Team Fortress 2

[Guitar Woman]

So, so like, I got the Orange Box about a month ago, right? And it wouldn't run on my computer past Episode 1 and the original HL2, which made me need to go and get a real computer so I could play TF2, which is pretty much the only thing I bought it for.

Anyway, TF2 takes around 4 hours to update fully, probably more now that all that Pyro tomfoolery has been released, so I wasn't going to download all that tonight and just decided to play a nice few levels of Portal to appreciate my new PC and how it is better than the other one.

My specs are as follows!
2.53 GHz Dualcore (this is a bit of a downgrade, my last CPU was 2.8 GHz; it wasn't a dual processor though, I would assume that makes up for it a little bit.)
2 Gigabytes of ram
Some graphics card that is really good. It can run STALKER on high settings, that's pretty much all I know about it.
Lots of other shit

So I install Portal, TF2, and HL2 Episode 2, and update Portal appropriately, takes about 30 minutes. I play it, and it gets about as far as the Valve logo with the fat guy and the valve in the back of his head before it reboots my PC. No warning, no error message, just an unexpected reboot. It got to at least the loading screen on my last computer before telling me that I sucked too much at having RAM and pixel shaders to play it.

What.

I haven't tried Episode 2 yet, but I'll do that and get back to you on the results. If it's just Portal doing this, fine, I can live without it.


No, it is not just Portal, Episode 2 also does this.

Son of a BITCH.

[executioneer]

i'd find out what your gfx card is, and maybe update the drivers for it if possible

and yeah dualcore processors make up for it being a lower ghz a tiny bit

i wouldn't be surprised if it crashed on tf2, also

[MetalMilitia]

The CPU isn't a downgrade because a newer processor has a more efficient architecture thus getting more "work" done in less cycles. It's like now the old Athlon XP series needed a naming scheme that informed the consumer that they were equivilient to higher clocked P4s.

If you built the machine yourself it could be anything - but probably something to do with your graphics/sound/motherboard drivers. Could also be a memory problem.

Go to "My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced system settings -> Advanced -> Startup and recovery settings" and disable "automatically restart". Then load up Portal and if it displays a BSOD make a note of the EXE that caused the crash. Now reboot the PC and google the EXE - you should be able to find out which software caused the crash.

[Guitar Woman]

So yes, the guy who set up my gaming PC apparently thought up to date video drivers weren't necessary. I probably should have thought of that before I made this thread but fuck you ok I was panicking :<

[Fathom Zero]

Oh man, I have a Pentium 4 2.66 Ghz, 1 gig of RAM, and a Radeon 9200 and it runs all of those like sex on wheels.

And I didn't pay a dime for any of it. God bless hand-me-downs. Granted, TF2 crashes my graphics card occasionally, but I thnik that's because it overheats, so I'm not too bothered about it.

[Guitar Woman]

I've got the Radeon 2400, I think. It runs every game I have at the highest possible settings and is pretty pretty pretty :<

[Fathom Zero]

The HD2400, I take you to mean.

Mine's an AGP card. Yours is PCI-E. Unless you're dumb enough to spend it on the PCI version, (which is the best PCI graphics card on the market.)

Computers like Dell's don't come with any graphics card slots, only PCI ones.

You should be able to run it, it's not a hardware issue by any means. It's a software one. Portal's been known to be heavy on the shaders.

[MetalMilitia]

Only the really old shitty Dell base units didn't have AGP or PCI-E slots. My last PC at work was a bog standard Optiplex machine and even that came with a ATI (AMD) 1200 series PCI-E card.

[Fathom Zero]

The Dell Dimension 2300 (the series isn't even being made anymore, so yeah, you're right) didn't have such a slot. But that's okay because it was still a piece of ass, even in just raw processing jobs.

[Guitar Woman]

Uh, guys, I thought I established that I already got Portal running, and that the problem was no drivers were installed for the card?

Also, Episode 2 is the best shooter I've played in forever. Completely redeems Episode 1's mediocrity.

Team Fortress 2 doesn't work, still; it gives me a VALIDATING FILES bar for about a nanosecond and then disappears whenever I try to run it. I've been told that I have to delete all the TF2 local gamefiles and reinstall it, which is fucking RIDICULOUS because I just finished updating it.

I'm not angry, though, because Episode 2 is seriously a great goddamned stump of a game. I'll be angry at TF2 for not working when I finish it in about an hour.

[executioneer]

so it was graphics drivers, then?

edit: n/m

[Guitar Woman]

Haha! I got it!

It kept trying to validate the files which is necessary for some reason, but it couldn't do it by itself so I just went in the "Properties" menu for TF2 from the My Games list and did it manually.

It's fantastic, by the way.

[Fathom Zero]

I look forward to slaughtering you.

[Chojin]

i fucking hate the new pyro achievements, especially the backburner. that thing has stats like:

all crits from behind
50% more regular damage too
BUT
you can't do some shit that's new anyway

So it's better than the default pyro gun in every way, and that thing was already pretty bazonkers. I fucking hate flamers in every game, though ;< GRR

At this rate, the new Heavy's weapon will have the following stats:
+25% damage
all crits on shots that hit a person
cannot activate skill "nuclear winter"

oh yeah glad to hear you fixed your pc problem. I was going to tell you that it was the card or processor overheating because 99% of the time that is the only reason your computer will murder itself - to protect it from melting.

[Fathom Zero]

That's really the Heavy's? Jesus.

Time to get my Sniper on. I already have, but I definitely will after this. The Chief of Staff achievement is easy, the Pyromancer is hard as hell, and I have a feeling this Nuclear Winter will probably be in between the two as far as difficulty.

Backburners can go eat a dick.

[executioneer]

Originally Posted by Chojin

At this rate

""

[Fathom Zero]

Sometimes, I question when I'm retarded.

And sometimes, I just know.

[Fathom Zero]

Hahaha; an update was just released in the last couple hours that, among other things, removes the health bonus from the Backburner.

[Guitar Woman]

Well, now my complaints about not being able to frontally assualt Pyros with the Scrumpy bottle are completely gone.

Thanks, Valve!

[Chojin]

every server i've gotten on today has been filled with WTF MY HEALTH IS ONLY 175 WHAT SKULLDUGGERY IS THIS

[Guitar Woman]

I hate when people defend the Pyro's gayness with the arguement that he's only deadly when you're up close, which is idiotic since about 75% of the game takes place in close quarters and it's really hard to fucking stay away from something if half of the other team is playing as it

[Chojin]

and when you consider that the only weapons in the game that do any damage have scattered shots

[Guitar Woman]

I didn't think of that either, no.

I've gotten fantastic at sniping Pyros with my revolver, if I am discovered and have time to get away before they make a Spyburger out of me. The Demoman is also the easiest class to kill Pyros with aside from the Soldier, I've found.

[Chojin]

I learned to hate pyros early in Kingpin, where they could kill you near-instantly if they kept a stream on you, or eventually if they touch you once, but also it was impossible to see them behind the wall of flame, and any rockets you shot at them would get immolated by the flame and blow up in your face.

In TF2, I really think that scouts should be the major anti-pyro class, but as-is they can't get close enough to them to have the scatter gun work effectively, and the scout's pistol might as well not be in the game.

What the game really needs is the abilty to stop-drop-and-roll if you're on fire - it'd leave you way open to others shooting at you, but it seems like every time I die from a pyro it's 10 seconds after I've killed them and I'm alone anyway and booking for the nearest health kit. And not many of the official stages have a real body of water to jump into to stop the flames.

I only ever switch to pyro if people are camping our spawn.

[Chojin]

Giving medics or even other pyros a fire extinguisher would also be a good idea. The medic's heal gun does put fire out pretty quickly, but only for a single target.