Gaming Thread

[E-bortion]

I've played through them more than that simply to go through both paragon and renegade, as well as playing all of the potential classes. Before ME3 comes out I'll be playing one and two respectively as my Paragon Biotic to get in the spirit.

 

[Liverslapper]

hahahah

 

[El Stormo]

so any comments from anyone on Rage yet?

It's unlocking for me right now. Stupid crap rule that Europeans have to wait two days longer...

 

[Enemy242]

well actually supposedly that's not a bad thing, i heard today they just put out a patch which allows for adjusting of about 4 more options so now people are finally being able to play it with the correct quality textures, no screen tearing, far fewer bugs and actually semi decently. however others are saying it's made it worse, so its really a toss up. basically from what it seems like is people can use the patch and that should make it work well/run well/look good or if that doesn't work there are a bunch of sites that have all the tweaks in the config files you need to make in order to fix things/get max performance.

honestly i don't think i'm going to support id software in buying this game because of all of this. it's obvious from what carmack has said in interviews and the way that this has panned out, that they really focused on the console this time and left the pc behind because of the wider audience and sales. being id software and basically creating the fps, the fact that the game shipped with almost no graphical options, serious bugs, driver problems and basically being unplayable is complete bullshit. its really sad to see that they've sold out to make more money with the console crowd; the least they could've done was focused on the console but still made a great pc version that would look better and play better as opposed to this fucking fiasco that resulted and turned what sounds like a great game into a buggy and almost unplayable pile of shit.

consolization really has fucked over pc gamers when even the fathers of the first person shooter make a game tailored for consoles (which still looks fairly decent) when if they made it absolutely amazing and fully taking advantage of the pc and then dumbed it down for consoles there would be more innovation and the console players probably wouldn't have given a shit. at least there are a few developers left like CD Projekt Red who create amazing games that push the boundaries of what tech can do, don't milk their fans with held back content being sold for dlc (the witcher 2 2.0 and all it's added sounds so fucking amazing i can't wait to play it, and other developers would've charged at least 10-20). Hopefully they can stay around and a few other developers like that pop up who actually have respect for pushing the boundaries of gaming and treating their customers right, whereas those who are too busy worrying about fighting piracy with shitty drm (which will be cracked anyway, its inevitable) will eventually realize they're just fucking themselves and their customers over when people choose to pirate their games on principle and vehemently support those who help pc gaming flourish.

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

Yes, may CD Projekt render many more titties in the years to come!

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

I've been playing Dead island pretty much this whole weekend. Its a pretty shallow gaming experience. Fetch this or that, decapitate zombies along the way. But goddamn it has not gotten old. Also, it can be downright stressful at times.

 

[El Stormo]

Dead Island is fucking boring, man! You can only kick so many zombies to a slow, cherry-tapping death before it becomes old.

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

Yet to get old for me!

 

[Dead Winter]

After about 20 hours of gameplay you start to get more ammunition and weapons and it gets better. It's a bit too long, imo, for the type of gameplay it is. There's way too much melee combat. Had there been a bigger character development, it would've been an instant classic.

 

[Enemy242]

my brother told me to check it out because he said it's basically a zombie killing game with rpg elements like fallout. highly considering it but not until a price drop since i've heard a lot of bad things like game breaking bugs, repetitiveness etc.

 

[Dead Winter]

Haven't come across a single game-breaking bug. It's nothing like Fallout, not in the least. It's more like Borderlands than anything, only about as big as Fallout. RPG elements? Only in the very loosest sense.

It's quite simply a free-roaming survival horror game with lots of emphasis on SURVIVAL. Honestly, it's a video game of all of our zombie fantasies, only with too much melee. We've all thought about what type of weapons we'd fashion, where we would hide, what we would do, and how we would survive in a zombie infestation. This is that fantasy wrapped up in a single video game. You don't keep playing it because it's such a fantastic game; you keep playing it because you feel connected to it somehow.

I don't really like the setting, to be honest. The whole tropical island thing kinda kills it for me. Fallout 3 was so great because you recognized the places, you felt like you already lived there. This feels more like a bubble, like an isolated incident. There's no 28 Days Later feel to it, where the rest of the country has fallen to zombies and it's all so bleak. This feels less like Dawn of the Dead and more like Resident Evil.

 

[Karmic]

KROGAN BATTLESQUAD

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

I don't really like the setting, to be honest. The whole tropical island thing kinda kills it for me.

Have you gotten to Act II, where you leave the resort and venture into the rundown third world city? It feels fucking real.

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

KROGAN BATTLESQUAD

Speaking of which, apparently ME3 will have a separate mini-campaign with up to 4 player co-op. Might be fun, I'm glad that its separate though, so it won't feel forced into the main game. Also apparently your character in "Galaxy at War" won't be shepard, it'll be a fully customizable character with a few species to choose from.

 

[neal]

this Dead Island sounds pretty unruly, might have to check it out!


whoa the trailer fuckin rules too!

 

[El Stormo]

Yeah that trailer was a source of much controversy, because children are sacred and all that. Too bad the game isn't as good as the trailer.


So I played RAGE, and even with a state-of-the-art brand new computer, and settings set to low, the framerate is ever so slightly choppy so it makes me nauseous, and trust me, it's not my machine. Just sloppy work. Apart from that, it looks alright, just a standard FPS so far.

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

There's a quest in DI where you have to kill someones zombie-daughter. That was pretty brutal.

 

[Dead Winter]

Yeah I'm in Act 3 or 4 right now...the city so far is my favorite. That was when I really started liking the game. The police station is awesome.

I wish it were more like Fallout, however, where it's just miles and miles of wasteland, but when you get to the cities it's incredibly intense.

 

[Enemy242]

Yeah that trailer was a source of much controversy, because children are sacred and all that. Too bad the game isn't as good as the trailer.


So I played RAGE, and even with a state-of-the-art brand new computer, and settings set to low, the framerate is ever so slightly choppy so it makes me nauseous, and trust me, it's not my machine. Just sloppy work. Apart from that, it looks alright, just a standard FPS so far.

I ended up checking it out and yeah performance is so variable it's impossible to figure out what is wrong when things go crazy. the steam forum on all the configs/fixes is just so insane because everyone has problems. the patch for me didn't make it look that good but i fucked with a ton of configs and now it actually looks pretty damn great (aside from some ps2 quality textures) and runs at 60 fps almost constantly. its definitely a fun game but all the technical problems really are just flat out ridiculous, it took me forever fucking with configs/testing them out to get it to what was promised from screenshots/what they said (i know, unrealistic expectation) and its wayyy beyond what any normal person would do (my config has at least 50 lines).

it's really a shame because it is a fun game, though there is a lot of backtracking/going to the same area, but the art design is really great and the characters are quite interesting to me at least as well as the wealth of minigames/sidequests are quite fun (even if some are very insignificant). so far I'm in the city they've shown thats basically a giant subway and my fps is taking a hugeee hit because of how insanely detailed it is (it truly does look great and is the most complex thing i've seen so far in the game, or in pretty much any recent game, it really is baffling) so i'm going to have to go back into the config and fuck with things again to make the framerate smooth but not have the crazy pop in come back (there's still some but it's like a half second load if i spin around uber fast) or the quality to go to shit. its annoying when you take forever fucking with configs and there's such a delicate line between what is great quality but runs smoothly, amazing quality but runs like shit, or runs perfectly with awful quality. i always feel like i could tweak just a bitt more but it's never quite exactly right so i end up settling a little bit less to make sure it runs perfectly.

i'm wondering how idtech 5 will work in the future because there is obviously potential, when you have it config'd right it seriously runs better and more smoothly than any game i've played in recent memory and the true freedom with all the unique textures is great, but having to do all this config shit just to get it to run correclty is god damn outrageous. they need to make sure any future game using it has graphics options up the wazoo and is tested like fucking crazy.

I wish it were more like Fallout, however, where it's just miles and miles of wasteland, but when you get to the cities it's incredibly intense.

agreed. i drove around the wasteland a lot but honestly there isn't much reason to aside from finding the few sewers to pillage (and those are all pretty much the same) or the respawning bandits. i mostly just went around looking for the flowers to make medicine and such. i actually like the driving so the bandit combat is fun and hitting the authority drones is awesome, but i definitely agree the game shines in the cities if you have the config tweaked so its the best quality you can but also runs at 60 fps.

with all the popin and ugly ass bullshit it has normally it really fucks it up but when you get it running right? oh man. in wellspring there were times i'd literally just stand in the crowd square and admire the different buildings and everything going on. its no wonder they have so much backtracking because it probably took a longgg time for artists to make all that and i'm super pumped for tonight when i get home from work so i can tweak my config for a tiny bit more performance and truly explore subway town (so much more demanding than wellsprings that i need to lower all my graphics options so the fps is smooth but with a lot of the lighting and post processing tweaks i have on even the 5 minutes i spent in subway town last night was fucking breathtaking).

 

[Enemy242]

for those of you who haven't tried the config stuff with rage, you really should. if you google rage config tweaks you can find a steam topic that has a different config for different kinds of computers (depending on your vram) and seriously it's wayyy better than just relying on the patch. all you have to do is make a file called rageconfig.cfg (if it won't turn into a config file then download a rage config from the steam forum and then paste the settings in and save it) and put it in your base folder, as well as go into your user name folder in your C drive, app data, local, and create a folder called id software, then a folder inside it called rage. for a lot of people the game doesn't make a cache file (which makes a lot of slowdowns/texture popins) so thats how you make a cache file yourself; i did it because it didn't make one for me and it made a hugeee difference.

the config files vary greatly on different computers so its best to find the steam forum where this guy named FusedCore has made one for different types of computers, this is the one I'm using (but i have more tweaks that aren't in this one such as fucking with specific numbers and adding the allow console option so i can increase the FOV; the fact that they didn't include an increase FOV function is fucked).

Ultra Quality:

//HD Config v2.0 By FusedCore
echo "^1 Loading the HD Config v2.0 by FusedCore..."
//cvar_restart //use this setting to use the games default settings
cvaradd s_lockListener -1; seta s_lockListener 0; echo "^1Setting the Cvar listener to unlock the settings so this game can use the config..."
seta jobs_numThreads 1; echo "^1Setting the threads..." //CPU Threads Use 0-12 for the number of threads your system has. Lower Numbers are better and Use this only if your having Stuttering or hanging.
seta com_videoRam "1024"; echo "^1Setting the Video memory size..." //sets the Video Card memory Set this to the amount you have in MB
//cvaradd com_synctotime -1; echo "^1Disabling the framelimiter..." //Use this command to disable the 60fps locker
//seta com_maxfps "60"; echo "^1Setting the fps to your settings..." //limits the frames to 60 can be changed to what you desire
seta fc_maxcachememoryMB 1536; echo "^1Setting the File Cache size..." //Increases the default file cache size to completely eliminate the popins
seta image_anisotropy "16"; echo "^1Setting the Ansistropy Filtering..." //Using the highest setting here but you can set as 2, 4 or 8
seta image_usecompression 0; echo "^1Disabling the Image Compression..."
seta image_filter "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR"; echo "^1Setting the image filtering..."
seta image_blend "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR"; echo "^1Setting the image blending"
seta image_preload "1"; echo "^1Enabling preloaded Images..."//Use preload images when ever possible
seta image_lodbias "-1"; echo "^1Setting the image LoD..." //LoD settings
seta image_ignoreHighQuality "0"; echo "^1Setting the HQ images..." //Sets up for using HQ gfx
seta image_ignoreLowQuality "1" echo "^1Setting the LQ images..." //ignores the low textures
seta image_useCache "1"; echo "^1Setting the image cache..." //Enabled Cache to allow the textures to load properly without popping
seta image_cacheMegs "1024"; echo "^1Setting the cache maxsize..." //Cache size in Megabytes
seta image_cacheMinK "10"; echo "^1Setting the cache minsize..." //Cache minimum size in kilobytes
seta r_aspectRatio "1"; echo "^1Setting the Aspect Ratio..." // 0=4:3, 1=16:9, 2=16:10, 3=5:4 TFT, -1 custom
seta r_fullscreen "1"; echo "^1Setting the fullscreen option..."
//seta r_customAspectRatioV "10"
//seta r_customAspectRatioH "16"
seta r_swapInterval 1; echo "^1Setting the Vsync option..." //VSYNC 1 enabled, 0 diabled
seta r_useHighQualityPostProcess "1"; echo "^1Setting the HQ post proccessing..." //Fore High Quality post proccessing
seta r_shadowsHighQuality "1"; echo "^1Setting the HQ Shadows..." //Fore High Quality shadows
seta r_displayRefresh "0" //keep it so the engine doesn't double render a frame
seta r_renderer "best" //highest rendering options
seta r_multiSamples "32"; echo "^1Setting the MultiSampling..." //Set this to 16 or 8 if you're having low-fps as 32 is the Max Multi-sampling
seta r_useHBAO "1"; echo "^1Setting the Ambient occlusion..."
seta r_useRenderThread "0" // 0 Disable or 1 Enable threaded rendering useful for newer cards to increase performance.
seta r_visDistMult "1"
seta r_useMotionBlur "1"; echo "^1Setting the Motion Blur..." //use blur
seta r_skipBump "0"
seta r_skipSpecular "0"
seta r_skipNewAmbient "0"
seta r_shadows "1"; echo "^1Setting the Shadows..."
seta r_cgFragmentProfile "best"
seta r_cgVertexProfile "best"
seta vt_lodBias "-1"; echo "^1Setting the Visual Texture LoD..." //LoD settings
//below is cache settings And advanced GFX settings
echo "^1Setting the Textures type..."
seta vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly2 "8192"
seta vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly "8192"
seta vt_pageimagesizeunique "8192"
seta vt_pageimagesizevmtr "8192"
seta vt_maxPPF 64; echo "^1Setting the Pages per file..." //Set this to 64 for Quad-cores CPU's or higher, 16 or 8 for dual-cores CPU's
seta vt_preload "1"; echo "^1Setting the Visual Textures to Preload..."
//Begin Advanced GFX Filtering and Sharper Images. Comment these 3 lines out if you are having issues or don't like the way it looks.
echo "^1Setting the Visual Texture Filters"
//seta vt_filter "GL_NEAREST, GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_LINEAR"
seta vt_envf "GL_TEXTURE_ENV, GL_TEXTURE_ENV_MODE, GL_MODULATE"
seta vt_blend "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR"
//End of Advanced GFX Filtering
seta vt_useCache "1"; echo "^1Setting the Visual texture cache..."
seta vt_cacheMegs "1024"; echo "^1Setting the cache maxsize..."
seta vt_cacheMinK "10"; echo "^1Setting the cache minsize..."
seta vt_ignoreHighQuality "0"; echo "^1Setting the HQ Visual Texture..."
seta vt_ignoreLowQuality "1"; echo "^1Setting the LQ Visual Texture..."
//Begin HD Settings
echo "^1 -Loading the HD Settings..."
seta vt_qualityhdplossless "1"
seta vt_qualityhdppower "1"
seta vt_qualityhdpspecular "1"
seta vt_qualityhdpnormal "0"
seta vt_qualityhdpdiffuse "1"
seta vt_qualitydctpower "100"
seta vt_qualitydctspecular "100"
seta vt_qualitydctnormal "100"
seta vt_qualitydctchroma "100"
seta vt_qualitydctluma "100"
seta vt_maxlockedpages "2048"
//HD Image settings
seta image_qualityhdplossless "1"
seta image_qualityhdppower "1"
seta image_qualityhdpspecular "1"
seta image_qualityhdpnormal "0"
seta image_qualityhdpdiffuse "1"
seta image_qualitydctpower "100"
seta image_qualitydctspecular "100"
seta image_qualitydctnormal "100"
seta image_qualitydctchroma "100"
seta image_qualitydctluma "100"
seta image_maxlockedpages "1024"
//End HD Settings
echo "^1 -HD Settings Loaded..."
//seta vt_maxaniso 4; echo "^1Setting the Visual Texture anisotropy..." //Set this to 0 if your having lots screen tarring issues and do NOT set this higher then 4 otherwise it will corrupt the Mega-Textures
echo "^1-If you Have seen NO Unknowns above this line then it has all been Loaded without errors-"
echo "^1 ...HD Config v2.0 by FusedCore Loaded, Enjoy the game!!!"

so basically to get it looking great you have to use that in a config + some other options; really shows how flat out FUCKING INADEQUATE that patch was. ooo v-sync (which is in every fucking game by default), AF (which is also in most games and has more toggles than just low and high) and a texture cache, yeah totally makes up for it ID. fucking deus ex human revolution had more options/higher textures and people bitched up a storm about it, so when the godfathers of pc shooters pulls this its a serious kick in the nads.