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Old September 20th 04, 09:41 PM
John
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Ok its not top of the line stuff but I think hes just trying to tell people
with older coumputers that it will run at an acceptable frame rate in low
detail.

No need to bite the guys head off!

"Skybuck Flying" wrote in message
...
Hi Folks,

It's me again... yes your game reporter lol.

I just played COD UO... (call of duty united offensive) for about 6 hours

or
so... on a pentium III 450 mhz and a Geforce FX5200.

The biggest problem I faced was getting enough space free on my

overcrowded
harddisk

The amazing thing is I now have 3 GB free... but 2 GB is now taken by COD

+
UO = 2.06 GB

Anyway I have some very good news for all people with the same kind of
CPU/system as me or even a bit faster

The game plays very well on 800x600 with textures at normal and the rest

at
low or off. ( Like no dynamic lighting, and low models etc )

The game still looks very good at these lower details.

The frame rates are 15 to 24 FPS outside... and 30 to 50 FPS inside.

That is a very acceptable from rate to play on

What amazed me a little bit more... is that this game sometimes even plays
faster than RTCW multiplayed test 2

Yes I know it sounds almost unbelievable doesn't it ? Such a new game...

on
such an old system lol... but it does work very well ! :P

Personally I never expected it too work this well..

Oh I forgot to mention something.

I only tested multiplayer so far... because I dont really care about

single
player.

Before I tried the full version... I did also try the single player

demo...
and that ran pretty much as crap... maybe the settings where to high
but I also think the AI code slows down the system quite a lot... in
multiplayer there is no AI

Well that's about it really...

What more can I say... exactly about the game itself.

The game itself is pretty cool... I really really like driving around and
big tanks and blowing the **** out of other unfortunate people walking in
front of my big swinging cannon lol

Well levels are pretty good, graphics are ofcourse good as all you cod
players know

There is one more bad thing to report though... it's probably because of

my
crappy file system...

The loading of levels takes very long on my PC....

My first guess is:

1. Crappy harddisk and/or very fragmented file system - bad for loading
etc... lot's of seeks.

My second guess would be:

2. The pk3 format is a zip file... and it's compressed.... that means
everything has to be de-compressed at load time....

Because my CPU is slow nowadays... it takes very long to de-compress. So
there ya have it... that could be a reason too.

Sometimes the loading takes so long... the server kicks me off ! nooooo.

Oh yeah... I do have some other general compliants about call of duty and
it's servers:

( Or advice )

A GOOD SHOOTER SHOULD HAVE THE FOLLOWING =D

1. NON STOP ACTION. Loading levels means - no action, naggy, slow,
****ty... specially on slow system... though I have seen very fast system



2. BIG LEVELS lead to NO ACTION - to much searching for enemies.

3. IN CASE OF BIG LEVELS HAVE MANY SPAWN POINTS. LET BOTH TEAMS SPAWN NEAR
EACH OTHER

4. In case of a team game... make sure to have team building.... this

means
at the very least: between level switches... make sure people stay in the
same team.

Well COD isn't really about team building etc... it's more like playing
togethwer with anouymous soldiers etc... hehehe.

It also doesnt have stuff like helping each other like meds, ammo
blablabla... that can be quite boring too ofcourse but still.

The tanks do add a little bit of team stuff... like heavy wapen support
yeah.

Oh ok.. now I go litte details.

I can't really tell what upgrades I have earned... while playing etc...

for
example I dont know when I can do an aistrike...

One needs a certain 'level/rank' for it.. it's indicated by some 'crown'
icon... but it's a bit small and unclear with low graphics and euhm.. I
still dont really know what it all meanse tc... but heck... little space
available on tab/score screen.

So I would advice a special screen... to see your own soldiers info/stats

=D
that would be cool...

Oh yeah another thing which is a bit funny and sucky... is that thompson
gun.. has been greatly reduced in accuracy and power

I might as well try to shoot people blindly

Well all in all it's damn good game.

But I ll say it again:

1. I wish this game had a little bit less level switching.... - no action

!

Well....

I would love to see a shooter that uses 'dungeon siege' technology.

Dungeon siege was a RPG game that was able to create one gigantic big
world... without ever seeing a load screen...

The harddisk was just quitly loading piece by piece of the world I

guess...
as you progressed...

Yeah a shooter with something like that... that would be cool...

And then create an invisible force field... so people can't leave the box
where they are in or something....

Then the invisible force field moves across the world... and one can only
play inside the force field

When somebody hits the force field... the force field is shown =D so he
knows he cant go on....

Oh yeah back to call of duty united offensive...

I did expect to see planes in multiplayer.... but no planes lol ?

Oh yeah one more thing...

The sound is a bit weird... the EAX thing totally sucked on a faster
system... I haven't even tried it on my own system...

On the faster system.. it created this HALL like effect... everything

being
played three times or something you know...

like yelling in a mountain... yodalahitti.... yodalahitti...

yodalahitti...

I couldn't not even understand what the dude was saying.... this was in
single player by the way.

Also my monitor is a bit darker...but with /r_gamma 1.15... or /r_gamma

1.25
and in night levels /r_gamma 1.5

I can see a lot better... also the graphics looked much more beautifull on
my geforce fx5200 than I thought it would =D

It might even have looked better than the radeon 9000 if my monitor was

not
such a crappy **** =D

though I can't be sure... so I shouldn say things like that

Anyway I have one more cool thing to say about UO.

THE GAME HAS A SPECIAL EFFECT AT NIGHT ! =D

It makes the bullits lit up at night... it looks really cool and
spectaculair....

Like big red or orange bullits... yeah...

It's just cool..

Well let me spoil a bit more for you lol... it s not really spoiling

but
maybe you wanted to find this out by yourself

So dont read on

The game has smoke granades.... and it looks pretty good... and well what
more can i say.. hide in smoke.. or create distractions or whatever...

Also two people can mount a tank... one driving and shooting... and one
shooting with antri infantry gun...

It s even possible to switch wapen position in tank or jeep... by using
wheel mouse scroll wheel... when only you are in tank...

Oh yeah I have more to report....

It's possible to capture enemy tanks.. =D that's pretty funny....

Just wait and sit... and pretend to be an unmounted tank... than let enemy
tanks roll by... and hit them in the ass

Hitting tanks in the ass makes them go boom much sooner and they never
know what hit them lol... unless kill cam is on

I wasted two tanks like that... pretty funny...

But ofcourse also a bit lame and simple.... it s much more fun and
challenging to just drive around... and be the master of the battle field

!
=D

YEAH DOMINATING...

( that's even a special game mode, one needs to capture multiple map
points )

So far I like capture the flag and seek and destroy best

Actually I shouldn't say things like that

The game hasn't been out long enough

Personally I dont like the old COD maps... so deathmatch and teamdeatch
match is a no-no for me... since they allow old cod maps as well.

Capture the flag is infinite lifes and new maps

Seek and destroy is one life...

Maybe that's a server settings ? or fixed to game mode... I dont know

By the way... I do like seek and destroy with old maps as long as it's
one life

Otherwise it's just senseless shooting

Welll what more can i say... hmmmmm there is more to say let me think...

Yeah about the maps/levels....

I have played in total on other system about 10 hours I think... maybe
more...

After the first 5 hours... I got literally pretty sick of some levels...
especially riding the jeep up and down the rhino valley level...

That was almost like a roller coaster... probably because I had the wrong
'perspective viewing mode'...

There are two view modes...... looking down gun and looking from the

top...

Apperently when one enters the jeep... you're looking down ??? what ? the
jeep's glass ? i dont know... but I do know it's way to near the

ground....

So you get really sick like that... yeah really... like your head is

rolling
over the ground almost... des-orientation... bleh... makes me sick...

But then switching to higher ground is good..

OH YES one more important thing which could be improved:

GETTING OUT OF THE TANK lol.

1. Ya don't know where you get out.

2. When you get out... you don't know where the hell you are... what

you're
facing and where the hell your tank is when you need to get back in...

So I have some suggestions how this could be made to work better:

1. When exiting the tank go to Third Person... and show a man climbing out
of the tank... and then walking towards something I guess... that's best

so
you know it s you other people might be next to tank... so you have to
know who you are but that's not the most important... the most

important
part is being able to see... where you got out and where the hell your

tank
is and what direction your facing relative to the tank

2. Another solution is for example using the 'awsd' keys to get out of the
tank....

For example HOLD SHIFT and then press A to get out left, W to get out

front,
D to get out right, and S to get out behind

Something like that

Sometimes it happened I get out the tank.. and then got dropped behind

some
wall or something hehe... it's realistic since the tank is larger than

wall
i guess but it's illogical... since then you have to like walk around wall
etc... or whatever... oh welll it was a bit weird... also pretty far away
from tank hmmm.

At first I thought the rhino level was a bit to large... but the server

just
sucked... It was domination mode... and the round time was 5 minutes...

I took about 3 minutes to drive to the other side of the level !!!!!!

Yeah man... that SUCKED and it was SICK

That's what I mean with NON STOP ACTION !!!!!

SPAWN CLOSE TO ENEMIES =D

Well what more can I say... there are some little artifacts...

Like never hide in a barn... or shed... because your wapens stick through
the wood and are visible to enemies... or your ass is sticking through

Yeah gotta be carefull with those walls ! especially tiny/small ones

Anyway that reminds me of a scene which i once saw in spectator...

It was this guy and he was chasing this axis... and the axis ran up a

wooden
stairway... and the guy did what was natural... he tried to shoot through
the wood... trying to kill the axis... But unfortunately the wood was like
cement.... so he coulnd't should the axis.... instead the axis killed

him..
((

That was bad (( he should have won (( =D

So call of duty could definetly use some WOOD MOD or TECH-NO-LO-GY =D

HEY SPLINTER CELL PANDORA HAS IT ! =D

So no reason for cod not to have it =D

Oh yeah... one more thing which is badddd...

I WISH this game had more DESTRUCTION =D

Here we are with all this big bad powerfull blasting tanks...

And I can't ****ing shoot the ****ing building to ****ing rubble lol...

not
even one fricking brick ?! =D

It would be cool if lot's of stuff could be blown up =D

And just leave some walls standing... just for a little bit of protection
for ground troops.

Oh yeah that reminds there is more to tell...

Euhm how do you say in english... these 'tunnels' or like ditches.. in the
snow etc... it's hard to get out of these ditches... that's pretty

annoying
! :P

But maybe that's realistic... if it's realistic than it just needs more

exit
points :P

Yeah and sometimes it s not possible to jump through a window... - very
annoying. :P like a drag.

And euhmmm some walls can't be jumped over... but it seems one can easily
jump or climb over... but ya just can't ? huh ? hehe.

Yeah one more thing... RTCW had this NADE indicator... it would go

boom....
boooooom... booooooom.. BOOOOMM throw nade !!!

It would be handy to have a little countdown... when nade goes boem or

a
little ticker or just something... I know ... one can say...

One needs skill for that... but hey I am used to RTCW... and the nades
worked a bit differently... like maybe a little less time... anyway...

I still vote for a timer on the nades =D or at least an indicator that

it's
'ticking' and going boom soon

Yeah one more thing ?! Euh there is no more sprint indicator ??? and run

is
not ALT ? huh ? in RTCW it was shift ?!

Good thing I played single player a little bit... since they told me to

use
ALT to sprint

Yeah man... euh I haven't seen any euhm like airstrike smoke nades... but

in
single player there are these oranges ones...

euhm not anymore in multiplayer ? well I dont really miss them... I think
that's an improvement... since that could be otherwise abused...

Anyway it's irritating and no fun at all to be hit by the still

implemented
airstrikes and artillery whatever... with the binoculars but one needs
to get a special rank before one can use that...

So fortunately it doesn't happen a lot... and quite frankly... one feels
pretty honored... when the enemy has decided that you were such a bit
thread that they called on airstrike or artillery or whatever it s called

on
to you... and you know only the best players can do that normally

Or lucky/smart players simply defending the flagggg.. that s easy and

gives
lot s of points

Yeah I do have a tip for people playing capture the flag and wanting to
steal the enemies flag:

USE LOTS OF SMOKE... especially in RHINO level ! lol...

Since I blasted and killed like dozens and dozens of (fools) lol.... he
tried to get the flag hehehehe. the flag is out in the open... and hard to
reach by foot or tank ( it takes to long ) so I was simply sitting in one

of
the dozens of tanks waiting for them to show up and to get blasted and
killed by me

I was number 1 ranking on my team.. it was that easy... the enemy can't

see
which tanks are mounted or unmounted... well almost not... it s very hard

to
tell and they possible can't blow up all tanks that takes to long...

Yeah maybe the tanks respawn way to fast... that's true... i think that s

a
valid compliant/issue... it s like 2 or 3 seconds.. man that s short !

But still I like it =D One doesn't wanna be without tanks =D

But it makes attacking with jeeps very hard.... :P even trying using
panzers... it remains hard

Well anyway... the game is only out very shortly... so maybe
players/attacker people's skill will improve on that rhino level =D

Oh man that was fun... I simply decided to sit and wait for them... I

didn't
want to spent a 3 minute ride... just to get blown up lol

Oh man.. I blew up so many people =D lol. I think they got pretty ****ed

at
me lol.. I was constantly asking how to use airstrike lol... oh well...

And they were ****ed lol hahahahahahaha.

Anyway back to search and destroy... it s a bit ok.. but also a bit
draggy... like A and B points that can be destroyed... hard to defend on
some levels... and add lag and ****... and get killed because of lag...

less
fun :P

Well guys and girls.. and grandpa's and grandma's... time to bring this

post
to an end.

Yeah sigh... let me end positively... because it might seem all stuff is
bad... but dont worry... the game is good =D but as always it could be
better :P

It must be better ! =D in the future hehehe.

Well I can't really rate it yet... haven't played it enough...

For now... I would give it an 8 out of 10.

Compare that to Halo 7 out of 10.

And Doom 3... 6 out of 10.

So you see.. the game is right up there !

Yeah baby... I wouldn't be surpised if it s just NUMBER ONE at the moment

=D

Yeah baby ! lol.

Bye,
Skybuck.