FEAR, like I said, looks plastic. The enviroments at least.


I thought it was amazing in screenshots, not so sold in practice.



Which hurts it a lot. The last movie I saw of it had a guy driving a car into the prop of a helicopter. Idiotic. Will be hard for me to enjoy a game where your character does something so stupid yet expects to live.


Still have some high hopes, but seeing the engine in action has hindered them quite a bit.

I'll acknowledge that Monolith has never really been known for good multiplayer...

NOLF 2 co-op mode is the best commercial co-op FPS game mode I have played. There aren't many maps, but the ones there are are quite fun.

The graphics aren't that great, yet you need a fucking supercomputer to run it decently.

I disagree with most of what you said, but the second half of that statement is dead on. I actually think FEAR's graphics are pretty good (especially the character models and animation on which Monolith almost always does a good job), but the current FEAR multiplayer beta performs horribly. Even at the lowest quality settings and resolution, the game is still unplayably slow on my best PC (which admittedly is two years old). However, that same PC can run Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 at playable framerates, and those games look visually better than FEAR given the settings used.

Monolith has made some nice feature improvements with FEAR over its previous games, but the game needs work in the performance department.

q[You forgot the delicious, authentic Mexican food available nearly everywhere for really cheap. :-)]

The Mexican food in San Diego is hardly authentic. That is, unless you consider anything bland and greasy to be authentic. Everyone in San Diego seems to love Roberto's when it comes to Mexican food, and that is about as far from authentic as it gets.

Monolith could never make a solid game engine.

Actually, the Jupiter engine was great. Looked great, ran great. If you call NOLF plain crap, please explain why. I'll concede that the game had a shitty engine and that it dragged on for a bit too long, but the overall gameplay was good stuff. NOLF2 only improved on its predecessor, in terms of both gameplay and game engine.

There's no logical reason to expect anything but more crap.

Actually, there's a perfectly logical reason to expect something good by Monolith, given their solid track record. AvP2 and Tron 2.0 were both solid titles. The only recent game to disappoint was The Matrix Online. You argue that F.E.A.R. is just a corridor shooter with half-assed horror elements thrown in. How do you know this? Sure, there is a multiplayer beta out there, but that is in no way reflective of the single-player experience. Based on what I've seen and read thus far, F.E.A.R. looks to be a lot of fun. Monolith's other upcoming project, Condemned, also has a lot of potential.

I'll acknowledge that Monolith has never really been known for good multiplayer, but that's fine with me. The only multiplayer game that struck my interest in the past decade was Tribes and I don't expect any multiplayer games to surpass it soon.

This comment was edited on Jun 21, 22:18.

I agree that it is somewhat shortsighted to claim that MMORPGs are not mainstream. They have to be mainstream. An MMO's success relies entirely on having many players. Therefore, the game must appeal to a broad range of people. It cannot be too difficult, it cannot be too innovative, etc. This is why all MMORPGs are really quite similar. If your game's initial success and overall longevity rely entirely on having a lot of players, you can't take too many risks with gameplay. You stick to what has worked in the past. This is why MMORPGs are so stale now.

As for genres in general staying true to their roots, I have to disagree with Kobalt. The reason why the adventure genre is essentially dead (in the U.S., at least) is because the gameplay is severely antiquated. There are no games more linear than adventure games. In that regard, adventure games really don't have that much gameplay to begin with, since gameplay ultimately boils down to choice. Puzzles can only be solved in specific ways and there is only one way to progress through the game. Upcoming adventure games, like Dreamfall and Indigo Prophecy, look to revitalize the adventure genre by integrating elements from other genres (like action and RPG). Hybridity is the future. If you restrict yourself to any one genre, you limit the possibilities for good gameplay and innovation.

One of the most overated developers out there, they have consistantly released shit after shit. Blood 2? shogo? lol. Nolf was only half decent, but was still a generic fps with good writing. Martix was a shitstain and as most people will tell you that played fear, thats another trainwreak in the making.

I'll be surprised if they are alive a year from now.

It's good to see another person who isn't completely blind. Blood 2 is one of the worst sequels ever made. Blood was good, although just barely above Shadow Warrior in quality. NOLF is plain crap. AVP2 was ok, but rushed and ultimately ignored then ruined. All of their games were a joke in multiplayer.

What the hell is so great about Fear? Not one damn thing. It's a corridor shooter with half assed horror elements injected in. The graphics aren't that great, yet you need a fucking supercomputer to run it decently. Monolith could never make a solid game engine. There's no logical reason to expect anything but more crap.

Saying mmorpgs are inherently un mainstream is retarded, esp since they are mainstream in various asian countries. I bet somewhere out there in some asian country some tard is listing ways to make first person shooters mainstream, usually by not making a fps like most tards do by listing ways to "improve" mmorpgs.

Let's look at the facts shall we? Guild wars was suposed to be a mmorpg(it's not a mmorpg but retards think it is so meh) that brought it mainstream. I mean shit it has no grinding, didnt take 6 hours a day to do anything etc. Yet even thought it doesn't even have a monthly fee, which was supposed to be huge, it didnt even beat final fantasy 11 in accounts, let alone sales.

Could it be mmorpgs should stay mmorpgs instead of changing the genre so much it isnt really isnt really a mmorpg, thereby getting this phantom mainstrem audiance. Why dont you fucking leave mmorpgs alone and just say shit I dont like this genre. Might as well add first person shooting combat to adventure games so more people can like it.




Overview:a hardcore mmorpg ffxi sold more then the mmorpg that people that dont like mmorpgs, guildwars.

Leave the genre the fuck alot, faggots.

You know, I've long since figured out what ios wrong with MMORPG's, and thought I'd share it here

A successfull game is one where just the playing is fun to do. The story is a nice bonus, but what you do every couple of seconds, the firefights/swordfights/bunnycollecting/wondering around solving puzzles has to be fun.
Problem with most MMORPG's is that it focusses purely on the MMORPG effect: the focus instead of on actual nits and bolts gameplay (literally interactions per second, decisions/s, stimuli/s) is on the MM aspect. This means that an MMORPG focusses on the social: a good chat function, guild forming, grinding (it's called GRINDING FOR FSCK SAKE! By definition something called that is NOT fun!) etc. So instead of making the actual game fun, MMORPG's have focussed on everything which is in reality a supporting function of making gameplay fun. So you end up with games which have all the fringebenefits, but none of the meat of a real fun game.
IOW, as of yet, MMORPG's have been focussing solely on it's infrastructure as it where, with just rudimentary real gameplay.

And that (confusingly as I might have put it) is the reason why MMORPG's aren't mainstream: they have no core gameplay which is fun. As soon as they have that (challenging and fun combat/interesting wufflehunting/etc.), plus all the things whithout which an MMORPG can't exist (guilding, interesting leveling, good network code, etc.; the things which up to now are mistaken for actual gameplay!), MMORPG's will be ready for the masses.

Oh, man, I'm drunk

F.E.A.R might be a good game, but Vivendi has one of the absolute worst marketing/pr departments to ever exist. (and thats putting it lightly.) Additionalyl their "QA" department is limp and disfunctional.

As with every Vivendi game that has been released in the last 12 months (not including valve or blizzard titles) It will flop and lose all support from the publisher because they chose not to market it, not even a little.

here's a short list of VU games that were unmarketed:

Tribes: Vengance
Men of Valor: Vietnam
The Bards Tail
SWAT 4 (have you seen anything, other than a magazine ad?) I saw this one on the shelves and didn't even know it had been released yet.

VU Instead chooses to market such great games as
Leisure Suit Larry
Van Helsing!

POOR POOR F.E.A.R. I see publisher support disappearing 3 months after launch.

Shogo was good

I'd like to see Blood 3, but I think Infogrames/Atari owns the rights to it.

no way they do...blood 2 deathmatch rocked me

a) a fairly high proportion of redneck-minded jerks

Really? I though they were all up here in Sacramento. I swear it's a monster truck madness and chopper fetish out of control here. Every other pickup truck you see is raised 4 feet off the ground with a Bush/Cheney bumpersticker and every middle aged, balding douchebag is riding one of those rediculous looking choppers.

Dr. Michael Bolton's Hairdreser PhD, MD

One of the most overated developers out there, they have consistantly released shit after shit. Blood 2? shogo? lol. Nolf was only half decent, but was still a generic fps with good writing. Martix was a shitstain and as most people will tell you that played fear, thats another trainwreak in the making.

I'll be surprised if they are alive a year from now.

You forgot the delicious, authentic Mexican food available nearly everywhere for really cheap. :-)

See? SEE?!!! There's NOTHING WRONG WITH SAN DIEGO!!!


A lot of things are wrong with SD. I worked there for years and besides all the wonderful things you list above, you also have a) a fairly high proportion of redneck-minded jerks,

You ARE aware this is America right? That is the STAPLE of America. Halsy will be more than happy to remind you of that fact approximately every 7.84 seconds if you let him. Or even if you won't.

b) almost no culture to speak of

In what way? Like, no theaters (real theater, not a movie theater), no museums etc, or more that the town just doesn't have an identity?

necessity of a car, since mass transit is terrible

Yeah well, I live in Oklahoma. Mass Transit is what we have on the freeway every morning Excuse me for not crying

d) growing crime problems

Yeah, San Diego joined the rest of the world.

It's still not all that bad. You have seals! and ocean! and girls in bikinis! and EIGHTY DEGREE WEATHER YEAR 'ROUND!!!!
It's 187 degrees outside in Tulsa right now, give or take a few.

Sorry, your petition for denial has been rejected, original verdict stands!

Creston

80 degree weather year around, southern california girls, the world's most beautiful zoo, the beach, two professional sports teams (both of which are currently mildly succesful), seals, and a very very pretty city to boot. I mean, seriously, WHAT'S WRONG WITH SAN DIEGO???

You forgot the delicious, authentic Mexican food available nearly everywhere for really cheap. :-)

A lot of things are wrong with SD. I worked there for years and besides all the wonderful things you list above, you also have a) a fairly high proportion of redneck-minded jerks, b) almost no culture to speak of, c) necessity of a car, since mass transit is terrible, d) growing crime problems.

I live in SoCal, and there are a lot of places that are better than SD. SD, though, is better than a lot of the rest of the country though. :-)

Another NOLF would be fun, but I think that franchise died with the rather lacklustre JACK.

We can totally agree there. :-) J.A.C.K. was just...bleah. But a NOLF 3 from Monolith will never happen because of what Sagogoat just said.

I'd like to see Blood 3, but I think Infogrames/Atari owns the rights to it.

That's because the entirely world was fuggin dark as doom 3. At least you can see stuff in AvP2

Yes, but you had flares, night vision, and motion tracking, allowing you to get around the darkness and still have teeth, whereas Doom 3 usually had you either blind or helpless, sometimes both, rarely neither.

Plus, haven't you watched the Alien movies? Darkness!

So is this the beginning of the MMO market collapsing in on itself?

Not a chance. In fact, mmorpg's are probably the only genre that is capable of dramatically evolving. They have so much potential... even I can think of 100's of new features that could be added to make it better. Try doing that with any other genre and the list won't be very long.

World of Warcraft sold millions. That doesn't sound anything close to the collapse of the genre. In fact, it's one of the only promising genres that can keep pc gaming alive. If you like pc gaming, don't diss the mmorpg's.

Yea and the new Quake 4 looks just as Dark
WTF is up with that?
playing GTA San andreas for the first time waited for the pc
version need sleep!

Bone43