So ICEnhancer 2.0 was recently released, and to celebrate here is everything you need to get started modding Grand Theft Auto to look better then god ever intended.
Behold the power of Grayskull:
Patches:
You’ll need 1.0.4.0 or 1.0.7.0 to apply these properly. 1.0.4.0 is advised as it’s most compatible. Install the original version, then you only need this one to get to 1.0.4.0.
Graphics, Textures, and Lighting: ICEnhancer 2.0 Brightness and contrast most gamers prefer
ICEnhancer 2.0N Natural Lighting (coming soon)
Add Ons:
Traffic Load V3 (ASI)
- Sick of seeing the same old cars all over the place? This will shuffle them up a bit.
You’ll need an ASI loader and possibly scripthookdotnet depending on what the mod does but the readme should fill you in on it’s requirements. In most cases you should be set with XLIVE.DLL as an ASI loader, and it comes in the iCEnhancer pack. Once you have the ASI loader (or scripthook) drop the mod into the root of the game folder and you’re good to go.
Loaders invalidate you for online play but they do not circumvent any copy protection – so you’ll only be able to use it on your honest to goodness copy. Steam copies also have mixed results, so fair warning.
Cars:
You can pick and choose your cars with the help of a couple of tools, but this makes it easy – one pack with graphics, paint colors, and handling information. You can get fancy later if you’d like.
If you were a fan of the original Worms you may have gone to the Team 17 website. On there they had a demo for this game – World Rally Fever. It was interesting because it was very Rad Racer NES type but it had better graphics, and it was more detailed then any game I had played before, especially a racing game. I liked to used to try and hit the sheep.
Video has Bloom turned off, motion blur turned off
First impression:
ugh.
I am shaking my head in disappointment. I would have put the first and second FlatOut as two of my favorite games. I’m a huge racing fan, and a bigger car crashing fan. This game really was the best of both worlds.
However number 3 is Jack’s utter lack of surprise.
They’ve taken well made race tracks, nicely finished cars and damage models, impressive AI and boiled it down to an impossible arcade fiery mess. Not to say it’s difficult, it’s just bad; a blurry, cluttered mess.
Monster trucks, speed, and other modes are just some of the odd additions which make somewhat sense. They were always trying to add more varied game types. I was even impressed with the physics of the monster truck driving / suspension reaction but the damage made no sense, was obscured by motion blur and bloom (both set to low) and the racing wasn’t just about how to navigate tight turns and obstacles – it was a set of turns and racing on rails. One tiny turn on the 360 controller resulted in a 90 degree change of direction with no impact by traction.
Another couple races and I am destroyed before the 3 rounds are over. Once I found e-brake it was better but it doesn’t even handle NFS arcade, it handles Daytona USA arcade. I couldn’t get any good hits because the cars are always obscured by insane fireballs and light streaks. You can try and go headlong into them and hope for the best but you usually end up hitting a tree. There is no need for trees that can not be destroyed. There is no reason why I hit a parked car and it blows up hitting me for 50% damage and an opponent only inflicts 2% launching me into the air.
The camera… oh the camera. There are only three: close cam, bumper, and far cam. Close cam is 2 ft and far cam is 4 ft – so far cam would be my choice except it’s still way too close. I am very sad to say it, but don’t even bother trying it. Go play FlatOut 2 for a much better time.
*update* 2001 01 19 12|08
People complained to the developers and it appears as though they were listening. Original handling models will be in upcoming patch. On sale at Steam today 1/19/2011 until 7PM EST tonight for only $9.99 as well as the originals for only a couple of bucks!
*update* 2001 02 21 12|11
Oh, original handling is available, but it ain’t like that. They’re kinda being dicks about it
I had originally played this on Onlive, I gave it the 30 minute trial. I don’t exactly remember it starting how it did. I seemed to be going through many more story points then before, but I bet I skipped them in the interest of time the first time around.
I was really pleasantly surprised. I got this game after all the holiday game download sale hooplah. I had seen it on Steam, Onlive, Amazon – all had it on major sale, but saw them come and go. However, upon checking up on it on Amazon, the price of the download was back up to $19.99 but the physical media was $6.24 – that and our month trial of Prime thanks to my wife’s new Kindle Fire I was able to get it for a steal considering what it has turned out to be.
You’ve got the mafia, sure – you knew that. It’s back in time, Empire City (NY) and it’s pulling me into the story. So far I’ve done quite a bit of running around. I’ve stolen a car from a “moulinyan” neighborhood (more about that later) and I’m just about to do some roughing up for a union boss. They put a bit of a moral twist on the quest for money, so the protagonist doesn’t seem so bad. He’s doing the best he can for the situation, type of thing.
There’s the promise of some real success, but you’re given the realization that it may not be easy and the money doesn’t come without a price. It all weaves into what’s best for his family, himself, and his options. So it is also a bit bigoted. You can’t change history, but it doesn’t mean you can drop moulinyan back into the lexicon. The other characters have their strong opinions as well. It was just a bit of a shock to see it so up front in a game and it’s one thing to have something out front but this was sneaky. I’m not sure most people would know what it means, but if you’re calling someone a slur in another language it’s still a slur. Now I’ll get off my soapbox and accept the argument that it’s for atmosphere. I’m sure they throw them around in Scarface too, but I wanted to put that out there.
The dialog so far is fairly well written, and the graphics were well done. I remember bench-marking this a video card or two ago and the box says 2010 so it was quite a feat for it’s time. Suffice it to say it does much better on my current configuration then last time I bench-marked it. It uses PhysX for some added flair and even the driving (so far on icy/snowy roads) is pretty impressive. I think I saw more wrong with Driver San Fran’s graphics then this game.
It is complete, well made with polish. That is something you don’t always get lately. Sure, there are some small things like your buddy who is following you always magically appearing in front of you when you go outside / inside. The mouths aren’t quite synced, the cover system is easily blocked by rogue objects, the plow truck always has it’s blade scraping the ground, and I’m still not sure what the cops get bent out of shape. Even with all that the game itself is solid and even a bit more challenging then your average crime mission game.
Ok, I loved the original driver. It was an entirely new genre at the time. Sure you had a driving around car game, but once GTA III hit anything where you drove and crashed was “just another GTA”. They’ve always been one to spin a story but this latest one is entirely out of the box. It was not what I expected at all. Sure, plainclothes policeman in a muscle car, but there’s a big twist to this one.
After a crash attempting to apprehend an escaped convict you’re jumping from body to body. Think Quantum leap meets Messiah (if you don’t remember look it up) meets Burnout Paradise. You’re attempting to do good, jumping from car to car. It may not seem like much until you consider one of the first scenarios. You’ve jumped into a policeman in a patrol car chasing after a car. Even if you start to lose them in the chase you can hop out, get in a car coming the other way, and take him out then jump back into the patrol car to do the final maneuver to lock him down.
It’s taken the thought behind traditional chasers and racers and shaken it up. I’ve got to hand it to them there. Sure there are technical limitations – the game only does 1920 x 1080, so if you’re looking for high scale textures you won’t get them, and there’s nary a graphics option other then AA which doesn’t do a whole lot of good. However, being so locked down (and presumably ported) makes it very predictable and smooth. I didn’t get a blip below 60 fps. I haven’t turned off vsynch yet but there’s no need as it’s as fluid as the eye can differentiate (so the scientists tell us).
It’s got the Midtown Madness feel to it – angles and jumps all over. There’s the ability to jump into anything on the road, and missions start popping up around – some you can activate directly from “shift” (birds eye floating) view and you’ll start with your default vehicle. There’s Will Power (WP) points you earn overtaking and avoiding(?) other cars, and you can also earn income from missions. Income lets you buy more vehicles for your garage, and set your default vehicle to jump into when you drop directly into a challenge or other event. So far I’ve seen cop chases, sprints (waypoints), and reaching a high speed without hitting any other vehicles.
It’s not the type of game you play for the graphics, it’s got some well modeled, licensed, shiny cars but a lot of the city looks really old graphically compared to the current batch of games. The controls also seemed off at first, I felt like I was playing crazy taxi until I got the hang of the high horsepower rear wheel cars which do respond to some tight changes and some e-braking. It’s exaggerated for sure, but they’re not exactly going for realism. Speaking of which, the story renders look really good but I’d settle for less realistic cut scenes for some more time spent on the surroundings.
All told – it’s fun. It’s definitely worth a romp, and a good deal if you are able to catch it on sale. It was on Steam’s holiday sale yesterday for 50% off but it’s back up to $33 or $36 for the deluxe version which includes some additional play modes. It’s certainly worth the $3 for some additional mission types. I don’t feel it’s really worth full price at this point, though it’s worth snagging in the bargain bin if you’d like to see some developers doing the same old thing with a unique twist.
