Driver Parallel Lines Review

Driver Parallel Lines PC

After way to long, I finally purchases Driver Parallel Lines for pc. I was reluctant to purchase this game while I was waiting for Grand Theft Auto IV to be released for Computers. Many of the online communities rated driver PL really bad. So you see why I never bought Parallel Lines.

Today I was at the electronics store with my son looking for him a game and me a cooler for my recently acquired laptop. While walking around killing time as my son picked out Fear2  for his Xbox360 I rummaged through the pc games section. I came across Driver Parallel Lines for pc on sale at $9.99. Well that went into my basket pretty quick. I also grabbed Split Second at $39.99. (crummy control Need for speed mock up). We made our way back home.

On first inset of the game DVD, The first pop up message looks pretty bad. It looks like I am running a windows 98 program.I noticed the install never prompted for a cd key. but it did as me if I wanted to register, I selected a reminder of 15 days. Cutscenes ate the start of the game reminded me of grand theft auto iii and Vice city. When I could finally start the game I was sitting in front of a boxy looking city with a skinny lanky looking fellow with long hair as my main person. I started to walk and his hair started swinging back and fourth in an exact repeated motion. it was kind of goofy. I was getting really disgusted with the game. I jumped into another car and chased down my car (which was being pushed down the street by the police car that was supposed to be chasing me). In chasing down my car, I hit a pedestrian. Ok I am cool with it now. The way I know the game driver, you couldn’t get out of your car. I switch cars and begin running from the cops again. I ran over another pedestrian and they did the exact same thing the last pedestrian did. I tilt my head a bit to the right in confusion and nail another one. Yep exact same motion. So the physics sucked.

I later grab a motorcycle and decide to go for a joy ride. I first search everywhere and can not see how to do a wheelie. I jump what looks like a ramp and barely get any air. I get to top speed and try to power slide. the slide was pathetic. I came to an instant stop with no drift.

I do a custom search in Google for “mods texture Driver Parallel Lines PC -xbox -ps2” and find plenty of skins for cars and peds. So I go to work on resolving the issues that bugged me. (I clipped off that hair so I don’t have to see that stupid swinging)

After I get good and settled in, I start playing the game for real. The game is really fun. Yeah the cars handle just like they did in the first driver game, and the controls have limited  functions but hey I am here just for the fun. Right? This game has all of that. The back end story you get in the cutscenes is probably ten times better than any other game I have played. it is a memorable story. I realized that driver was out long before GTAIII and True Crimes. In GTAIII you are the driver of gangs, in driver you are a driver so it would only be expected that you can change cars as you do in GTA. The textures well they clearly reflect EA. ok back on topic, I had more fun playing the missions in Driver Parallel Lines than I ever had in GTAIV. The action is fast and hidden humor is abundant. The cops do not let go of you man. When they chase you, expect to spend 5 minutes minimum trying to shake them.

Wish I could turn the radio to another station. or honk the horn. Or power slide.

Ubisoft made a pretty fun game here and it is well worth buying at it’s current price.

I have to categorize this as a racing game because it has more than 60% of it’s action in a car. Typically they call those racing games. I call em action if there isn’t a drag strip or illegal street racing as the major part of the game. So it’s a racing game. :-)

Racing Game Score

ragdoll- 1

AI – 3

texture- 5

sound- 5

entertainment- 10

This is not video game for showing people how cool your graphics card is. This a game for showing your friends a fun game.

The art of Grand Theft Auto Forum Trolls

The one is for gtaforums members

It’s just a way to admire the fancy amazing work of current Gen consoles.

For Consoles
The way they take weak machinery
sub-par graphics and do this amazing thing to show you how wonderful it is.
by blurring everything they don’t want you to look at you see “definition”

For PC
and then it will come for pc and you will see how great it is.
Then you sell your console for 1/10th it’s original cost.
You buy an overpriced computer with a mesh of “ultimate hardware”
You try to play the game and nothing works properly
so you join a forum and scream ” It should work I bought all of the best”
Never once considering you suck at building a machine and can’t create
a rig with parts that don’t bottleneck or conflict in actual specs and abilities.
So you scream the “game is teh suck.”
join the forum under 100 names and type with an accent (????)
and try and get help while bashing the game.
and we must not forget to claim MEMORY LEAK

:-)

Fun Games For Android

The ultimate games for killing time while waiting for other things while in locations that you normally would be bored in.

Of course that is how I explain the use of such application. You can’t just install one. One game is over fast and you are out of stamina and health and all that other stuff, long before you have a chance to actually do anything. So installing each of those games you actually get extra bonus points for the the others. It’s like 20 points. These points are the ones you trade for goods. In most game companies you have to buy those points. So this helps a bit.

All these games are free from the android Market

World War – build your armies and fight everyone that attacks you.

Vampires Live -build your vampire up and get a group of friends (the more friends the better) and get blood thirsty

Ninjas Live -build your ninja up and attack like crazy, defend like a mad man

iMobsters –  same as vampires but with a mobster theme.

Racing Live – build your car and get faster defense and wins.

Kingdoms Live – Same as world war but money comes slow.

There is a place to get codes for each of these games. Storm8 Codes.

So far storm8 is all I know of. If you have a game that you like that isn’t in the list, feel free to say it’s name here. I will try trhe game and add it to the list.

Ninjas Live Codes

Ninjas Live, this game is crazy fun. I am so glad it came to the Android system. I have been playing this thing now for a week on my Droid Phone. Not many games are this fun. I have to say that storm8 knew what they where doing. I just want to see storm8 Come out with Pirates Live and let us all go head to head pirates verses Ninjas lol.

Well to show my support for the game I left it open so you can leave your Ninjas Live code or just pick up someone elses code.
No sign up needed to post just leave your ninja name and a fake email address and all is good :-)
MFJ5Y

Vampires Live Codes

This game is fun. One of the greatest cell phone creations was the invention of the Iphone and android phones. The act of using computer applications on your phone is an excellent time killer on a bus or in a cab or in the boss’s office getting chewed out.. Now comes the games and applications. Storm8 is the maker of many fun games for cell phones using Iphone apple tech and Android cell phone operating system.
If you play storm8 games such as Vampires Live, as I do. Then you want as many people in your group. As I do. So Invite everyone to leave their Vampires Live code with a simple response.
So I have to show my support for this dang thing and post my code.
2F2CTP
I hope you leave your Vampires Live code here also.
No sign up or anything. but I do filter for spam. ( I get lots). So it won’t be more than an hour .. I will accept your Vampires Live codes.

Just leave your vampires Live code here and add the ones that are already here and you can increase your Vampires Live clan.

If your Iphone or Android phone has any other storm 8 games, feel free to use my search feature on the right and see if I have these games listed.

Call of Duty Black Ops

If you think Modern Warfare has great graphics, Wait till you get a load of the next level.
The game has amazing graphics I have never seen before. The cutscenes are so realistic and suspenseful. In scenes where falling or swinging happens in a cutscene I myself actually felt it in the pit of my stomach.
Do not expect to have your hands on this game till November 09 2010.
Head over to the game’s page on the C.O.D site and see the trailer they just posted. Call of Duty Black Op Trailer

Call of Duty Black OPS, Out for Xbox 360 in November. Just in time for The holidays.

Let’s follow the Pc release rumors as they come.

More to read

World War Android App

World War Droid

This game is addictive. You can play against your friends who have Iphones and the same game. I love cross platform games. Nothing more inviting to make me pick “do I want speed strengthy build and  good looks phone, or do I want reliability ease of button mashing phone” to make me decide what phone I want, than multi-platform games. would be cool if Xbox and Playstation would do this.

The World War app

I waited for a good while to play this game. While my co-workers had it on their Iphone, I was playing a similar game on Myspace called Mobsters. I knew that I was the one who could show these hipsters who’s boss……. but I just couldn’t get the dang game. it wasn’t out for my Moto, and it still wasn’t out when I got my blackberry. Almost five months after I got the G1, here is the game I have been wanting.  World War.

Great game. If you need invites post your gamer code here and let other readers add you.

GTAIV Patch 1.0.6.0 Review

Well the latest patch for GTAIV is out.

The only risk free way to install the patch is to boot up the game. Anything else and you risk a virus from some jerk who may have manipulated the file. My machine locked up while trying the install. I had to CTRL ALT DLT  to crash the game so I could look on Rockstar’s website. There was no physical download, just a bunch of information about the patch. Well pretty much the same stuff you see below.

One of the members of Rockstar Torronto has come to the GTAFORUMS and posted us plenty of information of what the patch gives us.
GTA IV Title Update 1.0.6.0 \ 1.0.5.1 \ 1.0.4.2 (Patch 6)
Rockstar Games Social Club
• Remove Rockstar Games Social Club application
• Separate RGSC application no longer required to launch game
• Social Club login now occurs during the launch process
Shadows
• A new, less memory-intensive, and better-looking scalable shadow solution has been implemented
• Enhanced Night Shadows added with user-selectable level of detail (replaces Shadow Density)
Performance
• Rendering optimizations have been made to improve performance, particularly when enabling shadows
• User-configurable graphics settings have been added for shadow control
• Improved memory management
Multiplayer
• Enhanced security to isolate users from cheaters and hackers
Episodic Content
• Provide in-game support to purchase “The Lost and Damned” and “The Ballad of Gay Tony” (Not available in Russian/Japanese Versions)
Bug Fixes
• Vehicle shadows re-enabled between 8pm and 6am
• Fix floating street textures
• Pedestrians in vehicles appear further out from the player to allow for long range sniping
• The Moon has been implemented with simulated lunar phases
• Fixed garbled text in Japanese Multiplayer menus
• “RESC 10” error fix for specific hardware configurations

As you see here the moon is back and looking great.

There are some great features with the new patch. Video settings .

New video settings

With the new patch they remove the mandatory Social club sign in.

Social Club is stripped out

with the removal of social club, there was a removal of shortcuts from the desktop. I seemed to have gotten an error.

but it was meaningless I think.

Error during the update GTAIV

BYE Bye Social Club

We get a new splash screen after the install. The new splash screen shows Episodes From Liberty City.

New GTAIV SPlash Screen

I try to load the Episodes and see if I can buy it, but i think I was a day early. So i got a connection error.

Live not connecting Episodes

I will try again later after the sales level out.

They added market place as an option during boot of game.. Cool. I of course will be buying the cd copy.

Market place button for gtaiv pc

I have noticed a 7 degrees F difference  when the Game link is blinking at the top of the screen, and a seven degree drop when i finally click the dang thing and get windows live opened. When I exit back out, instant temperature drop and frame rate increase.

After driving around and tweaking the heck out of my video settings, Air cleaning my heatsinks, replacing fans, cleaning up my start up processes, I started playing the game with a desire to explore. I stumbled into something kind of not good.

Yep Tree shadows are flickering.
So I moved to the Video settings to check what I had the settings at. you tell me what you think.

I seem to be bogging down really bad. I just recently did a motherboard upgrade so I can actually run dual channel Memory. That upgrade I did to my machine did magic for me. I jumped from 22fps up to 45 frames per second. That is a huge jump. I could then change my settings to near max for my video memory, but this patch killed that. I am back down, way down. with the video settings as smooth as i can get it, 17 fps .
I am not one to bash Rockstar and I appreciate all of the work they are doing. So I will not bash. I will instead ask you for your tech support.

Dual 9500 gt 512mb (sli on or off it does this)
AMD 5600+ dual core
2 gigs pc6400
XFX 750 A mobo black edition

****Update****

There is a patch for EFLC Episodes From Liberty City for pc.

****update2****

Well I could not get the game to work anymore. The game crawled to  about 10-15 FPS after that patch. So I completely uninstalled teh game and reinstalled. Dropped back to 1.0.4.0 Patch (aka patch 5). Turned off Anisotropic filtering in video card settings. Also turned off Anti-aliasing. Both were set to run by application control. So for gta in the 3d settings, I turned it off. Getting an average of 45 Frames per second.

May not be fore you. but works wonders for me.

The link for patch 1.0.4.0

Now if you want to try and roll youyr current install back to that, you have to reinstall rgsc.

I can’t walk you through how to save your settings, I didn’t  take that step. I went with a full fresh install.

It seems like it would be easy. Good luck. Report back on how you did it.

****update 2****

There currently is no updated no cd crack yet for 1.0.6.0

I would like to put my game disk back in the case and keep it from getting scratched.

***update 3***

Ok, I found my answer.
I posted about about an error I got while installing.
but as I closed the error window I saw the install was still going fine.
I got my patch through live.
So this patch I just installed
is the exact same one.

Difference is, this time I did not have gtaiv running during the install.
And this time
The frame rates are a buttload better..

but I do have to say 1.0.4.0 plays much much smoother.

I still want to see if marketplace can be killed with xliveless and see if that speeds things up.

download.xbox.com/content/5454083b/tu10000083_10000b83.cab?n=F1F2863FCD63C802

direct link to the new patch ,copy link to browser, extract  with winzip, works for me.


First PC Screens of GTA – Episodes from Liberty City

The screenshots look amazing

Game looks like it will be fun. I am ready for this. I just hope it has a few patches bundled. or is a newer modified version of gtaiv engine to run smoother. I have pure faith in Rockstar that it will all be fixed, and ready for game play. Just have to keep the trolls out of the gtaforums.com site and just let it be fun. Just wish they would give a list of specs of machines tested smooth. would give us a good idea of what parts to work with. :-)


Johnny squaring off against the LCPD in Chinatown.


Luis working security at Maisonette 9.


Johnny escapes from the scene on his customized heavy-duty chopper.


Luis hanging out in Yusuf Amir’s Algonquin penthouse.

RED DEAD REDEMPTION

EPISODES FROM LIBERTY CITY
SOCIAL CLUB

Selling Playdom Mobsters Account

Let’s say you have a level 61, this level 61 has a 4,945,412,000 bounty on it’s head and well over 20,000 Energy. It has greater than 100 billion in it’s possession, tons of godfather prizes and playdom prizes. Let’s say you have spent the last two years with that account as your “ace in the hole”. What I mean by ace in the hole is, it’s a small account, but not so small that you have no property you can buy for a fair price. In fact you have tons of choices of land and buildings. Well you have this account just sitting there. You log in daily to return energy, but never really do anything with it. That is of course until you get into trouble in the battlefield.

Once you get cornered, your level 400+ is getting slapped around with two level 100s. You can not retaliate. So you log into the level 61 and hitlist each of the two, ten times straight back to back.  Occasionally you attack them after you hitlist them, this leaves you to collect your bounty and get a kill under your belt. The account has faced many of rivals, there is no mark to show the endless numbers of people hitlisted with this account. Because it is just there to put them on the list

Health 286/286 Cash $165,618,353,979 Favor Points 1
Energy 25,198/20 Cash Flow $491,923,955 Skill Points 0
Stamina 28/28 Bank $23,048,780,000
Level 61
Class Soldato
Mob Size 86
Experience 14352
Experience to Next Level 248
Fights Won 326
Fights Lost 1093
Death 208
Mobsters Whacked 18

There are other accounts that I am not willing to upkeep anymore such as .

Health 184/184 Cash $200,848,661,802 Favor Points 15
Energy 18,284/15 Cash Flow $381,670,835 Skill Points 3
Stamina 39/39 Bank $22,648,039,750
Level 56
Class Mogul
Mob Size 82
Experience 12810
Experience to Next Level 290
Fights Won 155
Fights Lost 489
Death 86
Mobsters Whacked 6

And

Health 164/164 Cash $94,384,239,215 Favor Points 7
Energy 20,214/12 Cash Flow $246,418,685 Skill Points 0
Stamina 32/32 Bank $21,474,160,713
Level 44
Class Mogul
Mob Size 81
Experience 9228
Experience to Next Level 272
Fights Won 159
Fights Lost 739
Death 257
Mobsters Whacked 7

My little demon in the making

Health 100/100 Cash $30,404,761,600 Favor Points 9
Energy 1,185/10 Cash Flow $196,469,100 Skill Points 0
Stamina 9/9 Bank $4,071,979,366
Level 5
Class Renegade
Mob Size 4
Experience 94
Experience to Next Level 6
Fights Won 3
Fights Lost 25
Death 4
Mobsters Whacked 0

If I let go of something like these accounts, I would have to just say take the whole bunch for $300. I would be crippled without one.

These accounts are purely 100% legit. I never used a bot, I never used any kind of cheat other than an occasional trip to sumob so I could buy land on the property calculator.

Not sure what I would do with my level 400+

That one of course would go for no less than $200 it’s self.

I am not so sure I actually want to sell them. I have never had an offer. Nor am I requesting an offer. Simple truth I don’t know if playdom or myspace allow that kind of stuff. I would consider it if someone could show me that it is legal and probably placed an offer.

I dunno maybe this is just a rant of being tired of keeping up with the accounts.