[deathfun]

Got myself back into Civilization V after the 12.49 deal on Steam this past weekend
Decided to try out an "Epic" game as Germany

I just found out about the mechanic where when you have too many units, your production decreases by 10% each unit
Dammit Barbarians, stop joining me when I crush you!

On the plus side, I've never had to physically create a unit. So many archers, so many Brutes... so little I can do with them anymore (All the city states and cities are a defense level that I can't call acceptable losses)

[Mongoose]

Well the first difficulty was that the game flat-out refuses to load with the lighting bumped above a certain level, which is apparently a processor affinity thing.  And then there's something with shadow settings possibly murdering framerate...and then there's the game itself.

if you're playing retail far cry, patch to 1.33 and no further.  last time i played it, i had a wee problem in that i was getting sub-par performance (like, 30 fps and plenty of loading hitches) with modern hardware that should have made the game cry and not the other way around.  i'm STILL not sure how i ended up fixing it, but fiddling around with settings eventually got it to max out with a constant 60 FPS like it should.  other people on the ubi forum reported similar occurrences. 

you could also try installing the Far Cry Addon Mod (FCAM, it's on moddb) to get it working.  bonus to doing this is you get proper widescreen without the headache of hacking a mostly working sort of widescreen via the console/ini's. 

Unfortunately the Steam version looks like it's at 1.4, so I can't do much about that.  Even when fiddling around with the processor affinity, moving the Lighting setting to anything above "High" seems to lock things up, so I guess that's staying there.  (I only have a single-core processor, but the hyper-threading creates the same issue.)  Oddly enough, I haven't seen the FPS hits that some people have reported when setting the Shadow detail too high.  I did experience something rather disconcerting that I think was caused by choosing hardware sound...after a few seconds of sound playing, my speakers started screeching like some sort of godawful feedback loop, and it continued any time I tried to play audio in any other applications until a restart.  For all I know that's a hardware issue on my end, but lord knows I'm sticking to the software setting from now on.

You know, I don't know what Crytek did with this game, but I've run games significantly older than this on modern-ish hardware without a hitch, and this is already giving me trouble.

[headdie]

Well the first difficulty was that the game flat-out refuses to load with the lighting bumped above a certain level, which is apparently a processor affinity thing.  And then there's something with shadow settings possibly murdering framerate...and then there's the game itself.

if you're playing retail far cry, patch to 1.33 and no further.  last time i played it, i had a wee problem in that i was getting sub-par performance (like, 30 fps and plenty of loading hitches) with modern hardware that should have made the game cry and not the other way around.  i'm STILL not sure how i ended up fixing it, but fiddling around with settings eventually got it to max out with a constant 60 FPS like it should.  other people on the ubi forum reported similar occurrences. 

you could also try installing the Far Cry Addon Mod (FCAM, it's on moddb) to get it working.  bonus to doing this is you get proper widescreen without the headache of hacking a mostly working sort of widescreen via the console/ini's. 

Unfortunately the Steam version looks like it's at 1.4, so I can't do much about that.  Even when fiddling around with the processor affinity, moving the Lighting setting to anything above "High" seems to lock things up, so I guess that's staying there.  (I only have a single-core processor, but the hyper-threading creates the same issue.)  Oddly enough, I haven't seen the FPS hits that some people have reported when setting the Shadow detail too high.  I did experience something rather disconcerting that I think was caused by choosing hardware sound...after a few seconds of sound playing, my speakers started screeching like some sort of godawful feedback loop, and it continued any time I tried to play audio in any other applications until a restart.  For all I know that's a hardware issue on my end, but lord knows I'm sticking to the software setting from now on.

You know, I don't know what Crytek did with this game, but I've run games significantly older than this on modern-ish hardware without a hitch, and this is already giving me trouble.

first game to use the Crytec engine and it was the "Crysis" of its time, IE a PC melter, though at least then a good gaming rig could run it reasonably well unlike Crysis

[Klaustrophobia]

crysis ran reasonably well also so long as you didn't try to max it on hardware that couldn't handle it.  just like with any game really.  in fact, for whatever reason, it was always surprisingly smooth even at only 25-30 FPS.  i'm still baffled by this, because in any other game i can easily detect framerates around 40 and it is often an annoyance.

also, i'm not sure how steam handles these things, but you could try downloading the 1.33 patch anyway (or at the very least find one of the unofficial 1.4x patches released by modders).  unless it was fixed for the steam release, 1.4 essentially broke single player.  the AI can see and shoot through some walls, and i think there was also an issue with a couple of the guns.

[Mongoose]

Oh, so that's why something was magically perforating me through a quonset hut?

[Dark Hunter]

I have come to the conclusion that the Spider-5K is the suckiest 'Mech I've ever seen.

4 ballistic hardpoints... on a 'Mech that can mount MAYBE one autocannon due to weight restrictions. Currently I have it running quadruple machine guns (with a Med. Pulse as backup), but that doesn't really do much. (I have heard of people putting an AC 10 on this thing for lulz, but I don't have the C-Bills to spend on lulz).

Selling this one the instant I master the Spider. Pretty much the only reason to run it is XP gathering.


In other 'Mech news, trying to decide what to do with the torso ballistic and energy hardpoints on the Misery. By default they mount a Large laser and an AC 10, but I'm wondering if I can improve on either one of them significantly. I'd like a long range weapon... either an ER-PPC or Gauss. Probably the PPC, given I have this thing loaded down with heat sinks and Gauss cannons also need ammo.

[Mongoose]

Powered through the end of Doom 3 the other day.  While the major flaws I mentioned earlier wound up persisting throughout the whole thing, I'd rate it an enjoyable experience overall.  The environments did wind up getting some variation by the end, with Hell being creepy-cool, and the lowest base areas reminding me a lot of the vitrified testing chambers from Portal 2.  The story presentation was an interesting attempt to take the classic bare-bones "kill all the demons!"  premise and re-cast it in a more plausible, grounded light...I wouldn't give it any awards, but it got the job done.  One little element that stood out in a positive way was the environment interaction: instead of the usual "press E to do everything" command, your crosshair turned into a cursor when interacting with a touchscreen in-game, and it felt really seamless and immersive.

Now I'm working on the expansion, and oh jeez...they've managed to take the Gravity Gun and eliminate just about everything that was so intuitive and graceful about it.

[FireSpawn]

I was sent a copy of NGE: Girlfriend of Steel by a friend of mine.  Reaction after playing/listening/watching it for 15 minutes last night?
...
..."Wat?"   

[Mongoose]

The local branch of a smaller game store chain is unfortunately going out of business, so I hit them up for some discounts.  Kind of a Nintendo coup, since I wound up with Super Mario Galaxy, The Conduit, and...Super Mario 64.  Which I have somehow never played.  I'm a terrible person.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

That's not too bad. Did you get the original or Super Mario 64 DS?

[Mongoose]

The original, for old-school cred.  Gotta love big chunky cartridges.

[crizza]

Super Mario 64.  Which I have somehow never played.  I'm a terrible person.

Dude, nothing ruins a friendship like playing this and loads of beer^^

[Lorric]

Dude, nothing ruins a friendship like playing this and loads of beer^^

I am curious. Would you mind elaborating?

[crizza]

Dude, nothing ruins a friendship like playing this and loads of beer^^

I am curious. Would you mind elaborating?

Ah, crap, I confused it with Mario Cart on the Nintendo64, my bad.

[Lorric]

Dude, nothing ruins a friendship like playing this and loads of beer^^

I am curious. Would you mind elaborating?

Ah, crap, I confused it with Mario Cart on the Nintendo64, my bad.

Ah, now things make sense! 

[Mongoose]

Drunk Mario Kart 64 was pretty much a nightly event for some people in my freshman-year dorm.

[LHN91]

Same here. Lots of drunk Mario Kart 64 played in the next room over first year.

[deathfun]

Mario Kart is the only game my sister can beat me at these days (Wii version)

[Androgeos Exeunt]

I still hold Mario Kart DS as one of my favourite games on the DS.

[Deepstar]

Yesterday i started the Hard Mode of "Shadow of the Colossus" on good old Playstation 2 (quite apart from the fact i do not own a PS3, maybe it will change after the PS4 release ) for first time for a video LP.

And because i am somewhat of unofficial Co-Developer or at least translator for the Augmented Mod i also play Archimedean Dynasty :-)