F.E.A.R. 2 PC demo

[MBrown]

Its out now at the usual places.

I have a pretty old system and I was able to play this game very smoothly @ 1680x1050 with Maximum settings and 4xAA. Very impressed. The demo itself is amazing. But there are a few issues I have.

It seems bit portish because for one, every aspect ratio other than 16:9 is letterboxed to 16:9 and it seems a little hard trying navigate the interface with the KB/M. Also like I said before the game plays very smooth on my system except for these random 1 second pauses every minute. Its strange because the game runs so well except for these hiccups.

I give the demo a 8/10 for the hiccups, letterboxing, and console-ish interface.

Hopefully these issues will be addressed in the retail version.

System specs so you can see what I was running it with.

C2D E4500 @ 2.93GHz (266x11)
Gigabyte P35-DS3L Rev 2.0
4GB Corsair XMS2 @ 800MHz
500GB WD Cavalier Black
eVGA 8800gts 640MB @ 620/940
Memorex DVD Burner
Antec P182 With 500W Antec NeoHE
AC7 HS/F
22" LG LCD (1680x1050)

Download link for teh lazy.

What Monolith says about recommended screen resolutions. (Officially a port)

In order to get the best game play experience, it is not recommended to run F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin at high resolutions. You should avoid resolutions above 1024x768 for 4:3 displays, 1280x768 for 16:10 displays, and 1280x720 for 16:9 displays on any current generation card.

 

[Quizard]

Thanks

 

[shortylickens]

The devs made it pretty clear over the years that they think consoles are the big money now.
Everything they make is aimed at the console crowd. They dont even put the extra effort into improved controls and menus for the computer.

Shame. Monolith made some awesome PC games in the past.
I'll try the demo but if its infected with consolitis I probably wont buy.

 

[BassBomb]

Hahah your rig isn't old.

I can't wait to check this out tonight!

 

[MBrown]

After some investigation I have found out that Monolith recommends a resolution of 1280x768 16:10 monitors. I tried this and indeed the letterbox bars were cut in half but they are still there. Also the FPS is pretty much a constant 60 with my rig with that resolution except for times where it seems the FPS is capped at 30FPS. This is very annoying because it breaks the smoothness. F.E.A.R. pretty much had perfect resolution support. Why take a step down Monolith?

 

[Oyeve]

Sweet! Now I can compare this demo the the 360 demo and whichever plays better gets bought!

 

[error8]

I like the demo, it's an intensive old school F.E.A.R experience and very enjoyable. But, yes, the consolish aspect is very annoying. First of all, who on earth would play on a PC this game at 1280X768. Hello Monolith, we are in 2009 not in 1998!!! The aspect of 16:9 I'd guess that would probably be fixed, with a patch or on widescreengaming forum.

What scares me is the very annoying and omnipresent hickups. The game just freezes every couple of seconds and that is not normal for a rig like mine. This could be a problem if the game is released with it.

 

[coloumb]

Warning - the demo is 1.76GB! Let's just hope it lasts longer than 2 minutes...

And didn't the original FEAR stutter every now and then as well?

 

[Quizard]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
Sweet! Now I can compare this demo the the 360 demo and whichever plays better gets bought!

dont judge the demo its not the final release

 

[BassBomb]

So you guys are saying it runs at 1280x768 and is upscaled to 1680x1050 with black bars
OR it just runs at 1280x768 and has black bars on sides and top bottom

 

[MBrown]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
So you guys are saying it runs at 1280x768 and is upscaled to 1680x1050 with black bars
OR it just runs at 1280x768 and has black bars on sides and top bottom

Upscaled. But its retarded because its not even the correct ratio yet Monolith recommends. it...

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: MBrown

Originally posted by: BassBomb
So you guys are saying it runs at 1280x768 and is upscaled to 1680x1050 with black bars
OR it just runs at 1280x768 and has black bars on sides and top bottom

Upscaled. But its retarded because its not even the correct ratio yet Monolith recommends. it...

Wow thats retarded,

I wonder what will do a better job of upscaling, the games engine, my monitor, or my graphics card .. I will have to test this out lest I want to play 1280x720 centered :S

 

[imported_Imp]

I think I'll pass. If the review are good, I'll pick it up at a reduced price. The first one was good until the office levels...ugh.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: Quizard

Originally posted by: Oyeve
Sweet! Now I can compare this demo the the 360 demo and whichever plays better gets bought!

dont judge the demo its not the final release

I know that. But I am interested in seeing which demo got the love and attention and which one didnt.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Originally posted by: Quizard

Originally posted by: Oyeve
Sweet! Now I can compare this demo the the 360 demo and whichever plays better gets bought!

dont judge the demo its not the final release

In't the entire point of a demo so you can judge the game?

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: SMOGZINN

Originally posted by: Quizard

Originally posted by: Oyeve
Sweet! Now I can compare this demo the the 360 demo and whichever plays better gets bought!

dont judge the demo its not the final release

In't the entire point of a demo so you can judge the game?

No, it's more like to make an idea about the gameplay, graphics and so on.

 

[rstrohkirch]

Is that sarcasm because I couldn't actually tell.

Also, a demo SHOULD be based off final release. They should be demonstrating the product they intend on selling, which is not a beta build. Finalize the game, release a demo with limited content. If it's a demo, and not a beta or RC, then I certainly will be using it to make a purchasing decision.

 

[rstrohkirch]

dp

 

[nova2]

youtube fear 2

seemingly looks good & fun to say the least

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: rstrohkirch
Is that sarcasm because I couldn't actually tell.

Also, a demo SHOULD be based off final release. They should be demonstrating the product they intend on selling, which is not a beta build. Finalize the game, release a demo with limited content. If it's a demo, and not a beta or RC, then I certainly will be using it to make a purchasing decision.

Completely agree, but unfortunately this is not always the case. The worst case of this from recent memory was Hellgate, which had a absolutely horrible demo and an equally horrible full game (well it was actually fun for a while to be fair), but horrible in an entirely different way than the demo.

KT

 

[Miklebud]

Why don't you download the game and play it, before forming an opinion?

I just played through the demo. It ran beautifully and looked great; max settings at 4xAA. Although I did have to deal with the black bars on the top an bottom at 1680x1050. That's stupid.
I really enjoyed it, but I did like the original FEAR. I don't know if I'll end up buying it right away, but it sure was a fun demo.

 

[dguy6789]

Doesn't even support 1680x1050? What a joke. Not even going to bother downloading this demo or buying the game. I was really looking forward to this game too, how sad.

 

[Molondo]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
Doesn't even support 1680x1050? What a joke. Not even going to bother downloading this demo or buying the game. I was really looking forward to this game too, how sad.

It doesn't? While that sucks, i won't let them stop me from buying it. I love this series.

 

[Piuc2020]

Originally posted by: Molondo

Originally posted by: dguy6789
Doesn't even support 1680x1050? What a joke. Not even going to bother downloading this demo or buying the game. I was really looking forward to this game too, how sad.

It doesn't? While that sucks, i won't let them stop me from buying it. I love this series.

I love it too but the main dev platform should be PC like the first F.E.A.R, the PC shouldn't just be the "afterthought" platform.

I hate Halo, I hate it with a passion, it popularized FPS on consoles and it dumbed down the whole damn genre.

Well I'm still downloading the demo so hopefully the gameplay will hold up.

 

[BassBomb]

the HUD sucks
feels really fisheyed FOV when playing through the game so far at either 1680x1050 or 1280x720
crosshair looks stretched already horizontally

ill have to get used to it