At first, I thought the HD5850 was going to be bottlenecked by my Q6600, after some in game testing, this doesn’t seem to be the case at all. I’m able to run Crysis at the max settings at 1920×1200, and have very playable frame rates. I tested a few other games and the result was just awesome. I probably got more than 2x the performance of my older card, the HD4850 which I bought when it came out. I don’t plan on upgrading the motherboard/cpu until the next gen cards arrive, such as the HD6850 or something, I’m sure by that point the Q6600 will just be too slow to keep up so a full system upgrade is in store around that time

If you’re debating about the HD5870 or the HD5850, 10 – 15% more performance just isn’t worth the extra cost in my opinion, just go with the 5850. Right now, it has the best price/performance ratio out there. I didn’t get all into the benchmarks and stuff yet, I might never get to it this time. Usually I always do when I get a new card and go quite insane with overclocking. I guess I’d rather just game than play with the benchmarks

Oh yea, almost forgot.. I’m extremely impressed with Windows 7, it runs great. I’m always on the computer for work or entertainment so having a good setup is pretty important to me. Below is a pic of my current desktop

Well, apparently I’m very late to reviewing it. I mean seriously, these guys are quick, I noticed there’s already a walkthrough and everything up for FEAR 2. This is the internet however, I realize some people have all the time in the world to play video games, and I’m not a professional video game player.

I’ve read the reviews elsewhere, from sites like IGN and GameSpot. I pretty much agree with the review on IGN, but not the review on GameSpot. It’s also important to note that I am speaking of the PC version, I have not played the console versions at all, and I am running with the maximum resolution and graphics settings. (I do not own an Xbox 360 or PS3)

The Review

Many have said FEAR 2 is not nearly as good as FEAR. I disagree. I have found that FEAR 2 has almost exactly the same structure and gameplay as FEAR with upgraded graphics, weapons, enemies, and environments. I think the cause for worse reviews is because people have already played FEAR, and therefore, seeing Alma isn’t near as shocking. Why do I say this? I have played through FEAR multiple times, six times to be exact. Each time Alma got less and less frightening, however everytime I was scared at least once.

FEAR 2 is pretty scary in my opinion. The environments were very well done, they are enough to scare someone on their own. Alma pops up at various times, but the thing that scared me most were these guys.

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Something about them, I just really didn’t like. I thought they were replacing an old favorite of mine, but I found out later in the game that they are still there

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Their first appearance. One of them ripping off this guys head It was hard for me to get a screen shot, I was just kind of taking video and screen shots while I played with FRAPS.

As with FEAR, I was very confused about the storyline, I’m not going to lie, I never really paid attention to it. I did at one point, but even looking everything up on the internet really didn’t clear things up for me. Many others are just as confused. However, the main idea is clear. Alma is ready to kill everyone, and Fettel is controlling the clone soldiers

Action, action, action! There’s so much of it in this game. If you’re a fan of first person shooters in anyway, I highly encourage you to check this game out! I had a blast! (Literally!) You have mechs, you have machine guns, you have lazer guns, you have rocket launchers, sniper rifles, turrets, shotgus, automatic shotguns, and a photon launcher thing. ( I don’t know the name of it right now, sorry ) Want to slow down the action? Well you can, there’s slow mo past interval 01. Unarmed attacks? No problem. Right click your mouse.

One level I really enjoyed was the school level. Something about wandering around a school while ghosts, alma, clone soldiers, and other enemies try and kill you. It just makes it that much better

Many of the “puzzles” in FEAR 2 remain the same type as FEAR, and a lot of other first person shooters. Just find a switch, a key card, or something else and continue on. Sometimes it takes awhile to complete an objective.

One thing I really did not like however is that the phones are gone. Also, there’s no radio broadcasts. You just pick up intel files that you can read through. I really enjoyed listening to the phones and radio, so this is a major downer for me.

Humor from the developers? (You decide.. )

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Conclusion

FEAR 2 is a rather short game, however it is quite entertaining, and brings me back to FEAR. Personally I found it was much better than Perseus Mandate and Extraction Point. Those were dull in comparison. However, there is something in me that says FEAR is better, but I’m going to have to say not by much. If you haven’t played FEAR, you should play that before playing FEAR 2, just because FEAR is and always will be a great game. If you’re wondering what I would rate FEAR 2 as, I would give it an 8.5/10.

YouTube

I made  a short video from my game play, picked out some parts I thought were cool. Took me awhile to create so give it five stars

Find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQe64rxolWQ

Few more problems, however We just thought starting up Hamachi was going to be enough. Not so. You have to make sure Hamachi is the default network adapter so the game uses it. That’s simple enough, right? Here’s a short guide of what we did to do that.

Click start –> Settings –> Control Panel –> Network & Internet Connections –> Network Connections –> Look where File, Edit, etc are located and find Advanced –> Advanced Settings –> Click on the Hamachi adapter and click up.  A reboot will be required.

Now that was done on both of our computers, everything should work, right? Not so. He could ping me, but I could not ping him through Hamachi. We finally narrowed it down to his Anti-Virus program, once he killed that I could ping him.

Now everything should work, right!? No. We couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t see his host in the game. Long story short, you cannot minimize the game while hosting, or else it kills the host. Now I could connect, and we were able to play just like we used to.Very cool.

I hope this helps someone if they’re trying to setup a LAN server through Hamachi for a game. It can be a pain at first.

Want to join us? Contact me through e-mail, the forums, or my IRC server. Quite a wide selection

Here’s a youtube video showing in game footage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzrXTKnIkfs

UPDATE: I was able to convince my friend azlesk8er to take a cap of him hitting 26 million. Here is his video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4bFR0VMA9s

Quickest download link I found was here: http://www.bigdownload.com/ (PC) I was able to download at 1.1MB/s from this link. It might not be as fast for you, depending on your location, but still it’s a good start since places like Gamershell are bogged down quite a bit with the release of this demo.

Will update the post with a full review of the demo once I get done playing it

First Impressions

I’m glad to say I can max the game at 1680×1050 with everything maxed including AA. That means it’s not too resource hungry, unlike the original FEAR where it was VERY hungry

The game feels a lot like FEAR including all of the “spooks”. I’m not sure I really like the new engine yet, I think I just have to get used to it. Seems like the same engine used in timeshift etc. Not sure, don’t really have time to look it up. The graphics are very good, regardless. Much improved from the first game. I knew they were getting rid of health packs ahead of time, but really I think they should have kept them. I liked health packs Mainly because you were forced to explore and scare yourself with something

The clones look kind of strange to me, like I said I didn’t get a real good look since I only played for about 15min.. I have to go to sleep so I don’t have time The overall “chaos” is still felt strongly as you move through the demo, which is good, that’s what I like about FEAR. Books and glass all flying around and dust, debris explosions, Alma screwing with you, all good fun.I don’t think it will take me long to beat, however since things are so similar to FEAR, but I will enjoy it, I’m sure.

Screen shots/Video I might put up tomorrow, mmm… tired.

Beat the demo

It took me approximately 30min to get through the demo on “high” difficulty. Mostly because I’m not so familiar with the new FEAR. I know the demos overdo Alma, and they are segments of various places in the full game. Much is the same, much has changed.

Further exploring the game I found that there WAS a slight bit of lag on my system with everything maxed out. I believe this is because I pumped up the AA too much. I will probably have to lower that slightly. The graphics are pretty awesome really, not Crysis beautiful, but they work well for the game.

There ARE health packs. I’m a little confused on the health system. I really have no idea what amount of health I have at any given time, because it’s nothing like the FEAR I know. I’m guessing it’s similar, though. It seems you recharge to a certain point, probably based on difficulty like the original FEAR. I guess the developers got rid of the recharging Halo type idea. Last I heard, that’s what they were doing.

There are mechs kind of like Lost Planet! That’s about the only thing I liked about Lost Planet, I’m glad they put it in FEAR 2. There are also snipers. Not saying there weren’t snipers in the original FEAR, but these are actually sniper rifles, not plasma rifles. I find myself defaulting to my old favorite G2A2.

The demo does very little to explain the controls or what is going on to a new user,  you just dive right into action. They kept the phones, which is good I liked the phones, but often I wouldn’t listen to them, but I liked to have them there.

Alma is as spooky as ever, which is great. Gotta love it.

Conclusion

Congrats Monolith, you just made me more excited about the full version of FEAR 2. Everything I wanted in FEAR 2 seems to be there.

The cable was tested on another Xbox 360 and worked fine, so now I will proceed to some of the X-Clamp mods.

First up is the Penny Mod I will probably try that one today and see how it goes. I will update this post when the testing is complete. There are MANY other things I will be trying with this box, so we’ll see how it goes.

Thanks for your patience.

Side Note: I am on my IRC channel from about 4PM EST – 2AM EST so it’s best to go on during those times if you want to chat with me or others, because other people generally join around that time as well. You will always see “s0uThp4rk” as online though, since I run through a bouncer.

I’ve uploaded a video on youtube for you to watch, but I couldn’t get sound to work for some reason, and I didn’t feel like messing with it to get it to work.. (Lazy? maybe ) I also misspelled Molotov in the video.. Oh well, I’m not perfect

You can check it out here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Db7sFzzQ4

While we’re in the spirit of gaming videos, here’s a First Encounter Assault Recon video I made awhile back.. http://vimeo.com/412097

UPDATE: Seems there was some interest on YouTube and elsewhere so here are the files. Download

The regular optical mouse

Yes, you can game with a regular optical mouse. These mice have a DPI rating in the 600-800 range. I find that this is not responsive enough. The difference in DPI can mean getting a frag or being fragged. I personally like gaming mice for everyday tasks as well, as it makes moving across the screen much quicker.

The Saitek Gm3200 Gaming Mouse

This mouse is a very good mouse, with a very high DPI. There is something wrong with it, however. The mouse is too bulky. It doesn’t have very good aesthetics either, but that’s not what I care about, personally. The high sensitivity (3200DPI) really isn’t needed for games, either. Despite the fact that the weights can be customized, I never really found a need for doing that. After using it for a very short period, the scroll wheel stopped working correctly. I’m not saying this is a bad mouse, it is actually far superior to a regular optical mouse, it just has some flaws. This leads us to our third mouse.

The Razer Diamondback Gaming Mouse

I also purchased this from woot.com, and I have had NO issues with it. It is perfect, exactly what I was looking for from the Saitek GM3200, but didn’t receive. It has a fair sensitivity at 1600DPI, which I find is about perfect for gaming and everyday tasks. The scroll wheel is very comfortable, and very responsive. I use the scroll wheel often, so this is important to me. The size of this mouse is also very good. I feel my hand fits nicely with this mouse. In all honesty, I can say that the Razer Diamondback is the best mouse I’ve had. Even if you are not a gamer, consider this mouse, because it is just… Awesome.