FUCK PC gaming

[Marc]

Just Fuck it. Shelled out on Deus Ex GOTY on GOG, fucking thing won't work. Just downloaded GTA from Rockstars site, fires up to a black screen but still lets me cycle through the options and start a game. I quite because I've fucked the controls up, and now it won't fucking work. If home entertainment is moving down the all-in-one hub path, they'd best make sure it all works properly, because I'll give up full stop before I'll bust my balls gaming on a PC again.

[Illyrian]

1. Video drivers
2. USB drivers
3. Reinstall game
4. Reinstall OS

Both of those games are old as fuck, and there are loads of problems with playing old games on modern computers. Some games just flat out won't work.

As you bought it from GOG it should be more stable than normal, but still will have some issues. Check the GOG forums or use google.

All of these problems are normally pretty easy to solve.

[JBC]

I generally only use PC's for emulation or to play games that are exclusive to PC, like Civilization V, for this very reason. I shouldn't have to fix my shit to play a game I just purchased, it should just work out of the box. It also shouldn't crash over something silly like someone sending me a message or because of some other background process I forgot to turn off, etc etc etc. It's just such a hassle, and when I'm really involved in a game world I hate to be interrupted. This is the ultimate reason consoles win over PC when it comes to gaming, convenience.

That's not to say that console gaming is without it's faults. The copy of L.A. Noire I picked up yesterday has frozen my PS3 thrice, requiring me to reboot the machine each time. That's scary, because I take really good care of my system and don't want to see it die anytime soon. I believe this is a problem with the disc though, as I fully updated everything and all of my other games work just fine.

Tune Up Utilities has really helped me to manage my PC's in a way that makes things like this less annoying though. I've always got my stuff in 'Turbo Mode' when I'm gaming, which keeps background processes from choking up system memory. It's also nice for keeping things organized, customized, and cleaned up. It doesn't update your drivers for you unfortunately but there are some nice programs for that too.

[Marc]

1. Video drivers
2. USB drivers
3. Reinstall game
4. Reinstall OS

Both of those games are old as fuck, and there are loads of problems with playing old games on modern computers. Some games just flat out won't work.

As you bought it from GOG it should be more stable than normal, but still will have some issues. Check the GOG forums or use google.

All of these problems are normally pretty easy to solve.

Dues Ex is particularly annoying as all I get is 'This game has stopped working', no error codes, no nothing. All drivers are up-to-date, apparently there are a shitload of outside mods I can download and dump into the original folder, but I assumed that buying something from GOG would be pretty cast-iron in the first place. I also bought Giants, which runs perfectly. I'm getting old and don't have the patience for messing around that I used to I guess.

[ZellSF]

GoG gets an undeserved reputation for fixing games, just like Steam used to do. They really often just throw the games on their respective services without any fixes.

Now, about Grand Theft Auto: it will work on an ATI card. It won't work with a nvidia card. So if you have a nvidia card, forget it.

[Illyrian]

You'll get no argument from me that PC gaming can be finicky and frustrating at times.

It does get better with more modern games though, if that is any consolation at all. I hope you can get it running though as apparently Deus Ex is pretty special (I've never really played it myself

[Marc]

Dunno what the card it, but I had GTA up and running and only exited to fix the controls. Now, nothing.

Deus Ex is awesome, I picked it up again in the hope of playing it through with all the settings maxed out for the first time. Oh well.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Deus Ex is awesome, I picked it up again in the hope of playing it through with all the settings maxed out for the first time. Oh well.

Doesn't it run on the same engine System Shock 2 does? That one's also finicky to get running (you need to disable dual-core processing, etc). You might have some success asking on a Deus Ex-related forum to get it working.

[ZellSF]

FYI:
http://kentie.net/article/dxguide/
Getting Deus Ex running is not complicated.

Oh, and this is PC gaming, you won't play it with all settings maxed out, you'll go beyond that.

Doesn't it run on the same engine System Shock 2 does? That one's also finicky to get running (you need to disable dual-core processing, etc).

Not nearly the same engine. And all you need to do for System Shock 2 nowadays is:

1: Patch game
2: Crack copy protection
3: Apply ddfix

[louisg]

I remember in the mid-90s CompUSA was selling repackaged versions of 286 and earlier games. A bunch of them just wouldn't ever run on a Win95 system. Yeah, running old PC games is a pain sometimes.

I've had success with GTA in DosBox, if you want to give that a go.

[emphatic]

CAVE PORTS NAO!!!

[TransatlanticFoe]

I think I just copied my Deus Ex install from my old Win XP machine and it worked fine. Either way, it works on my Win 7 64 bit box.

BioShock doesn't though. Native, it gives no sound. Workarounds for this on the official forums say to run in compatiblity mode. Which works for a while until the game randomly and without warning hangs. Yay! That's the only game I can't run on any of the three PCs I have - what's totally screwed on Win 7 will at least run in either DOSBox, my old XP machine or the Win 98 box I keep around solely to play MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries (and to prove that once upon a time Windows booted in seconds).

It's a faff, but I figured as I need a PC for other things I may as well have it playing games too.

[Lance Boyle]

Just Fuck it. Shelled out on Deus Ex GOTY on GOG, fucking thing won't work. Just downloaded GTA from Rockstars site, fires up to a black screen but still lets me cycle through the options and start a game. I quite because I've fucked the controls up, and now it won't fucking work. If home entertainment is moving down the all-in-one hub path, they'd best make sure it all works properly, because I'll give up full stop before I'll bust my balls gaming on a PC again.

More like "fuck buying abandonware".

Deus Ex not working is a blessing in disguise. GTA not working is because they forgot to raise the default fullscreen resolution above 320 x 200. It actually killed an old CRT monitor of mine.

[njiska]

Really, you're having a problem with Deus Ex? I live been running it on my Win 7 x64 box without any issues. Steam version mind you, but that shouldn't make a difference. Like everyone elses has been saying, look at drivers and the like.

[Mischief Maker]

Not nearly the same engine. And all you need to do for System Shock 2 nowadays is...

Ugh, but why would you want to? System Shock 2 is THE most overrated game in the history of PC gaming. If you want a game that does System Shock 2's schtick but with a better plot, cooler upgrades, and more exciting gameplay, might I suggest System Shock 1?

[TrevHead (TVR)]

SS1 doesnt have freelook does it?

[Mischief Maker]

SS1 doesnt have freelook does it?

It's not on by default, but yes, I was able to play using mouse WASD.

Believe me, I wanted to love System Shock 2 when it first came out (a sci-fi horror game using the Thief engine??? AWESOME!!!) but the final product was a mess that quickly lost its scares by the midgame.

It also started that horrible trend of shoehorning RPG abstract stats into action games via "virtual incompetence" where the game just makes you miss until you've saved up enough XP and maxed out your levels and finally your super cyborg space soldier is as competent with a gun as the Quake Marine.

[Marc]

Tried the Kentie thing for DE. No dice. Tried some other front end that tweaks settings before boot up. Nope. Shame, as everything else from GOG has worked first time.

[shmuppyLove]

Tried the Kentie thing for DE. No dice. Tried some other front end that tweaks settings before boot up. Nope. Shame, as everything else from GOG has worked first time.

I grabbed the Steam version of Deus Ex a while ago, and just to confirm what I was remembering I installed it again, and I don't have a single issue running it on my current Windows 7 PC. Even cranked it up to 1680x1050 just for a laugh.

[Marc]

I don't even get an error message to go off, just 'has stopped working'. Might just have to settle for the slighlty crippled PS2 version.

Found GTA2 for my DC last night so all is well on that score.

[neorichieb1971]

Apart from graphics I can't see the attraction myself. Graphics should not define your enjoyment of the game. Sounds like your not having much enjoyment at all.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Tried the Kentie thing for DE. No dice. Tried some other front end that tweaks settings before boot up. Nope. Shame, as everything else from GOG has worked first time.

Could it just be GoG's copy isn't behaving with you? I'd say if you purchased a legit copy and you're unsure of whether it's just GoG's release that's giving you issues, try torrenting another copy of the game to test and see. That, or try the Steam version, but it would suck to have to buy the game twice (unless you can get a refund from GoG or something).

[ZellSF]

GTA not working is because they forgot to raise the default fullscreen resolution above 320 x 200. It actually killed an old CRT monitor of mine.

Don't most common CRT monitors support 320x200? I think it's unfair to expect them to support hardware practically no one has.

And as said, that's not it. It just doesn't support nvidia cards. You can try changing to a higher resolution, still won't work.

System Shock 2 is THE most overrated game in the history of PC gaming.

You're really going with this statement? More overrated than GTA games, Call of Duty games, Blizzard games, Valve games, etc?

I can respect someone preferring System Shock over its sequel, but not that sort of insanity :/

[louisg]

And as said, that's not it. It just doesn't support nvidia cards. You can try changing to a higher resolution, still won't work.

System Shock 2 is THE most overrated game in the history of PC gaming.

You're really going with this statement? More overrated than GTA games, Call of Duty games, Blizzard games, Valve games, etc?

Don't get me started on Half Life 1!

[Vyxx]

Might just have to settle for the slighlty crippled PS2 version.

Don't do it!

[TrevHead (TVR)]

SS1 doesnt have freelook does it?

It's not on by default, but yes, I was able to play using mouse WASD.

So you mean you can look left and right with the mouse, keyboard to look up and down? Since I started PC gaming in the HL1 era i'm quite impartial to 360 deg mouse freelook. Oldschool left and right works with Doom but thats got that fast paced arcade FPS feel to it.

EDIT I like the way you bring up horror as that is one of the main reasons I liked SS2, SS1 felt too dated when I tried it a while back.

Don't get me started on Half Life 1!

As I said I got into PC gaming around 1999 so HL1 was quite a big thing to me, and i'm sure my sentiments are shared with many other PC gamers who got into FPS at that time. I suppose its just another Halo for most of you oldtimers

[Marc]

Apart from graphics I can't see the attraction myself. Graphics should not define your enjoyment of the game. Sounds like your not having much enjoyment at all.

Sorry, I don't get you there. Just to clarify, I played the DE demo on release and my PC ran it like shit. I actually bought a PS2 just to play the somewhat chopped up version, and it remains the only game I ever threw a sickie to complete. I bought from GoG just because I always wondered what the original would look like at full settings in comparison to the PS2 version.

[Ed Oscuro]

There is a funny quote from Roberta Williams (that got her hammered, especially by the Old Man Murray folks some years later) about computer gaming being for the more well-to-do and more intelligent people. Whatever - back in the days of the 286-486 and DOS (which was thankfully before I got ahold of a Wintel machine) there were configuration nightmares. DirectX felt like a godsend when it finally arrived, but even though I never had to mess with jumpers, I still had to spend a fair amount of time guessing at IRQ settings and launching into MS-DOS (and some stuff still would play too fast).

Anyway, you have more options these days; use them. PC gaming has always been uneven due to compatibility problems, but most any game (especially popular ones like Deus Ex) have people dedicating lots of time to keep them compatible with new machines. If it comes to the worst, you might have to track down an old box if you're dedicated about your gaming - but there's never been a better time to do it; old PCs are cheaper than ever (at least up to a certain era; finding cheap old 5.25" drives is getting hard to do again).

Most overrated game? How about iD Software releases, especially Quake II? Even Quake III is only worthwhile if you're big on multiplayer or ladder games against bots. Popularity (even among genre fans) has always been misleading for the individual gamer trying to choose what to play. Getting off topic here, but "X isn't the game for me" never was a great argument about games being "not worth the trouble." It'll always be worth the trouble to somebody, else the games wouldn't have been made in the first place.

[Ed Oscuro]

Tune Up Utilities has really helped me to manage my PC's in a way that makes things like this less annoying though.

I've never had to pay for a utility to keep my PC working. Especially in the case of finding drivers, it requires some manual grunt work (in this case, usually searching through the Device Manager to find names of things, and then web searching to find somebody who offers updated drivers).

[mrsmiley381]

Most overrated game? How about iD Software releases, especially Quake II? Even Quake III is only worthwhile if you're big on multiplayer or ladder games against bots.

Quake II has some cool atmosphere, but the speedrunners make it out to be something more than a game. I'll give you that. Quake III is a multiplayer game, plain and simple. The bot ladder serves no real purpose. But I hope you're not considering calling DOOM overrated. You can play it a million ways on a million different systems with a million different WAD files. Enemy variety and placement is really good for the most part. Everything after DOOM can probably be skipped, however.

PC Gaming has some interesting stuff. I hate dealing with compatibility issues, broken AMD drivers, and Windows generally popping in to completely remove me from my experience, but there is some cool stuff here and there. Heavy Gear 2 comes to mind. Killing Floor when you feel like having fun. Falcom for adventure games. Not to mention all the emulator coders and ROM-hackers translating old but good games.

All that being said, I'm tempted to just pawn off my Steam account to someone. Hell, with how the general industry is going I'm prepared to go entirely off the grid and stick to bootlegged single-player experiences. The PC certainly helps with doing that.