Free FEAR Multiplayer

In an excellent move by Monolith they have decided to release FEAR Multiplayer for free. Monolith will call the release FEAR Combat and all you'll have to do is register your email address with them and they will post you out a CD Key.

FEAR Multiplayer was excellent when the game was first released. There is something about the combat in FEAR which just seems better than other multiplayer games. I can't put my finger on it, but it is excellent. The only real problem with the multiplayer when it was first released was that it had no punkbuster support. Unfortunately this created too much cheating with multiplayer. It took Monolith around four months to finally release a patch which contained punkbuster and by this time the multiplayer had lost the initial rush that it had.

I would hope that other gaming developers may take a leaf out of Monoliths book and decide to release multiplayer components of single player games for free. Hopefully this will also create some new interest in FEAR multiplayer which is absolutely excellent. I wonder if Monolith have made their decision based on the success of Enemy Territory and America's Army. Two very popular free online multiplayer games. Don't forget that it is also a good way for them to promote the upcoming release of the new FEAR expansion as well.

FEAR Combat should be released in just under a week. If you are looking for a decent multiplayer game (which should rival Counter Strike for its appeal IMO) then check this out. The unfortunate thing is that I paid for the full game and had to live through the days when there was no multiplayer support. So, does this mean that I will get a discount on the release of the expansion??? I don't think so. Sometimes it's not a good idea to take up a new game early.

It would be nice if some of the bigger software companies released more stuff for free. Although, I don't think it will happen very often. They release game demos for free. Look at Dark Messiah. Four hours of downloading and half an hour of play (if you are lucky).

FEAR Combat