kneecaps

Hi, Take it from me first hand experience here. I bought a FX5600 (256mb) and wasnt happy at all with the performance...took it back and swapped it for a Radeon 9600 pro (128 mb)...the Radeon blows the FX5600 away in everything I tried, Halo, Max Payne 2, X2..you name it. I'm not biased either as i have mostly bought Nvidia for the past few years. Ignore the amount of ram GFX cards have, anything with with minimum 128 mb is fine..256mb is sheer overkill and won't gain you any performance increases. P.S. Anybody who moans about UC needing a Vertex shader..VERTEX (not Pixel) should get a head check..i have a machine with a Geforce II GTS which i bought in Nov 2000..3 years ago...and it has a vertex shader. Would these people expect UC to run on a 286? or a Spectrum ZX80? No! But the hardware you need and get into the 21st century! (SC...i'm still waiting on my UC pre order! 27th Feb earliest now for the UK i've been quoted! Plz don't delete my post! )

Hi, I assume that is just US magazines or will UK and/or any European magazines be carrying the demo?

Thanks for the update SC. No word from DC you say? Sounds worrying. VCF looks good, the issues are 99% less serious than what the average game ships with these days. I just hope it wont be months before UC ends up on UK shores. Pete

Hehe, nice ideas! However I just dont see an internet version being released. I've said before the ball is in your court SC. Say DC have replicated the RC1 already (which I find doubtful), who is going to buy a totally crippled game/coaster?? Nobody. DC are totally at the mercy of you SC. The NEED you to sell a single successful unit of UC. Are you still taking a vacation to the UK? Not sure what you have planned but you should come to Wales on your visit (it's country within the UK for those who don't know). Your welcome to a guided tour! lol Peter

Hehe, nice ideas! However I just dont see an internet version being released. I've said before the ball is in your court SC. Say DC have replicated the RC1 already (which I find doubtful), who is going to buy a totally crippled game/coaster?? Nobody. DC are totally at the mercy of you SC. The NEED you to sell a single successful unit of UC. Are you still taking a vacation to the UK? Not sure what you have planned but you should come to Wales on your visit (it's country within the UK for those who don't know). Your welcome to a guided tour! lol Peter

hehe....right you are about platform games loaded with puzzles. The majority of christmas purchases are going to be by mothers and fathers getting the most talked about (and probably most violent) console and pc games to put under the tree for christmas. If DC had been hyping UC with a HUGE ad campaign for 6 months with a promised christmas release then they MAY and I mean MAY have some cause for concern. I find it incredulous that they are being this way over a release delay firstly caused by them (the re naming etc) and then by the SC's dedication to releasing a quality product (which is quite right!). The way I see it DC should be giving the SC a big fat bonus for his efforts in producing a title this quickly, not kicking up a crap storm! It's total insanity!! Peter

hehe....right you are about platform games loaded with puzzles. The majority of christmas purchases are going to be by mothers and fathers getting the most talked about (and probably most violent) console and pc games to put under the tree for christmas. If DC had been hyping UC with a HUGE ad campaign for 6 months with a promised christmas release then they MAY and I mean MAY have some cause for concern. I find it incredulous that they are being this way over a release delay firstly caused by them (the re naming etc) and then by the SC's dedication to releasing a quality product (which is quite right!). The way I see it DC should be giving the SC a big fat bonus for his efforts in producing a title this quickly, not kicking up a crap storm! It's total insanity!! Peter

I'm one of the 27 who voted yes. But that yes was to a ready to go production GM replica with YOUR approval SC. Not some pre-release DRM'd version, as you say, an expensive demo. I only said yes becaue as a free software developer in my spare time i'm used to coping with the odd bug or two and know that patches can find practically anything. I like to play around with software ASAP and wait for patches in the meantime. Peter

I'm one of the 27 who voted yes. But that yes was to a ready to go production GM replica with YOUR approval SC. Not some pre-release DRM'd version, as you say, an expensive demo. I only said yes becaue as a free software developer in my spare time i'm used to coping with the odd bug or two and know that patches can find practically anything. I like to play around with software ASAP and wait for patches in the meantime. Peter

hmm...DC have clearly been sniffing some mind warping substances. (I presume some publisher bashing can pass now) This situation has gone crazy! DC know you hold all the keys to UC, you control it. It seems like they are trying to force you into something you cannot do. They are going to shoot themselves in the foot big time if they release UC as is.

hmm...DC have clearly been sniffing some mind warping substances. (I presume some publisher bashing can pass now) This situation has gone crazy! DC know you hold all the keys to UC, you control it. It seems like they are trying to force you into something you cannot do. They are going to shoot themselves in the foot big time if they release UC as is.

Seems like the ball is in your court now SC. DC have shown their hand. We know they can't possibly ship what they have. Hold back and only go when you are ready. Seems like they tried to use a scare tactic. It makes no sense though, why try and ship a broken game??? As you say, DC don't stand to lose any money whenever they ship. You would think a publisher would want to release the highest quality product they can! Peter

Seems like the ball is in your court now SC. DC have shown their hand. We know they can't possibly ship what they have. Hold back and only go when you are ready. Seems like they tried to use a scare tactic. It makes no sense though, why try and ship a broken game??? As you say, DC don't stand to lose any money whenever they ship. You would think a publisher would want to release the highest quality product they can! Peter

Hi, i've voted for release ASAP. The way I see it the pending issues are not that bad. Also even a slightly buggy BC game is gazillion times better than the average game. I'm now tired of X2 (and it's forced failure scenarios) and really need something else to get myself into. and after losing my long time crew in BCMG to a nasty moon crash! Any pending issues can be sorted by patch! Peter

Hi, i've voted for release ASAP. The way I see it the pending issues are not that bad. Also even a slightly buggy BC game is gazillion times better than the average game. I'm now tired of X2 (and it's forced failure scenarios) and really need something else to get myself into. and after losing my long time crew in BCMG to a nasty moon crash! Any pending issues can be sorted by patch! Peter

i've been wondering about this for a while now, this seems like a appropriate place to state my concern. Obviously piracy is a big problem. I don't understand why UC is going to have Safedisk 'copy protection', even the new 3.x version are somewhat shoddy from a copying standpoint. A more exotic protection such as Star Force or LaserLok would be far more secure. Even SecureRom is tougher than Safedisk.

Please please please! Stay away from the Geforce FX5200 PLEASE! I'm not an nvidia hater, i've had nvidia cards for years...the FX5200 may be fully DX9 and VS and PS comliant..but it really does not have the POWER to use the pixel shader. Running halo with the pixel shader took the framerate to an average of 13 fps! Turning it off brought it upto about 32 fps. If you want to actually PLAY anything with the pixel shader don't buy a FX5200. Start with the FX5600 or the probably cheaper Radeon 9600 (and yes, this was in a high spec athlon XP stuffed with ram!) Peter

Graphics card is probably the most important part of a system for a gamer. Example, i have a 2 year old self built Athlon 1ghz machine (640mb ram etc etc), Geforce 2 GTS (very fast card for the time!). I recently built a Athlon XP 2400 (512mb DDR ram) etc for my wife, and purchased a Nvidia FX5200 to go in it. After 10 mins of using the new computer with new games like halo etc I could tell something was wrong. It seemed slower than my 2 year old graphics card. All the tests benchmarks, games etc told me that the new computer (FX5200) was performing worse on the same games than the (GF II GTS). So I went back to the shop and promptly exchanged the FX5200 for a Radeon 9600. The new Radeon 9600 card blew the FX5200 out of the water, i'm talking a increase in framerate of sort of 85% - 95% !! Right, sorry that this is a bit rambling. But i'm trying to illustrate that many graphics cards 'sound' great, but are actually grossly under-powered. Also commerical computer brands tend to come with a cheaper graphics card than they really should due to relative expense of good graphics cards. So in short! If you are going to buy a new graphics card to play UC (or any other modern game!) your entry level should be Nvidia FX5600 (not 5200) or Radeon 9600. Peter

Hehe with that said SC...i'm off to purchase a nice Radeon 9600 or such..i want to see ALL the glorious effects on offer, i love what pixel shaders can do and how great they look! (my Geforce 2 GTS only has good old vertex shaders!) Peter

hmm....i think he means "upsetting you on this" not "setting you up" I'm feeling fairly stupid for not realising what the strange noises are. However my best guess would be (considering all personell and SAS are good), that prehaps it's Marines training/prepping for combat etc maybe? Peter

I am in roam mode. I'm not sure when it started happening. Sometimes i hear two 'laser noises' then the 'Arrgh!' sound. SAS is fine, so I know it's not combat or anything. It's really wierd.

Hi, not really a problem, but an odd issue. Ever since a certain point in my game every five mins or so I hear something like a laser gun shot and a mans voice going "Arrg!" (in some sort of pain). No, it's not when my AE dies or anything, it's whatever i'm doing at very random times every five - ten mins or so...really strange. Any ideas? P.S. I've fully patched and have no technical issues! Pete

great stuff SC! Pretty clever security setup! As I Linux/Unix security consultant (side job) and Debian developer I see so many companies un-aware of the power encryption offers! If valve had encrypted the HL2 source code on their servers they wouldn't have had this problem! btw...have you considered using a Linux machine as your firewall...it'll make your setup even tougher to crack! Peter

hehe...defenceless animals! I'm a vegetarian so I understand what you mean.... but go on...let us attack them Pete

Yes..the question on everybodys lips... can you shoot the animals and if so will they attack back?