I'm getting just plain stero sound in this game and the UT3 beta demo, while 5.1 works fine elswhere. This is with a X-fi in Vista64. If you do proper multichannel sound, could you tell me what is listed in your WarEngineUserSettings.ini under "[ALAudio.ALAudioDevice]"?

Mine just has this:

UseEffectsProcessing=True
DeviceName=Generic Software

The live login thing to save your single player games is utterly lame however.

You can't be serious. A single-player aspect of a game requiring you to use the Internet to SAVE the game?

Ya know, after all the complaints I was still thinking of picking it up, but does MS really think everyone's ISP is 'tha bomb!'? COX goes down (off) about twice a week, and my OFFLINE games continue to work... ugh how dumb.

lol @ live login to save a game.

Ya know, if the game publishers stopped loading up games with rootkits, obscene copy protection that only punishes the legitimate customer and bizarre req's for online signups etc, I think you'd see a lot more purchasing software rather than bypassing or pirating it.

Think Starforce. Many companies experienced downturns in sales just because they had starforce installed, and more than a few patched it out of the software eventually.

The live login thing to save your single player games is utterly lame however.

Ew, that does sound lame.
s{
This comment was edited on Nov 7, 18:37.

playing gears of war for PC now and its highly impressive -- looks better than on the xbox -- higher res textures etc.

The live login thing to save your single player games is utterly lame however.

I used to be a die hard PC gamer and hated consoles. But all the BS associated with patches, drivers, hardware conflicts, copy protection schemes eventually drove me to my Xbox 360 which has been a FAR more enjoyable gaming experience. Not to metnion the fact that now my computer is used for work, so I no longer have to reinstall my OS whenever some game decides to completely screw the system over.

um...if you are complaining about patches, upgrades, hw conflicts, etc. Then you were a POSER "die hard PC gamer"....because we never bitch about it.

Gaming will always be best on a PC.
Period.

Go back to your controller and linear FPS movement.
Leave this type of gaming for the real gamers.
We don't have time for babies that don't know how to fix things.

I am sure you will enjoy hanging out at EB Games with all the kids.

Actually, all the stores I have been to have a HUGE gaming area, and they actually have MORE games then before for PC since the boxes are now smaller.

Supporter of the Cell Phone Jamming movement.
This comment was edited on Nov 7, 17:56.

He said "dying" not "dead". Go into your local games store and you might notice the PC Games section getting smaller and smaller.

I don't think PC gaming will ever completely die out, but compared to the number of people playing console games, PC gamers are becoming a smaller and smaller minority as time goes on. Hence more and more console only (or console port) games appearing.

I used to be a die hard PC gamer and hated consoles. But all the BS associated with patches, drivers, hardware conflicts, copy protection schemes eventually drove me to my Xbox 360 which has been a FAR more enjoyable gaming experience. Not to metnion the fact that now my computer is used for work, so I no longer have to reinstall my OS whenever some game decides to completely screw the system over.

PZ
------------
Reading: Nothing yet, planning on reading Isaac Asimov's "The Robots of Dawn" shortly

PC gaming is dying? Are you joking? Welcome to 1997.

Good work today PC. Sleep well. I'll most likely call you dead in the morning.

Also, have you ever heard of eBay? It's this great new invention on the interweb tubes that lets you sell things once you are done with them. It works well for PC games.

Also, some of us do care. I don't own an Xbox 360, but I did want to play this game. Now I can.

And oh yeah, let's get in the digs on Vista and be cyber-e-cool and original like everyone else.

This comment was edited on Nov 7, 17:42.

I also heard GoW has the same vert- issue with widescreen displays that Bioshock had. I know there are people that didn't notice in Bioshock, but I sure saw the difference between enabling the widescreen fix and not.

Seems like a common "feature" of UE3 games. Let's give normal ratio users the advantage!

BioShock, MoHA, and now GoW appear to all share the same problem. Haven't tested UT3, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Is it really hard to use hor+ widescreen instead of vert-? I've heard the spin "blah blah we designed it this way, it's not really vert- even though the picture is shorter than 4:3!" but it sounds like an excuse to me.

I don't know if I should say PC gaming is dying but compared to what it used to be like there are definitely a lot less quality games getting released to the PC these days.
We get a whole bunch of sequels and a bunch of ports, not very many original games. I don't know any games on the PC that I would pay money for other than Crysis and World In Conflict. TF2 is fun also but again that a sequel as well. Oh and Bioshock is single player only so ones you played it through then that's it.

LOL...

First time I read the words: " PC gaming is dying" was when the Dreamcast was released. Need i say more.

I do agree with the post regarding FOV ...total BS. Expected more from Epic, especially since they would not even exist if it was not for the support PC gamers gave them back in the days.

This comment was edited on Nov 7, 16:04.

This is why PC gaming is dying; too much bullshit. You got stupid copy protection that ends up screwing your PC over, or loading some root kit into your system.

Once you buy a PC game it's value is zero, you can't trade it. No video game shop will accept PC games for trade because of the pirating issue, yet they accept DVD movies which are far easier to copy.

GoW is a good game but it's an old game, and everyone's already played it over a year ago on the Xbox 360. No one really gives a shit about the problems playing this on Vista. Vista sucks ass anyway.

__ FRAGaLOT
http://home.comcast.net/~zalle2/blog.htm

Both Gears and Bioshock were designed to target 16:9 widescreen; meaning, the view those games give at 16:9 is the intended view while narrower aspect ratios like 16:10, 4:3 and 5:4 are all vert+ from that. Granted, Bioshock does have an absurdly narrow FOV in widescreen by default, but that because that is the FOV developers wanted the game to run at, a consolish FOV like the Halo games. The views in Gears aren't nearly so cramped.

I also heard GoW has the same vert- issue with widescreen displays that Bioshock had. I know there are people that didn't notice in Bioshock, but I sure saw the difference between enabling the widescreen fix and not.

I don't like having to login to windows live every time I want to play. Is there a way to not login to windows live and still be able to play?
I don't care about achievements, they are a gimmick and worthless to me.

At least steam lets you create desktop shortcuts directly to the game and via a double click it will launch steam and the game. With windows live you start the game and have to click through consolish menus to login to windows live. Not a big deal but a little too click happy.

Another console to PC experiment that failed.

The thing that Microsoft fails to realize is that gamers don't like signing up for crap and all sorts of red-tape associated with their games. If STEAM was brand new, I would strongly consider NOT getting the orange box because I hate forms and red-tape.

All I want is to play my game. As it was, I had already owned Valve games prior to Steam and had to install it to continue my counter-strike addiction once that went to source. If those things didn't happen in that precise order, then I wouldn't own TF2. I hate forms.

Who cares about achievement points, its all about lan coop.

I wonder if the pirated version of the game still gives you achievement points

I don't see anywhere where they tell you wtf the patch actually does so you can tell if you want it or not.