[Toptube]

[firenze]

So apparently, Polyphony confirmed that Gran Turismo 5 will have a track editor allowing players to build tracks from scratch or edit the tracks in the game. Sony is saying they haven't announced that feature, but it looks like a decent chance that this is legit (see http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=226530, among others... google around).

Nothing against Forza 3, which is a very good racing game. But Turn 10/Microsoft better enjoy being the king of the hill while it lasts, because I have a feeling it's not gonna last long... Unless maybe you're really into doing paint jobs.

Adding a big time feature like a track editor to the already inevitable GT graphical polish and top notch driving physics, and the shrewd licensing that was announced back at E3 (I think it was sheer genius to grab NASCAR to appeal to the US, and WRC to appeal to Europe, and maybe some F1 coming before all is said and done)... GT5 continues to be pretty intriguing to me.

[Dracko]

[boojiboy7]

Actually, painting cars matter a lot to me. Makes me feel like I actually own some of the cars instead of just using them as tools to get more cars. Forza is going to continue to be the game that actually makes me care about individual cars. Unless GT5 does something different, it's just going to make me care about the number in my collection, not the cars themselves.

[Toptube]

While there is no reason for me to think that it will (unless its been confirmed to) ship with a painting mode, I can't imagine GT5 now shipping without one.

[Rud31]

Played a little of Forza at a friend's house. I found it pretty boring to look at.
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My Hawt Blog Vita Games

THERE ARE DEFINITELY WORSE VIDEO GAME PODCASTS

[Gironika]

[Toptube]

Remember when GT2 had funny cars in it!

[Gironika]

A long long time ago it was ....


And hey, I tried to make the Maserati GT a beast around corners, though it doesn't really want to be a beast ... a bit disappointed here.
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[LandRoverAttack]

I've been having a pretty good time and getting into Forza 3, and playing it in front of friends. They're getting interested too... mostly because of the crazy vinyls folks have made. I don't think any of my friends have any interest in cars. I can't say I blame them, though.



we're all pretty terrible people lol
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[Toptube]

Still haven't played any Dirt 2 on my PS3 yet....but my attention has been brought to the Wii version.

Its uh, pretty barebones with no online, 9 tracks, and no difficulty options.

but for some reason, I think I like the graphics?

Its weird, remove all the fancy effects, drop texture resolution to near nothing and then smear them all over, but retain decent lighting and a pretty nice framerate and you have a game that I think looks pretty good. They certainly could have done better with the Wii, but for being shat out its pretty weirdly good looking.

Official promo:

</object>


some guy's captured races:





running on an emulator with resolution bumped to 1440x900, but then captured at 640x480:





It probably looks better than it should smashed down into youtube videos. but hey, its looks pretty ok from here! and the driving model seems pretty alright, if a bit too grippy and/or arcadey.


*I don't have a Wii

[Toptube]

changelog for the Shift patch out HOPEFULLY by the end of the month:

[km]

_________________

vi) RPGs (Role-Playing Games)
For adolescents; half-formed personalities roaming (in packs) in search of identity.

[Cossix]

I like that in the video game there are walls but when they let the gamers have the cars there aren't

[Gironika]

so hey, I'm back. Was a bit busy and didn't get to do much racing, though I finally earned enough to buy that XJ220 I wanted. Since I wanted to do an Ace Combat-inspired paintjob in Forza2 (but never did), I decided to do so this time. Sponsored by one of the war monger-companies of Ace Combat Zero-fame, here it is in a civil and racing-trim.









The best thing about this car is that you can't see much because you are sitting quite low in the cockpit, so Road Atlanta, turn 2 is a really, really tricky one since you have to guess where the road ends to your left to be able to enter it from as far to the outside as you can place your car to take enough speed down the hill.



And yeah, will pick up the SB-Fiat 131 paintjob next that still isn't done.
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[shnozlak]

Why do you have X's on the pop-up headlights? The point of taping up the lights is to keep the glass from getting all over the race track if the light breaks in a collision.
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Mixtapes galore ~ VG MUSIC
ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ http://phantom-photon.tumblr.com/

[Gironika]

[Toptube]

*HD at youtube


Now inspired to finally take that new NFS Shift patch for a spin today. If that fails to impress, I may actually open Dirt 2!

[Gironika]

so yeah, I finished that one but decided to redo it and add some new sponsors, so here's my take on a SB-official car.





the land-orca-sponsor-one took me some time to figure out how it'd look best, though I think that nails it. And I hope that birdcloud is happy with his cloud-computing ad.
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[CubaLibre]

Oh, man. That is sexy.
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Let's Play, starring me.

[Toptube]

was too lazy to download the NFS Shift patch, so I just put Dirt 2 in with my PS3 disconnected so that it wouldn't force me to download any inevitable patches.


The driving model for rally cars isn't as good as RSchallenge 2 and probably isn't as fun for the trucks/buggies as Toca 3, but its definitely good. I've only just started so not a lot to say yet, but I had fun for a couple of hours. It is a really tough game though, probably too tough? I mean, for one of the rallies the only possible way to be fast enough and win was to cut a huge secetion of corners and just punch straight through. That didn't seem right to me, but after an hour of shaving down my time, it was the only option left.

[Toptube]

Dirt 2 is the first game I've seen that makes use of the XMB built in feature (after a fairly recent update) for screenshots (Uncharted 2's MP might (does it?) but I haven't actually loaded into the MP yet). Its really simple and saves straight to the hardrive.

Pics will follow*

**that^ is probably tough to read.

[Schwere Viper]

I think I enjoyed DiRT 2 so much because it feels like a racing video game rather than a racing simulator.
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HeavyViper@Twitter ~~~ HeavyViper@Soundcloud
Blog: Machines That Sing

[Gironika]

If nobody has any objections, I'll put the design up later then, for a hefty price-tag, of course.
Search-string will be "landorca" and/or "sb", not too sure about this yet.
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[Schwere Viper]

I need to find this game cheap after Christmas so I can roll with SBers and DRIFTRACE
_________________
HeavyViper@Twitter ~~~ HeavyViper@Soundcloud
Blog: Machines That Sing

[boojiboy7]

I'll throw mine up as well, Gironika. I've made some minor changes to it, but nothing too huge.

[Takashi]

[Gironika]

[Toptube]

GT5 time trial demo tomorrow.

[Gironika]

FM3-folks, go here to get some racing and/or drifting done.
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[Toptube]

[Toptube]

So Dirt 2 is pretty good. It offers a lot of different event types and makes a good effort to always be fun. It is fun, so they succeeded. The off road driving model is overall quite good too, so yes again its just a nice fun game.

It does have some problems but they aren't huge:

1. I wish there was more of a "hooked up" feel to when your car gains traction. The game isn't floaty, but there is always a slight feeling that I'm not exactly sure if/when I'm going to get traction. Its not terrible, but it does make time trials at harder difficulties occasionally border on frustrating.

2. as far as I know, there is no way to see a map of a course before you race on it, so you must blindly set your gear ratios until you've trial and errored a few times.

3. For some reason the other drivers talk to you while racing, as if you are all networked with headsets. Its a wierd decision, I guess its an attempt to make you feel like you are buddies with these pro-drivers that you may or may not know actually exist. Their remarks are kept to A. complaining about your agressive driving B. telling you what a good job you are doing usually related to a specific maneuver that would probably be impossible for them to know about.
I guess I find it a bit annoying.

4. when buying a vehicle, all you get to see is a little black and white polaroid of it parked in a pit area. Often the vehicles I buy end up looking much different than I percieved them to. Its just kind of stupid, really.

5. The graphics are good, but Ironically they really should have worked more on the dirt effects. Vehicles just don't carve in and spew dirt like they really should (some of my screens below look pretty good, but those are at the game's very best). Shift has better dust and smoke effects and its a road racing game!

6. they really need to patch in an adjustment for steering lock. its a bit too sensitive. I actually think being able to dial this back would help with my perception of traction.



a couple more good things to mention:

1. I play on the second hardest difficulty "extreme". It gives you one rewind per race and is legitimately pretty damn hard. time attacks especially stretch my ability on this difficulty.

2. Online multiplayer and custom matches allow you to race any vehicle type on any track type.

3. again, it supports XMB screenshot taking and outputs pics in high quality .png straight to the hardrive. (I converted to jpegs to make them easier to upload/download)


on with the screenshots:

this is the car you start in. It was apparently used by Colin McCrae at some point:



rally cross at night



This Mitsubishi Eclipse is so far my favorite rally car to drive in the game







a smashing finish



Baja/Raid (other than Raid vehicles being a bit more highly tuned, I don't see the difference between these events)


cutting the track in style







Gate Crasher - lots of fun. takes place on the same course as the pure rally, but you don't get the co-driver calling out turns. Its REALLY hard. I actually thought it was going to be stupid, but I like it a lot. I wish you could do a time attack gate crasher on EVERY course. You might actually be able to in custom matches, but I haven't looked yet.



the physics on the "gates" are pretty cool. If you don't nail them in the center, only the portion you hit actually explodes away, leaving half or less of the gate still standing.

[Gironika]

[Toptube]

Yeah I bought Dirt 2 during the ToysRUs buy 2 get 1 free (also got Uncharted 2 pre-order and Bayonetta Pre-order)

[Toptube]

I didn't make this, but have a look at this santa porsche that someone made in Shift:
http://www.noelshack.com/up/aac/santaporsche-146f999473.jpg


and if you are interested, this thread here is full of work from this one guy in particular that is really good. Especially considering how painful it is to make liveries in Shift. The tools are well enough, but they give you the worst possible angles for applying the vinyls.
http://forum.needforspeed.com/eaforum/posts/list/333060.page

[Gironika]

So hey, spent some time painting some cars this weekend.

I've linked the Ace Combat cameo-painjob-inspired TVR earlier on, and despite it looking nice it failed to secure anything else than last place - ok, I managed to get a #4 spot in Le Mans, but that was the best it could do. Nevertheless, served me well!

Then a new paintjob for the Hyundai Genesis Coupe+, since I'm rather fond of the new Genesis (as you might be able to tell).
http://neverthesamecolor.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/my-hyundai-01.jpg
http://neverthesamecolor.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/my-hyundai-02.jpg

And, last but not least, the last two shots turned out rather well, especially the guardrail-eating 206RC++.

And with xmas approaching, I'm in for some online-racing the next weekend or so.
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[Rud31]

Hey guys, isn't the time attack challenge garbage? Was playing this with a friend and her girlfriend started looking on the internet for some site that would actually trash the demo.

I don't play a lot of racing games but I have driven a car before and holy fuck that was awful.
_________________
My Hawt Blog Vita Games

THERE ARE DEFINITELY WORSE VIDEO GAME PODCASTS

[Toptube]

you talking about the GT5 academy demo?

I'll hopefully be palying that tonight.

It was an interesting movie for that to be the first new playable thing since GT5p. I mean, its got almost no driving assists and the whole thing is less than 300mb (I've heard the trackside detail is pretty low). So, huh. Well anyways as a big GT fan, I'll weigh in on it eventually.

[boojiboy7]

Yeah, it kinda sucks. Their aping of the Forza line is pretty worthless as well.

[Gironika]

[Toptube]

Played the GT5 time trial thing.

Graphically it looks like a beta, which I expected because of its 203Mb size.

There is no bonnet view which means I REFUSE to put any serious time into it. I'm probably going to go scream on the official forums or something to try to get this in the final game.

The tuned car on the road feels pretty good. There are zero driving assists and I didn't really have any problems driving that weren't caused by unoptimal for me views.

Once you hit the grass though its like a green sheet of super ice.

The untuned (stock) car feels like you are driving on snow.

I've never understood why a car simulator means make it all feel like ice.