Duke Nukem Forever (DNF), a video game fans waited 15 years to be released is finally here. This highly anticipated title was released in North America, Europe, Australia and Japan on the 10th of June over Steam content delivery platform. It has just been one day since the game’s release and PC pirates have already been all over it, leaking the full game online along with a cracked executable that bypasses the Steam + CEG protection built into DNF. So far, at least 3 different ‘cracks’ have surfaced for the game two of them released by scene groups Razor1911, SKIDROW and also from a P2P source. RZR was the first scene group to crack the game but apparently their release was problematic with some users unable to replay completed chapters and so on. SKIDROW later released a PROPER which allegedly fixes these issues.

As most of you know, the scene is a place where groups compete for ‘first’ and ‘best’ releases. And PROPERS almost always involve flame wars, with groups arguing about the stability of their releases. However the NFO for Duke Nukem Forever PROPER-SKIDROW does not have any of it. Believe it or not, SKID actually praises RZR for getting the game out early:

Razor1911 did a fine job on getting their release out and reports are positive. Respect to the blade for some competition.
Still their release has a problematic issue with the crack, as when you progress in the game, you will notice that you can't go back and play previous completed chapters, besides the first one.
If you're happy with what you got from the blade, then don't download this proper. Alternative you can get the seperate sr-dnfcf.rar included with this release, so you don't have to download whole game again.
Keep in mind our release has all english, german, french, italian and spanish content in one whole package.

Now that PROPER note feels like a PC game dumbed down to suit consoles :P Although most of us claim to hate E-drama usually associated with the scene, those heated NFOs were kinda fun to read. They in my opinion intensified the competition between scene groups. Maybe SKIDROW is trying a different approach this time around, but keep in mind they were not so friendly in the last NFO war they faced.

Related Articles

• SceneNotice Wars About SKIDROW Cracks

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The Witcher 2 : Assassin of the Kings is finally released. This is an interesting PC video game title for several reasons. First, The Witcher 2 is one of the most anticipated games of the season and it’s been generating a lot of hype ever since it was first announced. Second, this is one of those rare PC exclusive titles which are almost non existent today. It’s after quite some time that PC gamers get to enjoy a popular game designed to take advantage of PC hardware, rather than a dumbed down console port (support the developers and buy this to show your appreciation – don’t just pirate it as usual). Either way here’s our routine troubleshooting articles for The Witcher 2. This post aims to help you with some of the common issues with the game, including random crashes to desktop (CTD), SecuROM doubts, mouse improvements, how to manually edit settings, etc.

Fix random crashes to desktop (CTD) in The Witcher 2

The Witcher 2 is known to crash on some Windows 7/Vista systems which are running the 32-bit version of the OS but have 3GB or more RAM installed. The crashes seem to be related to the way this game utilizes physical memory and enabling 3GB switch in Windows seem to fix the random CTD for most people. To enable 3GB switch, please follow the guide mentioned in this page. In case you want to undo the change, a step by step guide for this too can be found on the page. More on information on 3GB switch feature on Windows can be found here.

What’s the deal with SecuROM and is it affecting The Witcher 2 performance?

As most of you would already know, this game is protected by SecuROM, a Digital Rights Management (DRM) system that aims to repel pirates. There have been many controversies related to SecuROM in the past and these appear to have resurfaced with the release of Witcher 2. One of the main complains against the games’ DRM this time around is that it results in a noticeable performance hit. According to reports by several readers and from my own experience, the leaked version by GOG (which has DRM protection removed from both the game exe and paul.dll file, an integral part of SecuROM) seems to run smoother, with an increase of around 10 frames per second over the Retail version which has SecuROM embedded. This clearly is not a reason to pirate the game but hopefully devs would remove SecuROM at a later stage, possibly in a future patch. Until then the only resolution for legit buyers would be to use a so called crack, but note that this is still illegal in most countries even if you bought the game legally.

How to manually edit game settings in The Witcher 2

If you are one of the power users who will fine tune this game by tweaking advanced options, you’d most likely do so by editing the game configuration file.

1. Install The Witcher 2.
2. Navigate to folder C:\USERNAME\DOCUMENTS\Witcher 2\Config\
3. Open the file User.ini  with a text editor such as Notepad.

How to enable/disable mouse smoothing and invert mouse on The Witcher 2

Open User.ini file with a text editor, as highlighted in the previous section. Locate the string ‘smoothness’. Setting smoothness=1 enables mouse smoothing. Setting smoothness=0 disables this. Save and close the file once you are done.

Inverting mouse movement is also possible by editing configuration file. Open User.ini with a text editor and locate the MouseSensitivityY string. Add a minus sign before the numeric value to invert mouse Y Axis. Ex- Change MouseSensitivityY=0.2 to MouseSensitivityY=-0.2 . Doing the same to MouseSensitivityX will invert X axis.

What are the the best graphics drivers for The Witcher 2?

While the Witcher 2 will most likely play fine if you have video card drivers released within the last 6 months or so, the best performance might not be guaranteed. It’s highly recommended that you upgrade to the latest available drivers and if you are running new generation NVIDIA hardware it’s recommended that you upgrade to v257.27 beta drivers.
Latest official NVIDIA drivers : [Click Here]
Latest Beta NVIDIA drivers : [Click Here]
Latest official AMD drivers: [Click Here]

This article is a work in progress. Check back here for more updates.

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Crysis 2, one of the most anticipated games of the year, is finally released. Just like its predecessor, the game has superb graphics but heavily taxes hardware and you’ll need a high end gaming rig to play it with everything maxed out. Needless to say this is one game you’ll want to tweak to get optimal performance on your system with minimal loss of visual quality. Thankfully, you can now tweak the hell out of Crysis 2 thanks to an awesome tool created by an avid fan of the franchise - Crysis 2 Advanced Graphics Options Tool allows you to change a number of advanced game settings though an easy to use graphics user interface. Either way this is our routine troubleshooting article for Crysis 2 – it discusses in detail how to use this tool to change game settings and provides generic tips to avoid random crashes you might experience while playing.

What is the Crysis 2 Advanced Graphics Options Tool and how does it work?

The Crysis 2 Advanced Graphics Options Tool allows you to enable/disable, turn on/off or change the following settings: shaders, post processing, motion blur, effects, shadows, radial blur, objects, sound, MSAA, particles, physics, edge AA, water, anisotropy. Additionally, it comes with options to disable intro movies, mouse acceleration , mouse smoothing, toggle zoom, toggle couch as well as to adjust field of vision (FoV) and movement FoV.

And how does this tool make it all possible? It uses the autoexec.cfg file to pass the settings on to the game during startup. Autoexec.cfg is a file that comes with Crysis 2 by default – all of the settings stored in the file automatically get applied during game startup. Crysis 2 Advanced Graphics Options Tool automatically updates this file as the user changes settings through the graphical user interface. Screenshot of the GUI can be seen below:

How to use Crysis 2 Advanced Graphics Options Tool to tweak and change advanced game settings

Using this tool is pretty easy and straightforward - you don’t need to be a power user to do it.

• Make sure you have .NET Framework 2.0 or higher installed on your system.
• Download the tool from here or here.
• Unzip the download. Once you have unzipped place anywhere you want.
• Delete any autoexec.cfg files found in the Crysis 2 root folder (default is C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis 2).
• Run the Crysis2AdvancedGraphicsOptions.exe
• Hit apply once all settings are set. Start the game.

Full credit for making this tool and making it available online should go to wasdie, who originally posted it on this thread.

The configuration tool did not work for me. How do I edit game settings manually?

If for some reason the automated configuration utility above did not work for you, there is still no need to panic. You can always do it manually, the old school way.

1. Open notepad. Paste the following inside a new document.

g_skipIntro=1
cl_fov=72
pl_movement.power_sprint_targetFov=72
i_mouse_accel=0
i_mouse_accel_max=100
i_mouse_smooth=0
r_motionblur=2
g_radialBlur=1
cl_zoomToggle=0
r_UseEdgeAA=0
r_TexMaxAnisotropy=16
sys_spec_shading=3
sys_spec_gameeffects=3
sys_spec_objectdetail=3
sys_spec_particles=3
sys_spec_physics=3
sys_spec_postprocessing=3
sys_spec_shadows=3
sys_spec_sound=3
sys_spec_texture=3
sys_spec_water=3
r_PostMSAA=2
cl_crouchtoggle=1

2. Go to File-> Save As. Change ‘Save As Type’ to all files. Enter autoexec.cfg as the save name. Save the file.

3. Locate the saved .cfg file and move it inside your Crysis 2 home directory. Backup and replace any existing files if prompted to overwrite. Default is C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis 2.

4. Any settings you edit and save in the above file will automatically get applied every time the game is run. For example, if you set g_skipIntro=1, intro movies will be disabled. If you set sys_spec_shadows=1, shadows will be set to low.

P.S. – If you are worried by the excessive amount of blur, try changing the Edge AA setting.

General tips to avoid Crysis 2 crashes and random CTD

• If the game crashes during launch, try changing your audio settings to Stereo (Go to Control Panel –> Sound, Select ‘Speakers’ and click the ‘Configure’ button, Choose ‘Stereo’ in the next dialog.) Crysis 2 is known to crash on some systems with surround sound.
• Update your DirectX – Crysis 2 relies heavily on the Direct3D API. It’s highly recommended that you upgrade to the latest monthly runtime of DirectX which can be located here.
• Apply the v1.1 day one patch. You can download it from here.

This article is a work in progress. Check back here for more updates.

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Shogun 2, the latest installment to the Total War franchise from Creative Assembly has been released. From the several hours of game play experience I had with the title, it seemed to be an improvement in almost all aspects over its predecessor. Hell, I would even go as far to say that this is the best game in the Total War series. In terms of technical aspects, this franchise is not particularly renowned for stability but is well known for random crashes and showstopper bugs. Thankfully this time around the developers seem to have taken their time to release a well polished title with minimal glitches. Either way here’s our mini troubleshooting article for Total War Shogun 2 – it covers some of the issues for which solutions are not commonly discussed.

Shogun 2 black sky and no water bug

Some ATI graphics card owner might encounter this annoying glitch where the in game sky will look black and water rending will look messed up. This issue seems to be related to a new graphics driver release by ATI and can usually be fixed by rolling back to a previous drive. Simply uninstall the current version, download an older version from here (choose your GPU, search drivers and check ‘previous drivers’ link at bottom of drivers page) and install.

No sound, stuttering, noise or other audio issues in Total war Shogun 2

These can happen due to a number of reasons but here are two of the most common solutions you can try:

Fix 1:

1. Open Control Panel –> Sound.
2. In the ‘Playback’ tab, select ‘Speakers’. Choose ‘Properties’.
3. In the Speaker Properties window, switch to the ‘Advanced’ tab.
4. Under the ‘Default Format’ drop down, choose 24 bit, 48000 Hz (Studio Quality) option.
5. Close all Windows by pressing Ok. Run the game

Fix 2:

1. Go to Control Panel –> Sound
2. Select ‘Speakers’ and click the ‘Configure’ button.
3. Choose ‘Stereo’ in the next dialog.
4. Click Next on every window in the wizard. Hit finish at the last step to save changes.

Where are the saved game located?

If you want to access your saved game files (either to play the game on a a different computer, give them to a friend or upload online), savegames are located in the following directory:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Shogun2

DirectX related issues and fixes

By default, Shogun 2 does not feature support for DirectX11- this will be provided in a future patch. Therefore, it’s recommended that you upgrade to the latest monthly runtime of DirectX9 which can be located here.

Where to find solutions for other Shogun 2 related problems?

We will update this article as we get more fixes/solutions coming our way. In the meantime, you can check the official forums for tons of other useful tips and user submitted questions and answers.

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The street date for the highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is getting nearer. The game is due to be released on the 17th of March in Europe and on the 22nd in North America. However, those familiar with the file sharing scene may know that the game has already leaked online – it was initially released by a Russian P2P pirate group and then by the well known scene group SKIDROW (SKIDROW’s modified exe seems to be more or less stolen from the Russian release, but that’s another story). Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is yet another game that uses the controversial UBISoft DRM – have pirates once again beaten this protection which was at one stage claimed to be uncrackable? They seem to have. But does the pirated version come without issues? No.

We’ve been getting mails from various folks asking us about differences between pirated and legitimate versions of AC: B. Since we do not have the time to reply to these mails individually, here’s a brief rundown of things that as of this moment does not work in the leaked release:

• Downloadable content (DLC) is locked. Da Vinci and two other single player missions that come as DLC cannot be unlocked.
• It is not possible to use the investments system. To do this, you need to go online and need to have a legitimate version of the game.
• Shop quests do not work. These quests unlock additional content and as of this moment these do not work in the pirated version.

While none of the above are critical to successfully completing the single player campaign, they still are important features of the game. If you want to enjoy the above, right now the only way is to buy a legitimate copy of the game (which is not too bad a deal – AC : B is a huge game which has many hours of gameplay). Otherwise you’ll have to wait till when/if a scene/p2p group releases a better fix for their release.

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If you are one of those folks who like to tweak the hell out of every game you play, this post is for you. The newly released Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood seems to be quite a hit amongst gamers and this article explains where you can locate the game’s main configuration file – this file can be used change a lot of settings which are by default not changeable from the in game options menu or configuration utilities. In AC : B, the location where this file is stored has changed from previous games in the series. This has resulted in an increased number of our readers sending us mails asking where it is- see below on how to open the configuration file and manually edit settings.

1. Install the game.
2. Navigate to the folder  C:\Users\USERNAME\Saved Games\Assassin's Creed
3. Locate the file ACBrotherhood.ini and open it with a text editor such as notepad.

You can now edit various game settings by changing values assigned for strings. Please note that entering incorrect values can cause your game to malfunction or not start at all – back up the .ini file before making any changes so that you can revert in case of failure. Once done editing, save and close the file and start the game to see the effects.

Note that saved games for AC : B are also stored in the same directory (C:\Users\USERNAME\Saved Games\Assassin's Creed)

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Dragon Age 2, the true sequel to 2009’s hit video game Dragon Age : Origins is finally here. This is no doubt a highly anticipated title, especially given the fact that its predecessor was one of the most addictive role playing games to be released on this decade. However, a certain segment of PC gamers (me included) were worried by BioWare’s comments during the game’s development stage –according to them, DA2 was to be made more streamlined and accessible compared to its predecessor. The worrying factor was that these were words devs usually used in place of of ‘dumbing it down for the consoles’. Anyways I’ve had the chance to play the game for a couple of hours and I’ve got to say, the changes are not so bad. The game feels more responsive, less frustrating and retains the same Dragon Age feel. Before this article turns into a DA2 review, let me tell you that this is our routine troubleshooting post for Dragon Age 2. Solutions to some of the most commonly reported problems with the game as well as tips to improve performance can be found below.

Fix crashes at launch, random crash to desktop (CTD) and Dragon Age II has stopped working errors.

Given below are some tips to minimize crashes and other errors you might encounter with Dragon Age 2.

• Start the game in DirectX9 mode. Most people have reported getting rid of random CTD after switching to DX9 from DX11. This also helps prevent startup and black screen errors if you have DX11 renderer selected on a non DX11 compliant video card.
• Turn of high resolution textures (if enabled)
• If you are a NVIDIA GPU user, please install the new 267.24 beta drivers. These drivers have compatibility improvements specifically targeted at DA2. Latest beta drivers can be found here.
• Update to the latest DirectX monthly runtime – highlighy recommended. You can download the latest DX monthly runtime from here.

How to improve Dragon Age 2 performance

Given below are several steps you can take to improve performance in Dragon Age 2.

• If you are a NVIDIA GPU user, please install the new 267.24 beta drivers. These drivers have compatibility improvements specifically targeted at DA2. Latest beta drivers can be found here.
• Launch the game and open the in game menu. Go to ‘Account’ under options and disable both upload options.
• Use a screen resolution which is fully supported by both your monitor and video card.
• If you are a NVIDIA GPU user, try the following after installing latest beta drivers. Open NVIDIA control panel and change Antialiasing trans. to multisample  and Max prerendered frames to 8. Additionally, change PhysX processing to CPU instead of GPU. Save, close and launch the game.
• Run the game using DirectX9 renderer.
• Disable the high resolution texture pack (if enabled) from in game menu.

I can’t play the game in high or very high settings. Why?

These two graphics details options are only available for DirectX 11 mode. You have to select DX11 renderer in order to enable these options.

What is the high resolution texture pack, how to enable it and where do I download it?

Please refer to this post for a step by step guide on downloading and installing the high resolution textures pack.

Why can’t I beat the game on nightmare difficulty?

I don’t know if it’s just me (judging by what people have posted on gaming forums, it isn’t just me) but Nightmare difficulty sometimes seems unbeatable. You never seem to be able to win some fights and I haven’t figured a way to counter the constant enemy re-spawning. BioWare will probably release a patch for this.

Please note that this article is a work in progress – more issues, fixes will be added as they are discovered. Keep checking back.

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You probably already know how to do this but judging by the number of E-mail we get asking this very same question, there are quite a few people out there who haven’t figured how to enable the high resolution texture pack in Dragon Age 2. First and foremost, DA2s high res texture pack enables you play the game on high and very high settings with enhanced graphics. Downside is that this could have a negative performance impact on your system (and your system should well exceed the minimum system requirements for the game to be playable after enabling hi res textures). Note that the texture pack does not come with Dragon Age 2 installation by default you need to download and install the patch separately. The option to enable or disable high resolution graphics will only be visible from in game menu once you download and install the patch.

Official instructions on BioWare forums suggest that you have to have a video card with at least 1024mb to enable hi res textures. However, I tried enabling it on my old Geforce 9600GT with 512MB VRAM and the game ran fine, albeit a little slow but very playable. It is also recommended that you have a fully DirectX11 compliant video card as some visual improvements will only be seen in DX11 mode.

Download

[Click Here] to download Dragon Age 2 high resolution texture pack from official server (1.08GB)

How to install

1. Install the downloaded patch with high res textures (see link above)
2. Run Dragon Age II.
3. Open the Options menu.
4. Select Video options.
5. Check the "Hi-resolution textures" checkbox.

For more information, visit the DA2 patches page located here.

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Bulletstorm is finally released. This was a first person shooter I personally was looking forward to playing in 2011. The raly reviews for the game are looking promising and it’s already got an aggregated review score of 82% at Gamerankings.com. I’ve had the opportunity to play the game for a couple of hours and it was a very enjoyable experience. Built on the unreal engine 3, BulleStorm had nice graphics and it ran surprisingly well even on my system with aging hardware. However, from what I have heard the game is pretty short  - it might take only around 5 hours for a veteran gamer to complete. Either way this post is not a review of BulletStorm – it’s a troubleshooting article which aims to fix some of the most commonly reported problems with the game.

How to increase BulletStorm performance by choosing the correct display resolution

While BulletStorm is a pretty well optimized PC port, there seems to be a weird issue with the game slowing down to a crawl on certain resolutions. For example, most people report having major slowdowns, stuttering and FPS drops in resolutions such as 1650x1080 and 1440x900. The trick here is to use a screen resolution that’s MOD 8. That is, the numeric values for width and height should be divisible by 8, with a remainder of 0. Examples of optimal resolutions include:

• 1920x1080
• 1360x768
• 1600x1024

The above might not work for everyone and you will have to experiment a little to find the optimal solution for your particular case. However, if you experience unbelievable crappy performance, try changing the resolution – this is known to sometimes give gains as much as 40FPS.

Fix Bulletstorm crashing during launch or due to PhysX issue

Your game might crash during startup or will close with a PhysX related error message. In case this happens, please install latest PhysX system software that came bundled with the game (or you can download it from here). In case this does solve the problem, try the steps below.

1. Install the latest NVIDIA PhysX system software.
2. Navigate to :\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common\ folder. Copy all files inside this directory.
3. Navigate to \Binaries\Win32\PhysXLocal\ folder in your BulletStorm installation folder. Paste all copied files inside the PhysXLocal folder, overwriting any existing ones.
4. Restart the game.

How to save progress in Bulletstorm with a Windows Live Offline account

This is one of the most frequently asked questions in our troubleshooting articles. We have explained in detail the steps to resolve this but the issue pops up every time a GFWL based title is released.  Bulletstorm is a Games For Windows Live (GFWL) based title and you need to have an GFWL account in order to save game progress. But don’t worry, in case you don’t have an online profile, you can still save the game using an offline account. Step by step instructions on how to do this is given below:

1. Launch the game. Open the Windows Live menu (or it will open automatically, prompting you to log in or create a new account).
2. If you are not logged into any GFWL profile continue to step 3. If you are already logged onto a profile (local or online), try launching the single player component and try to save progress. If saving and loading works fine, you obviously have no problem. If it does not work, you’ll need to sign out of the current profile before continuing to step 3 (Create profile button will only become visible when you aren’t logged in).
3. Click on ‘Create new profile’ button.
4. In the dialog box that pops up DO NOT hit continue. Hitting continue will take you to a registration page for an ONLINE profile – this is not the requirement.
5. Once in the ‘Create Gamer Profile’ window, scroll down so that you can see the bottom paragraph.
6. Look for the hyperlinked ‘created a local profile’ link in last paragraph. Clicking this will allow you to create a new offline profile.

Note that an offline GFWL account will not let you play online. But you should be able to play single player mode without any issues whatsoever. A YouTube video showing how to make an offline xlive account can also be found here.

General tips to avoid crashes

• Update to the latest DirectX monthly runtime (August 2010) – this is an absolute must not just for BulletStorm for for pretty much every PC game that comes out these days. Latest monthly runtime can be downloaded from here.
• If you experience random CTD, try disabling multi GPU technologies such as SLI or Crossfire, if using any.
• Update video card drivers to the latest build before running the game – if latest drivers do not work, try downloading and installing latest beta drivers (do this at your own risk).
  ATI Drivers: Download the latest ATI Catalyst drivers from this link: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx
  NVIDIA Drivers: Download latest official NVIDIA drivers from this link: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
  Beta Drivers: Check here http://donloads.guru3d.com/

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We’re a little late on this one but here’s the routine troubleshooting article for Test Drive Unlimited 2. TDU 2 is the 10th installment of popular Test Drive racing game series and the sequel to 2007’s Test Drive Unlimited 1. I’ve had the opportunity to try this game out on the PC and for me, it was nothing more than a mediocre racer. In fact TDU 2 looked more like a mash up between a racing game and ‘The Sims’ rather than a pure racer like its predecessors – I wasn’t a fan of the newly introduced ‘social features’ but credit to developers for trying out something different than following the same old formula. Coming back to the troubleshooting article, here are some fixes and solutions for some common problems you may experience with the game. While it’s not an unplayable bugfest, it’s not a perfect game either.

Fix Test Drive Unlimited 2 sound issues

If your computer’s sound output is configured to anything above ‘Stereo’ you might experience no sound, missing cut scene audio, etc. The game does not appear to support surround sound on certain hardware configurations. To fix this, follow the steps below:

1. Go to Control Panel –> Sound
2. Select ‘Speakers’ and click the ‘Configure’ button.
3. Choose ‘Stereo’ in the next dialog.
4. Click Next on every window in the wizard. Hit finish at the last step to save changes.

Fix missing DLL file error at launch

If you experience any missing DLL errors while trying to launch the game, a likely cause is an outdated or incomplete DirectX installation. You can download the latest DX monthly runtime (November 2010) from this location.

How to change language in TDU2

Several people had sent us E-mail asking us how to change the language. Well you don’t need to mess with the configuration file to change the language since you can do it directly from the in game options menu. However, your copy of TDU2 needs to be a Multilanguage copy in order to do this. I’ve seen MULTI5 (supports Spanish, English, French, Italian and Deutsch) and MULTI2 (supports Russian and English) copies of the game so the selectable languages will depend on the version you own.

Fix TDU2 crashes – beta users

Did you have the Test Drive Unlimited 2 beta installed? If so, please uninstall the beta and delete its installation folders manually prior to installing the full game.

How to switch between windowed mode and fullscreen in Test Drive Unlimited 2

Again, this can easily be done using the standard windows shortcut. Pressing ALT + Enter keys together will toggle between fullscreen mode and windowed mode in TDU 2.

No dynamic weather effects such as Rain in TDU 2

Ever seen it raining while in game? Some of you may not have due to a weird reason – dynamic weather effects only work when you are online. There are a few races and events where it rains regardless of you being online or offline, but dynamic weather effects when you are just driving around or free roaming will not work in offline mode. This will probably be fixed in an upcoming patch.

Fix TDU 2 closing/crashing at launch and other startup errors

This can happen for a number of reasons but here’s one of the solutions that might work. If you installed the game using a mounted image, try unpacking the ISO and installing from the unpacked files. This seems to have solved the issues for several people, judging from responses on several gaming forums.

How to configure a 3rd party game controller with Test Drive Unlimited 2

For a detailed guide on how to configure a 3rd party controller with Test Drive Unlimited 2, please check out this forum thread.

Few tips to improve TDU 2 performance

1. Disable multi GPU features such as SLI or Crossfire – the game seems to have trouble with them on certain configurations.
2. There is a FPS lock at 60.
3. Update your graphics card drivers.

This article is a work in progress – it will be updated as more solutions are found.

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After invading the smartphone scene with over 12 million copies sold, Rovio’s puzzle video game Angry Birds made it to the PC last January. I’ve been playing it on a Windows 7 based computer for the last two weeks and I’ve got to say that it’s a fantastic port. The addictive gameplay is back with a mouse based control scheme and better, more detailed graphics over its mobile counterparts. In my experience, the gameplay was almost perfect with no major technical glitches or bugs coming in the way. However, several of our readers had E-mailed us with some issues they had with the game. So here’s our troubleshooting article for Angry Birds for the PC – listed below are some commonly reported problems, along with their potential solutions and workarounds.

Angry birds keeps minimizing to desktop

This was one of the biggest problems I had with this game and in the end the solution turned out to be a pretty simple one (at least in my case). If angry birds keeps minimizing to desktop at random times, please check if your Mozilla Firefox web browser is closed prior to running the game.

Fix for ‘application failed to start due to configuration…’ error

Sometimes, you may be greeted with the error message "This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem." when trying to launch angry birds. If the problem persists even after a reinstall, it could be due to your computer not having the necessary VC++ runtime files installed. You need to have C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package ATL Security Update installed for the game to work properly. 32-bit and 64-bit installations for this can be found here.

Problems with screen sizing and other display issues

1. Right click the Angry Birds executable (AngryBirds.exe) and select properties.
2. Switch to the ‘Compatibility’ tab.
3. Tick ‘disable display scaling on high dpi settings’.
4. Press ok to save and close the dialog. Try launching the game.

Fix texture is too large error in Angry Birds (PC)

This error can be caused by running the game in an unsupported resolution. You can change the resolution by editing the configuration file.

1. Navigate to the Angry Birds installation path (default C:\Program Files\Rovio\Angry Birds )
2. Locate the config.lua file. Open it with a text editor such as notepad.
3. Lower the display resolution by changing values next to Width and Height strings. For starters, lower it down to Width = 1024 and Height = 600 (a known, supported resolution  for AB).
4. Save and close the file. Run the game to see if the error message issue is fixed.

How to run Angry Birds in Windowed mode

1. Navigate to the Angry Birds installation path (default C:\Program Files\Rovio\Angry Birds )
2. Locate the config.lua file. Open it with a text editor such as notepad.
3. Set the fullscreen variable to false. Save, close the file and run the game.

Missing MSVCR100.dll error file during launch

Download the MSVCR100.dll file from this location and copy it to your System32 directory (default C:\Windows\System32). For any other missing DLL file errors, please update your DirectX to the latest monthly runtime from here.

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The long drought that plagued our PC games troubleshooting section ends as Dead Space 2 hits the market. Dead Space 2 is a widely anticipated survival horror third person shooter and is the sequel to 2008’s Dead Space 1. I’ve had the opportunity to play the game for a couple of hours and from what I’ve seen so far, this new title seems to do the series justice – it looked great, appeared to run smoothly even on mid range hardware and most importantly I didn’t run into any showstopper bugs. Speaking of bugs, this article aims to provide troubleshooting tips, tweaks and fixes for commonly reported issues with Dead Space 2. Keep in mind that this is a work in progress – we will be updating this post as we receive tip offs about new bugs, glitches, workarounds and solutions.

Slow performance, freezing and stuttering on ATI video cards

If you are playing Dead Space 2 on an ATI video card, you might experience performance issues. From what I have seen, this game clearly has issues with ATI GPUs. It’s not known if a future driver release or a developer patch would sort these out but here’s a temporary solution which you can try – run the game in Windowed mode instead of fullscreen. To do this, go to Visual Options menu in game and turn off the ‘Full Screen’ option.

How to manually edit Dead Space 2 configuration file

If you want to play with advanced settings and tweak the game  further by adjusting options that are normally inaccessible from the in game menu, you can do so by editing the game confi file manually.

1. Set your computer to show all files, including hidden files.
2. Navigate to C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\EAGames\Dead Space 2 folder (Windows 7/Vista)
   OR
   C:/Documents and Settings/USERNAME/Local Settings/Application Data/EAGames/Dead Space 2/ (Windows XP)
3. Open the file settings.exe with a text editor.

Note: Always make a backup of the original settings.txt file before you make any changes. Invalid settings could cause the game not run/malfunction and if this happens, you can restore the original to undo the damage.

How to change Dead Space 2 language

For the language change to work properly, you should own a Multilanguage copy of Dead Space 2.

1. Open the settings.txt configuration file by following steps mentioned in the previous section.
2. Find the ‘Locale’ string. Modify the value to set desired language. Example values are
   ENG – English
   DE – German
3. Save and close the file. Restart the game.

How to fix black screen at startup

There are many reasons which could cause a black screen at start but here is a quick solution you can try:

1. Open the settings.txt file as stated in a previous section (above)
2. Find the string values Window.Top and Window.Left
3. Modify the values so that they read :
   Window.Top = 0
   Window.Left = 0
4. Save and close the file.

Also, try disabling your Antivirus/Firewall and running the game.

Fix Dead Space 2 Spinning camera issue

The quickest fix for this bug (which was present in Dead Space 1 as well) is to unplug any game controllers plugged into your system and restarting the game. But if you do want to play with your existing controller, try the steps below:

1. Navigate to Dead Space 2 save directory which is Documents\EAGames\Dead Space 2
2. Rename the file joypad_example.txt to joypad.txt
3. Open joypad.txt with a text editor.
4. Change the values of the following strings so that they read:
   Pad.RightDPad.Left =
   Pad.RightDPad.Down =
   Pad.RightDPad.Right =
5. Save and close the file.

Note: This fix was based on the  solution posted by TongueDar on this EA forum thread for Dead Space 1.

Crashes at certain chapters in DS2

Many people seem to be experiencing crashes to desktop (CTD) at some points in the game. One of the most commonly reported crashes appears to materialize in Solar Array in Chapter 7. This issue seems to be occurring mostly with pirated copies of the game. We don’t have a solution for this right now and it’s unlikely a developer patch would solve the issue if it really has to do something with code modifications done by the pirating group.

Run Dead Space 2 crash free - update your graphics drivers and DirectX

Again, this is pretty basic stuff buy many people seem to ignore this – always update your video card drivers to the latest build before running the game. Update your video card’s drivers – if latest drivers do not work, try downloading and installing latest beta drivers (do this at your own risk).

• ATI Drivers: Download the latest ATI Catalyst drivers from this link: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx
• NVIDIA Drivers: Download latest official NVIDIA drivers from this link: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
• Beta Drivers: Check here http://downloads.guru3d.com/

As for DirectX, you may download the latest monthly runtime from this location.

This article is a work in progress – it will be updated as more solutions are found.

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Two new issues of your favorite pirate magazine are here. These were released a couple of weeks ago so this may not be hot news for some of you. However, The Game Scene Charts (TGSC) Issues 48 and 49 are out there and can now be freely downloaded. For those who are heaving about this mag for the first time, TGSC is an electronic publication that rates and ranks PC game release groups in the warez scene. These self contained coded magazines come complete with interactive menus, background music and even have old school scene intros. Coming back to the TGSC issues #48 and #49, these cover scene released PC games during the months of November 2010 and December 2010. Summary of group rankings and download links after the jump.

 
Image: TGSC screenshot from issue #49

As usual, group SKIDROW have once again dominated the rankings. This is despite severe criticism coming from within the scene regarding their cracking methods and even accusations of code stealing. Either way, summary of group rankings can be found below:

November 2010

1. SKIDROW
2. RELOADED
3. Bamboocha

October 2010

1. SKIDROW
2. RELOADED
3. FASiSO 

Download

You do not need special software to open these magazines as everything is self contained. However, note that your screen may flash and flickering text will appear during the magazine’s intro screens. This is intentional since it’s modeled after old school scene cracktros.

You can download TGSC issues from Defacto, a scene resources site we featured in a previous article.

[Click Here] to download Game Scene Charts Issue 48 (November 2010) from Defacto.

[Click Here] to download Game Scene Charts Issue 49 (December 2010) from Defacto.

If you are looking for older editions, Defacto has the complete collection of TGSC magazines since Issue #1 (September 2006) on this page. And it’s regularly updated with new editions as well.

Related Articles

• SceneNotice Wars About SKIDROW Cracks

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It’s been a while we posted a SceneNotice around here and it’s getting a little boring without all the E drama. So here’s a SceneNotice (and the response for it) that became quite popular in the last couple of days. It goes like this – veteran PC game cracking group SKIDROW is challenged by an anonymous group about the legitimacy of their cracks. The anonymous group claims that SKIDROW’s releases do not conform to scene standards. It is claimed that these pirated releases do not have the DRM software entirely removed but SKIDROW is merely using a workaround by emulating the protection mechanism (aka emu crack) – it is also claimed that some of the code in these fixes are stolen from Russian P2P releases. SKIDROW responds to these allegations and even goes ahead to provide source code snippets as proof. There is absolutely no news value in these type of posts but some of you (specially those into PC game cracking techniques) might find this an interesting read.

The initial SceneNotice titled ‘Truth.About.Skidrow.And.Their
.EmuCracks-DONOTBELIEVETHEIRLIES’ which started the flame war is quoted below:

[Begin Quote]
Dear Skidrow, i know you think all people are fullish to, believe your lies. That youre cracking all your releases by yourself, that youve never stole any piece of code from, anyone (especially russians), that all your cracks are awesome, even if they dont work the way they should..., but hey - who will care, right?
Wrong. Because there are some people in the scene who care, about quality and who stand on guard of scene rules. And what, do we see looking at your releases? WTF is that? - that only, comment that fit here.
Lets see your recent securom releases. Omg, is that firts real, securom crack from Skidrow? BEEP!!! Wrong. Its an emu-crack,witch does not fit in any scene standards and any real scene group wouldnt release that kind of crap. All your recent securom cracks starting from Gothic 4 update emulates the protection and should be nuked, because you havent cracked anything there. You know that method from russian p2p group and you are still stupid enough to claim that Reloaded used files from russian version. If you would understand what is a DFA feature in securom, you would know from where and why that files magically appeared in Reloaded crack. But there is one thing we admire in your work... We call it NFO Propaganda. The shit you write there is amazing. We know that you want people to adore you, but youve crossed the line of reasonability. You try to turn your every mistake into gamebug or some other thing, but its NEVER your fault. Guys, seriously, people laugh from your crackfixes. Another day, another crackfix from Skidrow. For love of God, learn to test your shit before releasing it. We know that things may get complicated when putting together pieces of stolen code, but still.
And last thing... have you maybe concidered to stop stealing and start making your own cracks? All your solidshield and ubidrm cracks were stolen. It was mentioned by some groups it their nfos, but noone reacted to it. You even admited that you have stolen Assassins Creed 2 code from russians and the evidence was inside your crack. Does noone see this? If they done it once they would do it again, and again, and again...
Now a message to all real sceners:
Start caring for quality of releases! Skidrow floods the scene with worthless releases with stolen cracks and nobody care. They win in charts theyre releasing for themselves and you think its normal? Wake up!
[End Quote]

SKIDROW of course responded to the claim. They did not pre a separate SceneNotice but included the response in one of their Call of Duty 4 Update patch NFOs.

[Begin Quote]
Dear Bungholes,   
First of all get some balls and post under your actual Group name if you even have one. Since you are saying we stole something, why are there no references included showing some proof? Oh wait, there isn't any proof. If the people that still care about the scene believed we messed up, then there would already be a nuke, don't you think?  Since you guys also complain about our SecuROM releases, saying we "emulate". There is something we would like to say, that you are full of shit. First of all the real "emulation" you are talking about is done by some of the other groups, because as soon you unpack the exe from SecuROM you are left with a lot of VM calls that can be either "emulated" or wrapped into the code which is way more work. So who are the bad guys now? As far we are concerned with the rules, we did nothing wrong.
In general, then emulation and protection activation will be used more often, because things gets too complex for  example: the Ubisoft DRM, Steam, Solidshield 2, SeucROM VM checks and other similar protections.
NFO Propaganda? HA HA now it's getting funny, give us a definition of what type your NFO is then?
The Truth? Please, We've heard better :) Oh and since you are saying we stole the Ubisoft DRM cracks. We are sure ypu can't show some releases that do actually work until the end of the game right? All "cracks" that were ever done, just had a Menu patch or only the initial Handshake packet, which is no big deal in finding.
So here's a little detail of the Splinter Cell method: Client sends the coordinates Y,X,Z and the Server will check by those. If the player is standing in a registered area on server, if that's the case it will send the player if he has entered the area or left it. The "Russian" cracks you say tried to emulate the stuff via a public released server code, which only leads them into sending the initial handshake, which is just a packet including the product id and product version. 
Due our good will, we decided to show a fraction of a couple of source code examples: 
Prince of Persia: http://codepad.org/FhhVs5RK
Splinter Cell Conviction: http://codepad.org/9VTM3D3.
If you still think that's stolen, let us at least know from where, if you can :) But lets be honest, you can't ever and never will. But why would you believe that? You don't even know what code looks like, even if we would hold it up right under your nose.
Since we have a guess who is responsible for the spreaded NFO, we are just going to say it once: Congratulations you just got voted for the most dumb idiots ever! And if you are so sure about all the things you said in the NFO, why can't you provide any deeper details?  Seriously if we wanted to bash someone, we would at leastprovide some details about this and that.
Over and out. 
[End Quote]

Related Articles

• Know All About Scene Rules, Standards, Nuking And Nuke Reasons
• The Game Scene Charts Issue 43 – Featuring Interview With SKIDROW

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We are a bit late in posting this but here’s our troubleshooting article for Tron Evolution. Tron Evolution is an action/adventure game based on the movie Tron Legacy. The game was released on both PC and console platforms on the 7th of December in North America. I’ve had the opportunity to play this for a couple of hours and it seemed to be a decent action game at best. It’s definitely not Game of The Year material but fans of the Tron franchise may find the experience enjoyable. Anyway this is not a game review but our routine troubleshooting article for Tron Evolution. Unlike some of our recent troubleshooting posts, this does not include a lot of fixes but addresses only two common problems with the game; how to change screen resolution and how to properly save progress with a Windows Live offline account.

How to change resolution in Tron Evolution

In case you are having trouble setting the proper resolution for your monitor, you can manually edit the configuration file and do this. A step by step tutorial can be found below:

1. Browse to folder Documents\Disney Interactive Studios\Tron Evolution\UnrealEngine3\GridGame\Config\
2. Open the file GridEngine.ini with a text editor such as Notepad. Make sure you backup this file before you do any modifications in case something goes wrong.
3. Locate the strings ResX and ResY in the config file.
4. You can put your screen resolution values next to these strings so that the game will launch the the specified resolution.
   Example - For 1440 x 900 resolution put ResX=1440 and ResY=900
5. Save and close the file. Now launch the game.

Note that setting a resolution unsupported by your monitor will cause black screens and crashes during launch.

How do I save progress in Tron Evolution?

This is one of the most frequently asked questions in our troubleshooting articles. Tron Evolution is a Games For Windows Live (GFWL) based title and you need access to a GFWL account in order to save game progress. But don’t worry,  in case you don’t have an online profile, you can still save the game using an offline account. Step by step instructions on how to do this is given below:

1. Launch the game. Open the Windows Live menu (or it will open automatically, prompting you to log in or create a new account).
2. If you are not logged into any GFWL profile continue to step 3. If you are already logged onto a profile (local or online), try launching the single player component and try to save progress. If saving and loading works fine, you obviously have no problem. If it does not work, you’ll need to sign out of the current profile before continuing to step 3 (Create profile button will only become visible when you aren’t logged in).
3. Click on ‘Create new profile’ button.
4. In the dialog box that pops up DO NOT hit continue. Hitting continue will take you to a registration page for an ONLINE profile – this is not the requirement.
5. Once in the ‘Create Gamer Profile’ window, scroll down so that you can see the bottom paragraph.
6. Look for the hyperlinked ‘created a local profile’ link in last paragraph. Clicking this will allow you to create a new offline profile.

Note that an offline GFWL account will not let you play online. But you should be able to play single player mode without any issues whatsoever. A YouTube video showing how to make an offline xlive account can also be found here.

This article will be updated if any new fixes are discovered. Feel free to share your experience/tips in comments section.

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The highly anticipated Need for Speed : Hot Pursuit has finally hit the shelves. This game, which is a reboot of the 1998’s NFS 3, is the 16th installment of the long running NFS franchise which is now over 15 years old. I’ve had the opportunity to play the game for several hours and to be honest it looked good and was pretty enjoyable. Of course, this is by no means a true racing simulation – if you are looking for one go play GRID. Hot Pursuit instead is an arcade racer – its not ultra realistic but nevertheless fun to play. Anyway, before this post turns into yet another NFS review, let us tell you that this is our routine troubleshooting article for Hot Pursuit 2010. Hopefully, the tips and workarounds mentioned below will help you avert bugs, glitches, crashes and other annoyances with this new NFS title.

How to fix NFS Hot Pursuit crash to desktop (CTD) after selecting race

Judging by the number of people complaining on various gaming forums, this seems to be a fairly common problem. The game sometimes seem to crash when running on processors with 4 cores. You can try either one of the solutions mentioned below to try and fix this issue:

Set the NFS process to use only two cores

Instead of setting your computer to use two cores, you can try enforcing this restriction on NFS HP process only.

1. Start the game. Immediately start Task Manager
2. Locate the NFS hot Pursuit process in the processes list.
3. Right click the process and select ‘Set Affinity’.
4. Tick only two processor cores, preferably Processor 0 and 1. Press ok and close the dialog.
5. Switch back to the game and try selecting a race.

If this method does not work, try the solution below.

Set your computer to use only two cores

1. Run System Configuration utility. Typing msconfig in the start menu run or search box should do the trick.
2. Switch to ‘Boot’ tab.
3. Select ‘Advanced Options’
4. Set ‘Number of Processors’ to 2.
5. Restart your computer and run the game.

While the crash on race selection may get fixed, note that your computer will now only use only two processor cores instead of 4. You may want to undo the above change once you stop playing.

How to change language in NFS Hot Pursuit

1. Open Registry Editor. Type regedit in start menu run or search box.
2. Locate the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\Need for Speed(TM) Hot Pursuit\1.0 (on 64-bit systems)
   OR
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Electronic Arts\Need for Speed(TM) Hot Pursuit\1.0 (on 32-bit systems)
3. Change the Language key value to ‘English’ and Locale key value to ‘en_US’.

It may be possible to switch to other languages/locales if you are using a MULTILANGUAGE release. However, I personally have not tried it.

How to manually edit NFS Hot Pursuit configuration settings

It is possible to manually edit your configuration settings files to tweak settings you can’t change in game.

1. Browse to c:\Documents And Settings\<USERNAME>\My Documents\Criterion Games\Need for Speed(TM) Hot Pursuit\
2. Open the config.NFS11Save file with a text editor.

Most of the display options are listed under the [Display] section of above file.

How to run NFS Hot Pursuit in windowed mode

1. Open the config.NFS11Save file as stated above.
2. Browse to the [Display] section.
3. Set fullscreen=false. Save and close the file.
4. Run the game.

How to change resolution in NFS Hot Pursuit

1. Open the config.NFS11Save file as stated earlier.
2. Browse to the [Display] section.
3. Alter width and height properties to fit your desired resolution. For example, values for 800x600 resolution would be : Width=800
   Height=600
4. Save and close the file.
5. Run the game.

Note that adding a resolution unsupported by your video card/monitor would cause black screen issues when trying to launch the game.

Please keep in mind that this article is a work in progress - more fixes will be added here as and when they are discovered. Check this space for updates.

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Here we go folks – probably the most anticipated game of 2010 is finally here. Call of Duty : Black Ops is the latest installment to the long running first person shooter franchise which saw the light in 2003. Now, I read somewhere that over 5 million copies of the game were sold in North America alone, on release day itself – Black Ops is already a hit. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a perfect release – there are numerous issues present, some of the most common problems being continuous stuttering, random slowdowns and of course, audio glitches. Here’s our routine troubleshooting article for Call of Duty – Black Ops. Hopefully, this article will help you get around these annoyances and make you single player and multiplayer gaming experience better.

Stuttering, lag, slowdowns, low FPS and other performance issues

It’s no secret that Call of Duty : Black Ops suffers from serious performance issues. Unfortunately folks, there’s no magic fix like in Fallout : New Vegas to boost the FPS. However, there are some workarounds you can try, at least until an official patch is released. We can’t guarantee these fixes will increase performance for everyone, but they are well worth a shot.

Use custom configuration file to improve performance.

1. Back up your game’s configuration files which are located in \InstallPath\Call of Duty - Black Ops\players folder. config.cfg is the configuration settings file for single player mode and config_mp.cfg is for multiplayer mode.
2. Copy the configuration settings from custom cfg file located at http://pastebin.com/at8sNzkK (this was posted on NFOHump forums)
3. Replace the values in config_mp.cfg with values copied from custom file. Save and load the game.
   Note: Changes to config.cfg file reflects only in multiplayer mode. To edit settings for single player mode, edit the config.cfg file.

Upgrade to NVIDIA 260.99 Drivers

Video hardware manufacturers can do little if the fault is on the game’s side (which seems to be the case with COD : BO). However, several of our readers had E-mailed us that they got better performance when they upgraded to NVIDIA’s 260.99 WHQL drivers. You may download the driver release from this location.

Change priority of COD : BO process

Here’s a yet another workaround you can try. This involves changing priority for COD : BO Process to monimize CPU utilization issues the game seems to be having.

1. Run the game – after you get to the main menu, Open Windows Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del.
2. Locate the Black Ops process. Right click it and set it’s priority to High.
3. If you have Steam running, right click the Steam process and set it’s priority to Low.

Audio Issues, Game crashes to desktop (CTD) at launch, black screen or won’t start

Check the sampling rate

There can be a number of different reasons why this can happen but here’s a common fix you can try. We have mentioned this previously in troubleshooting posts for other games. Black Ops might crash if your sound card’s audio sampling rate is set to any value above 24 bit/48000 Hz range. To fix this issue, follow the steps below (applicable on Windows Vista and Windows 7 systems):

1. Open Control Panel –> Sound.
2. In the ‘Playback’ tab, select ‘Speakers’. Choose ‘Properties’.
3. In the Speaker Properties window, switch to the ‘Advanced’ tab.
4. Under the ‘Default Format’ drop down, choose 24 bit, 48000 Hz (Studio Quality) option.
5. Close all Windows by pressing Ok. Run the game.

Note that you should try this fix if you have run into audio issues including noisy sound, stuttering or lagging audio, no audio, etc. as well.

Disable SPDIF / HD Fill

1. Update your sound card with latest drivers.
2. Open your Sound Card’s control panel utility.
3. Look for any properties similar to ‘Speaker Fill’, ‘Speaker HD Fill’ or ‘SPDIF’.
4. If any of these options are enabled, disable them. Now run the game.

Please keep in mind that this article is a work in progress - more fixes will be added here as and when they are discovered. Check this space for updates.

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Wake up folks, another Bond game is out. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of James Bond video games. But judging by the response this game has received in various gaming forums, it’s no secret that this gaming franchise has a large fan base from all corners of the world. Blood Stone is a third-person shooter with elements of hand-to-hand combat - its PC version was developed by High Moon studios. Anyways here’s our routing troubleshooting article for this game – it is a short post but hopefully you will be able to resolve those annoying crashing issues with Blood Stone, if you are having any.

Blood Stone Installer freezing and crashes to desktop

The most common problem people seem to be having with Blood Stone is the installer freezing/hanging or crashing issue. This seems to be related to DEP (Data Execution Prevention) in Windows Vista/Windows 7 based operating systems. If your installer crashes before the installation completes, try doing the following:

1. Go to Start->Run. Type cmd.exe and press enter.
2. In the command prompt, type bcdedit.exe/set nx AlwaysOff and press enter. This will turn DEP off.
3. Reboot the machine
4. Install Blood Stone

DEP is a security measure and it’s probably not the best idea to keep it disabled. Once Blood Stone installation is complete. do the following to re-enable DEP

1. Go to Start->Run. Type cmd.exe and press enter.
2. In the command prompt, type bcdedit.exe/set nx OptIn and press enter. This will turn DEP on.
3. Reboot the machine

Fix for Audio looping, crash to desktop

This is a fix that was mentioned in TorrentLeech tracker comments section. I personally never ran into this issue nor tried the fix mentioned below. Try this if you experience audio issues or random or startup CTD.

1. Set Audio Sample Rate In Windows and In-game to 16 bit,48000hz (DVD Quality)
2. Right click "Computer"
3. Click "Manage"
4. Double click "Users and Groups"
5. Click "Groups"
6. Right click "Administrators"
7. Click "Add to group..."
8. Click "Add"
9. Click "Advanced"
10. Click "Find Now"
11. Double click "Local Service"
12. Click "Ok"
13. "NT Authority\Local Service" should show up in the list now
14. Click "Ok"
15. Close Computer Management and reboot.

More fixes will be added here as and when they are discovered.

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After a long wait, Fallout New Vegas has finally hit the streets. New Vegas is the latest installment to this long running RPG franchise and is without a doubt one of the most anticipated titles to be released this year. Fallout 3 in my opinion was a great game – however it had its share of technical issues, bugs and glitches which sometimes proved to be annoying. New Vegas is built on the same game engine as FO3 and seems to be an equally enjoyable gaming experience. Unfortunately, New Vegas has also inherited some of the bugs it’s predecessor had. This is not to say the game is bugged to hell, but there seem to be a lot of folks who have run into various issues including performance woes, crashes and audio issues. If you have run into problems with New Vegas, check out the list of fixes below – they will help you improve game performance, avoid crashes and in some cases, get the damn game to run :)

Fallout 3 New Vegas freezing & random freezes mid game, BSOD errors

Random freezes including BSOD errors can occur on certain multi core hardware environments due to incompatibilities with the game engine. You can try to avert these issues by limiting the game to use only two cores.

1. Open fallout.ini file in My Documents\My Games\FalloutNV with a text editor such as Notepad.
2. Look for the string bUseThreadedAI=0
3. Change it to bUseThreadedAI=1
4. Add another line beneath the above, iNumHWThreads=2
5. Save and close this file.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 for fallout_default.ini file in installation dir (default C:\Program Files (x86)\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout New Vegas)
   

Improve FPS, fix NPC slowdown, stuttering issues and increase framerate

I’ve got to say, this is an awesome fix and a godsend for those who are plagued with performance problems. Download and place the dx9.dll file as directed in instructions below and you may notice a significant performance increase with your Fallout New Vegas installation:

1. Download dx9.dll file from http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34778
2. Place file in ../steamapps/common/fallout new vegas (or wherever your falloutNV.exe is located)
3. Restart steam and the game. Game will now use Directx 9 Render Path instead of the backward computability DX9 API with DX10

This fix was originally found here.

This is also known to resolve some crash at launch issues with Fallout New Vegas.

Fix Jerky framerate issues, low FPS in Fallout New Vegas

Sometimes, particularly if you are using low end video hardware, you might find the game to be lagging in performance with stuttering and jerky frame rates. If you encounter this issue, try setting the water multisampling setting to low. I’ve found this to be killing lower end GPU and disabling this gave a noticeable performance boost.

Fix New Vegas mouse acceleration issues

I don’t know about you but I find the sudden mouse accelration annoying as hell. I’m not sure if this is a feature or a bug but if you want to disable it, follow the steps below:

1. Open FalloutPrefs.ini located inside My Documents\My Games\FalloutNV with a text editor.
2. Find the [Controls] section in this file.
3. Add the following lines to this section: fForegroundMouseAccelBase=0
   fForegroundMouseAccelTop=0
   fForegroundMouseBase=0
   fForegroundMouseMult=0

Save and close the file (it’s assumed that this file is not read only – if it is, remove the read only attribute from file properties). Restart the game and mouse acceleration issues should hopefully be resolved. Repeat steps 1-3 for Fallout_default.ini located inside Steam\steamapps\common\fallout new vegas\ folder.

Fallout New Vegas crash after intro video

1. Download dx9.dll file from http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34778
2. Place the file inside your game' installation directory.
3. Restart the game.

If the above still does not fix your crash and launch, try running the game in windowed mode.

Fallout 3 New Vegas crash to desktop at intro or launch, black screen issues, audio issues

Above can happen if you have FFDShow codecs installed on your machine. Fallout 3 engine seems to have incompatibilities with these and is known to cause crashes as well as audio issues. You have to either uninstall the codecs from your system or add fallout3.exe to FFDShow audio and video decoders exceptions list.

1. Launch the ffdshow video decoder configuration window. You may access this through the start menu. If you have installed any codec packs, check the start menu entries of those. If you can’t find it on the start menu, right click the ffdshow video decoder (red) icon that appears on the taskbar when a supported video file is playing, and select ‘ffdshow video decoder’ option from the menu.
   
2. Tick the ‘Dont use ffdshow in’ checkbox if not already checked
3. Press the edit button that is next to the text field. A new dialog box will pop up. Press the Add button. The ‘Add incompatible executable file’ dialog box will be displayed. Browse to the Fallout New Vegas installation directory and locate the main game exe file. Select it and press open. Close all dialog boxes currently open by pressing ok.
   (OR you can simply type falloutnv.exe at the end of the text field next to ‘Dont use ffdshow in’ checkbox)
4. Repeat steps 2-3 in ffdshow audio decoder configuration (the blue icon in taskbar) window as well. It is important that you add fallout3.exe to both ffdshow audio and video decoder’s exceptions list.

This is a bug that’s been there since Fallout 3. We posted a separate article on how to fix this issue back in 2008, which you may find here.

New Vegas audio issues, lagging, stuttering or noisy audio

First of all, try the FFDShow fix (above) if you are having issues with New Vegas audio. If the problem persists, you can try the following:

• Disable surround sound output in your computers sound properties. Try to use  Sterero speaker setup.
• Lower your sound card’s audio sampling rate to at least 48000hz (a screenshot and detailed steps on how to do this may be found in this article)
• Try running the game in Windowed Mode. Strange as it may sound, this seems to fix lagging audio for some.
• Update your sound card’s drivers.

Update your graphics drivers and DirectX

Again, this is pretty basic stuff buy many people seem to ignore this – always update your video card drivers to the latest build before running the game. Update your video card’s drivers – if latest drivers do not work, try downloading and installing latest beta drivers (do this at your own risk).

• ATI Drivers: Download the latest ATI Catalyst drivers from this link: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx
• NVIDIA Drivers: Download latest official NVIDIA drivers from this link: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
• Beta Drivers: Check here http://downloads.guru3d.com/

As for DirectX, you may download the latest monthly runtime from this location.

This article is a work in progress – it will be updated as more solutions are found.

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More good games for the PC – this time the 4th installment of highly popular gaming franchise Gothic. Arcania Gothic 4 continues the storyline after Gothic 3 – the game looks better and plays a lot similar to its predecessor. While the it has not received stellar ratings from various online reviews, Gothic 4 does not appear to be a flop either. For me it looks like a loot filled game you can waste a lot of time on. Anyway here’s our mini troubleshooting article for Gothic 4 – this post tries to address some of the most common problems people seem to be experiencing with the game, such as crash to desktop (CTD) at startup, black screens and other launch errors along with audio issues.

Game crashes to desktop (CTD) at launch, black screen or won’t start

Solution 1

There can be a number of different reasons why this can happen but here’s a common fix you can try. We have mentioned this previously in troubleshooting posts for other games. This applies to Gothic 4 as well and we can confirm that some people have managed to resolve their launch errors with this method. Gothic 4 might crash if your sound card’s audio sampling rate is set to any value above 24 bit/48000 Hz range. To fix this issue, follow the steps below (applicable on Windows Vista and Windows 7 systems):

1. Open Control Panel –> Sound.
2. In the ‘Playback’ tab, select ‘Speakers’. Choose ‘Properties’.
3. In the Speaker Properties window, switch to the ‘Advanced’ tab.
4. Under the ‘Default Format’ drop down, choose 24 bit, 48000 Hz (Studio Quality) option.
5. Close all Windows by pressing Ok. Run the game.

Note that you should try this fix if you have run into audio issues including noisy sound, stuttering or lagging audio, no audio, etc. as well.

Solution 2

1. Uninstall the game
2. Manually delete the Arcania registry key located under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\DirectInput (using Registry Editor)
3. Delete the game settings folder inside your My Documents (Documents in Win 7) folder
4. Reinstall the game – it’s preffered that you try installing the game to your root directory ( Ex – X:\Gothic 4\, where X is your root drive)

Note that we cannot guarantee the above fixes will work in all CTD scenarios – however, they are worth a try. This article is a work in progress – it will be updated as more solutions are found.

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