Spoarz Plz

[mxer394]

So, Spore is out, and I'm torn between it, and waiting a couple weeks and getting GOW2. Could someone give a personal opinion of it? Worth the 50 bucks?

[George Hallam]

im getting it by the end of the week so i will tell you ;)

its meant to be great but.... well we dont all have the same tastes

[mjc]

SecurRom...

[George Hallam]

SecurRom...

what you mean?

:confused:

ive heard of it before but not 100% :p

[Ajmukon]

lets do a search!
googling it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SecuROM
me no likey

[mjc]

pssst....I can give ya' r'tkit, fer free...no need ta pays 50 clams fer it....

[George Hallam]

:( me no like

[mxer394]

Spore is good as far as I have seen. But when I went to start the game, it told me to install the latest GPU drivers to utilize multiple GPUs. I already had installed these, but I reinstalled the driver anyway and enabled multiple GPUs. It works now, but I was wondering if it fully utilizes multiple GPUs.

Also, is this one of those newer games that fully use all four cores of a quad core, or just two cores of the four?

Thanks. I just want to know what kind of settings I should set the game to.

[mjc]

One down...two more installs left.

[jlreich]

HAHA! Did you see where the reviewer ratings on amazon.com for spore (http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B000FKBCX4/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?_encoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1) was flooded with 1,948 (out of 2,119) 1-star rating because of SecurRom and the game only allowing 3 activations and it will stop functioning?

LOL! That's what they get in my opinion. ;) That's why I never ran BioShock.

From the Wiki -

Spore controversy

On September 7, 2008 EA released Spore using SecuROM. Public reaction has been swift and sharp, fueled by a grassroots campaign[citation needed] to flood Spore's comments page on Amazon.com with one star reviews (the lowest possible rating). As of September 10th, 2008, there were 1,937 reviews with a single star out of five rating. A vast majority of these comments cite SecuROM as the main reason for the low rating.

[saphalline]

SecuROM isn't fun, but it isn't "the Devil", either! :p

Even so, copy protection schemes can wreak havoc on a Windows-based system - no doubt about that! One of the many reasons why I switched to having a dedicated gaming rig long ago. I use it for gaming. And for looking up gaming stuff. And for doing updates. That's it. Works pretty well, too. And I've been running Vista 64-bit for a year and a half now! Not a bad track record, SecuROM or no.

[saphalline]

That's why I never ran BioShock.To be fair, the publisher did listen to the fans and eased up quite a bit on that front. Kudos to them for listening, at the very least.

Even so, it shouldn't be a mark against the game. Developers have no control over this stuff. At all. The BioShock developers had no idea SecuROM and limited activations were in the works until the game discs were already shipping! :eek:

[mxer394]

This has to be the biggest video game dissapointment I've ever had.

The graphics of this game are simply awful. A w f u l.

I took SLI off, like advised, and with the game running at high detail, high draw distance, high everything, 1400*900 at 75 Mz refresh rate. And I still get dramatic pop up, terrible textures, horrible rendering.

Who, I ask you, WHO releases a PC game nowadays without at least SLI support. I mean, the graphics get worse with SLI on.

I have never been this dissapointed. I saw screenshots with luscious forests and brilliant textures, amazing draw distances. What did I get? A turd for a game.

The saddest thing is, this game is wonderful. The gameplay is so intoxicating. But I can't play it for ten minutes without having to stop and cry at a game that was ruined because they lowered the graphics in an effort to allow Grandpa to play it on his P4 machine.

For shame Maxis. Your attempts to pander to casual gamers has not only ruined a game I built my PC solely to run at it's best, but is not helping the PC game market to do anything but flounder.

/end rant

[Ajmukon]

This has to be the biggest video game dissapointment I've ever had.

The graphics of this game are simply awful. A w f u l.

I took SLI off, like advised, and with the game running at high detail, high draw distance, high everything, 1400*900 at 75 Mz refresh rate. And I still get dramatic pop up, terrible textures, horrible rendering.

Who, I ask you, WHO releases a PC game nowadays without at least SLI support. I mean, the graphics get worse with SLI on.

I have never been this dissapointed. I saw screenshots with luscious forests and brilliant textures, amazing draw distances. What did I get? A turd for a game.

The saddest thing is, this game is wonderful. The gameplay is so intoxicating. But I can't play it for ten minutes without having to stop and cry at a game that was ruined because they lowered the graphics in an effort to allow Grandpa to play it on his P4 machine.

For shame Maxis. Your attempts to pander to casual gamers has not only ruined a game I built my PC solely to run at it's best, but is not helping the PC game market to do anything but flounder.

/end rant

well, new games generally need to be updated to fix bugs and issues, as well as graphic Cards Drivers. Wait a little while, Nvidia will soon release a update that will improve performance, also, i am sure there are bugs in the game that are causing issues..

[mxer394]

well, new games generally need to be updated to fix bugs and issues, as well as graphic Cards Drivers. Wait a little while, Nvidia will soon release a update that will improve performance, also, i am sure there are bugs in the game that are causing issues..

I sure hope they do. Because these graphics are a serious letdown. Jaggies? What is that? This isn't 2005 anymore. :Nododgy:

[saphalline]

new games generally need to be updated to fix bugs and issuesExactly the sort of thing that drives away players from the PC platform! And now that consoles have storage mediums, developers everywhere are being forced to release buggy code on idiotic schedules!! :mad:

The only unfaltering angelic light in the entire industry is Blizzard. Think about it - you ever play a game from them that wasn't nearly perfect on release? Or how about this one: StarCraft has a patch that merely adds TCP/IP network play! :eek: That's it! That's all it does!

I love Blizzard...

[mjc]

Or the official, direct from Blizzard no-cd patches...

[jlreich]

Or the official, direct from Blizzard no-cd patches...
Those are wonderful. :cool: I was shocked not long ago when I decided to reinstall Diablo II: LOD, looked for patches and found you can now run it without the CD.

Yeah you can get unofficial no-cd exe's, but it's much nicer when you can get them, or other ways of running without the CD, from the manufacturer. :)

[George Hallam]

ok i have it

only played 3-4 hours and so far i like it :D

the graphics aren't bad very simple cute

[Ajmukon]

Exactly the sort of thing that drives away players from the PC platform! And now that consoles have storage mediums, developers everywhere are being forced to release buggy code on idiotic schedules!! :mad:

The only unfaltering angelic light in the entire industry is Blizzard. Think about it - you ever play a game from them that wasn't nearly perfect on release? Or how about this one: StarCraft has a patch that merely adds TCP/IP network play! :eek: That's it! That's all it does!

I love Blizzard...

MAxis is notorious for "buggy" games.

SimCity 4 (arguably the Best simCity out there).. can't use ~2/3 of the buildings- they just never come up in the random generator. They have never fixed this to my knowledge. They where going to, but decided to work on Spore instead..

[mxer394]

Just got this bit of wisdom from someone else. Would this work? Is there a beta driver for Vista 64 Bit?

I'd recommend you download the latest BETA driver from Nvidia.

Windows XP:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_177.92_beta.html

Vista 32bit:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_177.92_beta.html

Only with this latest driver can you force AA & AF via the control panel for spore. I did this and it improves the graphics, substantially. Put AFx16 and AAx4 (or what ever your computer can handle).

If your not sure how to force AA/AF via the control panel, here's a tutorial:

-Open up Nvidia control panel.

-On the menu select "manage 3D settings".

-Click the program settings tab.

-Find Spore in the list of applications.

-Change the following setting's to:

AF = 16x (higher the better)
Antialiasing - Mode = Override any application setting
AA - setting = 4x or whatever your PC can handle (higher the better)
V-sync = Force on

[saphalline]

Yeah, I do both of those two things all the time. Latest beta driver? Check! NVCP? Check!

So, you've never been in the NVCP? Not even to mess around? :eek: For shame! :p

To get the beta drivers, go to the main driver page (http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us). But instead of clicking on stuff under "Option 1", scroll down to the bottom. Right underneath the title "Other Drivers", there's a link called "Beta and Archived Drivers". That's where you need to go.