Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...Assassins Creed
gavomatic57
I must apologise if I’m a bit late to the party here, but by the time Assassins Creed appeared on the PC, I’d already completed the PS3 version and was a little unwilling to start it all again on the PC. Fortunately my recent GPU purchase forced my hand by supplying me with a copy of said game. It may not be boxed or supplied with a manual, but it works!
Well well well, if there is any doubt about the strength of the PC gaming market, doubters should play this game with DirectX10 features on and everything maxed out. Visually it quite convincingly blows the console versions (both PS3 and 360, before any fanboys find this blog) into the weeds. Simply stunning. It won’t help much, but at least they’ll know what they’re missing.
It has retained the same control system as the 360 and PS3 and allows you to use the 360 controller should you find the mouse & keyboard a bit weird. You wouldn’t really know any difference between the console and PC versions in terms of playability…
…which is a shame, because it has retained the major idiotic gameplay problems from the consoles - like having to walk hundreds of miles between cities - and I mean WALK! You have to hold the “blend” button down and proceed at a snail’s pace or face the wrath of the guards. “Blend basically forces your character to put his hands together, look down at the floor and walk really slowly - rather like the “drug dealers” from GTA San Andreas. Why someone walking or riding NORMALLY is suspicious I don’t know.
You can, when having a fight with the guards, pull off a “killer blow” that finishes your opponent there and then. This is great when it works - typically when you only have one guard to contend with. Unfortunately, get a whole horde of rampaging Crusade-style civil servants around you and Altair will just throw them onto their backs instead, allowing said officer to recover and come at you again, while you deal with his colleague. Grr.
It is also incredibly repetitive. Walk like an injured duck to distant city, sneak in, visit bureau, climb buildings, pickpocket, find person, put person down for long dirt-knap, listen to morality speech, rinse, lather, repeat.
All things considered, its not a bad game and is fun initially, but it didn’t live up to its hype. That said, the PC version is the pick of the bunch. Avoid the Nintendo versions, unless you own a Delorian and have a friend named Doc Brown. It isn’t really 1985.
Rated: 100% (2 votes)
Loading ...XFX Geforce GTX 260 - updated
gavomatic57
Hi all!
After 18 blissful months with my 8800GTS (640mb) I felt it was time for an upgrade. My old GTS has served me well over the past year and a half. When faced with Crysis it certainly put a brave face on and charged into battle, giving me reasonably playable framerates at medium to high settings. If you can play Crysis you can pretty much play anything, so Bioshock, Call of Juarez and Call of Duty 4 were no bother.
But, the pressure of moving in hardware-obsessed circles pulled at me until I gave in (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it). I’ve always been one for buying the Nvidia card one step below the flagship - the 6600GT, the 7900GT, the 8800GTS and this time it is no different - the GTX 260.
The GTX 260 has been disappointingly overlooked on this website and in the magazine, so I’m going to try to fill in some gaps. I’m running a Q6600 clocked at 3.0ghz on a Striker Extreme with 2gb RAM.
3D Mark 2006
With the 8800GTS, my system would score: 10854
-SM2 4494
-SM3 4311
-CPU 4026
With the GTX 260 I score 13763
-SM2 5633
-SM3 6193
-CPU 3957
I must admit, this isn’t hugely scientific - the driver versions are different and the drivers for the GTS are likely to be more mature and indeed the tests were carried out months apart - I tend not to spend too much time benchmarking old kit - its a bit boring, if I’m honest. What is interesting however is how the SM2 and SM3 scores increased with the CPU. I normally have my Q6600 at stock speeds due to occasional and seemingly random lock-ups. At stock speeds the GTX 260 barely earned over 11000 3dmarks, yet it grew to over 13000 at 3.0ghz - clearly it is being reigned in by my CPU.
3DMark Vantage (Performance preset, forceware 177.83)
P9711
GPU - 7945
CPU - 29133
Call of Juarez benchmark (2048×2048 shadowmap, 4xMSAA, High detail, 1680×1050)
8800GTS
Min 12.4
Max 36.6
Avg 21.3
GTX 260
Min 18.6
Max 62.6
Avg 29.3
Lost Planet (1280×720, full AA, AF, DX10, Max settings)
Snow 75.4
Cave 58.5
Company of Heroes (CPU at 2.4ghz, max settings, DirectX10, 1680×1050)
Average - 40fps
Max - 60fps
Min - 20.9fps
F.E.A.R (1680×1050, max everything)
Min 70
Average 169
Max 426
I went for the XFX bundle, which apart from being bundled with Assassins Creed is decidedly sparse. You get the usual display converter for DVI to D-Sub and from S-Video to Composite, an out-of-date driver disc which is fine, but there is also another cable which I’m a little confused about. One end looks like a pair of mobo connectors - such as the ones that connect the power button to the motherboard and the other end is a tiny two-pin plug. There’s nothing in the box to tell you what it is, but I’m sure it’ll become abundantly clear should I ever need to use it….?
The card is no louder at idle than the old GTS despite the extra power - its a different sound but certainly not annoying or unpleasant. It requires two 6-pin power connectors, which my Seasonic M12-600 seems to be taking in its stride. I was a bit concerned when I read the back of the box - it suggests a 630w PSU - but I guess they are making allowances for those using generic PSU’s rather than “enthusiast” ones! It is also the largest card I’ve had - its about as long as the 8800GTX or an inch or so longer than the GTS.
Very impressed. Crysis also runs great, but I seem to be suffering from a bug that causes it to crash whenever I try to load or save, so that’s a benchmark for another day.
Edit - I’ve now got Crysis working. At 1680×1050 I can set everything to Very High, Directx10 and get a steady, playable 20-25fps with 2xAA