Originally Posted By CrisGer (28 APR 2012 11:31am)
Skyrim i have a long way to go but again, it is a bit the same over and over, i have lost interest in the story really as the game itself is iffy on my system and  crashes or freezes fairly often, it was created at too high a graphics level for people with oridinary computers, which i was afraid would be the case. It is time developers stopped the endless reaching for the highest ssettings possible, and just made good games. Hope everyone is having a ncie spring.

Strange I had the opposite thoughts recently, why developers have stopped upping the ante on graphics. I've had the same PC and graphics card for about 5 years now, and nothing really challenges it. It's not a high-end card either, and Skyrim runs well on full settings.

I found myself with nothing to play since finishing Legend of Grimrock, and since that game left me yearning for the classic RPGs of old I started the Krynn series, which I had not played before. Already made two trial parties but combat is very difficult so I'm going through the manual trying to figure out the best stats to have for each character. Tough work!

Skyrim didn't end up being as good a game as I had hoped, but saying it is too resource demanding is just not true, especially regarding GPU power. Benchmarks show that only at resolutions exceeding 1920x1080, and with the optional high textures pack installed, it can stress any gaming-oriented GPU released in the last 3 years, in all other situations it is clearly CPU bound. Nothing like Oblivion, which when released, couldn't run smoothly at max settings even with GPUs then retailing for more than 400$. For that matter, Morrowind's requirements were similarly extravagant for the time it was released. Bethesda optimized the engine very well this time, and delivered impressive visuals with very reasonable requirements.

On topic, still delving ever deeper in Mount Grimrock, currently fighting and puzzling my way through level 10.

I could play Skyrim on my ancient machine, with a GeForce 7600GT, so it was not very system demanding.

Anyway, I'm once again back in Might & Magic 7. I don't know why, but the series keeps drawing me back in, even though the only game that I really enjoyed was 4-5 (combined). 

I can run other high demand games fine, i have a FX 9600, and a fairly decent machine for it can run Mafia II and Mass Effect 2 ok, but Skyrim it has trouble iwth, and therefore I dont enjoy as much as i might. It freezes or crashes after about a hour or so of game play at times, not predictable. So yes it is demanidng no matter what others may say, for it has trouble for ME, and i play a ton of games of all ages, and my system is optimized for the widest possible range. It may be the fact i only have two cores ...and i reffuse to upgrade my main platform every new generation of computer, for that is anathama to a ecologic minded person such as my self who does not beliee that mindless constant technological upgrading of a civilzation is good for the people or the planet....we should make things that last and not just keep pushing the envelope for tiny improvements of quality. some of the older games with good story and good art are just fine, without having total detail of a photorealistic kind. the new MMO for Star Wars , The Old Republic used a semi realistic somewhat artistic style and high rez textures and it runs fine at high quality.   Skyrim is boring, dark and drab, and really not worth the effort to advance i have found, and the interior lighitnt is much worse thatn Oblivion, garish and glaring and the colour schemes and design just dont work. I am overall disappointed and much happier with Oblvion and plan to continue to mod for both.  I feel ihn the other category of gaming, the impact of FPS games and the need for intense action and drama have eroded the quality of game stories, there are some beautiful game worlds with really banal and bloody stories and th endless fighitnng is just not interesting at all. Gaming has become digital butchery and people have become callous and accustomed to it without question......and i hope a new generation of developers and designers that I am in touch with in the internatioal game design group that I am the admin for seem more open minded and interested in wider quality. Here hoping.

Originally Posted By CrisGer (29 APR 2012 5:27pm)
So yes it is demanidng no matter what others may say

If what others might say doesn't matter, what's the point of posting in forums? 

At any rate, reading your post again, it seems to me you have more of a problem with Skyrim's stability, than its performance. It's not the same thing. Have you installed the latest Skyrim patch?

On topic, I'm struggling against the undying prisoner of Grimrock's dungeon. The end is so near, but the fact that Spoiler Alertit is supported by half a dozen of the game's toughest enemies, is giving me some trouble.

Originally Posted By Mr Innocent. (30 APR 2012 1:38am)

On topic, I'm struggling against the undying prisoner of Grimrock's dungeon. The end is so near, but the fact that Spoiler Alertit is supported by half a dozen of the game's toughest enemies, is giving me some trouble.

Spoiler AlertRemeber that you have some safe hiding spots, where you can rest regain health

I restarted again with Fallout 3,  mostly to play all DLC this time.

Hopefully the game won't have a bugged ending, so i can play Broken Steel this time.

I'm going to play 'evil' again because it seems to fit better with the overall setting of the game and because blowing up megaton is just soooo epic 

. 

Originally Posted By markornikov (1 MAY 2012 4:36pm)

I restarted again with Fallout 3,  mostly to play all DLC this time.

Hopefully the game won't have a bugged ending, so i can play Broken Steel this time.

 

I'm going to play 'evil' again because it seems to fit better with the overall setting of the game and because blowing up megaton is just soooo epic 

I truly love that game too, but have yet to set-off the nuke in Megaton. I just like my comfy, convenient home there too much to part with it. 

As for the Fallout 3 DLCs, they are all pretty fantastic, especially Broken Steel. 

I'm replaying Fallout: New Vegas as we speak and decided to follow the Mr. House / The House Always Wins path this time, which requires destroying the Brotherhood of Steel Bunker in Hidden Valley.

As a huge fan of the original games, including Fallout Tactics, that mission feels wrong. But I'm going to do it anyway just to see how the story differs from aiding Yes Man and sparing the Brotherhood. 

Have also picked up Boone instead of Cass as my main human companion this time around, to get his unique quest. 

Otherwise, I also still have several New Vegas DLCs to replay and a couple to play for the first time. 

I sure wish BethSoft would consider making additional DLCs for both titles...  

Cheers, Terry 

Originally Posted By markornikov (1 MAY 2012 4:36pm)

I'm going to play 'evil' again because it seems to fit better with the overall setting of the game and because blowing up megaton is just soooo epic 

I tried to blow up Megaton once, but I felt so bad about it that I had to reload. I just can't play as an evil character in a game, unless it is a comedic evil character. 

I would love to see Bethesda & Obsidian work closely together on the next game. I found New Vegas to be more interesting due to how it handled choices, morality and the different factions, but on the other hand, Obsidian is notorious for creating buggy games. 

Originally Posted By Fnord (2 MAY 2012 3:48am)

I tried to blow up Megaton once, but I felt so bad about it that I had to reload. I just can't play as an evil character in a game, unless it is a comedic evil character. 

 

 

I would love to see Bethesda & Obsidian work closely together on the next game. I found New Vegas to be more interesting due to how it handled choices, morality and the different factions, but on the other hand, Obsidian is notorious for creating buggy games. 

Obsidian is currently in financial trouble, so I don't see that happening any time soon

I hope they'll survive and release their upcoming RPG 'Wheel of Time' 

http://gamebanshee.com/news/107270-obsidian-entertainment-layoffs-project-cancelled.html

And they also have a Super Mario RPG inspired South Park CRPG in the works, which should not be too far off into the future, and there have been some talk of them co-developing Wasteland 2 (at least some of the old Black Isle staff has expressed an interest in doing that, from both sides).

Obsidian has never been in the best financial state, and this is not the first time they cancel a project (they also had an Alien game in the works at the same time as they did Alpha protocol which they had to cancel). 

True. None of Obsidian's games have been financial successes, never losing money but never making enough to secure independence from publishers. Fallout: New Vegas was their greatest success commercially, but Bethesda got the lion's share of the money.  And they lost the bonus Bethesda would have to pay them if Fallout: New Vegas reached an 85 metacritic score. It ended up with 84 .

They do have a sadly deserved reputation for buggy initial releases. Still, Dungeon Siege III, for all its flaws, was very stable and bug-free. Let's hope they can keep that up.

I have zero interest in South Park RPG, but I still hope it will sell well enough for Obsidian to manage to go on, they have some of the best writers/designers in the industry.

phew, Fallout 3 doesn't run properly with modern machines, especially multi cores.

Even after several tweaks, the game frequently crashes to desktop when loading a new area 

Strangely enough I never had any problems with Oblivion or New Vegas

I'm currently doing some Battletech practice in MegaMek, a PC adaptation of the board game. The AI is not great, but at least it helps me brush up on the rules. I have not played Battletech for a few months, and there are a lot of rules to remember (or forget). 

Originally Posted By markornikov (3 MAY 2012 8:28am)

phew, Fallout 3 doesn't run properly with modern machines, especially multi cores.

Even after several tweaks, the game frequently crashes to desktop when loading a new area 

 

Strangely enough I never had any problems with Oblivion or New Vegas

I never had any problems when playing it on my dual core, but I have yet to try it with my quad.  Surely a game this relatively modern can handle multiple cores?  I presume you've tried setting affinity to a single core?

Originally Posted By Traveller (3 MAY 2012 1:11pm)

Originally Posted By markornikov (3 MAY 2012 8:28am)

phew, Fallout 3 doesn't run properly with modern machines, especially multi cores.

Even after several tweaks, the game frequently crashes to desktop when loading a new area 

 

Strangely enough I never had any problems with Oblivion or New Vegas

 

I never had any problems when playing it on my dual core, but I have yet to try it with my quad.  Surely a game this relatively modern can handle multiple cores?  I presume you've tried setting affinity to a single core?

yup, i tried that before and it made things even worse, black textures and other glitches like that.

I did some more tweaking, disabling directdraw, setting affinity to quad core (contrary to what everyone seems to say), changed some memory settings and disabling various graphical settings in-game but forcing them through the nvidia control panel...

So far so good, i've been playing for an hour now without any problems.

I'm not the only one with problems like this, unlike oblivion many have trouble getting to run FO3 on win7 64bit.

ps: never thought you would actually not post for so long, I'd expected you to give in faster 

What modern game gives you a certificate for having finisehd it?

Now that's a great ending. I really should get deeper into the M&M series, the only one I've had a decent go at is IX, which I liked but had too much travelling over large distances of repetitive landscapes.

Originally Posted By walsh (4 MAY 2012 9:56pm)

Now that's a great ending. I really should get deeper into the M&M series, the only one I've had a decent go at is IX, which I liked but had too much travelling over large distances of repetitive landscapes.

Might & Magic IX was never properly finished, hence the amount of repetitive landscapes and bugs (one of the devs called the released  game "an early alpha build")

If you plan to get into the series, I would recommend 4-5 (4 & 5 combines together into one huge game). The chronology of the series is a bit confusing, but you won't miss out on anything by playing 4-5 before 3 (as it is a parallel story). 4-5 felt very well balanced when I played it, and had a nice sense of progression.

6-8 suffers from having far too many enemies scattered all over the place, which makes combat feel drawn out and boring early on, when you can't do a whole lot, and at the end of the game, where enemies can take a lot of damage. 

I'm always surprised that there're so many new places left to discover in the Bethesda RPG's. 

Even after 4 playthroughs i seem to have missed a lot, especially in downtown DC...

The complex underground lay-out isn't helping either .

And then we still got the dlc left to play 

I decided to continue with Might & magic 8: Day of the destroyer. It actually fixes my main complaint about M&M 7 (at least thus far): the amount of enemies. Also, you can recruit dragons and have them in your party, which might sound like a silly thing to find important, but well, I like dragons.

On the downside, you don't get to create an entire party at start. You start with one character, and can recruit up to 4 more.

Originally Posted By markornikov (3 MAY 2012 2:15pm)

Originally Posted By Traveller (3 MAY 2012 1:11pm)

Originally Posted By markornikov (3 MAY 2012 8:28am)

phew, Fallout 3 doesn't run properly with modern machines, especially multi cores.

Even after several tweaks, the game frequently crashes to desktop when loading a new area 

 

Strangely enough I never had any problems with Oblivion or New Vegas

 

I never had any problems when playing it on my dual core, but I have yet to try it with my quad.  Surely a game this relatively modern can handle multiple cores?  I presume you've tried setting affinity to a single core?

 

yup, i tried that before and it made things even worse, black textures and other glitches like that.

I did some more tweaking, disabling directdraw, setting affinity to quad core (contrary to what everyone seems to say), changed some memory settings and disabling various graphical settings in-game but forcing them through the nvidia control panel...

 

So far so good, i've been playing for an hour now without any problems.

I'm not the only one with problems like this, unlike oblivion many have trouble getting to run FO3 on win7 64bit.

 

ps: never thought you would actually not post for so long, I'd expected you to give in faster 

Actually I heard about Stiler and his thyroid problem.  (See "cancer scare" in OT) 

You know, tweaking my Nvidia control panel in the wrong way was part of the reason why i struggled so with my Mass Effect way back when.  That, and a sound driver that needed updating.  It might be worthwhile to make 100% sure that your drivers are all updated.  Who knows, maybe a driver even needs to be rolled back for FO3. 

I haven't played it myself on my new system, but i long for it often, and have thought i'd like to play the DLC I've not done yet.

I have so many things planned for my vacation in June, that I'm not going to say i'll fit it in, since Risen 2 and the Skyrim DLC and so on will take presedence.

Maybe these problems of yours is a sign that you need to try out Risen 2... 

Originally Posted By Traveller (9 MAY 2012 8:55am)

maybe these problems of yours is a sign that you need to try out Risen 2... 

Nah! 

I'm going to check out my first F3-DLC now 'Point lookout'

Originally Posted By Traveller (9 MAY 2012 8:55am)

I have so many things planned for my vacation in June, that I'm not going to say i'll fit it in, since Risen 2 and the Skyrim DLC and so on will take presedence.

 

Maybe these problems of yours is a sign that you need to try out Risen 2... 

Have you played it yet Traveller? It's amazing.

Originally Posted By walsh (9 MAY 2012 7:30pm)

Originally Posted By Traveller (9 MAY 2012 8:55am)

I have so many things planned for my vacation in June, that I'm not going to say i'll fit it in, since Risen 2 and the Skyrim DLC and so on will take presedence.

 

Maybe these problems of yours is a sign that you need to try out Risen 2... 

 

Have you played it yet Traveller? It's amazing.

 

Oh good!  I'm glad to hear that!  No, I won't have time for any gaming at all until June 1, since I'm writing exams starting next week.

I knew if i bought Risen 2 i wouldn't be able to resist playing it, so i haven't even bought it yet.  I'll get it roundabout the 28th or 29th, - that way i won't be putting myself in the grasp of turturous temptation..