Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Indiana we have a problem!, 26 Jun 2008
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
Great game but beset with technical problems. Basically I can install the game and play it once as soon as I have installed it, but after that point pretty much every time I launch the game, either by using the start command on the disk launcher window or the desktop shortcut, I am presented with a black screen. This is not quite the same as a blank screen because the input light is on and there is computer activity, but the screen itself is just black. No combination of keys will bring me back to my desktop, so I have to do a manual reset to reboot the computer. My first suspicion was that there was a problem with my Logitech Dual Action gamepad. I had downloaded the latest drivers from the Logitech website and checked that the game supported dual analogue game controllers, but I found that the game tended to launch more often if I started it with the gamepad disconnected, then plugged it in at the first prompt to press any key on the input device. It did not launch every time in my personal windows user profile, and using my son's profile it barely launched at all, but it seemed to be a step in the right direction. A quick look at the Lucasarts forum for Lego Indiana Jones confirms that patches are needed, there are gamepad issues to be resolved. As a point of interest I also noted that should your gamepad have less than 19 buttons you will have a job configuring it for the game because you need to assign 19 different buttons to 19 different functions!
I contacted the technical support number included with the game and received an email back from Activision. This suggested that I use a selective start-up to disable all non-essential background processes, then attempt to launch the game. This made no difference. I had already tried disabling firewall and antivirus software, so I didn't hold out much hope. It also asked for a DirectX Diagnostic report to be sent using my Activision account. However I couldn't log into this account because I hadn't created one, and I couldn't create one because my email address was on the database. My computer is one year old, it was Windows XP Service Pack 3, all the graphics and motherboard drivers are bang up to date, and everything is looked after. I have nothing loaded which interferes with disk authentication, no emulators, nothing controversial. If I can send this report I will, but I doubt whether it would cast any light upon the situation.
In the meantime I stumbled across another possibility which seemed so outrageous at the time I only gave it a try because I had run out of anywhere else to turn. I have been playing Lego Star Wars I and II for a year but this is the first time I have bought a brand new just released PC game, which I assumed would run just like LSW. I understand that new games almost always need patches, but total failure to launch was pushing it a bit. Suddenly I discovered that a playable games demo of Lego Indiana Jones had been released in advance of the actual game, presumably as part of the beta testing program. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that this demo had a problem because it wasn't coded properly for some multicore processors. Now I understand that plenty of games have yet to be coded to optimise use of multicore processors, but to not actually run on certain multicore processors took some swallowing. Digging a bit deeper I found a forum posting from some kind soul reporting that this glitch was not fixed before the game was actually released, and it resulted in a black screen at launch. Instead of having a PC that failed to meet the minimum specifications for playing the game I was being penalised for having a PC which exceeded those specifications because of a game with a known technical problem identified during testing being released by Activision without warning.
I know I have this specific problem because the solution works without fail. Although how an eager eight year old is supposed to open it on his birthday and just start playing is beyond me. It took me three late nights on the trot and plenty of wild goose chases before I just about beat my deadline, and I work in IT! Anyway, should you happen to have an AMD Athlon X2 4200+ CPU (or anything similar) you need to set the game to play on just one of the available cores every time you launch it by masking the rest. This involves opening task manager before launching the game, clicking the `Processes' tab, clicking the `Image Name' column to sort all the processes into alphabetical order, then leaving this window open as you launch the game. Whilst the disk is still spinning up and as soon as the `LegoIndy.exe' file appears in the list but before you get any launch screen you have to right click the file, click `Set Affinity' then uncheck every cpu box but one. This will mask the rest of the cores to the game whilst it is being played, and works a treat. But you do have to do it every time you launch the game. Think of it as a warm-up exercise before getting stuck into the problem solving in the game.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Terrible! do not buy on PC, 13 Jul 2008
Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars
If you can get this game to install you are lucky. If you can play it you are lucky, i have never seen a game so full of bugs!!! Just google it and you'll see hundreds of posts with people with problems and technical support is useless! If they answer at all, they just say re-install the game which does nothing!
You can't send it back for a refund or replacement as you've opened it!
It crashes out in the middle of games, your character suddenly stops moving or disappears altogether and you have to start again. The screen suddenly starts shaking and won't stop. But worse still, bits of the game are actually missing! You won't believe it until you try it, but you can't finish a level so you look up a walkthrough and there is a screenshot of what you should see but it isn't there!!!
Please do not waste your money on this, you will be sorely disappointed. By a console version if you must as these are reported to be better.
I've had to completely give up as there is just no way past one of the bugs now!
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you're an Indy fan, you'll love it, 21 Jun 2008
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
These Lego games really live or die according to your taste in the underlying subject matter. The original Lego Star Wars was new and fun and exciting, but was ultimately let down by the poor quality of the underlying movies. Conversely, the Original Trilogy was a triumph, again because of the quality of the subject matter - in this case, how could a Lego game based on the original Star Wars trilogy be anything other than perfect? When I heard about the Indy Lego game, I was initially very excited, but as the release date approached, I was filled with growing apprehension. Would it be any good? Would it do justice to a wonderful movie francise (2 great films + TOD)? How exactly does a Lego whip work? Release day arrived... The first problem was getting it to work properly. On a 2.6GHz P4 with 1Gb RAM and 256Mb GeForce 6200, the frame rate was apalling, even on the lowest graphic settings. However, once I disabled SpyBot Resident, it worked fine with most of the graphic options turned up - strange, since I've never had such a problem with SpyBot in the past. Anyway, the game itself is a treat, although I'm not sure whether those wbo are not fans of the series would enjoy it much. Ultimately it doesn't matter - like I said above, the success of these Lego games depends on the quality/popularity of the underlying francise - if you love Indy, you'll love this game; if you loathe Indy, buy something else (and get your head examined). The cutscenes in particular are genius, for the most part sticking closely to the movies, but knowing when to break the movie mould in the interest of humour. An early cameo by the head of C3P0 is a fine example. The gameplay is generally good, with the usual problems related to geometry of the landscape, computer AI, etc. This is a game for all ages so, like the Star Wars version, you can't lose. However, here are enough hidden puzzles and areas to amuse even the most dedicated gamer for a few weeks. Overall, as a heavily-biased Indy fan, I highly recommend this game. But if you don't like Indy (or similar movies) then you may not enjoy the full experience and should possibly look elsewhere (or wait for the Lego Batman game).
Two final points...
1. The Lego whip works just fine
2. My suggestion - what about a Lego Transformers game?
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