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[brain_stew]

Anno 1404 and Tropico 3 are definitely on my list of to buy games once I clear up some of my backlog. Dman, there's just so many awesome strategy games releasing/released this year its insane. Off the top of my head:

Anno 1404
Tropico 3
Empire: Total War
Hearts of Iron 3
Dawn of War 2
Starcraft 2
Sims 3 (yes it counts)

And that's just naming the obvious AAA ones. So much for the death of PC gaming, them buggers could last any gamer a literal lifetime.

 

[Minsc]

They need to license that Anno 1404 engine for some kick ass RPGs! Damn.

 

[brain_stew]

They need to license that Anno 1404 engine for some kick ass RPGs! Damn.

I think the art helps as much as anything, those houses look as if they were hand painted, its truly stunning artwork.

 

[clip]

 

[Chris Remo]

Here are some shots I just took from the Overlord 2 demo available on Steam.

I was running at 1920x1200, my monitor's native res, and performance was fantastic with every graphical option maxed, but I resized them a bit for filesize reasons as I'm hosting on my own server.

I hope it's not in poor taste to point out that the difference between this and the PS3 version I played at E3 a couple weeks ago is massive, to the point where I was actually shocked. It looked like it was running at a lower resolution and then being upscaled on the PS3 or something. Don't quote me on that because I don't know if it's the case, and it could have been an issue with the TV setup or something, but it was to the point where it was distracting.

Anyway this demo was super fun. I didn't play the first game but I had a blast with this--very Pikmin-esque, in a good way--and I plan to play the full version now.

 

[Doytch]

I'll eventually get around to downloading it myself, but what are your specs Chris? The first one was kind of a half-assed optimization job, imo. I had everything maxed, 1680x1050 with I think some forced AA (wasn't built in iirc), and it was around 30-40.

Really liked the first game though, will probably pick this up on sale sometime.

 

[Chris Remo]

Core 2 Duo 6600 @ 3.0GHz
ATI 4870 HD
4GB RAM

 

[nelsonroyale]

Considering its genre...Tropico 3 is insane....it looks like crysis, but the scale is even bigger... holy shit

 

[Gully State]

Tropico 3 looks gorgeous. I'm glad they ditched the pirate island motif. Tropico 2 just wasn't as good as the first one.

 

[-SD-]

Tropico 3 is insane....it looks like crysis

Looks more like Far Cry to me.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Here are some shots I just took from the Overlord 2 demo available on Steam.

yeah it's gorgeous, the ps3 demo has an atrocious framerate but it's smooth as silk on my modest rig.

god damn i'm glad this thread is back.

 

[Proc]

took this at the conclusion of my molten core raid (we did it for the luls):

here's a grab for those who miss bwl:

 

[Chris Remo]

I just took some quick shots from AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity. It's not the most graphically mindblowing title, but I was so pleasantly surprised by this game that I want to get it out there as much as possible.

Download or preorder here: http://www.dejobaan.com/aaaaa/index.htm

 

[Luthair]

Some more 1404 Dawn of Discovery shots Very pretty game.

 

[Blizzard]

I played the demo but decided not to get the game. Was there an additional zoom option, though? There just seemed to be three fixed zooms and camera angles to me, and I felt like it would have been nice to have a closer one where you could see people and buildings better.

 

[Blizzard]

I posted one of these in the recent game environments thread, so I thought I might as well post some of the recent screenshots I've taken from Call of Juarez, DX10 version.

Be warned, these have anti-aliasing turned OFF, and only some light filtering (I forget which), so I can usually hit 40 fps or so. If they look too ugly from the lack of AA, let me know and I can delete them. =P (The foliage actually looks a little better with less AA to me) Image overload go!

Intro area:

Pool, falling water isn't that great.

Depth of field:

More depth of field:

Animal:

Butterflies in flight near polygonal barrels (to match some ingame people with very polygonal heads )

How YOU doin'.

And the smoke, of their torment, goeth up forever and ever.

 

[Surfheart]

Some more Anno 1404 (Dawn of Discovery) candy. F1 is the "Postcard camera".
These aren't bullshots though, the postcard camera is a realtime camera.

 

[brain_stew]

Its only the low poly environments that look to e holding back the visuals of Call of Juarez, the effects look great. Anno, is stunning as ever.

 

[Blizzard]

Its only the low poly environments that look to e holding back the visuals of Call of Juarez, the effects look great. Anno, is stunning as ever.

Well, I'll make sure to take some pictures of the sequel when it comes out in a couple of days. Hopefully it's not terrible, I figured $25 apiece was a decent price.

 

[Spoit]

Its only the low poly environments that look to e holding back the visuals of Call of Juarez, the effects look great. Anno, is stunning as ever.

Yeah, Juarez kept going from looking jaw-dropingly good to jaw-droppingly bad. The effects are amazing, and some of the texture work is pretty great too, but other aspects look last gen

 

[Yoboman]

wtf gay, i think photobucket is resizing the shots...

I couldn't stand playing Max Payne 2 stretched to widescreen. I wish there was a mod or patch to fix this...

 

[Sleeker]

The Sims 3

 

[inner-G]

The writing on the car is backwards in the last screen, lol.

 

[Sleeker]

Yeah its kinda weird that it lists actual numbers.
All the other text in the game are like jumbled up hieroglyphs.

Maybe an easter egg number?

 

[Blizzard]

I'm too sleepy to post more tonight, but here are a few random pictures I've taken so far in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. They probably look terrible, but I could have sworn they don't look so jaggy ingame. Maybe the MSAA filtering or whatever doesn't come through on Fraps screenshots.

 

[Yoboman]

Haha I can't wait for my new PC. I can barely view this thread, the old bird is struggling with HD images now even. Don't mention HD video to her, I don't need her to suicide:lol

 

[Durante]

Since it seems like some stability is finally setting in in the Oblivion modding community I decided to return to that one more time. Some 7 hours of downloading, installing and fising later I had everything working (this could be a bit easier!). My oblivion folder is now 21GB (unmodded it's less than 6).

The starting sequence was getting boring so this time my character arrived by boat in Anvil -- I've played for 25 hours now and I haven't even started the main quest or done many of the original game's quests.

Anyway, here are a few screenshots, downscaled from 1920*1200, 4x(T)AA.

 

[Kabouter]

You should feel free to post a list of the mods you installed, possibly with download links and instructions .

 

[Durante]

You should feel free to post a list of the mods you installed, possibly with download links and instructions .

I am actually thinking about making an "Oblivion revisiting" thread, but doing a decent job of it would take at least 4 hours. It would be quite valuable though since most mod lists are quite out of date at this point. Maybe if more people are interested.

Let me quote the UESP: "For many players, installing Oblivion with a large set of mods will be the most complicated thing they've ever done with software."

 

[Mr. Durden]

Do you even have the high res texture pack? Doesn't seem like it?

 

[Durante]

Do you even have the high res texture pack? Doesn't seem like it?

When you're saying "the" high res texture pack I assume you mean QTP3. Which I have of course (just look at the ground in the Whitmond farm screenshot for example, those are very obviously Quarl textures), but I also have a large number of other texture packs. When you get close enough to a texture it will always be blurry (well, unless it's procedural).

For comparison, here's a screenshot from a new area introduced by one of the mods, which uses the same texture resolution for the ground as the original game does. (And is obviously not replaced by QTP since it's not in the original game)

 

[Mr. Durden]

When you're saying "the" high res texture pack I assume you mean QTP3. Which I have of course (just look at the ground in the Whitmond farm screenshot for example, those are very obviously Quarl textures), but I also have a large number of other texture packs. When you get close enough to a texture it will always be blurry (well, unless it's procedural).

For comparison, here's a screenshot from a new area introduced by one of the mods, which uses the same texture resolution for the ground as the original game does. (And is obviously not replaced by QTP since it's not in the original game)

Ok my bad.

New areas? How are those mods. Worth getting into after completing the game already 100% twice?

 

[Durante]

New areas? How are those mods. Worth getting into after completing the game already 100% twice?

If you did both of those playthroughs in a vanilla (that is, completely unmodded) game then I'd say yes. Basically, regardless of which class you choose (magic, combat, stealth, etc..) with a fully modded game you'll have a very different gameplay experience. And in terms of content you can play for dozens of hours without touching any of Bethesda's quests.

 

[Mr. Durden]

If you did both of those playthroughs in a vanilla (that is, completely unmodded) game then I'd say yes. Basically, regardless of which class you choose (magic, combat, stealth, etc..) with a fully modded game you'll have a very different gameplay experience. And in terms of content you can play for dozens of hours without touching any of Bethesda's quests.

I played the first time on 360. Then bought the PC version cause I got a new rig back in the day. Only downloaded mods to improve the looks, leveling etc.

Maybe I'll give it another try then.

 

[Swaain]

I am actually thinking about making an "Oblivion revisiting" thread, but doing a decent job of it would take at least 4 hours. It would be quite valuable though since most mod lists are quite out of date at this point. Maybe if more people are interested.

Let me quote the UESP: "For many players, installing Oblivion with a large set of mods will be the most complicated thing they've ever done with software."

I for one would be very interested in reading what you have to say about this! I've had Oblivion installed on my PC's HDD for a while now, but I still need to really dive into it. I loved Morrowind, I guess I just need to get a few quests started to get hooked on Oblivion as well. An up to date mod list would be ace, though.

 

[Nikorasu]

Call of Juarez BiB prettiness:

 

[dorkimoe]

thanks to this forum, i found out about anno 1701 and 1404 <3

 

[plagiarize]

surprisingly beautiful. a very big step up from previous telltale games. it's all the subtle effects that bring it to life i think. the depth of field, the wisps of wind, the lighting... and it's not that demanding, so running it at high IQ is very workable.

 

[turn]

Not super high resolution, but I'm playing on a 42" plasma so 720P is all I need.

Last couple are cropped because my resolution didn't match my TV's.
All settings on highest with 8xQ anti-aliasing.

 

[Toby]

I am actually thinking about making an "Oblivion revisiting" thread, but doing a decent job of it would take at least 4 hours. It would be quite valuable though since most mod lists are quite out of date at this point. Maybe if more people are interested.

I am definitely interested. I haven't played with Oblivion or looked at mods for a long time, feel really out of date.

 

[Psychotext]

I had never seen Anno 1404 before loading up this thread. Will certainly give it a go now though!

 

[Gully State]

I was going to give it a go but the crappy DRM on it made me pass...(3 installs- NO RESET WHATSOEVER)

 

[Sleeker]

Its a few years old now but Hitman blood money still holds up well

 

[5il3nc3r]

I am actually thinking about making an "Oblivion revisiting" thread, but doing a decent job of it would take at least 4 hours. It would be quite valuable though since most mod lists are quite out of date at this point. Maybe if more people are interested.

Let me quote the UESP: "For many players, installing Oblivion with a large set of mods will be the most complicated thing they've ever done with software."

Well I'm interested. I have a couple of recommendations of my own so if you make the thread I'll definitely jump in.

 

[Tokubetsu]

Tomb Raider Underworld
1680x1050 AA Max, AF Max, everything on/high.

Bonus:

 

[Ceebs]

Was testing out my new sub $500 system with some stuff I picked up for cheap recently and I took a few shots.

Burnout Paradise (1400X900 max everything 8XAA) locked at 60 fps

Mirrors Edge (1400X900 max everything 8XAA) also locked at 60 fps

 

[GWX]

Off-topic, but... Ceebs, what is your VGA? HD4850?

I have a GTS250 (which is pretty much on the same level) and can't main solid 60fps at neither of the games using the same configs. In some random spots I get slowdowns to ~45fps in Mirror's Edge (and Batman: AA Demo), the same on some "crowded" avenues in Burnout Paradise, actually...
Do you (or anyone here) experienced issues like that and/or can help me? Also, reducing the resolution or the AA level do not seem to make any difference.

Well, some collaboration to the thread:

Bionic Commando @ 1440x900 (no AA supported in-game):

F.E.A.R. @ 1440x900 4xAA:

Also, just for fun, Max Payne @ 1440x900:

 

[Ceebs]

Off-topic, but... Ceebs, what is your VGA? HD4850?

I have a GTS250 (which is pretty much on the same level) and can't main solid 60fps at neither of the games using the same configs. In some random spots I get slowdowns to ~45fps in Mirror's Edge (and Batman: AA Demo), the same on some "crowded" avenues in Burnout Paradise, actually...
Do you (or anyone here) experienced issues like that and/or can help me? Also, reducing the resolution or the AA level do not seem to make any difference.

I got a 4870 1GB so that may be the case. Everything I have thrown at this thing runs at 60FPS or better at 1400X900 except Crysis and I get around 30-45 fps with one of the custom configs.

 

[Blizzard]

I got a 4870 1GB so that may be the case. Everything I have thrown at this thing runs at 60FPS or better at 1400X900 except Crysis and I get around 30-45 fps with one of the custom configs.

I wouldn't be surprised, I suspect my 512MB 4850 holds me back. What CPU do you have? I have a feeling e8400 at stock speed also slows me down in some cases.

 

[GWX]

I got a 4870 1GB so that may be the case. Everything I have thrown at this thing runs at 60FPS or better at 1400X900 except Crysis and I get around 30-45 fps with one of the custom configs.

Yeah, but I don't know, because as I stated before, reducing the resolution or the antialiasing level don't make any difference. Maybe it's my Q6600 @ 2.4GHz (yeah, stock, I have to OC it, but I never did it before and I need a 3rd party cooler) pushing me back.