DOOM3 has gone GOLD! August 3rd U.S. date, U.K. the 6th!

Loaded? I wish ^_^ I've just been saving my pennies all year and been doing some sales of Junk I have in my room. I know a PC for the same cost can do all I'd need it to....its just I won't be able to buy a PC for quite a while (being on a students budget and all) so I've decided to get the best I can now so it lasts the longest

 

GO ON MY SON! Nice one Hollenshead.

But why? It doesn't make much sense, id software are American.

EDIT: re-read the article, it's coming out in the US before the 6th. Ignore me.

 

5200 to play Dues Ex well?

Did you really buy it thinking it would play Deus Ex 2 well? I hope you didn't pay too much for it. I played with clan on ET once and they all bought 5200's and they thought they were high end they all paid $200+...

Before you buy one of those take a look at the 6800 series as they perform about the same and have Pixel Shader 3.0

 

Re: 5200 to play Dues Ex well?

I knew what I was buying (I had a VERY limited budget), I was complaining about the lack of story/atmosphere in Deus Ex 2 . I just bought the cheapest card I could find that had pixel shaders (the local Staples had a GeForce FX 5200 (which I bought), and a Radeon 7000 :Hangman: ).

 

I'll probably just play Doom 3 to see the graphics, because I really don't like its kind of gameplay. I'm waiting more eagerly for HL2, but please let's not start a flame on Doom 3 vs HL2. I'm just saying I prefer the gameplay of the Half-Life series than the Doom series

 

Yeah I had the choice between a Radeon 7500 and the 5200, needless to say i took the 5200 because it is not only fastee than a 7500 but I don't like spending half my time playing with bad drivers :smt043

 

Just a few little comments:

For those of you having trouble with Deus Ex 2 on ANY videocard, have you downloaded the patch? There was something with the game that made it run like sloppy ass on nearly any machine right out of the box, but a patch was released to remedy that. Just checking...

Cahaz & Kyuusaku: No need to feel bad or anything on your rigs, compared to most people here, mine is pretty weak too, but when the main things I use it for are internet surfing, MAME, shmups, and oldskool classic adventures, I don't need anything too terribly speedy ( something madhatter has a hard time accepting in our IM conversations when I mention I'm not in much of a hurry to upgrade ;-) :smt043 ). About the only reasons the thing is as fast as it is are Photoshop and Maya/Cinema 4D, otherwise it prolly would be a 500 Mhz or something. Of course, if your rig happens to run it and you find UT2K3 for $15, then why not buy....

There's nothing wrong with an older computer!! :smt024

Oh, and for people planning on buying a new videocard for Doom 3: I'd strongly recommend the GeForce 6800 over the latest Radeon (not sure of the model) NOT because of any sense of fanboyism, but because Doom 3 was developed mainly using GeForce cards that the 6800 hardware was based off of (I believe), and even in a few .plan files on the subject, Carmack was quoted as saying that while they both ran the game well, the GeForce card rendered a little bit faster due to the way the card handled the game. No flamewars or fanboyism, just a little comment on something I read a while back. I'm not sure what is the preferred card for HL2, tho, as I'm a diehard Doom fan anyways.

 

The preferred card for half life 2 is an ATI card , and seeing as a whole lot of games are going to be based on the scource engine from HL2 i'd rather buy an ati card ofver a geforce card.

 

The HL2/ATi pairing makes sense, as I remember someone (not sure who) telling me that a lot of the Radeons include a coupon for a copy of HL2 or something like that...

 

The real reason is because the nvidia card can do OpenGL operations BETTER than ATI cards. Doom3 is all OpenGL, thats why carmack recommends it. HL2 is strictly DX9 code and the ATI card executes the code better than an Nvidia card. All I have to say is wait until Unreal 3 comes out to see if the 6800 or the X800 is worth buying.

GSL, I'm getting HL2 for free because I bought the 9600Pro All In Wonder. You get the game plus Hl1 for free too.

 

re

Yes, I did download the patch . The game is playable, I'd just enjoy playing it at a resolution over 640x480 . I'm normally not a graphics whore, but my new computer has spoiled me :toimonster: .

 

In case anyone's interested, the website www.doom3.com now has actual content in it, as well as confirming the August 3rd ship date. rayer:

 

I'm half convinced PC gamers don't actually play games. "Dood, that new $984908 video card so roxxxorz!" and various system specs is all I ever hear the guys at work talk about when it comes to gaming, rarely about actually playing games or anything that happens in them. Maybe I just don't get PC gaming... :smt017

 

It's because those of us who DO play games are the ones constantly being told how bad our systems suck, so we usually keep on the down-low. :smt043 :smt043

<Crocodile Hunter Voice>
The PC gamer, while being a reclusive buggah in real life, is very active online, where it will socialize with other PC gamers, and where indeed a sort of 'pecking order' is established. When the normally shy PC gamers are in a group, they become a thoroughly vocal lot, offering multitudes of advice, anecdotes, hearsay, etc. etc. on which piece of PC hardware is, in their eyes, 'the best'. Often times, these are merely personal preferences or ideas generated upon the numbers produced by arguably worthless benchmarking software and are no real indication of a piece of hardware's viability for it's purpose, but try telling a PC gamer that, and by croikey, you'll see the colorful displays of fanboyism that even the multitudes of console gamers cannot match!
</Crocodile Hunter Voice>

It could also have something to do with the fact that about the only real types of games for the PC are FPS games and strategy games, both of which, it can be argued, are bringing fewer new ideas and concepts to the world of gaming, hence not much to talk about software-wise.

 

I recently got my current comp a couple of months ago and it has 2.6ghz 512mb ram and 2 dvd roms (1's a burner) but greatsaintlouis I can feel your pain. Even though I feel my specs are adequate, my friend is always telling me how theres no way I will be able to play Half Life 2 due to my video card which is a nvida geforce fx 5200. Always saying "dude your only gonna get like 15 frames at most, even for doom 3. It's annoying to hear since i feel my video card gets the job done as far as emu and such go. Even games that use 3d don't really slow down that much. I really dont want to get a ati card since i'm afraid they'll end up like voodoo (which died by their video card). BUt due to price i might be forced to go for radeon. Nvida's new card is a bit expensive ($400). Anyway to get back to the point, i find its ridiculess how many new video cards and chips they release a year. PC gaming and console gaming seem drasticly different. Pc gameres are always getting the latest cards and processors half the time. Meanwhile console experiance is alot easier due to the fact half the time the system lasts 5 years and even then the old ones are still good.

 

Yeh. I can call myself a PC gamer because not only do we talk about games but most of the time hardware.

One of the other sites I frequent is www.pcper.com the gaming forum is most of the time dead but I go to the hardware forums and help ppl out and look at pictures of other people's PC. Before I had my 2500XP, 512mb RAM, 9600Pro AIW PC, I had a crappy 200mhz Pentium Pro, 168mb, 4gig, 32mb TNT2 card PC and it didn't play the games I owned nor play Star Fox for SNES at over 5fps on zsnes.

That wasn't until I got a job and saved money to build what I have today. Thats the key. Its to have money. That and desire to play PC games/build your own system.

Most of us probably weren't spoiled so we mainly played with what we have, and most of us owned a console not a PC and thus thats why we are here and why some of you own FX5200. I ddidn't get one because I was a PC Fan a few years ago when I was living with my dad and during that time, our PC could run any game you threw at it until Quake 3 came out and because my dad was stingy, he didn't want to upgrade so I had to go back to console gaming. But it was the knowledge I gained back then that made me not buy an FX5200.

 

Again, I guess I'm not liking the insinuation that you're either some poor white trash or totally ignorant if you own a FX 5200. It is in reality a very good card, at a price that can be afforded by normal people. I needed something good to play UT2K3 and Neverwinter Nights, and the FX5200 was an excellent card that completely fit the bill.

Could I play Half Life 2 with it? Probably not.
Do I really care? Absolutely not.
Can I run Far Cry with it? Yes, it is doable if I want to tweak things.
Do I really care? See answer to HL2.
Can I run Doom 3 with it? According to specs, yes.
Can I run Doom 3 with photorealistic shadow effects and lighting and bling-bling like Flava Flav? Probably not, and see answers to FarCry and HL2.
Can I run MAME, 2D shmups, UT2K3, Gunbound, Doom, graphic adventures, and Warcraft 3? Yes. And that's all I really need. Therefore, I'm getting a perfect deal for my money, and am showing if anything, an utter lack of ignorance, as the card performs exactly as I wanted it to when I bought it. No problems there.

 

Dont take that post seriously honestly. I was being serious at the beginning then sarcastic at the end. i dont want to start a flame.

 

Graphics Card Options

One thing's for sure, the US gets much better deals on videocards (especially Nvidia cards like the 5900xt that can be flashed to a 5950 ultra...)

Do you find it runs Neverwinter Nights without slowdown? My friend had it running on his 5200 before he sold it to me and he said there was massive slowdown when he went into big rooms. I was thinking of buying NW but I'm a bit cramped on this 10 gb HD :smt043

 

Yeah, I'm getting it with no slowdowns whatsoever, but I think my RAM helps a bit on that game. If you own a FX5200 (or any GeForce card, for that matter) there's a nice little tweaking program out there called RivaTuner that can help coax a little more performance out of your cards.

And yeah, 10GB for NWN is a bit small, as it wants close to three. But, it's better than wanting FFXI, which takes 6... :smt043