h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I bought 5 games for my son for Christmas and only 2 are completely trouble free.Is this normal or is it some kind of record.Can anyone top this.

Hmmmm. Most games have at least one bug, hence the updates released on the internet at fairly regular intervals... if something doesn't work, the first thing to try is heading for the manufacturer's website...

If you're buying games which were released more than a year ago, there's a distinct possibility that they won't work because they'll be expecting out-of-date drivers and the like.

Hmmm, let me think... last Christmas, we got three games, one of which worked straight off; the other two required new drivers and messing around to work properly/at all.

This Christmas, we have... hmmm... three new games, two of which work, one doesn't work at all. It's a fairly old one, so it could be quite difficult to persuade it to work...

It all depends on what kind of games you buy, really... but if you're not on the internet and able to download patches and look for help, PC gaming is a risky business.

I love it all the same

26199

Actually what kind of computer do you have? When I played new games on my dad's computer there were bugs gallore. But on my new computer everything runs fine.

There seems to be an expectation amongst game programmers that every-one has a super computer. It's quite a battle to keep your graphics cards etc up to date (specially if you live over 1000 miles from the nearest major city as I do). Essentially if you don't have at least a 266 pentium class processor and a 32mb graphics card and windoze 98, then you will have a hard time running any of the latest games. The built in bugs are another story entirely, as previously suggested all one can do is go to the manufacturers site and look for patches and up-dates

p.s. to the above RAM lots of RAM
Happy New Year
Rocket

I am not annoyed by the programmers thinking you got the latest in computers. What annoys me is that they think you don´t ever change your computer. Like when you´re trying to play an old game on your new Pentium something mhz, and the message "Sorry, but your computer isn´t fast enough. This game requires a 386 to run." appears. Didn´t it occur to the programmers that computers would get better in the future? At least make the games check that the computer isn´t in fact faster that it´s supposed to be.

You want programmers to take into account hardware developments that haven't happened yet?!

We're only human, you know

I have nothing much against the way the games industry treats fast computers as their target audience... if you haven't got one, there are literally hundreds of slightly older games you can buy, and definitely enough to keep you occupied. And when you get your next PC, there's going to be another lot of games to play which you couldn't play before...

It's always irritating when your previously top-of-the-range PC doesn't play the latest games very smoothly... mine are getting to that stage, now... but it's best to be philosophical about it, I find.

What it comes down to is - games are getting bigger and better. You need fairly recent hardware to play the latest, biggest and greatest games... but they genuinely are better than what could be achieved on slower machines. Usually.

As always - reading a decent games magazine is a must to get the most out of any spec PC...

26199

Well, couldn´t you just stop presuming that if the computer doesn´t meet the requirements that it´s because it´s too old? Make some button where it says, "My computer is newer than it´s supposed to be, run the game."?

Mebbe - these things can get ridiculously complicated. And then some.

If a program complains it won't run because your computer doesn't meet the specs, it's not very likely that it's done a specific check and then exited... it's more likely that it's tried to do something, hasn't been able to, and is printing an error message which back then would've been the explanation.

Most likely there's some DOS driver which it's relying on which doesn't work under Windows, or something along those lines...

I'd tend to think that programmers put a reasonable amount of effort into getting things working smoothly... as a beginning programmer myself, I can tell you that there's nothing more heart-wrenching than having someone install the product of months of blood, sweat and tears and come back to you with a simple 'It didn't work.'

Then again, programmers have to face up to those horrible things called deadlines, and reliability does on occasion suffer...

I'm not entirely sure where my point's gone... never mind...

26199

I always check the specifications on the game against those of my PC and if they don't match I don't buy so I think I may be pardonably annoyed when a game that SHOULD run according to the specifications on the OUTSIDE of the box doesn't.

It's even more annoying to get the game installed (funny how that part always works) and then discover in the readme file or troubleshooting file that some hardware you have doesn't work with the game.If only I had been privy to that piece of information BEFORE I PURCHASED IT how much simpler life would be.
Could it be that if a game has too many problems explained on the outside of the packaging it is off putting to would be purchasers?

If I buy a music CD that doesn't work I take it back and get either a new one or my money back(and this works with anything else I purchase)but I'm not made to feel it is MY fault that it doesn't work because my CD player is crap,I inserted it wrong or that I just expect too much which is the feeling I get from PC games software companies.

Rant and Slaver over.

Yeah, that sucks.

Still worth checking for updates on websites - in fact, if a game's popular enough, the *hardware* manufacturers will rush to produce new drivers which mean the games work with their product...

All this is a trade-off against the fact that PC games are generally much better than console games, IMO

26199