So far as we know, this is PC-exclusive thus far? Because I think my desktop can run it fairly well. My laptop didn't have much of a problem running the HD First and Second Encounters, but this is a completely different beast. If this was featured during the Steam holiday sale with the loyalty discount, I'd get it in a heartbeat.
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
It's about PC exclusive as every other game in recent history (that is, not at all). Currently, the console release dates are TBA.
TetraNitroCubaneThe DjinneratorAt the bottom of a bottleRegistered Userregular
edited November 2011
I spent a little more time tweaking the game this morning. Still haven't played it a whole lot, but god gosh is it pretty. For reference, my system specs are as follows:
That autodetected to Ultra, but there is no way that's giving a pleasant gaming experience when the screen is full of Kleers. I pulled back to High settings all around, and got a much smoother result, and honestly I don't see a terribly large sacrifice in visual quality. The biggest difference is turning the GPU memory settings from Ultra to High, and that just made everything look a bit less bright.
I'd just like to say, though, that I am fully impressed with the range of customizable graphical options that are tweakable. Props to Croteam for making those options available to PC gamers on release (I'm narrowing my eyes at you, Crytek). The lack of an FOV option is puzzling in the face of the bevy of other options, but the console command to change it is easy to access, fortunately.
Yeah, I'm using Windows 7 home 64, and I'd like something as convenient as ZA for outbound protection.
I admit I'm no expert on firewalls, but if you want to to inquire deeper about the issue, you can stop by the Computer Security Thread. I'll admit the discussion has died down recently, but the OP still has some workable links to Firewall options, as well as an article on configuring the Vista/7 firewall for outbound protection.
I finally got to play today. Got through the first two levels, they are pretty tense in spots, atleast for me haha. Though part of it is because my skill at flipping through the weapons to the onen I need RIGHT NOW is still quite rusty. I'm digging it.
I'm kinda bummed how little talk there is about it
I'm kinda bummed how little talk there is about it
Yeah, this game is awesome, it deserves more fanfare.
Those cyborg soldiers are more fun than annoying once you start getting a good amount of AR ammo.
Croteam knocked this one out of the park, it's a magnificent sequel. Once you're a few levels in, there can be no doubt that this is every bit Serious Sam, heart and soul. I hope this game does really well for them, they deserve it.
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CheesecakeRecipe"Should not be allowed to post in the Steam Thread" - IsornSqualor Victoria, Squalor Victoria!Registered Userregular
Doing some 3 player co-op right now, change of pace from running solo.
Those soldiers have a huge reload window and you can usually sprint out and melee/shoot them in the face the second they stop firing. They also rarely hit you if you keep moving. The baby scorpions that are instant hitscan you have to be a bit more careful about it, but they are so slow you can usually zip between them and melee them all. It really all started to click once I got it in my head to stop ducking behind cover and run in like a maniac all guns blazing and tearing heads off.
I haven't played a game that made me feel like such a total badass like this since the original FEAR.
Those soldiers have a huge reload window and you can usually sprint out and melee/shoot them in the face the second they stop firing. They also rarely hit you if you keep moving. The baby scorpions that are instant hitscan you have to be a bit more careful about it, but they are so slow you can usually zip between them and melee them all. It really all started to click once I got it in my head to stop ducking behind cover and run in like a maniac all guns blazing and tearing heads off.
I haven't played a game that made me feel like such a total badass like this since the original FEAR.
How far in are you?
The part that was most frustrating to me was near the beginning of The Silent Riddler (right after Under The Iron Cloud, which was at least as difficult, but in a much more fun way I thought). Specifically:
Another alien helicopter shows up while you're fighting a lot of minor biomechs, Kleers, and of course shotgun and rifle soldiers. You must prioritize the helicopter because its undodgable machine gun will seriously chew away at your health until you kill the damn thing - but it takes a while since you have to use the rocket launcher, which usually means waiting for it to hover in place. Obviously you need to stay on the move to dodge the laser fire from biomechs and charging Kleers, but if you move too far the heli will follow you (still firing, too) and you'll have to wait for it to hold still again. Looking up to keep track of the helicopter's location might mean taking a hit you would have otherwise avoided, as the biomech lasers are quite fast on Hard difficulty.
I'm a few levels past that by now and it's no big deal. That part just had me frustrated and wondering who designed the helicopter as something to fight in the midst of other formidable enemies - if you list its mechanics out does it really look like fun to anyone?
Those soldiers have a huge reload window and you can usually sprint out and melee/shoot them in the face the second they stop firing. They also rarely hit you if you keep moving. The baby scorpions that are instant hitscan you have to be a bit more careful about it, but they are so slow you can usually zip between them and melee them all. It really all started to click once I got it in my head to stop ducking behind cover and run in like a maniac all guns blazing and tearing heads off.
I haven't played a game that made me feel like such a total badass like this since the original FEAR.
How far in are you?
The part that was most frustrating to me was near the beginning of The Silent Riddler (right after Under The Iron Cloud, which was at least as difficult, but in a much more fun way I thought). Specifically:
Another alien helicopter shows up while you're fighting a lot of minor biomechs, Kleers, and of course shotgun and rifle soldiers. You must prioritize the helicopter because its undodgable machine gun will seriously chew away at your health until you kill the damn thing - but it takes a while since you have to use the rocket launcher, which usually means waiting for it to hover in place. Obviously you need to stay on the move to dodge the laser fire from biomechs and charging Kleers, but if you move too far the heli will follow you (still firing, too) and you'll have to wait for it to hold still again. Looking up to keep track of the helicopter's location might mean taking a hit you would have otherwise avoided, as the biomech lasers are quite fast on Hard difficulty.
I'm a few levels past that by now and it's no big deal. That part just had me frustrated and wondering who designed the helicopter as something to fight in the midst of other formidable enemies - if you list its mechanics out does it really look like fun to anyone?
I'm maybe 7 or 8 levels in? I just finished the first major section of the game before you go to a whole new area.
I thought the part you referenced in the spoiler was awesome fun. I am playing on Normal diff though.
I'm maybe 7 or 8 levels in? I just finished the first major section of the game before you go to a whole new area.
I thought the part you referenced in the spoiler was awesome fun. I am playing on Normal diff though.
Sometimes things just don't work out on certain playthroughs - perhaps I should've just restarted the level since it was so close to the beginning. What I actually did was a whole lot of "quicksave every five seconds you've done damage without taking damage" which can remove the smile from my face pretty quickly.
The game did a fine job of putting it back on though (pretty sure we're on the same level from what you described). Any time I get to a crate of C4 I go wild. If it's within throwing distance of a monkey-infested grid of crumbly columns, then so much the better. The minigun is exactly what it should be too. I love that they made it tear up the little guys like never before, without also making it the best weapon for everything else like it often was in the encounters. I think including the Devastator did a lot to balance that out, although I hope the old grenade launcher wasn't totally scrapped (expecting that it was though).
I just finished downloading it last night. I was only able to play for about 5 mins before going to bed, but I liked what I saw. Caving in the.....torsos of those cyclops aliens and the headless purple shirt guys with the seldgehammer is intensely satisfying.
Finished it on Normal - This was a great game and an excellent sequel. It's a little slow to start in the first couple levels, but I enjoyed them.
The laser & sniper rifles are not really in the game, which is a bummer. They're hidden secrets, but you won't get much ammo for them. They shouldn't have been in the weapons trailer.
I'm looking forward to replaying the game. I really liked the city environments, and would've liked to see a couple of them mixed in later.
One thing that sucks, though - that final level. Good lord, what a grind. The boss was kinda trash too. If it wasn't for the Netricsa intel, I would probably still be trying to figure out what the fuck to do there. I mean, really-
the thing is like 20 stories tall and covered in metal, it is impossible for him to be any more of a lightning rod than he already is, that was just nonsense.
A few less dark crypt sections would've been nice, and the finale can eat a dick, but aside from that, SS3 really has some of the best FPS level design that's ever been done. Hell of a game, superb fun.
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TetraNitroCubaneThe DjinneratorAt the bottom of a bottleRegistered Userregular
Just a quick heads up: A recent patch that went out completely broke savegames if you were on a certain level. One of the devs mentioned over on the Steam forums that they know about the issue and how to fix it, and will release a patch today to get around it. At first he said he didn't know if he could fix the old saves without breaking new saves, but now apparently there's a way to preserve both. The official word is here.
Just for all of you who, like me, tried to play the game while full of Turkey, and were greeted with that disappointing error!
Seriously though, SS3 is the sequel that SS2 wished it was.
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TetraNitroCubaneThe DjinneratorAt the bottom of a bottleRegistered Userregular
edited November 2011
New Patch is live:
- Fixed older saves not being loadable after the first update. This version should be able to load saves from any of previous two versions.
- Fixed some rare cases where player disconnecting at a very particular moment would make some parts of gameplay scripts to break (usually not spawning some enemies or similar).
- When several players are standing in front of ammo crate and one of them opens the crate, ammo will be awarded to all of them, not only to the one who opened it.
- Fixed cases when player disconnecting while standing on an item could crash the server.
- Fixed scripted flashlights (e.g. Spooky Secrets) not working on client.
- Player carrying a flag in CTF cannot sprint now.
- Fixed a crash that could happen at random when Technopolip was killed.
- Fixed a problem where sometimes all Gnaar melees in the game were long melees, instead of quick ones.
- Fixed "Old School" achievement flagged as failing if pressing the reload binding even if the reload didn't actually happen. It will now fail only if the reload was actually performed.
- Prevented crash that happened if Cheat menu was accessed during level loading.
- Fixed quick weapon swap sometimes remembering the wrong weapon.
EDIT: Just a quick note to anyone having a bit of difficulty with optimization of the game. It seems it's much more CPU intensive than most other games out there. Setting CPU performance to "Low" lets me put all graphical options to "Ultra", and get a smooth framerate with little visual sacrifice.
TetraNitroCubane on
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CheesecakeRecipe"Should not be allowed to post in the Steam Thread" - IsornSqualor Victoria, Squalor Victoria!Registered Userregular
Alright guys, community SSHD: The Second Encounter night tonight! There was a ton of interest expressed in the steam thread, and I figured it a good idea to take out planning of when and who is gonna join to here since that steam thread is likely to start taking off now that the new sales are up.
Alright so, I guess first thing to figure out is what time we should all get on. Second thing is that there's a problem with the in-game voice com and it doesn't work as of a few months ago. We'll have to use steam's integrated voice chat function in a big ol chatroom for the night. Maybe we'll use the Penny Arcade group?
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
edited November 2011
Yeah, the main PA group or G&T Adventure Team would be another good group too. This is always good times.
I don't have a microphone, so I will be doing mostly text-chatting, if that's OK. I own SSHD: 2nd Encounter, and I'm in Germany, so I've got time between now and in 4 or 5 hours.
Oh. I'd be up for this. Gives me a reason to play the second encounter other than just dying constantly. Wait...I'd be doing that anyway. But I just respawn instead of having to reload!
Though, I have to wonder. Will I be able to RUN multiplayer, since there are many more enemies, which means many more polygons to render. Hmmm. Maybe if I put everything on low.
heenato on
M A G I K A Z A M
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CheesecakeRecipe"Should not be allowed to post in the Steam Thread" - IsornSqualor Victoria, Squalor Victoria!Registered Userregular
The best thing about Serious Engine 3 is not only can it display an absurd number of enemies on screen without a hitch, but the video options are intricately tweakable right in the performance menu without having to dig through a .ini for values. Should be pretty useful for nailing down the right settings if you think your computer's going to break under the stress of all the people and enemies.
Man I didn't even think about G&T Adventure Team, that'd be a pretty good group to use so we could announce it to the group at large as we're starting! I think several of us who are playing have !op there and would be able to.
Downloading HD2 right now, will be on most of the night, just hit me up. Oh and I'll probably be super terrible.
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CheesecakeRecipe"Should not be allowed to post in the Steam Thread" - IsornSqualor Victoria, Squalor Victoria!Registered Userregular
Bus and I are chilling in the G&T Adventure Team chat right now, also put up an announcement for the group. If you're going to join us tonight but aren't in the group, let me know so I can get you an invite into it.
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
It's not possible to be terrible in coop. Just absurdly awesome.
People in the Steam thread mentioned possibly doing some FE/SE co-op tonight. If that's the case feel free to contact me on Steam as I'd definitely be interested.
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CheesecakeRecipe"Should not be allowed to post in the Steam Thread" - IsornSqualor Victoria, Squalor Victoria!Registered Userregular
We'll be using PA G&T Adventure Team to coordinate and voice com. Drake, Bus and I are in there now. I can send invites if you're not in the group already.
CheesecakeRecipe"Should not be allowed to post in the Steam Thread" - IsornSqualor Victoria, Squalor Victoria!Registered Userregular
Just a heads up, Serious Sam HD: Second Encounter run is going to begin in about 40 minutes. Join Adventure Chat for voice com and being able to hook up with whoever is playing!
Bah. Ended up getting called away as soon as I started. Maybe next time.
Also, just for reference, since I'm not usually doing this kinda thing, hitting "Start voice chat" in the group chat pannel is what I need to do to get into the voice chat, right?
M A G I K A Z A M
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
We had a serious crew for a good run. I got seriously tired after about two hours of awesome though. Fucking excellent times as always.
Posts
6 GB RAM
EVGA GTX 570 SC
On Win 7 x64
That autodetected to Ultra, but there is no way that's giving a pleasant gaming experience when the screen is full of Kleers. I pulled back to High settings all around, and got a much smoother result, and honestly I don't see a terribly large sacrifice in visual quality. The biggest difference is turning the GPU memory settings from Ultra to High, and that just made everything look a bit less bright.
I'd just like to say, though, that I am fully impressed with the range of customizable graphical options that are tweakable. Props to Croteam for making those options available to PC gamers on release (I'm narrowing my eyes at you, Crytek). The lack of an FOV option is puzzling in the face of the bevy of other options, but the console command to change it is easy to access, fortunately.
I admit I'm no expert on firewalls, but if you want to to inquire deeper about the issue, you can stop by the Computer Security Thread. I'll admit the discussion has died down recently, but the OP still has some workable links to Firewall options, as well as an article on configuring the Vista/7 firewall for outbound protection.
I'm kinda bummed how little talk there is about it
Raptr profile
Yeah, this game is awesome, it deserves more fanfare.
Those cyborg soldiers are more fun than annoying once you start getting a good amount of AR ammo.
Croteam knocked this one out of the park, it's a magnificent sequel. Once you're a few levels in, there can be no doubt that this is every bit Serious Sam, heart and soul. I hope this game does really well for them, they deserve it.
It's madness.
I haven't played a game that made me feel like such a total badass like this since the original FEAR.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/idolninja
How far in are you?
The part that was most frustrating to me was near the beginning of The Silent Riddler (right after Under The Iron Cloud, which was at least as difficult, but in a much more fun way I thought). Specifically:
I'm a few levels past that by now and it's no big deal. That part just had me frustrated and wondering who designed the helicopter as something to fight in the midst of other formidable enemies - if you list its mechanics out does it really look like fun to anyone?
I'm maybe 7 or 8 levels in? I just finished the first major section of the game before you go to a whole new area.
I thought the part you referenced in the spoiler was awesome fun. I am playing on Normal diff though.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/idolninja
A lot of that difficulty might be because the secrets are actually secret again, though :oops:
Sometimes things just don't work out on certain playthroughs - perhaps I should've just restarted the level since it was so close to the beginning. What I actually did was a whole lot of "quicksave every five seconds you've done damage without taking damage" which can remove the smile from my face pretty quickly.
The game did a fine job of putting it back on though (pretty sure we're on the same level from what you described). Any time I get to a crate of C4 I go wild. If it's within throwing distance of a monkey-infested grid of crumbly columns, then so much the better. The minigun is exactly what it should be too. I love that they made it tear up the little guys like never before, without also making it the best weapon for everything else like it often was in the encounters. I think including the Devastator did a lot to balance that out, although I hope the old grenade launcher wasn't totally scrapped (expecting that it was though).
No, you can calm down and put the pitchfork away - I'm talking about playing split-screen here, not about abandoning my trusty mouse!
My first though was, "whoever designed this deserves a congratulatory kick in the beanbag."
The laser & sniper rifles are not really in the game, which is a bummer. They're hidden secrets, but you won't get much ammo for them. They shouldn't have been in the weapons trailer.
I'm looking forward to replaying the game. I really liked the city environments, and would've liked to see a couple of them mixed in later.
One thing that sucks, though - that final level. Good lord, what a grind. The boss was kinda trash too. If it wasn't for the Netricsa intel, I would probably still be trying to figure out what the fuck to do there. I mean, really-
A few less dark crypt sections would've been nice, and the finale can eat a dick, but aside from that, SS3 really has some of the best FPS level design that's ever been done. Hell of a game, superb fun.
Just for all of you who, like me, tried to play the game while full of Turkey, and were greeted with that disappointing error!
Seriously though, SS3 is the sequel that SS2 wished it was.
EDIT: Just a quick note to anyone having a bit of difficulty with optimization of the game. It seems it's much more CPU intensive than most other games out there. Setting CPU performance to "Low" lets me put all graphical options to "Ultra", and get a smooth framerate with little visual sacrifice.
Alright so, I guess first thing to figure out is what time we should all get on. Second thing is that there's a problem with the in-game voice com and it doesn't work as of a few months ago. We'll have to use steam's integrated voice chat function in a big ol chatroom for the night. Maybe we'll use the Penny Arcade group?
Twitter: busfahrer -- Quake Live: busfahrer -- StarCraft II: busfahrer.184 (EU)
Sure, I didn't even know Steam had integrated voice chat. But I'll probably find it
Twitter: busfahrer -- Quake Live: busfahrer -- StarCraft II: busfahrer.184 (EU)
Though, I have to wonder. Will I be able to RUN multiplayer, since there are many more enemies, which means many more polygons to render. Hmmm. Maybe if I put everything on low.
Man I didn't even think about G&T Adventure Team, that'd be a pretty good group to use so we could announce it to the group at large as we're starting! I think several of us who are playing have !op there and would be able to.
...Wait, no. That's absurdly awesome too. nevermind!
Twitter: busfahrer -- Quake Live: busfahrer -- StarCraft II: busfahrer.184 (EU)
Twitter: busfahrer -- Quake Live: busfahrer -- StarCraft II: busfahrer.184 (EU)
Also, just for reference, since I'm not usually doing this kinda thing, hitting "Start voice chat" in the group chat pannel is what I need to do to get into the voice chat, right?
We had a serious crew for a good run. I got seriously tired after about two hours of awesome though. Fucking excellent times as always.