F.E.A.R. 2 PC demo

[GundamSonicZeroX]

Originally posted by: error8
it's an intensive old school F.E.A.R.

Since when was F.E.A.R. old school?

 

[colonel]

wow you call your ring old!! I m running a ring with 4 years old part (K8v, agp) and is playing good

 

[MBrown]

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: 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?

Its probably dipping to like 55 or something and then with vsync sans triple buffering its going to drop to 30. With triple buffering it would go to 40 I think?

Originally posted by: CrystalBay
Are you guys running it with vsync on or off ? Monolith sure did pack a lot of action in this demo. I keep finding new items and scares ....

I tried turning vsync off and it didn't effect my frames at all. I also noticed that even at 4xAA I still see lots of jaggies.

 

[cheapherk]

Short-short demo, but it was fun.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Monolith needs to put out a resolution patch or they might as well stop developing for PC; if they can't get it to run properly at heavily used monitor resolutions (eg 1680x1050), then they shouldn't bother. This is why GTA4 is pissing me off - PCs were obviously an afterthought.

I'm seriously considering just getting a console instead of overhauling my PC over and over (after all, a new 360 can be bought for the price of a decent video card now).

Edit:

The only problem is the PC version still plays better. I tried it on my 360 and the PC frame rate is much higher, not to mention it looks a tad bit better on the PC. and you have the KBM.

Really? That's ridiculous. I mean, any gaming PC is more powerful than a 360. But I find it amazing that the developers can fuck up such simple finishing touches (leaning, resolution, stuttering) with such a powerful platform. I wouldn't mind if they had beta-tested this another couple months to get rid of those flaws - I trusted the Monolith name based on how awesome the first F.E.A.R. was. But I've lost some respect.

 

[Fenixgoon]

i'm guessing the stuttering is from auto-save, maybe? otherwise, i haven't had any problems on my rig, and it's not powerful by any means.

 

[EnzoLT]

wow..from the looks of it, another disappointing game, just like far cry 2.....whats going on in the world?!?!!

 

[novasatori]

I thought the demo was amazing, but I played it on a 360.

 

[CrystalBay]

Adding that no grain filter line to the default arc.cfg , has made a very noticeable improvement in the visuals... Anyone else try it

 

[potato28]

I'm gonna try it, never was a fan of the 1st FEAR but I don't mind trying the demo's.

 

[Piuc2020]

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
I'm seriously considering just getting a console instead of overhauling my PC over and over (after all, a new 360 can be bought for the price of a decent video card now).

The thing is, while the PC versions of these console games suck... the console versions are even worse

 

[TheUnk]

Personally I like the film grain, but it really should be optional.

The 1 second pauses is unacceptable and I won't buy this game just because of that if it isn't fixed. It really kills the immersion.

Where the hell is the lean?!?!

 

[Molondo]

I just finished the demo. It feels kind of "arcade"y to me. i still enjoyed it.

 

[geoffry]

I ran it at 1920 X 1200 no problem, I'm not sure what widescreen resolution issues you all are speaking of.

I found the image grain to be a bit annoying though as well.

 

[geoffry]

Originally posted by: Molondo
I just finished the demo. It feels kind of "arcade"y to me. i still enjoyed it.

I agree, the gameplay did have an arcade-ish feeling.

 

[spacecowboy9891]

I don't know about you guys but my entire body filled with chill bumps when I entered the hallway and adjacent rooms filled with those freaky smoke monster things. Jesus and the way that little hussie jumped at you after going through the movie screen. Games like this make horror movies seem not scary. They did a really good job on the way the bodies interact with bullets. Like cutting a guy in half with the robot. YEA!!!!

 

[NoSoup4You]

I played this for about 5 minutes and immediately uninstalled it. The headache it gave me still hasn't gone away though...

Awful game.

 

[ibex333]

I didn't like it.. It just doesn't have the "feel" of the original. Feels like it belongs only on consoles.

The scares are again "shock" type scares, which heavily depend on surprise and constant darkness. There is no "creepy" or "spooky" feeling like in some other games. No feeling of "horror". No "atmosphere". It's all "boo!" type stuff. Off course if I'll be walking through a pitch black hallway and Alma will jump out at me with her claws I will gasp and jump. But I want a constant grip of paranoia and fear that I had in STALKER COH while in Agroprom tunnels...

That being said, I enjoyed the original FEAR, if only for the intense firefights with the clone soldiers. In this FEAR2 demo, these soldiers are just not the same. It has more of a cartoon feel - not as "serious" as the original. Nice touch on the mech fights, but I wish the interior of the mech was more sophisticated with well modeled interface. Right now, it feels quite primitive, like it was taken out of the original Descent game...

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: geoffry
I ran it at 1920 X 1200 no problem, I'm not sure what widescreen resolution issues you all are speaking of.

I found the image grain to be a bit annoying though as well.

Ya I'm not sure why people keep saying you can't run resolutions higher than 1280x720 or whatever. The demo does support higher resolutions like 1920x1200, although its like Assassin's Creed where its really 1920x1080. You have to side-scroll to "Yes", then hit "Enter" for the new resolution to apply itself. Verified the different resolutions with screenshots as well as FRAPs FPS performance differences.

Also if you're having trouble with sound, disable all sound devices in control panel/sound properties except for whatever device you want to output sound through.

I found the demo to be pretty good, action packed for such a short run through. I really liked how they let you use a large variety of weapons. Gun play is a bit more arcadey than normal but overall I found the responsiveness to be good. I think the main thing that makes it arcadey is the lack of drift when aiming with a scope.

Demo itself seemed like 2 very different games almost, the dark, scary, immersive beginning, and the open arcade-like action with the armored combat suit. I think I enjoyed the second part more.

 

[Piuc2020]

The resolution works no doubt about that... but the FOV and the aspect ratio are messed up, not to mention we shouldn't have to deal with letterbox on real-time rendering.

Hopefully Monolith will fix the game for release or at least have a patch on day one.

 

[ShawnD1]

The link in the OP sucks. I downloaded the entire thing then it says the file size doesn't match and the download file is deleted (firefox). Oh and download managers don't work for that site, so that's just great.

Here is the torrent link if anybody wants it.

 

[MarcVenice]

First of all, I've been playing the retail version for about a week now, it's steam-based and given out to review the game for the PC.

I've read some comments about the game pausing. I've noted the same thing to some extent, but it usually only happens when saving and/or loading new content. Throughout normale gameplay, firefights etc, I've noticed no stuttering/pausing. In the EPA I've also noticed no pausing at all. Besides that, I'm not very sensitive to the widescreen issues or the film grain filter. Maybe I'll try fixing it and see if I really notice a difference.

So, if those two are your biggest complaints, I wouldn't worry to much about it. The gameplay is pretty good, at Hard it's enough of a challenge, but doesn't have you loading savegame all the time. The different enemy's are also pretty cool, with only the puppetmaster being a bit dissapointing, all he needs is 500 rounds, but he barely deals damage. The spectres can be really creepy, and with Alma jumping you out of nothing, this game will have you on the edge of your seat quite a few times. I particularly like the cloaked enemy's, who jump all over the place, including the ceiling, ninja-style, and if you don't watch out, they'll quickly get the best of you.

Performance wise this game runs very smooth. These numbers are with a single HD4850, oc-ed to 700/1100, with 4xaa/4xaf @ 1680*1050. Sure it's no Crysis, but for this horror-like FPS it works just fine. All in all I'm looking at a favorable review.

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
1107, 18928, 41, 62, 58.485

 

[nOOky]

The demo was okay. I am not the type to get spooked or scared by a pc game, but it was fun. I had fairly bad stuttering/pausing throughout, and it didn't seem connected to autosaves. Could be a driver issue or game beta bug maybe. I killed as many rats as I could, but the buggers kept coming back
I had the brightness a bit higher than normal, I don't really care for walking around with a flashlight on in games. The film graininess was acceptable, I assume that was the look they were going for. It kind of reminded me of a cross between the Half Life engine and UT3 IMHO.
I'll probably buy or borrow it, just to play through the whole game.

 

[Piuc2020]

I played it on my PS3 just for kicks and at least the PC version felt like it had tougher enemies and different enemy density so at least the difficulty wasn't ported over as well (even though Hard is still a bit too much on the easy side) and it does have MUCH better graphics so it's not all bad.

If the fov and letterbox is fixed then I'll definitely buy it, the gameplay is great even if it's not as great as the first FEAR so far.

 

[NYHoustonman]

Given what I've read in this thread, I was pleasantly surprised when I actually fired the demo up. Granted I only played about 10 minutes, but it seems like a game I could get into (I loved the original and first XP).