Bommando

I just thought I'd post this to summarise some of the issues surrounding the release of this game, so people who didn't play the Beta know what to expect.

The Bad:

Here's the situation: The retail version of the game is very buggy right now in a lot of ways. KAOS did their best to meet the release deadline, but I think that in the end, the screws to finish the XBox 360 version have adversely affected QA for the PC retail release.

Some known critical issues:

• Vista users will likely run into a series of game-breaking bugs that may prevent them from even launching the game. There is no fix for some of these at this time.
• Steam users will need to download a 9GB file and a 4.5GB patch to get the game going. Less than ideal, but something that may be fixed.

The Good:

All reports say that the game mechanics, sound and "feel" are amazing. The game's huge potential is being marred by a premature release for the PC platform.

My personal recommendation to people is to expect at least a couple of weeks, if not a month of teething problems for the game before gameplay becomes comfortable. I have faith that the game will come to its own, but as it stands, some of you are going to struggle with the logistics.

I thought it worthwhile to post this to make sure that people know they should be treating this retail release like a second Beta until a serious patch makes its way out. For those of you on the fence, I recommend waiting for comments from those who already have it.

Me? I'll be getting it off Steam, but likely only in a few days. I am running a quota-based ADSL connection here and an extra 13.5GB would take me over that until my rollover date of Mar 6th. Of course, I will still be monitoring our server and making sure we are gearing up for full support of FFoW.

I'll also be trying to provide as many updates of issues as possible and patch news when available. I'd like to ask the FFoW admins to also pay close attention to the KAOS Community Forums and help people here and there with issues.

Fingers crossed that this game will live up to its potential and not get left in the wake of the rushed release.

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Hidus

Had some really fun rounds of Gnaw tonight with some FocusedGamers. The bus cracks me up every time I see it.

Maps seem really well designed. Great atmosphere too.

Nemesis

Night and day from the Beta for me. The game just has a much better feel to it now. Maybe it's just the added polish, but outside of the numerous Vista bugs, FFoW is just about ready for prime time.

The sounds of the game are much improved over the beta though I still wish there was more player sounds ala the Battlefield series. However, the ambient noise from the sounds of tracer fire in the distance to Red Star propoganda being played over loud speakers just really give you the sense of being there.

The grenade launcher has seen its splash damage upped in a big way making it the new n00b tube. The change of the 2nd and 3rd level EMP is huge and the visuals are much improved as well.

One tip that really worked for me was to turn Foliage down to its lowest setting. I can pretty much crank everything else with my computer, but that one setting would kill my game if I put it any higher than 10% or so.

So, so far so good. I do agree with pretty much everything Bomm said about waiting on the game if you're at all on the fence. Even with everything that's much better, the game still does have a way to go.

Especially if you're a Vista user. The no VOIP yet still bugs the heck out of me, but at this point, I'd rather see them fix the massive bugs first and then worry about that.

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It's all in the Reflexes.

Snail

you know what i would love more than anything? Well, not more than VOIP. But...if they could implement a squad screen ala what BFx games had. Where it would neatly organize the squads by number and you could see what role and weapon loadout each person in the squad was using and have a nice little "join" button. That would be AMAZING. Even if they directly copied the one from BF2. I mean, i know voip first but if they fix nothing else and give us a nice Squad UI, id fall in love all over again...

That said, we had some great times tonight. It will only get better

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Santa

Ive enjoyed it for the most part so far, and really like the gameplay and all that stuff. I just cant stand how badly it runs on my computer. I have to turn everything on low and set it on 800x600 just to get decent frames on the smaller maps. Even then, I can hardly play on the larger maps.

I know my computer aint all that great, but I could play crysis on medium and COD4 on low with 35+ FPS. I dont understand why this game cant run decently on such low settings, when other better looking games run with better performance.

Heres to hoping someone comes out with a tweak guide.

Ikonic

Yeah great games earlier tonight guys (LOL @ the bus). KAOS will get all the bugs worked out as they are too big to avoid -- then the game will be rockin'

BHack

Awesome fun last night. This game is amazing when played with a good squad using teamwork and varied roles.

If they make teamwork slightly easier with a higher squad limit, VoIP, and better UI it will be perfect.

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Secretary of Keepin it Real

P8riot

Didn't this get released with the "Games for Windows" tag on the retail box - I thought that was essentially Microsoft's badge of honor indicating the product would run as is on all currently supported Windows products.

I thought I had read the issues effecting Vista stability were related to a SecuROM problem with the physical product release and that those Vista bugs didn't extend to the Steam release of the product?

Just askin'. I was probably going to place the Steam order this evening - but perhaps I need to muddle through the Kaos forums for a bit before I plunk down my money?

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It's really hard to baptize a cat.

Nemesis

Steam version has the same Vista problems/bugs as the retail version.

At this point, I would pretty much NOT recommend using Steam for this game. The DL is huge and if the way it was patched is any indication, the Steam patches will lag way behind the "official" patch releases.

Example is that the patch was released around 10 am EST and the Steam version didn't come out until almost 9pm EST. Not to mention the MASSIVE size difference between the patches.

80 MB compared to Steam's 4.something GB patch.

That might not be how it always is, but it's something to keep in mind before you choose how to purchase the game. Do the perks Steam offers outweigh all the negatives for the moment? That's up to each individual.

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It's all in the Reflexes.

L10N

I may just pick this up in store, my connection is so erratic that I could be spending all weekend downloading 13.5 gigs. Does anyone know if the game could still work with the steam overlay when bought from a store?

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