After reading an interesting article about raucous point-and-click adventure title
Time Gentlemen, Please! I bit the bullet and thought I'd install the demo and try it out. After a short installation on Steam I was greeted with the following upon trying to play the game.
Thanks, stupid pop-up, you have relieved me of the burden of getting to play the game I want to play.
Thus, I begin the trial of checking to find the setup programme (which appears not to exist), then the Steam website for support (no help), the Zombie Cow website for support (no help), the Adventure Game Studio website for support (no help), then check my graphics drivers are up-to-date (no help), before eventually giving up.
If I want to play this game, I will have to continue trawling the internet and/or my OS to try and solve a ridiculous puzzle that has been presented to me. After which I may well identify that it cannot be solved as the result of some technical aspect of my laptop being amiss, such as my graphics card being unable to render polygons the way the game likes them rendered, so I am simply left defeated.
I'm sure that there are some chip jockeys out there who are likely to scoff at my exploits, demanding why I'm not more
au fait with my OS and hardware, or why I cannot decipher the riddle with ease, drill into the menu choices lodged within Vista's bowels, adjust the required checkboxes and menus and get the game running.
I'm sorry, but I just wanted to relax and play a game.
PC stalwarts will insist that it is worth the hassle to play games such as
Crysis that consoles are yet to replicate in beauty and depth of physics, and games such as
Left 4 Dead that really come into their own with community levels and mods. To some degree they are quite right. However, there seems so much heartache to get to that point, when I can just pick up a 360 controller to play
Halo 3, or a PS3 controller to play
Killzone 2, and gain access to experiences that are as unique any PC title. All with the added bonus of gaining that experience straight away, with comfort and ease.
This is why PC gaming is not something I do.
Sean Daisy's blog
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Stick a disk in, install the game, play the game is pretty much all you have to do - except when your hardware is insufficient, but that's like trying to play Halo 3 on an original XBox. Of course it's not going to work.
You're right though, putting a console game in the system and simply starting the game is really fucking good if you've had a nightmare installing a game. I will say that it's a hell of a lot better than it used to be. I've had my new PC rig for a year now and the only problem I've had with a game has been World Of Goo, which doesn't seem to want to work on a dual monitor display.
Same thing with an RTS.
Granted, hardware on pc´s is not for everyone, but you are talking about a single game, I had my problems with Empire Total War, it wasnt the PC fault, the developer released a broken game, six months later the game was working (after several patches). Yet I dont have problem with all the games I install.
Uh, no.
I fixed it for you :3
That's not a bad thing, neccesarily, but I prefer PC FPS' massively.
Actually, At one point, I found it far more easier and accurate to aim with a controller (And this is without Auto-aim or aim-assist). It all comes down to practice.
And if its so hard to aim then surely people who use a controller are more skilled?
I just hate it when people attack different control schemes.
And yes, I played Crysis with a wired 360 controller.
Back on topic, This is the one thing which holds me back from being fully fledged in PC gaming, there are always problems for me, always. Granted, my dad built the family computer and I'm pretty sure it became sentient just to piss me off.
Also, welcome to 2009 folks, the controller has been equal to the keyboard and mouse for about five years now. It's all about preferences. Just because you're better at keyboard and mouse doesn't make it the best solution for everyone. Also, I can use both keyboard and mouse and a game controller with equal skill, so I know what I'm talking about.
I've got stacks of games from current stuff, to games released in the 90's and I have no trouble getting anything to work on Vista. 2 clicks and I'm away. If you prefer a console experience then good for you, I've got a 360 myself. This is absolutely not the norm for the PC as a gaming platform though, unless the 'problem' is sitting between the keyboard and the chair.
Play on a tower. Problem solved. :)
One thing you can try is going into the demo directory, opening acsetup.cfg and changing both defaultgfxdriver and gfxdriver to D3D5. While you're there make sure windowed is set to 1 as well.
OMG I can use mouse/keys combo as well as a normal controller equally too! What's up with everyone just being able to use one or the other these days anyway?