Caspar
27-10-2003, 12:52
Right you all know me and my love of the Xboxââ‚ ¬Ã‚¦but like many our roots were in the PC. [Letââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s not digress this to earlier game master systems like the mega drive/SNESââ‚ ¬Ã‚¦etcâÃà ‚¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ã‚¦cau se I never owned any of them. I did have a C64/S+3ââ‚Âà ‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¦:whoops!: I digressed didnââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t!]
Anywayââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¦
With the current hole in Xbox release games, and weââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ve all been playing the current ruck for a few weeks/ months nowââ‚Âà ‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¦I decided to pop my head back into PC games for a week or two, until Crimson Skies, R63, Topspin, etc comes out over the coming weeks for the Xbox.
What a bloody nightmare! I now know the full power of console gaming!
I bought the newly released Max Payne 2 and Hidden and Dangerous 2. Both are excellent games and no-one is disputing this. I have always been a fan of old Max, and his wicked waysââ‚ ¬Ã‚¦and have been waiting for H&D2 for sometime; cause we do like our war games donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t we :sickos:
Well first of all I tried H&D2 †“ 3 CDs it is! And a total install of 2.4Gb :p Just use a DVD! ..surely everyone has DVDs these days??? I had numerous problems installing the game, plenty of corrupt files, reading form the CD. In fact I must have tried to install the game >20 times :cry:
Half way through this diabolical nightmare..I thought this could be a drive issue and took my DVDROM out and put in a normal 48x CD. The problems continued! I then tried to install on another machine, not as many problems, but took about 3 attempts to install it. The problems werenââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t confined to read errors but to the actual installation procedureââ‚ ¬Â¦it kept asking for the first CD, even tho it shd have finished reading that one earlier on, during installing CD2 or 3.
Anyway, I installed the game, wayheey! :D †¦then I had to go round the shop checking for updates, non that I could find! :phew: Fair doââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s the game didnââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t automatically autodetect the best game settings for me so I could just play!. As it turns out the †˜best game settingsââ‚à ƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ turn out to be †˜the safestââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ cause I managed to winch them all up to the max..so god knows why the game set them all to medium. Btw, I have a ATI 9700 PRO 128MB.
Max Payne 2 was a better install, on the CDROM drive, but did have CRC errors and took 3 attempts to install.
I think multiple CD game installations is a nightmareâ₠¬Â¦took me ages and had to keep swapping CDs in and out.
Bt the time I did install them I was so hot and bothered!..that I need to go to the gym to cool off!!!
Ok, enough whinging!...cause Iâ₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢m sure the first person who replies to this says they never have any game installations problems! :LOL:
But, letââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s compare this to Xbox games, and Iâ₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢m not even going to touch on the FACT that Xbox Live allows seamless real-time voice communications through headset! †“ I was forced to actually type words to my teammates!....I forget how many times I died during mid sentence!!!! :evil:
To play an Xbox game, this is what you do:
1. Put game disc into the Xbox gaming console and play.
Not complicated I know!
notes:
1. Thereââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s only game disc !, as we all have DVDROM drives!
2. No graphics settingââ‚à ‚¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s reconfiguring, as we all use the same graphics spec
Isnââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t standardisation a dream! :p
The conclusion to this is that Iâ₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢m going to take both Max Payne and H&D2 back to Game, within the 10days trial period, and keep my shares in Microsoft strong. :p
Microsoft to the rescue!
Although this long tedious PC game installation is a big sidetracking problem, itââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s not here forever! :D It seems that MS are in discussions with game developers/publishers/ installation experts like Wise and Installshield to have console based installations (whether non at allââ‚Âà ‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¦or a transparent one) ;)
This is all coming in Longhorn, next Windows OS, due in to 2 years time!
Anywayââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¦
With the current hole in Xbox release games, and weââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ve all been playing the current ruck for a few weeks/ months nowââ‚Âà ‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¦I decided to pop my head back into PC games for a week or two, until Crimson Skies, R63, Topspin, etc comes out over the coming weeks for the Xbox.
What a bloody nightmare! I now know the full power of console gaming!
I bought the newly released Max Payne 2 and Hidden and Dangerous 2. Both are excellent games and no-one is disputing this. I have always been a fan of old Max, and his wicked waysââ‚ ¬Ã‚¦and have been waiting for H&D2 for sometime; cause we do like our war games donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t we :sickos:
Well first of all I tried H&D2 †“ 3 CDs it is! And a total install of 2.4Gb :p Just use a DVD! ..surely everyone has DVDs these days??? I had numerous problems installing the game, plenty of corrupt files, reading form the CD. In fact I must have tried to install the game >20 times :cry:
Half way through this diabolical nightmare..I thought this could be a drive issue and took my DVDROM out and put in a normal 48x CD. The problems continued! I then tried to install on another machine, not as many problems, but took about 3 attempts to install it. The problems werenââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t confined to read errors but to the actual installation procedureââ‚ ¬Â¦it kept asking for the first CD, even tho it shd have finished reading that one earlier on, during installing CD2 or 3.
Anyway, I installed the game, wayheey! :D †¦then I had to go round the shop checking for updates, non that I could find! :phew: Fair doââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s the game didnââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t automatically autodetect the best game settings for me so I could just play!. As it turns out the †˜best game settingsââ‚à ƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ turn out to be †˜the safestââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ cause I managed to winch them all up to the max..so god knows why the game set them all to medium. Btw, I have a ATI 9700 PRO 128MB.
Max Payne 2 was a better install, on the CDROM drive, but did have CRC errors and took 3 attempts to install.
I think multiple CD game installations is a nightmareâ₠¬Â¦took me ages and had to keep swapping CDs in and out.
Bt the time I did install them I was so hot and bothered!..that I need to go to the gym to cool off!!!
Ok, enough whinging!...cause Iâ₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢m sure the first person who replies to this says they never have any game installations problems! :LOL:
But, letââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s compare this to Xbox games, and Iâ₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢m not even going to touch on the FACT that Xbox Live allows seamless real-time voice communications through headset! †“ I was forced to actually type words to my teammates!....I forget how many times I died during mid sentence!!!! :evil:
To play an Xbox game, this is what you do:
1. Put game disc into the Xbox gaming console and play.
Not complicated I know!
notes:
1. Thereââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s only game disc !, as we all have DVDROM drives!
2. No graphics settingââ‚à ‚¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s reconfiguring, as we all use the same graphics spec
Isnââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t standardisation a dream! :p
The conclusion to this is that Iâ₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢m going to take both Max Payne and H&D2 back to Game, within the 10days trial period, and keep my shares in Microsoft strong. :p
Microsoft to the rescue!
Although this long tedious PC game installation is a big sidetracking problem, itââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s not here forever! :D It seems that MS are in discussions with game developers/publishers/ installation experts like Wise and Installshield to have console based installations (whether non at allââ‚Âà ‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¦or a transparent one) ;)
This is all coming in Longhorn, next Windows OS, due in to 2 years time!