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

[EricT]

Well, I think I've done pretty much everything in Fallout 3. Gotta say, wasn't the best game in the world, but it was definitely solid. Now we await Fallout 4 and the Fallout MMO.

Everything?  Christ I spent over 140 hours on Oblivion and still had loads left to do.  Do you mean you've just finished the main story or you have actually done everything and it's a much smaller game than Obliv?

I agree, I also spent 150+ hours (+alt characters) on Oblivion and I didn't even do the whole dark brotherhood questline.

I spent probably double that time on Morrowind, and managed to find nice new artifacts when I had gone past the 200+ hour mark.

I suspect EricT has done the main quest (which is quite short, or so I've heard) and leveled up to level 20. That shouldn't take long... unless you're playing like I am (=doing my best NOT to level up that fast).

60 hours, level 20. I gotta say, just after hitting 20 I was kinda bored.

Main quest and all side quests that I can seem to find are done. I'll probably look for more.

Went as slow as I possibly could by walking everywhere. Explored everything I could find. Even went on the wiki's to try and find some more shit.

Beaten the main quest and gotten a 3 different "endings" (if you can even call them that, definitely disapointing, granted the last part of the main quest is f**king HILLARIOUS).

Also have killed everyone I seem to be able to kill. Collected their ears and sold them. Can't buy much anymore, people aren't around to sell anything. But I have an Ammo stock that is essentially unlimited.

I also watched my friend play through the main in about 9 hours, and he was at level 14 when he completed. I was very unimpressed in that aspect, as that provides nearly no incentive to do side quests unless you're a completionist.

I'm still playing through Oblivion every once in a while and can find something to do every time I start it up. Very disappointed in this.

Here's a list of known quests in Fallout 3 (SPOILER WARNING DO NOT CLICK IF YOU SUSPECT IT MAY SPOIL PART OF THE GAME FOR YOU):

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3_quests

This does not include what seems to be random instance quests, where you'll end up with some tiny quests that take about 10 minutes to do. Boring ass errand shit. Not to mention that choosing to do one thing instead of another:

(Early game SPOILER WARNING:!!:!!:!:!:!:!:!:!:DONOTHIGHLIGHT:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Such as blowing up Megaton, can cut out TONS of the quests that are there, leaving you with even less to do, or take for instance, you accidently shoot someone you didn't mean to, and of course, they died (in my case, I made a bad click on the moira at craterside supply, and had I left the building, it would have autosaved and I would have lost all the book quests)

!!!)!)!)!)!)!)!::!:!:!:SPOILER ENDED)

can cost your game dearly. Also, a problem has been arising where if you're wandering and discover certain places too early, it may cause the game to skip a large chunk of either the main quest or a large portion of side quests from someone. A basic design flaw that should have been tested.

I'm gonna start a new character in a few days and see what my opinion is on a replay through. See if maybe I made just a few too many wrong choices that hurt my side questing opportunities, etc.

[fog]

Ah well that's not as bad as I'd thought.  I didn't realise you'd have been able to squeeze in 60 hours play in such a short period of time 

I'm not too worried about a shortish main quest either as, if it's anything like Oblivion, I'll have put weeks into the game before I make any real attempt at the story proper.  And I found many of the side missions more enjoyable anyway (although I doubt anything will come close to being as great as The Dark Brotherhood ones)

[las6]

Tried PURE and Dead Space for PC as well this past weekend.

And I got to say, Pure port is either a really really badly done or the game just has way too many "loading" screens. I mean, the game has like 5 loading screens long enough for you to go and have a dinner while you wait before you hit the actual game. And it loads when exiting any race... It's a shame since the gameplay is pretty smooth, although there are occasional hickups. Oh and you need the 360 controller in order to play the game. Alternatively you can try just how fun it is to hold down 'w' to accelerate while controlling the ATV from the cursor keys and holding the right control down just before jumps and then switching over to holding '1' or '2' or '3' or '4' in combination with a cursor key. Sounds like fun, eh?

Dead Space was much better with actually playable controls right from the get go... or almost. Seems like the game doesn't like VSYNC at all and produces a nasty lag to the mouse if you have it on. The visuals and the athmosphere is great and it doesn't even seem all that heavy on the computer. However, I am not digging the sluggish turning, the old fashioned console type save points or the camera angle. The holographic inventory and like are technically very nice but at times they sort of get lost in the cramped hallways when the camera refuses to give you a good view. Maybe if the camera had been a bit higher, just above the shoulder perhaps. In the end I didn't play it for very long as I am not too keen on the whole genre.

oh well, back to Fallout...

[fog]

And I got to say, Pure port is either a really really badly done or the game just has way too many "loading" screens. I mean, the game has like 5 loading screens long enough for you to go and have a dinner while you wait before you hit the actual game. And it loads when exiting any race... It's a shame since the gameplay is pretty smooth, although there are occasional hickups. Oh and you need the 360 controller in order to play the game. Alternatively you can try just how fun it is to hold down 'w' to accelerate while controlling the ATV from the cursor keys and holding the right control down just before jumps and then switching over to holding '1' or '2' or '3' or '4' in combination with a cursor key. Sounds like fun, eh?

Yeah the 360 version has a number of unskippable splash screens at the beginning IIRC.  And it does load between races although that's standard on most console racers I've ever played.

I have to say I loved Pure though.  I've got to the last round of races and need to go back on and win those when I get the time.  My only complaint is that's it's a touch too easy, but maybe it wouldn't have been half as much fun if it had been pitched a bit harder?

[EricT]

There's a lot of stuff coming out about various improvements being made to Mirror's Edge for it's PC release in January. The physics (through PhsyX) are the ones getting the most attention.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42963.html

Now the question is... while most nvidia current gen cards have PhsyX support, how many of the bastards are you gonna need to run at that quality along with AA4x as they are doing.

Think I may sacrifice quality a bit for physics in the case that my 9800's can't handle both. Although, the dedicated PhsyX card from Asus has gotten A LOT cheaper as of late (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121246), so if the future is PhsyX over Havok (granted, with Intel with their hands down Havok's pants right now, and despite many user mods for PhysX on ATI cards being worked on, AMD is looking the Havok route), it may be a nice investment. A company like EA taking PhysX over Havok really seems like a sign of things to come.

[las6]

Eric, it was nice of you to embed the video. Without it, I would've never figured out the link between Mirror's Edge and PhysX. I mean, it's not like the game really requires a lot of physical simulation...

As for the requirements, I expect them to be quite low... the game looked heavily optimized and ran smoothly on the xbox. Additional anti-aliasing and hw based physics shouldn't slow it down that much on modern gfx cards.

[EricT]

Hey, the big arguement in cards now is PhsyX vs Havok. Gotta say your preferred ones name at least 12 times per post as well as PhsyX video.

I thought the game looked pretty crap on my 32" 1080p when my friend brought it over. Tons of jagged edges from the lack of AA and quite a few frameskips in certain areas he was in (granted, I may give this one to the fact that his Xbox has been lugged around from house to house for 2 years). Normally I wouldn't care, but the way the game was moving, I was feeling nauseous whenever I focused on that stuff.  I was kinda drunk though and wasn't actually playing. Coulda used some PshyX. Because PhysX is awesome. PhysX ate won't eat your baby. PhysX will clean the soul. PhysX will read you bed time stories. PhysX has ultra healing powers. PhysX defreated the dragon. PhysX will atleast tell you if PhysX has sex with your sister. PhysX will NEVER touch you in that place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qnX7d-S1l0&feature=related

[Geti]

words cannot describe how cool that looks, not can they give an inkling of how much i want it. not the fluidmark vid btw.
mirrors edge looks damn cool, i want it.

[fog]

Eric, it was nice of you to embed the video. Without it, I would've never figured out the link between Mirror's Edge and PhysX. I mean, it's not like the game really requires a lot of physical simulation...

My thoughts exactly.  From watching that vid they've just used the PhysX for the cloth simulation (which looks great ), and it adds absolutely nothing to the game at all.  I'll be impressed with these physics systems when they start being used to improve gameplay in new and interesting ways.  Right now I just see them as the next money making exercise as it's getting harder and harder to sell graphics cards.

And TBH I wasn't that impressed by that PhysX video.  The same effect could be created without any extra hardware and while I know that's not really the point, if you are going to show off it's potential then at least do something that can't already be done in software.

Yeah I'm an old cynic 

[EricT]

The second video was a joke for support of the joke in the first part of the post. 

As for the trailer... seriously? You guys aren't noticing all that extra debris flying around, the way the glass is breaking, the way the bodies are moving, and hell, I'll even bring up the cloth and the way it's moving and ripping. This is the first time in ages where I've actually said to myself "damn, that looks nice enough that I'll have to actually play it on high quality". And who knows what other improvements are being added gameplay and visual-wise (they've already stated that the delay for the PC version was to not only improve it visually, but to take the game play mechanics up a notch). Probably preparing aspects of the engine for Battlefield 3, as well.

As for PhysX demos themselves, now that native support in drivers for geforce is in full motion, you're going to see a lot more of them (and you're going to see it in games out the ass), however, this one from last year still impresses the shit out of me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anoH3JQJGlA&feature=related

[fog]

Now that's a better video

The second video was a joke for support of the joke in the first part of the post. 

You don't seriously expect me to read all the crap you write do you?   Yeah I didn't get that

As for the trailer... seriously? You guys aren't noticing all that extra debris flying around, the way the glass is breaking, the way the bodies are moving, and hell, I'll even bring up the cloth and the way it's moving and ripping.

Yeah I saw all of that and as I said, only the cloth was really impressive.  Everything else can already be done to a sufficient standard IMO.  And again, as I said, it might look nice but I want to see it used to improve the gameplay and I don't see any examples of that.

[Geti]

now that water and procedural snappery of the concrete could definitely add something to gameplay.
it does look like it would be nauseating if you werent concentrating though XD

[TheKhakinator]

Searched for S.T.A.L.K.E.R since I got some spare cash. Only found the prequel that came out, the original is nowhere to be found... couldn't find Company of Heroes either, except in a bundle pack. Wtf. PC games sections are shrinking everywhere, and I'm finding it hard to find anything that's more then 6 months old and/or Supreme Commander.

[las6]

Searched for S.T.A.L.K.E.R since I got some spare cash. Only found the prequel that came out, the original is nowhere to be found... couldn't find Company of Heroes either, except in a bundle pack. Wtf. PC games sections are shrinking everywhere, and I'm finding it hard to find anything that's more then 6 months old and/or Supreme Commander.

What's wrong with the prequel? They've fixed a boatload of problems in that one, plus they've updated the engine quite a bit. Same pretty much goes for Company of Heroes. There's nothing wrong with those two, unless you're looking for bargain bin sales, that is.

I'd try online vendors, they might have the originals in stock.

[TheKhakinator]

Searched for S.T.A.L.K.E.R since I got some spare cash. Only found the prequel that came out, the original is nowhere to be found... couldn't find Company of Heroes either, except in a bundle pack. Wtf. PC games sections are shrinking everywhere, and I'm finding it hard to find anything that's more then 6 months old and/or Supreme Commander.

What's wrong with the prequel? They've fixed a boatload of problems in that one, plus they've updated the engine quite a bit. Same pretty much goes for Company of Heroes. There's nothing wrong with those two, unless you're looking for bargain bin sales, that is.

I'd try online vendors, they might have the originals in stock.

Eventually found it - was looking for it for about $50 based on its age (prequel was $64). I'm cheap In the end got it for $20, discount rerelease.