I played through F.E.A.R. and its first expansion Extraction Point this week for the first time, and I’ve been advised to leave the series be there. Having watched some video reviews on the following games I can see why. It’s a damn shame too what happened to the series, because F.E.A.R. 1 and EP are so damn good.

For a 20-year-old game it looks unbelievably good. It must have been mind blowing back in 2005. The particle effects and light destructibility of the environments still look great, the slow-mo is cinematic and the lighting in general is very well done. The art direction is great and it really nails the atmosphere.

I personally found the horror and story to be a little predictable and mediocre, but it doesn’t matter because this is seriously one of the best shooters I’ve ever played. All the guns are satisfying to use, the shooting arenas are well designed and the enemy AI is just as good as people say. It’s again hard to believe we had this in 2005.

I also need to make a special mention of Extraction Point as it hits the shooter/horror balance better than the base game and has better scares and horror elements in general. I thought it was great and basically the perfect F.E.A.R. experience.

Heavily recommended if you haven’t played this already. It’s currently on sale on GOG for like $2 I believe. Just make sure to grab the EchoPatch.

EDIT: It’s also possible to get EAX working and I really recommend looking into doing so, even if it is a little fiddly.

8GB in this day and age seems insane. I often feel uncomfortable with 12GB, and I don’t even play in 4k!

I think you may be right. Would be very unfortunate.

Awesome!

So it’s a French thing, not an EU thing then?

Probably worthwhile to cross post to [email protected]

Finished playing F.E.A.R. for the first time and am now about halfway through the first expansion Extraction Point. Man, it really holds up incredibly for a 20-year-old game.

The particle effects look fantastic for their age, the lightly destructible environments add a beautiful layer of carnage and the gunplay is surprisingly great for such an old game. Every single gun feels satisfying to use (bar the bizarrely awful assault rifle), with the highlight of course being nailing people to the wall with the famous 10mm HV Penetrator.

The AI is also just as good as people say and it continues to surprise me with shockingly good dynamic behaviour for again a game of this age. Especially the way they interact with the environment in unscripted ways impress me: closing doors behind them as they retreat to wait in ambush or smashing windows and vaulting over to charge you for example.

The horror and story is actually the weak point, at least of the main game. It’s all pretty predictable, the horror is fairly mediocre and not even the jump scares really land. I will say it has been better in the expansion so far, though, even if it’s still only sort of okay.

But that doesn’t really matter. The atmosphere does enough to sell its pseudo horror identity, but the fantastic gunplay across these well designed claustrophobic levels is worth experiencing. It’s a classic for a reason and I completely get why. And with it frequently being for sale for like a dollar on GOG it’s a must play, I think.

Just make sure to install the EchoPatch!

The 70s will remain thirty years ago until the day I die.

Yeah. For me it was before my 30s even, but it’s less to do with a specific age and more to do with the fact that as an introvert you sooner or later realise pretending to be an extrovert isn’t worth the energy and effort.

Nintendo choosing the option that is actively worse for everyone including themselves goes well with my theory that Nintendo is actually just evil and making decisions based on spite and disdain for their customers and fans.

Ooh good shout, this has to be the ultimate convergence of power fantasy and boobs surely?

Not particularly surprised, but still disappointed.

Yeah same, I am a patient gamer for the most part, but with both Blue Prince and Clair Obscur I was happy to support the devs and buy them at launch. Much like with Elden Ring and BG3 previously it has also been nice to participate in the zeitgeist while it’s ongoing.

Enjoy yourself with it, for me this is an easy Game of the Year, and without a doubt within my Top 10 of all time. Probably somewhere in the top half of it, too.

If you want the SNES emulation flavour I am a big fan of the Woolsey Uncensored romhack. So much of the 90s Final Fantasy charm (in the west) came from Woolsey’s uniquely creative translations, and it’s a shame to miss out on it in my opinion.

If you prefer the Pixel Remaster version there is a mod to use the Woolsey Uncensored script instead for that one too. I haven’t tested that one personally but it could potentially be the best of both worlds if it works.

PipePipe my beloved. Never had any problems with it either.

The Talos Principle series are probably the biggest and best 3D first-person puzzle games out there, together with the Portal series.

I think Blue Prince needs to be added to this list going forward.

I assume you’ve already played Final Fantasy VI?

It’s a damn shame because Sync is absolutely excellent, but it’s already had several quite severe bugs gone unfixed for over a year now, and it will stop working altogether with Lemmy 1.0.

If you’re looking for an alternative Summit has been great, and the developer is super active and responsive. It’s without a doubt the best alternative, in my opinion.

So my impatient gaming is over for the moment. I’m finally finished with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Well, I say finished but that is a bit of a lie. It still lives rent free in my head and I’m still watching people play it to relive those first playthrough moments. But I’m done playing for now. I was actually tempted to go straight back and do NG+ immediately after seeing the credits, and that is a very rare feeling for me. Last time I had that feeling was Alan Wake 2. Anyway, the game is great: play it, wishlist it, whatever - just don’t miss it. I think it will be a shoe-in for Game of the Year, and it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played.

As my repentance for being super impatient two months in a row with Blue Prince and Expedition 33 back-to-back, I’ve gone back to an old classic for my next game: F.E.A.R.. I never actually played it back in the day, I remember trying the demo but my PC at the time couldn’t handle it and it fell to the wayside later as I played other games. I’ve installed a couple of mods: upscaled textures (didn’t get the actual Rivarez Mod, just the textures) and the Echo Patch for stuff like HUD scaling and FPS fix. I’m also playing on DLDSR 1.78x and with RTX HDR.

With all that said, the game holds up incredibly well. The lighting and atmosphere is phenomenal, but what is really striking is the gunplay and enemy AI. This really doesn’t feel like a 20-year-old game. Even if you completely ignore the horror elements, the game is just an incredibly enjoyable shooter, with every engagement feeling thrilling as enemies flank you, hide, flee, sneak and flush you out with grenades. The bullet time is cinematic, but a little overpowered. Though you can just elect to not use it.

If you haven’t already, pick it up on GOG and play it. You can probably get it for like a dollar on sale and that’s an absolute steal. Now if only I could get EAX emulation working…

Bookmarked. Great initiative.