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Might as well do the preload.

Speaking of which, I really need some friends on Origin since AutoLog would otherwise be completely useless :p actually was wondering if Origin's friend list is also used by say Hot Pursuit 2010 and now Most Wanted 2012?

It's used in The Run, sadly Hot Pursuit used its own friends list.

SavagePaladin if ya want to add me, I can always use some competition.

Damn, checking out all the posts in this thread just reminded me, I very well probably will not get my copy on release day. Have this stupid ass storm heading my way. Well I hope I keep my power so I can play it. Hell if it floods and I do have power, I may very well wind up picking up the digital version.

Aye... stupid storm :/

Preload's almost done :D Bit of a complaint about Origin's billing as it added in tax (which I don't mind to an extent) and then presented that price to me, with tax, in USD (that I do mind). Either do it like Steam and don't charge tax but charge in USD, or charge me in CAD with tax. But not both. Anyways...

Who else besides Deranged is grabbing this for PC?

SavagePaladin if ya want to add me, I can always use some competition.

Adding - should see an invite from "rm20010"

The sad thing is I still have Burnout Paradise, Hot Pursuit, and The Run installed...I tried removing the first two since Most Wanted was coming, but then as it came closer to the release date I had to put them back on.

Hah. Maybe they'll be on here forever!

Might as well do the preload.

Speaking of which, I really need some friends on Origin since AutoLog would otherwise be completely useless :p actually was wondering if Origin's friend list is also used by say Hot Pursuit 2010 and now Most Wanted 2012?

Add me in Origin

sanke4

Any Origin users feel free to add me. I want to check how this Autolog works.

How much fps are you guys getting?

It runs like crap for me on nvidia 560gtx non-ti, intel 2500k processor on medium settings.

Tsk tsk tsk, not for another half an hour...

ban_hammer_stickers-p217071316663592890envb3_400.jpg

;)

Well then. It was... interesting.

The early reviews for this game weren't kidding when they said this was a spiritual successor to Burnout Paradise. Because it IS Burnout! The only NFS element that carried over are the cops, and by god they are hard to lose in a 'hunted' event. :| The first cop event I ran into is with the Bentley and your goal is to escape the cops, starting from inside a warehouse. Expect the heavy SUVs from the original Most Wanted and Carbon, and heavy duty SWAT vehicles. One light smack against these and you're taken down.

I'm not sure if the damage system is like Burnout's, where after a certain amount of damage you must run through garages to fix your vehicle before the next smash puts your car out of commission. About the damage system - one hard smack is enough to knock out a vehicle. Including yours. Forget about the older Need for Speeds with their indestructible vehicles. Forget about even Hot Pursuit 2010. These vehicles are much more fragile.

Also I haven't figured out what the penalty is for being busted - I'm assuming they duck a few speed points?

I'd say the sense of speed isn't quite there compared to Hot Pursuit 2010, but it makes up for it with the amount of chaos that goes on. Also, hello chatty and cluttered UI. Autolog works though.

Actually the entire game itself is quite a step up in terms of difficulty, right off the bat. Very easy to screw up and when you screw up, it is epic. :D Really liked the offroad races. But again, easy to screw up.

To address the PC gamers, it could use some tweaking. Ran alright on my computer, with everything on high except for two settings on medium - ambient oclusion and geometry detail. I could throw everything on high but I did notice increased stuttering. Still, even with the settings I had on it did stutter a bit at times, but nothing as disasterous as say Undercover when it first came out. Quick PC specs: Q6600, Geforce GTX 670, 6 GB of RAM, running at 1280x1024. (I know, crap res. I will get a larger monitor soon.)

  • Like 1

Interesting... yes, that's one way to put it. This is not a NFS Game and to soil the name "Most Wanted" is a shame. That said, it runs very well for me I3-2130, evga GTX 560, 8gig of ram @ 1920x1080, I let the game pick the settings, then I lowered or removed "Motion Blur" cant recall. They were all on high I think..

I noticed the difficulty jump as well, the Porsche "easy" difficulty circuit race had me talking to myself. The other racers seem to crash me much more often than I remember, they always seemed to put me into the side of the gas station. Drove me crazy, the steering seems a little sloppier than I remember as well. Maybe my 360 controller is getting old - it's the wired white one, or I'm getting old and slow, or maybe both? Who knows.

I got busted as well after getting into a paint swapping contest with a heavy suv, stopped me dead and then got rear ended by two police cars and got pinned. The "voice" told me something like - "Well you just got busted, next time evade the cops and then hide until the cool down is over" and I was thinking "hey great advice, maybe next time".

Time will tell, I didn't get to play long, but the game is just ok so far. I might put the original Most Wanted back on my pc and have a look at it. The joy of loading 4 cds to install a game.. well my black edition is the 4 cd one. :)

Right, forgot about the latest Geforce driver set (310.33). Wondering if they hid some tweaks in there for Most Wanted, as Nvidia usually does for new hot games.

This game refuses to cooperate well on my iMac, the FPS keeps fluctuating from 44 to 19fps @ 1920x1080, everything at low or off and at 1280x720 i get 60 to 20fps, in my opinion this game is just another bad console port, great selection of cars though.

It's not unlocked for people who actually bought it for another two hours, so I couldn't tell you.

Tsk tsk tsk, not for another half an hour...

ban_hammer_stickers-p217071316663592890envb3_400.jpg

;)

Actually it was in Korea, you could unlock using VPN. Don't just assume people are pirates.

I've had a quick go, going to work soon so I can't really get into it. So far the graphics look great if a bit choppy on my i5 2400, 7850 machine, love the meaty engine sounds and how much weight the cars have, bit disappointed into the arcade drifting but I can see people who don't like simulation games having LOADS of fun.

I have game pre-loaded on Origin. How ethical is it to download the crack and play and discuss the game here? Does EA ban Origin account?

My Origin account says this game will unlock on 2nd November. WTF????????

That's 3 days after the world has completed the game and lost interest in it. :(

To address the PC gamers, it could use some tweaking. Ran alright on my computer, with everything on high except for two settings on medium - ambient oclusion and geometry detail. I could throw everything on high but I did notice increased stuttering. Still, even with the settings I had on it did stutter a bit at times, but nothing as disasterous as say Undercover when it first came out. Quick PC specs: Q6600, Geforce GTX 670, 6 GB of RAM, running at 1280x1024. (I know, crap res. I will get a larger monitor soon.)

:o

I also turned down ambient occlusion and turned off motion blur.

Now I am getting average fps of 42-45 at 1920x1080 resolution (sometimes 55-60) :p

To address the PC gamers, it could use some tweaking. Ran alright on my computer, with everything on high except for two settings on medium - ambient oclusion and geometry detail. I could throw everything on high but I did notice increased stuttering. Still, even with the settings I had on it did stutter a bit at times, but nothing as disasterous as say Undercover when it first came out. Quick PC specs: Q6600, Geforce GTX 670, 6 GB of RAM, running at 1280x1024. (I know, crap res. I will get a larger monitor soon.)

Hoping it's your CPU bogging you down, itd be crazy if a 670 at that res. couldn't handle it on high. The 6600 will really hold you back on a small amount of games.

:o

I also turned down ambient occlusion and turned off motion blur.

Now I am getting average fps of 42-45 at 1920x1080 resolution (sometimes 55-60) :p

Yup same problem i'm having, the fps fluctuation is driving me nuts, which makes controlling the car hard when moving at high speeds.
This topic is now closed to further replies.
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    • Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe review: your headphones will love it by Steven Parker If you have been reading Neowin for any length of time, you may remember that I reviewed the Sound Blaster Audigy FX Pro back in April. I found it to be an excellent budget sound card, even though it lacked support for formats such as DTS over the included SPDIF port. Anyway, Creative reached out to me again asking if I was interested in reviewing the Sound Blaster AE-X. It is a card mainly targeted at headphone wearers, which I'll get into a bit later. Before we get underway, here is a disclaimer: Creative Labs provided a free sample without any review pre-approval. Here are the full specs of it: Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Dimensions: 179 x 126 x 18 mm Weight: 263g / 9.28 oz Platform: PCI-e DAC: ESS ES9039Q2M Connectivity Options Side: Rear: 1 x HD Audio Front Panel Connector, 1 x ⅛“ Headphone port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Left) port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Right) port, 1 x Coaxial SPDIF-out port, 1 x ⅛“ Mic in/Line-in port, 1 x TOSLINK SPDIF-in port Surround: No DNR / SNR: THD+N: 0.0001% Dynamic Range 130 dB Recording Resolution: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Direct Mode: Line Out (Stereo): PCM up to 32-bit  384 kHz Coaxial SPDIF Out: PCM up to 24-bit 192.0 kHz Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 384kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 Output Impedance: 1Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 8–600Ω, IEM: 0.5Vrms, Low: 1.5Vrms, Mid: 3Vrms, High: 6Vrms, Maximum output power: 350mW @ 32Ω (High), Maximum output voltage: 6Vrms (High) Front Panel Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128 Output Impedance: 10Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 32–300Ω, Maximum output power: 40mW @ 32Ω, Maximum output voltage: 1.9Vrms ASIO: ASIO 2.3 Total Harmonic Distortion: THD+N: 0.0006% Dynamic Range: 114 dB Scout Mode: Yes EMI shielding: No (but it passed all the FCC emission tests) Operating temperature: 0–45°C Input Power: 12V⎓0.5A Warranty: 1 Year (MSRP) Price: $179.99 / £169.99 The Sound Blaster AE-X was announced at the end of May, and it becomes clear that it is mainly for headphone wearers. I should also note that the card does not support DDL/DTS encoding technology, but it is said to support decoding through the coaxial SPDIF port. I was able to test this working with the classic Windows Sound properties, but I could not get a DTS (decode) signal through my Logitech Z906, it defaulted to 3D sound whenever I played DTS content through Plex or Emby. In addition, this card only supports two channels (stereo) over the speakers. The surround support is limited to the Headphone Amp, so before I get underway, what we have here is a card mostly intended for headphone use, especially with its SPDIF In (Toslink) port where you could connect another device like a console. So what about the highlights of this card? The AE-X is powered by the ESS SABRE DAC (ES9039Q2M), which is capable of a 130 dB dynamic range. In addition, it supports 32-bit/384 kHz playback for deeper detail and clarity. The headphone amplifier delivers up to 350 mW @ 32Ω, which admittedly far surpasses standard onboard audio, offering support for studio-grade headphones. DSD256 and ASIO 2.3 are also supported. What doesn't it have? No support for What-U-Hear, Super X-Fi, or the SmartComms Kit No EMI shielding, but it passed all the FCC emission tests (from the FAQ) I also want to make it clear that I am no audiophile. For me, it's purely subjective and it should just "work" out of the box. First impressions As I said in the introduction, I was a bit sad to see that the AE-X only supports stereo output, meaning it would not be on par with my ALC1220 over my speakers, as I mentioned it seems like this card is marketed toward headphone users. Since I am not an avid gamer that would rule me out as a potential customer, but I can still test its capabilities! The card arrived in a nice-looking box, as shown above. It's quite a bit larger than the Audify FX Pro that I reviewed back in April, and at first I thought the covering meant that it was EMI shielded, but it isn't as mentioned above in the highlights section. What's in the box: 1 x Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe card 1 x 3.5 mm CTIA TRRS to Dual TRS Headset Splitter Cable 1 x Quick Start Guide Aside from the Quick Start Guide, which someone at my age (I guess) needs a magnifying glass to read thanks to the tiny fonts, Creative Labs also has the manual online, which first requires you to prove that you're human in order to access it (so I can't direct link it). Anyway, the box is mostly made up of cardboard, and the only plastic in it is the anti-static bag for the card itself. Design Top Bottom The card itself looks pretty cool and actually wouldn't look out of place in an all-white build. There's only one connector, and for some reason it is awkwardly placed on the side (front-facing) that is for the front panel audio connector, which will let you use the headphones through the front PC audio jack. Since the front panel Headphone Amp has fewer capabilities than the rear headphone port, I decided not to use it. Rear of card PCI-e interface The rear of the card is completely open and is normally where you would find the front panel connector. The PCIe interface side is completely covered, which initially made me think it was EMI shielded. I/O panel Side (front-facing) with Front panel connector On the outer rear bracket side we have the TOSLINK SPDIF in, Coaxial SPDIF out, RCA line out (Right), RCA line out (Left), Headphone out, and Mic/Line in ports. On the front facing portion of the card itself is the F-panel connector. Usage Test System Our test system consists of the following: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER (BIOS F12) Corsair RM1000x (2024) Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut (33x33x0,2mm) 2x 32GB Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR5 6000MT/s CL36-38-38-80 T-Force Z540 2TB (PCIe Gen5) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition (NVIDIA) Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Windows 11 25H2 Pro I installed the card into the Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER which includes the RealTek ALC1220 onboard audio. For our subjective listening tests, I used the Coaxial SPDIF port to my Logitech Z906 speakers. For headphone tests I used the OneOdio Studio Max 2 Wireless DJ Headphones that I reviewed last month. After installing the audio driver, I installed Creative Nexus, which is a relatively new app designed for the latest Sound Blaster cards. Then I discovered the AE-X needed both a driver update from 1.00.15.0001 to 1.01.09.000 and a firmware update from 1.00.06.0000 to 1.00.06.0002, then I was set to go. It should be noted that the card did not work without the driver (not Plug and Play). As you can see above, you can manage the firmware, driver, and inputs via Advanced Settings on the Device tab. By default Nexus enabled "Direct Mode". Upon clicking on Acoustic Engine, the Equalizer can be enabled and set to four different presets, which are: Gaming Music Movies Footsteps Enhancer There's also a dedicated Scout Mode for gamers. I mainly used Tidal and Spotify in the past week to listen to some of my Liked Songs (which now total over 700) in Shuffle mode; there were no pops or interference that I could hear. I also found a 5.1 Surround Music playlist on Tidal that sounded really great over Studio Max 2 headphones. When I reviewed the Audigy FX Pro, I went out and purchased a Logitech Z906 set second-hand for €100 specifically to use with the card, but in this instance all I could get on the AE-X was the 3D output of surround sound through Coaxial SPDIF and although it still sounded great, it isn't quite as good as DTS Interactive via my onboard Realtek ALC1220. Conclusion So what have I learned? The AE-X lacks multi-channel support for 5.1/7.1 setups and drops support for modern surround technologies like Dolby or DTS, functioning strictly as a stereo output device. So to really benefit, you will need Studio-grade headphones to "hear" the benefits of this card. With that being said, I can imagine it will appeal to gamers who are switching between console and PC. By utilizing the SPDIF in port, you could just plug your headphones into the AE-X (front or rear port) and then switch between PC and Console without having to move the headphones to a different port. As I said in the Sound Blaster Audigy review, the EQ in the Creative Nexus app offers safe presets, which allows a user to further tweak the lows, mids, and highs for a personal listening experience. Of course it all depends on the headphones you hook up to it. Speaking of headphones, I kind of wish I had higher-quality Studio-grade headphones to really test this card with; I'm not usually wearing headphones in my day to day duties. The only time I will wear them is if I want to listen to music very late at night and I don't want to disturb my neighbors, so my rating (verdict) is based on this fact. Someone with a PC/Console setup and wears headphone religiously to game, and consume media will benefit much more than I from the high-quality Headphone Amps that are included in the AE-X. Once again, I do feel like Creative could have gone the extra mile to support the S/PDIF port a bit more. Why include it if you're not supporting the main popular digital formats? It seems like the decision was more of a legacy-based one, offering uncompressed 2-channel PCM audio, for users with high-fidelity audio systems and external DACs. Maybe I will be lucky enough to review a card that truly includes all these features in the future. I am sure readers with far more knowledge on audio systems than me will correct me in the comments below. I'll just say I am happy to learn what I don't know! Where to buy The Sound Blaster AE-X is available to purchase now in preorder for $179.99 on the U.S. Creative website, or for £169.99 on the Creative UK website and will start shipping to customers from June 25.
    • $80 or 90%, anything else would be financial suicide one way or another.
    • Or... just use Bitwarden. Free, and has on-prem option as well. Works both on desktop and mobile, wherever you are. The age of local password files is over.
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    • I actually got to use one of those so called "backup codes" once. It was for a customer, I choose the backup code option, and by the grace of god, they actually hade them printed out. Imagine my surprise, when after using the backup code, Google then told use we had to enter a code they just sent to the gmail address we currently did not have access to. I was not amused, Google backup codes should be the end all get out of jail free card, because you had to have access to the account to even get them.
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