I have the boxed version sitting her right now. The recommended specs include a quad core q6600 or higher, 2GB ram and a 512MB 8600GT or better. The interesting thing is they are asking for service pack 3. I didn't know it had any kind of non security enhancements in it. It does chuff up some software I need from time to time, so I won't be installing it anytime soon.
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
Like the vast majority of PC games, it auto-calculates its graphic settings. Unlike the vast majority of PC games, which generally underestimate what your PC can manage for the logical reason that a less-attractive game is less annoying than a less-playable one, its auto-calculation is more than a little optimistic. I had to knock down the default graphic options quite a bit on my PC (dual-core 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, 640MB GeForce 8800) until I got an acceptable rate, and even then there was the occasional really nasty drop. While my experience was more pronounced than most, speaking to other reviewers via the secret review-grapevine lead to confirmation that fiddling to get it playable was universal.
This is also pretty commonplace.
That said, it's worth noting that even turned down, Liberty City remains one of the most visually stunning places yet seen in videogames.
Looks like the problem was the shadow quality. It was set to 3, so I put it to 1. The game is now playable and I don't have to have shitty quality textures. Only downside is that shadows are a bit fuzzy.
Neva on
SC2 Beta: Neva.ling
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
Shadows are usually the first thing I will turn back or off. It is a bit jarring without any, but low quality is hardly distracting when you are actually playing and not just looking to nitpick. Nice to know that has a good effect.
The issue isn't so much that the game's a process hog, but the fact that they've allowed the home user to really ramp things up WAY beyond what the 360 version was managing. Traffic density for example, can be set up to the full 100, but on the 360 the default was 20. Similar with the aforementioned shadowing, draw distance, and a whole host of other variables.
I think it's more that you need to spend a bit of time tweaking things until you find the max settings you can run whilst having a smooth framerate. Problem is, the average user won't know what that's really all about, and the high end user is used to literally maxing out every game they play, so the natural response is going to be that it runs crap. That's sort of the case, but only because you'd need a machine several years into the future to run it with everything maxed out.
As it stands, from what I've heard you can still get at least a 360 or beyond level of graphics on a good modern spec system. I expect to see tweaking guides popping up in a few days, when taxing games crop up, usually sites llike Tweak3D run guides on the best ways to get the most out of the game..
I hope this runs okay on my rig because I'm pulling it down now. On Steam that is.
So, I knew a few guys who completely planned to torrent this the day it came out. It came out a day early that way, so everyone started. But they're not even a quarter of the way through now. Or rather the one guy who's still trying to torrent isn't. Everyone else has bought it on Steam.
Steam is the best thing ever because it discourages piracy by making it quicker and easier to pay money for the product.
I haven't managed to start it up yet, since I'm still downloading an update for Games for Windows Live, but the one thing that strikes me is how similar the Social Club app is to Steam. The login prompt looks almost the same, and the notification that comes up when you first minimize it to tray is identical, but with a different icon and colour scheme.
Does getting the game through Steam avoid needing Social Club?
I detest internet signups to play games, though if I'm going to have to do it I'd rather Steam to Rockstar's.
The video editor is really really fun and makes up for a lot of the pain caused by trying to install and run this properly.
Edit: Also, if you play around with the video settings long enough, you'll get something that looks great {besides shadows}, and runs well. If you have somewhat decent machine anyways.
Neva on
SC2 Beta: Neva.ling
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
edit: Also youtube gives 74,100 results for "linkin park amv".
Neva on
SC2 Beta: Neva.ling
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
I'm glad the PC version is out. I know sure as heck it won't run on my macbook or old pc, but it will be a pleasure having fresh videos to watch. I've watched more gta IV youtubes than I think is normal. And with stuff like Burgatory and The choice, I think i will be in for a greater treat as some real quality vids come out. I can't wait to see what gets cooked up.
EDIT: I think this one is my new favorite. Exploder IV
I'm glad the PC version is out. I know sure as heck it won't run on my macbook or old pc, but it will be a pleasure having fresh videos to watch. I've watched more gta IV youtubes than I think is normal. And with stuff like Burgatory and The choice, I think i will be in for a greater treat as some real quality vids come out. I can't wait to see what gets cooked up.
I think the video editor combined with Multiplayer and spawn commands is going to allow for some good stuff. Assuming you can wade through the crap first.
And now in a move that makes no freaking sense AT ALL, GTA 4 for PC has been passed by Australia's classification board with a 15 rating and no cuts. It's literally the same version that everyone else got.
The reason this makes no sense is because the console version was cut in Australia on release in order to meet the 15 rating standards. I have no understanding of why this version's different, but what the hey, at least people can buy the same version as everyone else now.
This stops the game installing any further. Oh fun.
The link also does nothing when clicked.
That was making me soooo mad this morning. Update to service pack 1 if your on vista, or pack 3 on XP.
Neva on
SC2 Beta: Neva.ling
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
Hmm, I didn't have much issues running it, but I have a Q9300 quad-core with a Radeon 4870.
EDIT: Ran at 1680 by 1050, using the settings the game gave me, but with Render Quality turned to Highest.
The game has a neat "resource usage" metre in the graphics settings though, which I'm guessing is showing how much of your GPU's memory it's using; my card has 512 MB, and the metre tops out at about 499. Because of that, the game doesn't let me switch texture quality up beyond medium, but things still look pretty OK.
(I had some choppiness here and there, but it wasn't really noticeable.)
Oh wait, there was one bit that was a bit odd. I'll spoiler it just in case, but it's fairly early in the game.
When I went to get Michelle, the series of cutscenes showing the things you can do with your date/friends were split up by loading screens.
As in, imagine that Sonic 2006 game. It was kind of like that: the game displayed maybe 5 seconds of a scene, with the overlay tooltip text, then faded into a loading screen for a minute or two, then the next scene.
Everything else was fine, though. I was surprised that I could enter and exit buildings without loading anything; too used to San Andreas in that respect.
Either multiplayer is broken, or not many people are playing yet. Hopefully it will be full tomorrow.
Neva on
SC2 Beta: Neva.ling
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
The game looks worse than GTA3 at 1280x1024 and runs worse too. It's a shockingly lazy port, to say nothing of constant needing to use the keyboard in menus and very slow mouse acceleration.
Posts
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
so much for being excited
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
I think it's more that you need to spend a bit of time tweaking things until you find the max settings you can run whilst having a smooth framerate. Problem is, the average user won't know what that's really all about, and the high end user is used to literally maxing out every game they play, so the natural response is going to be that it runs crap. That's sort of the case, but only because you'd need a machine several years into the future to run it with everything maxed out.
As it stands, from what I've heard you can still get at least a 360 or beyond level of graphics on a good modern spec system. I expect to see tweaking guides popping up in a few days, when taxing games crop up, usually sites llike Tweak3D run guides on the best ways to get the most out of the game..
I need some people to Free Play with.
EDIT: That's on PC, sorry.
So, I knew a few guys who completely planned to torrent this the day it came out. It came out a day early that way, so everyone started. But they're not even a quarter of the way through now. Or rather the one guy who's still trying to torrent isn't. Everyone else has bought it on Steam.
Steam is the best thing ever because it discourages piracy by making it quicker and easier to pay money for the product.
It makes me happy.
I'd be down yo. I want to find this swingset.
Gamertag is Joeslop.
EDIT: I have to get this NXE thing installed first it seems.
Ayliana Moonwhisper Ecksus Cerazal
Does getting the game through Steam avoid needing Social Club?
I detest internet signups to play games, though if I'm going to have to do it I'd rather Steam to Rockstar's.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
EDIT: This glitch is the greatest. I've never been able to get cars this trashed but have them still drivable.
Ayliana Moonwhisper Ecksus Cerazal
Edit: Also, if you play around with the video settings long enough, you'll get something that looks great {besides shadows}, and runs well. If you have somewhat decent machine anyways.
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
So true.
Average FPS: 29.89
Duration: 37.24 sec
CPU Usage: 80%
System memory usage: 57%
Video memory usage: 92%
Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1440 x 900 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Render Quality: High
View Distance: 25
Detail Distance: 37
Ouch. Looks like I need to fool with some settings to see how much I can squeeze out and still have it look decent. For reference:
E6600, 3GB RAM, 512MB 8800GT, X-FI, etc...
Whilst that's cool, every time I hear about the video editor, I already know what about 90% of the videos coming form this are going to be.
1- Take your first 5 recorded action sequences
2- String them together in order
3- Set them to "In The End" by Linkin Park
Or have the kids moved on from Linkin Park these days?
CRAAWWWLLING IIIIN MY SKIIIIINN!!!!
I made a video.
edit: Also youtube gives 74,100 results for "linkin park amv".
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
EDIT: I think this one is my new favorite.
Exploder IV
I think the video editor combined with Multiplayer and spawn commands is going to allow for some good stuff. Assuming you can wade through the crap first.
http://au.gamespot.com/news/6201744.html?part=rss&tag=gs_news&subj=6201744
The reason this makes no sense is because the console version was cut in Australia on release in order to meet the 15 rating standards. I have no understanding of why this version's different, but what the hey, at least people can buy the same version as everyone else now.
This stops the game installing any further. Oh fun.
The link also does nothing when clicked.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
That was making me soooo mad this morning. Update to service pack 1 if your on vista, or pack 3 on XP.
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
Thank you so very, very much. SP1 for Vista isn't installed on this machine, so that must be what's causing it.
Goddamn cryptic error messages.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
%P
CRITICAL ERROR: 4MNO
That was great.
MUST CHECK WHAT? MUST CHECK WHAT?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??!?!
And that children, is when LaCabra went insane.
EDIT: Ran at 1680 by 1050, using the settings the game gave me, but with Render Quality turned to Highest.
The game has a neat "resource usage" metre in the graphics settings though, which I'm guessing is showing how much of your GPU's memory it's using; my card has 512 MB, and the metre tops out at about 499. Because of that, the game doesn't let me switch texture quality up beyond medium, but things still look pretty OK.
(I had some choppiness here and there, but it wasn't really noticeable.)
Oh wait, there was one bit that was a bit odd. I'll spoiler it just in case, but it's fairly early in the game.
As in, imagine that Sonic 2006 game. It was kind of like that: the game displayed maybe 5 seconds of a scene, with the overlay tooltip text, then faded into a loading screen for a minute or two, then the next scene.
Everything else was fine, though. I was surprised that I could enter and exit buildings without loading anything; too used to San Andreas in that respect.
I don't know if they can top that, it way too awesome.
Sad about the performance though.
Either multiplayer is broken, or not many people are playing yet. Hopefully it will be full tomorrow.
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
On startup. Can't even access the main menu.
I am regretting this purchase right about now.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=378764 has the answer, it looks like.
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
Thanks. Site's now bookmarked for any future perusal.
Never had a game give me this much grief before
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
You've never played STALKER have you
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
I've played it quite a bit. I seem to have been extraordinarily lucky with it.
Wonderfully, it seems that an error is still occuring at startup. But a different one! With no error message!
God does not want me to play this game.
Edit: It randomly decided to stop throwing errors at me. Hooray!
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DD7f3MROMA
The game looks worse than GTA3 at 1280x1024 and runs worse too. It's a shockingly lazy port, to say nothing of constant needing to use the keyboard in menus and very slow mouse acceleration.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.