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Alien Vs Predator 2.
What a load of balls.
What is really frustrating is that there is a fantastic game underneath trying to get out, but it's suffocated by show-stopping game problems and errors.
I thought the 1st AvP was top.
Tense, exciting and atmospheric.
Same is almost true with this one.
Except it's hampered by, without doubt, the most unwieldy loading and graphical problems.
You can install it totally onto your hard-drive, no CD needed. And it doesn't ask for a CD key either.
Hmmm...freeware?
So I installed it all onto hard-drive and started to play as the Marine.
The intro and cut-scenes are jerky and pause, skipping ahead just enough so that you miss what is being said.
Ok, I can live with that.
Except for the actual gameplay.
Every single time you open a door, enter a new corridor or something starts to move, the game stops.
Not slows down, but stops dead for up to 6 seconds whilst the hard-drive chugs away and loads stuff.
So when you start again, you are dead.
You see, the action doesn't stop - just the onscreen stuff.
So although it looks like it's paused? Nope, you got killed.
I'm running a 1.2 gig Athalon processor, 256mb RAM and a 32MB video-card.
This is a high-end gaming system. I have no problems running other games like Max Payne or Flashpoint/Wolfestein which are graphics hungry games.
But AvP2 just stops and whirs away every time you move somewhere or action begins on screen.
I thought it may be the fact the whole thing is stored on my hard-drive, so I did the typical install option, takes the data of the CD as you play to give less hard-drive access.
Nope.
Still the same problems.
Takes up to 40 seconds to load a quicksave.
Did the Alien story, and just had to stop playing it got that unplayable with the something happen/screen stop problem.
Heading towards the end of an air-duct.
Stop.
8 seconds later it starts again, only now I've fallen into the room below with 4 marines that kill you.
And there's nothing you can do about it.
I turned the graphics options waaay down, much lower than my system can run 100% no problem.
Even did 3D benchmark to test my card and it's running sweet as ever.
You simply cannot play a game that pauses every 4-5 seconds and whirs the hard-drive away before restarting.
So I quit out.
And it took 2:23 to quit to desktop.
What??!!??
That's not right.
I'm checking if there's a patch available, but a game just shouldn't play like this in this day and age.
And I tried it on a mate's computer, same problem.
Shame, as the game itself is good, but the bugs/errors with the loading-graphics problem makes it utterly joyless and frustrating beyond tolerance.
What a toss game.
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Alien Vs Predator 2.
What a load of balls.
What is really frustrating is that there is a fantastic game underneath trying to get out, but it's suffocated by show-stopping game problems and errors.
I thought the 1st AvP was top.
Tense, exciting and atmospheric.
Same is almost true with this one.
Except it's hampered by, without doubt, the most unwieldy loading and graphical problems.
You can install it totally onto your hard-drive, no CD needed. And it doesn't ask for a CD key either.
Hmmm...freeware?
So I installed it all onto hard-drive and started to play as the Marine.
The intro and cut-scenes are jerky and pause, skipping ahead just enough so that you miss what is being said.
Ok, I can live with that.
Except for the actual gameplay.
Every single time you open a door, enter a new corridor or something starts to move, the game stops.
Not slows down, but stops dead for up to 6 seconds whilst the hard-drive chugs away and loads stuff.
So when you start again, you are dead.
You see, the action doesn't stop - just the onscreen stuff.
So although it looks like it's paused? Nope, you got killed.
I'm running a 1.2 gig Athalon processor, 256mb RAM and a 32MB video-card.
This is a high-end gaming system. I have no problems running other games like Max Payne or Flashpoint/Wolfestein which are graphics hungry games.
But AvP2 just stops and whirs away every time you move somewhere or action begins on screen.
I thought it may be the fact the whole thing is stored on my hard-drive, so I did the typical install option, takes the data of the CD as you play to give less hard-drive access.
Nope.
Still the same problems.
Takes up to 40 seconds to load a quicksave.
Did the Alien story, and just had to stop playing it got that unplayable with the something happen/screen stop problem.
Heading towards the end of an air-duct.
Stop.
8 seconds later it starts again, only now I've fallen into the room below with 4 marines that kill you.
And there's nothing you can do about it.
I turned the graphics options waaay down, much lower than my system can run 100% no problem.
Even did 3D benchmark to test my card and it's running sweet as ever.
You simply cannot play a game that pauses every 4-5 seconds and whirs the hard-drive away before restarting.
So I quit out.
And it took 2:23 to quit to desktop.
What??!!??
That's not right.
I'm checking if there's a patch available, but a game just shouldn't play like this in this day and age.
And I tried it on a mate's computer, same problem.
Shame, as the game itself is good, but the bugs/errors with the loading-graphics problem makes it utterly joyless and frustrating beyond tolerance.
What a toss game.
As you said, excellent game waiting to get out... but takes 30 sodding minutes to load. Then it crashes every now and again...
The patch fixes most of it, thankfully, but then you work out that AI is pretty crappy. Not too crappy, mind. Good fun.
Actually, there are 2 patches available.
One so you can play online and another that fixes "minor" problems.
Except the patch is 14mb and I cant get that on 56k modem, it would take hours.
Tried it again, and on top of the strenous loading times and freezing mid-action, when you load an autosave, it automatically engages whatever alternate fire your current weapon has 4 times in a row.
So I pi**ed away the 4 grenades I had left.
And turned it off again, uninstalled and will be taking it back tomorrow as it is utterly unplayable in this form and I will not download a patch to play a game I paid £29.99 for.
Bah
256RAM
Pentium 3 700Mhz
1.3 GB
Although any new computers could handle that easily, the olds ones might have some trouble...
I've got the demo of AvP2 (the one where you can play as marine, predator or alien) and my system specs are:
Duron 825
384Mb RAM
Geforce II MX 32Mb
I'm running the game at maximum graphical settings and have no problems whatsoever! Loading times are never longer than 15 seconds and I haven't noticed any pausing in-game. However, this may well be due to the fact that I'm running the demo.
I'm not quite sure, but I think I've suffered the same problem with a different game in the past. And I also think that's there's some kind of incompatibility between the game and your computer (i.e. not everyone suffers with your problem).
I completely agree about the fact that we shouldn't have to download huge patches when we've just paid good money for a game, but there's jack-all we can do about it, and if you want to sort out that problem, it's the only way to be sure...
I don't know what game you got but on the back of the box it says:
MIN SPEC
Pentium III 450mz (Got a 1.2 Gig Athalon)
128MB of Ram (got 256)
16MB Graphics card (got 32MB)
750MB Hard Drive space (got 28Gig)
Recommended
Pentium III 600MHZ (again, 1.2 Gig so easy peasy)
256MB Ram (check)
32MB Graphic Card (check)
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So my system can run it with zero problems according to the box.
Castle Wolfenstein runs the same spec and it plays fine.
There is no excuse for my computer to jerk and the hard-drive to spend so long accessing as soon as movement occurs on screen.
And with the latest Nvdia detonator drivers, it's running at 40% improved frame-rates etc.
This is the only game I've come across that does this.
And waiting for 2 and a half minutes to quit to desktop isn't right.
Ah well, exchanging tomorrow for something else.
Shame, because there is a good game underneath all the problems.
I've got the demo of AvP2 (the one
> where you can play as marine, predator or alien) and my system specs
> are:
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Yeah, the demo runs sweet as, just the whole game that grinds to a halt.
I just don't get it, the readme file mentions nothing about Athalon processor incompatibility or Nvidia difficulties.
Not to worry though, easy to remedy.