F.E.A.R. Combat unveiled

Vivendi subsidiary Sierra's struck upon a novel way to get more people to try out F.E.A.R.: they're giving it away for free.

Part of it, anyway. Unveiled last night, the recently teased F.E.A.R.: Combat turns out to be the game's complete multiplayer component, and it's due to be made available to everyone for no money on August 17th.

Sierra reasons that since most people are familiar with F.E.A.R. for its single-player, this is a neat way to get lots of people - existing fans and newcomers alike - involved with the multiplayer.

Combat will include 10 game modes, 19 maps, 12 weapons, Punkbuster and mod support, and will be based on the latest patched version of the original game.

Those game modes, then, are deathmatch, slow-mo deathmatch, team deathmatch, slow-mo team deathmatch, elimination (last man standing), team elimination, capture-the-flag, slow-mo capture-the-flag, conquer all and control (both variations on capture-and-hold).

All you have to do to get it is head to www.joinfear.com and register, and you'll be given a keycode to enter into the install-file, available from August 17th.

This isn't the first time a publisher's given away a full multiplayer FPS game, of course - Activision famously released Splash Damage-developed Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory for free, although that was a standalone game. Splash Damage is currently working on a pseudo-sequel, Quake Wars: Enemy Territory.