That gag never gets old. Alternatively, it’s always been unbearably ancient, which is just how I like ‘em. Wait, that sounds wrong.
Anyway: 1.3Gb of Just Cause 2 demo is now available on Steam. Haven’t tried it yet, as it’s only just arrived, but go forth and ascertain whether Walker’s incessant frothing about the trailers has been justified or not. Also, grapple stuff to other stuff. “It’s easily one of the biggest freeroaming demos of all time,” says a man in a suit. He knows the score. Oh yes, and remember you can’t play this if you run Windows XP, as apparently having the gall to play videogames on a perfectly capable operating system from 2001 is akin to being a single-celled organism.
Related Stories:
Played it on the 360 and really didn’t enjoy it. Shooting is boring and the grappling hook snapped every time I was just about to do something awesome. I say meh to it.
Awesome! I’m going home to get it ASAP. Hope you guys like it :)
/Ex-developer of JC2
Aww, why “ex”? Is there a story? If you can’t share that, how about sharing some “what worked, what didn’t?” kind of stuff in the game itself? :D
Loving the demo. I’ll probably end up with both a console and a PC copy, once the latter drops in price a bit.
I’m presuming ‘ex’, because it’s probably completed/nearing completion.
[this is a reply to http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/03/04/play-this-demo-why-just-cause/comment-page-1/#comment-410508 in case this becomes a new post.. if so, someone please instruct me on how to reply properly]
It’s no secret that Avalanche lost two major projects last year and subsequently had to lay off a bunch of people. I was one of the last to go of the ones that went, I believe, cause I rock, and all that, but that’s life. :)
I’m still in the games industry however (since it’s like totally the best one) working as a tools lead on APB.
Hm, about what worked and not… Well, not sure how much I’m allowed to say :) But I can say that I didn’t think it would turn out that great at first, but some 18 months or so before present day, it just clicked I guess and the game became really fun. :) Had a lot of fun playing it during debugging sessions and whatnot.
I wasn’t aware of Avalanche losing the projects, alas. Sucks when that happens.
Glad you found an alternative though; APB is shaping up to be pretty tremendous as well!
Very much looking forward to this. Think my computer will be able to run it no problem, but I’ll compare this and the 360 version before deciding. Excited for tonight! Why? Just cause!
So its not just xp unsupported like say, how windows 2000 is supported by next to nothing. But instead explicitly vista or 7?
Eh, nevermind. On the bright side, by the time i have windows 7 this will be on weekend deal on steam.
It is DX10 only, and since there is no DX10 for XP, you’ll need Vista or 7.
Excellent. Time to find out if my PC can handle it or if I’ll have to settle for the 360 version.
I just gave it a try and have to say… meh. The shooting feels horribly bad, mainly due to some strange auto-aim effect. Or maybe because the physics engine is terrible, I don’t know.
I’ll play around with it a bit more later, but so far I’m underwhelmed. The grappling hook is fun, but the parts of the world I’ve seen so far are pretty bland and boring so that there’s not much vertical movement.
Also keep in mind, that the demo is time-limited. After 30 minutes of mayhem, you’ll have to restart.
Nice pun.
Been waiting all day for this, I am so hoping this demo is substantial enough to give me an idea of how good the game is. I really think demo’s are a partial answer to piracy, get the demo out before the game ships and you might find people don’t pirate your games and buy them instead. So Kudos to Avalanche for doing things this way.
But then you’d get pirates pirating the demo, and we don’t want that.
Don’t tell anybody, but I just pirated the demo!
No XP, not thanks.
Shiny. Enjoyed the first one and looking forward to this one. Just needed the demo to make sure I can run the game.
@Alex Bakke
Nah, just slap some DRM in the demo and you’re golden.
But then the pirates would crack the demo!
This is true. Just look at StarCraft 2.
(And substitute “beta” for “demo.”)
I will enjoy this game in a couple of years, I’m sure.
The video rocks, so lets hope this one is fun.
I can’t comment the XP thing. I think is stupid. Software is not hardware, you can always update software to support new things. Is called backports or backward compatibility. This is lazyness or Microsoft briving the game dev’s.
Software costs money. Updating software costs money. Substantial upgrades to software costs a lot of money which a game is not going to get back after it has been released.
DirectX 10 is NOT backwards compatible with DirectX 9. It requires a whole new driver model that is not available at all on Windows XP. Its full capabilities can only be harnessed with DX10-compatible hardware. Both DX10 itself and DX10 cards have already been in the market for 3 years.
Now who’s lazy? I’m not saying all XP users are lazy for not upgrading, but accusing Microsoft of being lazy or dishonest in this matter is incredibly stupid. An engine purely based on DirectX10 is long overdue. Now that DX10 systems (Vista/7 + DX10 card) are commonplace, it’s about time we move on.
What? it’s not windows 95 compatible? That’s just LAZY! I call boycott!
Sorry mate. If that were REALLY the case there wouldn’t be people who have got DX10 working on XP. In fact one group had it working two years ago.
There is no reason for anything beyond Windows XP to exist unless you are a MSFT shareholder or just gullible.
@bonedwarf
That’s a very weak argument. By the same logic, what reason is there for XP to exist? Vista and Windows 7 offer significant improvements over XP.
I only buy computers to download DX10.
“Significant upgrades” if you mean “the same old shit.” XP worked fine and Vista works fine, but I traded an annoying set of bugs or issues for another. I got Win7 for free and I still didn’t install it. What a worthless upgrade.
The Xbox 360 uses DirectX 9. The PS3 uses OpenGL. This is a console game, right?
Oh goody. This argument again.
At least no one has referred to them as Micro$oft or brought up Apple yet.
Seriously, 7 is great and I had real problems with Vista, I certainly saw fewer problems than when I had XP.
Rather enjoyed blasting round the demo just causing a bit of chaos and shooting stuff up. The gunplay takes some getting used to, though. There’s some auto-targeting thing which actually works well – It’s just strange getting your head round not having to be entirely accurate all the time.
Overall looks like a nice step up from the first.
As for the complaints about DX10 only, while it’s a shame some folks can’t play it, the industry is only going to move in that direction, at least with bigger budget releases. DX10/11 are a good step up from DX9 – Not purely in terms of visuals but in terms of performance. Just Cause 2 probably isn’t the game that warrents the upgrade. But in 18 months or so we may well see a fair few titles on the market like this. And at that point, it’s not much different to the need to upgrade your graphics card or your processor in order to keep up with the latest games.
@bonedwarf
No one has Direct X 10 working on XP – those that claim too are lying. Some people have managed to do some really minor things, simple renderings and outputs… through very, very hacky means. It’s the equivalent of strapping an outboard motor to a Land Rover and calling it amphibious.
Hacking DX10 onto XP would defeat the entire purpose of Direct X 10 – if it was hacked into XP it would be messy, plagued with problems and incompatibilities, and would probably bluescreen more than a windows ME computer.
The whole point of Direct X 10 was to build a new API from the ground up with strict compatibility requirements that was a core component of the OS…
Hacking that into XP would defeat the entire point of it’s existence.
The old XP API was just a hacky mess by the end of it.
There is a world of difference between an XBox 360 using DX9 with consistent hardware, and a PC using it with a myriad of hardware, and drivers.
It’s also the reason graphics drivers are vastly more stable on Vista/7 so much so that if the driver crashes, it simply reinitializes it, all you’ll notice in game is a brief “lag” – where as previously that was pretty much guaranteed to BSOD the machine.
y’know, imma actually get steam now and create an account for the first time, just to get this demo. I do not have steam yet. I’m pre-industrialised.
I LOVED the first game. A game of running around and wreaking havoc, ignoring any crappy story along the way seems to get my game juices flowing for a long time, somehow.
@Tusque d’Ivoire: Now this is akin to being a single-celled organism.
Running XP, ergo not getting it \:
It actually lives up to all those crazy videos, actually its better, as they looked kind of jerky and didn’t actually look that good, it looks awesome and actually plays really well too, SUPERFUNTIME
Seems like I’ll get this instead of metro 2033
Downloading the demo, hopefully it’ll work OK on my laptop. Will give it a go this weekend.
Just tried to get it, but Steam’s playing silly beggars and won’t install the demo. I’ll give it another shot later on, I suppose.
Whenever that happens, try shutting down steam and starting it up again. Always works for me.
Fun, but the Grappling cable snaps way too easily.
That will be a number you can modify.
I downloaded on the 360 and the shooting is very similar to Red Faction: Guerilla or Saints Row 2. The driving is more like Saints Row 2 and you can drive almost anywhere or off of anything. The gameplay feels more like Red Faction. And people generally aren’t hostile until you provoke them.
It’s definitely fun. Try doing some of the crazy stuff from the videos and you’ll smile until your face hurts. Or try anything. I attached myself to an upright gas canister then shot it – what a ride. :D
On the 360, the demo is limited to 30 minutes at a time and you need a Gold membership to download.
Haven’t downloaded it yet, but I must admit the comparisons to Saints Row/RF Guerilla frighten me since I found both of them obviously sloppy ports when it comes to the mouse control, especially for steering.
EDIT: Played the demo – much better control than either of the aforementioned game, phew. Stupid fun, not sure 1/2 hour gave me enough time to get to grips with it though.
P.
@oceanclub I played those games all on the 360, so I can’t speak to the PC versions. I just meant the gameplay was similar to both — which I see as a compliment as I really enjoyed both games.
I’m looking forward to buying this one for $5 in some holiday sale in 2011 or 2012, after i finally “upgrade” to 7.
Only played the 360 demo so far, as it came out before this was on Steam, which I’m downloading now. Have to say I really enjoyed the demo on the 360, the game is made for anothing except getting high on the funicity scale.
Only slight qualm I have is I don’t think the grappling hook quite has the range it should have, it’s a bit too difficult to grapple a chopper from the ground, or from air to air. Probably be easier on the PC version as it’ll be easier to aim I guess.
Controls feel extremely floaty and awkward. Trying to aim just feels weird. Presumably its better on the 360.
@Vague-rant
Sounds like mouse-smoothing at work. There may be a way to turn that off, either in options or in a config file somewhere.
I agree about the controls.
It was fun enough but I don’t think I’ll be purchasing at full price. Definitely one to get in the sales though.
It’s definately a bit of mouse smoothing in there, I did find it improved when I turned off VSync, too.
I can not wait to hear how much this sell , i am really getting the feeling its not going to sell alot as not alot of us want to have windows 7 , im fine with XP thank you notting wrong with it
Other than it being out of support and not have the latest version of DX.
I can not wait to hear how much this sell , i am really getting the feeling its not going to sell alot as not alot of us do not want to have windows 7 , im fine with XP thank you notting wrong with it
Fixed
Really bloody good demo.
They’ve structured it very cleverly.
It is time limited, you get 30 minutes of fun.
But! You get demo time extends for doing good stuff, like I think I got an extra 30 seconds for doing 6 melee kills. So it encourages you to try again and again to last longer.
There is a pretty big chunk of land to play in, way too much to explore in even two goes.
Then at the end, it gives you a score, goading you to give it another go.
I’ve played the demo twice now, and want to play it again.
It seems to fix a lot of the problems I had with the first game too, although the controls definitely take a while to get used to.
Also, whilst it is a totally seperate issue, Windows 7 is really great guys.
Must…irrationally…hate…progress…
Not really, no. I would have been so pissed if I had spent money on that thing.
Well, I am now downloading the demo for JC2.
I am bit worried about mouse aiming and how well it’s implemented. Same thing with every multi-platform release these days, really.
There is no excuse for not properly supporting mouse+keyboard controls.
Plays just like red faction guerilla, one of the best games of last year. Loving it so far :D
Hey guys, not everyone can afford to upgrade to a brand new operating system, or has a system that will run it as smoothly as XP!
*Grumblegrumblestupid2GBofRAMgrumblemembleexpensivegoddamnOSwharrgarhbl*
Nobody is saying everybody does, but accepting that newer software won’t run on your old system is just one of the things you have to deal with if you’re unable or unwilling to stay current technologically.
I mean, I can’t afford the new Ferrari but you don’t hear me complaining.
XP really is a bad operating system when compared to 7. Just get a 7 already people. How many more years must you hang on to that outdated pile? Instead of being thankful to MS for supporting it AT ALL, you guys complain about how some games don’t support it anymore.
I’m not complaining, I’m just stating the facts. If they don’t want me as a customer, good for them. Less for me to buy. My PS2 still needs some loving, too.
Just shut the hell up about it not supporting WinXp! You don’t here me complaining the game doesn’t work on my Playstation 2 and Windows 7 is already twice the OS XP ever was. Even Vista nowadays is that bad.
And that’s coming from someone who runs a Linux distro on his laptop.
Hooray! Downloading it right now..hopefully this is better than the demo for the first part (which turned out to be quite fun despite the horrible demo). And hopefully I did the right thing when I pre-ordered it (after all, I get all of the goodies here in Europe). I’m excited about this demo..can’t wait for it to download..
Also, the Steam-forum never stops to amaze me (esp. after the Portal-magic they’ve done lately):
They already ‘hacked’ the demo so the 30-minute time limit can be edited, as it seems..
Hmm, okay. Prolonging the demo doesn’t seem to work after all. Well, anyway.
Also, I don’t see why people are complaining about the Vista/7-requirement. If your computer can’t run Windows 7, what makes you think it might run a game like this under XP in the first place? That doesn’t make sense.
Also, have a look at the requirements for Metro 2033 (http://store.steampowered.com/app/43110/):
Optimum Requirements:
* Processor: Core i7 CPU
* Memory: 8GB RAM or higher
* Graphics: NVIDIA DirectX 11 compliant graphics card (GeForce GTX 480 and 470)
* DirectX®: DirectX 11
ouch..
@Christian
If your computer can’t run Windows 7
You think that’s the only reason that everyone hasn’t “upgraded” to Win7? Really? Not the cost, not the trouble, not the total absence of any tangible or relevant improvement, not the simple fact that XP still works fine so why bother, it must be that people can’t run it? Wow.
@vinraith
Cost: It’s really not that expensive to upgrade, but I understand that people might have better things to spend the money on, so I’ll let that one through.
Trouble: I’ll give you that one. I’m not planning to upgrade til I build a new PC, because I *really* dislike OS installs on an in-use computer.
Lack of tangible or relevant improvement: You mean like a vastly improved user experience, a more secure OS, or faster boot times? I’m sure there are many more improvements that are both tangible and relevant.
XP still works fine: That’s true. So do typewriters, walkmen, and any number of technologies that have been improved upon. Just don’t be expecting FLAC-quality audio on your walkman or great typography from your typewriter.
Edit: Aw, man. Way to edit your post so my response makes no sense, meanie!
“vastly improved user experience”
How? Does it suck me off when I log in or something?
@jsutcliffe
Unedited just for you, you can thank the Lazarus plugin for Firefox.
Anyway, trouble is certainly what’s keeping me from upgrading, though it’s partly the lack of seeing a point as well. You talk about a “vastly improved user experience” but I’ve used 7 on my dad’s PC, I don’t really see anything “vastly improved” about it. There are some things that are slightly better, some things that are slightly worse, and most everything else is basically the same. My system boots quite quickly, so that’s not an issue.
Personally, it’s trouble and lack of tangible advantage that are keeping me away for the time being. I’ll upgrade when I have to, as I always have, but I’ve never been in any particular hurry to “upgrade” my Windows OS. You’re talking to someone that switched to XP from Win 98 in 2006, realize. That switch was a product of 1) support for 98 being terminated, 2) building a new system, so the change was no hassle and 3) wanting to be able to play the (by then fairly sizable) volume of games that wouldn’t run on 98. I don’t think I’m going to be able to wait for “2″ this time, this system is too new, but you can bet I’m not going to bother changing my operating system until “3″ happens.
Computers are better than typewriters at what typewriters do because of editing, MP3 players are better than walkmen because of size, skipping, and (lower priority) sound quality. There’s nothing Win 7 does that I’m particularly interested in right now. When that changes, I’ll switch.
@Vinraith: Wow, some bitter reaction there.
But no, of course I don’t think that, why would I think that? The thought was just inspired by sleepygamer’s post up there and some other postings I’ve read about similar things.
I know there might be other reasons to stay on an outdated system, but from a gaming point-of-view, there really is no reason (apart from nostalgia I guess). And for old games, there’s always VMs or dual-booting.
I have to use XP at work and have Win 7 at home, and I really wish my company would let me upgrade.
I really think taking the 30 minutes and installing Win 7 was totally worth it (trouble?). And it just cost about 70 €..which is quite cheap if you compare it to modern games (cost?). And it just works and really is quicker and more fun (no improvement?)..and if you take into account that XP sucked without having to install it every year or so..
But hey, everybody gets to choose here, and I’m not judging. I’m just saying (to at least stay a bit on topic here): don’t complain if the newest games don’t support the oldest (still barely supported) OS out there and you feel left out without a real reason.
To the demo: fun times. A bit confusing at first, an I miss aiming when I want to (it toggles), but great fun. Also it runs quite fine on older hardware..
@Christian
Bitter? About what? If I misunderstood your meaning, I apologize, but it genuinely looked as though you couldn’t think of any other reason that someone might not be running 7.
but from a gaming point-of-view, there really is no reason (apart from nostalgia I guess). And for old games, there’s always VMs or dual-booting.
From a gaming point of view, old games are a very good reason. Dual booting implies I still need XP. Why do I need 7?
I really think taking the 30 minutes and installing Win 7 was totally worth it (trouble?).
30 minutes for the OS, followed by at least several dozen hours to reinstall all the software, to say nothing of time spent working out compatibility issues. The OS install time is not the problem here.
don’t complain if the newest games don’t support the oldest (still barely supported) OS
Personally, I’m fine with it, as it just means the game will be dirt cheap when I can eventually run it. As for others, you’d see less complaining if the whole thing wasn’t so obviously forced. A 360 port that can’t run on DirectX 9? Really? Is there any question at all that MS kicked in a little “development money” to secure that “feature?”
@Vinraith
So what software of yours isn’t W7 compatible again?
@Christian
Ignore him, He’s a troll. Any time Windows 7 comes up on this site, you can bet your bottom dollar Vinraith will be posting about how ‘XP is just as good’ or posing the open question ‘why should I upgrade?’ or the classic ‘many of my games won’t run in W7′. The response to which (posted above) that has been asked innumerable times and has still has yet to be answered. Sadly you’ve been suckered into engaging with him in another of these fruitless debates. Fact of the matter is, he’s just a lazy shit who’ll happily waste hours (especially yours) telling you why he can’t, won’t or isn’t going to do something because (insert transactional analysis ‘yes, but’ excuse), rather than just do it. Avoid him and UK_John like the plague, they are both forum time vampires.
A 360 port that can’t run on DirectX 9? Really? Is there any question at all that MS kicked in a little “development money” to secure that “feature?”
Yeah, I see your point there. This *is* strange and a bit disturbing.But hey, it’s no secret that publishers (esp. MS) are screwing with us and trying to maximize their profits. We’ve seen worse in the near past I’d say (which isn’t an excuse of course, just something to consider: it really, really could be worse..).
Also, thinking about Mercenaries 2 (or Saint’s Row 2) here: I’d rather have a quite nice port that just runs on newer OS than a totally screwed port running on everything down to Win 2000.
At least it doesn’t have GfWL.
And for older games resulting in a favored OS : hmm, really depends on what you play more. For me, it’s newer games..and the trust that GoG will make it right..so that’s not an issue I guess.
@Christian
Fair enough. The point is never to say “no one should upgrade,” it’s merely to point out that there are plenty of reasons for people not to have upgraded yet. No one (no one that I’ve read, anyway) is saying “I’ll never get Win 7,” a lot of us just see this as trying to force a transition to happen faster than it should be. Regardless, as stated before, I’ll be happy to pick this one up in a couple of years when I can run it. Having to wait is certainly, as you say, better than dealing with the kind of DRM that would prevent me from ever buying it in the first place.
@Christian
See what I mean ;)
@Kadayi
So rather than, say, state your opinion, your contribution to any thread from now on is going to be what, personally insulting me? What an odd way to spend your time.
And I’ve already told you, but I’ll repeat it here since you seem to have forgotten: Rise of Nations, the earlier Fallout games, and a fair sized body of other older games and programs show up as non-compatible on the Windows 7 site. Maybe some of these are false reports (it showed Fallout 3 as incompatible, but I’ve been told by others it’s not). I have no way of knowing, but why would I potentially close the door on a bunch of older games I like in order to get access to one game I might not? Also, why does this bother you so much that it warrants personal attacks?
@Vinraith
What arguments? You don’t have any. You get shot down all the time by people with articulate arguments, and your only response is just celebrating your ignorance and apathy and wasting their time. Want to play fallout on W7? try http://www.gog.com (“oh noes spend lunch moneys on games I already own? never!!! “says you in high dudgeon and exits dramatically from the thread)
It’s a constant stream of ‘can’t', ‘won’t’ ‘will never entertain the prospect of’ ‘don’t see the point’. How about some actual genuine enthusiasm for the ‘New’ at some point?
Also for humour value lets see this non compatible games site. I’m fascinated to see this up to date list of titles that won’t run on Windows 7 ;)
@ Metro 2033 Optimal Specs.
It’s more amazing considering the fact that the GF100 series, nVidia’s foray into Directx 11, has yet to be released and given the appalling yield numbers will be unavailable for most people for most of the year, even if they did want to purchase it.
I do lament more seriously the developer-bribing that gives nVidia exclusive features that could easily be implemented on a comparable ATi card or CPU solution, the latter could be used for PhysX effects, yet the code is not merely purposely left unoptimised, developers have no inducement to replicate effects on other middle-ware or in the case of Arkham Asylum protected by Securom to prevent functionality in circumstances.
Regardless, I’m really excited for Metro 2033 and I just wish I had 0.9 more Directxs to get to 11 (I’m on 10.1).
P.S. I’m replying at length because I cannot seem to download Just Cause 2 because my steam won’t go online, the first such annoyance I’ve had in months, if not years, damnit.
@Kadayi
I responded to the (less strangely hostile) version of your post on the next page. I’ll repeat the Windows Compatibility Tool page link here, though, in case you miss it there or other people are interested:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/Default.aspx
Total meh. A directionless, gimmicky meh. With specially bad shooting.
I thought it was quite good actually.
(Nice name you got there, seems I’ going to kill you)
Also does anyone know of some exploit to prolong/remove the time limit?
@Drewski, nayon
I’m not complaining as such, and I do see your points. I just think it’s a bit sad that I’m going to have to ditch “Barbie’s First GUI” for Windows 7 land.
Just had a quick 30 min play with the demo.
As expected from the trailers, it’s just pure, chaotic fun. I started by watching a helicopter plummet on top of some bad guys and finished by reversing my hijacked car off a cliff after a high-speed chase.
I’ve got too many games to play at the moment but I might pick this up when it drops in price.
For people with mouse problems, it could be to do with your overall pc performance, I have had no problem with controls or framerate so the 2 could be linked
Also, make sure vsync is turned off.
It’s possible – I’m playing on a laptop and the opening cutsequence thing had horribly out of sync audio, suggesting it wasn’t particularly liking something!
See my post below, this looks to be to do with multicore.
The game mechanics are definitely geared more towards fun than challenge from what I’ve seen. playing the game proper is pretty boring but trying to pull off stunts in the heat of combat seems like the kind of challenge some will dig. I need to give it a couple more tries before putting cash down.
I felt the same way in the beginning. There is a mouse smoothing option but it was already false. Lowering the visual level (i.e. reaching 30 FPS) did the trick however.
I had some problems with periodic slowness (every second it’d grind, not only drop frames but actually run slower – made aiming and driving problematic). If you have this problem or something like it, drop into task manager, right click on justcause2.exe and set the processor affinity to just one of your cores. This seems to sort it out.
You horrible bunch of miserable bastards. I never ceased to be amazed at the sense of entitlement so prevalent in the gaming community. The winxp comments are ignorant gibberish- 7/vista are better structured to accommodate gaming, but because you want hate M$ you’ll happily deny yourselves the pleasure of this game and an improved OS just to satisfy your desire to gripe. ungghh
I’ve only tried on 360 as my PC is too feeble for this, but it feels a mite spongey there. Can’t imagine it’s much better on PC, but this seems to be the tradeoff you get with large sandboxy games like this – more space means less precision, but it’s better than many of it’s stablemates. Hopefully the mouse precision issue is fixable. Ditto the difficulty really, the game wants you to have fun an making you overly vulnerable would only get in the way of you hooking people to moving cars TBH.
@Schmung
Entirely right, entitlement-crazed PC loons! I mean, this is a DX 10 game. It requires DX 10 and that’s why there’s no 360 version, so people just need to deal with it.
Also, everyone that doesn’t upgrade to Win 7 right this second hates Microsoft, progress, freedom, and puppies. Bastards.
Which is the version Schmung tried, you’ll notice, which in turn means he has actually tried the DX9 version himself.
This is getting very complicated.
Or maybe it’s a game that we don’t want anyway and aren’t playing because it doesn’t support our Gaming OS of choice? That’s not complaining, that’s jsut staing the facts. No support? Sorry, I’m not your customer. Moving along.
“denying the pleasure” – give me a break. Don’t be such a dick. Just Cause 2 will not be worth $200 and an OS install, no way, no how.
I’m talking gamers in general, not just PC owning folk. Though it does seem marginally worse in this camp.
The equivalence in GPU hardware and DX levels between console/PC is always brought up but it’s cock really. People assume that because the chip in the 360 is of dx9 spec that crossplaform games must therefore only need dx9 to work on PC, which is not really the case. DX10 and WDDM make life easier for devs and if they don’t have to focus on legacy pathways then they can get on with the business of making the game and have to spend less time faffing about. Why would they not take advantage of this when anyone with the base spec of PC to run the game can easily run the OS required by it?
If people are that in love with XP then they can (and likely will) pirate vista/7 just to run the game. What bothers me more than anything about this whole issue is that it is such a minor and tangential inconvenience in the grand scheme of things. Had the thing only run on NVidia cards, or required 4gb of RAM or a mental DRM scheme then I would understand the furore. It doesn’t. It asks that your OS not be nine years old.
“Or maybe it’s a game that we don’t want anyway and aren’t playing because it doesn’t support our Gaming OS of choice?”
You don’t want it and you can’t play it? Well what’s the problem? Good for you!
I think this game is pretty sweet. It’s not worth an OS upgrade but I’m glad I can run it.
:( I can’t play this demo because I’m on XP.
There is no way in hell I could even run it anyway, but the fact that I wouldn’t be able to even if I had the specs bothers me.
BEST. DEMO. EVER!!!
I’m not exaggerating. This is the cleverest use of a demo I have ever seen. The area in the demo alone seems pretty big, but when it cuts to the trailer when your 30 mins are up you realise just how huge the game is going to be. It doesn’t drop you out of the game when the timer runs out neither, just straight to the menu after the trailer, so you are ready to go again if you wish.
I didn’t try to do any particular mission, so I’m not too sure how the game is actually going to be structured, but the demo just felt like some sort of glorious sandbox. I spent most of the time traversing the terrain, getting used to using the grappling hook and parachute combined. Tricky to do, but I can imagine you can move pretty speedily around the place once you master it.
The controls are pretty good. I was expecting to have to use a pad, as I guess it would be designed for consoles first, but after it defaulted to keyboard + mouse and I must have missed the option to enable pad I just stuck with it and everything was fine. It’s not changing the fact that Max Payne is still the only third person shooter to get mouse+keyboard perfect, but it does a very good job.
Performance seems to be good too. I didn’t have any of the mouse problems a couple of people are reporting, so I assume that must be down to frame rate. It was also able to automatically put my resolution to my default 1680×1050 without any hitches. Looks very nice too.
So, this seems to be a very good port and really captures the excitement of the trailers. I can imagine being able to pull off more and more crazy stunts the more you get used to the controls, as well as the toys you have to play with.
I’m of for a second play through.
Actually, there is one caveat to all of this, which I have just discovered. The cutscenes aren’t skip-able.
Also: Quicktime-events. Argh!
But to be honest: not as bad as I expected. You take over a helicopter by pressing 1,2 or 3 in a certain order it shows you, and each button just once. So no hammering a button, which is nice, but still pointless. They should have left that out maybe?
But I agree, I really like where this game is going.
I’m not sure, can you call it a quick time event when it gives you that long to do it? I’m utterly cack-handed and terrible at these things, but I found the time limits pretty generous. As long as it doesn’t do a Mercs 2 and make the fancier vehicles require a baroque combo of buttons to be hammered out at super speed I am fairly happy.
I had forgotten about those. Yeah, not a big fan of those either. They are used pretty painlessly here though. The choice of keys was a little random, but the time on them is so long that I can’t really complain.
I do wonder whether this demo is set on the very easiest difficulty though. It takes a hell of a lot to kill you and I have only actually ever died when I blow myself up and when I crashed a plane. If the difficulty is set on the lowest setting then the quick time events may need to be done faster on a higher difficulty.
Despite the time limit easily one of the best demos of the last few months. Actually gave me reason to go out and buy this at full price soon. Much more tricky stuff to do than in the first game and it runs so smooth. Awesome stunts.
Great demo. It could do with having destructable buildings à la Red Faction: Guerrilla, but that’s a fairly minor complaint when you can hijack helicopters with a grappling hook and surf on top of cars.
In short, I would be buying this right now if I wasn’t waiting for BF:BC2 to unlock later tonight. I’ll definitely pick it up at some point though.
Two plays did more to increase my interest than most of the trailers.
Not entirely true.
Still, though, a demo hasn’t made me this excited for a game since Batman Arkham Asylum. So yeah. Looking forward to this.
Looking forward to trying this, gonna go download now.
Any everyone complaining about the non-Win XP thing, if you have a rig capable of running this game, then you’re surely the type to spend a decent amount on your PC maybe every few years. Why not £50 a new OS every what, 7 years (since XP came out?) as well? I bet the RAM in most people’s PCs who are complaning about this set them back that much, not to mention the GPU/CPU prices.
Essentially, Just Cause 2 demo = Happy Fun Time.
Yay!
I find it especially hilarious that there are characters in this game who speak with a Ma/Singlish accent! Some people complain about its exaggerated nature but I can verify its authenticity (at least for that ‘comrade’ lady). There are people who do speak like that.
I’m not planning to upgrade Windows any time soon, and haven’t bought a Windows upgrade since Windows 98 (and there I upgraded from Windows 3!), but I still don’t think it’s unreasonable of them to require XP, considering that the hardware system requirements are high enough that people who can run it most likely bought their computer after XP had been replaced by Vista as the current Windows version. If you chose to install an old OS on your new computer you have yourself to blame if not everything works.