Steam Savings: 30% off all Rockstar Games [update]

I have two arms?

Sweet, Circuit City dropped their HDTV prices 25%?!

Now they're only 10% above normal retail prices!

All you need is a run of the mill quad core CPU and semi-decent video card. Before I threw a quad in my PC it ran like crap. Runs brilliant now.

Finally, a commentator that deserves not mockery, but praise! Three cheers!

We shouldn't be surprised by Rockstar's dickery, though-as a company that started on the PC platform, they know all too well that we're not sheep who ask "how high" when told to jump by our entertainers. Console only gamers are so much easier to please-they'll eat shit, and like it. If they don't like it, they'll do it anyway. Look at how many of those schlubs buy the BS for $60 console software when the more technically demanding product for PC remains $10-20 lower. "PC games don't cost $60! Dhurr, this is an outrage! Charging for DLC when PC users get it free? This is an outrage! Dhurr, who am I kidding. Me pay anyway. I has no spine."

The deal also looks like it's only available in the US... maybe Europe too but Australia gets shafted.


Fuck you Rockstar, I may have even gingerly given you some more money after GTAIV. Maybe.

Jackal, you are one of my most favorite posters here on Joystiq.

Just an hour ago, I finally built my own gaming PC with a Core i7 and GTX 285, hope it'll run todays games well, last me at least a year. Just installing Crysis on it now. : )

Now, what's a good price for selling a 360 Arcade with GTA4? $150? : )

Chin-poh,

Congrats on the build; your setup's a fair bit better than mine (E8400 o.c. 3.8 GHz, Diamond HD 4870 XOC) and you probably paid the same amount or less I did (then again, I do live in Canada). Your setup'll last you much longer than a year, lol. The Nehalem architecture doesn't only have the same overclocking (or more, since we're talking about quad core CPUs) headroom that Conroe/Penryn does, it's also a multi-threaded monster thanks to the re-introduction of hyperthreading (open the task manager, and your OS will see 8 cores instead of 4).

While I'm an ATI fan, there's no question that the GTX 285's the fastest single GPU equipped card currently available. Barring Crysis, Stalker: Clear Sky (buggy), or GTA IV (very,very buggy) there's not a single game on the market you can't handle at high resolutions with insane levels of anti-aliasing. You'll have no problems with Crysis at all High settings, but Very High might be a little tough beyond 1600x1200; Warhead, on the other hand, with all Very High settings (unlike Crysis, they ARE available in XP without having to screw with the CVARs) should be quite playable up until 1920x1080 sans AA; both games, when High or Very High shaders are enabled, contain a built in form of edge AA that automatically kicks on. Honestly, I'd forget about upgrading your videocard for at least another two years. If you want to improve the image quality from what comes right of the box, here's some suggestions:

if you find the nanosuit to be a little washed out, you've got several options. Here's the high resolution nano suit skin I use:

http://www.crymod.com/filebase.php?fileid=2177&lim=0&letter=N

But, you may prefer this one:

http://www.crymod.com/filebase.php?fileid=2541&lim=0&letter=N

I also advise installing Xconfig just for the custom Time of Day; since it's essentially readjusting the position of the sun or moon, there's a massive difference in overall appearance with no performance loss whatsoever. It does come with a performance optimizing config but, I'll be honest, I delete it since I use a different autoexec.

http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?postid=174636

If you don't like Xconfig, I suggest CCC 2.21 (available on the same site); like Xconfig, it comes with a custom Time of Day (which you may or may not prefer over Crytek's stock TOD) as well as several performance optimizing configs based on your system's requirements. I prefer the TOD in XConfig, but I've taken the CCC 2.21 Level 5 autoexec and tweaked it to my own personal tastes (if you're out of work for a few months due to an arm injury, you really tend to spend your time tinkering around with just one thing); Xconfig and CCC 2.21 both tend to have values that are either set around Medium or Low to increase the framerate, but I've pumped up those values to or beyond Very High because I get vastly improved image quality. If you'd like, I could send you the tweaked CCC 2.21 Level 5 config I use. I've also done the same to UltimaRage's Level 4 Warhead config (he's a member of the CUUDATS team and the man responsible for their TOD), if you want that one. Again, they're not mine and I don't take credit for them (the author's names are in the config itself, lol), I've just tweaked some things up. If my card can handle it, yours won't break a sweat.

Oh, and another thing: Crysis TODs (Xconfig, CCC 2.21, what have you) will only work with Crysis. Since Warhead's technically not the same game (even if it is a standalone expansion using the same engine, many of the same assets, and features the same characters/world), installing a Crysis TOD will screw it up. Also, you can disable texture streaming in Crysis if you want to (I do), but leave it be in Warhead; turn it off, and the game will definitely crash at some point. It's not a possibility, but an inevitability. Warhead uses SecuROM, but there's an installation revoke tool; if you upgrade you system completely, use the revoke tool and you won't run into limited installations. I also suggest installing the latest patches for Crysis, Warhead, and Wars alongside the latest Forceware driver. After that, you should be tickled pink.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions Jackal, I had played the game and other games like Fallout 3 on my brothers PC and he and I were tired of using his so I finally built my own gaming PC.

I've seen a lot of nice mods for Crysis and TODs and other graphical mods like you listed and I'll try them out.

I'm getting disappointing framerates in Crysis in DX10 though, there's a big difference in performance between DX10 and DX9, for instance in DX10 when the resolution is at 720P, the FPS is around 50fps, when I raise it to 900P, it drops down to 25fps. It certainly does look better than my brothers setup with his Radeon HD4850 and Core 2 Duo E4500.

Its great to come back to PC gaming after all this time! : D

Chinpo,

That...doesn't sound right...at all. Have you installed the latest patch (for Crysis, it's 1.2) and NVIDIA display drivers? If not, I'd do so immediately; the first patch brings in an average framerate increase of 10-15 FPS while the latest Forceware release also brings its share of optimizations to the table; you might be using what came included on the manufacturer's disc, but those drivers tend to be quite outdated. I know that, with my videocard at least, my display driver wasn't just three months old (at the time) but it completely lacked HD 4800 optimizations. You might be in a similar conundrum, in which case, you should see a massive difference after the updates. There's absolutely NO REASON you shouldn't be able to push all High settings at a native 1920 x 1200 with your current set up, barring a hardware problem.

As much hype as there was behind Crysis's DX10 features, the truth is, the game's poorly optimized for the API; there's nothing beyond motion blur (which DX10 does handle slightly different in game than DX9) in DX10 that can't be done in DX9. The good news, however, is that you can force Crysis to use the DX9 render path by adding -dx9 to the shortcut (after .exe); you'll get a sizeable performance boost and, if you want the Very High features, there's multiple configs that can enable them (since many people were severely disappointed in the performance drop going from DX9 -> DX10). They aren't tweaks like I use which have a mixture of everything, but autoexecs that quite literally force Very High settings from the get go (they'll show up as custom settings in the graphics menu).

Another thing worth considering, with Vista at least, is 32 bit vs. 64 bit. Crysis does have 64 bit support (Warhead got it just this week from its patch), so I'd would suggest the upgrade IF you don't already have Vista X64. Vista 32 (as does XP) has that issue where the system can't use slightly more than 3 GBs of total RAM and, apparently, that includes your video card's memory as well; considering your GTX 285 has a GB of GDDR3, you can see the limit's not hard to reach. All things for your consideration, lol. Let me know how it goes and, if you're still not happy, I'll see what else I can do to help ya.

Nah, they've been on Steam in the UK for months.

Retail disks of these games are cheaper, more flexible, and will last longer. Don't be a punk; avoid Steam.

I purchased GTAIV a few hours ago, and I'm still waiting for the d/l to begin... I guess the servers are getting hammered.

No you're getting yourself confused.

GTA1 and 2 are only available when part of the GTA Classics pack (which is all but GTAIV). But you can buy all games in the 3 series individually.
So that 20,99 is for the classics pack.

Oh right, it was just listed there... to have it listed, i see, thanks alot :)

No sweat!
Cuz I feel for the same thing when it was first out D:

Or get GTA 2 (and 1) for free at:

http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/

Requires giving them your info, but you still can't beat free.

Absolutely, if you can deal with the old school difficulty (or don't mind quick saving after every fight).

Max Payne > Max Payne 2.

I remember playing it on my old computer, where at maxxed details it would give me like 3-5fps. Now it's buttery-smooth. :D

Max Payne is absolutely AWESOME.

Another one of my all-time favourite games.

I played through it again a couple months ago, a lot of fun. Just make sure to quicksave all of the time.

u serious?
thats ridiculous, guess theres 69.99 down the drain

Yup, I just bought it myself, Rockstar Collection includes GTAIV. meaning for $20 more than the retail price, you get IV and Rockstars back catalogue.

Rock on :)

It looks like it doesn't include Bully. Bully is worth paying the extra 20.99 for it though, that game is a hell of a lot of fun.

wish is knew this before I bought GTAIV......

It *is* a much better deal. The post has been updated. Apologizes for the confusion.

Yeah. That was the post holiday sale that pretty much discounted everything on Steam.