F.E.A.R. Extraction Point hands-on

As the barrels begin to slow, no longer spewing vapor-hot metal into the room, you begin to assess the damage. Like that lobby scene in the Matrix, the joy is in the pause after the carnage.

The concrete pillars are cracked, showing the metal underneath. A crumpled soda can is spinning on the spot, the only noise in this echo chamber. And then there are the corpses: ten, maybe 15 dead replicants, slumped or sprayed against the walls.

With F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point, Vivendi promises more. More levels, more story, more ghouls, more men to shoot, and many, many more rounds per second. More of what F.E.A.R. was really good at: slow-motion combat in claustrophobic settings and fights that made you feel like a superhuman warrior.

That ruined train station just described is the result of their new weapon, the immensely phallic, ridiculously fun mini-gun. It's a six-barreled, lead-spewing death wand: hold your finger down, walk forward, hit the slow-motion button: the bullets still pump out, but you can see the trail of every one, carving through concrete and body armor.

You walk forward so slowly, still firing, an unyielding monster. Even when you're alone, the bad guys turned to mulch, you still fire, because you don't want that moment to end. Or, to put it another way: we really like the mini-gun.