BlackSite: Area 51

BlackSite: Area 51

Developers
	Midway Studios Austin
Publishers
	Midway Games
Engines
	Unreal Engine 3
Release dates
Windows	November 12, 2007
Reception
Metacritic	60
IGDB	58
Taxonomy
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Shooter
Themes	North America
Series	Area 51

Area 51
Area 51	1995
Area 51 (2005)	2005
BlackSite: Area 51	2007

Key points

Game was released as BlackSite outside the U.S.

Game lacks an FPS limiter or Vsync and causes AI scripted problems at frame rates higher than 60 FPS. Limit the frame rate to prevent this.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM DRM

This game is not available digitally.

Essential improvements

Patches

Install the latest patch (v1.2).

Limit frame rate

The game has issues at frame rates above 60 fps.

Limit with RTSS
You can use external tools like Rivatuner Statistics Server (RTSS) to manually limit the frame rate to 60.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Midway\Blacksite\Config\

Screen.ini only contains screen resolution and option to start in window or fullscreen mode. Other settings are encrypted inside other files.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Midway\Blacksite\

Video

Video settings.

Post-processing enabled(up) and disabled(down).

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor			Image is Vert- and FOV will need to be increased to compensate. See Field of View.
Ultra-widescreen			Image is Vert- and FOV will need to be increased to compensate. See Field of View.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of View. Default is 75°.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Run in windowed mode and use Borderless Gaming.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16x.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Available in the options menu, but doesn't do anything. Force in the graphics card control panel.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Game can be played in windowed mode which enables double buffering in modern Windows and prevents screen tearing, but the framerate won't be capped.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		No frame rate or refresh rate cap. High frame rates may break NPC scripting during scripted events. Limit the frame rate to prevent this.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Field of View

FOV can be edited in Coalesced.ini, however this involves editing multiple entries. Comprehensively edited files for Hor+ gameplay in various different resolutions can be downloaded from the game's WSGF.com entry.

The files provided on WSGF.com give an FOV that is about 7° wider than a true 1:1 Hor+ increase from a base 4:3 image. Also, these files increase the FOV based on the default 75° at a 4:3 aspect ratio, however the game is designed around 75° FOV at a 16:9 aspect ratio, as indicated by the cutscenes which have a fixed FOV.

Download a comprehensively edited Coalesced.ini from wsgf.com

Download the fix from the WSGF entry. Replace Coalesced.ini in <path-to-game>\A52Game\Content\Tweaks\ with the fixed version that corresponds to your screen resolution or preferred FOV. If you're increasing FOV as Vert- compensation for an ultrawide aspect ratio, and you want a field of view closer to what the developers intended, use a Coalesced.ini file for one aspect ratio down from the one you're using. I.E. if your aspect ratio is 21:9, use the custom file for 16:9 aspect ratio.

Post-processing effects

Motion blur, light bloom and color correction can be disabled by deleting or renaming an external file.

Disabling post-processing
Go to <path-to-game>\A52Game\CookedPC Delete or rename the file a52postfx.xxx

Input

Input settings and key mappings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Acceleration intensity worsens at mouse polling rates above 125hz
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Additional information
Button prompts
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, sound effects and dialogue
Surround sound		5.1
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation, download.
Italian
Polish
Russian
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
LAN play
Online play		The official Quazal multiplayer service has been shut down.

VR support

3D modes	Native	Notes
vorpX		G3D User created game profile. Requires important settings to work properly, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c
Shader Model support	3

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok
Audio	FMOD
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	Quazal

Issues unresolved

Dynamic shadow rendering bug.

Dynamic shadows enabled(up) and disabled(down).

Dynamic shadow rendering bug

Dynamic shadows of certain characters and objects are rendered incorrectly.

Turning off dynamic shadows in video settings also turns off light in outdoor areas.

Game freezes when changing video settings

It can sometimes happen that the game freezes when changing dynamic light, anti-aliasing or filtering mode in the video settings menu.

Delete the settings file
Go to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Midway\Blacksite Delete the file settings.dat Next time the game is launched it will create a new file with default settings. Change the settings in the options menu.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	XP, Vista
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon 64 4000+
System memory (RAM)	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	15 GB
Video card (GPU)	256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9 compatible Shader model 3.0 support