General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Bad PC Ports Need to Go Away: Dead Rising 3 Edition

Posted: 12 Sep 2014 03:39 PM PDT

Column: Now I know why they call it the Apocalypse Edition

PC games are buggy, and console games just work right out of the box – that's at least the stigma that console gamers place on the PC. The truth is that PC gaming is miles ahead of the consoles, but I do have to admit that that there are grains of truth to the stigma.

When Dead Rising 3 launched on the PC on September 5th, I encouraged my console-playing friend to play the game cooperatively with me on Steam. So we both got on Skype and fired it up. Immediately upon booting it up, however, I noticed the astonishingly long load times. To be fair, I did install it on my hard drive as opposed to my SSD, but these boot times were abnormally long and my friend noticed the same on his machine. The long boot times would be the least of my problems with the game, however. When I actually got into the game, something was definitely not right, and I'm not talking about the game's impending zombie apocalypse. It felt like I was playing more of a slideshow than a game. The framerate performance was terrible, which I thought was odd considering I was playing on my high-end i7 rig coupled with a GeForce GTX Titan. Sure I was trying to run the game maxed out, but considering I was using a $1,000 GPU on what essentially is a console port, max settings should have been a cakewalk. 

More like "Dead Rising 3: Bad Port Edition"

And my friend's more humble PC equipped with a modest 560 Ti GPU? Well, it started sweating bullets on medium. "This is why I'm not into PC gaming," my friend exclaimed. The comment stung a little and we both decided to tone down our graphics settings. I noticed a bump in performance when I ran the game at medium settings, but it still ran like crap. Upon doing some research, I found out that Capcom had capped the game to run at 30FPS. D'oh! Contrary to what console gamers might say, 30FPS is not enough, and friends don't let friends play at 30FPS.

To be fair to Capcom, apparently the company did warn PC gamers that the game would be locked to 30FPS prior to Dead Rising 3's launch, but still, a warning does not excuse a crime. That's like someone telling you, "Sorry, but I'm going to punch you" right before punching you. In other words, it doesn't really help. The straight truth of the matter is that Dead Rising 3 on the PC is a lazy port, and trust us when we say we know a thing or two about a bad port as we've done a roundup of the worst offenders. At this point, we'd have to say Dead Rising 3 is a dead ringer to be on that list (see what I did there?).

On the brightside, yes, there is an easy .ini fix to remove the 30FPS cap, but even Capcom advises against this because the company suggest that users 1)might need really beefy hardware and 2) it could potentially cause "issues." Furthermore, I'm personally a little afraid that the tweak might conflict with a future update down the road. In addition, this fan-made patch reinforces the negative stereotype that PC gamers need to manually tweak their games just to play them properly. The least Capcom could have done here is to include an in-game menu option to remove the 30FPS limit with perhaps a warning that it might cause some instability on lower-end systems. After all, if we're smart enough to choose PC gaming, we're smart enough to toggle a menu switch. In addition, some of us do in fact have super beefy hardware and would like the option to use it on an occasion such as this. *cough*

Terrible performance issues aside, Dead Rising's framerate is hardly the most pressing issue with the game at the moment. When my friend and I were slugging our way through the co-op campaign, the game crashed on me multiple times and booted my friend out of the online instance as well. I was hoping to play the game all night with my buddy, to show him the joys of Steam and PC gaming, but after four game crashes in an hour, even I had to admit defeat.

Over the next few days, I found out that my situation was not an isolated incident and that TONS of users are reporting game crashes. To Capcom's credit, the company has acknowledged the crashes and are attempting to do something about it, but only time will tell if this specific matter gets resolved. 

I haven't given up on Dead Rising 3 and was able to enjoy the game, well, at least from the little that I was able to play of it, but I'd much prefer to return to the zombie apocalypse when the bugs are ironed out. Because really, who likes fighting bugs and zombies at the same time?

However, the bigger thing I want to say to Capcom and other game developers is this: PLEASE STOP THE LAZY PC PORTS! These buggy, unoptimized ports do nothing to bolster the sales of your games. But more importantly, your rush job gives PC gaming an undue bad rep.

NFL Announcers Slip on $400 Million Surface Deal, Calls Microsoft's Tablets iPads

Posted: 12 Sep 2014 11:02 AM PDT

Surface Pro 3Can the NFL get anything right these days?

Not only did the NFL mishandle a major situation with Ray Rice's domestic abuse incident, but even comparatively minor tasks are turning into fumbles. Before the season began, Microsoft inked a $400 million deal with the NFL to make its Surface the official tablet of the league for the next five years. Under normal circumstances, that would be a sound (and even savvy) advertising deal on Microsoft's part, except for one little thing -- NFL announcers couldn't help but to refer to the Surface tablets as iPads.

Something like that should draw an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, but if you're Apple, you'll take the free exposure. As for Microsoft, it had to endure at least two television announcers making the same mistake during the first week of the season, including one that occurred during Monday Night Football.

According to Business Insider, ESPN's Trent Dilfer cracked a joke saying he wondered how long it took Arizona Cardinals assistant head coach Tom Moore to "learn how to use the iPad to scroll through pictures."

The other known incident happened when New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was seen by Fox commentator John Lynch using the Surface on the sideline. Lynch joked that Brees was "not watching movies on his iPad."

Funny stuff, though Microsoft would undoubtedly prefer if NFL announcers would spend less time cracking jokes and more time learning the difference between a Surface and an iPad.

Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

U.S. Department of Justice Fines HP $108 Million for Foreign Bribery Scandal

Posted: 12 Sep 2014 09:45 AM PDT

Hewlett-PackardHP and its subsidiaries face a hefty fine for felony violations of corruption

After pleading guilty to felony violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Hewlett-Packard and its subsidiaries have been ordered to pay a total of $108 million in criminal and regulatory penalties, the U.S. Department of Justice announced this week. Specifically, HP was caught bribing Russian government officials to secure a large and lucrative technology contract.

According to the Principal Deputy Assistant General Miller, HP's Russian subsidiary spent millions of dollars in bribes from a secret slush fund to secure the government contract. He called it a "sham transaction" and said that it was equally perturbing that it involved Russia's top prosecutor's office.

"For more than a decade HP Russia business executives participated in an elaborate scheme that involved paying bribes to government officials in exchange for large contracts," said FBI Assistant Director in Charge McCabe. "There is no place for bribery in any business model or corporate culture. Along with the Department of Justice, the IRS and international law enforcement partners, the FBI is committed to investigating corrupt backroom deals that threaten our global commerce."

According to the DoJ, HP Russia created excess profit margins to finance the slush fund through an elaborate buy-back deal scheme. That involved HP subsidiaries selling computer hardware and other technology products under contract to a Russian channel partner and then buying the same products back from an intermediary at around a $10 million markup with an additional $5.4 million in purported services. HP Russia then sold the same products to the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation at the increased price.

The three HP entities involved will pay over $76 million in criminal penalties and forfeiture, plus more than $31.4 million in disgorgement, prejudgement interest, and civil penalties, bringing the grand total to over $108 million.

Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Leaked Press Photo of GeForce GTX 970 Suggests Nvidia is Skipping 800 Series

Posted: 12 Sep 2014 09:13 AM PDT

Zotac GeForce GTX 970Thank you Zotac for the confirmation!

Supposed benchmarks of Nvidia's forthcoming GeForce GTX 980, GTX 970, and GTX 980M GPUs were leaked to the web earlier this week, and presuming they were real, it would seem that Nvidia is planning to skip right over the 800 Series and jump right into the 900s. Lest there be any lingering doubt, what looks to be an official press image of Zotac's GeForce GTX 970 graphics card is making its way through cyberspace.

We spotted the image over at Fudzilla, which led us over to VideoCardz.com. The site says the image was leaked by a Philippine store called PCHUB that was content to consider it a "sneak peek," though we're sure Zotac (and Nvidia) aren't super thrilled about it.

In any event, the GeForce GTX 970 is rumored to feature 1,664 CUDA cores, 138 TMUs, and 32 ROPs with a 1051MHz GPU base clockspeed and 1178MHz GPU boost clockspeed. The Zotac card will have 4GB of GDDR5 memory, presumably clocked at 7012MHz on a 256-bit bus.

We can also see that Zotac is deviating from the reference cooler in favor of its own custom solution. Since all we have is a photo to go on, there's no word yet of a price or release date, though it's rumored the 900 Series will launch on September 19.

Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Grand Theft Auto V Headed to PC January 27, 2015 with Prettier Graphics and New Weapons

Posted: 12 Sep 2014 08:54 AM PDT

Grand Theft Auto VYes, this release date is real

With all due respect to the PC gamers who, after waiting so long for Grand Theft Auto V to be ported to Windows with nary a peep from Rockstar Games, have understandably lost interest, this is a big day. At long last, Rockstar has finally picked a release date for GTA V on PC -- January 27, 2015 -- and I couldn't be more excited. Why? Partially because I've played the game with delight on the Xbox 360 and was totally drawn in, and also because I'm anxious to see the improved graphics and new features.

What about the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One? Rockstar's obvious preference for consoles has GTA V arriving on the PS4 and Xbox One on November 18, 2014, more than two months ahead of the PC launch. Whatever, let's not act surprised that the PC is last line -- a familiar place with Rockstar.

As to the game, all three platforms will see a "range of major visual and technical upgrades" that will make Los Santos and Blaine County prettier and more immersive than they've ever been. You can expect increased draw distances, a higher resolution, and a handful of new additions such as new weapons, vehicles, and activities, more wildlife, denser traffic, a new foliage system, enhanced damage and weather effects, and more.

Those who pre-order will receive $1,000,000 of in-game currency, half of which you can spend in GTA V and the other half allocated to GTA Online. If you've already been playing GTA Online, you'll be able to transfer your character and progression to PC (or PS4 or Xbox One).

There's no arguing it's been a long wait, and with still four months to go, Rockstar is undoubtedly alienating some PC gamers. To tide you over -- assuming you're still interested -- check out the new trailer below (taken from a PS4) and a bunch of new screenshots on Rockstar's website.

Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Dual Classified, F.E.A.R. Complete Pack, and More!

Posted: 12 Sep 2014 08:25 AM PDT

EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Dual Classifiednewegg logo

Top Deal:

Everybody knows that it's a losing proposition to take a knife to a gun fight, and by that same token, why arm yourself with an integrated GPU when the virtual world may depend on your dominance? Pshaw! Sometimes you have to show up to the scene heavily armed, and if that's what you're looking to do, well, you've come to the right place. Today's top deal is for an EVGA GeForce GTX Ti Dual Classified Graphics Card w/ ACX Cooler for $656 with free shipping (normally $690 - use coupon code: [EMCPAWW85]; Free Borderlands the Pre-Sequel w/ purchase, limited offer; additional $30 mail-in-rebate). Not only is this card exceedingly fast and sporting a custom cooling solution, it also comes with Borderlands the Pre-Sequel (be sure to add it to your cart). While you're at it, be sure and check out today's secondary deal, Borderlands 2 + Borderlands: Game of the Year Bundle Pack [Online Game Codes - Steam Required] for $11 (normally $13 - use coupon code: [EMCPAWW78]). So much gaming goodness -- looks like that term paper will have to wait!

Other Deals:

Asus GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card for $418 with free shipping (normally $440 - use coupon code: [EMCPAWW27]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate)

F.E.A.R Complete Pack (1 + 2 + 3 + Reborn DLC) [Online Game Codes] for $13 (normally $14 - use coupon code: [EMCPAWW35])

GTA IV/ GTA SA Bundle [Online Game Code] for $5 with (normally $5)
Posted by Shri Krishna

Total Pageviews

statcounter

View My Stats