I got 4 new PC games - Good for me

[VirusType2]

Ok, I had like $320 dollars worth of stuff I've been meaning to return for weeks and months, and I had 2 paychecks I hadn't deposited yet.

Since I had the day off, I went on some errands. I returned all that stuff and bought some new games with some of this money.

Since I haven't had internet access for months, I never bought HL2 Episode 1 (damn Steam). Now that I have internet again, I went ahead and picked that up!

So I got:

HL2 episode 1 $20
Test Drive Unlimited $40
Fear $20
Fear Expansion $20

Anyway, I was going to ask if anyone else has them before I open them. Was going to ask if they are good, but I know they are good, or I wouldn't have bought them. So, I changed my mind about this thread and I'm just going to brag about having games and money instead. :smoking:

I want to try the motorcycles in TD Unlimited, this better be good or I'm taking it back.


.. I saw they are taking pre-orders on Quake Wars-Enemy Territory. I think he said it comes out in like 2 months. It looked like the most awesome game ever, on the screenshots on the box.

 

[A True Canadian]

That's it! Next week I'm going to sit down and force myself to give FEAR another chance. I've had the game since Christmas 2006 and I've only played through 3 levels.

 

[smwScott]

FEAR was fun enough ... but it was one of those games that was just kind of there. Nothing too special about it, I played it on a buddies computer but didn't bother to finish it. I might give it another try when the PS3 version comes out, doubt it though. Definitely a big step down for Monolith from the No One Lives Forever Series. Don't know anything about the expansion.

As far as Episode 1, it's obviously great. The only thing is whether or not $20 is worth an extra 4 hours of HL2, which is really what it comes down to. It's a game you definitely need to play, but you could probably save a bunch of money waiting for the inevitable value pack and get them all at once for a greatly reduced price. Personally, I'm just going to rent it for PS3, beat it and then buy the pack somewhere down the line for PC.

Don't know anything about that version of Test Drive, although judging from past games in the series it seems like the kind of thing where you'd want to let the price drop a bit more first.

 

[VirusType2]

FEAR was fun enough ... but it was one of those games that was just kind of there. Nothing too special about it, I played it on a buddies computer but didn't bother to finish it. I might give it another try when the PS3 version comes out, doubt it though. Definitely a big step down for Monolith from the No One Lives Forever Series. Don't know anything about the expansion.

As far as Episode 1, it's obviously great. The only thing is whether or not $20 is worth an extra 4 hours of HL2, which is really what it comes down to. It's a game you definitely need to play, but you could probably save a bunch of money waiting for the inevitable value pack and get them all at once for a greatly reduced price. Personally, I'm just going to rent it for PS3, beat it and then buy the pack somewhere down the line for PC.

Don't know anything about that version of Test Drive, although judging from past games in the series it seems like the kind of thing where you'd want to let the price drop a bit more first.

I agree with everything you said. In the back of my mind I sort of knew all of that, but I rarely listen to myself. yea, test drive is pretty fun. Sorta bored of consolified racers though. And I bought it anyway. I'll probably finish it though, I almost always finish racing games, because I can't get stuck or lost.

That's it! Next week I'm going to sit down and force myself to give FEAR another chance. I've had the game since Christmas 2006 and I've only played through 3 levels.

I know what you mean man, I got like.. a big-ass ****ing pile of games.

I got enough games, for that If I were to try and finish only 20% of them would take the rest of my life. And yet I buy more games that I will never finish. I'm just totally bored out of my mind.

I hope this girl from work isn't just staring at me all the time just to **** with my head. It would be nice NOT to sit in front of a computer on a day off for once...

 

[Ennui]

FEAR imho is worth a download but not a buy, though I guess you can't really go wrong for $20. I didn't even bother to finish it because I got bored, but it's not bad.

 

[VirusType2]

FEAR imho is worth a download but not a buy, though I guess you can't really go wrong for $20. I didn't even bother to finish it because I got bored, but it's not bad.

The demo was pretty interesting. Watching vids of gameplay on youtube made me think it's a bit dated, but it had like game of the year 2005 award logo's on the box, I love FPS games, and I think I will like it.

I should be able to run it with max settings in High-def easily too. I figure, it's hardly going to drop anymore in price, and I got this killer PC, I might as well buy some of the good games that are available for it. There are probably some interesting mods for it as well.

I don't buy many games, instead I usually spend most of my time modding or playing emulations or something.

Speaking of Modding, I made a new creature for Oblivion. I think I will call it "The Damned", or something.

I also created about 100 new sounds for one of the monsters types in the game. I should do some last minute details and have those uploaded by Sunday afternoon. (several hours) Hopefully I can easily make The Damned a summonable creature as well, though I haven't looked into how much time or difficulty that will be yet. I think I can do it.

I made a shit-load of other mods too, but I'm feeling lazy about them and don't feel like uploading them this weekend.

I'll put a thread here so you guys can see screenshots and be the first to download them and try them if you want.

-V

EDITED (an hour later)
I've been playing FEAR for about 45 minutes. Fear is absolutely tight. I'm so glad I got this game. The graphics, effects, sounds, story, gameplay are all far exceeding what I expected. The demo was never this good on my Old gigantic pile of crap computer. Thanks to those who recommended it.

It has some great elements from:
Red Faction 2
Half Life2
Doom 3
Silent Hill series
Resident Evil Series
Quake 4
Max Payne series

 

[Gargantou]

Test Drive Unlimited is only truly fun if you have mates who are racing it online, it is afterall a MMOR, Massively Multiplayer Online Racing game, I have the 360 vers myself, got it from my job when my internship ended this friday, it's very fun to race online with friends around miami :>

FEAR is ok, good in MP but SP gets real repetitive real quickly, SP-wise it's almost worse than Doom 3 in how repetitive it is.

 

[VirusType2]

Below, I will rip Test Drive Unlimited to shitty pieces (2 hour hands on review of the game) and not recommend it. You might find this review really exciting if you are bored enough, possibly more exciting than the game.

For starters:

Test Drive isn't running that well on my computer at 800x600.

It looses some frames during sharp turns even at this medium rez, and the framerate is just enough to keep me from lowering some more settings.

the graphics are kind of amazing, with the blur and high speed shaky cam, nice textures, and a complex world, but ...

Note: I played with all of the options in the game, the sensitivity settings, etc., and you can't fix what's wrong with the game through there. My test drive was done without any driving aids on for the record.

Now here's whats wrong:

The effects when you hit a car are absolutely horrible. It's got sideswipe sparks when you run right into the back of someone.

The impact physics are well bellow the current standard, yet for some reason, invoking these 'physics' will bring your computer to it's knees, crawling to a couple Frames per second for about 2 seconds.

The collision damage is passable, but where is the beef? No flames, no smoke - just a gay ass gigantic spark coming from the wrong direction.

The player car is indestructible, which is pretty stupid, and just teaches you to drive bad, never use the brakes, and bounce off shit, like Gran Tourismo.


The steering tries to return to center with the same force, no matter how fast you are going. So to steer, I constantly have to tap left left left on the analog stick (just like you had to do with digital game-pads) Instead of just holding to the left slightly. The game engine fights what direction you try to steer. In real life, there is this effect, especially at high speeds, but the steering should try to return to center less, and should be dynamic, depending on vehicle speed. If it does in this game, I can't tell. I basically end up swerving left and right most of the time, just trying to hold a simple curve.

It basically plays just like the first Test Drive it did on my Atari home computer 22 years ago with a big ass Atari joystick.


has audio glitches during videos, and 90% of the sound plays through the left speaker. Will try my other sound card tomorrow.

The car sounds are pretty terrible. Low quality, and I'm not believing that these engine sounds are matched to the cars. I hear what sounds like a motorcycle driving by, but it's actually a truck or sedan for example.

Also, I can hear other cars engines almost as loud as mine even when they are 1000 feet in front or behind me.


It won't let me create a gamespy acct so I can play online. It says 'password invalid' no matter what password or username I create, so there goes a good portion of the game.


The brake isn't taking advantage of the analog trigger. It's working like a digital button. Digital brakes - meaning, the brakes lock up instantly when applied.



The cops have idiot AI, and have repeating speech that isn't nearly as good as NFS carbon. You can drive down the wrong side of the road at any speed, pass some cops going the other way and they don't care. You can run right into a cop. you can run through a light and run into them and flip them over and they don't notice. But the minute you run over a flower bed or whatever the hell triggers them, they are on a keystone blooper caper.


I'll probably like it better if I get a better car. I really just want to try the bikes tbh. It's why I bought the game.


Honestly, try the demo first.

The game never manages to provide any excitement, fun, or anything.

After all of these problems, somehow, it's still seems like it's a pretty good game (if it runs right on your hardware), but I already have a million good games.


END OF 2 HOUR Gameplay review.

 

[Asuka]

Nice. Even tho you should have probably gotten FEAR gold. 30$ for both games.

Dont know about Test Drive but the other picks are good. Great games. The only lacking game would be FEARS expansion.

 

[Rapstah]

The FEAR expansion got some bad reviews. I say return it and play the original one two times D:

 

[Gargantou]

Note, do not let the TDU review discourage you, the 360 version doesn't really suffer from these problems, so if you have a 360 and XBLGold, and like racing games, you HAVE to get TDU.:>

Btw, VirusType2, if you have a MILLION good games, then why do you need to buy new ones? I mean I doubt you've played through all those million good games, have ya?

 

[Deleted member 56031]

The FEAR expansion got some bad reviews. I say return it and play the original one two times D:

But the expansion has the LASER!!! :O

 

[Lucid]

Episode 1 wasn't anything special, TD:U was boring, and FEAR was great.

Meh, I'm getting spoiled with games these days.

 

[giant384]

i loved fear, its like one of the only games that scares the shit out of you. btw honestly it is only fun if you have a good 5.1 system otherwise your just not immersed into the games ambiance.

 

[VirusType2]

i loved fear, its like one of the only games that scares the shit out of you. btw honestly it is only fun if you have a good 5.1 system otherwise your just not immersed into the games ambiance.

I was playing with headphones. I still haven't got 5.1, because I want to get a Bose system. (the best) but for the price of Bose system, I can get something else that will make a bigger difference, like a HDTV instead. You see, I already have a good stereo sound system. 5.1 won't be a huge difference. But I don't have a TV (well besides that one from the 80's that i got for free), so having a big screen HDTV would be a huge difference.

So i have 2 ch. stereo ;(

 

[VictimOfScience]

My PC was top-of-the-line 2 years ago and it runs TD:U on the highest setting and I notice no such graphical glitches or audio problems or physics issues or framerate issues. I was going to say it was some of the most fun I have had with a racing game in a long time, but maybe that is because I just went to Oahu last summer and do actually recognize much of the landscape--extremely impressive technological feat that game!! What are the specs of your PC? Maybe new drivers would help? Good luck!! I hope you get to enjoy it as I have been!!!

 

[MorganFreeman911]

Where do I get TDU's demo?

 

[VirusType2]

Nice. Even tho you should have probably gotten FEAR gold. 30$ for both games.

I did get Fear - Gold Edition. I just split the price in two so I could show what I paid. It has the Directors cut and Extraction Point. I'm curious what the differences are of the Directors cut and the non-directors cut. When I said it was $30 in another thread I had made a mistake. It's $39.99.

The FEAR expansion got some bad reviews. I say return it and play the original one two times D:

I really love this game so far. If it's more levels and more stuff to do then I will be pleased. Bad reviews or just not rave reviews?

Note, do not let the TDU review discourage you, the 360 version doesn't really suffer from these problems, so if you have a 360 and XBLGold, and like racing games, you HAVE to get TDU.:>

I thought that would be the case. Most of my problems come from the control and the performance of the game, but there were some pretty bad problems with AI, and I think the game needed more development time. I have heard there is a patch comming soon, but I can only hope it addresses the issues I'm having.

Btw, VirusType2, if you have a MILLION good games, then why do you need to buy new ones? I mean I doubt you've played through all those million good games, have ya?

Well, that's basically what I said. I have so many games that I haven't even had time to play, yet I buy more. To be more specific, I have about 20,000 games, and many of them are some of the greatest games ever made. Classics. Some are very very old though, so I guess the answer to your question is that I want something more recent, something to really put my hardware through the test. With modern and high quality graphics, sounds, cinematics, and gameplay.

Episode 1 wasn't anything special

I haven't opened the box yet. I'm still trying to decide If I want to keep it. I haven't read any reviews or articles, or anything about it yet. I didn't even read the box.

My PC was top-of-the-line 2 years ago and it runs TD:U on the highest setting and I notice no such graphical glitches or audio problems or physics issues or framerate issues. I was going to say it was some of the most fun I have had with a racing game in a long time, but maybe that is because I just went to Oahu last summer and do actually recognize much of the landscape--extremely impressive technological feat that game!! What are the specs of your PC? Maybe new drivers would help? Good luck!! I hope you get to enjoy it as I have been!!!

Really?

Hmm.
My PC:

- new CPU model. It came out only months ago. 3.33GHz 64-Bit Celeron D (not too bad, but not intended for gaming - it was a steal though.) This processor is noticeably faster than my 2.666 GHz 32 Bit, Celeron D was, but still leaves something to be desired. (it's fast as shit, but lets face it, todays games are really intensive) Also, I hear the Celeron Units are missing quite a bit of transistors and is missing some of the math computation power that the Pentium chips have. This might be my problem with the physics, as physics are done on the CPU, not the GPU, correct?


- 256 MB PCIexpress X1900GT with Catalyst 7.2 drivers (new) Overclocked to 614 GPU/ 718 Vram (from 495/495 stock speeds.)


- 2x 512MB cheap ram sticks. The fact that they are different brands is part of the problem. the are rated at the same speed, but who knows whats really going on. I think I'm going to try to overclock them after I finish this message. maybe I can blow them up so I have an excuse to get some fast game RAM, but I'd like to wait until I get a better Motherboard and get 4GB of matched gaming RAM.


- I have been using my Realtek onboard sound, since my Creative MP3+ external sound unit doesn't work well with Oblivion. I should try my Creative card to see if that fixes the sound glitches, and takes a little strain off the CPU.

- Windows XP media center. Up to date.

What are your specs Victim?

Where do I get TDU's demo?

You should try google. I would guess off the top of my head Filecloud or File Planet.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Max Payne series

Max Payne will always have a place in my heart

 

[VictimOfScience]

Where do I get TDU's demo?

I don't think there is a PC demo or at least I cannot find one after just a bit of searching on 3DGamers and FileFront, but someone correct me if I am wrong!! Score: XBox Live 1, PC 0.

What are your specs Victim?

Intel P4 3.6 GHz
Sapphire Radeon X850XT PE with whatever the next-to-latest drivers are...
1 GB RAM (2x512--forget what kind--at work now--but they're the same though :E)
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS
Windows XP SP2, up-to-date

I bet the problems you mentioned are likely the issue since yes, the cpu will be handling the physics calculations and onboard sound is quite usually crap and the RAM (imho) should always be identical. Methinks you have a bit of tweaking ahead of you but you've also got a whole heck of a lot of kick-ass game ahead of you too if you can get it straightened out!! Good luck!!!

 

[Asknoone]

Episode 1 is a very solid game. It's short, but the gameplay is very polished, very stream-lined, and better than the majority of FPS on the market (especially FEAR). The first two chapters are probably the best Valve have ever produced and rank high in the greatest FPS levels ever. The rest of the chapters contain some pretty good co-op gameplay, but it sags towards the end with a poor escort mission. Alyx is probably the best coop AI you'll find too.

 

[VirusType2]

Thanks guys for the replies

 

[SAJ]

My PC:

- new CPU model. It came out only months ago. 3.33GHz 64-Bit Celeron D (not too bad, but not intended for gaming - it was a steal though.) This processor is noticeably faster than my 2.666 GHz 32 Bit, Celeron D was, but still leaves something to be desired. (it's fast as shit, but lets face it, todays games are really intensive) Also, I hear the Celeron Units are missing quite a bit of transistors and is missing some of the math computation power that the Pentium chips have. This might be my problem with the physics, as physics are done on the CPU, not the GPU, correct?


256 MB PCIexpress X1900GT with Catalyst 7.2 drivers (new) Overclocked to 614 GPU/ 718 Vram (from 495/495 stock speeds


- 2x 512MB cheap ram sticks. The fact that they are different brands is part of the problem. the are rated at the same speed, but who knows whats really going on. I think I'm going to try to overclock them after I finish this message. maybe I can blow them up so I have an excuse to get some fast game RAM, but I'd like to wait until I get a better Motherboard and get 4GB of matched gaming RAM.


- I have been using my Realtek onboard sound, since my Creative MP3+ external sound unit doesn't work well with Oblivion. I should try my Creative card to see if that fixes the sound glitches, and takes a little strain off the CPU.

- Windows XP media center. Up to date..

I reckon your problem is hardware , specificly your processor.
Celerons really aren't much cop, especially for intensive applications -which most games are- also its most likely using some of its (limited) power to run your onboard sound (much of which is likely to be software). And yes, physics uses alot of cpu power.

If I were you I would see if you could drop in a new non-celeron processor into your motherboard, the results should be well worth it(especially in Oblivion). Also I would forget both your onboard sound and your external Creative and go with a proper (not expensive though) pci sound card.
I know its more money and hassle, but I think you will get more out of a good setup and less disapointment when buying games.

Actually, scratch that, dont get any more games just enjoy the 20,000 you already have.
Are you sure thats right? 20,000 , good grief !!

 

[NeptuneUK]

FEAR was ****ing sex in a game.....

 

[VirusType2]

QUOTE] I reckon your problem is hardware , specificly your your processor.
Celerons really aren't much cop, especially for intensive applications -which most games are- also its most likely using some of its (limited) power to run your onboard sound (much of which is likely to be software). And yes, physics uses alot of cpu power.

If I were you I would see if you could drop in a new non-celeron processor into your motherboard, the results should be well worth it(especially in Oblivion). Also I would forget both your onboard sound and your external Creative and go with a proper (not expensive though) pci sound card.
I know its more money and hassle, but I think you will get more out of a good setup and less disapointment when buying games.

Actually, scratch that, dont get any more games just enjoy the 20,000 you already have.
Are you sure thats right? 20,000 , good grief !!

Really? PCI is better than external? I think I had heard this before.

But I love the software that came with that external, and it won't let me use it unless the card is detected.

Why is PCI better? I figured, I was allowing more room in my Tower, and leaving a PCI slot open (right now my huge VGA cooler is in the way so I don't think I can fit a PCI card in there... Looking at it now (no cover on Tower) it's possible, but it will be ****in tight.

okay, I'll repost this

I did a combination of tweaks, but even on XP, I got like 30% increase in performance on Test Drive:Unlimited

Installed Catalyst 7.4 (was using 7.2) (don't know if this is an improved AV stream driver)
I disabled onboard sound
Enabled External Sound 'card'
I increased my overclock (about 10 mhz GPU and about 10Mhz Video RAM


-No more sound glitches

-Sounds are much clearer (of course)

-No more video glitches

-Higher, smooth Framerate even while setting the game to a higher resolution.


Test Drive Unlimited:

I was able to upgrade the video settings on this game to True HD resolution (had it set to 800x600)

Framerate still improved and smoothed out, even though I set it to a much higher resolution.

It's hard to tell, since I didn't benchmark, and I did some other tweaks, but I would say the new Catalyst driver helped significantly. Just guessing that This game uses OpenGL.

As for my Processor, I don't know, I want to get a new motherboard that supports 4GB RAM, I figured I would wait to get a new CPU untill then. Is there a low priced chip that I could put in place of this chip? I know nothing about what slot I need and stuff. I saw the intel Duo Extreme was like $900. Is that the fastest chip you can buy? I want FFUUKKIN FAST. if that fits in the slot... god, I'm scared to install a $900 chip. I'll blow it up. I've never installed a CPU before.

 

[SAJ]

I did a combination of tweaks, but even on XP, I got like 30% increase in performance on Test Drive:Unlimited

Installed Catalyst 7.4 (was using 7.2) (don't know if this is an improved AV stream driver)
I disabled onboard sound
Enabled External Sound 'card'
I increased my overclock (about 10 mhz GPU and about 10Mhz Video RAM


-No more sound glitches

-Sounds are much clearer (of course)

-No more video glitches

-Higher, smooth Framerate even while setting the game to a higher resolution.

Test Drive Unlimited

I was able to upgrade the video settings on this game to True HD resolution (had it set to 800x600)

Framerate still improved and smoothed out, even though I set it to a much higher resolution.

It's hard to tell, since I didn't benchmark, and I did some other tweaks, but I would say the new Catalyst driver helped significantly. Just guessing that This game uses OpenGL.

Thats an impressive tweak mate, and for free!!
If its working well for you (and it looks like it is) then save your money for when you need to upgrade at later date, I was just suggesting the easiest and cheapest hardware changes that I thought would get you results, but it looks redundant now.
The pci thing; well its always more efficient to have hardware running though pci rather than usb -which is your external card ,right- it ought to put less strain on the cpu and run less software, and if you're attached to that mp3+ software you should be able to have both pugged in when you need to.
Yes, cpu's are easy to change, just read up on it and take it slowly, Im guessing that your celeron is lga775, if so you could drop in a standard pentium quite cheaply and with little fuss, but would recommend that you do your own research on this as you will be the best judge of what you are and arent comfortable with doing.
If you want advice with the cpu I would sugges the overclockers forums (after asking in the hl2.net hardware forums of course):thumbs:

 

[Gargantou]

Btw, about the AI in TDU, who really gives a shit? TDU was never intended as an SP game, it was advertised as a MMO-game, SP was merely rushed in to give noobs who don't play online something that makes them wanna buy it.:>

 

[VirusType2]

Kickass advice. Thanks for the help. Oh, and Fear runs at what seems like steady 60fps after those tweaks, It seems like it might be faster, but it was already running really nice. I think I can try turning on anti-aliasing on and still play it perfectly smooth.

I have heard it is better to use the GPU's software (catalyst control center) to turn on anti-aliasing, and not the individual games. I mean I heard it is a huge difference. Anyone else heard that?

One thing with my System RAM. When playing games, there are times when it loads new textures it pauses for a half second or more. Sometimes it will be smooth for a long time (5 - 10 minutes), and other times (I guess when it's loading all the new textures) it pauses several times within a short time frame. I think this is due to my system ram, so I should really look around to see what I can do to fix this. Faster - matched RAM, overclock, or both.


Thanks again.
Now I have to get some sleep, cuz I have to work and make more money!

, about the AI in TDU, who really gives a shit? TDU was never intended as an SP game, it was advertised as a MMO-game, SP was merely rushed in to give noobs who don't play online something that makes them wanna buy it.:>

I can't get it to let me online. Godamn Gayspy. Gamespy. I'll have to try some more things tomorrow.

 

[Gargantou]

Btw, if it hasn't already been mentioned, here is an unsurpassed guide for tweaking everything from games to your OS(It literally made my OS run almost 25% faster), http://www.tweakguides.com/