F.E.A.R. Combat Begins Today, With Guide And Patch v1.07

Time stood still today on the F.E.A.R. Combat website, as the release countdown reached zero this morning (at least for us Europeans). This multiplayer only component of the original F.E.A.R. game is being generously offered by Sierra / Vivendi as a free downloadable title, in hope of raising more public awarness on the major changes made recently to Monolith's heart-pounding shooter. Which itself is also being updated to a new version (1.07), adding three new multiplayer maps and making it compatible with F.E.A.R. Combat.

An updated SDK and dedicated server files have also been released to work with this F.E.A.R. v1.07 patch, all of which can be downloaded by following one of the mirrors listed on www.fearfans.com. The incremental update from version 1.06 takes up around 40 MB, and the full v1.07 patch is nearly 300 MB in size!

Among the changes made in this version are the three new maps mentioned earlier (two new DM/Control maps called "Stockpile" and "Waterworks", and a new CTF/Conquer All map called "Depot"), and the splitting of the FEAR.exe executable into two parts - FEAR.exe and FEARMP.exe - to be compatible with F.E.A.R. Combat. They say that "the only differences users will notice is a short pause when switching from single player to multiplayer and vice versa, and the change in desktop and Start Menu shortcuts".

Finally, Sierra is also offering a multiplayer game guide for F.E.A.R. Combat, with hints & tips presented by Prima Games in Acrobat format. You can download the guide here. Now... if only we had the actual game as well! Apparently, Europeans will have to wait a bit longer until the F.E.A.R. Combat counter also reaches zero in the US. Which should be just about now. Don't forget to check your email if you already signed up on www.joinfear.com to receiver your F.E.A.R. Combat key.

Ah, what a great day to go on vacation: from tomorrow, I'm out! See in you in a couple of weeks.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)