Why F.E.A.R. 3 is nothing to be afraid of

We wanted to provide new experiences for the player. This being the third product in the franchise, we wanted to bring an element to it people didn't expect. If you look at where gaming is trending, it's becoming much more of a community experience. We wanted to support that in a way that could let two people experience F.E.A.R. together as opposed to one.

It was an interesting challenge for us, but we liked the challenge of taking on divergent co-op and making a co-op experience people hadn't had before. It was a combination of those things that inspired us to do this.

We support both split-screen and networked co-op modes on the console.

When joining F.E.A.R. 3 you'll be able to play through the campaign single-player and then you'll be able to host a lobby and invite friends in to join your game, as well as setting settings for whether or not you would like it public – someone else to be able to join your game.

That way, players will be able to join mid another person's progress and continue their own game.

Right now we can confirm Point Man is the single-player model for playing the campaign. There may be more information about this as we get closer to release, but right now that's the plan.

You can't switch while playing. You're either starting the session as Point Man single-player or Point Man co-op and Fettel will join in as part of that.

To switch characters, you'd have to switch out and host a new lobby so you can choose to play as Point Man and the other person will then have to join as Fettel. If you want to switch, the other person will have to host as Point Man and you join in as Fettel, or just choose another match the game will match you up for so you can play as Fettel.

Fettel is a partner to Point Man, but the way we designed the game Point Man is the focus. It's possible to switch, but you do have to start a new session in order to do that.

One of the things we wanted to do for F.E.A.R. 3 was to continue to extend the audience. The landscape of gaming is developing into more social aspects and people wanting to play together.

We're hoping we can evolve the franchise, maintain all of the tenets we had in previous versions of F.E.A.R. and offer a new, fresh look that new players will enjoy as well. We are definitely interested in pulling in a new crowd for the franchise.

When I look at F.E.A.R. 3, for me, part of that is scale of combat. F.E.A.R. 1 and 2 were done on very close quarters spaces. We're offering a broader topology, and we get into some pretty epic combat situations.

We're hoping to see more people who like that kind of experience try F.E.A.R. because we think that's going to be a pretty fun experience for them.