New M570U, time to play

Alright, just ordered my new rig yesterday and now I am trying to figure out what games I need to splurge on. Hardware requirements are not an issue, and I am not adverse to older games either, so fire away. All genres count!

Games I have already played and don't need:
FEAR
CoD2
Battlefield 2
GRAW
Rainbow Six Vegas

Games I am considering (suggest some others?):
Company of Heroes (played the demo, was pretty fun)
Battlefield 2142
Supreme Commander (played the demo, was also fun)
Condemned: Criminal Origins

Anyone have any other suggestions? I'm really just looking to blow myself away with some fun on my new system.

 

I enjoyed Battlefield 2142.

Did you try Oblivion? I'm playing it now and I think it's great!

 

Actually I haven't played Oblivion, but I have watched a friend play for a bit. It looks fun, however I am a little picky with my RPG type games.. The last one I played happened to be Fallout 2, and that was a long time ago. Still a great game though!

Besides pretty graphics, what does Oblivion offer? I assume it would be a big time-sucker with all the leveling and questing and all that. I have read about people not liking the game mechanics. I'm curious about the environments and how well it does at immersing you. Am I going to be amazed when I enter a new area that has some crazy architecture or something? Or be creeped out in a cave somewhere? I don't like games that can't offer some decent immersion.. even shooters do a good job of it most of the time, so I would expect a game like Oblivion to offer a lot more.

 

DOD source

 

How about Crysis?

 

I will definitely be checking out Crysis, I have had my eye on it for a while.. only problem is it won't be out for who knows how long.

DOD Source is just a mod for CS:S right? I played the original DOD for Halflife ages ago and had fun (please tell me they still have shovel bashing).

 

Command & Conquer 3 I liked more than supreme commander (personal preference)

Battlefield 2142 isn't half bad either, I play it often.

Halflife 2 single player I thought was great. Turned all toys to max on my setup worked flawless. Action is fast paced and many of the puzzles make you think as opposed to blind killing.

I have a copy of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I installed on my desktop, haven't gotten far but it seems like an RPG/FPS mix. But can't recommend as I have not put enough time into it.

I also hear Halflife 2 Episode One is a worthwhile add-on but I will get back to you later as I still have to hit EBgames and get my copy

I hope this helped, if you have any other questions feel free to post here or IM me either works as I live on these forums

Good Gaming!

 

Thanks for the reply Vaath! (can you tell I'm bored at work today? I'm responding to my own thread faster than I can get up and go to the bathroom).

I guess I will just have to rock out on the demos for SupCom and C&C3 for a while and see which one I like more. Total Annihilation was an incredible game, and I know Chris Taylor (head designer for TA and SupCom) did an incredible job with SupCom.

Somehow Halflife 2 was one of those games that just slipped by me (even after all those game of the year awards and praise). Maybe I should finally play it through!

 

Ya I would recommend Quake 4 and Doom3 but they were a little disappointing. Quake 4 single player was so so, now I notice it seems like online verry few populated servers. Plus its more like a higher graphic quake 3 (which i liked). Lack of players killed that one for me.

Doom 3 was awesome when it came out, but for me it only offered the best graphics for the time. Nothing amazing in the gameplay.

 

Yeah Quake 4 was a bust, I forgot about that one. I found myself wanting to be in the middle of a bunch of other marines as I was running around, but you end up by yourself most of the time. Maybe Quakewars will fix that?

I feel like I'm all quaked out.. I am switching from a Powerbook G4 to this new Clevo, so the only things I could play were Quake 3 engine games, so that is all we did for a few years in class (Quake 3, CoD and UO, and Halo). I don't think I want to play any more Quake games for a while (until ET:Quakewars proves itself)

 

Far Cry is an older FPS but one of the best ever made in my opinion, and it still looks beautiful. It should run great on your machine.

 

Oblivion and dark messiah of might and magic were cool.

Prey is ok too.

 

I find the game very addictive. There are a lot of things to do and you're pretty free to do what you want.
As you have seen, the game looks great. So you'll be able to take advantage of your gaming notebook with this one.
As for the gameplay, I guess it really depends what you like. I love it. At first the look of the game is quite amazing in my opinion. So I'd say you'll be amazed by the architecture at first. Of course that will get old once you play for a couple hours. Yet I think the game still has a great feel to it. If you like immerison when you play a game I think this one will give you loads.
When I'm waling around in a dark cave I'm always on edge and I'll sometimes jump when something just comes at me (though it doesn't really happen a lot since that's not the type of game it is). I'm really into it when I do a sneaking mission, walking around trying to not get detected gets me pretty nervous.

What I really like though is the freedom you have. There are a lot of quests to keep you busy for hours. There are a lot of guilds and groups you can join, doing quests for them and advancing in ranks.

I think you should give it a try. You have a friend that owns? Ask him if you can have it for a few days to see what it's like. You might love it or you might not, but I think you should see for yourself.

 

Funny thing about Prey for me was when running upside down or on walls I got dizzy and felt sick. Dunno Why?

Ya Quake 4 was a bust, I'll admit it was one of my "oh it's quake can't suck" attitude and bought it. Played for the first few months when it was popular online. Now it sits here in it's box......

I never got into farcry but have heard nothing but good things about it.

Yah! I too am waiting on Quake Wars release, except this time I won't buy it on the "quake factor" of it

Expect a review of it when/if I do buy it

 

Thanks for your impressions, Thibault. I think it sounds interesting enough for me to try. Who knows, I haven't been into a game involving magic in a long time. It might do the trick.

Farcry seems like it is so old! Maybe I should give that a try too, considering I could pick it up for like $20 at most stores. Are the graphics anything near stuff like F.E.A.R. and CoD2? Or is it just a little older than those and falls a bit short?

 

in about one month, the must have game will be:

:wink: Unreal Tounament 3:wink:
(formerly known as UT2007)



View the all-new UT3 HD trailer
(brings back good ole memories from the first UT intro)

The demo should be coming out within the next few weeks, I'll update the thread when I get the news.

 

:yes: :yes: :yes:

I have been watching that one closely. I swear i've logged more online "Onslaught" games of UT2004 than any other online shooter

 

Is UT2004 worth checking out despite its age?

 

UT2004 is still a great game and still very addictive.

I still logged in a lot of hours in this game than any other FPS.

 

FarCry is definitely still worth checking out. It was way ahead of its time when it came out.
The sheer scope of the environments is still very impressive.
You can find jewelcase copies of it for 10 bucks.

And you are doing yourself wrong by not getting Half-Life 2 and Episode 1. There's a reason it won all those awards.

 

Hey Elminst, I guess I'll have to check out Farcry if it is still considered worth playing and I can get it for that cheap (why the hell not?). How is that Sager treating you? What are you currently playing?

 

Ya if you can get a cheapy Unreal Tournament 2004 somewhere I think you will like it. Comes with a nice assortment of built in mods and there are still many who play it online.

Also I second the Halflife 2 recommendation! I have yet to get Episode One but I should probably give it a try.

 

I've had it since August. I am extremely happy with it.

Playing now: mostly BF2, also CS1.6 and DoD.
Finished recently: Tomb Raider:Legend (mighty purty!)

 

Sounds like I am going to spend a hundred bucks on games just to start out. Anyone play X-2 The Threat? I thought that could be cool. Is it very open ended like Oblivion? I had a room mate who played EVE Online for a while, and even I got pissed off by it just watching him play for five minutes- looked like it sucked.

Here is the list so far that I am considering:
Company of Heroes
UT2004
Oblivion
Halflife 2

Possibly but not as high priority:
Farcry

 

The games that you listed in your first post; have you played any of them on your new laptop?

If your new specs are considerably better than your old rig, I might suggest loading a couple of them back up and cranking up the graphics just to see the difference. I'm going to play through HL2:Ep1 again just to see how pretty it is. And I plan on replaying both of the Knights of the Old Republic games also.

 

Assassin's Creed is coming out this year on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. That's going to be the game that will really test your hardware. Even a 7950 GTX will surely be pushed. Also, have any of you guys seen Project Offset? Looks really nice!

BTW, why did you post the specs of your hardware? The M570U comes in different flavors. O_O

 

I played those games on my desktop actually- it is a few years old now, something I whipped up myself. Respectable but not crazy (A64 3500+, 7800GT, 1gig ram). I was able to play on decent settings at that point.. FEAR was a little sluggish and I was at 1024x768. The specs of this laptop are better, so I would imagine that I can pump up the quality a bit!

I can't say I know much about Assassins Creed or Project Offset. I will check them out today.

Specs of the M570U
17" 1920x1200 WUXGA screen
Core 2 Duo T7200 (2.0Ghz)
Nvidia 7950GTX
2GB Corsair RAM
100GB 7200RPM HD

That's all that is important gaming wise, unless you want to know the speed of my dvd-burner I still have to wait until next week for this thing to arrive though

 

If you're trying impress us, you're failing. Anyone will hardly care about the speed of your DVD burner.

You should have probably just waited for the mobile version of the Geforce 8800 and Intel Santa Rosa CPUs. Games like Assassin's Creed, Crysis, Project Offset, Alan Wake, and other highly-anticipated titles utilize DX10 and aside from that, it will sure choke the aging high-end Geforce 7950 and Radeon X1950 cards. You shouldn't be surprised if you see people 6 months from now with laptops that have the Geforce Go 8800 and running Crysis at max settings and max resolution and your laptop only running it at around medium-high and at something like 1280x960.

When I wrote this, I was assuming that you expected or wanted your laptop to be futureproof by its nature of being "top-of-the-line".

 

No, I'm not trying to impress you. It was more of a joke than anything, and I didn't mean it to come across as me being a jerk about it. I'm aware of the fact that the new hardware is coming out very soon- however I am in need of a laptop prior to the release of said hardware.

My next school quarter is in the summer (that begins in June) and I need to have the laptop by then, so I don't have the luxury of waiting for the new hardware. I made the decision to purchase the best hardware I could at the time with the budget that I had so that I could do my school work (design major). I'm not trying to brag, I was just listing the specs like you asked. Sorry if I misinterpreted your post, but it seemed a bit rude. Just trying to talk about some games..

 

Sorry if I seemed kind of rude but I felt a bit turned off by what you said in the previous and the first post when you said the specs didn't matter just so long as we tell you the newest games, which obviously are performance hogs.

Anyway, if it's really necessary for you to get the best and fastest laptop for school, you get it. But if I were in your shoes I'd try to hold off a bit and work with what I have till the Geforce Go 8800s or Quadros based on the 8800 come out. BTW, are you a new laptop owner? As in, it's your first laptop.

I'm starting college soon... too soon. In fact, I'll be entering as a college freshman next Wednesday. O_O I'm a new laptop owner. I asked my parents to buy me a laptop and I happened to choose a laptop with a hybrid GPU since I need battery life, portability and some power for the occassional gaming. Anyway, my course is in information and communication technology management. Damn... I'm growing older. I'll be 16 this October and I'll be 20 when I'm done with my studies. College life makes me think of hell... I don't know what to except and what will happen afterwards.

 

Not a problem, I was just stating that the specs weren't really an issue right off the bat to avoid having multiple people post the inevitable question "What are your specs/what can your machine handle". Not that its a problem for people to ask that, but it was simply a way to cut to the chase. No hard feelings!

Actually I wouldn't be getting a new laptop at all if I still had my old one. The crappy thing is my last laptop (Powerbook G4) was stolen out of my friends car at the end of my last school quarter! That's why I can't wait, because I don't have a laptop for school at the moment (and this computer I am on belongs at work). I'm a fourth year student (5 year program), and this will be my third laptop. Students in my specific program usually end up burning through a lot of hardware because of how hard we push our systems, plus I think I ended up with some lemons from Apple (Applecare warranties saved my bacon, my second laptop was free of charge compliments of Apple and failed hardware). So this new one happens to be from insurance money from the one that was stolen.

Congrats on starting school so early. The hybrid system should do you well (from what I know about them). I wish I could have waited for the new cards and even a solid state drive, but time was against me I'm afraid. Take good care of it!

 

Thanks for the regards. And I'm quite stumped that you had your laptop insured. Here in the Philippines, I don't think you can insure those.

And I'm sorry about your old Powerbook. Anyway, it seemed too old anyway for any of the newer CAD software.

I'm quite satisfied with my laptop. It's actually just a renamed Uniwill 259EN, more commonly known as the Alienware M5500 of yesteryear. I was actually tempted to get that Dell XPS Gen 2 with the Geforce Go 6800 Ultra 256 Mb GDDR3, Pentium M 760 2.0 Ghz, 1 Gb DDR2 533 Mhz, 100 Gb 7200 rpm, 17" WUXGA screen. My parents told me it looked too big and I thought so too. It was 50K Php (around $1050 US) and I considered that a bargain. The laptop I bought was 38K Php (around $800 US). That store I went to two weeks ago was on sale BTW. Trying to get rid of the older laptops that weren't sold.

I was also considering the Dell because its performance seemed to match or maybe even surpass my desktop. And it looked really good too despite the size. O_O My desktop has an Athlon 64 3200+ AM2, 1 Gb DDR2 533 Mhz, 160 Gb 7200 rpm, Geforce Go 6800GT. So I was thinking it can also play the newer games like my desktop without a hitch but then again, it was a 17" monster. It really seemed impractical for me especially in college where I heard you have to run around the campus all the time.

Don't worry. I'm careful when it comes to expensive things.

I was also wondering why you didn't get a laptop with a Quadro instead. I know they can turn Quadros into fully-fledged Geforces with a driver and vbios change but I don't know if it's the same for Geforces being Quadro using the same method. Then again, it's not my specialty so I don't know.

 

I recommend CoH and Battlefield 2142, add me in the game if you want (2142).

I'm Ghost_Recon23

 

Hey ghost, I'd like to know your opinion of BF2142 if you have the time. I played BF2 for a while on my desktop and had a decent amount of fun with it, but there were some things I didn't like and was curious to know how much they changed. First of all it seemed like I couldn't do much damage with most of the handheld weapons- it was like you had to fire multiple clips into people to get them to die. If I am holding an automatic weapon it should hose anything with a few simple bursts. I noticed when I watched some vids of BF2142 that people have to hose other players with the standard machine gun for like 2 or 3 clips before they die- whats up with that?

Another thing I wasn't a big fan of was the movement- there was no motion blur type stuff, no weight behind actions. It just felt like it lacked some of the finer characteristics of games like FEAR and CoD2. I know that BF is aimed at online play and so you have to do away with heavy effects and such because of bandwidth, but I was wondering if 2142 still feels kind of arcade-like and flimsy like BF2 did? I guess I should really just get a demo or something and play it, considering everyone is going to feel differently about it. I guess I just like my guns to have a great feel to them (good sound, good feel- makes you feel like you are actually blasting someone rather than it feeling like you have a BB gun and you can only kill with a rocket or a tank cannon).

 

I've played BF2142 a couple of times at my friend's house. There's only one thing I can say: ADS. Too many in-game advertisements and what made me laugh is the they're advertising 21th century stuff on a game that's supposed to be set in the 22nd century. O_O Other than that, it plays a lot like BF2.

I'm particularly excited about Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare since it's going to be available on the PC unlike CoD3 (which I still have fun playing online even when playing it using the Xbox 360 controller). But judging from the trailer, I'll probably end up playing it on the Xbox 360 just for the graphics. I wouldn't wanna spend over $2000 on a computer just for some eye-candy.

 

Yeah, CoD4 looks like it could be cool. I hope they are able to find ways to separate themselves from such standard subject matter- I mean there are so many modern-day FPS games already. Makes me wonder if it will ruin the series (although I am definitely getting tired of WWII subject matter as well).

I am also looking forward to Haze, one of the new ones from Ubisoft.

Anyone play that game that came out around the time FEAR did called Bet On Soldier?