Sierra Entertainment, a subsidiary of Vivendi Games, today announced that it is releasing the multiplayer portion of its hit PC horror shooter F.E.A.R. over the Internet for free. The download, dubbed F.E.A.R. Combat, will be available on August 17 and requires gamers to register for a keycode, which can be obtained at the game's official Web site.

　　Those who download the game will be able to participate in multiplayer frag sessions against other F.E.A.R. Combat owners, as well as those who own the full retail version of the game. Combat will include all the latest updates, 10 game modes, 19 maps, 12 weapons, anticheating-software support, and the ability to download user-created content.

　　A rep for Sierra said F.E.A.R. Combat was a way to give gamers who might not have played F.E.A.R., which was named GameSpot's Best Shooter for 2005 and GameSpot readers' choice Best PC Game of 2005, a chance to see why it was so well-received. "We had a good multiplayer component and we spent the last eight months building it up, but most people know F.E.A.R. as a single-player game. There's a hardcore group of F.E.A.R. multiplayer fans, and we'd like to expose the multiplayer component to the widest possible audience as possible."

　　F.E.A.R. was released for the PC in October 2005 and was developed by Monolith Productions (Condemned: Criminal Origins for the Xbox 360). An Xbox 360 version is currently being developed by Day 1 Studios (MechAssault) and will be released in November. For more information on F.E.A.R., check out GameSpot's review.