Never The Same Color

2^15

hectique — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:28:06 +0000

After failing miserably at my first try in Wipeout HD’s “Zone” mode, I realized I shouldn’t just look into achieving high scores. Isn’t it even more interesting to aim for a score which has to be powers of 2? ^^

2D, 2D or not 2D?

Vio — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:23:38 +0000

The problem with the 3DS seems to be that you (literally) can’t see what’s so awesome about it, as far as the 3D-part is concerned. Which, in turn, makes for an interesting question:
Will the times be gone where “l@@k, cool graphixxx” sells games? Since you can’t “print” (hologram aside) or show 3D without the equipment on the receiver side, that’ll be challenge I want to see being tackled.

HEY! Listen!

Vio — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:33:59 +0000

Ever wanted to know who did the damn ~~annoying~~ important voice-acting of Navi in Zelda:OOT?
Scroll down and be amazed. Kind of hard to believe but this link is related to Navi then.

Yeah, I can’t believe it as well.

Ghost Trick is one to watch…

Vio — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:11:11 +0000

If you haven’t Ghost Trick on your radar, you better watch the inevitable E3 coverage spreading across the web the next week(s). This might be the next “day 1 purchase” for my Nintendo DS (and, frankly speaking, the second one after TWEWY).

A Case Against: Blabbering NPCs

Vio — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 21:20:04 +0000

Case 2:
We all have encountered them at least once:
A NPC (Non-Player-Character) telling us useless information – information to disregard right off the bat. “Nothing new here”, you might think, and in most cases you are right. However, I’ve encountered a case where things went a bit wrong …. I’m speaking of End of Eternity alias Resonance of Fate.

Suspect #1

A little brat is asking me whether I wear the same ones day in and out. “Fine”, I think, I’m changing my outfit every new chapter, so why not doing it right now to shut her up?
New set of clothes and back again, little brat is telling me the same thing. Hm. Well, let’s ignore her then, shall we?

Fast forward an hour or two. I’ve reached a new floor and started carrying out one of the assigned missions, this time a winter/ice-themed level. People are telling me left and right that I should equip weapons that can deal fire-damage since that’ll help me a great deal. I’m doing so and everything is going fine until I get killed and have to redo a battle. And again. Well, I should make better use of the fire-damage-bullets, I suppose? Lo and behold, I’m victorious. Close to finishing my task as well!

Just the boss left – two turns later: …. Did that one waste me or what?
About ten game overs later: … Why?

Back to town then, buying more ammunition. Talking to townsfolk to see whether I missed something. And what do you believe I see someone mentioning there?
NPC #whatever: (palaver) You should wear clothes that keep you warm (palaver)
NPC#whoever: (palaver) You should wear clothes that keep you warm (palaver)
… Wait.
I check out the resident shops. Surprise! They sell some equipment that prevents you from taking ice-based damage.

Wondering why I didn’t notice that, especially since THAT much people are telling me to take care of this.
… still clueless? See Suspect #1:
Yeah, it’s all thanks to that little brat fu– pardon, fooling around and telling me to change my clothes. Her unnerving ~~bullshit~~ message made me disregard any chattering dealing with my clothes, making me ignore a key problem being pointed out by NPCs in the end.

If that was a intentional choice, hats off, tri-Ace! If so (and even if not): That NPC shall rot in hell.
If you want NPCs to enrich the game with drivel, then at least do not follow that up with mission critical information that is needed to progress.

This is Serious Fun after all.

Verdict: Capital punishment for that NPC, case closed.

A Case Against: Magnetic Graveltraps

Vio — Sun, 30 May 2010 08:56:01 +0000

Racing games are flawed and never manage to recreate the real things, due to the natural limitation of not being able to emulate the “real thing”.

With that out of the way, time to get annoyed by the little shortcomings that stain an otherwise likeable experience. You know what I hate most in racing games these days?
Magnetic Graveltraps™.

… almost caught me there.

I suppose that these were invented to keep players from cheating online, and there is no better way than bringing someone to a halt if he/she is searching a quick shortcut, point taken.

But.
If I swerve off the track to avoid hitting another car or if I’m unable to keep the car on the road, I want to sail through graveltraps, roll and spin like there’s no tomorrow. If there is a thing I can’t stand, then it’s a car getting off and grounding to a halt in half a second.
Let me meet the barriers! There are fun times to be had, like finding out that applying the brakes on guardrails makes a special kind of screeching. The fun part of upgrading a car from 200 to 700+ bhp is the way it handles afterwards, if every bump sends you flying and hanging on for grip is a challenge. Not so much fun if, say, you are getting airborne just to see your car getting stuck after leaving the track for a second.

If it’s necessary to include that kind of ~~bullsh*t~~ technique, give me an option to dis-/enable it. There are already systems in place that invalidate the current laptime, so it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with something that can do this, heh?

An Enemy is slipstreaming you!

Alas: I’m surely not the only one who wants to have more rolling and getting airborne, am I?

Out Run – Geargacha style

Vio — Fri, 28 May 2010 22:56:51 +0000

Want to share with you a nice tidbit of information found on magweasels website here:
Watch some impressive Out Run Geargacha (or Girgacha) play and see why Gran Turismo-style offtrack driving is a cheap copycat in that regard.

(Plus! They had (a) Ferrari years before GT made it to the market.)

No money, no friends

hectique — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:01:30 +0000

So I installed steam the other day. Excited about being able to play all those cool games like Portal and so on that I missed all those years since I am using a Macintosh and don’t want to be bothered by a Windows installation. Of course I wanted to add people I know to my friends list also… but:

In the Steam World, friendship is not for free.

FM3 & Nür 24h Update

Vio — Sat, 15 May 2010 00:00:41 +0000

Since the famous 24H race takes place this weekend, we decided on a whim to make a Nürburgring FF-contender kind of like the famous Motoring Show TopGear would tackle this thing:

300 kWh max

FF only

it has to be a class B-car (<501 ranking)

you have to fit the racing-spec front-wing and racing slicks.

Time allotted for painting the car was 30 minutes initially, though we stretched that to 1 hour 15 minutes. Alas, here’s my entry:

It turned out to be the most powerful (and handful to drive) entry out of three: Fitted the V6 Brera engine + some upgrades, biggest rims (give you -5 or so, important to stay below the 501-points target) + widest rims on the front → managed to get 289 kWh out of this machine.
The downside? No rollcage, racing brakes, transmission, clutch and flywheel. Add a 66:44 weight distribution and you might see where this is going… if you want to try it for yourself, it’s up to grab in the FM3-shop. As these pics suggest: fun times!

Best preparation for the race tomorrow then, can’t wait to see people trying to go where we already went today.

GTAdvertisment Collection

Vio — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:50:30 +0000

Nice move by Rockstar:
You can listen to the radio adverts that made the GTA-radio stations feel “real” (well, to some extent) now. Head over to
the official website and catch up on what you might have missed.

Thanks go to my GTA-loving friend LL for pointing this out!