Flockheart

Ran HalfLife2 earlier, Steam was 'working' a few days ago so I'm assuming it was downloading the update, is there anyway to tell if it has? The game stuttering seems to have changed but it's not gone. When a game loads or a new section loads the stuttering is awful, worse than it was before and though it seems slightly reduced when your playing it's still present and still annoying. It's a real shame as it's putting me off playing all they way through the game, I played a bit more this afternoon but the stuttering was ruining all the NPC character speech. After being wowed when I first saw Half-Life 2 I'm really dissapointed that Valve still havn't been able to fix this problem especially as it seems to be affecting so many people.

I'm 99% sure I read that Maya models are one of the formats supported.

I agree with Squirtle, 500 quid will easily get it running smoothly and looking pretty.

Alot of people have been worried about HL2 system specs but unlike Doom3 HalfLife2 really doesn't need a killer spec PC to run, if your PC meets the minimum specs (which are far from Killer ): * Windows 98/ME/2000/XP * 1.2GHz processor * 256MB RAM * DirectX 7.0 compatible graphics card * 4.5GB free hard disk space * DVD-ROM drive * An active Internet connection it'll run fine (though 512MB of RAM's probably a good idea ), and to be honest it still looks gorgeous at normal detail. I think the problem has been seeing doom3 need a stupidly fast pc to run well but HalfLife2 simply looks better and runs faster on much lower specs. I was quite suprised to find the Source engine to be better than Doom3's as Id usually rule the roost when it comes to this sort of thing.

I had a quick look at it this morning Matt, backgrounds been added since the last time I saw it but I agree with everyone that I don't think it's up to the "employ me" standard yet. The scrolling mist in the background was pretty cool but could you use an animated tile as well as scrolling it? Would help make the mist look like it was swirling and would improve the look of the demo in my opinion. Obvious next step is to get the collision detection working with the backround so you can traverse the terrain and start adding some enemies. Good luck with it...your encouraging me to do some more work on my portfolio tonight

Not seen the XBox version running but to be honest I don't reckon they'll be any difference performance wise is is an older game after all. I reckon that the PS2 version may look a bit better because of the better RGB out. It's nice seeing the game running sharp on a big tv though, I've only ever seen the roms running on my PC monitor, but on a larger screen you really get to appreciate the quality of the graphics and animation

PS2 Versions pretty much identical with the XBox one, only thing lacking are the online scoreboards. I plumped for a PS2 version because it was out earlier, I don't have Live and the RGB out on the PS2 is better

Yup I've been playing the PS2 version and it's a decent conversion and the animation is as lovely as it should be, there a bit of discussion on this game in the Metal Slug Advance thread IIRC. 3 is the best in the series IMO nad it's nice to be able to buy an affordable copy of the game after enjoying the roms for years. Theres a couple of added bonus games on completion, Fat Island & Storming the UFO Mother Ship and the game runs in 60hz. The XBox version also features online scoreboards via Live. Hopefully a enough folk will pick this up to encourage Ignition to release the rest of the series (I believe Japan has already had a Metal Slug 4/5 combo pack on the PS2).

Anyone with the PS2 version had a read through the terribly/charmingly translated manual. And so on throughout the entire manual

The XBox version was meant to be out but no one appears to have stock, it IS out on the PS2 and I picked up a copy at lunch time. I've emailed Simply games telling them to cancel my XBox preorder but havn't had a reply yet. In my estimation I don't reckon we'll see Metal Slug Advance till December

Yup ages ago.

Thought it was only out on the XBox here?

Thought summer 2005 was the word on the street?

Hey I like the life bar , I think it worked well in Metal Slug 1st & 2nd Mission and it works well here. The one hit die mechanic of the origional arcade games worked well for helping the machines guzzle up coins but I do prefer the health bar in the portable versions. Have you got a proper cart or are you running on a flash card? Whats the slowdown like on real hardware or is there none? Don't get me wrong I was well impressed with this even with it not running perfectly on the emulator. Just wondering when the PAL release will be now though...

Theres nothing in the manual about going online then? Maybe just try clicking the online mode in WRC04 and see if it has the connection software built in. Don't think Sony would include the ethernet adapter then give you no way to actually connect with it?

The rom has finally appeared on the net and I've just had a quick blast on it. Appears to be very good, seemed to be some slowdown but I think some of the problem could be to do with the emulation rather than the game (the sound started messing up sllightly as the emulator appeared to be struggling in places). Graphics look a little different to the previous games, hard to describe, they'res a bit less going on so they sorta look a bit more streamlined. Sound seemed very good, big explosions and faster music than in the origional games that seems to up the pace a bit. As with the NGPocket versions your soldier has a health bar rather than one hit and dead - i think this is a good think for the home conversions. Initial impressions lead me to believe this could be one of the best games on the GBA but I'll have to play a bit more till I commit to that, and see it running on the proper hardware. Anyways you can preorder from Simply Games for the bargain price of about 13 quid

I have the old PS2 with the network adapter, I pretty much just had to hook up the network adapter and run the disc that came with it that lets you register (you pick a tag and stuff but you don't need to enter any credit/bank details). I'm assuming that the network setup disc came with your new PS2 or is on it's demo disc or something? After you've registered and saved the network settings to the memory card just click on online in WRC04, it'll ask for your tag & password then you're away.

Have you tried this online yet Squirtle? I had a few games online last night and at the moment I'm shockingly bad at the game was 237th in the world rankings with a measly couple of points after trawling in in last in a few events. Hopefully will get a few more games in tonight and start improving a bit. Maybe we can organise a Rllmuk race one evening so I can get hammered by everyone playing from here too I agree with you that having the Super 1600 cars locked at the start is very daft indeed, I was really suprised when I saw the 1600 grey out, I initially (until I noticed the unlock bit) thought wtf I have to finish the hard rallys before I get the easier one?

Shocking . Though the gearstick as a handbrake is a nice option, cheers for checking for me. Gonna hopefully get a bit more time on the game this week in time for the upcoming online competition, was a bit dissapointed when I went online with it this weekend...nothing but 20 French folk... What parts did you work on by the way Rushy, would be interesting for some more targetted critism...sorry 'praise'?

Cheers

Oie Rushy!!! Any help with the questions I asked about the Driving Force Pro a few posts back as you worked on the game and mentioned that it was the best way to play it, main problem seems to be the game switching it to driving force mode?! Cheers

Got a chance to play the game briefly this afternoon. It actually felt pretty arcadey (I've probably spent too much time on Richard Burns recently) but seemed good fun. The graphics are ok, but the popup in the replays does look a bit dodgy. The presentation is pretty good but the music really annoys me I have a question about the steering wheel set up though, I have a Driving Force Pro which the game says it supports but it switches the wheel to the orgional Driving Force mode automatically when running the game. Even when selecting the driving force pro option in the controller setup the wheel still remains in the normal driving force mode. I'm not sure of the steering lock on real rally cars and would the wheel be switching to the more limited steering lock as this is more representative of the actual cars? Also the feedback applied by the wheel seems alot stonger than I've seen it used in other games, steering seems to require more effort than I think it should?

I suppose we should give you the benifit of the doubt...for now Where abouts in Scotland are you by the way, I work in Dundee as a programmer? You said it was a pretty realistic driving game, have you tried Richard Burns if - you're into realism you'll like that.

Maybe Didn't think there was a US version but wasn't sure if they'd have done a Jap one as I think rally is quite popular in Japan? But as you say if there's no NTSC version the PAL version shouldn't be poor

Cool I just picked it up at lunch to try over the weekend, if it doesn't support the Driving Force Pro I can set the wheel to Driving Force mode. Looking forward to the online stuff as I've not tried using my PS2 onine yet. I reckon AG Systems could be one of those stealth marketing guys though, low post count and nothing bad to say about the game