The PC Thread (Games, Viruses, BSOD etc).....................

[fog]

I'll have to check this out as I haven't played a PC game for bloody ages.

Mind, I must be one of the few that wasn't blown away by the original FEAR on PC.  The AI was good at the time, and there were a couple of interesting enemies, but far too much of it was a generic slog against the same old enemies in the same repeating locations.

It was good but not great.

[fog]

Details of Deus Ex 3...

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/949/949649p1.html

Really looking forward to it, but you start to get a bit worried when you read that they might be dumbing it down a bit.  Does it really need to be less of an RPG and more of an action game?  Doesn't that put it worryingly close to being just another FPS?

Maybe I'm wrong.  Fallout essentially did that and turned out great (IMO )

[TheKhakinator]

Well I'm over PC gaming. Had mates around for a LAN and basically everything went wrong. In 15 hours we probably got a max of 4 hours gaming in. Was damn lame, DAMN lame, as far as gaming was concerned. Really wishing I could afford a 360 right about now. It'd be the only thing to get me back into gaming, I reckon.

[fog]

Well I'm over PC gaming. Had mates around for a LAN and basically everything went wrong. In 15 hours we probably got a max of 4 hours gaming in. Was damn lame, DAMN lame, as far as gaming was concerned. Really wishing I could afford a 360 right about now. It'd be the only thing to get me back into gaming, I reckon.

I know it's irrelevant if you don't have the cash, but 360's are ridiculously cheap right now.  Relative to keeping a PC up to spec for gaming anyway.

Hopefully they'll drop to a price you can afford soon as if anything is going to reignite your love of gaming then it's the 360 IMO.

[EricT]

I actually just bought a second x360... Why? Because I know how they're in terms of breaking, so I thought having a spare might be nice for Star Ocean 4 this spring. Not like I can send my main one back to MS, considering the amount of illegal modification that has been done to it. They'd look inside it and say "WHAT THE HELL", and then when it asked if it wanted to boot in to Free60 GNU... they'd probably call up the bomb squad.

Spent only $120 on it, too. Small retailer here was going out of business, needed to sell everything in the store.

That said? PC > Consoles. It's never the PC, it's the user! 

[fog]

OK can anyone recommend me an old but good RTS game that might work on this here eeePC?

EeePC 901
WIndows XP Home
CPU speed: 1600 Mhz
Graphics: Intel GMA 950
Display: 1024 X 600

That should be able to run something right?

[EricT]

Old but good RTS... The only good RTS ARE the old RTS.

Homeworld is a must.
Empire Earth is also a must.
Total Annihilation, one of the best of all time, should be an easy shoe in on it.
Command and Conquer Red Alert 1 and 2 should run on that fine. Any C&C game up to Generals, really... all of them were fantastic.
Starcraft, obviously. Warcraft 3 should even run on it...
Age of Empires 1 and 2 should also run fine.
Fragile Allegiance, much older, but still an awesome game.

[SiN]

Command & Conquer: Red Alert. The single greatest RTS ever made. I believe you can get it for free (legally) from EA if you do some digging.

Mo

[fog]

Excellent chaps.  Reliable as ever.

I'll start with C&C as, believe it or not, I've only ever played a short demo of it on the PSone (IIRC).  And if you reckon it's legally free too 

[TheKhakinator]

I love Fragile Allegiance but being all DOS and IPX, multiplay is out.

Same for Red Alert - no multiplay.

TA (<3, my favourite RTS) runs brilliantly on the EEE, as  does Starcraft.

I'd say all the C&Cs pre-generals would run; and wouldn't be surprised if you could get Generals running at a stretch either.

[EricT]

I love Fragile Allegiance but being all DOS and IPX, multiplay is out.

Same for Red Alert - no multiplay.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamachi

Learn to embrace THE FUTURE.

[fog]

Red Alert works great and is indeed a legal free download

I forgot what it's like to play a game like this that doesn't hold your hand through the first few levels and explain the controls and what the various units and buildings do.  Consequently I completed a couple of the early missions without using half the tools available 

Now I just need to find out how to reduce the scrolling speed.  I have it set to slow in the menus, but it's still ridiculously fast. 

Cheers again for the recommendations chaps.

[TheKhakinator]

I love Fragile Allegiance but being all DOS and IPX, multiplay is out.

Same for Red Alert - no multiplay.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamachi

Learn to embrace THE FUTURE.

I am no fool. The only way to multiplay Red Alert at ALL under XP is with some obscure third-party patch that didn't work for me. Tib Sun will work under XP, but I'm damned if IPX was gonna work over Hamachi for me. Does for some though.

[fog]

Fear 2 demo came out. Amazing. Purely AMAZING.

I haven't had that much fun playing a shooter in years. The AI is grand, the weapons are awesome, and the scares are even better. Game of the year has been DECIDED. And kudos to the sound designers for this game. If you're playing this with shit speakers, you're losing out. Pump up the volume on this, it's worth it.

Can't wait for the full game.

That said, I see console FPS fans not liking this one bit. Not enough Run and Gun to keep their small minds entertained, and too much emphasis on using your arsenal effectively for their minds to calculate.

Well I finally tried the Fear 2 demo and I'm totally in two minds about it. As a demo it was nice to have a decent chunk of game to get an idea for what it will be like, unlike the short Killzone 2 demo which effectively only gave you the tutorial part of the first level.  Great idea that   

As you say, the AI is great and the combat fairly satisfying, but TBH I just felt like I was playing Fear 1 with slightly better graphics.  That's not necessarily a bad thing if it offers something new or new environments, but the locations felt like they'd just been lifted from the original game and add-ons.  And IMO the feeling of "fear" was lost because of the complete overuse of cuts to the parallel universe or brief glimpses of ghosts etc.  Less is definitely more with things like that.

So yeah, I'm torn.  It just felt like more of the same and the attempted scares were a missed opportunity, but the combat was decent so I'll probably still get it at some point.

[EricT]

Fear 2 demo came out. Amazing. Purely AMAZING.

I haven't had that much fun playing a shooter in years. The AI is grand, the weapons are awesome, and the scares are even better. Game of the year has been DECIDED. And kudos to the sound designers for this game. If you're playing this with shit speakers, you're losing out. Pump up the volume on this, it's worth it.

Can't wait for the full game.

That said, I see console FPS fans not liking this one bit. Not enough Run and Gun to keep their small minds entertained, and too much emphasis on using your arsenal effectively for their minds to calculate.

Well I finally tried the Fear 2 demo and I'm totally in two minds about it. As a demo it was nice to have a decent chunk of game to get an idea for what it will be like, unlike the short Killzone 2 demo which effectively only gave you the tutorial part of the first level.  Great idea that   

As you say, the AI is great and the combat fairly satisfying, but TBH I just felt like I was playing Fear 1 with slightly better graphics.  That's not necessarily a bad thing if it offers something new or new environments, but the locations felt like they'd just been lifted from the original game and add-ons.  And IMO the feeling of "fear" was lost because of the complete overuse of cuts to the parallel universe or brief glimpses of ghosts etc.  Less is definitely more with things like that.

So yeah, I'm torn.  It just felt like more of the same and the attempted scares were a missed opportunity, but the combat was decent so I'll probably still get it at some point.

Well, I have the full version now. Got about 3 hours so far (I'm guessing it'll be around 9 hours), and I'm digging it. The demo was definitely a mash together of various areas from the game... so nothing was really spoiled.

So far my biggest disappointment has to be the lack of "lean" keys. Would be nice to be able to look around a corner without everyone noticing me. The cover, however, is excellently done. Kicking over a hospital cart and taking out a few dudes from behind it, wonderful stuff. The enviroments seem range from "thats cool, I guess" to "f**k AWESOME!"

Noticing the AI seems to progress with you, as opposed to having about 3 stages of intelligence that it switches between, so that I'm liking that.

I saw a review that whined about quick time events, but honestly, it's not really a problem. That's assuming they're talking about when a certain enemy gets close enough to jump on you, you have to whack melee a few times quickly to punch it off or it hurts you good. What did the reviewer expect, something jumps on you and it just magically leaves you without your input?

Dialog wise, it seems the writers discovered the f**k late in life, and use it every chance they get. I'll just assume all secret recon teams communicate in a series of fucks. I love the word, but over use can get annoying. They do make up for it with the dialog of one character in the game, whom has some fairly funny lines. "You're like free pizza and an anime convention to her, she smells you, she wants to consume you!", being my favorite. 

I'll reserve final judgement till completion (probably tomorrow afternoon depending on schedule)...