error hardware not supported ?

[CowboyBebop]

Memoirs of a PC gamer

You ever read a review of a game, a game that seems perfect until you get it home. You walk in the store after reading that cool review saying it got a 9 out ten, it’s got to be everything I imagine it to be. So you pick it up check out the box art(normally lame sometimes cool) look at the specs;
Basic system requirements
Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 2000, or Windows 98 (Windows 95 and Windows NT not supported)

* 300 MHz Intel Pentium II or AMD K6-2 processor
* 96 MB RAM
* 4x CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive
* 31 MB free hard disk space plus space for saved games (with additional space required for Windows swap-file and DirectX 8.1 installation)
* 16 MB Direct3D capable video card using the NVIDIA GeForce3, NVIDIA GeForce2, NVIDIA GeForce 256, NVIDIA Riva TNT2, NVIDIA Riva TNT, ATI Radeon 8500, ATI Radeon, ATI Rage 128 Pro, ATI Rage 128, PowerVR3 Kyro II, PowerVR Kyro, Matrox MGA-G450, or Matrox MGA-G400 chipset with DirectX 8.1 compatible driver
* DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
* Keyboard
* Mouse
Well heck this game isn’t very demanding at all I’m running a 1.5ghz with a 128MB DDR ATI Radeon 8500, humm what’s the recommended system specs;
* 600 MHz or faster Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon processor
* 128 MB or more RAM
* 16x or faster CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive
* 570 MB or more free hard disk space plus space for saved games
* 32 MB or greater supported Direct3D capable video card with DirectX 8.1 compatible driver
* Environmental Audio capable sound card

Smooth sailing just upgraded to 512 DDR memory smoking, all of the specs this is a buy, so you plunk down your hard earned (for some of us ) cash and run home for what you think will be a awesome gaming experience. Then you get home fire up the PC rip the box open through it in the PC watch the intro, the intensity builds as you start the game you get a weird black screen, a freeze. No problem I’m connected to the internet you surf your way to the designers site download the patch. A half hour later you can’t find any patches, you register at their site to see if you can get help from the community. Three hours of tweaking later you’ve gotten no where angry and frustrated you write the company telling them fix the problem or your copy of the crap is going back.. You don’t get a reply until 3 weeks later you’ve already tried to return the crap but the store will only exchange it for the same title and at that they open the box on you(ah crap). So what now the reply said ,” Currently due to the way ATI does [fill in the blank] and doesn’t use nvidia opengl extensions so your SOL.“

Now I’m sure many of you have went thru similar problems and others may not have had problems at all. While some things may be hardware related(overclocking & faulty hardware) or software the bottom line is it’s a frustrating experience. Many people may have been thru faulty products, corrupt copy disc protection, incompatible hardware MB or power supplies, and bugs. Now I understand in coding bugs will happen but, I know that if the hardware was FULLY supported that would surely minimize the amount of bugs we see. And isn’t that the bottom line ? For those of you old enough when did patches become the norm ? Patches was and should be a emergency release, not a way to pass the buck! I want you to know this is not a pro ATI rant this is a PRO-Consumer rant, the bottom line is Developers should the Hardware completely if it says it’s supported.
As a consumer I have the right to use intel or SIS, VIA, AMD, Nvidia,ATI, Matrox, & whoever else I choose; a company that brings good hardware for Consumers is my kind of company. Since when does the development company call the shots ?? Sure Nvidia owners could careless but what happens when Nvidia isn’t the Graphics leader anymore ? If it says it supports it then it should, if it doesn’t support the hardware of my choice then I KNOW and I will not to buy it! But to falsely label your product compatible when it’s not completely or only slightly above a basic level is a crime to all unsuspecting gamers. Now before you write this off as a useless rant look into your wallet, that’s right I’m not talking about a petition but a BOYCOTT. A boycott of software developers who think they run the show and release half done products that 6 months down the line gets fixed if ever companies that won’t Support your hardware but wants your money! I’m talking email friends and talk to families spread the word to everyone you know. We want our games optimized for our hardware!! Otherwise what’s the point ? I don’t know about you but I’d like a choice when it comes to sound cards, so if we don’t act now we may lose the choice of video cards. Let’s take the next few days to list software development companies that don’t give you proper customer service & proper hardware support.
Here are mine;

Rockstar - GTA3 sucks on Radeon hardware, slow down, freezing & stutter. This is not acceptable
Irrational games - Freedom force locks on radeon hardware it’s been about 4 months and they have released only 1 patch(recently) I haven’t been able to test. This is unacceptable
Bioware - Neverwinter Nights - Wants your hardware to have a different company’s hardware features supported ???! This is not acceptable!

Please list the games that have given you problems on non tweaked and non overcooked systems. The hardware companies at the moment are doing acceptionally well offering value priced powerful hardware at a fraction of the cost of previous generation, and it would be in their best interest to continue to do so. Shouldn’t software developers try and support some new features and a wide range of hardware ? We can make them or make them go under... the choice is yours


P.S. this was done in a hurry sorry for any punctation errors or typo's