Like, for instance, cool holiday gifts.
In other news, I got my Radeon 9800 Pro, and it is wonderful. It's amazing how much a little shinyness affects things, honestly. It is really, really gorgeous. Despite this, I still can't turn everything on full blast and maintain a decent framerate. While I can make water look Oh-my-gawwwwd orgasmic and wet floors actually wet and the crowbar shiny and people a lil' bit more polished up, I still can't turn textures to the highest setting without some setbacks. I suppose that's what X800s and 6800 Ultras are for.
In any case, I've been testing it out not just with Half Life 2, but with a variety of other games that I imagined would take advantage of it. Here are my impressions of the following games, before and after Life with Pixel Shaders. And other random thoughts about them.
Doom III. It's id's much-anticipated horror-shooter, and I never even played it until just before I got my new card. I tested it out on the ol' GeForce 2 beforehand, though, to see what it was like. It actually played relatively well, up until all Hell breaks loose - literally - and then things started to get iffy. One enemy on the screen was bad enough, but with two the game was so choppy it was unplayable.
With the new card, all the stuttering was kindly alleviated. Models and textures were improved, and the game looks that much scarier. Still, there's not much to the gameplay. It's disappointingly simplistic, and the enemy AI is ... boring. Zombies/Demons/Whatever have damned near-perfect aim but stumble around like drunken bastards for some reason. I do think it's neat that you can't use your weapons while using the flashlight, but it's also insanely frustrating. I have mixed feelings on this title. I can definitely say, though, that the real-time shadows kick ass.
Far Cry. I dunno. I honestly remember this game looking great several months ago with my old card. Even though the draw distance of the jungle was poo back then, everything else seemed a lot nicer. Actually, the whole game seemed more fun.
After playing Half Life 2, I suppose, it just doesn't compare. The AI is stupid and the enemies look ridiculously un-realistic. The jungle looks good, with a really awesome draw distance, but when the life inhabiting it looks so pathetic, it doesn't seem to matter as much.
Riddick. Actually, I never played the Xbox version, and I think this PC version is fairly recent. It's a fun game, if also inferior to Half Life 2 in a number of ways. It feels a bit restrictive, as I wish I could grab and throw everything... That's forgiveable, somewhat, as it was released many months ago initially on a console; but there is NO excuse for a lack of certain FPS requirements nowadays, like weapon-switching with the mousewheel. Why the hell isn't that included here!? Changing weapons is a pain in the ass. Also odd is the toggling on and off of crouching and zooming and that type of thing, instead of holding in the key. I can see how this could be beneficial with a console controller, but it seems peculiar here. And for some reason, there are no sound effects when you punch or hit a wall with a melee weapon. For some reason, that really bothers me.
Still a pretty fun game though, with a lot of unique elements and a cool atmosphere. The story also flows fairly nicely.
I guess that's about it. I'm enjoying my new card, even if most games that came out this year don't stack up to what will undoubtedly will a classic sequel to a classic masterpiece of a game! (And I'm not talking about The Sims).