Rage

[Fiach]

The game is ...ok, but the biggest kick in the teeth is the ending mate  >:(

[PZ]

As for the game, well, yeah, I can see how it's going to w@&k out, get mission, drive across map, do mission, drive back across map to report mission done. Yawn. Nice that there's all that great looking ruined city outside, with all those nice abandoned and broken highways that would be a lot of fun to drive along and explore, but you can't because you're stuck in the canyon below it all.

Not to mention the usual gripe of "Why the hell can this guy carry a huge aresenal of weapons and can't jump high enough to clear the curb on the side of the road?" Hmmm... maybe because he's carrying a huge arsenal of weapons is exactly the reason.

If I had to give it a number, maybe 6 out of 10, unless something improves later in the game.

lol, sounds kind of like FC2, especially the part about jumping high enough to clear a curb  ^+-+

[Binnatics]

Well folks, my 'so far rating' would be below 6 average allready. And I still have the ending left to experience ;)

I do hope you have fun with it D_B, but I'm affraid you will lower your ratings as well as you advance in the game.
I'm about to go for the final fight now. Somehow I missed the ATV part, and some recipes as well as some cards. Just too tired of it all to go searching I guess

[JRD]

As for the game, well, yeah, I can see how it's going to w%&k out, get mission, drive across map, do mission, drive back across map to report mission done. Yawn.

Borderlands is pretty much like that... but is fun like hell!  >:D

I guess this is about how the game is thought, developed and then presented to players... Borderlands isn't thaaaaat original story wise but the way you get hooked by the bazillion weapons plus the acid humor in the game is what makes it so special. A successful, well managed project. Rage sounds like just another game rushed out to cash in player's dollars (euros, quids etc) as fast as possible.

It is as if devs of Blands had a great time doing something they like whereas devs of Rage had to w@&k doing something they don't like, don't know how to do and under pressure! 

[PZ]

I was looking at the gamer RSS feeds on the front page and found this link to a Rage review.  In it, you can read almost exactly Binn's bad experience on the PC.  There is also mention made of a particular driver download that supposedly helps with the texture problems - probably the one Binn already has.  You can check it out here.

[Binnatics]

I'm kind of confused here; I've downloaded that particular driver from day one and the game still looks like crap to me. I have the same AMD card running, a HD5870 like in that video, and the visuals in that vid are 10 times better than on my system. I've read somewhere that the game uses quite a lot of CPU power to calculate these textures, but my Phenom II X4 3.2Ghz shouldn't be the problem either. right? Maybe I should try to re-install that driver to fix issues here.  :-\\

[PZ]

I don't know - maybe, but I have seen instances where a particular piece of software will run just fine on one rig and do poorly on another - even though the equipment appears to be the same.  It is quite likely there is a difference in the Windows configuration, or some other kind of software-based interference.  ????

[Binnatics]

I think you must be right PZ, I checked. Uninstalled my entire gfxdriverpack and installed the one pointed out there. Result: Rage won't even launch ::)

Found ouyt something else: Steam can now update your video driver for any AMD graphics hardware. I tried that, and Steam immediately started downloading a new driver, 149 mb of content. Lol, very curious what this will lead to.

[PZ]

Interesting - looking forward to how it turns out  ????

[Binnatics]

Well, the updating process worked out fine and is quite nice the way Steam provides such a support. I like that. The driver is good, that's for sure. Rage launched again ;)

The result of the driver on the graphics is zero. Still artifacts and texture popups. No improvements. Nevermind. I'll switch to Red Faction Armageddon now ;)
I'm pretty excited about that game. Must be good! But just in case; wish me luck

[Dweller_Benthos]

Well, now I'm in a rage about Rage, lol. Driving with the keyboard got old fast, so I thought I'd install my Gravis Eliminator Aftershock gamepad and use that for driving and switch to mouse/keyboard for on foot stuff like I did for Driver3. Got the gamepad installed, calibrated, tested in other games, go to Rage and enable gamepad, go to the config screen and there's an Xbox controller staring at me. Does not bode well.....  Don't see any way to customize gamepad controls, you just gotta take a choice from the 5 or 6 setups they have preloaded. OK, so I pick the first one and load my game. Get in a car and ..... Nothing. No response from the gamepad, but I can still use mouse/keyboard. Try a few more things and I give up, I guess Rage is only compatible with Xbox controllers? Sheesh. Another stupid oversight by Id, or more likely they were bought out by Microsoft to only support their controllers, or they were too lazy after writing the game for the Xbox and porting it to the PC to bother adding non-Xbox controller support.

Upon googling, I found this [How To] Make Your PC Gamepad Controller Emulate the Xbox 360 Controller (No BS Tutorial) which is apparently a way to make any gamepad emulate an Xbox controller, so time to try that.

[PZ]

Nice find... hope it works  :-X

[Fiach]

I have a 360 game pad for my PC, best peripheral I ever bought, I would blame ID, they took a massive dump on PC users heads.

I used to use a thing called XPADDER for games with no gamepad support, made the gamepad assume assigned PC key strokes, maybe worth trying if you still have problems mate :)

[Binnatics]

Will I ever stop complaining about Rage? Your story about the controls for driving made me remember something else I considered bad about the racing in the game: When you use your turbo boost (nitro-charge or whatever) your speed increases very nice, but once your nitro has depleated, your cars switches to normal speed superfast, as if you were using your break. That's not how it's supposed to. I could go explain this technically, but I guess most drivers agree that an engine won't 'break' after some boost-help, right? ::)

[Dweller_Benthos]

I hear you on the rocket boost, it's like as soon as it's over you revert to normal speed.

I used the Xbox emulator and it works well, except that it doesn't yet support the type of d-pad the Gravis has, so I can't use that to switch alt weapons, bummer. Speaking of the alt weapons, you can tell they designed this to use a gamepad. On the keyboard, you have to hit F1-F4 to select the alt weapon, then hit another key to use it. Why not dispense with the second key and just assign the F1-F4 keys as a direct use key? Well, on the controller, you use the d-pad to select then the upper trigger to use, since there aren't enough buttons on a normal controller to assign them directly.

Once I got the hang of driving with the controller, it was a bit better, though I'm still clumsy with it, but the steering is smoother now anyway. I tend to hit either the gas and brake at the same time or gas and reverse together, or get too busy driving and forget to fire the weapon. Usually, my strategy is to just drive at them fast while firing, then ram them. Found the hover drone is my new best friend. Really like those. Hate those remote bomb cars though, glad I can build some of my own now.

And for more griping, I got done wiping out some bandit cars in that bowl shaped set of freeways to the north and got the two hovering doohickys that you jump into for extra points, and then decided to get on foot and look into that cool ravine. Got out, walked over, and thought, "Wow, that's a long way down, better be careful where I stepppppp..........." and fall into it, dying immediately. Since I hadn't saved after that battle and getting the two drones, I had to go through it all again...... Just figures, the guy can't hop high enough to clear a small rock where it doesn't matter, but on the edge of a killer ravine, can hop over a 5 foot rock. Go figure.

[Fiach]

LOL.... just one small step for a man, but a giant leap....into the unknown for ID :)

[Binnatics]

LOL.... just one small step for a man, but a giant leap....into the unknown for ID :)

:-X

I hear you on the rocket boost, it's like as soon as it's over you revert to normal speed.

I widh I could say it that simple :-[ That's indeed just what I ment D_B

[Binnatics]

Finally justice >:D

Check the article:
click

[Fiach]

The saying, "You reap what you sow" comes to mind :)

[Dweller_Benthos]

Got my gamepad working with the help of another utility called joytokey that can map any joystick/gamepad/mouse movement to any keyboard key. The trick is finding which settings to use. Since my gamepad has a digital d-pad, on/off only, not analog, the xbox emulator doesn't support it. So I used joytokey to map my controller's d-pad controls to the F1-F4 keys and now I can switch alt weapons while driving. Makes it a lot easier.

Now I just need to get the minecraft monkey off my back long enough to play Rage again. Might take some side missions now that I'm set up with decent weapons and vehicles.

[Art Blade]

I like your thinking and the resulting w@&k-around. :)

However, not exactly a glorious chapter for the devs having customers customise their game with such an effort and third-party utilities.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah, having to resort to joytokey in this day & age? I haven't used it since BF1942 when I needed it to emulate my pov hat on the joystick for the mouse movements. I also found out there's some config files buried deep in the Rage folder that lets you change the gamepad config if you want to wade around in a text based config file trying to figure out what "pad1=move6" might mean. Or something like that.

[Art Blade]

I hear some people even mapped FC2..



:-()

[PZ]

I hear some people even mapped FC2..
:-()

No way.....  ????

[Dweller_Benthos]

... way


I was surprised when I opened the Rage box to see the instruction manual actually had maps of some of the areas in the game. Not that you really need them. But then again, it WAS made for consoles first, I guess those guys need the extra help....  <ducks>