Archive for April, 2014
Officially the M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 is “only” an AM3 mainboard (Phenom II era) and can support at best a few older FX CPUs (AM3+) and even that support is labeled beta only. I read some rumors that using an FX 8350 (Vishera) would be possible regardless, so I thought I would give it a shot. I was happy to learn that it indeed runs nicely, without any problems. There also doesn’t seem to be any significant difference in performance in comparison to running this CPU on newer boards with 9x chipsets.
It would be really great if ASUS would update their site properly, to let people know what this stuff is actually capable of. But then again, this level of compatibility makes the purchase of a new mainboard probably less enticing.
Latest Update: There is a permanent fix now, although e.g. the Steam version has not been updated (I wonder why that is), you’d think they would put out a general update. I tested it, however, and it works, without adding any DEP exceptions. :) Yay!
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For quite some time multiple people told me how awesome To The Moon is, so I finally caved when I saw a bundle containing it. A bundle I only bought because To The Moon was included. A bundle I never would have bought otherwise. I’m super cereal.
So I was quite delighted, when I tried to start it and the only reaction I could get out of it, was “RGSS Player has stopped working”. Now there are quite a number of pages on the net, that suggest adding the game’s executable to the DEP exceptions, but that did… nothing. So I started it with admin privileges, tried every compatibility mode… Then I repeated everything on another PC, only to get the same result. One of the PCs has an AMD CPU and GPU, the other has an Intel CPU and an Nvidia GPU, both run Windows 8.1 x64.
I guess this will be a lesson to me to buy so many bundles. :D I’ll certainly remember it the next time I’m tempted to buy one. :) I wonder how many broken games lurk in my Steam library by now…
//Edit
sprsclr
With regards to the “RGSS Has Stopped Working” issue, just wanted to mention that if you’re using Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET), the system wide DEP setting will override that of Windows. In my case, switching the DEP setting in EMET to ‘Application Opt In’ did the trick.http://steamcommunity.com/app/206440/discussions/0/630800447136351494/#c540740500557953833
Yay! That did it! :D I never would have thought on my own of checking EMET (Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit). Mainly because I hadn’t fully realized it would override other settings like that. Good to know!
The game itself was absolutely amazing (I couldn’t get away from it and finished it in only one session). One of the best game-stories I ever had the pleasure to experience. Fantastic writing, would win at the Oscars. :P It’s one of these rare titles that I will remember permanently (until my brain shuts down because of death or other severe issues, of course). I can only recommend this game to absolutely everyone. Only make sure you have enough tissues on standby. :P Everything else that makes people cry is a joke compared to this. :P
PS: Was BioShock Infinite completely inspired by To The Moon? :P
PPS: Just realized that I haven’t played this yet: “A downloadable minisode was released on December 31, 2013, both as a standalone download and as part of the Steam and GOG.com releases. This episode centers on Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts and features a holiday party at their local Sigmund Corp. office”
+Added Heather to sewers for Nosferatu and improved new idle sounds.
+Made stealth killing Johnny possible when using Obfuscate level 5.
+Added possibility to keep the quick Nosferatu in the warrens alive.
+Cleaned Mercurio’s apartment after a time and fixed a SM map hole.
+Added seven missing infobar sounds and created seven infobar icons.
+Restored drug stealing quest of Trip for one XP and Finance bonus.
+Removed Blood Guardian waterspray and made Lily’s purse unsellable.
+Fixed bug with casting Bloodbuff breaking off lockpicking attempt.
+Raised high firearms book requirement to 9 and updated travel maps.
+Made Hallowbrook atrium barrels solid and enemies navigate better.
+Restored Justicar to Camarilla ending and Jack’s face for LaSombra.
+Moved fire axe to crashing elevator top and fatguy to atrium exit.
+Restored unused models to Society of Leopold, warehouse and Zhao’s.
+Changed library to combat zone and fixed rotunda decal flickering.
+Repaired hearing warehouse boss conversation twice and some floats.
+Made Nadia react to zombies damaging player and removed fake door.
+Gave Occult Nut a Scholarship bonus and fixed new discipline lines.
+Fixed icons at Giovanni mansion and made Bruno react to feed-kill.
Added modified trackerscheme into Extras to change Malkavian fonts.
Repaired Carson, Knox, Damsel, Yukie, Regent and Hatter dialogues.
Fixed two inverted textures and renamed Sheriff’s warform Behemoth.
Restored three King’s Way headrunner for Nosferatu and Malkavians.
Lowered McFly’s float rate and fixed references to missing Heather.
Added documents to Extras to reveal where restorations originated.
Attached floor number to Empire Arms suite names in hotel computer.
Fixed three wrong loop sounds and moved a Mandarin line elsewhere.
Corrected some bug fixes that were lost in 8.9, thanks vladdmaster.
Restored blast door to Giovanni crypt and fixed tutorial door bug.
Improved Nosferatu Nines intro and map details, thanks vladdmaster.
Fixed sewer sound transitions on SM, Hollywood and Chinatown hubs.
Corrected two bad Lotus Blossom icons and lowered Skyeline humming.
http://www.patches-scrolls.de/patch/4647/61625/61626/description
On 2014/04/08 Microsoft released the first Service Pack… uhm “Spring Update”/Update 1 for Windows 8.1. Since then I noticed, that PCs, who used to successfully complete dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth will now always fail at it IF the disk cleanup option was used with admin privileges. I’m guessing it’s the removal of the Windows Update stuff that fucks it up?
Anyway, in that constellation dism starts to insist on 0x800f081f, an error that traditionally points to something connected with .NET, which is why searches on the net mostly offer solutions that have little to do with this rather new situation. I could reproduce this error on several PCs running Windows 8.1 Pro x64, so it remains to be seen if future patches will compensate for it. I won’t exactly be holding my breath, with this hardly seeming to be the worst problem a major update could cause (even if it gives people like me an itch they cannot scratch).
The dism.log the error message refers to, mostly contains lots of chinese characters – doesn’t exactly give the impression of something that was intentional (for an english installation) and reinforces this buggy feeling. Good thing they tried to teach me french in school…
After a few more minutes playing with it, I already thought the issue had been rendered moot, because as it turned out, running WindowsUpdateDiagnostic.diagcab removed whatever the underlying problem was on one of my affected machines. Despite repeating the procedure step by step on another PC, this one decided to stick with 0x800f081f. Would have been too easy, I guess.
Ever since MS announced that Games for Windows Live would be removed from the face of this Earth (only to be already followed by another digital gaming service closure, Gamesload), it was to be expected (=inevitable) that at least some games would automatically bite the dust alongside with it. A few lucky ones like the first two Batman Arkham games (Origins was Steamworks from the start) and BioShock 2 would be patched to escape that fate, but everything else…
Unfortunately Bulletstorm is among the games that were simply forgotten by their makers (or so it seems) – a game that offered one of the best FPS experiences/campaigns in the last few years. Seriously. Bulletstorm did and was, what Duke Nukem Forever tried/wanted to be but ultimately failed at.
With the reliance on a now unsupported component like GfWL, it’s only a matter of time until something won’t work anymore – and I wouldn’t hold my breath for a project like ScummVM to jump into existence to compensate for that.
A few people here and there are still trying to play it down, like it’s no big deal, because it could still be played without multiplayer (something that dies off first in most older games anyway), but the fact that Steam has already removed it from the shop speaks volumes.
Also:
Bulletstorm disappears from Steam, apparently as part of Games for Windows Live’s death throes
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adrift 
