Windows 7: Tribulations And Then Trials

Operating Systems are simply one of those things in modern life that you cannot do without, unless of course you are one of the few people on the planet that never uses a computer (in which case you won’t be reading this anyway!).

Over the years, I have used pretty much every OS for P.C that has has been released, right from the “good old” days of MS-DOS, though Windows 95/98, Windows ME/2000,Windows XP and even Linux on rare occaision, but the one I always seem to return to (unsurprisingly) is Windows XP.

Recently, as kind of an experiment and maybe because I was a bit bored on that given day, I decided to give Windows 7 a whirl to see what all the fuss was about and after hearing how wonderful it was from several friends and colleagues.

Initially, I was quite impressed with the shiny new Microsoft offering, although I wasn’t that impressed with the minimum install size, coming in at a whopping 15 gigabytes. I know that 15gb is small in today’s 21^st century of cheap hard dives with hundreds of gigabytes of storage, but I still think this is a bit of cheek for an OS. The install went very smoothly and after several hours, I was up and running with my new shiny install of Windows 7. If you are a bit of a Windows XP die-hard like me (there are many of us), then initially you may find the Windows 7 interface a bit bewildering as there are quite a few different things. I will not be going into any detail about features here as this is not meant to be a review, but Windows 7 is different and you will probably like it once you get used to the differences from Windows XP.

Now onto the problems that I faced. Admittedly there were not a huge amount of problems, but the ones that I had were enough (for me personally) to give up and go back to Windows XP. For starters, Windows 7 really did not want to play very nicely with both my soundcard and my joystick. I have an old Soundblaster Live Value and an old Microsoft Sidewinder Force-Feedback joystick, both of which worked perfectly well under Windows XP, but were not very happy with this new fangled Windows. There are no “proper” Windows 7 available drivers for the SB Live, but I managed to “sort of” get the soundcard to function with the old Win XP drivers. The only problem was that I could not access Audio HQ at all which meant that the reverb effect was permanently on (annoying for both videos and some games) and the bass and treble settings were set to their lowest value and permanently greyed out, so essentially the sound coming out of my speakers was pretty crap. I also could not get the Creative gameport on the card to initially work until after some faffing around and searching online for a solution. However, I then discovered that Windows 7 just would not detect my MS Sidewinder FF joystick and this took lots more searching and faffing about to get working. I play a lot of flight-sims and I still love my old Sidewinder (it still works perfectly) so I was not too pleased with this.

The final problem with the soundcard came when I tried to get midi working with the gameport under Windows 7. I’m a musician and I use Cubase, but I use one of the old style gameport midi interfaces and again this took a lot of faffing about (and some swearing) to get working correctly. I’m sure some of you out there are probably thinking “why don’t you just get a USB midi interface and a USB joystick?”. Well, it’s true I could do that, but I’m of the opnion that if you have something that you still like to use and it still works perfectly well, then why should you have to upgrade or change it? I know this doesn’t always apply to computer stuff, but I think there are limits and I’m of the opnion that some things should “just bloody work!”

The next problem and probably the final insult came when I tried to play some of the games that I own. I play a LOT of P.C games and quite often I like to revisit older titles in my collection. Now, on the whole, Windows 7 runs the majority of games quite nicely, even older titles and certainly much better than Windows Vista did. However, when you get to older games that use copy protection systems such as Starforce, then the game just often crashes or simply doesn’t run at all. As a couple of examples, I encountered problems with both Rush For Berlin Gold and Hammer & Sickle. With both games, when they said they were installing the Starforce protection drivers and had to reboot the system, I rebooted and tried running the game, but then got the same message again. I did a bit of research online and there was allegedly a way of getting the Starforce drivers to upgrade to the latest version (that should be compatible with Windows 7), but I just could not get this to happen. In the end I was forced to use no CD/DVD hacks just to get the games to run (not good). To be fair, this particular problem is not really Microsoft’s fault, but it was still a deciding factor for me in going back to Windows XP.

Conclusion

In general, Windows 7 is a very good operating system and is certainly a huge improvement over Windows Vista. If you don’t play games at all or even if you are new to P.C gaming and maybe only play the very latest, cutting edge releases, then I can certainly recommend it. The OS is nice to use, is very stable and has some very nice features (I particularly like the desktop gadgets!). However, if like me, you like to play a lot of old games still and you have some older hardware that you really don’t see why you should have to upgrade, then you may want to think twice. Hopefully in time, many of the compatibilty problems can be ironed out, but for me, I think I will just stick with my trusty install of Windows XP, where I know everything works just fine thank you very much!

Metro 2033 PC Review

Metro 2033
PC DVD
Developer: 4A Games
Publisher: THQ
Game website: http://www.metro2033game.com/en

Overview

Metro 2033 is a bit of a grim game. Don’t game me wrong, it’s certainly not a bad game, in fact it is a very good game. However, the overall setting and subject matter tends to make you feel a bit down and in need of something a bit more “fluffy” to cheer yourself up after an extended session with the game (or this could just be me – lol).

The game is based on the novel of the same title, by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky and the basic premise is that well used setup of the aftermath of World War 3 and nuclear armageddon, with the player as a character called Artyom who is a kind of “freedom fighter”. The environment is what is left of Moscow, with survivors of the war hiding out in the underground Metro stations. A large part of the game sees you moving though the tunnels and underground areas of the Metro system, going from station to station, with brief sections of the game in the above ground areas of the ruined city.

The stations themselves are on the whole bases for the resistance movement, where you can talk to various characters, the plot progresses and you can buy new weapons and equipment. One cute feature of the game is that the currency of this game world is the actual bullets themselves, with military grade bullets holding more value than regular bullets. The bullets can be traded at various dealers at the stations for various weapons, upgrades and medkits etc. This introduces an interesting game mechanic, as bullets are liberally scattered throughout the game levels, lying on the floor and on dead bodies, but the player has to judge and balance how much ammo they want to spend on supplies and how much ammo they think they may need for the next mission/objective. It’s an interesting system that works quite well and adds an overall tactical layer to what is essentially a very linear first person shooter.

There are other game mechanics that separate this game from being yet another generic FPS and one of them is the use of the gas mask. In certain areas of the game, there is poisonious gas, which will kill you quite quickly within minutes. If you are carrying a gas mask, pressing G puts the gas mask on, but you only have a limited amount of air in the filters. The filters can be replenished either by buying them with bullets at a dealer or finding them on the ground or on dead bodies. As the filters run out, your breathing gets heavier and you will die if you do not replace the filter. You also have a gauge on your left wrist that can be displayed by pressing T and this shows you how much air you have left with the current filter. The gas mask can also be damaged in combat with cracks and marks appearing on the surface, obscuring your view and if it takes too much damage, the mask becomes useless and you need to find a replacement. So in essence this forces you to be constantly aware of the environment and to only use the gas mask when you really need to, to avoid damage during combat, and of course to save your filters and make them last. It’s an excellent mechanic that gives the game more of a “survival-horror” type of feel.

There is also the interesting use of light and your head mounted torch. The game world is beautifully lit and this lends itself well to sections where stealth style gameplay can be employed. Your head mounted torch has, of course a limted batttery charge, but you carry a portable charger, that can be “pumped up” and recharged by bringing up the device by holding down the F key and constantly pressing the left mouse button until the charge gauge is full. When you get the night vision goggles, they are powered by the same battery as your torch and charged by the same charger, so again you are faced with another tactical resource balancing act. The fun is also added to by the fact that enemies (of course) can see and react to your torch beam and you can extinguish many of the light sources (such as oil lamps) that are dotted around the dimly lit tunnels and underground areas. Again this helps make up for the linear nature of the game as in many of the dark areas you have the choice of using sealth or going in “guns blazing” (which quite often gets you killed by the way – lol).

The enemies in Metro 2033 consist intially of mostly mutant creatures that are quite aggressive and a bit scary, but as the game progresses you end up fighting both the Red Army and Neo-Nazis that are battling for control of Moscow. There are also mysterious “ghost” creatures that must be avoided at all cost and I will not go into too much detail here as I don’t want to spoil it for you, but they are quite spooky and certainly add to the survival-horror feel that I mentioned earlier.

As I have mentioned, the game is quite linear, but there is enough variety in the environments and objectives to keep up your interest, with typical sections where you are simply blasting away at enemies, to stealth sections and basic puzzle solving. From a production value point of view, the game is created to a high standard with convincing post-apocalypse underground enivonments, gorgeous lighting effects and well-modelled and animated characters and enemies. The voices on the whole are not too bad (I’ve certainly heard worse), but the monologue from Artyom during the loading screens sounds very dry and boring. Sound effects on the whole are very well done, with suitably scary howls and biting and scratching noises from the mutant creatures and weird and spooky background ambient sounds. The weapon sounds I found to be a bit on the weak side and they could of used a bit more “oompf”, in particular the automatic weapons.

The Good Stuff

Metro 2033 is by no means a groundbreaking game, but it does offer a fun experience. It’s nice to see a developer try to do something a little bit different with the FPS genre and I really like the bullet trading mechanic, the gas mask and the use of lighting combined with the torch/night vision goggles/charger. The atmosphere generated by the the graphics and lighting and the sound and music is probably Metro 2033s’ strongest point as the game will often have you on the edge of your seat and immersed in the action, with the odd shock here and there that will make you jump.

The Bad Stuff

To be honest, there isn’t really a great deal wrong with Metro 2033 in terms of it’s design and playability. If I had to pick one thing, I would question the games replay value. The game is a fairly linear experience and you will find yourself replaying certain sections over and over again as you die for umpteenth time, but some levels do have different paths/approaches that you can take, so they game isn’t completely linear. You also get the obligatory difficulty settings, but I do wonder if many people are likely to play the game through a second time. There is also no multiplayer whatsoever which certainly cuts down on the games overall longevity.

The game does feel a little bit of a lost opportunity as I cannot help feeling that the game world should have been a bit more open. It would have been nice if you could go off and explore the apocalypse torn city of Mosow and it’s underground more and that you could pick and choose your missions from a selection instead of being dragged along a linear plot progression. Unfortunately, this makes Metro 2033 pale in comparison in terms of open world post-apocalypse games such as the excellent Fallout 3 or even Stalker: Shadows of Chernobyl.

Conclusion

All in all, Metro 2033 is a good first person shooter that introduces some different gameplay mechanics and provides some good solid action. The plot is nothing to write home about and you will probably not want to play through it a second time, but if you love FPS games, like a few shocks and scares and you want something that does a few new things, then I can strongly recommend this game. However, as I said in the opening paragraph, it is a bit grim, so you may find yourself wanting to play something like “Critter Crunch” after you get to the finale.

Score: 7 out 10

I'm Back!

Yep, after a long leave of absence from this blog, I'm now back writing once again about the wonderful world of computer games!

"So where did he go and what happened?" I hear you ask (maybe): Well, this being the real world and the real world demands that you earn a living, I was offered a job testing games at a developer, which I did for about six months. Unfortunately this did not leave me very time for writing, so the blog kind of fell by the wayside, which is bad (I know).

Anyway, over the past six months I've had a brief fling with Windows 7 and played a LOT of games. There's also been a bunch of interesting bits and bobs happening in the industry, so there's plenty for me to write and generally moan about.

I will now be contributing to this blog once more on a regular basis, so to coin a phrase "watch this space!"