Official PC Thread

[Frogacuda]

Oh boo hoo. Some chunky pixels never hurt no one.

[epmode]

I agree when it's a 2D game. 3D games can always benefit from a higher resolution. And they don't even require new assets or anything!

But maybe I've been spoiled by the open source awesome of Freespace 2.

note: There's no way in hell I won't buy the game. I would just kill for a high-res version is all.

[nameless_one]

The new steam deals are up. The only one that looks truly tempting is Serious Sam HD for 10 bucks. l4d2 at 34 is just not cheap enough.

[koda]

Of course the id pack goes on super-sale after I just bought it.

[nameless_one]

I picked up Gratuitous Space Battles the other day and now it's 50 percent off. Not as bad of a loss as the id super pack though.

[epmode]

Of course the id pack goes on super-sale after I just bought it.

Something similar happened to me a few months ago. Complain in a support ticket and they may refund the difference.

[Tain]

Outrun 2 for $2.50.

How can you not?

[James]

Finally, Finally! I can now put up Serious Sam HD with a feeling of accomplishment. Beat it on Serious difficulty at long last, and now I can walk away at last. Damn that feels good.

James

[bVork]

Outrun 2 for $2.50.

How can you not?

Because it isn't OutRun 2. It's the mutant bastard offspring with retardedly redone handling and a terrible progression system.

[Yoshi]

Changeling had asked for impressions of my new 3D set up in the haul thread. Now that I have played a few games with it, I'll oblige here. Please keep in mind these are impressions based on roughly two hours of gameplay, so they are still early.

For background, I got the ViewSonic VX2265wm monitor and the nVidia 3D Vision kit. I had read previously that the similar Samsung monitor had more lag compared to a CRT than the ViewSonic.

I have been a fan of 3D since getting red and blue glasses at 7-11 to watch Creature from the Black Lagoon on TV in the early 1980s. To be honest, I somewhat expected similar gimmick effects from 3D Vision. I was wrong. Unlike red and blue (technical term) 3D, stereoscopic 3D works by alternately (and unnoticeably) shuttering each eye lens. In fact, the set up involved looking at a static image with each eye closed and choosing what you see, and it's quite different.

I have played three games with it so far: Tomb Raider: Underworld, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and World of WarCraft. The performance across all three is similar, as Batman and WoW actually acknowledge 3D Vision support in the options, and Tomb Raider is rated as "Excellent" for its support from nVidia. In all, 365+ games are documented as being supported. One very cool feature is that when you launch a game, it defaults to tell you in green font at the lower right the level of support and any options necessary to improve the performance, e.g. turning off the reticle in Tomb Raider. You can toggle this message on and off with Ctrl-Alt-Insert.

3D Vision gives "true" depth to the games. Basically, the HUD appears to hover in front of the screen. The main character seems to be at screen depth. Everything else (unless it's on the same plane as the character) is at varying depths in the background. I think games with minimal HUDs, such as Batman, will look the best. WoW's bars are somewhat distracting, although that could be because I am not used to it. I spent the most time with Batman, and I had no trouble at all playing the game normally. In other words, in a melee game like that, it was obvious where enemies were in relation to Batman, which is obviously hugely important.

I haven't tried a FPS yet, so I will update people if they are interested on anything different from that perspective.