How do I find what games are compatible with an ATI Xpress 200 IG chipset?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
It will work moderately well on that card at low resolution. i think.

SC4, like Civ, is a game that you always want to run at the highest resolution possible.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns

If you start with the most advanced, then when you try the older ones you will be annoyed that it is missing features added in the newer games. If you start with the older ones first, however, you don't know better and enjoy the older game for what it is. Then when you move to the more advanced game in the series, the additional features are a bonus.

In this way you can actually play all of the series. Of course, if you only have time to play one of the games in the series, the most advanced one is generally better.

And, since time is always in short supply (especially for LotM who has family commitments and is playing catch up in a large number of genres) you basically agree with me.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Spaced Cowboy
we told you not to buy that.

anyway, spring for an upgrade.

Ive been quite happy with the machine. Its done everything I wanted it to. Ive had no shortage of games to play.

As for the issue of skipping games in a series, well it all depends. I mean if its a game with a story theres reason to play in sequence. Like I wouldnt have skipped BG2 for BG3. Not that there is a BG3. (I cant run oblivion, but can run MES. I wonder if I miss much by skipping the first two parts of the series) And where its the same engine applied to different settings, theres reason to not skip. For ex while I wouldnt buy HOI seeing HOI2 is better( I will play HOI only cause it came along in the 6pack), I wouldnt have skipped Victoria for CK or HOI2. And in a somewhat different case, Im not sure I would skip RTW for MTW2. The Simcities ive asked about here, and there seems to be opinion for both SC3 and SC4. Probably the only game Im real interested in where skipping a generation is a good strategy, is Civ. But I have no immediate craving for that, and by the time I get around to it, I will probably either have upgraded or gotten a new machine.

Besides, my playing is so far behind, I can skip generations on some series without even buying new. For ex Im pretty sure my machine would run Children of the Nile, and I could skip Pharoah and Zeus. Or maybe I shouldnt.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns

In this way you can actually play all of the series. Of course, if you only have time to play one of the games in the series, the most advanced one is generally better.

Emphasis on "generally"

Id have hated to have MOO3 be my intro to that series, from what ive heard. Not quite as bad, but still not great, would have been having Civ3 be my intro to the Civ series, rather than Civ2.

So between the cases where a sequel is a clunker, or where a sequel is in a different setting (RTW vs MTW) or where theres a story line to follow, Im not sure my strategy of older games first is all that bad. Plus I get much cheaper games, if theyre not always easy to find. And theyre fully patched (well actually with Paradox, they arent always)

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by snoopy369
You have shader model 2.

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=98&pgno=0

That shows the list of what your card can do. Unfortunately, while in terms of "supported" tech you are okay (SM2 means you support a lot of things most games need), your card is just very, very slow (300mhz, fill rate of 600 MT/s) which is slower than most radeons (even like radeon 9250 has a fill rate of 980 MT/s). So that mean you could play games like Civ4, in that you technically have the requirement of SM2 (don't know your VRam though), but I wouldn't recommend it.

I have 128 meg of Vram aparently.

[snoopy369]

You likely have 64+64, if I had to guess, ie 64m dedicated and 64m shared. Probably not all that bad in the scheme of things.

[snoopy369]

BTW, the Elder Scrolls series is a lot like Civ, in that there is a lot of justified arguing about which game of the series is better.

There is the Civ2 group (Daggerfall), who like the purity of the game. There is the largest group, Morrowind, who like the play style that developed to perhaps its peak in Morrowind. There is the 'new' group who like the shiny new graphics of Oblivion.

Arena was a GREAT game, but it is simply too dated. It looked pretty good compared to M&M II or Bard's tale, but it's still in that class of game. Daggerfall is the first 'playable' game in the TES at this stage; you might enjoy it. Morrowind is certainly playable and excellent.

So you can really jump in at any point that you like. If you like playing games at the graphical complexity of Bard's tale, go get Arena (which has pretty decent gameplay). Otherwise I'd probably jump to Morrowind if you want to see some nicer graphics Arena is worth looking at briefly at least just to see where the game came from - spell creation, massive character class complexity and choice, and wide open world, all came from this one game...

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by lord of the mark

where a sequel is in a different setting (RTW vs MTW)

Just play the most recent game your machine can handle, unless you are particularly drawn to one of the settings.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Morrowind is certainly playable and excellent.

I suggest LotM that you research earlier Morrowind threads before getting it. Snoopy is doing you a disservice here by not highlighting the fact that Morrowind is your stereotypical love it or hate it game.

If you research you'll find lots of posts praising the large open world and non-linear gameplay, but you'll also find more than a few pointing out that the skill system is fundamentally broken and it's a large world with nothing in it.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by snoopy369
BTW, the Elder Scrolls series is a lot like Civ, in that there is a lot of justified arguing about which game of the series is better.

There's no justified arguing about which Civ game is better. Civ IV is obviously superior to all predecessors.