Why won't black and white 2 work on my PC?

Casual

Its like this, my PC should in theory be able to shit all over this game. The specs are way past the recommended levels yet when I play it the second you get more than 20 people on the screen it slows down to almost a complete stop.

System lab analysis below spoilerd for size, any help would be greatly appreciated I REALLY want to play this game! I should add that any technical solutions will have to be laid out in idiot language for me as my technical skills or poor/non-existent.

CPU
Recommended: Pentium 4 or Athlon XP
You Have: 2 processors running - AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+
PASS

CPU Speed
Recommended: 2.2 GHz
You Have: 2.01 GHz Performance Rated at 5.70 GHz
PASS

System RAM
Recommended: 1 GB
You Have: 1023 MB
PASS

Operating System
Recommended: Windows 2000/XP
You Have: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Build Service Pack 22600)
PASS

Video Card
Recommended: 128 MB 3D video card with Pixel Shader version 2.0 (NVIDIA GeForce FX+ / ATI Radeon 9500+)
You Have: Radeon X1300/X1550 Series (ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x7187))
PASS

Video Card Features - Minimum attributes of your Video Card

Video RAM: Required - 128 MB , You have - 512 MB
Video Card 3D Acceleration: Required - Yes , You have - Yes
Vertex Shader Ver.: Required - 2.0 , You have - 3.0
Pixel Shader Ver.: Required - 2.0 , You have - 3.0

Video Card Driver Version (DirectX)
Your driver version number is: 6.14.10.6783
FYI: Your video card driver version is provided for your information, but it is not part of this analysis. But proper video card driver versions are important to the proper operation of your product.
DirectX Version
Recommended: 9.0c (included)
You Have: 9.0c
PASS

Sound Card
Recommended: Yes
You Have: SB Audigy 2 Audio [9000]
PASS

Sound Card Driver Version
Your driver version number is: 5.10
FYI: Your sound card driver version is provided for your information, but it is not part of this analysis. But proper sound card driver versions are important to the proper operation of your product.
Free Disk Space
Recommended: 3.5 GB
You Have: 72.7 GB
PASS

CD
Recommended: 8X Speed CD or DVD-ROM (This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some CD/DVD-ROM, CD/DVD-RW and virtual drives.)
You Have: BENQ DVD DC DW1670
PASS, but the Speed could NOT be analyzed.

Rook

I don't actually think the X1300/X1550 is that much better than a 9500. So in effect, you're not really better than the recommended spec, so if you've gone and upped every graphics option to max, you might want to tone it down.

Casual

That's the thing, it isn't set to max. I've put everything down to minimum but it still isn't runnable, were talking about 1 frame every 20 seconds here.

Earthenrock

Black and white 2 is still a demanding game even though its been out for quite some time now, (a little over a year I think?)

Check out lionhead studios and see if they have a patch for the game. I'd also try re-installing.

Casual

Its a weird game reinstalling doesn't help, and I've only come across one computer that can run it (a really powerful VAIO entertainment PC). This makes me think maybe the specs on the back of the box are a load of shit and I do just need a really powerful computer to run it.

MisterGrok

Are you running on a laptop?

Casual

No its a desktop.

corcorigan

Updated drivers?

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

Yeah, B+W 2 seems to run horribly, if you have Vista, it might be a crazy mumbojumbo hoodoo reaction causing it, which means look for a vista-patch. After NWN got patched, I could run it on my laptop, whereas before, it was 1 frame per 20 sec. :x

Casual

Strangly enough my dads computer which uses vista runs it great, my computer uses xp. The drivers are up to date because I had to reinstall all of them when I replaced my hard drive. I'll try the patch for it when I get home.