Fear Files Time

[Narkis Eatman]

If you're going to put out a game that's basically more of the same, you may as well make it a lot more of the same, right? Because two six-hour chunks of slo-mo gunplay in dark and dingy locales is better than one, right? Right? Hrm, sort of, in theory, ish. In a lazier moment I might cop out and conclude that if-you-loved-that, you'll-love-this. But it's not quite that simple, dear fan o' F.E.A.R.

The thing is, I loved F.E.A.R. I loved - and continue to love - the unpredictable enemy AI, especially in its ability to outflank and outmanoeuvre you like no other FPS. Because of this dynamic nature at its core, it still boasts some of the most exciting firefights ever to feature in an FPS. Fortunately, the same holds true, to a large degree, in Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate, the two PC expansion packs that make up this catch-up compilation for the 360.

Yet even my deep well of enthusiasm for the series ran a little dry by the end of F.E.A.R. Files. There are only so many times developers can pull the same tricks off and expect to keep people's attention, but, unfortunately, the extent of Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate's ambitions are mainly to offer more of the same - to sate the demand while we await a proper sequel. But as delicious as the first helping might have been, by the time you've forced the third sizeable portion of F.E.A.R. down your neck, you might just want to lie down for a bit. On a couch.

It doesn't help, either, that Extraction Point was never that great an add-on to F.E.A.R. when it originally came out on PC a year ago. With development duties passed from Monolith onto Timegate Studios, the drop in quality is fairly jarring from the start, with a discernibly linear approach to the level design not helping to get the most out of the AI, and therefore the game fails to play to its own strengths. Whereas the original seemed to be full of multi-level, open plan offices and warehouses for the Replica soldiers to outflank you, the same cannot be said for much of Extraction Point. With most enemies clustered in groups of threes and fours, you tend to face them as they're being funnelled through manageable choke points. As long as you're fastidious with your use of bullet-time, picking off groups of enemies is a perfunctory exercise for almost the entire game.

And while the dark, moody industrial level design of the original never excited from a visual standpoint, at least you could admire the way it was laid out from a gameplay perspective. Extraction Point's mundane linearity just draws attention to how dull and dated the level geometry now looks. At times, the flat, lifeless scenery of endless office blocks, warehouses, sewers, and ventilation ducts evokes memories of shooters from a different generation. Ported with little love to the 360, and stood next to some fearsome competition, such technical inadequacy is just not acceptable (check out the horribly bit-mapped night-time cityscape when you venture onto the car park roof to fight another giant, rocket firing robot - for shame). And while you can't fault the character model animation (especially in slo-mo), the facial modelling on the human characters is beyond redemption. It wasn't that great two years ago, and certainly isn't now.

So, while Extraction Point throws in a few new weapons, and the obligatory couple of new enemies, it can't hold a candle to the original. Even as a huge fan of its parent game, I had a real struggle working my way through to the end. There were a few highlights, such as facing the gigantic, rocket-spewing R.E.V.6 Power Armour in the car park, and the ninja-like Assassins which leap around at high speed, confusing the hell out of you - but for the most part, you're essentially facing the same old samey-looking Replica soldiers in familiar environments.

Even the nightmarish psychic visions fail to infuse game with the necessary fear factor. If you've seen one, you've seen them all, with either a distant figure scuttling off, or the walls warping around you. Rarely, if ever, do you feel in any danger, so they just become a little annoying more than anything.

Just as well, then, that Perseus Mandate is a much better attempt at furthering the series. Doubtlessly stung into action by some of the feedback to Extraction Point, there's a real sense that the team wanted to offer something comparable in quality to the original - and so it proved. This time, the story runs in parallel to both F.E.A.R. and Extraction Point, and you're also facing a team of ruthless ATC mercenaries - who are also in the business of Replicant extermination. The general gist is that you've got to get hold of something called the Perseus, and must get hold of it before those nasty, lightning-fast Nightcrawlers can.

Hi. My wife somehow deleted 4,000 files back in October and did other things that I fear may be zapping her dropbox. I can still restore these files (I think) but I want to restore to a new location, e.g. create a folder called recoveredfiles and send everything to it. Recovery to original locations seems easy enough but I don't see anything on changing the location. I'm surprised there doesn't seem to be any way to do this. Or is there? Thanks!

What makes this so bizarre is that it looks like a mega folder was deleted, but files were still being accessed somehow through .dropbox.cache! My guess is that when she couldn't find files she searched for them and found them in the cache, and kept using the cache.

This makes me very nervous, as I fear files may have gotten deleted or corrupted in the cache. Indeed I am surprised the files were even there as I thought the cache got cleared every few days. I recreated the mega folder but I fear it has problems that may not get discovered until it is too late to fix them.

I know that sometimes an individual file can be corrupted and default to a PDF, but I'm talking about files I have never opened with this new version of Illustrator! I'm afraid to open any of my old files for fear of corrupting them!

UPDATE: I uninstalled Illustrator and Acrobat, reinstalled (Illustrator first), then restarted my computer. All of my AI files show an Acrobat icon. Whn you hover over the filename, it says it's an AI file, but when you open it, it opens in Acrobat!!

OK, I accidentally solved the problem myself. I chose one AI file on my desktop with the Acrobat icon and opened the "Properties" dialog. I changed the "Opens With" option to "Adobe Illustrator", and it reset every AI file on my computer to open with AI, and all the icons changed back to AI icons.

When I try and open a part I get all kinds of Resolve Link dialog boxes looking for files that were created with the FEA package last time the part was saved. Unfortunately, those files no longer exist and now I would like to open the file without it looking for those files with the fins,fsat, ftes, fwiz, fx_t, fmsh, fres extensions. Is there a way I can remove the association to those files?

Most likely the folder that holds the FEA data was deleted. You should be able to open the model, use the Skip-All command to facilitate the opening of the model. Then enter into the FEA Environment, then delete the Simulation from the browser. You should be able to RMB click on the Simulation and select "Delete".

A: The Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR Act) became effective on October 1, 2003. The Act imposes additional duties upon Federal agency employers intended to reinvigorate their longstanding obligation to provide a work environment free of discrimination and retaliation.

A: Current employees should have received the required notification, either in paper form (e.g., memorandum or poster) or electronic form (e.g., e-mail, internal agency electronic site). Each agency's initial notice, which was due no later than November 17, 2006, should have been published in the Federal Register. If an agency has a public Web site, the notice must appear there as well. The Federal Register and public Web site notices fulfill the agency's notice obligation towards former employees and applicants. New employees must receive the notice within 90 days of entering on duty.

A: At a minimum, the notice must contain the language set forth in OPM's implementing regulations. OPM's notice, which contains the minimum information necessary, can be accessed at _opm/nofear/notice.asp.

A: Current employees should have received the applicable training on or before December 17, 2006. Thereafter, an agency must conduct training no less than every two years. New employees should receive the applicable training as part of the agency's orientation program. If an agency does not have an orientation program, new employees must receive the applicable training within 90 days of their appointment.

Among the items that must be included in the report are the following: the number, status, and disposition of pending or resolved Federal court cases against the agency arising under the applicable employment discrimination and whistleblower protection laws; the amount of money the agency was required to reimburse the Judgment Fund; the number of individuals the agency disciplined and the types of discipline administered for violations of the employment discrimination and whistleblower protection laws; a description of the agency's policy for taking disciplinary action against employees for conduct inconsistent with employment discrimination and whistleblower protection laws; all the statistical data the agency is required to post on its public Web site; and, an analysis of the preceding information and any action the agency has or will take to improve its complaint and civil rights programs with the goal of eliminating employment discrimination and retaliation.

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