It really is hard to believe that Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is based on the same fundamental game engine as Doom 3 from three years ago. The engine clearly has come a long way in that time span. We also think Enemy Territory: Quake Wars will finally silence id’s critics who claim John Carmack and company can’t create a game engine that scales well outdoors.
The debut of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is living proof that id can do it, thanks in large part to id’s MegaTexture technology.
In terms of performance, it looks like you’re going to need a very powerful CPU if you plan on running this game with a high-end setup like GeForce 8800 SLI. We were obviously CPU-bound the majority of the time with the GeForce 8800 GTX SLI configuration, only at 2560x1600 were we finally beginning to push the GTX SLI config in this game. The GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB SLI setup was also CPU-limited in a lot of cases.
The other major point you can draw from today’s performance numbers regards the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB. In single-card configuration, it performs surprisingly similar to the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB, even under 4xAA. In our opinion, this is a tribute to just how efficient id’s MegaTexture technology is, naturally you’d assume with half the memory the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB would suffer tremendously in a large outdoor game like Enemy Territory: Quake Wars but apparently that isn’t the case. id’s use of one massive texture (megatexture) does seem to make efficient use of the card’s limited amount of graphics memory. Only at the demanding resolution of 2560x1600 does the card really begin to suffer. Curiously though, the card doesn’t seem to scale as well as the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB with SLI -- after completing all the performance testing, we actually went back and re-ran all the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB SLI results and got similar performance numbers.
Despite this, we’d still recommend if you can spend the extra $80-$100 you’d be better off with the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB. The latest crop of games we’ve tested (World in Conflict and BioShock strictly when AA is enabled) definitely take advantage of the added memory found on the 640MB card. Odds are good that upcoming games like Crysis will likely behave similarly.
Obviously the GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra are even better options if you can afford them.
As far as the performance of the Radeon HD 2900 XT, in our opinion, it’s way too early to draw any final conclusions about how this card will perform with the game. As we mentioned before, we saw artifacts when CrossFire was enabled, and ran into some stability issues at 2560x1600. Performance was also lackluster. Based on all this, it looks like AMD has more driver work ahead of them in this game.
If you think back to the launch of ATI’s R520 GPU, you’ll remember that ATI’s OpenGL performance was initially pretty underwhelming; in fact many were quick to judge it as the card’s achilles heel. But with subsequent driver releases, OpenGL performance in Quake 4 was eventually on par, if not better than the GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB in some cases. The Radeon HD 2900 XT is certainly no slouch in Quake 4 today, so we’re pretty certain that the 2900 XT is being held back by its driver in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: add this title to the list of games that AMD’s driver team needs to spend more time optimizing for.
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is set to debut in less than a month, so that doesn’t leave them with a whole lot of time to get things running better. Hopefully for AMD’s sake, the other games we mentioned at the outset are also receiving driver optimizations as we speak…
Batman: Arkham City PC Review Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to 2009’s smash-hit action game Batman: Arkham Asylum. As the name suggests, you will be reprising your role as the Caped Crusader and going against an even larger 'prison' filled with Gotham's criminals and villains. A textbook example on how to do a proper sequel, Arkham City takes what worked in the original, excised or improved upon what didn’t, and elevated everything to an even greater scope. The PC version suffered from a few months of delay, but in that time, Rocksteady worked closely to NVIDIA to implement some familiar technologies from the last game, such as PhysX and 3D Vision, along with new DirectX 11 optimizations. But how well was the whole package executed? Read on to find out!
Saints Row: The Third PC Review Saints Row is one of most unique series of games to build upon the open-world action template forged by Grand Theft Auto, and has met with plenty of critical and commercial success since it began on consoles back in 2006. This latest iteration, titled Saints Row: The Third promises the most outlandish fun and freedom of customization of them all, and in a much more PC-friendly package than its predecessor. Does it live up to those expectations and, more importantly, is it worth the price of admission? Find out in Will's latest review!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim PC Review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Bethesda Softworks’ latest offering in their series of epic fantasy RPGs, as well as one of the most highly-anticipated PC titles of 2011. As the Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn, prepare to take the fight to the mythical beasts that have returned to the realm after centuries of slumber, all the while exploring a huge and highly-detailed open world.
The PC version of the game promises enhanced graphical fidelity, standard RPG trimmings such as hotkeys and quick-save, as well as unbridled mod support, something we’ll all be thankful for once they release that SDK. Skyrim has already sold millions of copies and set records for play-time on Steam... Find out why in today's review, which happens to be one of the biggest and most in-depth articles on the subject out there!
L.A. Noire Complete Edition PC Review L.A. Noire, as the name clearly states, is a video game built on the tropes of one of the greatest periods of American cinema: film noir. Developed by the now defunct Australian developer Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games, this title has been out on consoles for a full six months before finally making its way to the PC. This “Complete Edition” of the game features improved graphics, keyboard/mouse controls, and every bit of previously-released DLC for free. But was it truly worth the wait? Read on and find out!
Intel Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge-E Performance Review
Today marks the launch date for Intel’s Sandy Bridge-E line of processors, a new family of high-end Core i7 products based on the LGA 2011 platform. This new socket is poised to replace the existing LGA 1366 specification used by the more powerful Nehalem and Westmere parts from the past couple years, specifically Bloomfield and Gulftown, the Core i7-9xx+ line of CPUs.
With 6 cores, 15MB of cache, and support for quad-channel DDR3-1600 memory, the Core i7-3960X sounds like quite a catch. Want to know more about it and how it performs? Read on!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Xbox 360 Review
The self-appointed "most anticipated game in history" launched worldwide this past Tuesday. Why, it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, of course (of course), what else? Unsurprisingly, the military FPS debate between this and Battlefield 3 rages on, but now that both have been released, surely we can take a look and objectively evaluate them both? Luke's taken the Xbox version of MW3 for a spin this week, so to find out what he thinks of it in today's review!
Stronghold 3 Review
The latest sequel in the long-running real-time strategy franchise from FireFly Studios, Stronghold 3 is all about building your dream castle and defending it against sieging enemies. Almost exactly one decade after the first game was released, this new title promises a return to the classic and well-received gameplay that has been strayed so far from in more recent iterations. Does it live up to those expectations? Will (AKA Synchronous Failure) tells us all about it in his first official FiringSquad review, so read on!
Battlefield 3 PC Review - Single-player Impressions
One of the most highly-anticipated PC games of the year is upon us; Battlefield 3 is now available in North America! EA/DICE have finally delivered a sequel to the core Battlefield franchise, a proper follow-up to BF2. Having played through the game's single-player campaign already, ahead of the multiplayer festivities kicking off around midnight, I figured I'd share my impressions ASAP. Is it really a worthy addition to the core Battlefield series, or just another bullet point on the back of the box? Read on and find out!
Wrecked: Revenge Revisited Supersonic Software Interview
Following up on our hands-on preview from earlier this month, here's an interview with Supersonic Software, creators of Wrecked: Revenge Revisited. The game's coming out on XBLA and PSN in a matter of weeks, but for now, Luke chats with the developer about its predecessors Mashed and Micro Machines, how difficult it can be to get an indie game published, the closure of Codemasters' Guildford branch, and more!
Orcs Must Die! PC Review Orcs Must Die! is the first release from an independent developer named Robot Entertainment. Fans of classic real-time strategy games may have heard that name before, as the outfit is comprised of many veterans from Ensemble Studios, creators of the Age of Empires series.
Equal parts action and strategy, this is a tower defense game that not only puts you in command, but on the front lines of combat, as well. Slaughter thousands of orcs, ogres and other vile creatures of fantasy that invade your fortresses through 24 levels of the story-based campaign. With high levels of replayability thanks to its scoring and leaderboard functionality, multiple difficulty levels, and various styles of play, it sounds a steal at only $15. Does it deliver on all that’s promised, though? Read on and find out!
4xAA Performance
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