One thing I like to see in game also is visual effects that your ammo is hitting things. I remember trying the Unreal2 demo and was greatly disappointed that half the time firing at a wall there were no decals or sparks, it was as if I was shooting blanks, and then randomly it would show some sparks, but not much. In Halo, you get a great sense of a when bullets hit targets. Plenty of sparcs, the shields too. The energy weapons don't always leave a mark, but they do leave cool glowing spots, really cool in the dark, and fade away.

This comment was edited on Oct 16, 23:55.

I don't need 50-100 fps, 30 seem fine in this game (with the 30 fps lock option). The only thing is making sure it doesn't drop below that. Otherwise it plays smoothly and consistent.

Running at 800*600 with everything set to high, no AA or AF. 640*480 just about gaurantees no slow downs. For somereason at 1024*768 the fps just drops dramatically, even when setting options to medium it will run slower than 800*600 with all high settings. 800*600 I can live with, as it still remains somewhat sharp with no lines, but 640*480 is really ugly on a 21inch.

The games good, but I never bought an Xbox, even with the used deal for an Xbox and Halo for $150 because I was under the impression that on the computer we'd get to play with high-resolutions and AA/AF. I wish they'd let us know how the game needed to be run instead of boasting all the other stuff I mentioned that we can't do anyway.

AA doesn't work people, so don't try it with the demo. And leaving it on will still hurt performance. You can use a command in the config file "disablealpharendertargets" which will lost the zoom blur, cloak glass effect, some textures become half as detailed as if missing a layer, and the ocean might lose the shaders. AF, seems to work, but just as well leave it off.

The lanscape can seem low poly at times, tunnels that remind you of n64 days. But in all, the art stands out over other games. The bumpmapping is really impressive in certain areas. Like dirt at night. Turning on the flashlight really gives a realistic picture. And when a gernades lands you see it's light glowing of the edges of the dirt surrounding it. The partical effects are really nice. The automatic gun creates more sparks than I've ever seen and a huge amount of bullet decals.

When the game plays smoothly with all the effects in a tight battle, it's really impressive. Looking at the poly in one spot and another lower quality thing seperate is a bit unfair as it all comes togethor in end for a spectacular scene.

Then the physics are nice with gernades and such. They made a comprimise too. Instead of rag doll effects, they still use animations but physics to realisticly move them around.
Though, they need to fix the animations. If an explosion tosses dead bodies around, their arms start swinging around as if they are still alive.

My system btw is a 2500+ oced to 3000+ 1gig ram and 9700pro. I find, like I said above, 1024*768 unplayable when action starts.

I'm not going to read this thread, probably a wast of time. But if the game is $40, then probably BestBuy, where I buy most games, will have it on sale for $30 on the first week or more. Then the $10 rebate makes 20 something. Which ends up being the same price I paid for the first BF1942 expansion, which was list $30, and $20 on sale the first week at BestBuy. So after the rebate, or the sale price, it's around the normal price of an expansion.

dont see anyone else mentioning this(thou I have played the Orginal this week and easily 10 times in the last 2 years), they WEAKENED Bullet Time, now when you go in to a battle the enemies have almost thier full movement and the WORST part thier BULLETS(indented/italic)

The review mentioned something about the bullet time getting more effcient over time, that the enemy starts to move slower as you progress. Sort of like Max is learning.

I loved the original Myst. I actually made use the journal. I wrote down everything, even illustrated some of the scenes. I also mad a map of the entire rail maze system near the end.

I never finished Riven though. I also never finished the third Myst, got distracted with new games and forgot everything. Might fire it back up. The quicktime VR like 360 degree images coupled with video mixed in parts of the image is still impressive.

There was also remake of the original in full 3D that looked amazing too.

I'm a little worried about this version. As what's the story going to be. Are you just exploring with online people solving puzzles? Is there a reason your traveling, what's the goal?

Yeah, I still have my mouse pad. Used it at work till I a couple weeks ago as I took it home to replace an old gray pad. Now I need a new one for work again, sure they don't skip that great bonus.

It caught on with that Lion King DVD release last week where they gave a free LK calendar mouse pad with it at BestBuy.

The only thing, how will they fit it in the small boxes now a days. I guess they'll have to put it on the shelf by it like they did with the LK DVD if they do.

BestBuy.com doesn't show a release date anymore, only add to cart, as if they have it instock. The PS2 and Xbox versions say pre-order for example. I don't remember them advertising it in sundays paper, I wonder why. But all the online MP2 ads say in stores the 15th.

BestBuy usually has the game 2-3 days after the release date at the most. And ususally it's $10 off, or at least by the next advertisements.

Gamestop seems to put more priority shipping on games and will tell you the time they expect the package to arrive. I bought Halo around 1:30pm there a day before BB got it, though I paid a full $50. Gamestop is reall good at getting things to people as soon as possible. They'll choose next day shipping, and on big titles, such as FFX or GBA unit, there will be a line there hrs ahead waiting for the shipment to arrive and then sell it right out of the delivery box at the register.

FFX was an hr late I remember,They got a call from their delivery service of the delay. There were a couple pist off people who were there several hrs and didn't have time to stay that unexpected extra 1-2hrs because of work and such.

This comment was edited on Oct 14, 17:09.

People should just say, "hey I found a bug and I'll report it, anyone else have it?" But some people just say, blah blah blah this bug, blah blah ATI Sucks. Resorting to that tactic because of a simple driver bug, it seems a little drastic saying that ATI in general sucks, it's like where have you been the last year and a half?

You have to know saying ATI sucks will cause an uproar. Just get over the little things. I guess since no one has perfect drivers that Nvidia and ATI both suck.

This comment was edited on Oct 9, 06:05.

To put different backgrounds, here's some instructions I set-up a while ago:
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/timothyb/_images/ATI_Panels/desktop.jpg

It's basically making one big image and setting it to tile.

Lately they have the drivers and control panel in one file now, so that's good. Also the AA is shut-off when set to app-pref. And if for some reason there is an app that can turn on the AA, then it has it's own off switch naturally.

You are turning off the 2nd display because of the flicker you get when changing the 3D settings, or is it a more constant low-refresh rate flicker?

I wish they extended the bar, it was nice when I was using a different trial program.

I basically hardly use the hydravision capabilities. The thing I love the most is how you can right click a desktop icon and save them. So if a game screws them up, right click and select restore.

I guess you are put off by the little things after being use to software from nvidia. I can relate in a similar way with Illustrator. I love Illustrator, but sometimes I have to use Freehand. It's a good program, nothing wrong with it, but it's interface and options are so different and little things that made things faster can't be found. I'd never give it a chance as I get too fustrated. While a coworker loves Freehand and hates using Illustrator.

Anyway, I'm done too. My Radeon 9700pro has served well over a year now and a year to come. And then, I see what out and Nvida might have the best card and I'd go with that. I'm no fanboy, I just go with the best. The 9700pro was the best since it was out 6-8months before Nvidias 5800U and then the better 5900 short time after.

The 5900 is a good card, good performance and just as good as the 9800pro, except when it comes to standard paths, especially with DX9 as we all know. Nvidia is lucky that HL2 is getting delayed, as they might have a newer card out by then.

How can you say a driver set is crap because it's 10 more megs to dl, I don't see your point. I do hate the flicker problem on the 2nd display, and it wasn't always there. But how does that say again that the drivers suck too. (What kind of software does nvidia have for dual monitors, name it's features, like the multiple desktops up to 9 that ATI has, the right click and save icon positions and such, I just want to know) You don't have to dl Hydravision to get dual displays on ATI cards to work, it just adds more features if you want them.

You didn't seem to mention anything that proves you statement of ATI's drivers still suck.

I wouldn't trust the new dets. Nvidia always seems to say they'll have a huge increase in performance with their next release right after their cards are put to shame in some way. It's like all the stuff they threw at Arnold at the 11th hour, where did it come from and why not sooner. Same with the nvidia drivers, why don't they ever have huge boosts on any other day besides the times when their cards are in a bad light. Again with it being so suddent and at the last minute, what did they actually do to get that performance and why not before. And a lot of reviewers have shown that the 50 dets are lower quality than there last.

I'm not say Nvidia sucks either. I had a GF3 for two years with no problems, and now the same with my 9700pro that I've had over I year. Though, with nvidia dets, I was never dling new versions from Nvidia, but the leaked ones at guru3d.com, and reading the posts to find out which one is best, there never seemed to be official releases. And then there where people with bugs, but no matter which I tried I never got bugs, same as with ATI, but people still have some set-ups that experience bugs too with ATI.

I don't care what bugs ATI or Nvidia has with their drivers because either one can't be perfect. If you say one never has any problems, then you have a problem. I said myself I never have problems, though, but I at least say that other people have had trouble.

One thing that I don't like is the suspicious activity with Nvidia at gaining performance.

And I can say when I had my GF3 for years I had no problems. Same thing with my 9700pro, over a year now. But no matter what there seems to be people on both sides that have some damn set-up that causes problems, while most of us don't. And just because you have a problem, don't expect it to be fixed, you need to start communicating with the company, tell them your set-up, because if they can't recreate it, it can't be fixed. And the majority of people that post online are those with the problems, as most of us that are running fine usually wouldn't bother to as we don't need help. Not to mention probably 80% of the users that don't even use forums.

Also with nvidia. Why is it when ever their cards are doing bad in some new bench, they suddently say our next driver will have a huge performance increase. I've never heard them mention their next driver will perform better outside of respones to poor publicity. ATI has never done this, or needed to with their Catalyst. But they do tell months in advance if their next release will have a boost. I even new several days ago that these drivers where going to be out by someone from ATI actually taking time to post in forums to let us know. That's how I knew weeks ago there'd be a lot of new features with this set and not a lot of fixes.

Nvidia drivers, and rarely certified, are ok, but don't often add features. If they do say there's a boost, it's in response to somethign like HL2, so you know now they are pulling the performance out of their a** at the expense of something. When I had my GF3, most the time people had to switch blindly between leaks to find thae best performing driver. One rarely used the current release of their site, as ususally there were several new ones leaked.

When does any company have bug free drivers? What does bugs in ATI's drivers make one choose Nvidia when they have their own bugs too.

This comment was edited on Oct 8, 23:08.

These drivers were more focused on features, an ATI catalyast maker mentioned. So there are not many fixes in this release.

The only feature that is for the XT cards is the overdrive feature. There's new updates to the MMC, Hydravision, OpenGL and D3D tabs moved to one called 3D, game profiles, shadereffects, the Catalyst uninstaller, the VPU recover, and TV overscan.

So there are a lot of features added than any normal driver release. The next release in a month or two will probably focus on fixes. I wonder what they have planned for 4.0.

actually since you quite obviously have no sense for detail ill explain.
some of them depict scenes from the alpha yes, but if you have an eye for detail you will notice that ID has changed quite a few small details to the models/skins and some of the art/textures/fx.
the other half arn't from the beta, but similiar scenes have been seen before elsewhere. (indented/italic)

Actually, I should have been more clear when I said they are at least the first offical pics of showing scenes that were in the alpha, I didn't mean official screens from the specific leaked alpha, so obviously there might be some new things they've done to them in the current build these were taken from. I was just saying it wasn't anything we haven't seen before, at least most of us.

True, but having the blueprints really speeds things up for the hackers.

What's new about those screens? It's all from the alpha. But I guess they might be the first official screens of it.

It was from Gamespot. But yeah, with all those security holes they can learn from the source code Vavle would have had no choice but to delay the game for the sake of protecting us all. It also explains why the delay happened so late, as they weren't probably sure something was stolen besides some clues of it being copied and such. And now we learn that the Steam source code might have been in there too, wow, that really makes things screwed up.

(This has probably been posted 10 times, but maybe not)

Taken from Gamespot:

Stolen Half-Life 2 code checks out as the real thing. Security expert calls it a "serious hack" with broad implication for gamers.

While investigating the now-infamous Half-Life 2 hack, Thor Larholm, senior security researcher for security firm PivX Solutions, obtained source code from available resources on the Internet and compiled the game. The program worked and appeared to be Half-Life 2, he said.

While some reports have focused on speculation that the digital thieves wanted a leg up in finding ways to cheat the game, Larholm stressed that the leaked source code could be used by hackers and others to find security holes in the program. This means that people who play the game online may be opening themselves up to attack.

"It is a very serious hack," Larholm stated. "It highlights some loose security policies. I definitely hope they catch these guys."

Valve wasn't the only one affected by the incident.

Components of the source code appear to be from other companies who had licensed the software to Valve, Larholm said. For example, some of the code apparently came from Havok--Dublin, Ireland's creator of software that emulates the physical interaction between in-game characters and their environments.

Steven Collins, chief technology officer for Havok, couldn't confirm whether the stolen code contained the company's software but said his company is investigating the issue. "We are working with Valve," Collins said. "I expect to be in a much more informed position in a few days."

In addition, the code from Valve's game distribution system, Steam, was also obtained online with the Half-Life 2 code, Larholm revealed.

By Robert Lemos, News.com [POSTED: 10/07/03 06:10 PM]

I'm not sure if people know here, but who ever picks up Halo, best be planned to be running it at 800*600 and possibly 1024*768, and it will still slow down here and there, even with no AA (Doesn't support AA, though getting it to work ruins some game effects). But if you want a quick shooter that runs smooth, Chaser is probably a good buy, and some screens I've seen look pretty darn good. I did see a copy of Chaser at BBuy last time I was there (Caught my eye because I was looking for Halo and they both have a soldier on the front). I didn't look at the price, but ususally it's first week there a game is cheaper, such as Halo being 40 right now, but will be 50 Sunday again, so it's possible Chaser is 50 now too, or it could have been lowered due to sells.

If you pick up Halo though, make a stop at Rage3D.com and check their PC Gaming thread in the forum for the details on what it takes to run. PS, don't use the timedemo command, it's not a benchmark that represents the average FPS in Halo.

This comment was edited on Oct 2, 16:02.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/halflife2/news_6075803.html

Don't ask me why they posted it in the Xbox area


This comment was edited on Sep 25, 22:02.