f.e.a.r. posts

After being pushed back from a previously planned fall 2010 release schedule, the horror shooter sequel F.E.A.R. 3 now has a solid release date. IGN reports that the game from developer Day 1 Studios and publisher Warner Bros. Interactive is due to be released in the US on March 22, 2011.

In addition to the new release date, the publisher also revealed that select retailers will offer pre-order incentives for F.E.A.R. 3. Amazon.com will give pre-order customers a 12-page prequel comic book to the game. Best Buy offers an exclusive in-game weapon, The Shredder while GameStop customers get their own exclusive weapon, The Hammer.

Monolith released their 2005 shooter F.E.A.R. with their original publisher Vivendi Games to terrific reviews and solid sales. However, when Monolith decided to move ahead with the sequel to the game under their new owners at Warner Bros. Interactive they could not come to terms with Vivendi Games over the F.E.A.R. game title. Vivendi make two expansion packs to F.E.A.R without Monolith's involvement while the developer used a contest to pick a new title for the sequel, Project Origin.

Now that Vivendi Games has been merged into the new Activision Blizzard company, the two organization have now come to terms with Warner Bros. Interactive buying back the F.E.A.R. title from Activision Blizzard. Because of this the game has now gotten a name change to F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. Financial terms were not disclosed. F.E.A.R. 2 is now scheduled for release on Feb. 10, 2009 according to an article on IGN.

{Editor's note: This hands-on preview is based on playing an Xbox 360 build of the game)

Last year, Warner Bros. Interactive had a hands-on theater demo of Project Origin, the long awaited true sequel to developer Monolith's 2005 scary shooter F.E.A.R (in fact the official name of the game had not been announced at its 2007 E3 appearance). The demo was more akin to what was seen in F.E.A.R.. it took place in an office corridor. It had some shooting of AI driven soldiers and it had a scary scene at the end.

By contrast our hands-on time with the E3 2008 demo of Project Origin was mostly a standard first person shooter, but still very well produced. The demo began with our new character, a "normal" soldier that was caught up in the nuclear blast created by scary eight year old girl Alma at the end of F.E.A.R. We were told that the E3 demo we played takes place at the beginning of the third act with the new soldier finding himself in a subway station.

The sequel to Monolith Productions' F.E.A.R. has gotten the trailer treatment, just in time for E3, giving fans a nasty shiver with the return of Alma, a young girl with immense psychic abilities.

Fans of the franchise can expect just as much of a horrorfest as the original, if this trailer is anything to judge by. Clearly inspired by "The Ring" and possibly Silent Hill, there are lots of shots of body horror images -- pale, decaying humanoids, raw and pulsing organic orifices -- and static-filled jump cuts combine to create a lasting sense of dread and foreboding. Good thing you have guns, huh?

[Thanks, Jason!]

Listen...do you hear that? It's the sound of . . something. Something that's approaching me. Wait . . did something just brush my leg? Wait..is that..yes..it is. New screenshots of Project Origin have arrived and man, do they look extremely creepy.

Developer Monolith has been working for some time on the true sequel to their 2005 horror themed shooter F.E.A.R. (we will remind you again that Vivendi Games, publisher of F.E.A.R., owns the name but not the characters and situations of the first game). Warner Bros. Interactive, the owners of Monolith, will publish Project Origin and as these new screenshots showcase the game looks to be as bloody and scary as the original but with improved graphical features. That evil ghost kid Alma seems to be at the center of all the death and destruction once again but what's the deal with the new monster with the large overbite. We hope to learn more about what's going on in the months before Project Origin's fall 2008 release date.