MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIRED
• Windows® XP or 2000 with latest service pack installed
• DirectX® 9.0c (June Edition) or higher
• Pentium® 4 1.7 GHz or equivalent processor
• 512 MB of RAM or more
• 64 MB GeForce™ 4 Ti or Radeon® 9000 video card
• Monitor that can display in 4:3 aspect ratio
• 5.0 GB free Hard Drive Space for installation
• Additional hard drive space for a swap file and saved game files
• 4x CD-ROM drive (DVD-ROM drive for Director's Edition)
• 16-bit DirectX® 9.0 compliant sound card with support for EAX™ 2.0
• Broadband or LAN connection for multiplayer games
• Mouse
• Keyboard
Release Date: October 2005
“Its dark and I have to go into that creepy looking tunnel.” I say to myself as I climb down the ladder into the drainage tunnel. “No hostiles in sight though” I move from the platform into the channel for the water drainage. Suddenly the HUD lights up “Unidentified target approaching”. I strain my ears and sweep the area for targets. All I hear are the ambient noises, water dripping , a far off chopper. “Wait what’s that sound?” I start to resume my scan when I see movement on the ground. Reflexes kick in and I begin to spray the floor with sub machine gun fire. “Crap! Rats, just a couple of rats.” My heart rate begins to slow. Then I see and hear her at the same time, the creepy little kid running across the tunnel entrance.
Ok, here is the first time I had to pause the game and get my heart rate under control. Not even 5 minutes into the game and I am already considering turning on every light in the house and turning the sound off on the computer. So, your saying to yourself “Self, what’s the problem? It’s just a little kid.” I’ll tell you what the problem is THAT LITTLE KID IS FREAKY!
The install of the demo is pretty straight forward. There are no options only install or don’t. Getting the game setup was also a snap there is a sweet little autodetect feature that checks your system and sets the recommended best settings for you. I found it did a great job. For you tinkerers out there, there are a wide range of video and audio settings to fool with to your hearts content. My frame rates never dropped to a point that I noticed any slowdown or choppiness with the auto settings. To be absolutely honest I never check the frame rate with any sort of meter. But I find that my eyes are the only thing that can tell me if it’s smooth or junk.
The overall graphics in F.E.A.R, or the reason for my upcoming heart failure as I have now dubbed it, are excellent from the menus to the scenery and objects around you. AI move as they should, their walk is smooth, when they jump out a window or roll across the floor you would think you are watching a movie. When you shoot one and he falls from a platform or something it looks like what a dead body falling should look like, limp and kind of rag dolls around any obstacles. The ambient sounds in the game really suck you in. From the water dripping to the sound of your own breathing, like Disco Stew putting on a Barry White album everything is geared to set the mood.
Look, lets not beat around the bush here. I spent a fun couple of days playing with this demo. The graphics are outstanding in a world of games with great graphics. My P4 2Ghz with 1 gig of ram and a FX5900 played the game beautifully on the pretty much medium settings that the auto detect setup, that in and of itself is impressive. The sounds make the game. They set an atmosphere that is undeniably scary. You can adjust the difficulty to whatever level you like from easy to natural born killer, and changing it mid mission takes effect immediately with no ill effects to game play. The single player demo that I tried out was short. Just about the time I was ready to dedicate my life to playing this game, in between work and family that is (yea right), it ended. But it did the job. This is a title I will be picking up as soon as it is available. I just hope my wife doesn’t divorce me for jumping out of my chair and screaming like a girl two or three times a night.
One last note, during the demo there are a few spots where the language gets pretty foul if I had a complaint that would be it. Not something I would let my kids play even if it weren't going to cause them nightmares.
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