F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate versus Project Origin

june gloom on 20/2/2009 at 06:29

Yeah, I think it was ultimately designed for PCs, in spite of the consoley bullshit.

Jason Moyer on 20/2/2009 at 12:33

Finally got it and played the first few intervals. No complaints whatsoever so far, although I wish they'd add a toggle for the enemy-highlight thing that happens in slo-mo.

june gloom on 20/2/2009 at 20:44

That bothered me at first but after a while I got used to it. Bigger issue was the guns glowing softly whether you're in slow-mo or not, though at least they did the fucking smart thing and didn't make 'em glow bright yellow or something.

Bjossi on 21/2/2009 at 17:41

Installed FEAR 2 and played through the first few checkpoints. I gotta say I'm impressed; runs and looks great on my aging system at max settings (except AA, which is 2x), the gameplay is fun overall but I do miss leaning and quicksaving.

And the Steam system is working flawlessly, by the way. It started by installing Steam (my old Steam was no more after the system crash I experienced), logged into my account, registered the product key, installed and then went straight to playing after it spent a minute or two updating. Everything took less than ~25 minutes. :cool:

gunsmoke on 21/2/2009 at 19:10

^^^Nice! Anyway, what is your 'aging system' comprised of? I have an 8600 GS and was wondering if it will be enough.

Bjossi on 21/2/2009 at 21:04

CPU: AMD64 X2 4400+
GPU: Geforce 7900 GTX
RAM: 2 GB DDR400
APU: SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty
MB: Asus A8NE

I think you'll be fine with your 8600 GS, assuming the other components can compete with the GPU.

EDIT: I think I've played enough to be able to compare it to FEAR 1.

First of all, the sound effects stink. Shooting the guns doesn't feel rewarding at all like it did in FEAR (although they weren't top notch in the prequel either). I think the number one worst sound effect I've heard so far are explosions. The only games that stand a chance against FEAR 2 for the worst explosion sound award in my opinion are UT2004 & 3. Explosions and gun sounds are the sound effects that should not be neglected in a first person shooter. I don't know what Monolith's sound engineer(s) was/were thinking, apparently not much.
But one sound that I did like was the slomo entry sound. I like that better in FEAR 2 than FEAR.

I haven't put my finger on this yet, but I feel like the game world is more "cramped" than in FEAR. Not the level design but the way my character views the world around him, it just seems smaller. Maybe it is the letterbox? I have no idea, but the game world definitely seems bigger in FEAR from my point of view. If anyone can shed some light on this it would be nice. :o

And on to visuals. In my opinion FEAR 2 looks & feels a bit arcady. The nearsightness of my character as well as bad guys and 1st person weapon glowing in slomo are the biggest contributors there. FEAR has very sharp graphics (no blur bullshit) and has a high level of contrast when it comes to lighting (bright lights, dark shadows). I'll have to play with the settings in FEAR 2 and see if I can achieve that effect.

UPDATE: Oh man, the game looks so much better with motion blur turned off. Lowering brightness greatly helped as well. Now there is just that annoying glow in slomo and the letterbox that need to go, and less shitty sound effects wouldn't hurt either. ;)

Anyway, I am having a pretty good time gameplay-wise. The combat is intense and the supernatural events can be very creepy.

EvaUnit02 on 22/2/2009 at 08:01

By blur, do you mean the film-like grain filter?

Here's a mod that replaces FEAR2's Replica voice-overs with FEAR1's.
(http://www.lithfaq.com/forums/portal.php?article=2&sid=1c8044d376f01f658d1ff746c6df12b0)

I don't really see the point in using though. The story explains the inconsistency between art direction and weapon load outs of the Replicas between the two games is because they're "different models". In FEAR 1 you fought Replica Variant VI's, FEAR 2 features the newer Variant VII Replicas.

june gloom on 22/2/2009 at 08:31

How did you turn the motion blur off? That's one of the biggest issues I had with the game. I'd turn my head 3 centimeters and the blur would kick in. It was awful.

Gaph on 22/2/2009 at 08:48

Quote Posted by Bjossi

I haven't put my finger on this yet, but I feel like the game world is more "cramped" than in FEAR. Not the level design but the way my character views the world around him, it just seems smaller. Maybe it is the letterbox? I have no idea, but the game world definitely seems bigger in FEAR from my point of view. If anyone can shed some light on this it would be nice. :o

Glad you mentioned that, actually, I noticed it too. The scale of the world in FEAR 2 seems much smaller in relation to the player. It's very noticeable in the school sections. I think it has a huge impact on immersion and/or giving the location and objects within a sense of "weight". It's one of those seemingly minor things that is actually really important to get right.

Maybe it's the widescreen, the HUD or the FOV but I think it feels like you're running around in a snowglobe.

june gloom on 22/2/2009 at 10:15

You know... I never actually noticed that. At all. In fact, I thought the environments actually felt bigger than in FEAR 1.