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Jesus christ that's impressive.
Possibly the first game since Half-Life 2 that I absolutely must own the morning of purchase.
Played it for 10mins (up for work in 4hrs) only but...lordy that's special.
Graphically top-notch, the lighting and shadows are unbelievable. The characters look scarily real and the intro is superb being driven up in the car.
And what I liked most of all, what made it for me? Being in the 1st person viewpoint as usual but having your view restricted to genuine head/neck movement area when looking around stationary.
Try it during the lab bit with the 2 soldiers and the science dude, I could only look so far left and right because I couldn't move my body.
That won't mean a whole bunch to anybody else, but it's the first time I've felt like I was genuinely in the world instead of some hyper 360degree owl-man.
And the standard tutorial/walkthrough section you get in all good FPS where you're handheld through scenarios to introduce features is very well done, especially when I saw...well...I wont spoil it but it made me jump and I wanted out that room fast.
The AI is fantastic too, replayed the 1st shooty encounter 4 or 5 times to see what would happen and they reacted differently each time.
The very first time I unloaded a machinegun clip into one soldier, and the 2nd came roll-diving through the window to shoot at me, making his way to boxes for cover. I took him down eventually and he collapses spraying bullets into the ceiling causing damage to the plaster.
The 2nd time, I pistol shot the 1st guy and the 2nd came out through the door.
3rd time I headshot the 1st guy, 2nd guy booted the door open but wouldn't come out, I couldnt' see him so I switched the flashlight on
"Hey, a flashlight!" and budda-budda-budda, he shoots at me.
And the slow-motion feature beats Max Payne hands down.
I love, and I mean love shooting in that state, the ripples through the air of the bullets, the slowed down speech, the environment exploding around you with sparks and explosions and shrapnel and collapsing boxes and shelves.
Try lobbing a grenade in slow-motion, the flickering flames lighting the wall as you shotgun another guy who flies back knocking a filing cabinet over that topples into the lockers.
And it happens differently each time, not scripted destruction scenes.
If you have broadband, you really really should play this demo.
Round of applause for F.E.A.R
Possibly the first game since Half-Life 2 that I absolutely must own the morning of purchase.
Played it for 10mins (up for work in 4hrs) only but...lordy that's special.
Graphically top-notch, the lighting and shadows are unbelievable. The characters look scarily real and the intro is superb being driven up in the car.
And what I liked most of all, what made it for me? Being in the 1st person viewpoint as usual but having your view restricted to genuine head/neck movement area when looking around stationary.
Try it during the lab bit with the 2 soldiers and the science dude, I could only look so far left and right because I couldn't move my body.
That won't mean a whole bunch to anybody else, but it's the first time I've felt like I was genuinely in the world instead of some hyper 360degree owl-man.
And the standard tutorial/walkthrough section you get in all good FPS where you're handheld through scenarios to introduce features is very well done, especially when I saw...well...I wont spoil it but it made me jump and I wanted out that room fast.
The AI is fantastic too, replayed the 1st shooty encounter 4 or 5 times to see what would happen and they reacted differently each time.
The very first time I unloaded a machinegun clip into one soldier, and the 2nd came roll-diving through the window to shoot at me, making his way to boxes for cover. I took him down eventually and he collapses spraying bullets into the ceiling causing damage to the plaster.
The 2nd time, I pistol shot the 1st guy and the 2nd came out through the door.
3rd time I headshot the 1st guy, 2nd guy booted the door open but wouldn't come out, I couldnt' see him so I switched the flashlight on
"Hey, a flashlight!" and budda-budda-budda, he shoots at me.
And the slow-motion feature beats Max Payne hands down.
I love, and I mean love shooting in that state, the ripples through the air of the bullets, the slowed down speech, the environment exploding around you with sparks and explosions and shrapnel and collapsing boxes and shelves.
Try lobbing a grenade in slow-motion, the flickering flames lighting the wall as you shotgun another guy who flies back knocking a filing cabinet over that topples into the lockers.
And it happens differently each time, not scripted destruction scenes.
If you have broadband, you really really should play this demo.
Round of applause for F.E.A.R
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I don't bother with shadows in BF2 the only time you see them is the second before the helicopter lands on you, it makes it look pretty but doesn't make to much difference gameplay wise.
I haven't got round to downloading this yet, but my system is going to splutter worse than smv's :' {
I turned off shadows in BF2 in favour of using 2xAA because the game is just so damn jaggy. Anyone want to lend me £50?
I turned off shadows in BF2 in favour of using 2xAA because the game is just so damn jaggy. Anyone want to lend me £50?
Barton 2500+ oced to 3000+, 1GB RAM, 9800 Pro.
I tried shadows on minimum, but it still spluttered along. The first time I played it through with shadows so I know how much it adds to the game, but I have no choice really. 25 fps is no good on a game like that.
edit: it's easy to see too, as you can turn shadows on and off in-game - the difference is amazing.
I tried shadows on minimum, but it still spluttered along. The first time I played it through with shadows so I know how much it adds to the game, but I have no choice really. 25 fps is no good on a game like that.
edit: it's easy to see too, as you can turn shadows on and off in-game - the difference is amazing.
smv what spec is your computer?
I turned shadows down to medium and got a 10fps gain, its one of those games where you really need some shadows as mine made me jump the first time i played through. Textures on max cause chugging but on medium they don't.
I turned shadows down to medium and got a 10fps gain, its one of those games where you really need some shadows as mine made me jump the first time i played through. Textures on max cause chugging but on medium they don't.
My system was chugging on this before, sometimes dropping as low as 15 fps even at 800x600. Messing around last night, I discovered if I turn shadows off, my frame rate literally doubles. After that I could turn up resolution, effects, lighting and still get over 50 fps.
It's a shame, as the shadows add a lot to the atmosphere but it's worth it for the performance.
As for the demo, it's incredible - I kept playing the same bit last night with different outcomes every time. When one guy skipped past me, he pulled a vending machine off the wall to use as cover - as he ducked below it i nailed his head to the wall :D
Frickin' awesome.
It's a shame, as the shadows add a lot to the atmosphere but it's worth it for the performance.
As for the demo, it's incredible - I kept playing the same bit last night with different outcomes every time. When one guy skipped past me, he pulled a vending machine off the wall to use as cover - as he ducked below it i nailed his head to the wall :D
Frickin' awesome.
what card you got?
The last three demos I've downloaded haven't worked due to my graphics card.
Pfft.
Pfft.
Those last couple of 'rooms' were great.
Shall probably buy this, if you people remind me.
Shall probably buy this, if you people remind me.
This is one of those games that yuo need to leave shadows on for as it adds so much to the game. I do like the fact that this isn't really dark like Doom 3 but only dark in places.
It's my CPU that is letting me down a bit with games these days :( 2.4Ghz at the moment.
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