Last Minute Gift Advice for PC Games/Graphics Card ?

Probably the Radeon at the pricepoint.

You didn't mention your OS when you talked about the det's screwing things up - I assume you're running win2k or WinXP?

If you're going nVidia, I can recommend Leadtek cards - they're definitely better than the run of the mill cards.

This is the time of the year where all the new games are vying for your xmas ££ - best to read some on-line reviews. I'm about to try Call of Duty... but I don't mind military FPS (not everyone's cup of tea). If you have reasonable grunt and a decent broadband connection, BF1942 is still pretty good, and the Desert Combat free mod is fun - loads of new Iraq maps (DC no fly zone is common down here). Fly a harrier or a hind or a mig.

Merry xmas.

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio

Call of Duty.

In 10 years, the only game I've played through more than once.


PS
If any of you will play it online, count me in.

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If any of you will play it online, count me in.

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I'd be in as well Mike if it worked with my PC It's the first game EVER not to work.

Jay

The new 'Force' drivers for nvidia cards are a disaster for Quake III fans like me. I too have gone back to an earlier version.

"Be my lover, don't cause me pain, just play me John Coltrane"

Incidentally the daddy of them all, 'Doom' is 10 years old. Version 3 is expected in April/May and looks stunning. The perfect excuse for a major upgrade to my CPU and graphics card methinks. Go to http://www.doom3.com/ for the trailer etc.

"Be my lover, don't cause me pain, just play me John Coltrane"

Rico, - yes it's XP. After a bit of a burnt motherboard in the summer, the system has pretty much been rebuilt [now P4 2.8 with Asus P4P800 motherboard], so the Geoforce 3 is a bit sad.

Thanks, Alex - from the bit of sniffing around I'd done, I was coming to the conclusion that the Radeons seem to have the lead at the moment. Or is this just for the cutting edge stuff? It will probably have to be the local PC World at this stage, so depending on their stock I'm just hoping that I can't make too big a mistake - I'm presuming that apart from the chipset, the actual manufacturer won't make that much of a difference as long as it's got the features I need?

Partner [who the games are for] is not that keen on the military stuff, - not for any philosophical reason, he just likes less them a bit more fanciful [Doom, Unreal,Halflife etc]. Halo looks as though it might do.

throb

Doom3, wow! Can't wait for that. I'm still a huge Quake fan, especially with the availability of alternate maps.

ATI is the better product. Although the specs may lead one to believe the products are similar, personal experience tells me to stick with my Canadian product Some of the ATI drivers are slow to be released but the nVidia drivers are terrible. I've had so many problems with them.

Also from past experience, buying the original product will cause less headaches in the long run. It costs more but it's worth it.

Well, just back from PC World, and as I half suspected, I was a bit baffled [I'm usually up on things PC, but graphics cards are a bit of a blind spot]. In the end, I wildly plumped for the Hercules 3D Prophet 9600 Pro, on the vague assumption that the Pro, with a faster core & 128mb ram was going to be a more sensible choice than the version with 256mb ram [??? what's that for?] but slower core. Nevertheless, I haven't unwrapped it yet ...just in case.

Looking at reviews, I may not have done badly - it seems that the Pro is intended for overclocking [why not just make it faster?] and can come near the 9800 series if you're careful. Being a nervous soul, I'm not sure about this, but may try. It also looks to be capable of coping with Doom3 [is that going to be single player?]& Half Life 2, but probably by the time they come out things will have moved on.


It comes with a copy of Vietcong, so we get the military FPS after all! I also bought Halo, Tron2 and Max Payne 2 [3 for 2 offer] and for myself the probably more peaceful Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. I know most people hate the Myst games, but I'm a total sucker. The puzzles never seem that hard to me, and they're like a relaxing cheap weekend break to some exotic destination. Anybody played any of the above? Should I unwrap the card?

Many thanks for your help so far,

throb

Hi throb

I think you've made a pretty good choice there. Best get it out of the box and fired up!

I've played all of your games in some kind of capacity, so here's my take..

Vietcong - never really got into it. Graphics are a little outdated but serviceable. I get sick of the "sir, yes sir" crap. 5/10

Halo - played it through on the Xbox and it's pretty good overall. I don't think it deserves most of the overwhelming praise from the press. Might have something to do with the only decent title on the Box at that time! A little bit repetitive for my tastes but the AI isn't too shabby at all. 7/10

Tron2 - only played the demo. The environments are pretty cool and true to the movie. Was sorely temped to buy it but never got round to it.

Max Payne 2 - the first MP was a bit of a classic so it's a hard act to follow. I'm only about 20% of the way through and then Xmas got in the way Pretty good do far, the graphics are top-notch and bullet time is still as good as it was first time round! Heading for an 8/10.

Uru - nup sorry, haven't played any of those!

Enjoy. Jay