People like you and I who like Monolith's games for their characters and humor find little of that to like in F.E.A.R. However, we are obviously in the vast minority who think Monolith "screwed up" the game.

Riley, I don't know you & have seen many posts suggesting that you're a troll over a long period of time. However, your post here is entirely good & quite useful.

I think that you're right about NOLF. There was a scene in NOLF where you could listen to an entire 5 min conversation between two terrorists and it was well-done & so entertaining that most people would choose to listen to it & really enjoy it. The scene with the of the failed sale of the monkey in NOLF was also well done & quite funny. Only one other game in history had me laughing so hard & that was Thief2 when the guards are talking smack to eachother on the rooftops.

So yeah, NOLF was humorous. FEAR was intended to be serious. There are some conversations in there such as when the big black dude is hitting on your love interest, but that's really about all. And to be honest, we never really care about any character in FEAR at all. None of them, except perhaps Alma which would have worked far better if she wasn't a little "RINGU" ripoff.

FEAR really failed on engaging the player & I think the reason is that they were going for a certain sound & unfortunately that certain sound just didn't work well. I never had the sense that the game was speaking to my subconscious or whatever they intended, but I did have the feeling that I couldn't hear cut-scene material very well at all. Maybe they weren't concerned about 5.1 spatial environments. Who knows. All I know is that it plain sucked.

But overall, FEAR just plain OWNED Quake4. In fact, Quake3 plain OWNS Quake4. And for the single player experience, Quake1&2 OWNED Quake4.

Plain & simple, Quake4 had bad graphics, bad levels, bad weapons (*nothing new), bad cut-scenes, and a bad plot. Why am I fighting for? Just nuke this planet. It's stupid. Also, wtf about that dumbfuck from Fargo? It was the only good movie he ever did! Now we got this dumbass trying to sound russian & some other guy named Ortez in the game trying to sound mexican & both of them sound like they can't act & that's true & it fails UTTERLY!

FEAR is not perfect, but QUake4 sucked so bad that I could not even finish it on no_clip/god mode it was so stupid. Doom3 & QUake4 were the worst gaming failures in terms of actually playing the game in all computer history. They're hype machines showing off a tech engine. Id stopped being a real gaming developer when they started censoring violent content after Quake1. You remember Quake1 with that chainsaw fatass crazy fucker with blood covering him from face to foot. That guy was creepy the fuck out! Also that jumping demon that could eviserate you with one fucking swipe, also covered with blood. Doom2 had tortured people tied up with chains upside down with a huge pike spear right through their entire body & all kinds of twisted shit like just a leg somewhere, still twitching because it was still ALIVE. In hell, you never stop feeling the pain. It was horrific, but its reality was the purest. Now everything ID does is so censored that even my 5yr old nephew laughs when a demon comes along. Only a very few scenes, and always cut-scenes, ever let you past the censorship. It's pathetic. I don't know if they do that on purpose or because they're just getting older but it sucks. ID can't make a good game. Quake4 sucks. End of story. Hope you liked it.

Honestly, I though FEAR was ridiculously overhyped and found it dull and uninteresting; I got more enjoyment out of Quake 4.

It's good to see that whatever Monolith fans there are who read these forums are mature enough to not take your myopic criticism of the game personally. If your same comment had been made about Half-Life 2 (as I have done before), you would be peeing in your pants right now and foaming at the mouth.

This comment was edited on Jul 28, 01:18.

Its strange that monolith screwed it up that much, after making games like NOLF with such interesting levels and storylines

The irony here is that FEAR is basically Monolith's most commercially successful FPS game to date. I believe it did even better than AvP2 at least at this stage of its availability. People like you and I who like Monolith's games for their characters and humor find little of that to like in F.E.A.R. However, we are obviously in the vast minority who think Monolith "screwed up" the game. I liked F.E.A.R. single-player mode well enough to finish it, just not nearly as much as those of Monolith's older games like Tron and NOLF 1 & 2.

Actually, after having played through Quake4 on Godmode just to see if there was anything at all to see anywhere, I'm not even sure if I made it through doing no_clip & godmode I was so bored.

It was the most lack-luster game I have played since that piece of shit mod for Half-life called "They Hunger". There hasn't really been a descent mod out there since AVP for doom that hasn't gone retail. Quake4 played like a shitty mod that should never have been retail.

FEAR on the otherhand brought in a kind of amazing quality of realism with its combat physics. Granted, the slo-mo was homo, but if you just didn't use that gayness then the game suddenly becomes a seriously fun & sometimes challenging game.

The only problem for me was that after you understand that the AI is communicating to you directly as a player about their every intention, there are no more surprises.

Spoiler:
Basically if you ever hear a cry for reinforcements, it's the last guy.

FarCry wipes both of these games on the ass of the Crytek engine, but that's a whole new argument.

This comment was edited on Jul 28, 02:32.

Varied, but all equally uninteresting. I usually enjoy shooters no matter how generic they are, but by the time I was a 1/3 of the way through Quake 4 I was bored out of my mind.

Same here, I didnt like quake 4, but I still found it more interesting then fear. Both games felt like chore to finish.

FEAR was repetitive but it got that thing it was repeating down perfectly. FEAR has the best combat in a FPS period, the only other shooter I know of to come close was Halo.

I guess we just have different tastes, I agree that halo is similar in FEAR in that its so repetitive.
But personaly I dont like repetitive fps's, and I got bored out of my mind playing both halo and fear.
I much prefer a game like HL2's variation and pacing.
I also enjoyed HL2's combat more.

And Max Payne 2's "crazy slow motion lots of bullets and particles" action more then FEAR's

Quake 4 had much more variation in its level design, tanks mechs, other dudes with you etc. Sure it was ugly, but so was fear.

Varied, but all equally uninteresting. I usually enjoy shooters no matter how generic they are, but by the time I was a 1/3 of the way through Quake 4 I was bored out of my mind. I did eventually go back and play the game through to it's lame conclusion but it was perhaps the most dull, generic and completely forgettable "AAA" shooter I've ever played.

Fear was just the same thing over and over and over.

FEAR was repetitive but it got that thing it was repeating down perfectly. FEAR has the best combat in a FPS period, the only other shooter I know of to come close was Halo. Other shooters have better level design, more interesting stories or more varied gameplay; but no other shooter does combat as well as FEAR does. The sheer strength of FEAR's combat made all of it's weaknesses bearable, and sometimes not even noticable.

How can you say FEAR was better then Q4 when you only played 1 or 2 levels of quake 4?

I completed both, Both game's were forgettable, but I found quake 4 far more interesting.
Quake 4 had much more variation in its level design, tanks mechs, other dudes with you etc. Sure it was ugly, but so was fear.
Fear was just the same thing over and over and over.
The only reason I kept playing was because I was sure there MUST be something interesting coming up. I was wrong.
Its strange that monolith screwed it up that much, after making games like NOLF with such interesting levels and storylines

This comment was edited on Jul 27, 21:32.

Yeah, I also did not finish Quake 4.

The biggest reason is because they had big chunky graphics. There was some machinery in one level that I felt was interesting. I ended up doing God-Mode because I wanted to see if there was anything else at all besides that 1 piece of machinery in that 1 level & I just didn't find anything.

Quake4 lacks detail & in my opinion they could have made a far better game by simply reducing the amount of levels & adding good details to those levels.

I was completely bored playing Quake4.

THe game had flaws but quake 4 better?! I deleted Q4 after playing a level or 2 same with Doom 3. FEAR i actually finished. Yeah the original game could have used some dif. enemies & levels but the gameplay & AI compensated fairly well. q4 & doom3 did not offer any kind of challenge on the gameplay & AI side...plot wize ... fear was on the same level as doom3 or q4 etc....

Taste is relative like people say .......so I can't knock anyone for enjoying q4 more but it's hard for me to see how.

If anyone is interested, I'm not sure if it was a my store only thing, but WalMart had FEAR marked down from $45 to $5 in the bargain bin. Great buy!

FEAR was worth the money overall, despite some really puzzling things they did such as:

no console. I fail to see how it improves the game to whithold a console from us. And no, typing commands at the chat prompt doesn't count.

With no rifle in the game could you shoot just one shot, (except nailgun) it was all bursts. Even the sniper rifle? First time I've ever seen a sniper rifle that had a three round burst as it's ONLY mode of fire. Jeez maybe an alternate fire button to toggle fire modes?

Co-op was not added, but there is a mod for it.

http://mods.moddb.com/7149/fear-coop/

If this expansion allows team play with AI, I'll maybe consider buying it.

If it allows team play with mates, I'll strongly consider buying it.

If it allows team play with mates, as well as improving the SDK to encourage modders to experiment with coop, and encourage modifying the original game to be coop, they have the sale. This would be before a single screenshot was posted.

So long as they don't throw in extra added value like Starforce, they have a customer. I quite liked the original, however I do agree with most that it was boring and unimaginative in places, and it played the one trick pony a bit too long. Fortunate then, that the trick was a damn good one.

I didn't really like Combat when they came out with it back at the start of 3.0.

It was a boring action game centered around the much more important strategy part, and it stole the show, filling the game with counterstrike players.

I remember setting up my 2600 - my dad couldn't do it - and playing combat with my friend. Damn that was cool. I liked the jets - the biplanes always confused me - ha!

Features:
New type of enemy, bringing total to 2.
New level design, bringing total themes to 2.
New plot, ripping from some Japanese movie.
New characters, based on absurd stereotypes.
Improved engine, now with 20x more complex shadows to capture the essence of darkness.

Honestly, I though FEAR was ridiculously overhyped and found it dull and uninteresting; I got more enjoyment out of Quake 4.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Founder of the "I Hate Smiley Fitz" society

Remember: Riley has autism. He has trouble communicating, and in an overstimulating
environment, he can get frightened and run away, leaving his parents frantic. - Auburn

Wow I haven't played COMBAT since it came bundled with my Atari 2600 way back in 1980. I loved the level with the tanks and the bouncy ball maze, man that was good stuff!

This comment was edited on Jul 26, 21:31.

Hopefully the levels wont all look the same this time around (max sarcasm)