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| News Comments > id On RAGE "Cluster!@#$" and Lead Platforms |
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| 244. |
Re: id On RAGE |
Oct 10, 2011, 19:28 |
Ray Marden |
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I was playing through the mutant sewer/hospital, easily the most iconic portion of the game's advertising, and some of the internal corridor areas have terrible geometry and texturing - stuff that is worse than what Doom 3 had back in the day.
In the same area, the game actually has a portion where you need to power an electric lock to a gate that is blocking an escalator - an escalator that has only a 2-3 foot high barrier on the side. Of course, with the main character acting like his lower appendages have been amputated, this is a challenge.
Likewise, the boss in the area has a completely exposed brain. You can shoot endlessly into its open, exposed gray matter and nothing happens. However, shoot a rocket at the same area - a rocket that has such a small explosion area that it will not hurt you while you are standing just a few feet away - and you take off a third of the boss' health.
The game is not entirely like this, but it gives you an impression of how utterly confused and backward it can be at times.
You could think id would know how important a consistent art style is.
Wondering how many times I will be forced to play through the same levels,
Ray |
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| News Comments > id On RAGE "Cluster!@#$" and Lead Platforms |
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| 208. |
Re: id On RAGE |
Oct 8, 2011, 23:34 |
Ray Marden |
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If you can wait, you will get more bang for your buck by waiting for the end of year update - you can either go into a whole new line or buy one of the "old" cards at a discounted rate.
The 6950 is a good step up (20%?) from the 5850, but I upgraded because my wife needed a new system - she took my system at the time and I build a new system. At the time, the 6950 was the best sub-$300 (single) card available.
Just like how I'll probably be giving her the 6950 when the new ones ship.
Waiting for Skyrim to wash out the bitterness of Rage,
Ray |
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| News Comments > id On RAGE "Cluster!@#$" and Lead Platforms |
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| 202. |
Re: id On RAGE |
Oct 8, 2011, 22:41 |
Ray Marden |
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I purchased the Sapphire model based solely upon it being in stock and there being a manufacturer rebate back at the start of the year. It's worked fine for me and has not presented any of the minor glithces my prior 5850 had.
As for the 2GB version, excluding something like Rage, there really is not much of a real word gain over the 1GB model. Otherwise, just make sure you have sufficient power and your case has space to fit a wide card. I never tried to unlock it.
This is the September comparison, but you might want to check out the article from Tom's:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-performance-radeon-geforce,3018.html
Cooler and less power needed than NvIdIa'S equivalent.
Wondering when the next update of cards is coming,
Ray
This comment was edited on Oct 8, 2011, 23:20. |
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| News Comments > id On RAGE "Cluster!@#$" and Lead Platforms |
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| 198. |
Re: id On RAGE |
Oct 8, 2011, 22:34 |
Ray Marden |
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I suspect they are playing a semantics game. Note the "inherently" in the statement.
Yes, with v-sync disabled, the screen refreshes as much as it can whether it'a a full or partial (tearing) update.
But enabling v-sync does not cut your framerate in half - the game simply refreshes the entire screen as often as it can.
If you have a slower computer, v-sync probably does make the overall experience more smooth, albeit with a sh*t ton of tearing. However, I would gladly take a v-sync experience equivalent to 40hz, 50hz or 58hz instead of capping the game's framerate to 30 FPS.
Now, as for it being a performance cheat for the game that was designed explicitly for 60hz realtime auto-configuration, that's a different matter. 
Herp derp herpa derp.
Shrugging; off to play the Ico and Shadow of Colossus collection,
Ray |
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| News Comments > id On RAGE "Cluster!@#$" and Lead Platforms |
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| 193. |
Re: id On RAGE |
Oct 8, 2011, 22:15 |
Ray Marden |
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So...patch notes that contain a blatant lie?
A game that mandates a 60hz refersh rate - tearing, texture resolution, graphical quality be damned?
And, if you don't give it 60hz, the game is going to limit PC gamers to 30hz?
All this aside, I gave the new patch a quick whirl and it seems to work, at least on my system (6950 2GB & Win 7 64-bit) - lighting appears consistent across all textures, NPCs are not shaking, ammo is positioned in my weapons, etc. Additionally, the game seems to run even faster than it did before.
Tempted to say id should go console-only,
Ray |
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| News Comments > id On RAGE "Cluster!@#$" and Lead Platforms |
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| 169. |
Re: id On RAGE |
Oct 8, 2011, 17:35 |
Ray Marden |
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The new drive is actually causing me far more issues than the earlier one did.
I went from having flickering flags to having some flags becoming overly bright, NPCs that stutter/flicker, random textures through the world being fully lit, and issues with the ammo compnent of my guns floating above the actual weapon. /fail
Performance seems better, but it is a visual downgrade. However, they seem to be working for some people so it may be a model/OS issue.
Not feeling a burning desire to stop playing other games to play Rage,
Ray Which basically means that it is mediocre. |
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| News Comments > id On RAGE "Cluster!@#$" and Lead Platforms |
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| 152. |
Re: id On RAGE |
Oct 8, 2011, 14:34 |
Ray Marden |
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I will pick up Hard Reset on discount some day, but it is really linear and, for wanting to be a straight foward shooter, the emphasis on using the environment to kill enemies slows down the action.
In a lot of ways, the game feels full of contradictions. Let's try to have a lot of things to shoot at...but let's put them in a small area. Let's put a low limit on the number of weapons they can have...but then make them turn into various different versions. Let's try to make a detailed world...but remove any real exploration or story. Let's just make a pure shooter...but let's group of herds of enemies so you can use the environment against them.
Back to Rage, I bashed Doom 3 as a failure, but Rage is actually going to be the point in time that id gave up. On a technical front, things can be pretty, but Carmack has no appreciation for consistency - he thinks it is fine to have tearing, have parts of the world change in front of your eyes, and does not want PC gamers to have configuration control over the game. To have this many issues on both sides of the GPU market for a game that has been in development this long is just sad.
Though the game can be pretty, it has not blown me away. More than that, even when it does look quite good, the mish mash of texture resolutions mars the overall experience. The constaint limitations on exploration (weak jumping, invisible walls, confined areas) just reinforces how little the player is given. It's sad that the 360 degree map has to highlight the little portions of the game you are actually allowed to play in. Given how small some of these levels are, it further detracts from any visual achievements (that's all I get for this small area???)
As for the gameplay, it is a simple shooter and nothing else. If something rushes me, I just use my shotgun, else everything just stays behind cover and I can just snipe with my pistol. Why the poor weapon interface? Why are there invisible walls even in the confined quest zones? Why can't I loot the weapons and ammo that the hostile NPCs had? Crafting the same few items over and over and over and over is tedious and adds nothing to the simple shooter gameplay - screw it, I will not even bother unless I have to. Why can't I even loot those NPCs at all? What was the story again? Why do I care about these people? Why am I helping them by going on a murderous rampage? How many times will they reuse the same level? Why does it take three direct shots to the head to kill this guy? Why does this remind me of Fallout and Borderlands? Why include the vehicle portion at all when it exists just to get you to the next limited, confined quest zone?
And screw the whole PC versus console thing. A gaming PC is vastly superior to a five year old console, but I understand why companies may focus on the consoles as their target tech level. But that does not explain why the vastly superior platform has so many rough edges or, with the bar being set so low, why it is not incredibly polished. Tech aside, this doesn't explain what the hell this company was doing for all this time. Carmack was working on the engine - I get that. But what were the designers and the rest of the team doing?
It is a sometimes nice looking game marred with various obvious graphical tradeoffs. On the gameplay front, it is a really stupid shooter that is not particularly unique, deep, fast, action packed, or fun. But it is a straight forwarded shooter.
That took how long to make???
Stating this is when id just stopped caring,
Ray
This comment was edited on Oct 8, 2011, 17:40. |
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| News Comments > RAGE Reviews - PC Users Raging - ATI RAGE Drivers |
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| 157. |
Re: RAGE Reviews - PC Users Raging - ATI RAGE Drivers |
Oct 5, 2011, 21:51 |
Ray Marden |
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Link doesn't work for me (and, yes, I am too lazy to hunt it down on my own.)
For whatever it is worth, the new Rage-tweaked drivers from 10/04/11 seem to work more or less fine on my 6950 (2GB.) Currently, I only noticed that a flag here or there loses its brightness for a split second, but no other errors so far.
I haven't tweaked with the settings so far other than adding in the launch parameter in Steam to enable v-sync - I otherwise have it running at 1920x1200 without any AA.
I'm not sure how Foolmac programmed the game to hit its 60hz cap, but the game was nearly unplayable without v-sync enabled. And I would almost argue it was a case of the game running too fast - things were choppy as all hell in close quarters, but stabilized (relatively) in the big open areas. Turning on v-sync, it runs like butter in both types of regions.
The game sucks, though. That has nothing to do with video, though.
Edit: Is this what you were linking? http://tinyurl.com/3bwz4mt
I definitely dont' have any of those problems. 
Thinking this may be a bigger expectation failure than Doom 3,
Ray |
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| News Comments > RAGE Reviews - PC Users Raging - ATI RAGE Drivers |
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| 155. |
Re: RAGE Reviews - PC Users Raging - ATI RAGE Drivers |
Oct 5, 2011, 18:48 |
Ray Marden |
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I am only installing the game today due to Amazon shipping this a day late (/wrist.)
I have heard numerous negative things about the release and I have my own negative response before even playing the game. Even after I installed the game from the three DVDs, I went to launch it from Steam and it has decided that it needs to download another 9GB of data...
Carmack may have engine expertise, but he is a total fool.
Shaking my head; hating this game already,
Ray |
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| News Comments > Steam Top 10 |
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| 11. |
Re: Steam Top 10 |
Oct 2, 2011, 19:21 |
Ray Marden |
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I actually just played and beat Batman a few months ago so I am fine waiting on that one. It was a good game, but a bit repetitive, some of the boss battles were a little rough, and I got tired of the collectibles by the end (but I did get them all.)
I am enjoying the Ico and Shadow of Colossus collection and am putting some time into Darksiders which I recently picked up in one of the $5 sales. From there, I will have Rage on Tuesday (I hope there is some meat to it,) Skyrim is just about five weeks away, and I am sure I will give the consoles some love, too (Uncharted 3, MGS HD collection.) It is certainly fun knowing it is October and that the rest of the year is basically booked. 
Could Darksiders possibly have worse PC controls???
Guessing I will pick up one of the dumb war games, too,
Ray |
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| News Comments > Aliens: Colonial Marines Trailers |
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| 31. |
Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Trailers |
Oct 1, 2011, 16:01 |
Ray Marden |
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I will keep an eye on reviews, but I am not a fan of the cartoon palette, it seems very linear with a heavy focus on scripting, and the tension seems to be negated by the large quantity of aliens coupled with their (relative) non-lethality.
Nothing I saw was "bad," but I do not find its approach particularly appealing. This seems much more like a co-op or simplified cinematic approach (CoD.)
Give me a Prometheus game instead.
Thinking the recycling of the planet does not help it feel new either,
Ray |
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 58. |
Re: Out of the Blue |
Sep 28, 2011, 17:51 |
Ray Marden |
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What are you talking about? Terra Nova is one of my all time favorites and is dying for a remake! Wait...you are talking about Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri, right?
As for the television show, I will DVR a few episodes, but it does not seem terribly amazing. I have various "Wait, why would...?" type questions, but it just seems like two camps of people having this implausible conflict in an extremely convenient side timeline.
Otherwise, the effects are so so, the people are not terribly realistic, the at-war camp is super peaceful, the dinosaurs do not seem threatening, there are huge divides in the available technology, etc.
Blah blah blah, it just is not that interesting right now. I still have yet to even finish the pilot - I sat down to watch it, but then walked away and let the DVR record. I tried sitting down and watching it more, but went off and did something else thirty minutes later. The show does not seem terribly original, but maybe if they tighten up the dialogue, toss in some real drama, and give us something to wait for...
The cop guy has the most amazing luck.
Thinking of it as an even weaker, dinosaur version of Falling Skies,
Ray |
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 20. |
Re: Out of the Blue |
Sep 28, 2011, 12:24 |
Ray Marden |
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If somebody asked me why I read Blue's News, it would be, first, because it is a compilation of so many items (PC, console, tech, marketing, medical, sales, etc.,) the forums second, and, third, a relatively quick reporter of gaming items.
Truthfully, my time is much more limited these days, but I will browse the main items at least once a day and, when I have more time available, I come back to look through the more off the beaten path items.
In contrast, too many of the other sites focus on a very narrow niche of items or are too intent on being the biggest possible payola website for the current AAA game.
What are your overall numbers and finances like, though? I realize website advertising is not exactly the most lucrative income source and this site could use a lot of little tweaks to make it more appealing, but then there is a cost/time component.
Outside of the random political item, this is about the only place I bother to post on anymore (and that has obviously dropped off drastically.) I really, really dislike the lack of a coherent discussion path of these forums (flat viewing can be a random text bomb and thread viewing is tedious,) but I know I have lost that argument time and time again...
Just don't turn into another lame IGN/Gamespot/Shugashack.
Driving the waaaaaaahhhhhmbulance,
Ray |
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 17. |
Re: Out of the Blue |
Sep 28, 2011, 12:12 |
Ray Marden |
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I have been watching the series again on Blu-Ray and the "new" trilogy really is total crap.
The first movie is a total waste on every front and really set that series off in a bad direction. Looking back now, I can tolerate the second and third films in a "Stupid, made for kids, WTF are they doing???" sense, but that is about it. There are just too many things that are silly and make no sense. I challenge anybody to sit through that first movie, go until the end credits roll, and tell me what the hell the pod race and Jar Jar and some trade dispute of some random planet really have to do with anything.
The new trilogy really is a beautiful art piece - just turn off the sound and look at all the images and detail put into the visuals - but is otherwise lifeless and idiotic.
Then I got to the second trilogy and it is a completely different story. The movies are still kid friendly and have moments of humor, but they do it without being stupid or insulting. Further, you are dropped into a world and accept the things they present rather than being given utterly stupid explanations or incredibly ridiculously implausible scenarios. It is pretty clear that Lucas is the type that needs people to control or guide him and that he works best within limitations.
A few people watches Episode 1 and a number of people laughed at it.
Thinking I bought the old trilogy with three crappy movies included for free,
Ray |
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| News Comments > Netflix Renames DVD Rental Service, Adds Video Games |
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| 44. |
Re: Netflix Renames DVD Rental Service, Adds Video Games |
Sep 19, 2011, 14:05 |
Ray Marden |
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It is still a good overall service for the price, but it really needs to get some contracts in place, else it is going to become obsolete. I suspect the writing is on the wall for the company regardless - it does not control the pipes to my home nor, outside of one series, is it a content producer.
Otherwise, the service was not performing the way I wanted it to. I had a queue of close to 200 titles, but maybe 10% of them were actually available for streaming? Even then, a few conversions had audio/quality issues, certainly no extras, and foreign releases were typically limited to a single language. On top of that is the issue with titles being available for steaming today, but gone tomorrow, and coming back another day.
Looking to the physical media, it was not offering launch-day mailings, could take a month or more for a title to even be offered, it was having problems maintaining inventory (I had about thirty previously-available titles make their way to the dreaded Unavailable queue,) and it was manipulating the queues too much in favor of the new users - nothing like waiting three months for your very first, highest priority selection.
These days, Netflx streaming is something I have running in the background while working or playing WoW. I rely on Blu-Rays or VoD for titles I actively am seeking out, else Netflix fills space or lets me watch the titles I had minor interest in, but would never seek out nor would I ever consider paying direct money to rent. The new website is complete crap - it shows less titles, it does not give me the rating information up front, it no longer filters out material I have already watched, it is slower to give me description information, etc.
The only two positives I can really attribute to the service are that it is far, far cheaper than my gigantic cable bill and that, through boredom, I have occasionally stumbled onto really great shows/movies that I would never have considered if not for the flat Netflix rate.
A few times, I have struggled to find anything to steam.
Wishing Brighthouse spent less on advertising and more on superior compression,
Ray |
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| News Comments > Cancelled Avengers Game Footage |
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| 21. |
Re: Cancelled Avengers Game Footage |
Sep 18, 2011, 21:14 |
Ray Marden |
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This actually looks really good and is the first comic book game that I would actually be interested in playing from the past few years.
...and yet it is canceled. Meanwhile, they will continue pushing out sub-standard, generic releases with no depth or development time.
Props for letting people fly around.
Shaking my head,
Ray |
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| News Comments > Op Ed |
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| 15. |
Re: Op Ed |
Sep 17, 2011, 18:54 |
Ray Marden |
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In a general sense, I agree with the author. I am not looking at the HUD to experience the story, to challenge myself, out of some sense of fun, to notice some character moment, or to explore the world - it is just there to show me basic game mechanics.
When you take out the intrusive elements, I have frequently thought that games, even ones with "bad" graphics, look quite good or, at the very least, look interesting.
I know I will go to hell for this example, but I think WoW is a good example. There are all these characters from different races, there might be a gigantic lava elemental, you could be in an ancient temple, there are fantastical spell effects going off...yet all I am really doing is starting at my cooldowns on a bar and making sure there is no fire at the center of my screen. Who cares what this game or other games have to offer visually when all my focus is spent on only 20% of the screen?
From a broad perspective, I have found that I received many, many inquiries from casual gamers or non-gamers when there is little/no UI present (either via options or during a cinematic.)
And yeah, does my gun have to talk up 1/3 of my screen?
Thinking more work could be put into streamlining them,
Ray |
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6463 Comments. 324 pages. Viewing page 10.
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