Our compatriots over at Big Download stumbled on some unsettling performance issues while preparing a GRID comparison piece that pits the PC version against its console counterparts. It seems that the game suffers from pausing and freezing during races and replays. Pauses are reported to be up to one second in length, which would be unacceptable in most games, but is especially so in a racing game. The issue is currently setting the Codemasters forums on fire. Solutions being offered include removing and reattaching the hard drive, playing with a memory unit and no hard drive, and clearing the cache, although it appears that no solution is effective in all cases.
Codemasters is working on a solution that will be included in a forthcoming patch, which is should be available “within the next few weeks or sooner.”
Gametap.com’s editorial and video departments are no more.
Media mogul Ted Turner pulled the plug on the site’s editorial and video departments and pink-slipped the staff, although the core of the site –subscription downloading of PC games– will keep running. “GameTap TV” original programs will apparently no longer be produced either.
GameTap Vice President of content Rick Sanchez said, “While we have been very happy with the work done by our editorial and video teams, we’ve made a decision to focus the business on our biggest strength, which is our game catalog. As a result, we will be restructuring the site to focus exclusively on gameplay.”
Wired: Turner Pulls Plug on GameTap Editorial, Sacks Staff
PC gamers eager to get an early taste of Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures now have their chance! LucasArts has released the playable demo for the title, which spans Indy’s first three movie adventures and features what seems like more characters than actually appeared in all three films combined.
The demo is now available on the Games For Windows website, weighing in at a modest 464 megs, which means that at my current crappy internet speeds I shall be able to tell you how it is sometime next week. Switching to cable was such a brilliant idea.
Lego Indiana Jones Demo {Games For Windows]