Laments of a PC user, never thought I'd regret not buying a console version of a game Options

[Voran]

Picked up Front Mission Evolved on Steam yesterday, though this is one of the first times I'm regretting not buying the console version instead. Now, I have to confess not knowing too much about PCs but I do what I can to try to make sure my drivers are updated, most recent directx, etc. But for the life of me, I can't make this game run without being choppy. I guess I have a general frustration nowadays with games that don't have their own built in stress tests to determine optimal settings. So part of the issue is the need to manually fiddle with the video options, worse yet, if you try to fiddle 'in game' you have only limited options, mostly brightness. You have to exit back to the main menu. There you have more options, resolution, sync, anti-aliasing, etc. But in order to even have the game register the changes, you have to completely exit the game and restart it, but then you can't tell until you get 'in game' at which point if your settings aren't working, you have to exit back out to the main menu and make changes and exit the game entirely, restart...etc etc etc.

Running a Rad HD 5770 on vista, 3gigs of ram with a intel i7 2.67 not top of the line, but its been more than enough to run all my recent games Dawn of War 2 Chaos, Starcraft 2, Mafia 2, etc at full ratings with no issues. Heck, the problems I'm having now are reminiscent of the problems I have when trying to play Elite Force 2 (star trek game from the earlier 2000s), bad framerate, no foreseeable ways to fix it.

Anyway, the game itself has been enjoyable, when its not crawling. Its making me fear what will happen with my Fallout New Vegas, as I've also pre-purchased that via Steam. My fault I suppose, thinking that since my rig is probably so much better than my x360, it should be able to play the same damned games well (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)