I've had Bloodlines since its release but was never able to enjoy it on a machine that could really handle the workload it required to run smoothly. However, over the past 6 months I've acquired a decent computer and a pretty good video card by today's gaming standards. I'm also running Vista now. Compaq Presario SR5050NX PentiumD 925 Dual Core Processor 1024 DDR2 SDRAM ATI Radeon 2600 XT Video Card Audigy Soundblaster card 250GB hard drive Not too bad, but that RAM total is bloomin' eyesore. Anyway, when I recently went through my stock of games i hadn't played in a while, I was stoked at the sight of Bloodlines and the possibility of playing it unhindered by lag and poor system performance. I installed it and started a new character and the opening scene began. On my old machine this movie would be the equivalent of a poorly organized slide show with jittery voice overs, but it ran much, much smoother on my new toy. However, it still jerked here and there. Outside in the cities, where it would normally take several minutes for my older comp to cache all the textures and models before it ran the game at a somewhat playable framerate, I was moving at a more respectable speed and incredibly easier pace than before. But again, the game still hits a few bumps and bruises here and there. It's so much better than my previous situation, but still not what I'd consider (and expected to be) perfect. I'm a bit disappointed considering the game is going on (I think) 4 years in age, and in technological years, that's a pretty good chunk. So is it possible to run this game flawlessly or am I just being delusional? Will more RAM help?
It probably will. With 2 GB RAM it runs pretty smoothly, at least for me. As you noted though, that's one hell of a requirement for a game that's practically ancient with industry standards.
Yeah, I have about the same RAM as Grimm, and my Bloodlines play is choppy in parts. Gameplay doesn't give me any trouble, but when I get into real-time cinematics, everyone moves like Gumby, i.e. gliding everywhere, while their mouths are moving with the dialog. I have the grunt in my machine to push all the textures and models to the highest quality, but all of my cut scenes are awful...and a bit creepy.