Runescape Game Play

As usual I will make my opinion of new Runescape updates public, this time its the new all singing all dancing high detail mode that was introduced yesterday, I will make a few predictions, lets see if they come true.

I have a fairly new computer, dual core, 2gb matched RAM, running Microsoft Vista, I have a fast broadband connection, and I mean fast not these dodgy BT line broadband actually using a company that can deliver using fibre optics.

I first saw the update introduced on RuneHq forum so immediately logged in to take a look, I was surprised to see that the front page of the Runescape website was totally different, it has a much more modern look, easy to navigate but it will take a time to get used to it, I always thought the original site looked dated but as long as I can find the play Runescape members button I was happy, It Now looks good and still has a play button, good result Jagex.

I use Swiftkit from Zybez it does everything I need and more, as I assumed it wouldn't support full screen I started Microsoft Internet Explorer, was a bit annoyed because it wouldn't load it said something that it couldn't create the rscache folder and asked me to create it as a possible fix, I did this and gave it all access permission for everyone even though I was logged in as administrator, tried again and it had the same problem, I decided to try Firefox and woot worked straight away, it took me a while to find my way around but after about 5 minutes I got to a login screen and selected full screen.

After a few white and black screens it came to the full screen login page, looks good with the previews in the back ground, I logged in and woooah I was a cartoon character, I had my Karils on and prayer skill cape on, first glitch found my bottom was sticking through the bottom of my cape, movement was very laggy, It would take about 15 seconds before it would respond to a move request, I though it may be laggy because loads of people would be downloading it so carried on.

I had a clue so thought I would do it just to test playability, I did a normal clue and a co-ord clue both completed OK then I got another clue, Hmmm, nothing on it, I could see the scroll but there was nothing written on it, I tried turning off full screen, still nothing on it, I then logged off and went to normal detail and could read that it was the picture with 3 volcanoes on it, I went back to high detail went to the Ardougne lever pulled it, and 25 seconds later I was in the wildy, with lag like that I decided not to go to the wildy in High Detail.

I gave it a fair shot doing a few slayer tasks at abyssal demons, they are not very dangerous so I would leave it in high detail, big mistake although not dangerous it is almost impossible to click your next demon quickly so another player would normally steal it.

My conclusion is it looks great nice to be a part of a cartoon although I don't think you can get totally immersed in it having a full screen certainly makes it more fun to play, having the controls in the bottom of the screen will take some getting used to but the transparency is a nice effect.

I tried it at different times of day on busy and quiet worlds in full and normal screen and even in safe mode but the lag was still present, I don't believe it is extra people downloading the game I think it is too much for the server to handle, bare in mind Jagex have no way to test it with thousands of players so in their test area they could never anticipate the lag that would be created, testing on the same server in normal mode there is very slight lag makes me think its the servers ability to send the game in HD mode as opposed to just sending the normal data, perhaps its a bandwidth issue.

It is only a beta so this is effectively their test server with many people testing it, you need to expect many problems, graphics, speed, playability etc. give Jagex feedback on problems (not rants) in the forums and fault report for serious ones and we could well have a nice addition to our game of choice.

Non members I do not suggest you get membership for this, you may well be disappointed, I love the update but wont be using it for a while.