[Mugge]

I just finished downloading the demo this morning and took it for a spin on my MBP (2 Ghz, 1 GB RAM, 256 MB VRAM, 7200 rpm HD) but sadly I can't say I'm that impressed. The game looks very nice; graphics are great and at the end of the demo the gameplay also begun to impress me, but unfortunately the technical side of it is pretty lame.

The system settings only work properly with 4:3 aspect ratio, and there is no support for the MBP's native resolution of 900*1440 or anything in the same aspect ratio. And to make matters worse, OS X can't handle if you close the lid and put the MBP on sleep while the game is running. Surely it will prompt you for your password when you open the lid, but while the mouse responds, OS X doesn't register any inputs and put's the MBP back to sleep after a while. At the same time the sleep-mode also seems to provoke a serious case of poor responsiveness from the game (or OS X), which is annoying when Quake 4 already has demonstrated it's ability to run quite smoothly on my MBP @ 1024*762 and high quality graphics.

WTF has Aspyr sent out such a crappy demo?! Do they really expect anyone to buy a game that in such a painfully obvious manner doesn't work properly?



Guess I'm little frustrated about wasting my time on downloading 536 MB demo that doesn't work properly.

[BlueRabbit]

Originally Posted by Mugge And to make matters worse, OS X can't handle if you close the lid and put the MBP on sleep while the game is running. Surely it will prompt you for your password when you open the lid, but while the mouse responds, OS X doesn't register any inputs and put's the MBP back to sleep after a while. At the same time the sleep-mode also seems to provoke a serious case of poor responsiveness from the game (or OS X), which is annoying when Quake 4 already has demonstrated it's ability to run quite smoothly on my MBP @ 1024*762 and high quality graphics.

That's a problem with OS X and full-screen games in general. I've had it happen to me before with Starcraft and accidentally triggering my screensaver. It's possible to get out of if you -tab a few times.

[usurp]

it runs like crap on my macbook but i guess thats to be expected..

[Luca]

Quake 4 is an utter disgrace to the series. Did you guys know that it has framerate issues on the Xbox 360? Yeah.

If the base code is crap, then it will be crap when it's ported over. At best it will be just as bad as on the original platform, but there are probably extra issues introduced from the porting job as well.

[Windowsrookie]

Wow, Framerate issues on a 360? Triple core 3.2GHZ PowerPC? Does it only use one core? Even then 3.2GHZ...

[scratt]

Originally Posted by windowsrookie Wow, Framerate issues on a 360?

Really?

Quake is quite a good game overall.. But I think the whole genre is getting pretty lame now.
I have recently had a Doom 3, Quake 4, Call of Duty 2 month or so, and have actually left most of them unfinished.. I just got tired of them..

Nothing has really rekindled my Halo generated enthusiasm for these games.

I recently saw the trailer 'Emergence Day' for Gears of War on the 360..

Love the eye-candy, and the hard edge to it.. But I wonder if that will live up to the hype, or be another Halo wannabe.

Back on topic.. Sorry.

I have been very dissapointed with most of Aspyr's work recently.. Not least Civ IV, which is horribly unfinished in terms of the bug testing.

[Luca]

It's just a badly written game. Remember that most games run worse on the Mac OS than in Windows, even if you're using exactly the same computer. This is a software issue, not a hardware one.

I heard from one person that the original Xbox version of Doom 3 (same engine as Quake 4, but an earlier game and not quite as visually complex) runs better in backwards compatibility mode on his Xbox 360 than Quake 4 (a native X360 game).

[Mugge]

Originally Posted by scratt Really? Quake is quite a good game overall.. But I think the whole genre is getting pretty lame now. I have recently had a Doom 3, Quake 4, Call of Duty 2 month or so, and have actually left most of them unfinished.. I just got tired of them.. (...)

Yeah. It's not really enough for a game just to provide a good shooting experience anymore, everybody can do that. One of the things I value a lot in any game, is it's ability to kickstart my own imagination, just like a good book. Farcry did a lot in that respect, I really felt like I was Jack on those islands and not just observing a guy on the screen. It kinda makes you more afraid to die and more involved in the game.

But the problem with Quake 4 is that I never even get a chance to imagine anything because the %&"#!!§ aspect ratio keeps me reminded that this is just a piece of buggy software.

[rasmits]

Originally Posted by scratt I have been very dissapointed with most of Aspyr's work recently.. Not least Civ IV, which is horribly unfinished in terms of the bug testing.

It's been my experience too that Aspyr ports are crap, which is sad.

[usurp]

Quake 3 is the coolest. I should check and see if they have a universal binary update for it although i doubt it..

[irnchriz]

Heres a link to the Quake 3 universal binary
http://www.sqonk.com.au/quake3.html

[usurp]

heh there is a universal binary version, thats fucking cool!

[Brad]

Thank goodness for open source, huh?

I'm glad you found that, irnchriz. I'll have to save a copy for whenever I get an Intel Mac in the future.