The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

Thanks for your input Im currently backing up my VelociRaptor data. I'm reformatting so I can take a snapshot of my registry. Sorta keep tabs on it I am aware that some registry settings are invisible though (Trialware appies for instance).

 

Wow, Kevin, your sig is looking quite snappy and colorful. Is this a recent revision?

Going back a few days:

Hmmmmm. Remind me never to sue you in a court of law or to call you jonny yob again, lol.

More: ....

Sigh - if it isn't one thing "yob" its another "sod off" and "root around." Where do you Brits come up with these expressions and what the hell does "sod off" actually mean - is it "sod" as in grass - like "go watch the grass grow" or something like that? And who ever knows what "root around" could possibly mean - let's see - I guess one says that pigs "root around" with their noses in the dirt looking for roots to eat - so you were saying that you would be looking hard for that email.

.... like a pig ..... with your nose in the dirt ....

Very picturesque.

Never mind, I have to go drive on the wrong side of the road and buy some petrol for my lorry.

Holy Moly! I know a trouble-maker when I see one.

You obviously are going to be a lawyer - wait - let's see: (Brit-speak) You obviously are going to be a Barrister!

Yeah, you and everybody else on this forum - and the only time I try anything - with gta4 no less - I get a threatening letter (worse yet actually sent to my caustic cad/cam blue collar brother whose name somehow is on the bill and then delivered to me with a stern lecture about being sued for millions of dollars) from the cable company threatening to cancel my service, lol. I told him "I already bought the game!" He said, "That's probably worse." Wait I need a good lawyer - or barrister - has Keith hung up his shingle yet?

DRAGON RISING BY SHOKZ
Wow, Shokz, brilliant review of Dragon Rising. We've got another Estuansis here!

Sounds challenging - and good - and something for the future new rig as you explained your final game settings. What skill level were you playing at - normal, or hard, or expert?

I like how your review kind of sucked the reader in - you weren't really too taken with the game at first - and disappointed with the newer screen shots. But you were intrigued - and you found the right settings - and then you began to really like it!

I ask what skill level, because I have been quite frustrated with a few rounds of Company of Heroes, mostly because I'm an RTS noob.

COMPANY OF HEROES
The first campaign - maybe the fourth in the game - that caused me to throw the game away out of frustration (I actually cut the disks with a scissors I was so mad - lol) and then rebuy it in a few days (only $6.88 wasted) turned into one of my favorites that I can now beat - no problem - on expert. The secret turned out to be how to build an impregnable base allowing enemy tanks to enter a kill zone where groups of AT guns finish them off easily.

The new campaign - about 12th out of 15 - that caused me to drop all the way to Easy to finally just barely last the required 30 minutes - was holding Hill 192. What a nail biter! The Krauts throw everything at you including off-site artillery from time to time!

I tried to quickly quickly quickly build something with tank traps and also barbed wire, in the very few tense minutes they give you on top of the silent hill before they go to the cut scene - two guys guarding a position below near the road - "Did you just hear something?" - then all hell breaks loose - and I went down to defeat time after time over about 10 hours of gameplay - even on Easy - until just barely beating it finally! I thought - something I think that Keith recently said - "This is STUPID hard!"

Also I thought to myself - "I don't know if I could ever beat this thing on Normal." But yesterday, having thought more about it and writing out notes, I skipped Normal and went straight to Hard, eventually dropping the half-track and ordering up some Anti-tank guns instead (after seeing that you weren't allowed to build tanks - I had to check to make sure) and from an internet walk-through on the campaign right after holding the hill - (I couldn't figure out what the points meant and I didn't realize that my points dropped because they were holding more victory positions than I was - "duhhh") I learned about how valuable a sniper is - so I bought about 4 of those guys for 16 points (you only have 75 points to work with total.) Anyway, when I discovered the quick defense strategy that works, stacking all the AT cannons on the side nearest the artillery and just tank trapping and barb wiring two main entrances behind that - I can now beat that 30 minute hell-raising session on Hard about 75% of the time. Tonight I might try it on Expert just for kicks.

It's challenging because you can't make one little mistake. If you overbuy engineers to build the defenses quicker, and you don't throw a few MG nests in there, all of a sudden you are over-run by infantry. If you take too long building the defenses behind you they swarm in - and early on you don't have the "money" to build the MG nests - your ammo and fuel and manpower points build each minute. So it's a careful balance - quite a nail-biter as I said going from dead silence - everybody whispering - to everybody screaming and things blowing up all around you!! Hahaha.

I'm enjoying the command perspective it gives you - I guess these kinds of things are what is taught at West Point - strategies for winning battles. It reminds me of what Patton (George C. Scott) said in the movie regarding Rommel "I read your book, you magnificent bastard!"

It's maybe not the same level of excitement as Shokz was just describing - getting a head shot suddenly from a dude on his left - but one review said it comes close to the excitement of fps. Sam talked me into it - he said I had to try a new genre. (I can't take too much change at one time - L4D is a big change for me from WWII shooters or CSS which I consider a type of WWII shooter like Day of Defeat, another Valve MP game, or COD4 which is not WWII, but it's still army type stuff.)

Wow, I just read some good google stuff on Rommel - reminded me of Call of Duty 2 - all the British El Alamein action and the tank battles and defeating the Desert Fox.

So, anybody else tried Company of Heroes?

Rich

 

'sod' is a lighter version of a generic expletive, generally considered acceptable in more conversations and less offensive. To sod off is to 'f off' but not quite as rude, and to be a sod, is to be perhaps a b****** or an S.O.B.
root around isn't specifically a british term, it's not one I use, but I'm sure you know what it means

Don't try and take on our superior dictionary LOL. 'Gas' could mean an oil product for transport, or a completely different combustible fluid used for power generation and cookers.
As for a lorry, a 'truck' can be just about anything from a miniature pickup to a full-on "18 wheeler" or in english slang "artic". (the british version of "semi"). Here 'pick-up truck, monster truck' etc. are define, LORRY specifically is anything large, 7.5t rigid or bigger.

I assume you'll be playing Left 4 Dead 2 in earnest when it's released?

 

No. According to my backed up sig file, I created it on 8/21/09. Sounds about right. I decided to keep it simple, yet creative. While I liked my warp core sig, it was too flashy and distracting...

 

Sort of graphics related, the 3008WFP is shortly going to have a big sister in our house...

As part of a combined plan to make home HDTV viewing easier, man more consoles at once without wiring complexity, and re-organise the living room area, the CRT TV is going to be upgraded to a new LCD - and you know me, I don't do things by halves.
The TV in question is a Toshiba Regza 42XV635DB - so chosen for a low cost, 100Hz, low input latency mode and essentially being the best value large HDTV out there. Expect a few pics when everything is all up and running - two file servers and the laser printer beside a 42" HDTV, both Xbox 360s and the legacy consoles (PS2, Gamecube, Megadrive) with a homebrew surround system.

 

42" of viewing pleasure, Hmmm...Im jealous LOL! I would never dream of hooking up (And leaving) any of my towers to the 50" plasma. I'd get "burn in" for sure LOL! Any how, its not my tv either Soon enough, and I'll have my behemoth of a monitor...

 

Hahaha. Well, I have to admit "gas" is not a great word. Yes, I'll be back on Left 4 Dead pretty soon - almost done with this RTS you got me on. I don't know if I'll become a big RTS fan - probably not - but I have to hand it to these guys. It's a good game.

And I just did that hill thing on expert - it took me two attempts. I terminated the other early - I was failing anyway. By the way, I was wrong, it's not the Hill 192 campaign. It's Mortain, and you have to hold hill 362 above the town of Mortain. It's about 4 campaigns after Hill 192 which was a slow slog through attack after attack, nothing like this 30 minute hell-raising hold-the-fort adventure.

So the first time just now I got swamped by infantry, as I mentioned can happen all of a sudden when you don't have the right balance out there. I had too many engineers, and I didn't have a chance to buy any snipers or extra infantry - it wouldn't let me because my manpower clock wasn't high enough. So I was screwed - engineers aren't great at being infantry even though they have flamethrowers.

The second time I achieved the right balance between riflemen and engineers - made it to 0 seconds left, and all the bad guys started leaving the hill at about 20 seconds before that, and then to my unpleasant surprise, instead of telling me "Good job, you held the hill" it told me "Okay, now go free up the town of Mortain."

What? Free nothing! I have just gone through hell and I am goddamn done - where's my medal, lol.

And then if that wasn't unpleasant enough, while attempting to secure the hill sector by having the guys build an observation post, which I thought would be a good idea since we had just recaptured it at the last second, the game stopped and it produced a game-generated message: "Fatal Scar Error, Execution Paused" that I have never seen in all my life - this just happened. Hitting the pause button I could get the action to advance a quarter second at a time. I terminated the game.

I just googled it and one guy said "that's what happens when you do something in a mission that the developers didn't plan for." So I guess I shouldn't have tried to secure the point, haha.

Anyway, I wasn't too happy about them telling me to take the town back - but for my own purposes, I guess I will just say that I held the hill for required time - I'm already 3 campaigns past this one anyway, lol.

So you're joining the HD camp along with Jeff. Congratulations! I'll look forward to the photos of your setup after everything is in place.

Kevin, do you have an HD too - I just noticed that you have a velociraptor like Sam. And Sam, don't tell me any spoilers, but have you played the new freebie chapter of Left 4 Dead?

Rich

 

What do you mean by HD? I have a Samsung 2433BW 24" monitor. It suits most needs. Graphics authoring can be a little irritating, but no biggie(Color changes depending on viewing angle). One day, i'll more than likely have an HDTV ran to my rig. At this point, its simply not a priority LOL! I would also like a Projector. Thats my ultimate goal though They really should implement lasers into projector technology. Oh...I think they already have LOL! Well they need to perfect it, and mass produce it darn it!

 

No velociraptor here, just the original 36GB version.

Certainly have, I enjoy it.

 

Maybe i should be ashamed to say it, but i play it on Normal - it's a habit i have of usually choosing the lowest difficulty level - i like being able to sail through games - it's not very often i find a hard game fun, though there are a couple of exceptions i guess.

It's not that the game's actually that hard on Normal, it's simply that you're dead if you get shot a couple of times or are unlucky enough to get shot once in a vital area, it's fairly easy to actually avoid getting shot in the first place as most firefights happen at long range - if you're close, your best tactic is to move far away as quickly as possible if you're facing more than one enemy.

Most of the game i've sailed through so far, though i'm now stuck on the end of level five (at leat i think it's that - there's a slim chance it's six) - i've rescued two pilots from a downed Helo and we're heading to the extraction point when two enemy transport helicopters come and land to deploy troops to take us out (there're six of us in all and maybe fifteen to twenty of them).

My team is obviously not amazing at killing the enemy, so i have to kill around two thirds myself, and instead of doing this, i decide to run away crounded under fire, which is fine, because i got away totally unscathed. My team, however, decided to stay where they were and take on the emeny force - both pilots got shot dead pretty quickly and the mission was scrubbed.

I realise my fleeing obviously isn't what the game wants me to do because every time i replay that section of the mission my team wait for the enemy helicopters to land and stay there fighting the troops, so, every subsequent time i've been fighting them off as well, but no matter how many i manage to kill, both pilots somehow manage to get taken out. The problem is, there's no command to sort of say "you two, go prone and stay out of the firefight". They end up trying to fight with the rest of my team (with pistols, i might add) and get taken out really easily...

I'd hate to play the end of this mission on Expert...

 

I have to say I find Left 4 Dead maps a lot more fun in Versus mode lately and Crash Course is no exception. That said, I have run through it on Advanced with the guys which wasn't especially difficult - but that came after about 45 mins of failed attempts at expert.

 

Just got OF Dragon Rising and I must say it's pretty good. Great graphics, reasonable performance even on my 9800GTX, and solid gameplay. Feels a lot like an openworld version of CoD4. Huge game map with lots of detail and a beautiful foliage system. Like mentioned, the draw distances on some stuff can be annoying. But 90% of the time you don't notice because the distances are still quite good. They could have used a level of detail system though vs the current fade-in distance.

 

Screw the wait this game is awesome. My review:

Impressions:

Overall it's a damn good game. Definitely requires a more stealthy, tactical approach than most games. Lots of long range combat. I don't think I've had a single engagement under 50 yards yet and most are over 100. The squad system is mostly complete and your AI squaddies are competent enough to help in a firefight, move intelligently and keep themselves generally bandaged together. There are some pretty intuitive tactical controls for movement, squad formation, fire control(hold fire, return fire, etc).

The graphics and environment help make for some very atmospheric and tense missions. Models, textures, environment and gunplay are all generally up to the standard of say Call of Duty 4, give or take on certain parts.

The squad controls seem complicated at first but are actually quite intuitive after you understand how the commands work. I am playing with my Xbox 360 controller because the squad controls map to it much better and there is a fair amount of vehicle play, including helicopters. The controls are still decent on mouse and keyboard though and I found it quite playable either way.

I might add that the tactile feed back when firing weapons is fantastic on an Xbox controller. Really feels like you're firing a gun. Something most might not notice but I have never seen it done quite this well in a game before.

Scenario:

You and your squad mates creeping across a vast hillside in a moonlit grassland. Shadows dance across the grass as tree branches sway in the slight breeze. Rolling hills with clumps of trees lay before you in a vast mountain valley. You can see for miles around and nobody is in sight. You order fire on squad leader's mark so nobody gives you away until you say so. Slowly, you creep through the dense underbrush, maneuvering towards a firing position. Now your whole squad goes prone and you slowly make your way across a wide clearing to the next stand of trees. Now you are close to your mark, you can see the patrols all over the sides of the mountains and hills combing for you. Jeeps wind their way down the steep trails and squads methodically leapfrog through the fields, constantly vigilant. You pull your squad into a tight formation and duck into a burnt out pillbox. An enemy patrol makes its way through the woods and you track them towards your position through your binoculars. You sight one in on your scope and wait for a clean shot... BAM! a spray of blood spews from his neck as he hits the ground. Then all hell breaks loose! Dozens of enemy soldiers burst out of the grass. Muzzle flashes light up the opposite treeline, tracers flying into the dark. Your squad opens fire as a rain of hot lead comes screaming at your position. You take aim and drop a few more enemy soldiers before one of your squad mates is hit in the leg. You crawl over and start bandaging his wound as your other friendlies lay down withering suppressive fire. Outnumbered, you use your tactical commands to order a draw back and one of your squad mates drops a smoke grenade. You order the squad to follow you and sprint towards the far woods. Bullets fill the air around you like thousands of angry insects. They wizz past your head and tear through the foliage around you. The squad finally makes it's way to an old farm house and you order them to take up defensive positions on the lower floors. Everyone rushes inside just as enemy troops round the crest of the hill. You order your medic to see to the injured man's leg as you take position in the window. Your squad back to full strength, you carry on an intense firefight that lasts for almost 10 minutes. Your ammo starts to run low but the waves of troops keep pouring out of the woodwork(they don't spawn in either, you see them coming for miles). Finally, a glimmer of hope. A voice cracks in on the radio, a chopper is on the way for extraction! It'll be landing in the bombed out village 2 hills over, roughly 700m away. You raid the basement of the building and are lucky enough to find an ammo crate, 2 clips for your assault rifle. The radio cracks in again, 5 minutes ETA. You need to think quickly, what resources are available to you? AHA! Artillery is available for a fire mission in your area. You aim the strike down the side of the mountain, towards the approaching enemy troops. Your men are already locked in a fierce firefight as more tangos come into range. You order suppressing fire and your machine gunner opens up. You join in with your assault rifle and soon most of the approaching troops have halted and taken cover from the wall of lead. You take the split second to pop a smoke grenade and make a sprint towards the extraction point, your team close behind providing covering fire. You call the withdrawal and your squad turns to run just as the 105mm Howitzers begin to pound the mountainside. Huge plumes of fire and dust fill the air as the enemy infantry is blown away. You don't look back and make it to the EP just as the UH-60 Blackhawk touches down. You order your squad into the chopper as you turn to provide covering fire. Few of the opposing force are left alive, shaken and battered. You take aim and drop another soldier as the last man boards the chopper. Climbing aboard, you turn to survey the battlefield. You can see in the distance that hundreds of enemy troops and tanks were closing in on your last position, now nearing a blackened crater that was once part of them.

And that's just one mission. As far as a military shooter goes, Dragon Rising offers a stunning, beautifully rendered open world and almost absolute tactical freedom to tackle a situation any way you want. It gives you hint markers towards each objective but you can play it any particular way that pleases you. The game map is absolutely gigantic, way beyond Far Cry 2 by a large amount and absolutely dwarfing Morrowind or Oblivion. The atmosphere is tense and riveting. I am at the edge of my seat every second of the time I am playing. IMO


Graphics: 9/10

The game world is almost touchingly beautiful at times and the vast draw distance(35km the developer says) adds an amazing sense of scope. The textures and models for some of the foliage is a bit ugly but the art direction is wonderful. The entire world feels natural and wild. Very Crysis/Far Cry 2-esque. The character/vehicle models are generally pretty good and the textures are mostly above average. Great looking game. Also I'm a sucker for expansive outdoor environments

Gameplay: 8/10

Lots of stealthy treks through the woods and cool squad movement. Some cool weapons and nice shooting mechanic. Ramped up action in big fights and some excellent scripted bits. Wide-open missions with lots of freedom. Huge, real-time battles with dozens and dozens of soldiers per side. Lots of in-depth squad controls and movement options. Brilliant fun for fans of Call of Duty, Brothers in Arms, or Battlefield Missions and firefights can be extremely tough though if you aren't careful. Move tactically and think everything through. The original Operation Flashpoint showed a lot of promise but fell flat due to it's crap, poorly coded single player campaign. Dragon Rising fixes this beautifully and really hits the sweet spot. The campaign is long and the gameplay is diverse(as far as military sims go) I can't wait to try mutiplayer.

Performance: 8/10

Doesn't scale very well in Crossfire and has some stuttering but I have a feeling there will be a hotfix or new profile in the next driver. Overall though it runs on one card admirably maxed at 1920 x 1200 w/ 4xAA and 16xAF. Around 50-60FPS. Also runs pretty well on the 9800GTX+ and 8800GTS 512MB maxed at 1680 x 1050, 4xAA and 2xAA respectively. Very well optimized game and very stable FPS. A sheer pleasure to play on a wide range of hardware.

Sound: 9/10

Excellent sound design. Great distance and echo effects. The sound of gunfire in the distance is real and yes, you can join the firefight Immersive ambient sounds, booming artillery, and rocking gunfire. Sounds great on my headphones and almost sensual on the surround sound. Pin-point accurate directional on both headphones and 5.1. You can close your eyes and almost feel that you're there.

Stability: 10/10

Runs without a hiccup on all three machines. Not a single crash or slowdown after 4 hours of play on the Crossfire machine, even though crossfire support is buggy at the moment. Ah well new drivers are out soon just like for every other game.

Overall: 10/10

I might be giving it very high praise but for me this was the definitive military shooter. No other game has taken so many elements and put them together so well. It has all the sweet wide-open running firefights and flanking maneuvers and artillery strikes any military buff could ever want. Not to mention the absolutely vast play area that lets you truly use the geography to your advantage. This game has truly touched me as both a piece of fantastic art and a gritty, in-your-face real world experience. The first time you open fire on an enemy camp in the moonlight and 20 or so odd guys rise out of the brush 100 yards away to return fire, you'll feel the magic too

 

Pre the inevitable table cleanup:
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/7205/s5000707.jpg

 

What's with the dual 360's?!?!?!

Edit: Ahhh now I see for when one inevitably breaks

 

One's the 1st generation 20GB console refitted with a 120GB drive, blue LEDs instead of green, and most importantly, cracked with iXtreme 1.5. The one on the right is a stock 60GB Premium Falcon console, for Xbox live.

 

Aren't disused PS2/PS1's a sad sight :'( they should have controllers wrapped in cabling sitting just in front of them...

 

The PS2 will be used, or else it wouldn't be on the shelf. We've got to find room for the gamecube next ;-)

 

Sooo, some interesting stuff for you guys:

I was browsing Kotaku today and i saw that they'd posted a review for the PS3 version of the game (guessing here that the 360 and the PS3 version are the same), and i read that one of the main negatives was that the draw distance was such that enemies that were far away couldn't actually be fired upon because they weren't physically visible on screen (due to draw distance being too low). Sucks, right? Not for us, it seems.

I wanted to test it out just to make sure i hadn't missed something, but i was right, enemies on the PC version are always visible no matter how far away they are, take a look at this screenshot i took near the start of mission six;

http://i35.tinypic.com/2mmakas.png

See those three teeny dots just above and to the left of my crosshairs? Three teeny Chinese dudes walking along

 

Yeah the game has incredible scale. The graphics and performance are also right up there and it makes for an excellent game. So far I am loving every bit of it.