GTA3: Video Bummer

Hey All,

Ain't it a blow to the wallet when you get a game, only to find out that part of your hardware is unsupported?

I recently got GTA3, and found the gameplay to be quite choppy and sluggish. When searching the support forum on their site, it sais that nVidia TNT/TNT2 cards (which I have) don't fully accept 8.1 info and disregards it, and goes software instead. (even if the drivers for the card say 8.1 ok)

Is that not a cheap shot bellow the belt. The worst part, is that the *nice* store which I purchased the game (Futureshop) will not allow me to return an open box software.

Ain't that the ****.....

So I guess I'll have to try to sell it to someone or sell it on eBay....

I had the same thing happen to me when I went to play one of the newer games except I had a S3 card, then I did what I recommend.
Buy a new video card, never hurts, it was kind of amazing some of the differences I saw. Well anyway, I know the feeling

I know the feeling. I downloaded the UT (Unreal Tournament) 2003 Demo from some website. It was some 98MB I think. Seeing as I have a slow connection, it took about 6 hours to download (yeah 6 hours). I could have walked there faster. I finally get it all setup..click start..and I get a "missing .dll" error message. I almost lost it completely. Needless to say, I went out that night, got trashed and felt much better. Beer has that redeeming quality about it.

:D

Now That I understand! I've been there too where you download something just to find that the stupid archive is corrupt! It happened to me when I downloaded the short film off of bmwfilms.com (btw, check it out, shorts by john woo and stuff).

Went to run it and got to watch 3 minutes of the film until it hangs at the same frame, every time! Needless to say, I was forced to download it again....

I'd buy the card, except that I don't got the moola to splurge. Blew it on the game instead..... (grr) Bills suck! :)

yeah, FutureShop's not exactley anyone's #1 choice for purchases on anything comptuers. i guess software is alright with them, because they can't exactley screw much up.

once, for kicks, i asked if they had PCI PS/2 cards, and i got my expected answer. "Well, our Playstation 2 section has mostly games in it."

either way, you're right in that the box should probably show what specifically isn't supported. and FutureShop should know that people can't really test for defective (or unsupported) software without opening the box. i guess some people are just stupid.

I had the same problem, it was an XP problem and not vid card. Try the XP patch described in the documentation and try it? It's worth a try to avoid buying a new card.

well, keep in mind that he did say that nVidia says that his particular TNT video card is not supported by GTA3, so, you know... it's kinda really safe to assume that is the problem.

anyway, tyger, if you have your A+ cert, what you *could* do, if you bought your video card from Future Shop and it's still under warranty, is that you could actually scratch the card a bit, tell them that your computer is not working and you know that it is the video card. because of the A+ certification, they really can't say you're wrong, so they'll take your word for it and replace it. if your model is no longer in production, they have to replace it with the next one up.

sure, it's completely unethical, but they inadvertantly told me i could do that. :p

If i was you, next time that i go to buy something i will make the store give me like a special note stating that i can return the item ifit is not compatible with with my system ( even if i have the required things). That is what i do because stores over here in Union, New Jersey, do try to ripp you off. Another solution is buying the game at a store that gives you a couple of days warranty or a month regardless of the status of the item, opened or not.

God luck trying to sale it, i hope somebody buys it from you, because that is really a blow bellow the belt.

nah, that probably wouldn't work out too well over at Future Shop.

first off, it's something they'd probably never think of.

but realistically, anyone could just go buy a game, burn it, then say it was broken. that, and because there's so many people there at any given time, tracking every software purchase might take a little while... customers get angry, like a mac user without their daily latée or whatever the hell inhuman caffinated thing they drink.

Hey All,

Ebo, it's a good thought, but Futureshop basically puts all responsibility on the buyer. And like spyrul said, there's the risk of burning the disk. (Electronics Boutique used to allow it but people abused it and now it's no more).

I'm running 98se and not XP, so the patch wouldn't work (Thanks anyways)

btw, that's cute about the PCI PS2 Card Reader thing
As for the vidcard a+ cert thing, It's a good trick, but I bought my card at EB and it's been 3 years so it woulda been over anyways.

After working in retail for 5 or 6 years you learn some of the gripes people use that work. Now I dont know how Futureshop works but I found that with places like Circuit City and Best Buy (both I worked at) if you take it in and you tell them that you asked someone at the store if it would work with your PC and that they told you yes but it doesnt work and you can prove it to them, but you will gladly take a different game or your money back. They may just be nice to you. Who knows may be worth a shot. Let me know if you try it

Yes but sales staffs at future shop are undereducated crooks. If you think that a game like GTA3 will run on anything even near minimum requirements you kidding your self. The minimum requirements most of the time are just a big lie so companies can reach a large target audience. I've been playing GTA3 on an athlon XP 1800 with 256megs and radeon 7500 64ddr and it run ok at best. Had a friend who tried to run it on a 500 Celeron with a TNT and it did run but at 3 frames per second. Looking at the back of the box I’d doubt that the game would even be playable with the recommended requirements.

cwk9 remembers when you used to be able to run games on minimum requirements and still get good fps.

Weren't those the days?

(Keeping in mind that systems would vary by 10 or so mhz and that ram would be between 8 to 32) :)

Her's a quick fix.....Set the camera to Bird's eye for walking and Sort of high up for driving....that way it goes faster....I have the same proble as you...and it sucks..oh well....

- Noia
PS: Type in: bangbangbang
PPS: STAND AWAY FROM ANY CAR!!

The game has had a lot of problem running on what it says are the min specs, it also as problems running on higher spec machines. The coders did not do a very good job at translating the game to the Pc from the PS2, However they did make a patch for the game that might help out. Have a look on there site, or some of the GTA3 fan sites. You need to look for v1.1 patch, not sure if theres a newer one out thought. This patch can make the game run quite a big faster on some PC's
Other than that I am not sure what will help with the game, try reading some of the gta forums, Also try out the new nvidia det4 drivers, they might help out, but I am not sure how they would work with your card. Other than that a new graphics card might be in order, The ati radon 9000 pro is quite cheap at the moment and should run the game, But if your after a long term solution, try a geforce 4 ti 4200, which is a pretty good card. But if you have money to blow go for the new ati 9700 pro :-)

Yeah it always is a pain in the ass to learn that the $50 game you bought which doesn't specify the requirments as they should doesn't work. Thats why I like PS2, although I haven't got one of those multiplayer cords. Is the multiplayer add on worth buying, i have never used one?

Hey Noia, it's a good idea, but it also had a hard time with the clips. It not that theres too much atmosphere to draw, it's just that the data is ignored.

Getting the patch crossed my mind, but the makers of the game (Rockstar) didn't mention anything about it correcting the TNT2 (apparent) problem with DX8.1.

As for the multiplayer add on, I'd say go for it. I've heard that you can play against each other in stealing cars and stuff, as well as work as a mob. (That'll be cool)