Janmanden

I haven't seen any adventure game series, that I liked, make a succesful turn from isometric to the world of 1st or 3rd person 3D. Somehow the blurry world of 3D effects haven't been mixing well with the need for and attention to detail that often rules adventure games. Not to mention the horrible controls that replaced the point-n-click adventure style. After futile attempts to play Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine and Gabriel Knight 3, I completely lost interest. It's been a long time. I'm glad to see that Broken Sword 4 intends to rectify the mistakes of BS3 and add support for the old-school as well. It's a nice read. I'm definitely going to try it.

I'd like to think that Troika tried to pull off both ToEE and Bloodlines at the same time and that all the techies went into ToEE and all the creative minds into Bloodlines. Along the line of what ToEE lacks in content, Bloodlines lacks in mechanics, which has also been the emphasis more or less of the initial reviews. ToEE definitely lacks a LOT more than Bloodlines. That aside, Troika was also way to relaxed about the hardware requirement, it should really have read 1GB RAM requirement as it's way to buggy with 512MB. I've played thru Bloodlines 1.0 with 1GB RAM several times with only the ONE (Johansen Rescue) gamestopper to mar an otherwise solid experience. Not to mention that it also loads faster than HL2 itself. I guess life is hard for an independent game developer that doesn't have BioWare or LucasArts to watch their backs...

I got sick of it quick. The story/characters sucked and the combat was absolutely horrid. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hmmm.. I guess I won't rush to get into it then. Thank you for the insight <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hm, Netscape is teasing me. Well... I can easily understand the initial impression, but I disagree in the long run. First time I played Redemption I got totally fed up with controls and camera angles after two hours, but a few weeks later when I was very bored I gave it a second shot and it's actually pretty good. It's a much different experience than Bloodlines... it's a actually more like uh, Knights of the Old Republic without lightsabers, sith, dialog options and AI. No force powers but lots of disciplines and with some extra you can add along the way depending on your actions and humanity rating... but I did actually miss the old armor in LA. There are some mistakes you can do, but if you avoid them and adapt it's gonna be fine.

I've completed the game twice unpatched (only had to use the console once, each time). First with a Brujah, which was a rather numb experience in comparison to the hilarious Malkavian. Got two other games started after I patched it a few months ago. One with a Nosferatu, which has gotten to Hollywood. The nossie has surprised me a couple of times with bursts of laughter and tears of joy... and the other a Tremere, because I'm really curious about the blood magic, which has proven quite powerful so far. Haven't played it much after I patched it, kinda miss the option to bind the use key to the right mouse button. A month ago I gave a copy away (it's back in stores and cheap, so spread it!) to an old friend. He was thrilled right away and while I explained some things to him he dug up some content I've never seen before... I'm giving the game a rest, so I won't spoil it for myself. Just finished hl2. At least there is ONE good game based on that engine and it's not hl2. I envy you. I didn't feel a thing when I played Deus Ex. Edit: Oh, btw: Bloodlines Unofficial patch 2.3 from PlanetVampire Install Bloodlines Patch with Official 1.2 Unzip content of Unofficial 2.3 from 'Vampire -Bloodlines' folder

Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. I played the demo of Lionheart and then the retail as well. Not all bad, but easily very messy in combat unless you practice a little caution. And while the demo is quite limited it's actually very identical in features and interface. If you play the demo first you can actually export/import that char into the retail version or another run of the demo... I didn't encounter any game stopping bugs, but then I've also completed Vampire: Bloodlines several times unpatched (just need the console for the Johansen rescue). Fallout: Tactics works extremely well, some might claim so well that it can play itself, but it's really nice to be able to switch between turn-based and some form of real-time combat.

"Anachronox: Lengthy JRPG-type for the PC. A bit old but still pretty and a lot of fun. Built with the Q3 engine if I remember correctly." Incredibly boring and ugly game, really yawn-inspiring *yawn* the though alone *hum*. Compared to that even that subpar ROMD: Pool of Radiance II is exiting.

Hm... Is it an EZ edition, that 9600 PRO you have? I have an ATi 9600, that was supposed to be a ATi 9600 PRO, but it was causing me no end of troubles on Win XP even though it worked flawlessly on Win98. It turned out to be similar to the european version of the PowerColor Radeon 9600 EZ, which happened to be a very faulty version...and so is mine.

Excerpt from http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-011910.htm

The first and only game that caused me to upgrade was Master of Magic in 1994. The game required a 1 MB SVGA card to run, which my onboard vga didn't have. I didn't pay any attention to the brand I just needed a 1 MB VGA card - and cheap. Even though I had been bottlenecked in a lot of areas it was actually a game that made me upgrade. Pretty funny, no? I think so. 1994 Cirrus Logic GD-5426 1 MB (VLB) 1997 Tseng Labs ET6000 2MB (PCI) 1998 + 3D-Addon 3Dfx Voodoo 4MB (PCI) 2000 3Dfx Voodoo 3 16MB (AGP) 2002 Nvidia Geforce 2 PRO 64MB (AGP) 2004 ATi 9600 128MB (AGP) 2005 ATi 9600 PRO 128MB (AGP) 2006 Nvidia 6800 XT 128MB (AGP) The purchase of that (1) Cirrus Logic also marked the start of my pc home building experience. My pc of that time, the AST Bravo 386SX/33, 4 MB ram and 110MB HDD desktop was completely outdated, even by the time I got it, a year ealier (then it only had 2 MB ram). I didn't stop to notice the sockets of either VGA or motherboard before purchase of (1) and that AST only had ISA and the coating inside the AST desktop nearly fried my new motherboard, which I got subsequently (a VLB motherboard with a 486DX4 100MHz (Vesa Local Bus)).

Well, uh.. Why don't you make an Obsidian Forum Community Active Desktop.. replace 'Login' with Login, 'start' with Forum top level, 'run' with post... and before you finish make a Disk Obsidian System a.k.a. DOS. Uh... wasn't there a Fallout Windows Theme once? Not sure how a corporate theme would go, but I think that specific game themes would be nice, even though that may in fact be an infringement on LucasArts or other publishers rights.

I guess you are probably a reasonable guy, hypothetically speaking, that wants a solid performer, that doesn't sound like a busy airport or a power bill that blows your cost skyhigh... in which case I can't help you. Considering recommended specs on games and software you'd like to play and reviews and debate of proven tech... well I got a friend with 64 bit everything of this and that and the one or two games that do run works fine, but he's rather limited due to lack of drivers etc as to the rest. Of course if you plan to spend the rest of your life 24x7x365 in front of your pc, then go berzerk, but I guess your wife would gladly settle for less...

Well, uh, as the Tech forum description goes: It's kinda read-only...

Weird posting issues, testing 1..2..3... On topic: anything you can't handle is bad for you. I can handle both - as long as I don't try to drive or walk a straight line outside the box, but I don't do alcohol or drugs alone or outside gatherings or parties and never regularly. I'm not sure I really have any of these limits, but this is just the pattern I match.

Maybe it will, maybe it won't. You can see for yourself how many replies you've got to this thread... I only replied, because it reminded me of a problem I once had, which turned out to be faulty hardware. Omega drivers helped me for awhile until even that wasn't enough. I use that ATi card in a secondary system of mine that runs Win98 without any problems. For some odd reason that card wasn't really compatible with Win XP, apparently. The closest thing I've found is here at Connect3D,. which suggests reflashing the card to 9550 or return it to the vendor for a replacement. I guess it boils down to: Try Omega drivers Reflash 9550 Replace it

Been looking over someone with similiar problems and it reminded me about my own hardware related problems with an ATi Radeon 9600 EZ I had once. I can see there's a warning in your sysinfo on the status of the card. If you go to display properties -> advanced -> adapter (not device manager) is your card present or does it say VgaSave? Back then I solved my problems by using Omega drivers, which seemed like the only alternative to flashing after the warranty expired.

Picking up on what Moose suggested. Just get a wave recorder running and set the sound recording option to record "what you hear" and then start playing. You'll get some memorable soundtracks (with swords ands battlecries) that'll shed a tear to your eye everytime you listen to i...

Lol. I was about to correct you like a smartass. Then I realised. :"> <{POST_SNAPBACK}> From one smartass to another: I WAS getting a little nervous, but you completely restored my faith, at least some good came of this... THANK YOU Bastila

Well, this is a S3G Unichrome IGP and not a gaming card like the GF2 once was and still is compared to this (I had a GF2 GTS PRO too). I don't see any mention of added OpenGL support beyond 1.2 in those driver links either. And even if an OpenGL 1.4 for S3G can be found it doesn't add hardware T&L... I have no doubt that it will be a very poor experience.

Well in K1, I really enjoyed her company on Korriban, there she was everything I desired.

That's OpenGL VERSION 1.2 "...your computer hardware must be OpenGL 1.4 and DirectX 9.0c compatible..." and it isn't, so unless he'll be able to emulate 1.4 or higher thru software I doubt that'll work. Edit: Also from Minimum System Requirement: Graphics Card: 32 MB OpenGL 1.4 compatible AGP or PCX 3D Graphics card with Hardware Transform and Lighting (T&L) Capability required.

Invisible and mute...

VIA/S3G UniChrome Pro IGP wasn't designed for 3D gaming (no shaders or hardware T&L and only 2 pixel pibelines). Performance is like or less than Gf2 MX or ATi 7000 and neither of those cards are supported in K1 or K2. Since Integrated Graphics are integrated into the chipset you need to flash the whole thing to get hardware support. The only thing that might help is trying out Scitech GLDirect 5.0Scitech's GL Direct and see if you can emulate it thru software. I think you need to get a real 3D graphics card or go back to playing hearts or freecell. You could probably find a Geforce 6200 AGP 8x card for the same price as a new pc game.

You need a quest to be questing. From the start, go get it and follow the trace as it plays out.

The black screen of death is often a sign of buggy drivers, make sure you have the latest and the greatest for your graphics card.

Not to mention... actually skip that since that's what I do, that your vid card also seems to be using shared memory and it's not like you have a lot of that either (warning). I doubt, even if you do manage to get it to run, that it will be a particularly satisfying experience. Get yourself a real graphics card. It doesn't have to be the latest or greatest, nearly anything would actually be an improvement compared to that Unichrome S3 integrated graphics solution you have there.