70 - F.E.A.R. Series

[matt]

In this video I talk about the F.E.A.R. series and my introduction to horror games.

[RightClickSaveAs]

I loved FEAR so much (other than that damn name with all the periods in it, I've refused for years to type all those out ), at the time it came out it was one of the "let's see what my computer with the ridiculously expensive graphics card can really do!" I remember it having scary moments, especially the jump scares, but not being overwhelmed at any point. Probably the most effective to me were the scripted events where something is moving around in the ceiling tiles or tearing apart your teammates early on, and you have no idea what you're up against yet and whether or not all your bullets and skills can really save you.

I loved all the little details, like being able to look down and see your feet. It really added a sense of immersion, plus it looked really cool when you did a jump or sliding kick.

Also this game was in that time period where environmental audio was going to be a big deal, and it had a special EAX mode for the soundcards that supported it. I never quite understood what exactly EAX was, but I had one of those overpriced SoundBlasters that offered full support, and it actually sounded pretty cool. You could hear stuff like your ejected shells hitting the different surfaces. Whatever happened to EAX anyway?

[matt]

Microsoft essentially killed off EAX and hardware acceleration with Windows Vista. There is really no point to have hardware acceleration these days because in software, you can do way more interesting effects without requiring hardware of a certain manufacturer.

For example, we are supporting HRTFs for 3D sound over headphones, which if we did it in hardware, it would only work on certain sound cards. We can even do it on Ouya, which is super cool if there were an easy way to use headphones on Ouya...

[gagaplex]

Great to see you tackle on of my favourite game series. Well, I haven't played the third yet, but I will (I also got that Humble Bundle ).

Speaking of fighting more horrific things... well, you asked about Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate. That's one of the things they improved upon (in both addons, actually). Remember those floating bodies from the nightmare sequences that Alma sent at you in FEAR 1? Those aren't the only nightmares anymore.

Athough I would say some of the enemies in FEAR 2 were already quite awful, especially various test-subjects...
Still, I agree, the series got more action-y. In fact, the third one is apparently largely a coop-game, so... out goes most of the scariness.

[matt]

While I agree you do fight some horrific enemies, but most of the time you fight soldiers, which isn't that scary. I think if you were fighting monsters, ghosts, and other creepy characters the game would have been scarier.

I think the developers were shooting for action horror rather than pure horror, which probably has wider appeal, but I prefer further towards horror on the spectrum than F.E.A.R. and Dead Space. I enjoyed both games though.

[Stefan8000]

great video, matt. now, i want to play a little more fear (only played part one) and i am just installing it right now.

[gagaplex]

So, did you play/finish Extraction Point, matt? And if yes, whatcha think in comparison to the main game?

[matt]

Not yet. I got an Xbox One and spent Saturday playing Crimson Dragon. With all the Xbox One games I want to check out, it may be a bit before I get to it. I am visiting my family, and I was going to install it on my laptop and try to play it on the plane, but it was too large for my laptop hard disk... :-/