If you haven't been living under a fully furnished, sound and radio wave proof rock in the last 6 months, and you have an interest in simulation racing games, I'm sure you've heard a bit about Project CARS, a new community-funded and developed simulation racing game by Slightly Mad Studios (known for NFS Shift series, GTR2 and GT Legends).
I also know that there's certainly quite a mass of opposing people in the internet who will stop at nothing to sprout negative opinions about the ongoing development of the game. Now, I'm not going to lower myself to their level by attacking them for something that doesn't have any objective ground, but I will mention that they have placed themselves in an awfully large veil of ignorance towards the potential of this project.
If you're new to racing games, or just a casual player, then there's also much you can still do for light enjoyment within Project CARS. Although it's targeted for the more 'simulation' focused players, there's nothing stopping new players grabbing a controller, keyboard or racing wheel and going about their business in a Quick Race, Online Race or other game mode. If scripting and such is available to set up custom race events, I'm sure we'd be seeing a vibrant community of mixed participation/skill levels, with everything from Gymkhana, Touge Battle, Drag Races and much more...
There's also something in it for those who like shiny, impressive and "realistic" visuals. What most people would commonly describe as "stunning graphics", are more so the result of carefully tuned and refined aesthetics that combine with graphics techniques to give you a wonderfully customisable (at this time) and animated experience. If the following means anything to you, I'm sure you'll love it as much as I'm saying that it's one of the most highly featured modern game rendering engine by far:
- DirectX 11 Multi-Threaded Deferred Renderer
- Multiple Dynamic Lights with Variable Shadow Quality
- Full HDR-R with Adjustable Options
- Etc.
There's certainly lots to feature in that department, but that could take an entire day or two to post.
The important thing now is that you check out www.wmdportal.com for all the latest news and announcements on Project CARS.
Feel free to join the forums and even purchase a development toolpack to get involved with helping to develop the most promising community-developed simulation game by far.
Oh, and this totally wasn't an advertisement.
Enjoy!
Razor Blayde, Atamarashi
I promised updates a long while ago, and to be completely frank, I haven't lived up to that.
You might say, 'That's a total surprise! Not."
Au contrare!
[Pardon my ridiculous out of place French impression]
I still think I can make this blog actually active, instead of periodic to whenever I feel like it. It's not the same as a diary, but a web-based way of keeping my digital musings up and running is eternally beneficial nonetheless.
Maybe I can tempt readers back with this tasty morsel of a video I literally just made a few minutes ago?
Hope to see ya again,
Razor Blayde
Now I guess there's no way I could know what everyone's doing this year...
(Hint hint, New Year Resolutions)
Though what I do know for sure is that I haven't even made my Resolution either. Not because it's my faux resolution to not make a resolution, or that I've suddenly turned into an all-knowing guru and I no longer need one.
No, the real reason is that I've started to see the pointless nature of "New Year Resolutions", and also that I'm lazy with making them, except for last year.
Now last year was a bit of a hit and a miss with a few different things, probably to do with the start of the HSC journey, booyah. There was my first, then second LAN party, my first time driving manual (eek! Asian drivers!) and much more.
I did miss a few opportunities and ended up almost doubting myself for some of my exams, though I was still pretty pleased with how they turned out (1st in Software Design ftw) with a fair spread of excellent results all around.
But enough about last year, and back to my point: There's some kind of social pressure on people around New Years time to make a Resolution, which often results in the most demotivational and plagiarised mantras known to society. What I can't honestly believe is how anyone could follow such a distant and not to mention, cliched tradition for an entire year.
What I do agree with though, is when people do take the time to create their own motivations personally and without external 'help', so that it stays true with them for that year and actually has some depth to the written or typed words.
The best kind of motivations don't have a time-expiry like New Year Resolutions, even though every year marks the start of a new one. These exceptional ones stay on forever and even help those who make them through some very trialling times!
So the next time you ever make a New Years Resolution if you've made one already for this year, try sitting with yourself, sipping your favourite drink and listening to your most inspirational music: and simply create your true motivation for your life in the future, no matter how insignificant the thing is.
See you next time,
Razor Blayde (or Atamarashi)
Hey-lo friendly blog-associates!
I know it's been awhile. Too long I suppose.
But at least, once again, we shall meet once more. That's hoping that I don't miraculously fall asleep at the end of this post for fear of my brain being unable to complete a thought about blogging and such.
The way that I seem to blog (after reading over my archive, which as you would know, is pretty random and sporadic), post, etc is uniquely... Irrelevant.
But at the same time, it's more or less a thought stream from my head turned real.
(I secretly love how I type as fast as I'm thinking this stream through, it's amazing! You should try it out sometime and see how far you get.)
In that case, I've typed about random stuff without prior thought before and yeah, it didn't really make sense. I have also trimmed a few of the more, "emotional" sort of posts, which didn't really suit the theme of this blog.
They were important events in my life, no doubt, and I appreciate all the help and comments; though I need to move and get into more involving and more self-productive things...
Like, finishing projects, ie. Left 4 Dead mapping projects! And from there, CryEngine and stuff! All the fancy game engine tech people shall be, so to speak, "jelly" of my "talents" and "skills".
Although, I feel sometimes that I need to finish things like these and maintain more things (like this blog) more often and definitely frequently if I can, without upsetting the balance of my other hobbies, interests, activities, social gatho's (got a LAN party, city trip, friend's dinner and other outings planned for next week).
That's a whole lot more than I usually would have expected or planned if you'd remember how I used to be...
But anyway, there's more to come in the following weeks while my holidays and high school journey continues... Awww, blogging, how I've missed you.
And you, my readership of course.
'specially you. *Winking face* ;)
Peace to the world and Fly On,
Razor Blayde
30 Day Song Challenge
Just something that I thought I might try doing. I'll add links to the songs later.
day 01 - your favorite song
Ok Go - Last Leaf
day 02 - your least favorite song
Cascada - Every Time we Touch
day 03 - a song that makes you happy
The Temper Trap - Science of Fear
day 04 - a song that makes you sad
Final Fantasy - You Are Not Alone
day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone
Thirsty Merc - Hey Jacinta
day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere
Jimmy Eat World - The Middle
day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event
Jason Mraz - A Beautiful Mess
day 08 - a song that you know all the words to
Linkin Park - Somewhere Where I Belong
day 09 - a song that you can dance to
Groove Coverage - Moonlight Shadow
day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep
Angus & Julia Stone - Mango Tree
day 11 - a song from your favorite band
Yellowcard - How I Go
day 12 - a song from a band you hate
Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal
day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure
Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup
day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love
Curse of Monkey Island - A Pirate I was Meant to Be
day 15 - a song that describes you
Ok Go - Do What You Want
day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate
Linkin Park - New Divide
day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio
LMFAO - Every Day I'm Shufflin'
day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio
Scandal - Taiyou to Kimi ga Egaku Story
day 19 - a song from your favorite album
Yellowcard - Fighting
day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry
The Offspring - The Kids Aren't Alright
day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy
Stratovarius - Eagleheart
day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad
Rise Against - Like the Angel
day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding
Parachute - Be Here
day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral
Pete Murray - Opportunity
day 25 - a song that makes you laugh
Disney - Gummi Bears (Opening Theme)
day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument
Final Fantasy X - To Zanarkand
C.P.E. Bach - Solfeggio (C Minor)
day 27 - a song that you wish you could play
The Fray - Hundred (Singing and Playing it)
Billy Joel - Piano Man (Singing and Playing it)
day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty
Avenged Sevenfold - Blinded in Chains
day 29 - a song from your childhood
Do As Infinity - Tookumade
day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year
Daft Punk - One More Time
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)
Intro
This is the latest offering from Criterion Games studio, in partnership with Electronic Arts and DICE, formerly known for their work with the Battlefield series, is served up as the spiritual adaptation of the elder Hot Pursuit games of the classic Need for Speed series, complete with high-definition graphics, sounds, and most importantly; gameplay. A compelling take on the older NFS's sees Hot Pursuit drop players into the fastest of sports cars, exotics and their police counterparts, all in various different scenarios, races, and other high-octane challenges. What is truly unique about this newcomer's version of the “Cops and Racers” formula previously exhibited in Most Wanted as well as the older Hot Pursuit, is the socially focussed networking system referred to as Autolog.
Autolog in Brief
Autolog is all about how every achievement, every race and every time trial that each player earns throughout the game is able to be recorded, broadcasted and even make way for a system of online player challenges to further extend gameplay possibilities. Friends battle each other for the fastest time in a challenge, or the highest score and much more. This is all tracked by Autolog and players are free to comment on these records and even upload photos taken ingame and post it on their Wall.
It is a unique system never-before-seen in the racing genre, a social platform that could potentially bring more players to easily hop into a challenge that their friend had posted to them, in the hope of beating them and adding motivation to the social competition of the game in its online aspects.
Gameplay
Hot Pursuit offers a traditional arcade racing experience, with the added thrill of police versus racers in the eternal struggle for justice of the law against pure speeding freedom. Various modes allow players to select if they are to compete in a race to the finish line on various winding routes throughout the game's setting, Seacrest County, or to participate in a “Hot Pursuit”, where police fight the racers and vice versa, where the racers are trying to race each other to the finish and keep the race alive, while the cops make it their mission to shutdown the entire race before the racers escape. Players may experience their racing career from both sides of the law, starting as a Cadet in the SCPD ranks, with only limited access to cop vehicles and equipment and a Speeder in the Racer hierarchy, again with limited access to racer vehicles and equipment.
Players progress by earning Bounty, which accumulates to give them rewards of exciting new cars or equipment to give them the upper hand on the opposition or even the police, with separate Bounty totals for the player's Racer and Cop career. Further events are also unlocked as the player gains Bounty, with events in both careers to drive some of the fastest and albeit dangerous vehicles known to the motoring world.
Graphics
At first look, Hot Pursuit is visually stunning, with glorious motion blur effects, sparks, light coronas and dynamic weather/sunlight cycle, and often brings oneself to reel back and wonder how such graphics were made possible. It is a part of the game that does not necessarily demand full attention, yet rather complements the gameplay, as opposed to detracting from it.
However the extreme lack of any advanced graphics options to finely tune performance on PC's is a downright shame on Criterion Games' part. Players looking to tweak their gaming performance to optimum levels for their system will be plainly faced by 3 basic options of high resolution textures, motion blur and shadow quality. This is a relatively wide step taken by the developers, whose previous installment of the Burnout series, Burnout Paradise, had a decent approach to graphics options on its PC version, including shadow settings, SSAO, multi-sample anti-aliasing, environment mapping and much more.
At the time of writing, enthusiasts will immediately notice the complete lack of anti-aliasing or any mention thereof within the game, forcing Nvidia users to wait for a future driver update to be able to override the games deficiency, while ATI/AMD users sit with a hotfix driver release that only applies anti-aliasing to the car model, rather than to the car and the environment.
Controls
Hot Pursuit offers support for all widely known gamepads and controllers to date, except that it does not actually offer any kind of support for control tweaking or any possibility of custom control configurations. Nor is there any advanced settings for existing configurations, with deadzones, sensitivities and other issues plaguing some gamepads and most steering wheel controllers, which leaves those users in the dark.
For the controllers that do work well and are supported, the game experience is quite acceptable. I reviewed this game using the Microsoft Xbox 360 Wired Controller, using Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller for Windows drivers available via Windows Update or manual download by the Microsoft support website. This controller is fully supported and controls feel tactile and responsive, provided that graphical settings are set accordingly as to not cause havoc in the gaming experience.
The mostly arcade feel of the game may present a strange learning curve to previous Need for Speed fans, as braking and accelerating appear to be exaggerated at times and softened up at others. Steering works well in most cases, with precise, smooth steering needed to win most race style events. Vibration force feedback is enabled in this game and it feels quite accurate and immersive.
With that in mind, Hot Pursuit appears to work well with a gamepad/controller that is well supported.
Finer Details and Conclusion
The game feels quite incomplete in a sense, with areas that seems to reek of rushed development and Q&A testing sessions that barely scratched the surface of the bugs that emerged after release. Fixes and important game-improving changes need to be made, and quickly by the developers at Criterion Games. Their talent has been shown time and time again with their most successful Burnout series, and tiny, yet revelatory details such as full driver animations in cars or even the well written and voiced descriptions of each car show the creativity and ingenuity potential of this game. But for the most part, it has the framework of 2010's most outrageous arcade social racing experience. It has well deserved its declaration as the spiritual successor to the elder Hot Pursuit games of the Need for Speed series, and it may one day, earn its rightful badge at the top of the ranks as the Hot Pursuit we've all been waiting for.
