Computer & Games.....
I've been catching up on some of the games I've been missing because I don't have a computer with a powerful enough video card to play them. I upgraded the PC upstairs to have a GeForce 8400 512MB (the highest that computer can take). So far I have played these:
Portal: Real nice graphics and interesting. Although the levels are a little too quiet and I got up to test chamber 18 (I think) and got stuck. I don't know what I'm supposed to do there. Hell, I was kind of just squeaking by on the seat of my pants on the previous test chambers. =P It's a real nice game but tedious when you get stuck.
Left4Dead: This game is a lot of fun. I first played it on the free weekend Valve had and since then procured myself my own copy. I like it a lot but even though it's a source engine game don't let that fool you. It's a newer game and is a lot more demanding than Portal or Half-Life 2. Often times on that computer which is actually pretty old it's like the action is going in slow motion. There aren't any pauses or hitches however. It's faster than the last game on the list though.
Bioshock: I knew I would like this game but after having completed it a couple of times I absolutely adore it! I can see why it coming to the Mac soon is such a big deal. I was never able to get into its predecessors System Shock 1 and 2. However this one sucked me in in a big way. Once I started playing it I had a hard time stopping until I completed the game at least once. I love the story, the artwork, the presentation is great.
Two things that kind of threw me off is that the environments have lots for you to search for and if you aren't diligent you may miss a lot of things. There's so much in the game that you could play it again and pick up different things or get different upgrades and have different experiences. You don't automatically pick up stuff walking over them either you have to use the use key to search bodies and pick stuff up.
Also ammo isn't nearly as plentiful as in other first person shooters. You can tell the developers really wanted for you to focus more on using plasmids (genetically engineered paranormal powers). Also I had to learn that often times one or two shots will do or short bursts from the machine gun. The one time when I really lay into the trigger is when I'm using that special gun that shoots fire, liquid nitrogen, etc. and I'm fighting a big daddy.
I disliked how they had the crouch key setup so you press it and you stay crouched until you pressed it again but a simple edit of the user.ini fixed that. I'd rather it be that you have to hold down the crouch key to stay crouched and you stand up when you let go. It's still not perfect as sometimes you can end up inverted and you have to jump or something to fix it. But it works more like I'm used to it that way.
The performance is pretty good especially after I tweaked it some. But unlike most other games with the exception of Left4Dead I have to play it at 800x600. I can play all my id tech 4 games (Doom 3, Quake 4, Prey) at high detail at 1024x768. But Bioshock is a Unreal Engine 2.5 game with Unreal Engine 3 style features bolted onto it making it very demanding as whenever you bolt on new features onto an old engine it makes it heavier than a new engine.
The most demanding thing in the game seems to be the texture and sound streaming. This game was made for multi-core processors and the PC I Played it on only has a single core celeron 2.4GHz and I have to run the video card on a slow PCI bus. So I have to play it at 800x600 at the most and even then I experience some texture pop-in when I enter new areas where the textures are at first blurry but then pop in to the correct resolution.
I did read that even the Xbox360 has this problem some time so at least I know it's not just the computer I'm running it on but I do have a feeling that it's not a problem on a newer computer like the one I'm getting. Computers have long since surpassed the power of the 360.... especially video card power.
Devil May Cry 4: I finally got to try this game as well. This game seems pretty cool although you really need to go through the tutorial level if you've never played a DMC game before like me. Chaos Legion was sort of like it and I have played that before but I kind of think that DMC4 has more moves and abilities. However this game also needs a multicore processor so it ran pretty slow on that PCs single core... there where some less demanding areas including the fire demon boss thingy that I was able to complete but right after that it was just too slow for me to play so I have to save that game for my new computer. Any new computer with a recent video card nowadays have more than enough power to play it at 100FPS I have read. My new computer certainly will. I'll probably have to bootcamp it to play that game though... perhaps with Windows 7. That'll be my wintendo partition. =P I have a friend who I would like to talk to about DMC4 and its story but she doesn't seem to be around anymore.
One notable thing about that game is it apparently was meant to be played with the Xbox360 controller hooked up to your computer as the in-game menus for setting up the controls favor the Xbox360 and the controls aren't fully compatible with my Saitek pad. It doesn't recognize the right thumb-stick and some of the buttons are detected incorrectly. It also doesn't recognize the rumble feature on that saitek pad which was a rumble version. I think this may be the way it is from now on with capcom games that are under the games for windows banner. I may end up getting myself a 360 pad because of that. I dislike how they only have 4 buttons on the face but my saitek pad still works well for things that work best with it like emulators. Like I have said before the right tool for the right job.
From the most demanding games on this list I would rate their speed on that old computer as such (in order from least demanding to most):
1. Bioshock
2. Left4Dead
3. DMC4
I look forward to my new computer so I can play these at full detail and at full speed. I hope Bioshock for Mac is out by the time I get my new computer.
I've also got me a copy of Fallout 3 but haven't tried it yet. I've read at amazon a review that listed its real time first person shooter combat as a negative as that person was used to the turn based combat of the previous fallouts. I'm the opposite of this person however... I never got into turn based combat (I didn't even like it in the much celebrated game KOTOR). For me that change in Fallout 3 is a plus. if the game is anything like Bioshock I may like it.
Portal: Real nice graphics and interesting. Although the levels are a little too quiet and I got up to test chamber 18 (I think) and got stuck. I don't know what I'm supposed to do there. Hell, I was kind of just squeaking by on the seat of my pants on the previous test chambers. =P It's a real nice game but tedious when you get stuck.
Left4Dead: This game is a lot of fun. I first played it on the free weekend Valve had and since then procured myself my own copy. I like it a lot but even though it's a source engine game don't let that fool you. It's a newer game and is a lot more demanding than Portal or Half-Life 2. Often times on that computer which is actually pretty old it's like the action is going in slow motion. There aren't any pauses or hitches however. It's faster than the last game on the list though.
Bioshock: I knew I would like this game but after having completed it a couple of times I absolutely adore it! I can see why it coming to the Mac soon is such a big deal. I was never able to get into its predecessors System Shock 1 and 2. However this one sucked me in in a big way. Once I started playing it I had a hard time stopping until I completed the game at least once. I love the story, the artwork, the presentation is great.
Two things that kind of threw me off is that the environments have lots for you to search for and if you aren't diligent you may miss a lot of things. There's so much in the game that you could play it again and pick up different things or get different upgrades and have different experiences. You don't automatically pick up stuff walking over them either you have to use the use key to search bodies and pick stuff up.
Also ammo isn't nearly as plentiful as in other first person shooters. You can tell the developers really wanted for you to focus more on using plasmids (genetically engineered paranormal powers). Also I had to learn that often times one or two shots will do or short bursts from the machine gun. The one time when I really lay into the trigger is when I'm using that special gun that shoots fire, liquid nitrogen, etc. and I'm fighting a big daddy.
I disliked how they had the crouch key setup so you press it and you stay crouched until you pressed it again but a simple edit of the user.ini fixed that. I'd rather it be that you have to hold down the crouch key to stay crouched and you stand up when you let go. It's still not perfect as sometimes you can end up inverted and you have to jump or something to fix it. But it works more like I'm used to it that way.
The performance is pretty good especially after I tweaked it some. But unlike most other games with the exception of Left4Dead I have to play it at 800x600. I can play all my id tech 4 games (Doom 3, Quake 4, Prey) at high detail at 1024x768. But Bioshock is a Unreal Engine 2.5 game with Unreal Engine 3 style features bolted onto it making it very demanding as whenever you bolt on new features onto an old engine it makes it heavier than a new engine.
The most demanding thing in the game seems to be the texture and sound streaming. This game was made for multi-core processors and the PC I Played it on only has a single core celeron 2.4GHz and I have to run the video card on a slow PCI bus. So I have to play it at 800x600 at the most and even then I experience some texture pop-in when I enter new areas where the textures are at first blurry but then pop in to the correct resolution.
I did read that even the Xbox360 has this problem some time so at least I know it's not just the computer I'm running it on but I do have a feeling that it's not a problem on a newer computer like the one I'm getting. Computers have long since surpassed the power of the 360.... especially video card power.
Devil May Cry 4: I finally got to try this game as well. This game seems pretty cool although you really need to go through the tutorial level if you've never played a DMC game before like me. Chaos Legion was sort of like it and I have played that before but I kind of think that DMC4 has more moves and abilities. However this game also needs a multicore processor so it ran pretty slow on that PCs single core... there where some less demanding areas including the fire demon boss thingy that I was able to complete but right after that it was just too slow for me to play so I have to save that game for my new computer. Any new computer with a recent video card nowadays have more than enough power to play it at 100FPS I have read. My new computer certainly will. I'll probably have to bootcamp it to play that game though... perhaps with Windows 7. That'll be my wintendo partition. =P I have a friend who I would like to talk to about DMC4 and its story but she doesn't seem to be around anymore.
One notable thing about that game is it apparently was meant to be played with the Xbox360 controller hooked up to your computer as the in-game menus for setting up the controls favor the Xbox360 and the controls aren't fully compatible with my Saitek pad. It doesn't recognize the right thumb-stick and some of the buttons are detected incorrectly. It also doesn't recognize the rumble feature on that saitek pad which was a rumble version. I think this may be the way it is from now on with capcom games that are under the games for windows banner. I may end up getting myself a 360 pad because of that. I dislike how they only have 4 buttons on the face but my saitek pad still works well for things that work best with it like emulators. Like I have said before the right tool for the right job.
From the most demanding games on this list I would rate their speed on that old computer as such (in order from least demanding to most):
1. Bioshock
2. Left4Dead
3. DMC4
I look forward to my new computer so I can play these at full detail and at full speed. I hope Bioshock for Mac is out by the time I get my new computer.
I've also got me a copy of Fallout 3 but haven't tried it yet. I've read at amazon a review that listed its real time first person shooter combat as a negative as that person was used to the turn based combat of the previous fallouts. I'm the opposite of this person however... I never got into turn based combat (I didn't even like it in the much celebrated game KOTOR). For me that change in Fallout 3 is a plus. if the game is anything like Bioshock I may like it.