QUIT TEASIN’: F.E.A.R. 2 TOY SOLDIERS MAP PACK

I did something last night that I have not done before. I exited out of Halo 3, I resisted the temptation from the all powerful Peggle and I even suppressed my inner desire to play Half Life 2 for the hundredth time. Instead, I put F.E.A.R. 2 into my console to test out multiplayer before the new DLC map pack Toy Soldiers is released on April 16.

Now, I played multiplayer maybe once when I first bought this game but really only wanted it for the single player campaign. Just like the Condemned series, the single player story is where the game is the strongest. But maybe I should give multiplayer more of a chance? I know it won’t be perfect but that doesn’t mean it won’t be fun. Well for me last night, it was more of an issue of actually finding a game. Doing a quick search or a custom search each time was met with ‘server full’ or ‘can’t connect’. So I decided to Host my own match and that seems to be the way to go. I played a few games and it wasn’t too bad. I think I’ll keep giving it some more time.

So what’s the deal with F.E.A.R. 2 online? Are there not that many people playing? I guess that’s possible, which is why I am looking forward to these new Toy Solider maps being released. Once they are out, and everyone finds out they’re free, maybe then it will be easier to find a good online game to take part in. The maps look fun and look totally different than anything anyone has ever released before, so I give Monolith credit for that. These maps shrink you and your enemies down to small soldiers and place you inside a Pinball Machine (FullTilt), a Hospital Room (Cockroach) and of course a Giant Sandcastle (Recess). How can any of these maps fail to be fun? I’ll check them out when they are released and let you know what I think. Until then, stop teasin‘ us with these trailers and bring it already!

Check out more FEAR 2 videos from IGN.com…

THE GAMER REPORT REVIEW: F.E.A.R. 2

So I will be the first to admit, I am a little hesitant in most cases to play a sequel of a game if I didn’t play the first one. In the case of the FEAR series I had to make an exception. The demo I played for the original FEAR was absolutely atrocious. I gave it about 5 minutes before it was deleted off of my hard drive. So time passed, a couple expansion packs were released and I was still not attracted to even a rental. I am not a total pessimist, I will usually download just about any demo and give it a chance. I started seeing ads for FEAR 2 frequently and my curiosity began to migrate towards that evil little girl. Alas came the day, the demo for FEAR 2 was released and into the active downloads it went. I fired up the demo, and all I can say is… WOW! I have not been impressed by a demo this much in quite some time. After playing the full version of the game in it’s entirety, the demo is even more amazing as it is a mix of 5 or so of the campaign levels rolled into one. It includes some of the cooler weapons in the game and even the awesome mech/battle suit! For anyone who has not already played this demo or even the full game, in the words of the great Arnold Schwarzenegger, “DO IT NOW!”

The gameplay has totally changed since the first FEAR. It feels almost identical to the Call of Duty engine.. The down the sights aiming is clean and smooth and the bullet time is a nice touch, although it did make the game feel a bit easy at times. This Max Payne style bullet time also transfers to the game’s turret and mech sections which is pretty awesome. Do yourself a favor and try and use it as little as possible, it will make the firefights more challenging and more immersive. The game also does an excellent job of backtracking to give noobs of the FEAR series like myself a bit of the background behind the story. While I won’t dive into the story too much in this review, I will say that it is both captivating and cool with nice little twists and turns and a really cool ending to boot. The game has it’s fair share of “OH SHIT” moments, and while it’s not terribly scary, it’s a good one to play with the lights off. There are some really nice touches as far as graphics go. While the textures and environments aren’t amazing, the lighting and spec maps look really nice, and the movement as far as running and aiming feel very realistic and controlled. I must say, this game has some of the best and most believable AI in any shooter I have played. Shoot an enemy in the leg and he will hobble and limp towards safety and flip over a table or hospital bed to take cover. The cover system isn’t revolutionary but you can interact with certain objects in the game to create cover. There are even some items that have a propane tank or gas can on them. Hit bullet time, flip the table over and the tank of flammable liquid will fly towards enemies allowing you to target it and detonate it with a well placed shot setting enemies on fire… good stuff! A nice touch that was added was the ability to perform some awesome running melees, even in bullet time. Running slide kicks and spinning back kicks will have you throwin‘ it down like Jean Claude Van Damme or Neo from The Matrix. These melee attacks transfer over to the multiplayer, but the bullet time does not.

The game has a few really well thought out moments. A couple that stick out to me would be the creepy and VERY bloody hospital levels, an abandoned high school and a really cool tram level where it feels like you are battling on the Monorail from Disneyland. Very similar tie-ins to Killzone 2 in this game. While I don’t know if the chicken or the egg came first here, I couldn’t help but feel like an employee might have left one of the projects and joined the other as there was so many similarities. From the nail gun to the look of a few of the enemies and the weapons and grenades, there is some striking resemblance. And onto my favorite part of the campaign, the mech!! Wow, few game developers have implemented a mech or battle suit well in quite a few years but FEAR 2 really hits the nail on the head. Zooming, thermal vision for seeing enemies through walls, dual heavy caliber machine guns, and rockets that look straight out of Robotech will have you decimating enemies and removing limbs in quite a satisfying fashion. I would have to say this was definitely my favorite part of the game and it never really seemed to get old.

Multiplayer was actually quite surprising for me. While I wasn’t expecting anything new or spectacular, I was really pleased with the way it played. Plenty of your standard modes available like Bomb Arm, Free-for-all, Deathmatch and even Blitz which is a clever take on Capture the Flag or as they call it, PHLAG, (PHosphoLuminescent AGents). The level designs are pretty darn good and a Call of Duty style leveling system is provided as EXP points are gained. The mode I found the most fun by far was Armored Front. In this playlist, each team gets a mech and it’s basically King of the Hill or Territories style control. It’s pretty cool advancing behind your mech and capturing territories. While there is nothing mind-blowing, or that has not been done before, it’s a pretty solid experience that’s sure to keep folks populating multiplayer for a while. Good stuff all around on this one guys and gals, and again if you haven’t at least played the demo, give it a go ASAP. Definitely one of my favorite games all around this year.

–DIGGITY OUT

GAMASUTRA: INTERVIEW ON F.E.A.R. 2 GAME ENGINE AND AI DEVELOPMENT

Gamasutra has an in-depth interview with the senior software engineer at Monolith, Matthew Rice, where they discuss the F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin game engine and AI development. It’s a good read and makes me even more intrigued to play this first person shooter horror game. It looks like some of the Lith developers are referring to Left 4 Dead as the correct way to go when it comes to intelligent AI. Read on to learn more on where AI technology is heading.

Excerpt-

What do you see? What is “an improvement” to AI? What is your expectation of where AI is going, and what is achievable within this generation?

“MR: I think you’ve seen a couple different things that have happened in this generation, and they’ll continue on. In terms of smaller, tactical scale AI, you’ve seen mild improvements in terms of the way they plan, and the way they challenge you in combat. But even more than that, they look better while navigating, and they look better while moving through the space. Navigation has increased across the board, and the way they interact with the environment has improved across the board.”

“Globally, across the entire games industry, you’ve seen more AI in games. Games like Assassin’s Creed. We’re getting to that level where you’re moving through large throngs of crowds. You just didn’t see that before; in previous generations, you’d step into a nightclub and it’s be barren, devoid, but now you’re actually seeing fully populated cityscapes.”

“So there have been big improvements in AI, in general, this past generation. There’s only so close that you can get before you get to the uncanny valley, in terms of games, and I think we’re approaching that right now. So, there will be a big leap at some point soon, when things such as the great small-scale tactical AI that a lot of games currently have, gets integrated with the crowd AI that you’re seeing. And you’re also seeing other things, like people are experimenting with AI spawning, and spawning dynamically based on the player’s condition and health, to try and tempo the game differently every time you play it.”

Read the rest of the interview at Gamasutra.com…