2011 Video Games Thread

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by mckerney

It may not yet. It's doesn't run well on ATI cards at the moment, though new drivers are supposed to be coming out later today. It took me a while to even get it running, but there's problems with textures taking a few seconds to load when you move or turn. I read it might be a problem with it not recognizing VRAM on ATI cards so it loads everything off the hard drive when it needs to load new textures. NVIDIA cards seem to work ok, but not for everyone.

Probably the main reason I just use my pc for internet/email/test simming nowdays.. much easier to pop in my console.. although not near as moddable or beautiful with the right setup.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by jeff061

Very un-id like.

Yeah, I was surprised by the problems with textures loading and the fact that they removed most video options and called it a 'feature.'

Really hoping the new ATI drivers coming out today fix it, with 1 GB of VRAM it shouldn't be something that happens.

What I played was fun so far at least, looking forward to picking it up again once the graphics issues are resolved.

[cartman]

My laptop has a 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD5850. And the display is 1920X1080. I'll report on what I see when I get a chance to play it tonight.

[DeToxRox]

Played this for a few hours at my friends house last night. Very ordinary game. Left thinking what could have been. It's just very linear. The RPG elements are basically eye candy. The graphics look great but the game itself its just average.

[Young Drachma]

FIFA12 looks pretty awesome. I think I'll just keep rolling with FM11, but FIFA12 looks like a solid buy at this point with the creation centre online.

[MizzouRah]

Well Amazon tells me no delivery tonight, something about an issue with UPS and they will refund my $0.99.

Damn you, I wanted to play tonight!

[thesloppy]

I picked up Dark Souls today, because of all the fabulous reviews, despite the fact that it seems to be a game dedicated entirely to all the game mechanics I hate. We'll see how that ends up, but I'm already expecting epic disappointment...which may end up working in its favor.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I picked up Dark Souls today, because of all the fabulous reviews, despite the fact that it seems to be a game dedicated entirely to all the game mechanics I hate. We'll see how that ends up, but I'm already expecting epic disappointment...which may end up working in its favor.

I saw that it was the 'spiritual' successor to Demon Soul's... I wanted to throw my PS3 out the window when playing that game.

[thesloppy]

I'm already done with my first attempt.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Mustang

I saw that it was the 'spiritual' successor to Demon Soul's... I wanted to throw my PS3 out the window when playing that game.

I hated Demon Souls. Just hated it.

I can appreciate it for the things it does. The graphics are beautiful. The world is haunting and original. A lot of the monsters and creatures are cool and unique. The bosses are pretty impressive. The multiplayer system is very original and I like it.

That said, I have no fun playing it. I hate having to do things over and over and over and over again. Just hate it. I don't mind a challenge, but I don't want to have to go through an entire level over and over just to get back to the place where I found the challenged that killed me.

Both Demon Souls and Dark Souls got great reviews. It almost seems to me like the reviewers feel like they would be losing some sort of videogame geek thread for not liking the game. Like they would lose their "hardcore gamer" badge because these games are true "hardcore games for hardcore gamers".

Here are several quotes taken from very positive, if not downright glowing, reviews of Dark Souls:

"The overall lack of direction the game gives you is harder to forgive. The world laid out in Dark Souls is absolutely massive but, beyond cryptic hints from a handful of scattered NPCs, you’re not told where to go. Exploration is a key part of the game but, with a world this huge, you’re bound to hit multiple points where you feel like you’ve explored everything open to you and don’t know where to go next. Sometimes the correct path ahead is unnecessarily obscure, requiring you to drop down a cliff or walk across a narrow ledge that doesn’t look passable. Without the help of a guide or consulting Internet forums, it’s likely that you’ll spend hours searching through old areas before you discover that the way forward was hidden in plain sight." (Game Informer)

"I spent a full day playing through the death-trap-filled Sen’s Fortress level over and over again..." (Game Informer)

"Let's get one thing straight: Dark Souls hates you. It hates who you are and what you stand for. It hates your friends, it hates your spouse, it hates your family, it hates your pets, it hates every single little thing about you right down to the fact that you even exist" (Strategy Informer)

"The fact that the difficulty has been ramped up as well only serves to make this game more frustrating than usual." (Strategy Informer)

"Make no mistake, it takes a certain kind of person (never mind gamer) to stick with and possibly enjoy this game - we believe they are sometimes called Masochists..." (Strategy Informer)

"If Demon's Souls was purgatory, Dark Souls is a descent into hell." (Eurogamer)

"So yes, Dark Souls is hostile and cruel..." (Eurogamer)

"[The] first few hours of Dark Souls represent a vindictive difficulty spike which many will never surmount." (Eurogamer)

"Dark Souls has a stubborn unwillingness to explain itself..." (Eurogamer)

"Yes, the game is difficult and obtuse." (Eurogamer)

"Conversely, Dark Souls beckons the masochistic with its chilly indifference." (Edge)

"The lock-on system hasn't changed, so if you don't manage it properly, you might whip the camera around rather than target an enemy or lose your lock if a boss jumps too far away from you." (Gamespot)

[cartman]

Originally Posted by cartman

My laptop has a 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD5850. And the display is 1920X1080. I'll report on what I see when I get a chance to play it tonight.

I played it for a bit, after getting the latest fixed driver from ATI. The artwork in the game is stunning. Didn't play enough to get a feel for the gameplay. That will have to wait until I get a few hours to play it.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I hated Demon Souls. Just hated it.

Yes, it turns out Dark Souls is blowful and infuriating. I think a better use of my time and energy would be trying to figure out how to re-shrinkwrap it, so I can return it.

[CleBrownsfan]

Any impressions on Rage?

[Radii]

So if you liked Demon Souls, is this new one something you'd like, or are there other issues other created in this one?

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Radii

So if you liked Demon Souls, is this new one something you'd like, or are there other issues other created in this one?

My impression is that those who liked Demon Souls really like this one as well.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Radii

So if you liked Demon Souls, is this new one something you'd like, or are there other issues other created in this one?

I never played Demon Souls, but from reviews got the impression that dying initiated some kinda other-world mechanic. Dark Souls has nothing of the sort, and you just restart from your respawn point after dying. That appears to be the only issue that bothers hardcore fans.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I never played Demon Souls, but from reviews got the impression that dying initiated some kinda other-world mechanic. Dark Souls has nothing of the sort, and you just restart from your respawn point after dying. That appears to be the only issue that bothers hardcore fans.

Basically, you had to power up in the 'dead' world in order to advance in the 'living' world, yeah.

Haven't played Dark Souls, not sure how it compares.

[Mota]

I bought Demon Souls because of the hype, and hated it. Traded that sucker in before it lost its value.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by CleBrownsfan

Any impressions on Rage?

Played it for about an hour tonight. Graphics are awesome. The level of detail in the environment is outstanding. So far the game play itself is pretty vanilla, nothing groundbreaking in that respect. You get assigned a mission, kill some bad guys, scavenge some stuff, report back to the mission assigner.

[Radii]

I'll put Dark Souls in my gamefly queue and post impressions whenever it happens to come in and I happen to take the time to play it. I found the boss fights in Demon Souls fairly epic and was annoyed enough at the handholding and "impossible to lose" mechanics in many other games that I was able to find the patience to die a billion times. I found it really satisfying every time I beat a level. Totally understand people with less free time than me(which is basically all of you) not being willing to put up with that shit though

[thesloppy]

Oh, I've got tons of free time. I just detest re-doing shit I've already done....in RPGs especially. That's why I play roguelikes...and probably why I shoulda known better. I thought from the reviews, that there was a slim chance that they'd designed the game to somehow tweak the dying-and-do-it-over mechanic, but they didn't so much tweak it as lovingly embrace it. I can see why this would be appealing to some folks, as I have gaming OCD that gets scratched by certain other design cliches that other folks probably find just as maddening, but it does less than nothing for me.

[MizzouRah]

I know Rage is straight foward.. but damn is it fun.

Full install on the x360 is 22 GB to the HD.

[DeToxRox]

6 Baffling Early Prototypes of Your Favorite Video Games | Cracked.com

[jeff061]

Straight forward "average" id games have always itched a scratch that others can't touch with me. Just feels good. Still haven't had a chance to play Rage though.

[dubb93]

I love Rage so far. That said I can't help but feel like I have done this before with different game mechanics(Fallout 3 anyone?). I mean the beginning is so similar that you actually emerge from an "Ark" of all things. And by Ark I most certainly don't mean Vault. Definitely wasn't a Vault........

That said I love it so far. The only thing I do not love is the awful screen tearing. That is with full graphics options enabled(what ones it actually gives you).

My system shouldn't be suffering from terrible screen tearing. I have seen people with similar set-ups to me have been able to alter the game files to force the game to take full advantage of their GPU and eliminate these annoying graphics issues. I may go that route and see if it fixes it but right now I am living with it and enjoying the game.

[jeff061]

Can't you just enable v-sync?

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by jeff061

Can't you just enable v-sync?

Easier said than done with this game. ID removed it from the game's options and if you set your GPU to force it from the NVIDIA side the game still doesn't accept it.

[jeff061]

Ick, lame.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by dubb93

Easier said than done with this game. ID removed it from the game's options and if you set your GPU to force it from the NVIDIA side the game still doesn't accept it.

You can force vertical sync by setting "+r_swapInterval 1" as a launch option.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by mckerney

You can force vertical sync by setting "+r_swapInterval 1" as a launch option.

Did that fix the issues for you? Still have serious screen tearing here. I think they might just have something underlying that is causing this problem.

[sovereignstar v2]

Pre-ordered and am still buying (Caspian Border was a blast when it was up), but this is fricking hilarious.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by dubb93

Did that fix the issues for you? Still have serious screen tearing here. I think they might just have something underlying that is causing this problem.

There probably is. If I don't disable catalyst AI in the ATI catalyst control the game suffers from unplayable stuttering, but if catalyst AI is disabled then there are random textures showing up all over where they're not supposed to be. I'm currently waiting for the new ATI drivers id is currently working on before playing again.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

Pre-ordered and am still buying (Caspian Border was a blast when it was up), but this is fricking hilarious.

Having played a few rounds of the demo the other night, that's completely f'n hysterical to me.

Different ending than I was expecting (I thought sure the long neck was pointing to a head shot) but still awesome.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by mckerney

There probably is. If I don't disable catalyst AI in the ATI catalyst control the game suffers from unplayable stuttering, but if catalyst AI is disabled then there are random textures showing up all over where they're not supposed to be. I'm currently waiting for the new ATI drivers id is currently working on before playing again.

Amazingly enough I've had no stuttering or texture pop-up at all. I'm a constant 60 FPS at all times. I'm not sure if NVIDIA is working on a RAGE driver or not it seems to me they just took the Battlefield 3 driver and named it "Battlefield 3 & RAGE" b/c it is the same driver I grabbed for the BF3 demo.

I've also read that ID messed up the textures and we are all playing with the low-res textures. There is a fix to pull the higher res textures on the steam forums that I am about to try and see what it does.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by dubb93

I've also read that ID messed up the textures and we are all playing with the low-res textures. There is a fix to pull the higher res textures on the steam forums that I am about to try and see what it does.

Doesn't fix anything related to the screen tearing issue but the difference in visual quality is night and day. No difference in performance either.

Here is a link to the article. Takes literally 60 seconds to do.

hxxp://www.geforce.com/News/articles/how-to-unlock-rages-high-resolution-textures-with-a-few-simple-tweaks

[Scoobz0202]

BF3 News:

Apparently Caspian Border was opened for PC users. Hopefully I can get in on that later tonight.

[dubb93]

Someone with more tech knowledge than me help me make some sense of this.

In my pursuit to rid this game of screen tearing I hooked my computer up to my 42' 1080P LG LCD HDTV. It ran my desktop/RAGE @ what appeared to be 720p. There was no screen tearing issue at all. It was all smooth. I went into NVIDIA control panel to make sure nothing had changed and it is/was all the same. So I think, huh, what if I put my computer monitor down to 720p. I wonder if that would fix it?

So I turn the computer off. Move everything back over to my HP S2331 monitor and what do I find? I try every resolution. Every resolution still has the screen tearing. So I boot up The Witcher 2/ BF 2/ and Civ V all in secession on the computer monitor. None of those games have the screen tearing issue. I'm completely confused at this point. How can my TV run this with a smooth picture and yet my monitor runs with with screen tearing with the same GPU settings. And all the while my monitor has no issues with any other game I throw at it. What does this all mean?

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

BF3 News:

Apparently Caspian Border was opened for PC users. Hopefully I can get in on that later tonight.

Score.

[Scoobz0202]

I played for a short amount of time sovereign and it was extremely laggy. I came across somebody on another forum mentioning that NFO servers seemed pretty good. I found one and for the short amount of time I did play it was fine.

I filter the servers to the ones with 1-5+ spots open, caspian, and then find an NFO server.

[jeff061]

Originally Posted by dubb93

Someone with more tech knowledge than me help me make some sense of this.

In my pursuit to rid this game of screen tearing I hooked my computer up to my 42' 1080P LG LCD HDTV. It ran my desktop/RAGE @ what appeared to be 720p. There was no screen tearing issue at all. It was all smooth. I went into NVIDIA control panel to make sure nothing had changed and it is/was all the same. So I think, huh, what if I put my computer monitor down to 720p. I wonder if that would fix it?

So I turn the computer off. Move everything back over to my HP S2331 monitor and what do I find? I try every resolution. Every resolution still has the screen tearing. So I boot up The Witcher 2/ BF 2/ and Civ V all in secession on the computer monitor. None of those games have the screen tearing issue. I'm completely confused at this point. How can my TV run this with a smooth picture and yet my monitor runs with with screen tearing with the same GPU settings. And all the while my monitor has no issues with any other game I throw at it. What does this all mean?

Tearing is generally caused when FPS is higher than your monitor can display. All v-sync does is equal them out. Your TV and monitor may refresh at different rates. Also a lot of games lock your FPS at a certain rate or simply don't display graphics in a way that are prone to tear.

At least that's my understanding.

[JediKooter]

I know this is probably a dumb question, but, these problems with Rage, are they PC problems or are these problems happening on the console versions of the game too?

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by jeff061

Tearing is generally caused when FPS is higher than your monitor can display. All v-sync does is equal them out. Your TV and monitor may refresh at different rates. Also a lot of games lock your FPS at a certain rate or simply don't display graphics in a way that are prone to tear.

At least that's my understanding.

That is interesting. It seems that NVIDIA is wanting to default my display to 1920x1080 59hz! I keep trying to change it to 60hz but everytime I check back under NVIDIA control panel it still shows as 59hz. WTF?

Monitor is native @ 1920x1080 60hz BTW. This right here could be the problem, but the other games all run @ 60 FPS according to FRAPS too(RAGE=60 FPS for me too) and I have no issue there.

[dubb93]

Eh, Googled a fix. Applied it in settings. Same problem. I will assume it is on RAGE until they patch it and I still have this issue.

[dubb93]

Well atleast he is being honest. He could have told us this in advance though.

"We do not see the PC as the leading platform for games. That statement will enrage some people, but it is hard to characterize it otherwise; both console versions will have larger audiences than the PC version. A high end PC is nearly 10 times as powerful as a console, and we could unquestionably provide a better experience if we chose that as our design point and we were able to expend the same amount of resources on it. Nowadays most of the quality of a game comes from the development effort put into it, not the technology it runs on. A game built with a tenth the resources on a platform 10 times as powerful would be an inferior product in almost all cases."

--John Carmack

I read this as basically saying they phoned in the PC release. I understand that the consoles will have a larger audience, but I don't think that is a legitimate excuse for the mess they released on the PC.

Weren't these the same guys that were pushing the technology behind this game rather than the effort prior to release though? Seems like a total backtrack.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by dubb93

Well atleast he is being honest. He could have told us this in advance though.

I read this as basically saying they phoned in the PC release. I understand that the consoles will have a larger audience, but I don't think that is a legitimate excuse for the mess they released on the PC.

Weren't these the same guys that were pushing the technology behind this game rather than the effort prior to release though? Seems like a total backtrack.

Sounds like a cop out to me, especially to all the people that bought the game on the PC. I'm glad that this wasn't the stance of the team behind NBA 2K12, because the PC version is great and looks beautiful.

[jeff061]

I noticed they patched Rage over the weekend, added more graphics options(which were laughably lacking) including v-sync, but I still get glitchy graphics.

Waiting on next patch....

[RainMaker]

I know Bad Company 2 took some heat for not having prone, but I sort of understand why now. It really is kind of dumb in these games unless you make it take extra time to get up.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by jeff061

I noticed they patched Rage over the weekend, added more graphics options(which were laughably lacking) including v-sync, but I still get glitchy graphics.

Waiting on next patch....

Same here. The in game v-sync fixed the intensity of my screen tearing on a level that forcing it through NVIDIA control panel could not but I still suspect that something isn't right in the code there.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by jeff061

I noticed they patched Rage over the weekend, added more graphics options(which were laughably lacking) including v-sync, but I still get glitchy graphics.

Waiting on next patch....

I finally got Rage running well post patch with help from these 2 threads.

ATI/AMD 4xxx/5xxx Series Checkerboard/Q-bert/Strange Textures - FIX - Steam Users' Forums

[Major Performance and GFX Fix]Custom Config Files With V-SYNC & FOV!!! - Steam Users' Forums

Graphics options are still laughably lacking post patch and last I read id is still saying graphics and performance issues are still driver issues with the video card manufacturers to blame.

[jeff061]

Thanks for links, I'll check them out.