Since the Steam Summer Sale had Portal on the cheap, I picked it up and played through it again, this time with my wired 360 controller.

Aside: 360 controller config on the PC

Bring  up the console by hiting the “`” character.  If that isn’t working, go to Options -> Keyboard -> Advanced… -> check Enable developer console.  Now that you’re in the console, type “exec 360controller” and hit enter.  For some reason, this script simultaneously disables the crosshairs, which is odd.  Ergo, then type “crosshair 1″ and hit enter.  You’re now good to go.

Second time through

Portal isn’t all that long of a game.  I took my time the first time through, and came out the other end in around couple or three hours.  After a year or so, I still remembered most of the tricks for each map, so it was rather less than that.  It does seem like a bit of a raw deal to pay $20 for that short an experience.. though that’s a) why you should grab the Orange Box instead, which is a crazy deal; and b) there are more challenges after the main story line.

The “Bonus Maps”, which include advanced maps and other challenges, adds a lot to the game.  They’re rather hard.  Currently, 0.5% of the people who own Portal via Steam managed a bronze on all the challenges; 9% finished the advanced maps.   Indeed, there are other tricks as well, such as setting off all of the radio tricks, disabling the cameras, etc.

Parting words

All in all, Portal is just a crazy good game.  I played a few hours and literally got my head turned around from it after too many “speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out” jumps.  It is fun; and if you play, there will be cake.

O’Reilly’s High Performance MySQL has been an unbelievably helpful resource, given me tons of ideas in terms of schema, indexing, and general strategies.  It’s a long book, though even the first few chapters are very helpful, and it’s very well written.

As a short cool-down, I played a few rounds of Team Fortress 2.  It’s a great game, and it looks quite stunning since I upgraded to an ATI HD5670.  My stats aren’t all that wonderful, and I mostly play with a wired 360 controller over keyboard and mouse.. but it’s fun and has a great cartoon-y aesthetic.  I also played a bit of GRID a few nights ago, which I’ve been enjoying a lot.  It’s much on the arcade side of simulators, though the instant flashback feature is great and the sound design and graphics work really well.

I heard it was beautiful outside the past few days, though I didn’t exit the door even to go into the hallway of my building.  I certainly have been more of a typical nerd recently; not exercising as much, skirting away from the sun.. though these work projects have been really interesting, and the idea that I’m creating something for a larger base of users is exciting.

I’m also coming into my sixth year of PHP development, and my code is getting tighter by the month.  It really is so much easier to write a lot of lines of code, yet condensing the logic and finding more efficient paths to the same solution is always worth the experience.  In my head, I think of it as the difference between writing scripts: small procedures to do a particular task; compared with programming: creating some kind of robotic life form which is beautiful and can speak for itself.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I recently got the itch for some video games re: the Steam summer sale.  While most game specifies a minimum requirement of a certain ATI or NVIDIA chipset, my standards weren’t all that crazy, seeing as I’ve been rather happy with Quake 3, and even Quake 2.  If the Intel Graphics within the i3-530 can do 1080p video adequately, I was rather sure it could handle some basic introductory level for the games of yore (here, “yore” referring to less than ten years).

The result?  If you can stand to not be working with the latest and greatest games; if you can deal with low resolutions, with most of the detail turned off.. then you have yourself a hell of a deal.

The Bad: “GRID” from Codemasters

Of the list I have compiled here, which is admittedly very short, GRID is probably about the worst performer of the bunch.  Released in 2007, it runs halfway reasonably on the Core i3-530, with the low quality preset, with additional settings then removed.  We’re then talking about 800×600 resolution, with an incredible amount of jagged edges that seem to about make the eyes bleed.

There could be a few reasons for the poor performance: it may be that there are specific graphical elements which are designed specifically to work best with NVIDIA or ATI graphics cards.  It could be that the underlying graphics engine is just not quite as tuned for the PC as it could be.  It also is certainly due in part to the fact that even with these lowest settings, the game still holds a lot of graphic complexity, in its textures and styling.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that my “bad” rating is only in response to running the game with what is essentially less than the minimum requirements.  As a racing game fan, even with the above considerations I’ve had a really wonderful time with the game as is.

Not great: “Street Fighter IV” from Capcom

SF4 is a step up in some ways from GRID.  It’s possible to disable more of the graphical effects, which lends towards decent framerates if the quality of the image isn’t as much of a concern.  800×600 is again the highest resolution that gives any sort of playable results, and even then most of the graphical options need to be disabled in order to keep gameplay running smoothly.  Even so, we’re talking about being able to experience and play a game that otherwise would be out of reach for an extra amount of cash.

Reasonable: “Defense Grid: The Awakening” from Hidden Path

Defense Grid is a tower defense game.  Graphics isn’t all that much of a concern here, since there aren’t quite as many crazy things going on inside the screen as in the other examples.  The Core i3-530 GPU works well enough at 1024×768 with a medium graphics setting.  It plays well and looks about as good as it needs to in order to provide the amount of entertainment you’d expect.

Stunning: “Team Fortress 2″ from Valve

TF2 runs on the Source engine from Valve; I haven’t tried other games that use Source, though for the example of TF2 the results are outstanding.  The Intel GPU handles this game stunningly well at 720p with graphics settings up towards the higher side of medium.  It looks great, and is incredibly fun and entertaining.

I did at one point experience a single instance where the screen got garbled up; I had to restart the game, and I haven’t seen it again since.  Steam is counting me at 6 hours of gameplay so far (which flew by, for what it’s worth).  I imagine that this, if it is a major issue, will be sorted out in patches at some point, so unless I hear any comments to the contrary it seems a non-issue.

Honestly, though, Valve is hereby a gold standard in how to make a game perform extremely well with limited resources.

Closing comments

YMMV (“your mileage may vary”) is about the most relevant comment as it pertains to any part of the above.  I am obviously not arguing that graphics cards are an obsolete quantity; however with so many articles out there blindly saying that a video card is a must, I wanted to put out a contrary opinion.  I’m not morally opposed to graphics cards, and if anything certain games as I’ve listed show their necessity.  Even so, graphics cards suck up extra power, and in certain cases can add a fair amount of heat and noise to a PC.  It is important to evaluate what exactly it is you want, and I hope these words can offer some help in arriving at a more informed decision.  Happy gaming, and do feel free to comment if you have more examples from your experiences.

In 2010, it seems to me that Steam actually gets DRM right on the money.  This has probably been true for years, since they worked out the initial bugs in the system.  It’s also coming after years of DRM done terribly, terribly poorly.  Indeed, the idea behind Steam is that when you buy the game, you actually have rights to the game regardless of where you access it.  The caveat: you have to log into the computer to have the Steam system say that you are a legitimate owner of the content; and logging into one machine means another must be offline.

Currently, Steam is offering some incredible discounts to a number of games; I don’t imagine there’s a better time to enter in the system.  I’ve thus far bought Defense Grid: The Awakening ($5), GRID ($5), and Audiosurf ($2.50).  They all run (albeit, with all the graphical options at the bottom levels) on my Core i3-530 system with the integrated GPU; and it’s a hell of a lot of content for less than $10.  id Software is also on my radar, with a “Super Pack” currently for $35; and, well, many many more options.  Most of these deals stop by July 4th, which is coming up quickly.. so check it out while the pickings are still good.

Played some Metal Gear Online again today, and by the end of it I had a lot of fun.  Got my ass handed to me for a while, and once I stopped caring about that so much I did alright.  The hardest part about the game, abbreviated as MGO, is that it isn’t Quake, of which I am so accustomed.

In Quake, my general strategy would be to run around bat-shit crazy and try to fly by and out-shoot whoever I opposed.  In MGO, trying the same strategy will get you a round of headshots and embarrassment, and little else.  Patience, then, is key, and especially when matched up against the large number of rather skilled players online, being too brash or erratic can get to hurting.

How I get a handle on it

From an ergonomics perspective, too, as an amputee (missing the last 1/3rd of my left arm) it is rather ridiculous how I have to play FPS games with a controller.  On the computer, a keyboard and mouse, while not exactly ideal, worked out rather well for me: my left arm can handle the direction keys rather well with the keyboard in my lap, and the right-handed mouse can handle the rest.

With the PS3, I hold the controller in my right hand, and then prop up my left leg on to my right knee.  From this point, I can move the entire controller into my left calf, which hits the “shoulder” buttons on the left hand side.  Left arm on the left direction pad, and away I go.  Now you try that position for a couple hours and get back to me and how your back feels, or how your left knee is doing.  Add in some fumbled tries, too, when my leg doesn’t quite have the resolution required to accurately select the L1 from the L2, or if something cramps up.

Reduced set

Still, at the end of the day I can do alright.  I find that in general my performance in these types of games has more to do with how I am able to focus and get some calm into my system, especially with MGO, where it pays to not be too brash.  There seems to be this general impulse that once you have a game system it becomes imperative to buy whatever games come out for it.  I do currently have a reasonable selection at this point, though my experience with MGO again reminds me of how many hours I spent essentially with one game (Quake).  There are certainly a lot of flashy games with great graphics and stories and so on, though with a consistent interface and the chance to play online on a decent variety of well-made maps, MGO has lately been my fall-back for the times when I have the spare time.