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

Edit: Double post.

Heh - as if my fingers can ever correctly type what is in my head.
There are literally times where I skip entire words I said in my head.
Off to make another edit ,
Ray

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.

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.

Just for comparison, I grabbed a quick shot of the starting area and definitley not happening on my game.

http://tinyurl.com/3ufqz7k

Blaming...nin,
Ray 'Cuz why not?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, declare his game a perfect or you are labeled a "hater?"

I would love to go on a huge range bashing Teary B., but he is not worth it. He is a narcissitic jerk - end of story.
As if this series does not have certain flaws...
Shaking my decidedly non-perfect head,
Ray

That is one of my biggest problems with DLC. I ended up putting 45 hours into DE, but I am done with now. And I had all but...two? abilities maxed and explored all the various ways to get around the areas, hence the long play time.

Even though this DLC is coming relatively quick, I just hop back for a few hours? To something that is not even tied into the new game and won't be integrated into a new play through? That, in this case, is going to strip me of what my character has, let me build him up again, and then strip him of it again at the end?

I realize there are various reasons why the market will not embrace this, but I would much rather have proper expansions or episodic releases. Let me continue on, experience more, and expand within the world I enjoy instead of some mini-jaunt.
Skyrim please. Or a Rage with depth. KTHX.
Taking some cheese with my whine,
Ray

At least initially, it does not feel like Max Payne.

Or rather, it comes off like the most basic, crude remake of him. Get a guy with a gun, have it go slow, and have him talk a lot. Yes, that is some of the basic structure of the game, but it is all about the setting and how the mechanics are used. It is like saying every FPS is the same because they are typically about some dude with a gun.

I will have to see how it plays, but this seems more like a reimagined MP than MP3. Sadly, though not unexpected, f*ck Mona apparently. Otherwise, the setting has always bugged me a bit - why is Max here and why does he care about any of these people?

If it plays well, at least it will be an alternative action game. But without the history, setting, flawed introspection, tight gun play, and heavy emoness noir, it just will not be the same. I am not interested in some dude protecting drug dealers.
He looks way too aged as well.
Hoping there will be some big story/gameplay twist that makes up for this,
Ray

I purchased Homefront through THQ's store for $15 over the weekend. Even though this was a digital download, it took the company nearly 24 hours just to confirm my order. Around the 12 hour mark, I sent an e-mail to its customer service department and that took another 24 hours to process.

Luckily, it was a Steam game so I just activated my key and had the game downloaded in a little over 30 minutes.

When it takes you 48 times as long to send me an e-mail as it does for me to download your product from a competitor's system, you're certainly failing at customer service.
Failasauraus Rex!
Noting the site was run by Digital River,
Ray