game, here we come!!
*SIGH*, DVDs were invented for a reason...
Who said the game wasn't coming out on DVD?
Why are you so die-hard against this game? Did Monolith ill your aunt or something?
maybe the game just sucks
Not if there's a Hot Cocoa Hack.
Sierra is developing a game again? Or just publishing?
Publishing. It's developed by Monolith.
Exactly. Sierra didn't develop Half Life either. Valve did. If someone, anyone bought a FPS going 'OMG SIERRA LOGO, MUST BE GOOD LIKE HALF-LIFE' well... let's just say it's an argument for stupidity, not marketing ploys.
I'm not against the game, Im just saying that it sucks that:
A) The Sierra name is still being used despite the company being dead.
B) Developers don't put mainstream games on DVD.
Seriously, what was the last FPS you bought that came on a DVD, not including special editions of the game?
Unreal Tournament 2004 was the last boxed game I got, I think. DVD.
I think HL2 came both ways.
Far Cry was released exclusively on DVD in Europe and exclusively on 5 CDs in America. Apparently some guy looked at some statistics and thought this was a good idea.
Well, I just played the demo, and didn't really like it. Nothing new gamplay wise, in my opinion. Just felt bland.
I kinda liked the demo [strike 2 Ghormak], while I won't be buying the game because eh, I don't have high hopes for the story [creepy long haired girl, genetically enginieered super soldier dreams, walls dripping with blood...]
I liked how it seemed like my bullets were really hitting the bad guys and they weren't just standing there eating my bullets and firing back at me until their health reached zero.
However why did a guy explode into a huge spray of blood after I shot him in the head? The world may never know...
Well if you used that particle gun, you can look real closely and see that in fact you skeletize him.
But I didn't, I used the pistol and shot the first dude I saw in the head, he exploded into 8 parts and painted the room a nice shade of crimson...
Best pistol ever! Who needs any other gun!
662 Bloody MB, for a demo? They aren't getting smaller...
You guys should know better than to talk about FPS in a adventure game community. Shame on you. I'm downloading the demo and will leave feedback in 2045 when this download finishes.
Europe gets more DVD games than USA because we welcome new technology :P
last dvd game i got was battlefield 2
I like DVD versions, its the only way to go. I have the DVD version of Farcry, Half Life 2, UT2004, etc... Its just better for when you are installing the game, you dont have to switch 6 CD's every 10 minutes. :P
Curse you eric! I'll have you worshipping my opinion yet!
The spooky bits just seem tacked on. I know I have to fight soldiers in standard FPS style, these "scary things" aren't going to hurt me! If the game was ALL about paranormal things, then maybe it would be nice, yes. But as it is now, it just feels like a standard "shoot everything" game with some bad Japanese horror movie clichés thrown in.
Can I have some scary games where you don't use any weapons, please?
You could try Fatal Frame 1 and 2 for the PS2. You only get to use a camera.
Well, designwise the Fatal Frame (known as Project Zero in Europe) camera is just gun in disguise. "Shooting" the ghosts with your camera was just as repititious as blowing away zombies in any other survival horror game imho. The games' main achivements are that they have so FEW enemies compared to other games. You spend most of the time waiting for something to happen, but it doesn't, and then, just as you thought you were safe...
I liked the technology of the F.E.A.R demo, and the AI seemed pretty good. Still, it's nothing you haven't seen in Half-Life 2 and other "elite soldiers invading a secret reseach installation" games. The "boss soldier" with the armor just felt plain wrong in a game like this. The horror scenes worked well, but they are very Max Payne dream sequence-like. Nothing new there. As for the story, can we assume that the little girl is the madman's sister and they were both taken in as test subject as children? The girl died from the experiments and the boy eventually went mad. Now she's a ghost helping him to take revenge on those resposible?
as I was going to write but didn't want to get into a THING about it, I agree, Ghormak, as we've said on many occassions I usually play an FPS game that I find interesting and think "But what if I didn't have any guns?"
Not because I hate shooting things [far from it! Ask me about my Hobo-Nose collection!] It's just that I'm tired of the 1 level of interaction I get from high profile first person games. That 1 level being "BULLET".
So what I guess I'm saying is that I like the demo because shooting people felt different, but there's no reason to continue playing the game in my opinion.
I just played the demo and have to agree with what the others here said before.
It has nothing new to offer, the only thing that is outstanding in this game is how shameless it copies other people's ideas. The bullet time is almost exactly like in Max Payne and it copies a lot of other Half-Life stuff. This long haired girl reminds me totally of The Ring.
Seems like those developers don't get paid for creativity or originality anymore. Time for me to make one of those. Aw, where did I leave that introduction to OpenGL again.....
Horror, sci-fi, or whatnot, what I'm really wanting in an FPS is an FPS-and-then-some. If it aped the interactivity of Deus Ex or even System Shock 2, it'd be a must-play for me. Gasping until the reflex to pop-outs dies off and shooting everything in sight doesn't sound like a good time (unless it's in real-life).
I downloaded the demo, damn man if you want to shit your pants this is the game to play, probably the scariest first person shooter I ever played.
Oh? Ever played System Shock 2?
Actually no, but by the sound if it I really need to :)