Giants: Citizen Kabuto

[The_cranky_hermit]

Widescreen Grade: B
Ultra-Widescreen Grade: Incomplete
Multi-monitor Grade: Unsupported
4k Grade: Incomplete

Read Full Detailed Report - Giants: Citizen Kabuto

Giants: Citizen Kabuto is a third person shooter from Planet Moon and Interplay. Gameplay is unusually varied, and spans three campaigns with three characters - the heavily armed, high-tech meccaryn Baz and his squadmates, the sword-wielding, spellcasting sea reaper Delphi, and the enormous, village-trampling Kabuto himself.

4:3

16:10

16:9

21:9

3x1

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[skipclarke]

Cool screens, hermit. :D I remember this game, too. Lots of fun, some bawdy humour and great graphics.

I think the only flaw was the save game issue - they weren't placed to well if I recall. Wasn't this also developed for the Mac platform as well? If so, that might explain why - the developers knew that at least some people out there were playing the game on their cinema displays.

[The_cranky_hermit]

I don't know about that. Were the Cinema displays even out in the year 2000? The LCD screens that I was familiar with back then were pretty crappy.

[skipclarke]

Oh yea, they were already going strong with the 22" Cinema Display by that time.

http://www.creativepro.com/story/news/7349.html

[skipclarke]

I might have to find the Mac version of this (since that's the only machine I have left). At least I know the current PowerBook will run it smooth.

[skipclarke]

Yea, I'm trying to rack my brains to remember why I didn't end up finishing this game. I think it had something to do with the save game system, maybe it wasn't flexible enough for me.

You know when you purchase a game, play it some of the way through and then stop for a definite reason, but then a looong time goes by, you see the game again, and you're like, "Now why did I stop playing that one.." hehe :)

[Gabbo]

because of this thread, I have been going through this one all over again 6 years after I bought it. This game has held up amazingly well and still looks great. The WS support is absolutely perfect.

[ctrlsteef]

I was so completely hooked on this titel, it was so insanely beautiful.
I still get tears in my eyes if i look back at that time. :lol:

[funch]

I, too, don't remember why I didn't finish this game.

It looked super gooder though.


:)

[naujoks]

This if one of the truly memorable great games of the late 20th century! If you liked it, don't forget to also play "Armed and Dangerous", which is maybe not quite as good, but still very very good.

[The_cranky_hermit]

==Game Information==

Giants: Citizen Kabuto is a third person shooter from Planet Moon and Interplay. Gameplay is unusually varied, and spans three campaigns with three characters - the heavily armed, high-tech meccaryn Baz and his squadmates, the sword-wielding, spellcasting sea reaper Delphi, and the enormous, village-trampling Kabuto himself.

==Version==

This information is based on version 1.4.

==Method==

This game supports widescreen out of the box. Just select your resolution from the ingame menu.


==Screen change==

This game is Hor+.


1024x768


1280x800


==Supported resolutions==

I was only able to test 1280x720, 1280x768, and 1280x800. The method I use to test higher resolutions caused this game to crash, so I will leave them as "untested" for now.

Confirmed: 1280x720, 1280x768, 1280x800, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, and 1920x1200.


==Singleplayer anomalies==

This game has several anomalies. The most obvious is that the frequently used map is stretched.


1024x768


1280x800

Also, most of the "alternate camera" angles are Vert-. This includes the "special" camera, and all of the views used for base building, and for purchasing weapons.

Fortunately, none of these really hurt the gameplay. The map is used more for orientation than precise navigation, the special cameras are really just for show, and the base building is very infrequently used.


==Multiplayer support==

Multiplayer is Hor+, just like singleplayer, and has the exact same anomalies.


==Aspect ratio support==

The game automatically uses the correct aspect ratio for your resolution.


1280x720


1280x800


==HUD stretch==

The HUD stretches, though it's mostly transparent and not very intrusive.


==Cut-scenes==

The cut-scenes are rendered ingame, and are both letterboxed and Vert-.


1024x768


1280x800


==Grading==

Calculated grade: B

Major unresolved issues: None
Minor unresolved issues: None


Summary of widescreen-related flaws:
Stretched map, vert - when using alternate camera angles and in shops.
Stretched HUD.

[resleeved]

Beautiful at 1680x1050. A bonus of playing older games is that the low polygon count does not tax the crappy integrated graphics in my new Dell (my first non-self-built PC). I'm actually enjoying some older quality titles while saving up for a 7900GT.

[Tanuki]

1440x900, 1920x1080, 1920x1200 confirmed.

[The_cranky_hermit]

Re-visiting this thread, I have to disagree with something I said earlier. The stretched map really isn't all that bad. None of the anomalies adversely affect the gameplay appreciably. Re-graded.

[Tanuki]

FYI there are some texture patches and additional effects patches floating around the net for this game.

I have them but I cannot remember where I got them. Single site.

[dental]

This is yet another game I'm surprised even run under Vista x64 SP1 (an 8 year old game). While all the video resolution are listed in the game, if you pick 2560x1600 it doesn't stick (reverts back to 640x480; default). :evil:

The next resolution down, 2048x1536, works however. I suspect every other resolution below this one works too. But I have not tested.

Let me take a second to explain a pet peeve I have with pc gaming on a 30 inch lcd monitor. You see, I like to 'dock' my taskbar to the right side of the screen instead of at the bottom. Every time a game doesn't support my native resolution of 2560x1600, it 'resizes' my taskbar and every other window that I have opened prior to starting the game to something that only microsoft knows. This is very annoying.

Interestingly, GTA IV doesn't do this (I play in 1680x1050 resolution because my native resolution eats up all the memory allowed by GTA IV :? ). I'm not sure why. Maybe someone here knows why. Rockstar Montreal are better programmers than other dev house?

Back to the topic. Unfortunately, the game crashes a lot. So, it's pretty annoying to try to play through it at any length of time. The one nice thing is you can play in windowed mode at 2048x1536 (and it doesn't mess up my taskbar or windows :lol: )

I remembered playing this game way back when my system could barely handle the graphics. I remember the game grinding to a halt at certain places in the game world. Ah, how awesome it is to play it now. :twisted:

Thanks WSGF for such a great site!

Cranky -- It took me a while to find the patch. But after patching to v1.4, it's much more stable (have not experienced any crashes so far; still can't switch to 2560x1600) even with the GRM mod (enhancement mod which improves graphics). Thanks.

My system spec:

quad-core q6600 2.4ghz
8 gb ram
8800 gt 512 mb
vista x64 sp1

[The_cranky_hermit]

Have you installed the latest patch? Way back when this game was somewhat new, I had lots of crash problems too, but then they released a patch which pretty much got rid of all the crashing.

[yogibbear]

I wonder if the gog.com version has the same issues at 2560x1600 dental...