I was playing NWN2, but I decided to hold off until the new patch is released. After having a lot of role-playing I was in the mood for some action so now I have F.E.A.R. Extraction Point and I reinstalled Quake 4.
F.E.A.R. EP is not bad, though for some reason some areas perform horribly (like a slideshow) and I have to look at the floor or sky for the framerate to be tolerable. It was only in the outdoor areas, but the rest of it seems fine so far.
I dunno' what it is, but 2006 on the PC seems like the year of "Games That Need MORE Patches."
GRAW PC is coming to mind, as I'm currently playing that. The game is pretty good so far, but to get it running decent while still looking good, I had to drop my res' down to 800x600. W/ everything turned off in 1024x768, the framerate is absolutely UNSTABLE -- jumping ALL over the place, from 8 to even 35 FPS. Turn everything on w/ 800x600, game runs better -- yet, it still looks good.
Oh -- Why on the GRAW PC version did they NOT allow and keep the third-person view they used the X360 version (which is also the only used viewpoint that is in the X360 version)
? I like the FPS view in GRAW PC, but it'd ALSO be nice to be able to switch b/t the two, if I so choosed to while on the fly, when in-game; like say Hitman series (since Hitman 2) have allowed and Thief: Deadly Shadows.
Next, enter Scarface: The World is Yours. Do I like the game? Yes, the voice-acting, cinematic qualities, and the game itself seems good, so far. The action itself: it is very good. But, what is holding me back from truly enjoying it??? Two things: ONE - The controls can't be configured to my very own liking. Sure, they're decent, but I'd like to be able to manipulate it to my own liking! TWO - The framerate is not always too stable.
Now, let's enter NWN2. Even w/ Patch 1.02, it ran also ALL over the place. Not until Patch 1.03 was the game really in any state to be very stable, while turning most graphical features. Performance still could be better, but it's better than what the hell it was.
I ain't played Gothic 3, but from what I heard, that game can also join the "I need more patches" club. I think Xessive can vouch for me on that one.
I'm getting tired of this trend that seems to be growing on the PC, of publishers and designers going the "let's let the alpha box/beta box out and release a patch sometime later" pathway. It's starting to get annoying.
I'm currently also playing Guild Wars: Nightfall. Now, if only as many games
looked and ran as good as that game does, performance-wise.
Quake 4's singleplayer campaign is pretty sweet so I felt like running through it again. This time I found GTX, which enhances the graphics of Quake 4 by adding bloom shader, reflections on metal (marine armour and weapons, strogg, hovertank, walker, etc.), and casts any object's shadow with the flashlight. Pretty cool, gives Q4 a nice refined look. It's also available for Doom 3.
Quake 4 rocks -- SP and MP.
