Demo

Crooser · Post by **Crooser** » Mon May 15, 2006 8:30 pm

I downloaded the demo the other night and I've played it a couple of times already. This here game will definitely eat up some of my free time after its release.

It has a Diablo feel to it, but it also reminded me of DSiege II play style. I'm currently playing Oblivion and I just don't think its all that. Oblivion is a phenomenal game and all but, it just doesn't do it for me. I'm not having as much fun as I did when I played Dungeon Siege II. So I am very much looking forward to the release of TQ.

Graphics are second to none. The dialogue is not annoying or overacted. Plenty of armor/weapon upgrade to be done and the skill build up is well thought out. Primary Quest and secondary quests is just like Dungeon Siege II. Needless to say I'm pretty impressed so far. I believe the game will be very deep but the only thing I'm concerned is the playability. I just hope that we won't have to replay the same game at different difficulty(like DSII).

Combat mode is straight forward and Dual Wielding is available for offensive melee class. Range attack is pretty easy to use as a primary form of combat and the character looks cool using a bow. Its crazy how the mobs recoil back when they get hit by arrows. Overall, at least for the first 6 levels, this game is fun, fast pace, and just full of stuff that you look from a role playing game(character, skill, armor, weapon build up).
I'll buy it when it gets released for sure.

Anybody else played the Demo?

Crooser

DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Thu May 25, 2006 12:37 am

Going to play it as soon as I finish downloading it

Wanted to start playing the demo a few days back but since the download servers are pretty full, have to wait till yesterday night to download. Anyway, I'll have my say when I managed to finish downloading the demo and start playing.

DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Thu May 25, 2006 9:57 am

Crash problem

I don't know if anyone has experienced this but when I played the demo, the game crashes back to BIOS screen when I played for like less than a minute.
Frankly, I'm wondering if its my graphics card drivers or some other problem but when I went to search for solutions, there seems to be hit and miss type of solutions or none at all.

On the gameplay note, this game does play a tad bit like Diablo, good graphics and neat effects but that's all I'm going to say thanks to the crash so, I can't comment further.

P.S. Forgive me for the double post but this is something I have to address.

cbsteel · Post by **cbsteel** » Sat May 27, 2006 11:02 pm

I've also had a problem with the demo crashing back to desktop in less than a minute of gameplay. What type of video card do you have? It plays fine on our older computer with an ATI card but crashes on the newer dual core one with an nVidia card.

DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Sun May 28, 2006 8:04 am

My computer is fairly new, a Pentium 4 520 2.8GHz HT with a 128MB Nvidia Geforce 6200 (PCI Express).

And by the way, the demo I've played restarted my computer or sometimes even jams my computer in a black screen and I had to force a restart in doing so.

Mindcircus · Post by **Mindcircus** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 5:44 am

...

I've been playing the demo off and on now for over a week and i like it. I'm just not sure my computer can handle all of the fireworks on the screen. I've read that the retail version will run smoother which is a relief but hopefully it won't be a system hog. My rig is quite outdated now but can still chug out these recent games decently. I'm not going to be able to play this on high settings or anything though.

I haven't had system crashes but the game does run better now that i've updated my drivers, and defragged by HDD. With that said, the game still chugs along slowly during the night, in towns, in the cemetary, and in the first cave. Other than that it runs fine... hahaha

DaveO · Post by **DaveO** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 10:01 pm

I wanted to try the demo out, but if this is any indication of how the full release will be I'd rather wait for something else. I've never seen a buggier demo release since the first Age of Wonders demo, so this makes me think the game will be notorious for bugs on actual release. Do yourself a favor and avoid this release. I can't honestly recommend this game to anybody(unless you're a sadist and like to experience bugs along the lines of Descent to Undermountain).

swcarter · Post by **swcarter** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:18 am

I played the demo through the first quest, and I didn't have any problems.

SWC

DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 10:06 am

[QUOTE=swcarter]I played the demo through the first quest, and I didn't have any problems.
[/QUOTE]

Eh? How's that possible?

Then how come both me and DaveO have problems with the demo?

DaveO · Post by **DaveO** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 7:26 am

The only common thing I see that might be a culprit for my problems and those of DesR85 is that we both have Pentium 4 machines. I have XP Professional Service Pack 2 with all the updates, and the only other thing I can think of is possibly DirectX causing issues. Another potential issue is having Hyper Threading on, or perhaps there might be sound driver related problems since I have a SB X-Fi card(well worth the investment though since I play all games with headphones on).

Quite frankly, I'm not spending another second with the game in either demo and retail since there are far better releases and I'm not about to spend 6-12 months or longer waiting yet again for a game to be patched to a playable status.

moltovir · Post by **moltovir** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:50 am

I've installed the demo, but every button reads "Tag not found - tag menu". Pretty hard to find "New Game" if all the buttons list the same nonsense

Edit: problem fixed. There was a missing text line in the defaults.txt file.

Antarius · Post by **Antarius** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 1:24 am

personaly i love it, the gameplay is somewhere between diablo II and sacred, both of wich i played for years and still do sometimes.
i found no bugs at all in the demo and if some of you find it laggy, well if you look at the minimum requirements, you'll see that you need a good pc to handle this game.
about the crashes to descktop/reboots, yes it happens ocasionaly also on my system, i think it is a graphic issue of either the graphic card drivers or of the demo code, (limitations build into a demo code can cause this sometimes), but i wasn't able to pinpoint the problem yet.
still, all in all i think it is a great game and im deffinetly going to play it for a long time, cant wait to get it delivered (preordered it ages ago) lol

Kel · Post by **Kel** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 6:13 pm

The Demo Reminds me of Dungeon Lords....not good!!

Hi SWC!!

I was wondering since you have played the demo with no problems what sort of magic you used to accomplish that. I want to learn it or whatever.

The demo has been crashing my system to a "Stop Error" and then rebooting ever since I downloaded it and those are hard crashes which are not good for anyones computer. I would also suggest that if you are always connected to the internet that you block all traffic as any interruption will crash your computer and do not try and Alt-Tab to check for important emails or to check any game instuctions as I have been crashing every time I bring the game back up.

I have never had any game that has crashed my system so much...not even close. This is actually worse than Dungeon Lords was and I am only trying to play the demo. Dungeon Lords was the only game that has ever crashed any of my computers but nowhere this much and I can usually get any demo to play on it.

There simply is no excuse for any game to behave like this even as a demo and Iron Lore expects people to buy it. I don't know but they sound like used car salesmen to me.

I am attaching a JPEG file with info on my system using 'NVIDIA TEST_CAN I RUN IT' from NVIDIA's nzone.com. You will see that my system is more than capable of handling this game. There are two minor issues concerning drivers I need to update. Those drivers are not the cause of my problems! Check the minimum requirements for this game.

Alt-Tab causes the game to crash when you bring it back up and the Window key doesn't work. There are other problems that also cause this game to CRASH and REBOOT.

Iron Lore and THQ need to address these right now and not just in the retail version of the game but also the Demo. I do play demos first alot of the time before I buy a game.

I have been playing Oblivion (so-so game) and replaying Homeworld: Cataclysm (replaying the series). I have one or the other game up for days on my system and still was able to check email or surf the internet. I just pause the game and either use Alt-Tab or the Window's key to get back to my desktop. I do what I want or need to do and them just bring the current game that is running back up again. I do 'SAVE' before I temporarily leave a game. Hey, I don't want to tempt Fate and something else cause me to lose my place in a game and we have had some good thunderstorms lately that have caused a power loss. I do also use have a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Source) to back-up my power so I can safely shut my computer down.

I am bothered by the fact that games are still being rushed onto the market before they are adequately tested. I have programmed in the past and this practise was just not ever acceptable because it cost us business.

There are some games that I never gave a thought to playing after playing the demo or checking websites to see the list of problems gamers were having with new games. I have been considering replaying DIABLO & LOD using patch v1.10 as I have heard good things from some gamers I know.

Have fun gaming and let's hope that they get Titan Quest fixed soon.

Kel

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sungo · Post by **sungo** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 6:54 pm

My friend was able to play the demo fine but the full version crashed his computer a lot. His video card was overheating due to all the shaders, etc. and he's running a 6800 GT. Try watching your GPU heat while you play, if it gets to the upper 70s or 80s that may be your problem.

DaveO · Post by **DaveO** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 6:54 am

I just read the account of somebody else I trust having problems with the demo. It's now officially documented with somebody even including files to try to fix the problem(s) with the demo and hopefully the full game.

Personally, there is no way I'd even considering purchasing the full game given how buggy the demo is. As I mentioned before, this looks like it may actually surpass Descent to Undermountain in terms of game bugs. I guess it proves that talent alone is not good enough to prevent mistakes on this magnitude.

Now I just read a review that gave good marks to the full release. There are only two possibilities here. Either the full version works flawlessly without problems(unlikely, but possible) or this is proof that game review sites cannot be trusted since they have either no courage or no motivation to investigate the numerous documented bugs and publish the truth. I suppose I should not be surprised since Political Correctness has mostly achieved its goal of snuffing out disagreements as well as critical and moral thought.

DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 2:49 am

It works! At last!

I reinstalled the demo just today and........IT WORKS! Finally! All I had to do was adjust the DirectX slider all the way to basic acceleration. The game will tend to pause at certain parts where its supposed to crash if you left the DirectX slider at full/standard acceleration but will not crash. Jeez.

Anyway, I'm not jumping for joy over this one.

Feels like some Diablo clone or some sort when I played it. And as what some people have stated, I'd rather go play some other game than this one.

Ravager · Post by **Ravager** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 12:19 pm

Well, I bought the game itself, I'm unsure what thee content of the demo is, but other than one crash after killing the first boss, the game has worked perfectly for me.
Maybe the demo version just wasn't built very well and separated from the issues in the full version of the game.

Kel · Post by **Kel** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:35 am

Please contact Microsoft

sungo, thanks for your reply! I just started watching my GPU temp and the highest I have seen it was 65C (~125F) and the core slowdown threshold is 125C (~256F) for 6800's GPU. I talked to some friends who are computer tech specialists and they said that the GPU is not the problem here they felt that the game was not properly encoded for DirectX 9.0c. I also checked the GPU temp while playing Oblivion and I found that it was at 72C (~162F) and did not cause a crash. The problem with checking core temps is that I have to save and exit for Titan Quest but only have to pause Oblivion and then either use the Windows key or Alt-Tab to my desktop which is alot Ofaster. Alt-Tab causes system crashes in Titan Quest which also requires that nothing be running in the background which includes firewalls, anti-virus or Microsoft's Critical Update Service. These have all caused Titan Quest to do a BSOD 'Stop Error' crash which means I may have to also disconnect my cable modem because they provide my internet service and they do poll my computer to check on signal quality. Thanks for your suggestion as it did get me thinking a little more about my GPU temperature. I wish there was a tested program that would monitor and record GPU temps.

DaveO, I agree with your thoughts on game reviews as I found a review of Titan Quest that gave it a '93'. I take it they were playing a specially programmed demo and playing it on a Cray computer. They are afraid of loosing their advertising money and I have never seen any game play as smoothly as their reviews may lead you to believe. I don't blame them that much as they need the ad money to keep their magazines coming to gamers like us. I do feel that they could address this issue as the retail versions of games are getting released in more pre-beta conditions then ever before.

DesR85, I know you did not pay good money to run your system on what almost amounts to idle and I would be extremely upset(??) to have to push my acceleration down as far as you did.

I sent THQ my system specs and some test results which I maxed for their game. Their response was that it was a hardware problem. I have heard that one before.

I spent two hours and $35.00(probably not quite the cost of their game) with a tech from Microsoft and we tested everything on my computer. The end result which I already know was that there is absolutely nothing wrong with anything on my computer. Oops, I forgot Titan Quest! The tech could not even get my system to hiccup not even with a popup blocker, Norton's firewall, anti-virus plus Automatic Update and Microsofts Update running in the backgound. He did not come out and directly say it but he did think that the game company had a problem with DirectX 9.0c. I forgot to mention that we uninstalled and re-installed the game including cleaning the registry.

I am sorry to say that nothing we did helped find or fix the problem so it is up to THQ to fix their problem. I have played a game while defragging my system with Diskeeper v10.0.593.0 and it rarely hiccups. No program either needs or uses even 50 percent of your computer and todays processors are capable of even handling that so why are they disabling the abitlity to Alt-Tab to your desktop after pausing the game.

I often have a game up for several days at a time if I can and then pause it after doing a save and do what I want on the Internet. I go back to gaming when I am ready. I have used the item files that are posted here on gamebanshee.com to check on items in a set as to whether I want to try and all pieces of a set. Pause the game Alt-Tab or use the windows key to get to the desktop and use my shortcut to get me here and then go back to the game.

I haven't checked lately lately but all the equipment they are showing is either Epic or Legendary with strength requirements of 200 or more. If I do play this game I was wondering if there are plans to include normal and magic enhanced items also. ...............Does anyone know?

Good Gaming!!!

Kel

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DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:26 am

[QUOTE=Kel]
DesR85, I know you did not pay good money to run your system on what almost amounts to idle and I would be extremely upset(??) to have to push my acceleration down as far as you did.
[/QUOTE]
Well, to be honest here, I did try almost everything from defragging the hard drive to switching the compatibility modes and it never worked for me for problematic games (and yes, including updating both my sound drivers and graphics drivers too). None of them work for the Titan Quest demo.

Furthermore, I also hate to have to turn down the DirectX sound acceleration but what was I to do? I remember reading the patch notes for Hitman: Blood Money and they addressed that crash issue by asking users to lower the DirectX sound acceleration and its been proven to work (I tried it myself and it works fine). Upon using this very same trick on Titan Quest, it works.

That's the one thing that really irritates me. I've played very high-end games on my mid-range PC like Doom 3, Half-Life 2, FEAR and Oblivion and none of those games created any problems for me.

swcarter · Post by **swcarter** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 4:30 am

[QUOTE=Kel]I haven't checked lately lately but all the equipment they are showing is either Epic or Legendary with strength requirements of 200 or more. If I do play this game I was wondering if there are plans to include normal and magic enhanced items also. ...............Does anyone know?[/QUOTE]

Are you talking about our equipment database? I don't think there are any plans to add non-unique equipment to the database, but it's possible we might do a prefix and suffix reference like we did with Dungeon Siege II.

There are lots of unique items with strength requirements under 200. You'll start seeing some when you get past level 5 or so.

SWC