Been a couple of weeks since my last post. Unfortunately work has been keeping me rather busy and with the current lack of new (decent) games, there isn't really much to talk about (unless you really want to hear about how the installation of my new fibre optic lines and managed switches is going? No, didn't think so...).
Strangely (or maybe not so) I've gone back to playing City of Heroes/Villains recently and, once again, having lots of fun zooming round fighting/promoting crime. Currently on 'Issue 10', the heroes and villains are having to fight together against a common foe; the alien invasion force of the Rikti. As well as a new joint zone in which to fight, there are frequent attacks on the surrounding areas... and when they attack it is utter chaos! Last night I found myself in the biggest fight I've seen so far... at least a dozen villains (including several high-level Master Mind villains with 4/5 'pets' each). Quite frankly the aliens didn't stand a chance... and neither did my PC as it slowed to almost slideshow-like frame rates. Pretty impressive as this is my new PC sporting a GeForce 8800 GTS, Core2Duo E6600 and 2Gb of RAM (not exactly cutting edge... but normally more than capable for the job).
Oh, and to ensure he get's his 15 minutes of fame, please take a look at a friend of mine, Connell, learning how to wheelie his motorbike courtesy of Motorcycle News. You'll find in here --> http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jqqVJmsF6hU <-- Let's just hope that the new owner of the bike doesn't mind :-P
Anyway... work is calling... roll on Friday and three weeks holiday! Woohoo!
Tuesday, 31 July 2007
Tuesday, 10 July 2007
A Twitchy And Repulsive Individual
I really only have myself to blame... I should read the forums of games I intend to buy before I actually go and buy them!
I'm talking, unfortunately, about Test Drive Unlimited. What sounds like a fun idea to start with... race around 1000 miles of Hawaiian roads, unlocking new vehicles and earning the money to buy them. Included in the list of vehicles are a vast number of classic old and new desirable cars and bikes.
Unfortunately, what sounds good on paper isn't much good if you then go and mess up the technology behind it. Playing single player appears to be mostly ok... the game looks great and, despite the slightly twitchy cars, is fun to play (we're not talking Driv3r kind of twitchy after all). Unfortunately, playing online appears to be a different matter entirely.
I seem to be one of the many players that can't even seem to connect to the servers. The forums are awash with tales of which ports people have tried unblocking, what routers they have tried and even what information they have monitored leaving their PC in a vain attempt to find a magic cure. For the rest, online play appears to be a touchy subject... some can get into the online server, but don't see anyone; others see the occasional player but as soon as they try to race them, they all get disconnected... I've not seen many posts by people who have actually connected and raced without issue!
Atari and Eden Games do not appear to be saying much on the subject. A patch has been promised for several months now that will fix a number of issues (no specifics as yet) and will add a couple of new cars to the mix as a sweetener! Seeing just how many unhappy posts there are though, how long they've waited and just how little information has been provided by Atari I can't help thinking that it's going to take more than just a sweetener to make this taste ok... or maybe just having a working game would be enough? Only time will tell...
Mind you, Atari releasing something that is technically impressive but then failing to back it up... can't help feeling a little deja vu (try looking up the late history of Atari hardware: Lynx, Jaguar, TT). Some have suggested that Atari were returning to greatness... I'm not convinced, and I've always been a fan of Atari, but it looks more like it's just a twitchy corpse to me.
I'm talking, unfortunately, about Test Drive Unlimited. What sounds like a fun idea to start with... race around 1000 miles of Hawaiian roads, unlocking new vehicles and earning the money to buy them. Included in the list of vehicles are a vast number of classic old and new desirable cars and bikes.
Unfortunately, what sounds good on paper isn't much good if you then go and mess up the technology behind it. Playing single player appears to be mostly ok... the game looks great and, despite the slightly twitchy cars, is fun to play (we're not talking Driv3r kind of twitchy after all). Unfortunately, playing online appears to be a different matter entirely.
I seem to be one of the many players that can't even seem to connect to the servers. The forums are awash with tales of which ports people have tried unblocking, what routers they have tried and even what information they have monitored leaving their PC in a vain attempt to find a magic cure. For the rest, online play appears to be a touchy subject... some can get into the online server, but don't see anyone; others see the occasional player but as soon as they try to race them, they all get disconnected... I've not seen many posts by people who have actually connected and raced without issue!
Atari and Eden Games do not appear to be saying much on the subject. A patch has been promised for several months now that will fix a number of issues (no specifics as yet) and will add a couple of new cars to the mix as a sweetener! Seeing just how many unhappy posts there are though, how long they've waited and just how little information has been provided by Atari I can't help thinking that it's going to take more than just a sweetener to make this taste ok... or maybe just having a working game would be enough? Only time will tell...
Mind you, Atari releasing something that is technically impressive but then failing to back it up... can't help feeling a little deja vu (try looking up the late history of Atari hardware: Lynx, Jaguar, TT). Some have suggested that Atari were returning to greatness... I'm not convinced, and I've always been a fan of Atari, but it looks more like it's just a twitchy corpse to me.
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