F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point

This is from Gamespot at E3:

LOS ANGELES--E3 2006 is basically here. The same can be said for F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, the upcoming expansion pack to last year's fast-paced, horror-themed action game. The expansion pack, which is, surprisingly enough, being created by Kohan developer TimeGate studios, will apparently pick up, according to Vivendi producer Rob Loftus, "30 seconds after the ending of F.E.A.R." Which means that this preview story may contain spoilers from the original F.E.A.R.--so you've been warned.

Extraction Point will focus entirely on single-player content, continuing the story and action from the previous game. You'll again play as the same highly trained elite military operative you played as in the original game. However, unlike the first game, in which you were hunting down the powerful clone commander Paxton Fettle, in the expansion, you yourself will be the quarry of the clone army (and of creepier, paranormal critters as well). The brief cinematic that preceded our demonstration (which included sequences from various parts of the expansion), showed, among other things, the enormous, billowing explosion that takes place at the end of F.E.A.R. in the wake of the helicopter crash, a swooping shot of Paxton Fettle's corpse, your teammates wondering aloud about what happened to both you and Alma (the creepy little girl in the red dress reminiscent of the monstrous child from The Ring), and what appears to be some kind of chapel full of clone soldiers who snap to attention as the camera sweeps past them.

We began our demonstration in what appeared to be some kind of train station, just outside of an enclosed room where enemy soldiers were hiding. These soldiers showed off the same kind of aggressive artificial intelligence we've come to expect from F.E.A.R., and it was just as satisfying to blast them into piles of bloody body parts with our combat shotgun in the expansion as it was in the original game--and just like in the original game, we were able to briefly slow time around us, which helped us get the drop on our enemies. We then descended down a set of stairs ending in a doorway to observe our first moment of paranormal weirdness--a soldier's corpse slowly and limply rising to its feet behind a closing door. Like the original game, the expansion pack promises sequences that alternate between violent firefights and creepy supernatural manifestations. Once we reached the foot of the stairs and opened the door, we found the corridor to be completely clear; the corpse had disappeared. We then fought through a few more enemy soldiers and jumped down a ventilation shaft, and as we reached the end of it, the far wall suddenly retreated away from us, and a ghostly figure, presumably that of a slightly older Alma, quickly scrambled past us sideways on all fours, like a crab.

We then fought through a few more enemies and dropped through a sewer grate into what appeared to be an industrial boiler room, when ziplines suddenly appeared from the ceiling. Waves of enemy soldiers clambered down into the room, attempting to duck and weave through the cramped pipework (they apparently hadn't realized that we had brought along a rocket launcher and a handful of grenades). In the aftermath of the firefight, the stairs out of the boiler area became cut off by an ignited gas leak, which we had to deactivate by hunting for a valve to turn.

We then climbed up to what Loftus refers to as "the blood room"--an open-walled studio lined with thin metal shelves housing cans of paint, and with floors that were covered in spilled blood. We encountered one of the expansion's new enemies in this area, the shadow creatures, which are partially invisible critters with glowing red eyes that dash about on all fours and slash at you with their claws. Fortunately, we were equipped with the expansion's new weapon, the high-capacity minigun, which holds more than 200 rounds and chews up scenery, and enemies, into confetti. It was no accident that we ended up in this situation; according to Loftus, the "blood room" was designed to be torn up by the minigun; the partially-invisible enemies are difficult to draw a bead on, and the paint cans and shelves tend to get whipped around dramatically under heavy fire.

Once we passed through this area, we ended up in a different level of the subway, which caused our visual sensors to begin shorting out due to interference. When we proceeded down the corridor, it burst into flames, and the older-looking Alma strode forward to meet us, flanked by more shadow creatures.

Keep in mind that what we saw was only part of the expansion pack's story, and most likely spliced together from different parts of the game. That said, the expansion seems to have the general idea of firefights and creepy moments more or less figured out, and considering how good F.E.A.R. was last year, we're looking forward to seeing more of the expansion. Extraction point is scheduled for release later this year.

Source: *www.gamespot.com

OK, its been a day and I've played it over and over again for God knows how many times. At 555 MB, the demo just gives you about 10 minutes of gameplay tops, but what a 10 minutes it is! FEAR XP is as intense as FEAR, in fact, its even MORE intense - the enemies are souped up, the weapons have more realistic recoil that makes it all the more difficult to aim and fire, especially in sporadic bursts. There's something wrong with the AI, it takes a couple of seconds for it to react, but they still seek out cover, dive through areas and melee attack you, but apart from that, it seems like the AI takes about 2 seconds to react to you.
Level design is pretty disappointing. It features the same drab levels that we saw from FEAR, thrown in with some areas that are taken straight out of Monolith's other game, Condemned. But I love the way you can still use a lot of scattered explosive barrels and fire extinguishers to kill Clones. The new invisible friends of Alma (who you kinda saw for a small length at the end of the original game as you made your way out) are a pain as they keep slashing at you a little and remove your health. And since they are so damn fast, you better not run out of SloMo or bullets. The music and sound effects are just great, particle effects are superb as usual. The only problem is that you don't know how the story is going to go as you can clear still hear Paxton Fettel saying his usual "There's a war coming!" from beyond the grave and no clue as to what happens to your poor friends in the chopper, which appears to have been totally screwed up after good old Alma got on board. (See "Crash and burn" screenshot) Definitely worth getting as and when it releases. Game runs flawlessly at 1280x960/4x/4x and all physics effects at Medium and all Graphics effects at Maximum. In fact, FEAR XP runs a lot better than FEAR, except for that bloody room, where the framerates take a pummeling, thanks to the blood, the lighting and the invisible enemies.

SCREENSHOTS: (56k=death)

Screechy Load Screen
Ground Zero
Extraction
The beginning of the end!
Crash and burn
Old Acquaintances
The Cathedral of the Dead
Waking up
ONLINE!
Insertion Point
Shadows on tile
Never upset the boss!
Don't ignore the signposts!
Barrels of fun
EARTHQUAKE!
Gate-crasher EVE
EVE's Rocket Rumble
Dead Rising
Nothing mini about a minigun
Decorating the walls
Train Station Wreck
Something wicked this way comes
Creepy wallflower
Blood, fire and bullets
Trouble brews
Nailed 'im!
Burn
Blood letters
Bloodbath
Alma's friend says "Hi!"
My minigun says "Bye!"
Uh-oh!
End game
The wait begins

VIDEOS ( H.264 AVI / 56k=agonizing, protracted death )

Video1: Intro (HD) @ 800x600 (13.4 MB)
Video2: Firefight 1 (4.94 MB)
Video2: SloMo Grenade Explosion (2.74 MB)
Video3: Firefight 2 (10.4 MB)
Video4: Firefight 3 (6.25 MB)
Video5: Alma and the wallwalker (5.37 MB)
Video6: Surprise attack (1.60 MB)
Video7: The last firefight (9.04 MB)
Video8: End game (3.22 MB)

@enoonmai
Thx for the pics & videos
btw.........wats ur system config??

Stalker said:

@enoonmai
Thx for the pics & videos
btw.........wats ur system config??

Click to expand...

System Config has mentioned in his signature.

^^oh.........checked his sig, thx
can an x800 run FEAR at such high settings??

Yeah X800 run fear @ high setting smoothly.

Stalker said:

^^oh.........checked his sig, thx
can an x800 run FEAR at such high settings??

Click to expand...

Maybe not a standard X800, but that's a Built-By-ATI X800 XT Platinum Edition, so yes, it can chew through most games at High settings, except GRAW, TES4:Oblivion and Call of Juarez, where it has to revert to Medium settings. It also runs pretty darn well at 1600x1200/2x/4x, but I preferred to step down the resolution a bit and increase AA and AF. As for the FEAR XP settings I was running on, here's the complete list:

Driver: Catalyst 6.8 - Stock ATI drivers
Resolution: 1280x960
V-Sync: Off
Single-player Physics: Medium
Multi-player Physics: Medium
Max Software Sounds: Medium
Particle Bouncing: Medium
Shell Casings: On
World Detail: Maximum
Corpse Detail: Maximum
Effects Detail: Maximum
Model Decals: Maximum
Water Resolution: Maximum
Reflections and Displays: Maximum
Volumetric Lights: On
Volumetric Light Density: Medium
FSAA: 4x
Light Detail: Maximum
Shadows: On
Shadow Detail: Maximum
Soft Shadows: Off
Texture Filtering: Anisotropic 8x
Texture Resolution: Medium
Video Detail: Maximum
Pixel Doubling: Off
DX8 Shaders: Off
Shaders: Maximum

FRAMERATE INFO: (Fraps 2.54)
Minimum FPS: 18 (Blood-Room)
Maximum FPS: 205
Average FPS: 57.062

*img149.imageshack.us/img149/7830/fearxpstatsgy9.jpg

Fear extraction pt demo is released right??

^ Please read the posts. We are indeed talking about the demo.

At 555 MB, the demo just gives you about 10 minutes of gameplay tops, but what a 10 minutes it is!

Click to expand...

Yes, the demo was out about three days back and is available from here at about 552 MB for about 10 minutes of gameplay.

I have downloaded the demo and demo is cool.