Monster Jam, a broken app

[Davy Jones]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to Steam so not sure whether I should post questions here or at http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=408 but anyway here goes...

I have purchased a copy of Monster Jam http://store.steampowered.com/app/7990/?snr=1_7_suggest__13 and is listed as a single player title

The game description includes "Race with friends in multiplayer mode - Crush your competition and your friends in split screen multiplayer mode" but for me that amongst other features isn't present.

When first playing the title I noticed the sound problems in some maps and from a search came across a reference to the patch at http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1553520 which was able to install. The patch fixed the sound errors but did not fix the missing control, video or multiplayer options.

I thought the issues were down to the Steam version being some how different form the original but not so. I know this now since following someone suggesting not to buy the game from Steam but the original version on disk I did so. I installed it and applied the patch, which of course I didn't need to extract as it applied correctly.

From what I can see the original version of the game is no better or worse from that available from Steam. There are no control or video settings selections in options and unless I'm missing something there are no multiplayer options.

I should not that I have been running everything on the Windows 8 Preview but I have tried the same app with patches applied with app compatibility applied and natively in Windows 7 and Windows XP but still not changes.

The long and short of this is that I'm a bit confused now and I think that Steam should at least double check the game description or remove the title from the store. I you don't apply the patch or know how to add config options in Steam how is anyone to set the screen resolution or assign buttons for controllers?

I noted the patch allows for configuring of two controllers but the game still only accepted inputs from one. In my case 2 x XBox 360 controllers connected via USB.

If someone out there has Monster Jam 2007 installed and is able to use multiplayer in some way can you advise on how exactly?

[sirronald555]

There used to be multiple posts in here about this broken game. Wonder why they deleted them all......that is pretty messed up.

[Philski]

Thought this would be good for a laugh (made a post about it, now deleted) but its not.. it sucks.. and the worst is that its keyboard or nothing... cant use my G27 on it at all.

[Davy Jones]

As bad as it is I'm still playing it every now and then. You need to manually add the patch available here http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1553520 to add support for configuring video and controller settings before the game starts. The settings dialogue includes options for configuring two controllers but only one is active as the PC version of this game only supports one controller as a multiplayer option isn't present.

Note follow the patch install instructions carefully. The patch from Activision is based on having a copy of the orginal CD ROM version of the game installed which on a PC would be somewhere like C:/Program Files/Activision where as in this case it's in the Steam folder so you need to extract the contents and copy them manually.

And one the patch is installed got to Monster Jam in your Library and from the Properties set a Launch Option of --config which will force the settings dialogue the patch will give you to appear anytime you start the game so you can tweak any video or controller settings if you need to.

Overall how this game is described both on Steam and with the CD ROM version is downright sloppy as mulitplayer is listed but it's not there. I suspect whatever copy and cover art they prepared for the console version go rehashed for the PC one and nobody bothered to check it so buyer beware :)