The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

Well this is embarrassing :S I should have noticed sooner, that afterdawn apparently reset my preferred timezone. I set it to my local timezone, and apparently all is well now.

The hours weren't jiving, obviously. I assumed incorrectly :S LOL!

 

That's clear DDP, LOL!

 

The Nazis won WW2 and you are leading a resistance movement in 1960. 'Nuff said. If you enjoy shooters in any capacity, this is a far above average one. It's a linear story-based game, similar to RAGE or Metro. A mixture of enemy types and locations. Most of them being Nazis or some offshoot of them. Also, a very decent story. Easily one of the best games of the year.

 

Well, since it was you, Jeff, I went ahead and installed Wolfenstein. But you might have at least mentioned "John Carmack!"

Yeah, it's like Rage - because it's Carmack!!

Okay, like Rage, the game is visually stunning.

The characters are fairly interesting, like Rage, with good facial features and good voice animation, but your buddy is just a bit wooden when you're actually fighting alongside him - nobody does it like Half Life 2 and Alyx. I think Metro also did a little better in that regard.

However, the guy I'm fighting alongside with, is the one I didn't indicate, at gunpoint, that the Nazi scientist should disembowel in front of me - so I take it that if I had made a different choice, every part of the game with him in it, would instead be with the other guy.

Sort of like Walking Dead the video game, where you are only able to save one person, not both, and that one stays with you for a while instead of the other one.

But these are little picky points. Overall, it's a pretty good game so far.

I'm playing at the uber setting, meaning hardest difficulty, because I have read that it is fairly short at 10-12 hours. So what the heck, a challenge draws it out a bit and forces me to replay several of the checkpoints, and I can change the difficulty level at any time. I have 8 hours in it and I haven't even started the climb to the top of the huge building in London.

I completed one quite interesting challenge - Jeff knows the one - where they spring two very difficult opponents at you very early in the game - I won't spoil it and say much more than that.

But I will say this. Having finally gotten through that, and it was pretty fun actually - I came across a hint about an hour later that said "A mounted gun will recover its ammunition if you put it back on the mount." That information would have been lovely to know during that tough fight. When it runs out of "juice" just leave it for a while - mounted - and when you come back it will be right as rain.


I'll give you one more pointer. In the beginning of the climb up that London tower, you have to cut through some fencing with a very interesting laser battery-powered cutting tool. I had no idea that the thing cuts so fast. I recommend that when you first get the cutter that you practice cutting as fast as you can move the mouse, and see if it works.

When I hit that spot where I had to cut the fence to climb the tower, my laser battery was almost dead - down to maybe 20% of full charge. At my typical cutting speed, I knew there was no way that I could make a hole big enough to get through. I said "Oh, no, I forgot to charge the damn thing." I looked all around for an electrical light or device - nothing was available.

Then I thought - "well there must be another way to go." But a walk-through confirmed "cut the fence."

So I lamented, "Shame on me for not keeping the damned thing charged" which the walk-through had earlier suggested, and I re-started the last chapter - which fortunately was extremely short. Immediately I saw a charging area I hadn't noticed before, and I refreshed the battery up to full charge. Soon, within 5 minutes I was again at the spot where I had to cut the fence. I pulled out the laser, and the battery was almost dead, just like last time!!

"WTF! I just charged you - how could you be almost dead again!" A game bug.

So, cursing Jeff, I did the only thing I could do - I cut at lightning speed - and to my surprise the chunk of fencing dropped away just like it always did. Duhhh.

This following isn't a tip - but it's a really cool part of the game.

Have you ever carried a tray with two coffee cups in a video game, and had the coffee slosh around depending on your movements? I spent a couple minutes just playing with that tray. I ran forward and stopped quickly - the coffee sloshed a lot, almost spilling out. I moved it slowly - the coffee sloshed just a little bit. I moved it quickly - it sloshed a lot.

Damn! That kind of realism is astounding! Way to keep us constantly amazed, John Carmack!!

Wolfenstein The New Order.

Don't get the game if you are a Nazi - you won't like all the negative references. Don't get the game if you are a pacifist - it's uber bloody!

But if you like blowing stuff up, and shooting bad people, this game might supply a slight refresher on the very real evil that confronted the world in WWII, ala the style of the Tarantino movie Magnificent Basterds.

I plan to invest another 3 hours in murder and mayhem a little later this evening, when once again the time is: "Nazi-killing Time!"

Rich

 

Haha glad to see you enjoy it as much as I did. The game is well above average. Not truly amazing, but well worth the time. The attention to detail is quite good. The graphics aren't perfect but they are not bad at all Certainly heads and tails above the ugly, poorly made mess that was Rage. Played about 3 hours of Rage, and was so disappointed with the technology fail that I never did bother to continue playing. I also found it bland and uninteresting. The overworld was especially sparse and devoid of detail. I could go on for hours about why the "Super Texture" graphics failed.

AFAIK Carmack did not work on this game. He just helped develop the engine. This game was not made by ID.

 

Yeah, not receiving emails like I should do with the new site - missed some of these posts, I shall have a read

 

I think you're totally right, Jeff, but several reviewers mentioned Carmack, and you never know whether he threw any ideas toward the devs.

Wolfenstein is getting better and better the more I play it. The 3 hours I planned for last night turned into 6 before I knew it. I left just before embarking in a miniature one-man sort of submersible, through the waterways of Berlin. I'll pick it up again tomorrow night.

During last night's gameplay, I came across the same kind of mind-blowing awesome spectacle as the hospital in Rage, which had the gigantic dead mutant splayed across the far side of the atrium, against 10 floors of inner glass walkways. That hospital in Rage, with the music helping to create a dramatic foreboding atmosphere, chilled me to the bone.

In this game, that same kind of over-the-top spectacle appeared before I made it to the top of the tower. I'm referring to the moon exhibit. By 1960 the Nazis have a moon base. You enter a totally unique jaw-dropping darkened exhibit with faux stars twinkling above, featuring a towering life-size moon. (Haha, well not quite life-size - but about 75-100 feet in diameter, circled by spiraling staircases, and superbly gigantic in scale.) That kind of spectacle requires astonishing leaps of artistic imagination, and I am here to say that these are the touches that make a game truly memorable.

And the game lets you command a mech! like Respawn's Titanfall. It isn't as large as in Titanfall, but it is still spectacular, and as it clunks around with ponderous footsteps, it is a joy to command.

Step back in time:
But here's something that was easy to miss, and quite possibly you didn't encounter this in your play-through, Jeff.

In wandering around the well-furnished and quite interesting secret 3-level hideout, right smack in the middle of Berlin, in the level where you're looking for welding torch and the missing wedding ring, I went up to the tool attic, and there was a mattress in one corner next to a poster of Wolfenstein 3D, by ID software (John Carmack.)

Next to the mattress it said to press E for nightmares. So I went for it, and was instantly propelled into THE ORIGINAL WOLFENSTEIN 3D WITH 1992 CHUNKY GRAPHICS AND TOTALLY PIXELATED WALLS AND CHARACTERS.

Hahaha - that was incredible. That's why I give Carmack credit - he helped develop the engine (does everybody know that Valve, when they made the first Half Life game around 1998, licensed that early game engine from ID?) Since a piece of Carmack's game is inside this game, I figure Carmack threw some ideas at the devs. I recently read that the 1992 Wolfenstein 3D from Id helped to establish the fps genre - wiki says it is considered to be the first true fps.

Rich

 

Last emails:
2014-06-23 0030
2014-06-25 0433
My time zone is BST.

I viewed the thread shortly after receiving the email on the 23rd, so the update notifications from the 24th are missing. The emails did not go into spam. I did not receive a notification for your message here as I had not yet read Rich's, which is the functionality I am familiar with. Not receiving an email on Monday though I'd consider abnormal...

 

Rich, I did find that level and it was a good laugh. It's a truly good quality and well thought out game.

For the record guys, am receiving emails normally.

 

Yep, I'm watching the thread. I get an Alert of the latest post I am yet to read, not every new post therein. I assume that is how it should work, and I'm fine with that.

I don't check emails associated with my account or actively subscribe to threads so I can't provide any useful input on this, sorry.

 

Well, glad Ketola found the bug.

Jeff is talking about the game within the game - yeah - that pixelated old wolfenstein 3d was hysterical!

This game is something else! The fighting is stellar! What magnificent battles! I have about 24 hours in, and I just got to the moon. But yesterday's 6 hours was some of the best fighting I've had.

This is not narrow corridors in industrial buildings - the landscapes are graphically rich, and the enemies are varied and challenging.

I had two giant battles yesterday after this first one, and they all bring smiles to my face, but let me just tell you about the submarine .......

SUBMARINE TENSE ACTION
A few days ago, I hit upon the submarine main control room near the end of a 6 hour session, and I just wasn't up to the challenge. After 10 defeats I called it a night. You have to be up for this kind of thing - it was frenetic and required focus - it was past time for me to hit the sack.

And then I took a 2 day break from the game.

During that two days various strategies came to mind. For one thing, I began to realize, that, especially in this case with a shotgun opponent, you simply cannot go toe to toe with these heavies. All the other regular nazis disappear with a shotgun blast or a few rounds your assault rifle. But if you trade punches with the heavily armed guys, they will take away all of your armor and drop you down to zero and that isn't going to work. Best is long distance behind good cover. This submarine wasn't exactly my favorite type of combat.

So, playing at uber difficulty, I strategized about the submarine control room. There are little sailor nazis everywhere, and two heavies, firing shotguns with scatter shots that zoom around and keep exploding. The scatter rounds is actually a good thing, because you can tell by the yellow pops that a heavy is nearby.

So I told myself - "I'll run upstairs and all the way around, and when he goes up that staircase, I'll drill him in the back." Good plan, right?

The other thing I decided to try to do, which worked for me a few times before, was to eliminate one heavy at the beginning. So I dropped down the hole, ran to my right, and tossed both of my tesla grenades in the middle of the control room where the first heavy was standing. I crouched down behind cover until they exploded, then I popped up and blasted with my laser, which has a very limited firing capacity of about 20 rounds. But having been weakened by the grenades, fortunately the heavy went down.

Great! This might actually work!

I told myself, "Remember Rich, don't get so focused on shooting the little guys, that you lose track of the last heavy until he is upon you, like last time, and suddenly BOOM, you are dead!"

It's wonderful what a full night's sleep can do, and a couple days to plan for this massacre.

So I followed my plan - I ran upstairs, ran around to the far side of the staircase, shooting nazis as I went, and I crouched behind the railing, bang bang - at assorted nazis on top and bottom, trying to keep the last heavy in sight. I see him. He is heading my way on the bottom level. Why is he heading my way - why isn't he heading toward that far staircase?

He was heading my way, because there was a second staircase leading right to the left of where I was crouched, and in fact there was another staircase leading up to the right of me. I was surrounded by staircases.

"What the hell? I don't remember all these extra staircases."

Haha. So much for that part of the strategy.

So I beat a hasty retreat back to the other side of the second floor.

Now, the other nazis are firing their assault rifles or submachine guns. Even just one could take me out if he came up came up behind me or on my flank without me knowing about it. But if I stay super alert, keep looking around, see the fire, and duck down, I can pop up and kill them pretty fast before I lose too much armor. So they can be managed, using some decent battlefield techniques. The shotgun is super powerful, but not too much range - maybe 15-20 feet.

So my "shoot him in the back" strategy didn't quite work, but the battle is still going okay. I am just waiting for my opportunity to go downstairs and charge up my empty laser gun. I need to clear out as many nazis as possible before that.

The heavy is upstairs and he sees me. But heavies move slowly. The advantage you have over heavies, especially if you only carry one main gun, not 2 of them in dual mode with a gun on each arm which does slow you down a bit, is that you can run really fast. So I ran downstairs, and was astonished to pass an open door leading to the final control room, with shots coming toward me. "How the hell did that door get open?" That was a shock, but I didn't get killed yet, and I got over to the charging lamp without incident. Nobody seems to be chasing me.

The 6 seconds of charging finally passed - it took forever - but now my laser is charged, and I have switched back to assault rifle on my roughed up 4 key (lots of little pieces of tape so I can always find that key) and I am still alive. The music is pounding, and I am very keyed up!

I look down at the lighted keyboard and hit the 6 key for shotgun again. My favorite weapon is 4 - assault rifle - but in close quarters that shotgun is STRONG! (Assault rifle in dual mode is pretty good also - you can hold down both right and left mouse at the same time and fire both - the nazis disappear with a short burst. You have twice as much ammo before a 3 second reload, which also is an advantage. But mostly I prefer single assault rifle, and you can run faster also that way.)

Okay good, I've got a charged up laser, there is one heavy upstairs, I have killed about 10 nazis, things are a lot quieter than when this whole thing started, but I don't exactly know what is in that final control room. I raced upstairs again. There he is - still on the other side. He isn't looking at me. Plus, while I am out of range of his shotgun, MY LASER CANNON on the other hand, is not a short range weapon.

So I got off a few blasts aimed at his head, and he ponderously gives chase, moving across sideways to the corridor leading to me. I kept shooting at him - he wasn't firing - he can only fire where he is facing. Then as he turned my way, I ducked behind the partition as the yellow pops appeared everywhere. Then I emerged as he was still about 20 feet away and blasted again at his head. Astonishingly, he went down. Wow - that wasn't so hard - I didn't even have to go charge up my gun again!

I was still quite tense, and super cautious. I raced down and recharged, then wielded dual assault rifles aimed at whatever was going to emerge from that final room. It turned out to be just the last two nazis - one of them the boss I guess. No more heavies.

SMASHED UP BRIDGE AND SMOKING VEHICLES
That was the beginning of a wild night of two more major battles. One of them started with a very hard to kill heavy, on a bridge with terrific smoke and vehicles on fire - the smoke and fire are like real life. Totally authentic. Super realistic graphics.

I just have time to recharge my laser before he surfaces over the mound of debris slowly coming my way. I restarted that first two minutes at least 10 times - killed him 5, he killed me 5. I was still going toe to toe - hadn't quite learned my lesson. I was trying to weaken him, this time with 4 grenades, then my small laser cannon against his big laser cannon. Finally I got smart, charged my laser, and retreated back about 20 feet behind a big rock. Then I realized I had acquired a rocket launcher with my assault rifle. So I emerged, blasted my laser until it was empty, ducked down, then came up and gave him a rocket in the chest. Duck down, back up, another rocket in the chest. He went down.

When will I ever learn. Don't go head to head with these heavies.

I learned one more thing on that bridge battlefield. When you grab their really big laser cannon, with about a 100 round capacity, and you then head over to the light to charge your little 20-round laser, but still holding the big laser, guess what happens? The light energizes and fully charges up the BIG ENEMY LASER CANNON!

WHAT???!!!

I suppose I should have realized that would happen, as the charge indicator looks exactly the same. But I didn't. It was merely an accident or I would never have made the connection. Duhhhh.

Wow! That is a game-changer! Because I kept getting killed further up that bridge where they seemed to be coming from all sides in the thick smoke.

So this time I energized the big cannon, and changed to one of my other weapons which causes you to drop that enemy cannon. I grabbed another almost empty big laser cannon from another dead heavy, carried it back to the lamp and energized it, now I have two 100-round laser guns. I place one of them behind me in clear sight, as I go up toward the burning cars to trigger the nazi attack. I hear my helicopter pilot caution me again about the big defense gun. I only have to reach that one car and they will start coming.

This time I don't wait around. My second cannon is behind me. They start coming and I am firing, but ponderously backing up. When you hold the big enemy guns, you move as slowly as the heavies do.

I have learned that the smoke is hell to fight in - if I back away I can distance myself from the impossibly thick smoke, and have a better chance of keeping the enemy in front of me rather than coming in on my flanks. When my first big cannon is near empty, I grab the second fully-charged cannon. I didn't die that round!

FROM THE COMFORT OF THE HELICOPTER
And then there was another lovely battle where he says "Okay, get out of the helicopter, it's nazi-killing time." But I didn't get out. Because I like being in the helicopter with this nice turret-mounted cannon. But I am forced to to let go of it as it runs out of ammo, before my health disappears. Then I duck into the cabin next to my buddy the pilot. That's okay - the huge mechanical dog that crashed the helicopter once before, is now dead. I still have 8o life, no armor. And I know the gun is recharging itself sitting in the turret.

I got to play that helicopter round about 10 times. Then I finally perfected it, and with everybody dead, I tried to do what I knew I couldn't do - no I couldn't make the leap! Damn!

As he circled around again, getting ready to tell me to jump out, I thought to myself, "I'm not going to shoot at anything and do all that work - let's see if it is even possible to make that stupid leap."

I jumped toward the left side where some rebar was sticking out from the concrete - again I fell toward the Mediterranean and died. But then magically, I was standing on the place where I wanted to jump to. I looked around - sure enough - there's the little shack. I can't believe it. I'm finally off that damn helicopter!

Seriously, I hate having to make those almost impossible leaps!

So there were only a few nazis left, but there was one heavy, firing rockets. I decided to forget about my laser cannon and get some heavy-fighting experience, using just a single assault rifle.

I fired headshots, and of course I kept out of the way of rockets. When his helmet went off, exposing a bare head, I maneuvered around, and got in more headshots. Magically all it took was about 30-40 rounds.

So now I realize - at least on some heavies - that I don't necessarily need a laser cannon.

Just shoot the heavy's helmet off, and concentrate on the unprotected bare head. I got killed a few stupid ways, missing a jump, falling down the railroad car out the other end. So I got to practice on that rocket guy about 6 times.

It became easy. I love this game.

Rich

 

Is it that obvious?

haha

This is one more time that, if Jeff hadn't said anything, I never would have experienced the refreshing story telling, characterization, and superb graphics of Wolfenstein The New Order.

I meant to mention before that the game introduces a secret Jewish society devoted to developing very high tech inventions, as a way to get closer to the mind of God. The Nazis stumbled on some of their inventions, and that is where most of the innovative Nazi technology came from. Quite ironic. The old man, Set Roth, who they figured out must be part of this secret Jewish society, and then set about rescuing him, turns out to be quite a character - quite a rich addition to the 6-8 major personalities in the game.

So, it's dark outside - and it's Nazi killing time again - on the moon. (I really should put up a few screenshots.)

Rich