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Loading ...COD4 - WOW!
combatus
I haven’t been a fan of the Call of Duty series - I was more of a Medal of Honour guy until BF2 stole my life away a few years ago. It’s been a good couple of months for games what with UT3, Crysis (well we all know what the issue is there) and I now own all three. COD4 certainly looked ok from reviews and screenshots I’d seen, and with the idea it might be a modernized BF2 with a storyline thrown in, my copy was soon being installed.
I’d heard about the singleplayer mode being too short so decided straight away to play it on hard to make it last a bit longer. One of the first scenes has you completing a firing range to get an idea of your recommended difficulty setting. I managed a fairly good time of around 17 seconds and decided to follow the game’s advice and play on “hardened” to which it’s response was “your skills will be stretched”. They weren’t wrong….
The first couple of missions were a bit tedious. Jumping straight in at the deep end and not being used to the controls got me killed a bit too often (although this didn’t really change!) While I wasn’t too keen on the night-op forest settings, the middle-eastern act is simply outstanding both graphically and game play-wise.
This screen grab is taken at 1680×1050 with AA at 2x and the slider bar in game for AF set to minimum (presumably off) so not “max” settings but everything else at full - quite outstanding and this is currently my desktop wallpaper!
The depth of field is staggering. Many scenes like this leave you gaping at the view even at the AK-47’s and RPGs start pointing in your direction.
Another part of the game was taking control of the awesome weaponry aboard an AC130 Gunship. This was probably my favourite bit of the game as it seemed so realistic. It’s one of those snippets which they could have made an entire game out of! Screenshots don’t do it justice so here are a couple of videos on what to expect…
Youtube video 1 - actual in-game footage of the “Death from above” mission
Youtube Video 2 - real - exactly like the in game experience!
Youtube Video 3 - awesome AC130
Bascially the game never has a dull moment, from hiding in grass as a sniper with tanks and soldiers walking within inches of you, to fast sweeps of strongholds - right up until the end and the last few missions really are challenging with ever increasin numbers of increasingly challenging opponents. One thing I do like about the game is the availability of guns and ammo. You’re not given copious amounts which makes you check around for spare clips or even ditch your depleted rifle for something laying around. Half the time this is deliberate - there are quite a few sniper rifles laying around just before scenes where they come in handy. But equally some scenes simply leave it up to you - carry on with your preferred weapon, or ditch it for an AK with enough rounds to see you through the next firefight.
Even better is the ability to carry two weapons. This usually involves ditching your pistol for something a little more potent. One of my favourite guns in the game is the M1014 semi-automatic shotgun. Alongside an assault rifle it can be deadly for close encounters or just pummeling a corridor to get its occupants to their knees for a few seconds.
Now I’ve completed the game I’m definitely going to play back through it when I get a graphics card which can ramp up the AA and AF. It’s also great to see CPC using it as the readers night choice too - when I’ve got used to the multiplayer I’ll be along!
SO, if you played the demo and like me you weren’t that enamoured with the game or if you haven’t been a fan of the CPD series, get it. You won’t be sorry.
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...Multicore gaming is here - so Dual or Quad?
combatus
Pretty much as long as multi-CPU’s have been around, there has been the overwhelming argument that most every-day applications simply didn’t benefit from more than one core. Multitasking and encoding were pretty much the only non-benchmark situations that you might actually see noticable benefits.
Then all of a sudden games developers have taken note and we are seeing real performance improvements over single core CPUs. Not only this but having four rather than two cores also makes a difference, especially in multithreaded games like Unreal Tournament 3 and Crysis. In the CPC CPU megatest (Issue53 Feb) quad-cores were ahead by similarly clocked dual-cores by noticable margins.
Crysis for example had a minimum frame rate 15% higher with a Q6600 than with an E6600. UT3 actively uses two or more cores “There is a primary thread for the gameplay and a second one for rendering. On systems with more than two cores we run additional threads to speed up various calculation tasks, including physics and data decompression. So the overall performance benefits greatly from a quad-core processor.” (EPIC’S Tim Sweeney ) and the difference is even more pronounced - with the resolution lowered to 1024×768 to eliminate GPU limitations, Anandtech found that frame rates were boosted from 154FPS to 186FPS simply by making the move from two to four cores. Read the full article here
What this means is that the bandwagon is definitely on the move as far as multi-core gaming is concerned. While benefits from quad cores at the moment are relatively small compared to the move from a single core, the increase is there nonetheless and this is important for two reasons:
1. If you want to get the most out of your system, even with games then a quad core CPU is a worthwhile investment.
2. futureproofing should naturally include consideration for future games which may make even more use of two or more cores - so with games already making use of additional cores with extra threads for things like additional calculations, if you upgrade every year or two then a quad core could be a worthwhile investment
This makes current decisions extremely difficult though. With intels new Wolfdale 45nm dual cores on the shelves this week, and proving very overclockable, is it worth waiting for the new quad cores? There is a BIG price hike too - over £100 difference from an E8200 to a Q9450 both clocked at 2.6Ghz. What’s more the Q9450 only has an 8x multiplier, while more meaty, cheaper dual cores like the E8400 and E8500 have multipliers of 9x and 9.5x. This means that they are able to clock much higher - well over 4GHz, while the Quad will have to have a FSb of 500 a s bare minimum to even reach 4Ghz.
The new Dual cores certainly offer more bang per buck, especially as current games don’t scale convincingly with 4 cores.
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...Unreal Tournament 3…if Crysis is a bridge too far…
combatus
Crysis won’t run on my PC. That’s a fact. Despite all the watercooling and all the overclocking, if I put everything on max it’s a juddering mess. Well I suppose I’m asking too much of my X1900XT which I’ve had for 2 years now, but the £300 I spent on it then has been well spent indeed. However, I’m not upgrading just for one game. Oooh no. Not even for two (FSX can’t be maxed either, god dammit). The simple reason is I still play plenty of older games like Hl2, BF2 and IL2 Sturmovik which run fine on my system. However, if you’re in the same boat and dissapointed with frame rates in Crysis then don’t fear, Unreal Tournament 3 is here and IT’S AWESOME!!!!!!
I’ve been a massive fan of the Unreal series and still love UT2004 to death. Perhaps the most appealing feature of the games is that they are so well polished by Epic before they are released, that you can run them on pretty mediocre PC’s yet they still look good and are perfectly playable. To be able to max out UT3 on a a 2 year old card is a credit to both the game’s developers and to ATI who did build a great card. For further info on how other cards fared check out CPC Issue 52 P18.
Now down to the gameplay. Well actually the graphics which are the first thing that hits you when you run the game at high settings. It really does look gorgeous and is streaks ahead of UT2004. The weapons feel more real when your blasting them and modelling detail is quite amazing with little levers and cartridges moving about all over the place yet create the illusion of a real purpose.
Rocket Launcher
Link Gun
My favourite part of the new style of UT is Vehicle combat, however you need something to take out vehicles when your on foot. The Avril is back, this time called the Longbow Avril, and it’s far more deadly with a lazer sight that locks onto occupied vehicles and knocks most of the small ones out in one shot.
You can collect weapons from the usual weapon outlets found at bases. There are also “deployable weapons such as EMP, Shaped-charges and shield generators - basically more hardware than you can shake a stick at and it’ll probably take you some time to actually use all of it, never mind master it.
Another bonus for those moments where you just can’t find a gun-laiden vehicle to jump into is the Hoverboard. Pressing “Q” makes your character jump onto his integrated hoverboard which speeds you along much quicker and is very useful when tanks suddenly appear and you’re on foot. It’s also the only mode of transport you’re allowed to use if your running your arse off with the flag stolen from the enemies base.
You can also hitch a ride via an energy beam onto a nearby friendly vehicle to speed things along a bit!
In “warfare mode” which is basically the same as the old style “power node” gathering gameplay, you now have the option of carrying something called an “orb” to the next node. If you make it and drop the orb into the node’s power circle you’ll immediately capture that node which saves the endless pounding you usually had to do. Getting the node into a well protected base is another thing - again you can’t use vehicles although you can use the hoverboard.
Vehicles, vehicles vehicles! This is one area that has had a serious overhaul. Not only are the usual fixed turrets and vehicles from 2004 in the game (Manta, Goliath and Leviathon etc), but a whole new range of “Necris” war machines is available. They are pretty exotic and have very different features to the original vehicles but are just as, if not even more devastating.
Leviathon is still an awesome site and works much the same as it does in UT2004.
Tha Manta is still removing people’s heads.
One new vehicle called the Paladin has a sheild as it’s defensive/secondary function. I haven’t tested how effective it is but it looks very cool indeed!
Now for for one of the things that blew me away the first time I saw it - and is a somewhat familiar site from “War of the Worlds” with Tom Cruise and to some extend the tripods on HL2, a new walker is ready to make history in the “scariest gaming walkers” category. The Necris Darkwalker is an awesome site to behold, especially if it’s not on your side…
Totally awesome as is the rest of the game and what’s best about it is that you don’t need a cutting edge PC to play it, even at high settings. I guess this isn’t a review of the game as there’s so much I haven’t included like game modes and online play but what I’m trying to say is if you haven’t already got Unreal Tournament 3 then why the hell not!!!! Hopefully some of these pictures will persuade you!