[2/15/07] GameTap(.com)

[CJ Jackson]

I wouldn't pay $10 a month just to play the games, I just download the roms instead.

[Mooney]

Totally confirms my suspicions...

[Robert]

You have to pay to play Pacman? Yarrr...right

 

I like that bit at the bottom, "Your account has been cancelled. Have a nice day"

[Diso]

Nice Review Man. Way to take a bullet for the team.

[AphexMandelbrot]

I'll actually tell you right off the bat why it didn't work.

That GeForce3, 64MB. card you have in your computer?

You know - next to the 2049 (2.13)gHz Core2, gig of ram, and your gig page file?

Outdated. Won't preform a whole lot of draw functions. Was produced before DirectX 9 even became a standard (2001). The fact that you're using semi-current drivers (10-06 || 6.14.10.9371) helps - but there's only so much water you can get out of the Ge3 boat before it goes heels-up.

 

You -just- meet the minimum requirements for video to run the original Silent Hill 3 for PC - discounted slightly because of resource overhead. Could tech support address your issue? Did you bother? Were you just on a roll, looking big, and decided to negate things like actually "reviewing" a product? Ace reporting.

 

The product was not made with the intentions of everyone deleting their MAME/Nesticle/zSnes/genecyst directories, ROMS, and configurations - and signing up. The service was not designed or intended for power-users. Do you think that the programmers and marketing groups are clueless to the existence of emulation? They run an emulation service - they are aware; thus, you are not part of the target demographic. Will your next stellar review cover how CompUSA is over-priced and has a "sucks ass" selection of computer components? How about a review of a new children's game? If you are not the target demographic, but almost "above" the demographic - chances are pretty good that you aren't going to get a whole lot out of whatever you're doing. People who run emulators for old console games, and people who only play current console games =//= target demographic.

 

Ok. So you crash out on Silent Hill - but before -that- crashes (~11p), you decide to play Deus Ex: Invisible War (~2p) - where the minimum requirement is a Dx9.0 compatible card, and the -recommended- video card is a 9.x compatible card with 128MB. That's almost like 64MB - only not. Did you meet minimum? Again - just scraped by. Are you anywhere even close to recommended? Considering that only a few manufacturers made the 128MB flavor of the Ge3: no. You're around one generation away from the recommendation. I hate it when my computer is too sub-par to play games, too; however, normally, I'll go ahead and blame myself for lacking horsepower - not the game.

 

Crashed on two computers? Sure you didn't just crash twice on the same computer?

I get that confused every now and then, myself - very understandable.

 

Here's what I'm getting at:

- It wasn't intended for people who constantly use emulators. No one expects people, who can easily get Resource A from Location A for free, to willingly pay monthly for Resource A from Location B for a monthly fee.

- Your system? Almost a really good system. Almost. If you didn't have a video card from 2001 with 64MB, you would have a really decent system. Even the low-end 7800's PCIe are going for a pretty good price - they aren't DX10 compatible - but Vista is worthless until (at least) SP1, so you should be safe.

- You had a problem, but make no mention of trying to get support for that problem - be it on your own, or calling technical support. Not a lot of persistence there. Obviously not an owner of anything Ikea.

- It's sort of hard to go with "They made both my PC's crash" when the setup of the first system is so bereft in the video card department. If that "second" one crashed, you hadn't logged in. If that first computer is any sort of indication - betcha I can start guessing at a potential cause.

 

There is a wide gap between "reviewing" something, and "bashing under the guise of review". If you are proud enough of your work to include a prompt for Digg - one would assume that there are some details included within the post. You know - an actual review. Contrasting this, one just finds a rant from someone with a video card bordering on five years old. Kind of a subjective review.

[Robert]

This could get interesting...

[ken_cinder]

As a completely unbiased 3rd party here (I have no interest in this anyway) I have to say the review is a biased one.

 

AphexMandelbrot is right, not only do you not meet system requirements due to your GPU lacking (Dude my system is far more outdated in the bones section than yours, and even I sport a better graphics solution. A Radeon 9550 256MB), you definitely don't fit the target demographic by any means.

[Gryph]

I agree with AphexMandelbrot (nice name) as well. I think I'm going to sign up for the service and do a review. And also play the new Sam and Max games since I finally have some down time to enjoy myself.

[GodPigeon]

Great review, all reviews are going to be slightly biased one way or another. If everyone got mad at a biased review, then nobody would write reviews. The part that i dont understand is, how everyone on that site said how bad the review was but then at the end of almost all the posts, they restate what Shiba said, and they agree.

 

Good review Shiba

Edited February 17, 2007 by GoRDoOnE

[Lucandrake]

Dude, shiba posted truth. Not a review. Don't hate him for having the balls to say "This crap sucks.".

[Jitway]

Hey I got a account with gametap and even beta test for them. My computer handles all the games fine. But I do have a better then average pc. I like the service. It is nice to have the games available without having to look for the cd or store it on my pc. I give the service a 8.5 out of 10.