Darwinia

[Bluepixie]

Yes this year's most amazing game is now coming out on Steam. Crazy stuff, lets hope it helps out the guys at IS. There is a new demo out aswell to help promote the game.

Darwinia Demo 2 (http://www.3dgamers.com/dlselect/games/darwinia/darwinia-demo2.exe.html)

It's good, and not as hard as the original demo. The Gesture system remains, but now have to choose it in the game options, which is good.

[Strings]

Nah.

I never downloaded the patch that got rid of the gesture system.

Buy aye, get the demo while you can.. apparently they will be taking it down prior to the release on Steam.

The game is phenomenal and will remind you why you love playing games.

[Fyndir]

We are currently unable to offer this demo for download.
The demo will be coming soon to Steam.

Seems I'm too late. =(


Oh well, I'll see if I can nab it off of Steam at some point.

[Bluepixie]

Actually you can find it kicking about if you google it. 3Dgamers have at as do a few other places.

here (http://www.3dgamers.com/dlselect/games/darwinia/darwinia-demo2.exe.html)
ALSO

The gesture system is still in the game, but have to choose it in the gameplay options. So, everything is not lost. yay! :D

[Fyndir]

Actually you can find it kicking about if you google it. 3Dgamers have at as do a few other places.

here (http://www.3dgamers.com/dlselect/games/darwinia/darwinia-demo2.exe.html)



Cheers mate, downloading ASAP.

I was just going off of the original link and what it said since it's the official site, was pretty thick of me.

[Bluepixie]

Was my mistake, they turned off the official link later that afternoon. Think it's on Steam now.

ALL PEOPLE THAT HAVE MONEY, BUY IT!

It's great! :twisted:

[DAve]

Does the Steam game have the gestures enabled?

[Bluepixie]

aye is does, you have to choose it from the in game options now as it defaults to the stupid menu system.

Gestures are great! Don't use the menu!

[Strings]

*still plays non-patched Darwinia*

Never want to see a menu; never will :P

[Sideshow]

Tried out Darwinia last night - well, I tried it briefly on Wednesday night when I got home, but I was running Azureus and eMule in the background, so the FPS wasn't that great. So.. actual playing was done last night.
Or so I hoped. When I tried it on Wed there was a generic intro sequence. Last night - it's an Amiga intro! So cool. That set the game up nicely... except for when I start playing it and get 4 fps. WTF?! THIS IS A FERRARI DAMMIT! 4FPS?! Sigh - turn down the detail a bit. No help. Reset detail and screen size to lowest/smallest possible. Now I have 640x480, with the landscape made of about 2 polygons/screen - 4fps. AAArrrgghhh. Stoopid fucking waste of money game.

However, on checking the website I found a tip (turn off Realtime sounds). I go back in, and while I'm in the sound screen (177%CPU usage), I see that hardware3D is off. Turning it on - 60fps. Thank Christ for that.

So while I had intended to go see Kong last night, I sort of played Darwinia instead.

I have been using the gesture system, but I'm probably going to switch to menus. The gesture system is slow, and they don't seem to have quite gotten the point of it. The whole idea of a gesture system is you don't need a GUI - you just need the mouse pointer. Having to hold down Alt to bring up a special menu for you to draw it in defeats the whole purpose behind it.

Also: second time I ran Darwinia it gave me a Speccy boot loader! Darwinia - Best Game Ever!

[Sideshow]

And a quick bit about Steam: Now that we're a year after launch, Steam is pretty damn sweet. When I was at the Darwinia website looking for help on the FPS problem I saw on the front page a link to the 1.3 patch. I was about to get it when I realised that I don't need to worry about patches at all, since they happen automatically.
Buying from Steam is fairly straightforward, though it would be nice if it had an option to remember your credit card details. It'd be nicer if it accepted Debit Cards (like Switch/Solo/Maestro/whatever it's called now) so I didn't have to keep borrowing my sister's Visa.
In general though, Steam makes getting and playing games easier, and I'd definitely view it as a plus in a games favour if it was released through Steam. No idiotic CD copy protection. No hassle finding a copy. Likely to be cheaper too.
If they would only get the friends list working, every multiplayer game would be a breeze to set up (much like XBoxLive).

[Bluepixie]

I'm glad you got it working and enjoy it! I really like the gesture system, but each to their i suppose. That's why the put the menu system in so at least you have a choice. It's just that during combat, having to swap between different weapons and creating new units really adds to the tension. However, if you're not used to playing it this way, I suppose the menu makes more sense. You should get the full game man, the demo really is just a taster. :D

[Sideshow]

...I did get the full game?

[Bluepixie]

oh, so you did

sorry.

[Bluepixie]

Darwinia's with Christmas hats on!!!!!!

Really! I'm serious! If you have the full game load it up and have a look! It's snowing and everything! :D

Heck, Tyrian 2000 ships are firing candy and Xmas puddings! :D

[Strings]

lol awesome.

I havent seen something like this since a demo called "Rise of the Triad".. and in the cutscenes they were all wearing santa hats.

Nice one Pixie.

[DAve]

Steam still sucks several kinds of boaby.

Tried buying Darwinia over the Steam Shop, and it declined every single credit card I have in the house, despite typing in the exact same address that appears on the credit card, and double checking everything several times over.

Steam sucks ass. :(

I mean, seriously, if it's this difficult to actually buy the damn software and extremely easy to download a pirated version, can you tell what's going to happen. Cocks.

[Strings]

Now Now Davey boy...

Majority speaking, Steam is quite lovely. Personally I like Steam updating my CSS for me. Rather than the fecking bother I had trying to find a good download speed for the newest BF2 patch :evil:

[Sideshow]

Yeah, I bought Darwinia on STeam the weekend before it came out. Preloaded then (taking les than an hour), and on the wednesday release it was playable. You must just be unlucky :(

[DAve]

Now Now Davey boy...
Majority speaking, Steam is quite lovely.
Steam is fantastic when it works. When it doesn't it's a bigger pain in the arse than the patch system in the first place (at least for me :)

Update: the credit card company say that they have authorised the payment. Steam, however, hasn't taken the money. I'll start posting bitterly on the Steam forums in a day or so :(

[DAve]

To cut a long, and potentially rant-heavy conversation short, I've just managed to buy Darwinia over Steam.

Turns out that I needed to enter the postcode without spaces AND the flat number as a dash:

e.g.
Dave
Flat 1-2
1 NotMyAddress Street
Anytown
AA11AA

Gah. I hope that Darinia is worth it now :D

[Bluepixie]

It will be. You can beat me if it's not. :shock:

[YegaDoyai]

I say beat him anyway, Darwinia is fun, no question. But beating on someone is fun also so double your pleassure and do both!