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"Utter, utter tossy game."

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Sun 23/12/01 at 17:33
Regular
Posts: 787
It goes without saying that I am in no way affiliated with Special Reserve and my comments are only based on my opinion, and in no way to be taken as gospel.
-----

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.
Mon 24/12/01 at 03:54
Regular
"Maximum Homerdrive"
Posts: 431
i got a similar spec system to goatboy.

mines a

1.4Ghz Athlon
256mb of DDR ram (was 512mb but i kinda buggered the other 256mb up long story)
and a 32mb Geforce 2 GTS

now my mate has AvsP 2 and i borrowed it off him a while back and the only prob i had was with the intro bits which i corrected with a Direct x patch which wasn't to big a download.

i can't understand why it doesn't like your system?

if you live in the chelmsford/basildon area i could download the patch for you and give it to you on a RW as i got a satelite download connection.
Sun 23/12/01 at 23:06
Regular
"Infantalised Forums"
Posts: 23,089
Salevaa wrote:
Not to sound
> rude or offensive, but it's probably something to do with the specifications of
> your computer not being high enough.

---

I agree, but my specs are thus:

256mb Ram
1.2gig processor
32MB graphics card.

I can run any of my other games at full whack with minimal slowdown.
This just chugs like an old train going uphill.
Must just be the game.
Sun 23/12/01 at 22:52
Posts: 0
I borrowed AvP2 off a mate and the only thing that annoyed me was the slow loading times inbetween levels. Once the game started i had no problems what-so-ever.
However playing Return to Castle Wolfenstien it does tend to freeze at some points and then start up. I normally find out that i've been shot to pieces during the pause as well. Also when i save a game it doesn't always save. Which can be quite annoying as i tend to play throw half a level before saving.
I've got a 1.7GHZ Pentium 4, 256MBRAM and a Nvidia Geforce 2 graphics card. I shouldn't be having any problems at all. Any ideas?

Darkreaper
Sun 23/12/01 at 22:42
Regular
"Sally On Weekdays!"
Posts: 378
"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."

Not to sound rude or offensive, but it's probably something to do with the specifications of your computer not being high enough. The minimum system requirements printed on the box mean that it's the lowest it will run out, but it can still run badly.

I just got Castle Wolfenstein (god bless SR) and that runs absolutely fine on mine, so AVP2 in theory should. Here's my spec:

128MB Ram
600MHZ
19GB HDD

Pretty naff specs, and I've never upgraded graphics cards since I've had the PC (2 years ago). My GC must have been reallt advanced I guess. Well, it was a £1399 computer!
Sun 23/12/01 at 21:27
Regular
"Rong Xion Tong"
Posts: 5,237
Goatboy wrote:

Except
> the patch is 14mb and I cant get that on 56k modem, it would take
> hours.



I always download files of that size or more.

Do you have Download Accelerator?

I use that and I downloaded a 50 meg file the other day on a 56k modem. It did take a few days but all you have to do is resume it everytime you come online.

Easy peasy. :-D
Sun 23/12/01 at 20:38
Regular
"pob, the originator"
Posts: 131
Mr. Nice Guy wrote:
> o(^_^)o wrote:

It could just be the copy of the game.


Speaking of
> copying....


Ha ha, well done.
Sun 23/12/01 at 20:33
Regular
"Wasting away"
Posts: 2,230
o(^_^)o wrote:

It could just be the copy of the game.


Speaking of copying....
Sun 23/12/01 at 20:31
Regular
"pob, the originator"
Posts: 131
It could just be the copy of the game. I had a copy of Soldier of Fortune which my P.C could of handled easily; it jerked about all the time. I swapped it for a new one and it worked smoothly with no hint of slowdown.
Sun 23/12/01 at 20:30
Regular
Posts: 23,216
Goatboy wrote:
"Except the patch is 14mb and I cant get that on 56k modem, it would take hours."

Hey... err... oh. Umm... nevermind. :0)
Sun 23/12/01 at 20:26
Regular
"Want a cd key.."
Posts: 3,443
Well. Although my PC is like 1/10th of this. The same thing happened on AvP1. It was jerky. But only at times. It was never as bad as yours.

Maybe its just having problems with some of your parts.

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