Games For 2008: F.E.A.R. 2

I seem to be getting something of a bum deal here. First I get Peggle Nights, about which a big fat nothing is known. And now F.E.A.R. 2, which is apparently being developed in a secret underground bunker fifty miles below the Atlantic ocean, by a team made up of invisible fairies.

So what to tell you? I suppose a quick re-hashing of the confusion over FEAR's sequalisation. But Kieron already did that when he wrote about the other FEAR 2, Project Origin. Very quickly, Vivendi own the name, while Monolith (now owned by Warner) own the game. So Project Origin (a name that I'm surprised to find out has grown on me) is a direct sequel to FEAR, in terms of engine, story and all.

So what is FEAR 2? Part of me wonders whether it's the same as System Shock 3. A non-existent game announced by the owner of the name in response to the original developers making their own sequel without them. (As was the case when BioShock was first announced).

It gets more complicated when you remember that two non-Monolith semi-sequels have already been released, Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate. Project Origin shall be acting as if neither of those ever happened. But what about Vivendi? Timegate Studios have been responsible for the expansion, Extraction Point, and the stand-alone expansion, Perseus Mandate, so it would make sense for them to be behind the buttons. But they announced they were working on another shooter, Section 8, with Gamecock last summer. Here's the completely useless trailer for that:

Thanks, we guess, GT.

So where does that leave us? Confused. Is there a F.E.A.R. 2? Did having to type all those damned full-stops every time lead the development team to abandon the project before the first press release was completed? Or are Vivendi secretly working on a rival to Project Origin to make our socks explode in excitement? Um, I dunno.