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Hi, you may remember me from my "Watercooled Parhelia" review. Well I'm liking my Parhelia (aka "P") even more lately and had to write about it. I just bought a P for my home PC in addition to the ones at work. Despite my main reasons for buying the home P, my secondary reason (gaming) has left me 'disappointed but hopeful' with regard to existing games on the "surround-supported" list, since many of them are 'hack and slash' fixes via regedit, side-effects like squeezed menus, etc., but I remind myself I can't expect surround-gaming to become retro-active in every game pre-dating the P, much less overnight. So, the best hope for the P is for new games in the works now whose developers are still in the coding trenches or design stages and GFX card support isn't yet set in stone. Makers of pre-existing titles are in less of a position to revisit old code and "retro-coding" P support than in new title development, since older titles are usually lower priority than the 'next big thing' title a developer has moved on to.
That said, I'm feeling a bit more hopeful after playing the "Bandits - Phoenix Rising" Demo that more developers will begin to realize the value in the P and its surround gaming ("SG") features. I realize even more that the "frames per second" debate is blown out of proportion in regard to P. Developers have the potential to make some really great games for the P if they take the time to embrace it fully, as there is so much more to a game than how high an FPS you can crank through an otherwise boring hallway in a spacestation.
I tried out "Bandits" on my 3-monitor setup at home; its been begging for me to find the perfect 3head game with premeditated P support, and Bandits' developer "GRIN" has done it in this game, seen in the flexible setup menu that allows every combination of monitors attached to a P. The game runs GREAT on 3 screens - very smooth and playable. Given, I don't have FPS numbers since I couldn't find a toggle, but I'm also not easily impressed, as I know what a good framerate is given I've played most of the popular 3d titles we all know on a Gainward Ti4600 (and earlier Ti's) in another PC on a high-end 22" CRT monitor.
I should point out, it says a lot for the Parhelia that Bandits' developer chose it as the GFX card over other choices to drive their in-booth demo system running Bandits at a tradeshow (ECTS - full details here) to show off the game and attract the passersby. Its yet another real-world example of people besides bias-accused Parhelia owners singing its praises. That GRIN's team of 14 developers are staking their very livelihoods on Parhelias inside the Bandits 'demo systems' at the heart of placing the game's best foot forward speaks volumes.
So, here is yet another point of light that's begun transmitting in the current darkness of FULLY-EMBRACED Parhelia support in a game. Maybe John Carmack will be moved enough by the forming surround-gaming wave before he's finished with Doom3 that he'll reconsider his stance on not writing card-specific code for the P beyond generic implementation, like he's doing for some of the "other" brands. Else, I think it will be a tragedy for not just surround-gamers that may move on to alternative P-supported titles, but for Activision as well.
Hopefully this write-up helps open the door a little wider for the 'undecided' to see the light. If nothing else, they can't claim ignorance wondering how they were left out when the surround-gaming firestorm is in full burn some day, since all it will likely take (with multiple monitors as cheap as they are) is a few killer-apps for surround gaming to continue to snowball - and Bandits is definitely one among the first.
Even though this was a 1-level demo version of Bandits singleplayer (2-maps in multiplayer), its totally immersive and a breath of fresh air. We've also played multiplayer Bandits on the 3head P setups at work during lunch/after hours. If you've played 'HALO' on the XBOX and liked the driving physics when driving the Jeep in that game, you'll especially like Bandits.
Here's a link to download the Bandits Demo (working as of this writing):
Enjoy..
Joe T.
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Home System #1: Noiseless watercooled P4 2.26@2.77Ghz/652MHz FSB | 1Gig GeIL PC3500 DDR Mem @ 433MHz | Parhelia 128 Retail (watercooled) | Asus P4B533-E MOBO | 3 Eizo Nanao L685 18.1" LCD | 2 watercooled Seagate Barracuda V 120GB quiet Harddrive in SilentDrive enclosures, Miscellaneous pro audio cards/wireless LAN/etc.
I will give it a try when I receive my Parhelia next week.
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