Spec Ops: The Line

[poroshin]

What did you think of the narrative itself? And the choices, or rather pseudo-choices?

[pdenton]

I think the lack of choice, or at least absence of a right or wrong choice, was intentional. You CAN choose to shoot, or who to shoot, or where to shoot, but the outcomes are always lose-lose for Walker and his men. Which I really liked. I didn't buy this thinking there was a karma system or Mass Effect like freedom.It was a nice touch that when Lugo dies you can either kill the mob or shoot into the air to clear them out. That felt like an organic choice to make in that situation which was both intense and realistic.

[poroshin]

Still, the advertisement said you had to make choices, and you don't. It's very linear. Whenever the game actually gives you an outright choice a handful of times it isn't a real choice since the outcome is largely the same. That said, I liked the game and the story anyway. I guess I just expected it to be non-linear as per player's choices.

[gunsmoke]

I am putting this game in my 'to do' list. Sounds fantastic! I have just been replaying old games over and over again recently (well, since Skyrim) and need something fresh.

[poroshin]

I am putting this game in my 'to do' list. Sounds fantastic! I have just been replaying old games over and over again recently (well, since Skyrim) and need something fresh.

It is a great game. I'm replaying it right now.

[EvaUnit02]

As usual of many UE3.0 games:- mouse acceleration is there; the FoV is fixed to a narrow value for people typically sitting metres away from their display (console owners); you can't change AF from the menus; and there's no AA support.

Adding AA:-
1. Download SMAA injector. SMAA is visually superior to both FXAA and MLAA. Also it doesn't take up more system resources than injected FXAA.
2. Drop the contents of the 7z's d3d9 sub-folder into \Steam\steamapps\common\specops_theline\Binaries\Win32
3. You can change the levels of AA applied by editing injector.ini. The default value is SMAA_PRESET_HIGH.

Changing the FoV:-
The easiest way is to use Flawless Widescreen to insert memory hacks. No, you won't be VAC'd. The game's default FoV is 80 and Flawless Widescreen by default increases that to 100.

Turn off mouse acceleration:-
1. Grab the INI decrypter. Drag and drop your SRInput.ini from C:\Users\[username]\Documents\my games\SpecOps-TheLine\SRGame\Config onto Gibbed.SpecOpsTheLine.IniDecrypt.exe.
2. Open SRInput.ini in a text editor.
2a. Change the value of bEnableMouseSmoothing= to false.
2b. Add bViewAccelerationEnabled=false to the bottom of [Engine.PlayerInput] category.
2c. Save the changes.
3. Drag and drop your SRInput.ini onto Gibbed.SpecOpsTheLine.IniEncrypt.exe.
4. Make SRInput.ini read-only from its Properties.

Changing AF, turning off framerate smoothing, disabling forced intro movies:-
1. Drag and drop your SREngine.ini onto Gibbed.SpecOpsTheLine.IniEncrypt.exe, then open in a text editor.
1a. Change the value of MaxAnisotropy= to your desired value between 1-16.
1b. Change the value of bSmoothFrameRate= to FALSE.
1c. Find [FullScreenMovie] sub-header and comment out all of the StartupMovies= lines.
2. Save the changes.
3. Drag and drop your SREngine.ini onto Gibbed.SpecOpsTheLine.IniEncrypt.exe.
4. Make SREngine.ini read-only from its Properties.

[Brethren]

I keep hearing such great things about this game, even from folks here. I guess now is the time to buy - Steam 75% off ($7.49).

[zajazd]

I'll just get the ps3 version and actually play the game not hassle with configs. Pc master race, more like spreadsheet race

[Jason Moyer]

Game works fine out of the box without adjusting anything, but your loss.

[dethtoll]

what i don't understand is how someone could be more retarded than apdenton

[faetal]

PC version plays just fine.

[TTK12G3]

I'll just get the ps3 version and actually play the game not hassle with configs. Pc master race, more like spreadsheet race

I find some nostalgic joy from modifying the configs to suit me, but it's your loss. When I played the demo, I spent all of forty-five seconds modifying the settings. I guess I understand how something like moving a couple of bars and checking a few boxes might seem difficult for a simple peasant ps3 user.

[Phatose]

Is it just me, or do the executions get more brutal as the game goes on? Early on, pressing the button would typically get a headshot, maybe a stomp on the neck. But now he's beating guys to death with his rifle stock, and at least once he shot the guy in the knee first, waited a second, and then shot him in the head.

[catbarf]

Is it just me, or do the executions get more brutal as the game goes on? Early on, pressing the button would typically get a headshot, maybe a stomp on the neck. But now he's beating guys to death with his rifle stock, and at least once he shot the guy in the knee first, waited a second, and then shot him in the head.

I very rarely performed executions so didn't notice, but I did notice that the characters' combat chatter got increasingly vulgar and less professional as the game went on, and someone else said that the same happens with the executions.

I haven't played many games that implemented story progression to that degree, and it really adds to the narrative.

[zajazd]

Game works fine out of the box without adjusting anything, but your loss.

No it doesn't, I tried - it has terrible zoom in or field of view or however it's called, my head got dizzy from it, and the mouse controls don't feel right. This game was designed for consoles.

[catbarf]

I'm a really picky and pedantic when it comes to field of view and mouse controls, and I didn't have any problem with Spec Ops.

[dethtoll]

Is it just me, or do the executions get more brutal as the game goes on? Early on, pressing the button would typically get a headshot, maybe a stomp on the neck. But now he's beating guys to death with his rifle stock, and at least once he shot the guy in the knee first, waited a second, and then shot him in the head.

No it's not just you. Everybody swears a whole lot more too.

[TTK12G3]

Is it just me, or do the executions get more brutal as the game goes on? Early on, pressing the button would typically get a headshot, maybe a stomp on the neck. But now he's beating guys to death with his rifle stock, and at least once he shot the guy in the knee first, waited a second, and then shot him in the head.

I think that the main character is supposed to be slowly losing his mind, so increased cruelty and aggression is not surprising.

[Malleus]

By the way, you get extra ammo, and often grenades too, if you execute someone. It's useful on harder difficulties.

Also, don't read this spoiler if you plan to do lots of executions to see what they are, but there was a particularly brutal one I came across, and only once in my three playthroughs - when Walker simply tore off the enemy's junk with his bare hands. That made me go 'holy shit!'. I think that tops the fucked up chart.

[Phatose]

Cool. Wasn't sure if it was a side effect of better/different weapons, dumb luck or an intentional part of the narrative. Thanks!

[Kroakie]

No it doesn't, I tried - it has terrible zoom in or field of view or however it's called, my head got dizzy from it, and the mouse controls don't feel right. This game was designed for consoles.

So you'll get the console version where you can't change the settings instead. Whut?

For the record, I didn't have to fiddle with any settings either, short of setting everything up to High.

[Jason Moyer]

I think my flu/bronchitis/dizziness/whatever is clearing up enough I'll be able to start playing this today. Any tips on which difficulty to use? From the couple hours I played when it came out I seem to remember 'normal' or whatever was kinda challenging but I dunno.

[TTK12G3]

No it doesn't, I tried - it has terrible zoom in or field of view or however it's called, my head got dizzy from it, and the mouse controls don't feel right. This game was designed for consoles.

I didn't find it worse than Mass Effect in that regard.

[nicked]

I think my flu/bronchitis/dizziness/whatever is clearing up enough I'll be able to start playing this today. Any tips on which difficulty to use? From the couple hours I played when it came out I seem to remember 'normal' or whatever was kinda challenging but I dunno.

Difficulty's not too skewed either way. Normal is pretty much normal! There's about 2-3 fights near the end that get a bit trial-and-error-y, but other than that it's challenging but fair. I replayed it on the harder difficulty later and was glad I'd gone through it on normal first.

[faetal]

I'd say go through on normal since the actual gameplay isn't fun enough to want to re-play every time you die.