T-Wolves

I just spent 2-3 weeks playing Return to Castle Wolftenstein on the medium level difficulty. I started over on the hardest level, and figured I'd work my way through it one more time.

Then I heard about the MOH:AA single-player demo, and downloaded it. WOW! I was not prepared for how much this game is going to kick a$$! I blew off RTCW, and spent much of the last week having fun playing this demo, trying different strategies. The sound effects & music are probably the best of any game I've ever played, and for once in a FPS game, when you get shot, you really get the feeling that you are getting hit.

As a younger man, I used to pre-order games all the time, just to have them on the day they first came out. But in recent years, particularly with PC games, I've learned my lesson, and have held out for a price somewhere in the $25-$35 range. Half the time, I didn't get time to play the game until a week later anyhow. But I'm having a hard time keeping myself from pre-ordering this game from ebworld.com and having them overnight it to me.

So what does everybody else think of this demo and the prospects for the game?

Flay

I loved the demo. But I just wish the friendly AI was smarter. They just walk out into enemy fire like a bunch of idiots.

I will certainly pick up a copy when it come out on my XBox.

Shuki

I had just upgraded from an old onboard voodoo3 to a new mobo, cpu and RADEON 8500! I hadn't my new system up for more than two hours when I d/l and played this demo. I was totally in awe.. Words don't cut it. says it all

ConanDestroyer

I set the graphics level to the max on everything and it looked gorgeus and realistic! Unfortunately, my computer is only average (P4, 1.3 ghz, 128 MB RAM, 32 MB nVidia card) so it was very slow.

I wish I could play this game the way it was meant to be seen. I had to take off a lot of graphical effects just so it would'nt be choppy.

For those playing Medal of Honor on max settings, what are your computer specs, just curious?? Looks like I need to upgrade, if I can afford a good card.

Shuki

assu a7v-133c mobo
1.33Ghz tbird at 10x133
Radeon 8500 OEM 250/250 clock

Mine was choppy at first too. A few things to try..
1. Make sure you have the latest drivers for your vid card
2. When I got to the little town part of the demo and cleared out the first street (don't approach the curve yet) I hit F5 for an auto save. I then did esc and went to the load/save area. In my game saves there were like 5 auto saves at the beginning and like 3 auto saves when the paratroopers join in with you. I don't know if there was a bug in the auto saves or what but I was loaded down with them. I deleted all of them but my quick save. When I got back to the game it definitely ran smoother.
3. Plus generally after that each time I began a game I would hit esc and go to load/save and load the game again to the spot I was. For whatever reason it helped. I think it had something to do with the textures loading....
4. Turn shadows off and set both color settings to 16 bit in the advanced settings
5. I actually had the best performance at the 1600x1200 screen size. Don't know why but it definitely ran smoother?!?!

Good Luck and keep us up to date on your findings...

Anthony Soprano

One word, awesome! I had never heard of this game at all until I downloaded the demo. This game is very special in the amount of detail that has went in to it. I have never played a shooter where strategy had to play such a part in it before. I really like the Hunt level where you have to play as a team as well. I can't wait for the full version. I think the part I like the most is the background sound effects.

Feneant

Hmmm, I have never really looked at this game, but I'm downloading the demo now althoug him not sure how well my pc will handle it.

While looking, I saw an article for Unreal Tournament 2... that could also be a game to look forward to.

happypants

Demo didn't even work on my computer, Win XP w Matrox G400 Max. It hangs sapping up 90-95% cpu time, and I have to kill the program.

I don't play a lot of games on my pc. I bought the Matrox for dual monitor (2x 19") capability. If there are more recent cards with good dual monitor support, I'd be willing to upgrade.

a123slonky

I second what Flay posted. You just dont walk out in front of someone when they are sniping.

Shuki

What are your pc specs? Could be a new video card would just create a bottleneck elsewhere....

The Radeon 8500 has "Hydravision" dual monitor support. There are three different options for this card with three different clock speeds. Retail (275/275), OEM (250/250) and then LE or sometimes called LELE (230/230). In my opinion the difference in the card speed is quite noticble (in gaming). I bought the OEM and overclocked it up to retail and could really see a difference but didn't want to run it at that speeds (overclocking chicken here!!) so I sold it and ordered the Retail version. It should be here this week You can pick up the Retail version for $249 after a $50 rebate this week at your local CompUSA http://www.compusa.com/product_image...s/1_13/pg9.pdf

But even with a new card (either nVidia or Radeon, I'm not a fanboy of either) you still may suffer slowdown problems with this demo. There is just as much talk of it on the nvidia forums as there is on the Radeon forum. If you're interested in the Radeon and want to hear from some real people about the card head over to www.rage3d.com and go to their Radeon 8500 forum. You can gather a lot of info by just reading through everyone elses posts. Either way Good Luck and be HAPPY!!

ConanDestroyer

I have an nVidia TNT2 M64 card (32 MB SDRAM) and I'm experiencing bad slow-down on the high levels. My question is: is it possible these problems can be fixed for us nVidia users in the retail version?

Because currently I have to play Medal at low details (640 x 480) with many graphical options turned to medium or below. It hiccups a little evn if I go to 800 x 600. Too bad the graphics end up looking like a Dreamcast game, or maybe an N64 game!
That's the only ideal level for me where things can run smoothly.
I tried playing at the max level and the graphics blew me away, but it was virtually unplayable. There was a 5 second delay just to shoot my gun -- it was that slow.

Another question is: is 128 MB of RAM adequate? Or do I need to get 256 MB of RAM?

Shuki

only time will tell....

Have you gone over to the nvidia forums and asked around about possible fixes?

With my Radeon the only way I can play it really smooth is at 1600x1200 with shadows (off or low can't remember) and the two color settings in the advanced options to 16 bit. I max everything else. But I can keep the same settings and drop down to 1024x768 or even 800x600 and will see a bit of slowdown for some strange reason.

I think the slowdown has something to do with the 32 bit textures loading. Did you read my post above about deleting all of the unused saves too? That made a HUGE difference in mine. Then I also load, escape and reload every time I play the demo. Again I think that helps with the texture loading.

The way I understand it is that the video card memory is what handles your gaming (32MB in your case) not necessarily the RAM in your pc. So I'm not sure that would help. If I were you I would read through this thread and try some of the suggestions. If none of that works find a good nVidial forum and do a bit of reading. Good Luck!! If you get it running right it is totally worth it!!

Lateralus

Amd 900 mhz
785 mb pc133 RAM
(2) 100 ata 30 gig drives
Voodoo 5 video card


The demo killed my machine the first time I tried it, but I upgraded to a 3rd party video card driver. (Since 3dfx went out of business I have to rely on 3rd party) Now the game runs sweet with no hicupps even at 1024x768 and everything else maxed out. However I do have some weirdness in the Opening options screen, that is it.
The game is awsome, but I still love Wolfenstein.

happypants

Athlon Tbird 1.3ghz
640MB ram
Matrox G400 Max (32MB)
Windows XP Pro

Actually, the readme for the demo gives a list of cards that are and aren't supported, and the Matrox is under "not supported" because it will not be able to show textures well.


Thanks, I'll read up on the card!

Oooh I am looking at this page:

http://www.ati.com/na/pages/products...mo/choose.html

and now I am definitely more interested, because Appian is well known for their multi monitor cards, especially among stock traders, since many have multi monitor setups.

Shuki

You can order the LE from newegg for $180 but it's a toss up whether or not you'll get 230/230 or 250/250. Their site lists 230/230 speed but the one I got was 250/250. As I mentioned before there is also a lot of helpful info here http://www.rage3d.com/board/forumdisplay.php?forumid=27 if you decide you want to upgrade....

Goblincat

P3 800
384 MB RAM
VooDoo 5 (with the last released 3DFX driver)

The game plays pretty nicely at 800x600 with all options turned to the max. It only seems to slow down when I zoom in with the sniper scope, but not to badly. I can't wait for this one to come out.

tommy28

Where can i download this,

thanks

ts

Shuki

Skim through this thread and try some of the links. These were about a week before the official demo release on the 8th and some were pulled. You'll just have to check through them and see which ones are still working. I'm sure you'll find one still up...

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=170877

happypants

What stuff do you get with the OEM card?

Shuki

The card, a white box, installation cd and s-video cable.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...ry=1126&DEPA=1 scroll down to the $179 one. It's got 43 reviews you might want to read through also. and a direct product link (that may or may not be working)

T-Wolves

Hey Conan,

I have a P3 866 w/384MB of RAM, and a GeForce 3 card running WinXP Pro. No slowdown at all running at 1024x768 with all effects on.

Anthony Soprano

I have a P3 866 w/256MB of RAM, and a NVidia 32MB card running Win ME. I have no slow down or lag running at 1024x768 with all graphics at maximum. Maybe the faster processors are choking. If this is a big problem, there should be a patch for the full version.

tommy28

I just got done(for now)playing the multi demo online against everyone,kick asssssss-people running everywhare shooting everyone,


tommy

ConanDestroyer

Yeah thanks for the info and help. I'm going to wait for the retail version and see if the performance improves. If it doesn't, looks like it's upgrade time for me. Shuki, I tried the "deleting extra saves" and you're right, it does help a little. Unfortunately, when I get into another thick battle, the slow-down comes back. I'll check on those nVidia forums as well, thanks.

BTW, I have a 32 MB nVidia video card -- I wonder if that is the real culprit to my slowdowns??

Someone also mentioned the faster processors choking up (I have a Pentium 4) and I think you may be right. Oddly, people have mentioned that P3s actually outperform P4s in some cases.

bdshort

I played this demo a little while back and was also pretty impressed by it. Running it on a P3 733, 384 megs ram, GeForce 2 32 meg card, with all the detail cranked, 32 bit color, but only 800x600, it still looks VERY good.

The other Quake 3 based game I really want now is Soldier of Fortune 2

I sure hope I dont suck up too much of my time with games, since I just got a PS2 and will probably get an xbox in several months time.

Brian