GameCube

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Well, since my last post in this forum I didn't play the game, and now I started it. But there's something really annoying happening: from times to times the game runs slooooow. It doesn't show any choppiness, it just runs slow. After some minutes like this, the game turns back to normal. I tried leaving every graphics setting in the lowest, but even like this, the game runs normal, then slow. I read that it doesn't like dual core processors, but it isn't the case. Also I'm always wary of joypad incompatibilities, so I uninstalled my joypad driver (even because the game didn't feature any vibration effects). So, any of you guys have ever experienced something like this?

I've notice that some engines slowdown the game if the CPU or GPU aren't up to the task, so the lack of choppiness doesn't mean that it works effortlessly otherwise. It's meant to make the game work fluidly, even if the framerate drops below minimal level. But it's even more annoying that way.

Anyway, the random nature of the slowdowns makes me think of overheating. It's summer after all and it must be very hot in Brazil! So, checking the temperatures of your stones might be a good idea. I've had similar problems earlier this summer, which resulted in buying a new Zalman cooler for my video card.

*SMARTASS ALERT*

If it's fine, then probably you've got a malfunctioning Dagger of Time, that slows down time randomly and unpredictably. Ask for a refund if you still have the reciet, cause I don't think they make those anymore. ;-)

*/SMARTASS ALERT*

Hey, it is summer in North hemisphere! Here it is winter right now, and it isn't that cold for your European standards (17° C right now). But it could be overheating, as yesterday my laptop just shut down while I was playing (though it wasn't slow when it happened). I was playing over my bed, so there. But since then I've been placing it over a wooden surface, and it didn't shut down anymore.

Too bad it is a laptop, so I don't have many options of cooling it.

Heh, yeah! I kinda suspected something like that, but didn't bother myself to fix it. Sorry.

Now that you say, that it's laptop you're playing on, I'm not that sure 'bout overheating. They usually make very good care not to make it blow up. Unless, it's really old and dusty. But looking at its (it's the DELL one, right?) specs makes me think that it should work fine.

There is one test to check if its an overheating thing, if you don't want to install any measuring software (they do install temperature nodes in the laptops, don't they?). Keep your laptop turned off for some time, then turn it on, run the game immediately and check the time for the first slowdown to appear, wait until it passes, the next one should arrive in a significantly smaller amount of time.

That's what made me think of overheating in my case. Before that I wasted nearly half a gigabyte of traffic downloading different drivers and tweaking software

We also shouldn't forget that little line in the readme file for nearly all recent PC games that doesn't promise anything concrete for the owners of laptop video cards.

Update: I just finished the game this night. I had to cope with the slowdowns and I think it could really be something about overheating. Indigo Prophecy was another game which ran oddly slow sometimes, Guitar Hero III sometimes just got unplayable, and now I see everything as symptoms of the same problem. Too bad, my desktop machine is 1500 Km away and I won't be playing on anything besides this laptop for sometime now.

About the game: it's been some time since I didn't finish a "regular game" (finished lots of "casual indie" games lately). And I gotta tell you, I had such a great time! The gameplay is awesome, always reminded me of the Legacy of Kain/Soul Reaver series. Pretty much straightforward story-wise, but I guess it would please you story-lovers. I'm planning on writing a review, but I can't promise anything.

Keep the base of the laptop off the ground with small bocks or something under the corners (to keep the fan uncovered), makes a big difference with the temperature.

Fine from my end. Just played it again a few months ago...then I remembered why I stopped the last time. *white--flashing---screen---migranes*

I still can't believe you get migranes from playing PoP, man. You remind me of my brother in law, who got nauseous playing Quake 2 because "the camera moves too fast" o__O

You are of course aware that such statement makes you sound like quite the pussy, right? :P




Also, for the record: I'm on an Atlhon X2 4200+ (that's dual core), and Sands of Time runs like a charm here.

I have to compensate, since I ain't getting any as of late, doc. :p