F.E.A.R. SDK Released

Voodoo Extreme reports that an SDK for the excellent First-Person Shooter F.E.A.R. has been released. F.E.A.R. captured best FPS nod at the SpikeTV VGAs. From the article: "The post launch support begins Wednesday, November 23rd with the launch of the F.E.A.R. SDK (Software Development Kit), allowing consumers to create their own custom content for both single and multiplayer aspects of F.E.A.R. Also available now is the F.E.A.R. stand-alone server software for both Linux and Win32. VU Games is also pleased to announce that as part of its ongoing efforts to improve the in-game experience for gamers, a deal has been signed to incorporate the Punkbuster Anti Cheat software into F.E.A.R. ."

Comments

Wrong audience

[xintegerx]

I think we already knew what S.D.K. stands for. What does F.E.A.R. stand for? Any good info on this game?

Re:Wrong audience

[JamesTRexx]

First Encounter Assault Recon. I've heard the game was supposed to be very scary to play, so I got me a copy to try it out but it disappointed me. There were a few shockers, but after a few levels I got bored, looked up cheats, gave myself unlimited ammo because I got tired of going back and forth switching weapons and completed the whole game while waiting for the scary bits.
Maybe it's because the game's too demanding on the graphics hardware, but I just didn't feel like I was pulled into the eerie atmosphere. So far the only game that really scared me was Doom II with the Alients TC mod. Now That gave me the creeps at night and made me twitchy and wanting to run the f*ck out of there.

My advice, try it before you buy.

Re:Wrong audience

[Tim C]

So far the only game that really scared me was Doom II with the Alients TC mod.

If you've not already tried it, you might want to give System Shock 2 a go (although you may have trouble obtaining a copy). Other games have given me the creeps, but that's the only one that's actually unnerved me after switching it off. I was playing late one night and, before turning in, popped down to the kitchen for a drink. We have a glass door letting out to the garden, and standing there looking out into the dark I couldn't shake the feeling that something was moments away from smashing through the glass to come for me...

Then again, I was a little creeped out by Doom 3 at times, so I may just be a pansy...

Re:Wrong audience

[JamesTRexx]

I've heard of it before, not sure if I've seen it but I'll keep an eye out for it, thanks.

Spike TV?

[88NoSoup4U88]

F.E.A.R. captured best FPS nod at the SpikeTV VGAs

And we should take this seriously, why ?
SpikeTV also awarded KingKong (the game)... A game that would not be out for another two weeks... A game they said was rated -by the public-...

Anyhows, F.E.A.R. -is- an excellent game (one of the best single player games of the last years imo), but judging a game on SpikeTV's awards is ridicilous.

Re:Spike TV?

[ZakuSage]

Come on... we all know Madden 2004 was the best game of the year in 2004, right?

Excellent FPS?

[superpulpsicle]

Can someone please define what an excellent FPS is nowadays. Does anyone else look at FEAR as an attempt to sell you a 3D engine in a box and not a game?

Re:Excellent FPS?

[Anonymous Coward]

The AI is excellent and it occasionally manages to be genuinely scary.

Re:Excellent FPS?

[KDR_11k]

I don't know but I haven't seen it lately (at least not singleplayer). IMO the genre is dead, noone can come up with anything new for it anymore and I should really stop myself from buying an FPS just because everyone on the internet is raving about it, got burned on Doom 3, Half-Life 2 and FEAR lately, Doom 3 was the only one of them that I actually finished, the other ones I stopped playing after two or three "chapters" because they became so boring. Don't ask me why I managed to slug through Doom 3 but I think the gameplay may have been more fun (turning up the brightness works pretty well, I never needed the flashlight in combat). Multiplayer was unbalanced and very flawed, FEAR was the worst of the bunch since you'd drop dead all the time without even seeing the enemy and often you get killed after spawning by the guy who just spawned behind you. They're only worth it for the mods and UT2004 would have been enough for that.

The SDK itself isn't great, it bites for modelers who'd like to use free software since the exporters are only available for the newest MAX and Maya versions (expensive) and it doesn't come with format documentation so us Blender users are left out. I hope someone reverse engineers the format, so far only Doom 3 has any plugins for Blender (and those are usermade).

Re:Excellent FPS?

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

Popular definition: Whatever sells the most copies.

IMO theres only been two really good FPS games ever-- Quake and Halflife. Q3 was almost there, but due to its netcode and timing, it just didnt make it.

Quake was great because it was revolutionary, very well balanced, great maps, had good singleplayer, and had really fun mods.

HL had all of that, and its only downside is what valve did to the mods they bought out in the end -- Making a lot of bad changes that the community as a whole didnt want, rather than releasing the sourcecode and letting us fix what still needs to be fixed.

No game since then has had anywhere near matched either of those two games, and thus everyone sticks to HL mods.

Re:Excellent FPS?

[winphreak]

Ir's hard to say that F.E.A.R. is a bad game. Although I will admit, yes, it's just another FPS, it does have some kick-ass in the A.I. Development. It's nice to know that the enemy doesn't leave you in a blind spot for two hours.

Of course, some will complain, saying it sucks. Go for it. I like it, and it seems many other people did.

For the person a few posts above: I played Doom 3, HalfLife 2, and F.E.A.R. I quit Doom 3 because, quite frankly, Doom 1&2 are more exciting.

And finally, onto the actual subject. A new SDK means more mods. More mods means more fun. Does anyone speculate that this may end up like counter-strike in the way of mod ideas?

q4

[Abstract_Me]

The quake 4 sdk was released recently as well... the q4 engine also has a lot more stability and common.. its quake... quake is much more important to the nerd culture.

Re:q4

[Anonymous Coward]

"stability and common.. its quake... "

Common? Do you mean, "come on"? I really love how Slashdot has sunk so far and is now catering to idiots that have never read a book. People who type "common" and mean "come on" are people who don't read the written word but rather just type to their fellow idiots on AIM and talk loudly in public. Thanks for ruining Slashdot, jerk.

Re:q4

[Abstract_Me]

no problem :) glad I could be of assistance.

Re:q4

[Anonymous Coward]

One could argue that the grandparent poster was simply imitating the pronounciation of "come on" (which is rarely enunciated as two separate words in colloquial American speech), in much the same way as "gonna" is substituted for "going to", for a better known example.

As far as ruining Slashdot goes, you ought to shut the fuck up, because I don't come here to read your elitist "I read lit-ra-chure, therefore I am smarter than thou" bullshit. The Internet is superceding books more and more, and the mindless prattling of particularly tragic relics of a bygone age - such as yourself - does nothing but prove why reading old books doesn't make you smarter. Oh, and it pisses me off too, in case you're too thick to figure that out.

If you really wanted a pristine and perfect language, you'd have typed that post in Esperanto. Back in the real world, those of us who are more interested in effective means of communication than in anal-retentive slavery to grammar will be dealing with actual ideas, not the contrivances used to convey them.

No fear in F.E.A.R.

[mobby_6kl]

Yeah, FEAR wasn't scary at all, just like Doom 3. Unlike Doom 3, however, I found it to be a very fun game. I think the key to enjoying this game is to play it as a fast-paced action like Quake, instead of the slow tactical shooter it pretends to be. Sure you'll get hit more, but the action becomes much more fun with all the sparks, dust, blood, and body parts flying all around with you in the middle of it, and not ducking somewhere in the corner behind a crate.

Only being able to carry 3 weapons at once sucks, but it's not that bad IMO. At first I carried around the pistols, a shotgun, and an assault rifle. Then swapped the pistols for the penetrator and later the particle gun. Rocket launcher had to replace the shotgun, but I usually picked another one after using up all the rockets. Same for the grenade launcher. There was never enough ammo for the AR rifle, unfortunately, so I picked it up only a few times to take out distant enemies.

The only negative thing I can say about the game is that it gets a little repetitive by the middle of the game, where it looks like you're going through the same offices over and over again. But then, Halo got even more obviously repetitive in some places, and it didn't prevent it from being a good game.

Actual FEAR Info (with spoilers)

[ApacheVE]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.E.A.R._(computer_ga me)

FEAR SUCKS!

[dbretton]

I hate you!

I hate the bands you like!

(Does anyone else like Angelina Jolie? She's got enormous lips!)

Punctuation Error

[Uninformed Jester]

I believe you meant:

<CAPS>
i hate you!!!

i hate the bands you like!!!

(does anyone like angelina jolie????? she's got enormous lips!!!!!11!!1!!11!!!!!)
</CAPS>

Re:Punctuation Error

[beware1000]

a nice red vs blue quote if nobody picked up on it