The Recycle Bin

The Atlanta Braves have been sucking wind of late, but they have managed to close to within 2 games of the slumping N.Y. Mets. Most of the problems can be attributed to Chipper Jones being out of the lineup. I think the Braves have a 7-10 record while Chipper has been on the DL. Hopefully he comes back soon, before the Mets get things sorted out.

Much like last year, the Braves are having another horrible June, going 3-7. Lucky for the Braves, the Mets have gone 1-8 in June. I guess it is all in the timing.

Every once in a while, out of the blue, an unexpected pleasant surprise comes along that is reason to smile. I have been catching up on a black log of reading material, and last night I found PSM’s F1CE review:

“The core racing is F1 at its finest, but Sony has built in enough tweakability that, with a little practice, anyone can pick it up and play…”

“Here’s the deal – Formula One will challenge you. It will punish you for the most innocent of mistakes and spit you into last place to try again, but it’s utterly addicting…” [PSM May 2007, p.72]

The reviewer gave the game an 8.0 rating. It is refreshing to see a mainstream publication get “it” when it comes to reviewing this type of game. Kudos to PSM.

Before I head off to work, two house keeping items are in order. First, sue me. PSM is a guilt pleasure as is EGM. Actually I think my PSM subscription has expired, but I enjoy flipping through the pages while sitting on the throne. I am not sure why I am defending myself, but I only subscribe to these things when I can get a really low rate (say under $10). There; I feel better. Second, I really do not depend on these reviews to make my game purchase decisions. While I do find them interesting, sometimes even entertaining, I have typically already made a decision long before I read the review. F1CE is a perfect example.

I spent about 30 minutes with Resistance earlier tonight and for the first time I came away really enjoying the experience.  I am not sure what happened, but some combination of slowing things down, reducing the sensitivity on the “look” control, and a little Crown on the rocks, made things happen.  OK, I am not very far into the game (just at Level 3), but tonight was a massive improvement over my previous experiences with the game.

I was about ready to give up on the game, but things improved once I started using the brakes.  Well not really, but I remember that something clicked with Colin McRae Rally (the original PlayStation version) once I learned to use the brakes; I actually got better and faster.  Go figure.

Tonight with Resistance, once I started going a little slower, looking for some sort of cover, taking my time to make sure I was not going to expose myself to an ambush, and looking for Chimeran bad dude types, the game became fun.  That and the fact that the graphics are pretty.  Actually looking at the details (taking the time to smell the roses) and watching the story unfold is rewarding.

Learning how to use zoom feature really helped, but I am just not that fast or handy with my weapons when I am being rushed or under serious fire.  Give me some time, and I can have a blast.  At one point I was in a position where I was actually able to take out some bad guys without them knowing I was one floor above them.  That was a real “this is fun” moment.  Blasting stuff from the tank was another “wow, this game does not suck so much” moment.  Finally getting the health power ups was priceless (hard to resist; sorry).

So far the enemy AI seems solid; at least they put up plenty of challenge for me, even on the easy level.  I swear that at times they must be hunting me, and I think they actually attempt to move forward, while protecting their vantage point with some cover.  If I were a better at this type of game I could probably pick out some faults, but I am not very good with FPS and I have not played enough to uncover serious problems.

At this point I am not convinced that I spent my money wisely on this game, but I am starting to see some of its appeal.  Fall of man?  No way, I kicked ass tonight!

Now that I have moved into the world of PS3 gaming, I spend a little time every now and again hunting for various gaming nuggets, and reading through worthless message boards (is there a good PS3 board out there?). One thing that really seems to irk the PS3 crowd is the seemingly daily news that another PS3 exclusive game is going the way of 360 (or Wii).

Is this really such a bad thing? I assume it is a necessary *evil* that companies such as Square-Enix cannot exclusively focus on Sony’s consoles. GTA IV not a Sony exclusive? Is that really so bad? Is it really so evil? I chuckle when I see rants complaining about the loss of yet another game from the PS3 camp. Give me a break.

I know that Xbox owners complained that a lot of companies (cough, EA, cough) would build for the PS2 and then port to the Xbox. The porting was not really the problem, but it was the lack of harnessing the power of the Xbox that really upset most Xbox owners. Are we going to see a role reversal between the 360 and the PS3?

It seems reasonable to me that developers would try to come up with code that was cross platform, and then focus in on some specific aspects and advantages of each system. The 360 has great online support with Live (so I have been told), so developers should add in additional multiplayer support. The Wii will have inferior graphics, but has opportunities to build unique controls. PS3 games should incorporate 1080p graphics, Sixaxis support, and take advantage of the extra space of the Blu-ray format.

I have read some publishers state that they want their releases to be the same across all platforms. Why? Wii owners are going to expect a more interactive experience. They should understand that from a technology perspective, the Wii’s graphics will be inferior to the other systems, and the Wii’s media cannot hold as much content as DVD-HD and Blu-ray. In other words, limited extras, and developers may have to make hard decisions to remove some features such as extra levels or maps.

Along the same lines, if a game is released for the PS3 before it is ported to the 360, gamers are going to expect to have improvements over the PS3 release – bug fixes, better controls, Live integration, and so on and so forth. If you are going to take the time to port, why not spend a little extra time and money to make something special?

That last bit (mostly the money part) is probably the rub. I can understand the economic reality of reaching a wider audience by taking a game multiplatform, but I cannot understand why a gaming company would not want to take advantage of special features offered by each console. If developers (and publishers) are going to have to spend the money to hire development teams to port a game to multiple consoles, why not make improvements along the way? From my vantage point, they are already making a financial commitment to port, so carry it a littler further, and I bet we will have a bunch of happy gamers.

All this is easy for me to say because it is reasonable, which means it will probably never happen.

I just tried to find my last post on the mighty blog and had to go back two or three pages. What can I say? There are bosses to slay in World of Warcraft. My baseball teams can’t manage themselves. I’ve been busy playing games. And since I don’t have a site, review, or something else to pimp, I prefer playing games to writing about them. There, I said it!

Jonathan makes me almost want to run out and get a new Blu-Ray player that also plays games. Almost.

I’m still operating off of my laptop. I actually enjoy not being “jacked” in all of the time. I respond to emails and PMs on web sites as fast as the next guy. I may not turn on AOL IM ever again. I’m about to purchase a Samsung BlackJack, so that may all change shortly. My office is finally moving to Microsoft Exchange.

Games I wish I had time to play – Civilization IV and Lord of the Rings Online. There’s a small chance I could play Civ IV on a plane ride or sneak in a few minutes here and there. No chance with LOTR online. I don’t see how people can play more than one MMO game at a time. Or at least people with bills to pay.

Hope everything is Ok Jonathan!

Boo-hiss.  After visiting three different doctors today, I got the bad news this afternoon that I have to go under the knife next Monday, which needless to say, will absolutely suck.  I am not going to go into details here, but in the short term I am not sure how this procedure will affect work, gaming, this blog, and more importantly, my family life.  Who knows the long term implications; have to pray about the one.  I have only been put “under” once before, when I was 18, to have my wisdom teeth removed.  I am dreading the countdown to Monday.

In more interesting news, apparently Chris is one popular guy.  We get a lot of traffic each week as folks search for Chris.  With his permission, I will post the exact phrase (nothing bad or that exciting, so calm down) here in this very blog, which may even allow more of his admirers to find him.

If I have been disappointed with anything about my PS3, it has been the controller.  From the battery charge system, to lack of rumble, to the funky R2/L2 triggers, to the cheap feel of the controller, the new Sixaxis controller is serviceable at best, but should have been a whole lot better.

I have not figured out a pattern on how long the Sixaxis holds a charge, but they do seem to charge up fairly quickly.  Since I have two controllers, I keep one connected to charge up, and switch between controllers every couple of days.  I could be cutting the life short on the controllers by constantly charging them, but it is nice to always have a wireless controller available.

I do not think the removal of rumble support is a huge deal, but it is funny how accustomed to it I have become over the years.  It would be nice to feel some feedback in F1CE when I crash, bump into another car, or take it into the grass or kitty liter.  If I do not buy a PS2 adaptor, my PS2 games will no longer support rumble.  I have so many PS2 games that I may spend some money on an adaptor just so I can use my Logitect controller and/or a standard Dual Shock for games where rumble is actually helpful.

The Sixaxis controller changed the design of the R2/L2 buttons to have a lot more give.  While not a pure trigger (analog on/off) they are pressure sensitive, providing varying degrees of input for things like gas and brakes in F1CE.  I guess it is just a matter of preference, but so far I do not like these buttons.

While I am extremely comfortable with the new Sixaxis controller (it is the same basic PlayStation style controller that we have been using for years), it is just so damn light compared to the Logitect wireless PS2 controller that I have been using for the last few years.  By comparison, the Sixaxis controller feels light to the point that it gives the impression of being cheaply made.

All in all, Sony could have done a better job with the new Sixaxis controller, but I suppose things could have been a lot worse.  That damn boomerang prototype concept artwork was for the birds.

Jeff Gordon has to be one lucky son of a gun; that or Steve Letarte is a freaking genius.  Maybe a little of both.  Growing up, some of my baseball coaches used to say that “I would rather be lucky than good” – pretty much the situation at Pocono today.  Gordon wins a rain shorten Pocono race and extends his points lead.

Unlike the NASCAR Pocono race, the CART race at Portland was not in HD, which is always disappointing.  Once you start watching sporting events in HD, it is hard to go back.  I watch the first five minutes of the race because I read in the paper this morning that this would be the first standing start in a CART race.  Not sure what the big deal was, but figured I would check it out.  There was something like 17 cars on the grid; seems to me that CART must be on its last leg if they can only pull 17 cars in a race.

Next weekend we get LeMans and the US Grand Prix.  Glory halleluiah.  Should make for a fun weekend!

Whoever said F1 was boring must have made that proclamation before the Montreal race.  Seriously, I used to follow F1 religiously until the last couple of years when passing only became possible in the pit lanes (with a few exceptions).  OK, boring was a good description.  While F1 was still the pinnacle of motor sports, it was just not that compelling.  As such, I have only been a casual observer until the last few races.  Hamilton is a compelling story, and seeing how Ferrari will respond to not having Schumacher carry the load is a compelling story.

Today’s race was disappointing because FOX did not give us the HDTV treatment, but oh, what a race.

I am not even sure where to begin.  I guess I should give credit where credit is due; Hamilton continues to be awesome.  What a wonderful start to his rookie season.

You expect these sort of results in wet weather – Hamilton, Heidfeld, Wurz, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Sato, Alonso, and R. Schumacher.

How about Ferrari?  What a horrible, miserable day for the Scuderia.  Massa got the black flag treatment for ignoring a red pit lane light, and Raikkonen did nothing other than stinking up the joint.  What a waste.  I still maintain that it is good for the sport when Ferrari is winning.

Kubica had a spectacular crash; I thought he was dead for sure, but early reports indicate he is in stable condition.  I have been watching F1 for a good ten or eleven years, and I have never seen such before.  If Kubica lives to tell his tale, that is truly a testament to the safety for modern F1 cars.

Four safety cars were deployed at various points during the race, which has to be some sort of record.  Trulli took it into the walls (not sure if this was another suspension failure or a mistake), Speed went out in the first ten laps, and Button’s car did not go into gear on the grid.  Two time World Champion Alonso all over the place, taking it off track at least three times (kind of looked like me playing F1CE).  Sato (of Super Aguri-Honda fame) took it to Alonso in the closing laps to pick up another position.  Toyota and Honda have to be kind of pissed at their lack or results.  Crazy stuff.

FOX’s coverage was OK (normal SPEED crew), with the exception of no HDTV coverage.  It sucks that due to time constraints we did not get to see the post race press conference.  It would have been fun to see what Hamilton had to say after his first victory.  All in all, the Canadian Grand Prix was an entertaining and eventful race.  Next up is Indy!

It is Sunday, so that means it is time for ramblings.

• Imagine the surprise on the face of the typical NASCAR viewer’s face when they tune into FOX today. “Hey, what’s up with the crazy cars without a roof?” TNT has today’s race, while FOX has the F1 Montreal race. I assume both will be in HD, which should be awesome. I have been enjoying NASCAR races in HD this year; cannot wait to see what F1 in HD looks like on my TV
• Another day, another Vick article. Most of the folks that are connecting Vick to dog fighting are fairly low life types; I would say anything too in order to get less jail time. Still, smoke = fire. I read that Miami has a certain QB that wants out; could be a good fit for the Falcons.
• I am going to give Resistance a few more tries, but I think the writing is on the wall. I suck at the game, and I will never get $60 from it, so I need to dump it pretty soon before Sony slaps a Greatest Hits price drop on the game.
• I am easily going to get $60 from F1CE; just a fantastic game that keeps me coming back for one more try. I have read several rumors that Sony no longer has the F1 video game license, which is disapointing if this is Studio Liverpool’s last F1 game. F1CE is a great base to build on, so I hope the rumors are not true. A few years back, EA did fine with their PlayStation F1 2000 and 2001 titles, but I do not have confidence that they could produce a better game out of the gate than this year’s F1CE.
• I still have not opened Elder Scrolls; need to get around to it at some point. Then again, I have not opened God of War, Gun, or FF XII, so that is fairly typical. Almost all my gaming time this week has been spent with F1CE, with some attempts at Resistance. My IOSBL OOTPB 2007 team sucks this year, but I have been too distracted with the new shiny to try to fix things. WoW has not received a sniff of play time in the last couple of weeks.
• Yesterday was a great day for watching quality racing. Montreal qualifying; I love the knockout format. The IRL Texas race was also exciting. 200 MPH wheel-to-wheel action. Very impressive. I really need to make an effort to watch more IRL events because most are pretty exciting. That Marco an idiot.
• Last night I cooked some awesome beef ribs (the only way to go) and sweet potatoes; good eating when you wash them down with some SweetWater 420. Makers Mark for a night cap. Mmmm. Good stuff.
• I actually wanted to watch some of the NBA finals, but Thursday night’s 9PM EST coverage is just too damn late. What is up with not having a game Friday or Saturday, and resuming on Sunday night at 9PM EST? I understand the need to get ratings, but the NBA is going to miss out on a lot of casual fans that may otherwise watch the game if it was on earlier.

I guess that is enough ramblings for one morning. Well, maybe time for two more, real quick like. It is that time of year again – college football annuals. Every year I swear them off, but I picked up a couple last week. Lots of games to play today after the chores are out of the way, and I understand that LeMans is next weekend. Happy days are here again!

Enough with the praise; the game is only multiplayer online.  Oh joy.  Imagine my disappointment as I setup a second controller so I could race with my oldest son.  I selected the multiplayer option and learned the hard way that multiplayer is only online or via a LAN.  I looked at the back of the game box, and sure enough, it shows 1 player (11 online).  Damn.

What sucks is that I got a free controller (the standard $49.99 Sony SIXAXIS wireless one) as part of my PS3 online purchase.  I was debating throwing it up on eBay; figured I could get at least $25 and I may as well wait until this fall for the new rumored controller with rumble support.  Now that I opened the controller, I doubt I will even get $10 for it on eBay.

I guess if that is my biggest negative with F1CE to date, I should not complain too much.  Still, it would have been awesome to see some 720p split screen action on my Sony BRAVIA KDL-40V2500.

I did just manage to place third at Indy, with aids off (except for weak stability), damage on, 10% distance, with scaled fuel use and tire wear.  Starting from 22nd makes the Quick Races fairly challenging (at least until I master the game).  I was in fourth on lap two after some, shall we say overly optimistic and aggressive tactics, when I killed my cone by breaking too late and ramming another car.  I was fortunate that was the extent of the damage.  I had to pit and it took 17 seconds before I was ready to go.  I have to get better at the button press sequence, because this ultimately cost me the race.  An early pit meant that my tires were fairly worn towards the end of the race, which made things touch and go on the last lap, but I managed to pull myself to a very respectable third place finish.  I lost by three seconds; a faster pit would have won the day for me.

Sure, maybe slightly on the arcade side, but from a simulation standpoint, if you do not hit the braking zones correctly or if you are overly aggressive on the throttle, you will spin (or just go off track), and that will pretty much ruin your chance at a victory.

I cannot state enough how much I am enjoying this game.  Last night and today I have been spending a lot of time at Montreal, but that first turn is a nightmare in Quick Race mode with damage enabled.  Starting 22nd, I have normally managed to pass a handful of cars going into the first turn, but things can get hairy (and very messy) there in a hurry.  If I can navigate the log jam, I have a decent shot at a good finish, but it is a fun challenge.

First of all I really like the game.  The developers have created a solid game with that all important “fun factor” by keeping the physics believable to the point that you think you are driving a F1 car, but at the same time the physics are forgiving enough to allow most gamers to enjoy the game.  I think if anyone ever put a console F1 game on the market that had ultra realistic features; it would die on arrival, with only a handful of dedicated gamers making a purchase.  That sort of game would get ripped by the mainstream gaming press as unapproachable to most gamers.

F1CE overcomes this challenge by including a solid physics engine, and a whole host of driving aids.  You can really set the options to your individual preferences.  For example, my oldest son keeps all aids on, and damage off.  I normally have all aids off with the exception of stability, which I currently have set to weak to give me a little help with throttle controls, especially out of most turns.  Of course playing with damage on has shot my race completion percentage to hell and back.  I think I currently failing to complete 15% of the races I enter, and I am only scoring around 1.8 points per race.  Ouch!  I get a sick feeling in my stomach when I crash from P6 on the last lap of a 10 lap race.

So far I have spent most of my time in the Quick Race and Time Trail modes, but I starting to move to the Grand Prix mode which has a couple of really nice features – saves and a new “evolution” tuning/setup process.  If you do not have enough time to practice, qualify, and race in one sitting, you can save and pick up where you left off.  I have not tried to save in-race; I have not run long enough races to see if this is something you do on the track or in the pits.  I will have to play around with it to see exactly when it is available.  The “Race Car Evolution” process gets you to run a series of laps during a race weekend’s practice session to help setup your car based on your performance with different fuel loads and tires (new vs. wear).  I honestly have not played around with this feature enough to get my money’s worth, but not for lack of trying.  I usually crash several times during a practice session and have to start over.  With each crash, you lose 10 minutes from the 60 allotted for practice, so going balls out and crashing is not really encouraged.  The “evolution” concept is nice; will write more about it later after I can keep it together enough to get some value out of the feature.

So far the racing action is pretty solid, without the perception of cheating catch-up type logic.  If I mess up, I will probably not catch up with the front runners, but I may be able to regain a few spots, assuming I am running at a faster clip than the back-markers (fairly common).  The fun part is trying to push the limit in order to catch up, but this usually ends up with me in a wall.  It would be nice to have varying degrees of damage (all or nothing is fairly rough).  The SIXAXIS controller works pretty well with this game, but right now I am not coordinated enough to make it happen; need more practice with this and I am surprised that I have not read more about the feature.

If you turn on most of the driving aids, and turn off damage, running the default 3-lap Quick Race is fairly close to what most gamers would consider arcade style racing.  I have only won a couple of races, both at Indy, with damage off.  I think I would do better (maybe not great) with damage on and more laps, but 3-lap races causes me to push harder and do more stupid tactics, often resulting in crashes, because I feel like I have to do something shady in order to go from 22nd to 1st with a limited number of laps.

The knockout qualifying format is a blast, and for this gamer, qualifying well actually matters.  Bad things tend to happen when I am at the back of the pack, but I feel a little calmer (I can make things happen without going crazy) if I am closer to the front.

I could probably write a lot more, but Montreal qualifying just started (real life, not F1CE).  I suppose next steps are for me to actually get better and maybe compare some lap times to the actual 2006 results.  All in all, I still highly recommend this game to simulation fans looking for a good console F1 racing experience.

Sometime this weekend, Akismet, our wonderful little spam filter, will hit the 5000 mark for number of spam comments blocked from the Recycle Bin. As of this morning, we are sitting on 4,899. Oh the thrill and horror of it all! Exciting times, no?

I had a long day yesterday, with an early morning production build to support at work. You would think that would translate into a great night of sleep, but nope, I have been up for a while now. Too bad, because I am exhausted. I guess four nights in a row of beer will do that to someone on the bad side of 35.

I watched a little of the Cavs/Spurs game last night; only because it was in HD, but the game did not seem that interesting. I do not know what the NBA is going to do to get back the casual fan. They need something compelling to happen soon, specifically in the finals, but longer term, the league needs go do something because the LeBron factor did not suck me into the game last night. If it were not for HD, I would not have watched any of the game.

I wonder if the search of Vick’s house turned up a regular pet cemetery. I cannot believe how silent the league and the Falcons have been on the issue. I know they cannot be judge and jury (that is the job of the media and us blog writers), but smoke equals fire.

Speaking of the Falcons, I noticed that they picked up my draft post, but I doubt you will see them pick up any of my comments about Vick. Seriously, he is toast.

I hope to have some more time to game this weekend. I have not touched the PS3 as much as I would have liked to this week, I have not spent any time with WoW, and I have not picked up the latest PSP firmware (I think it is out now). I really need to figure out this media streaming thing from my laptop to the PS3 and over to the PSP. I think I am going to be in the UK again the early part of July, and it would be awesome to access some content from my PS3 and PC.

Happy Friday!

I spent some more time with Resistance tonight, and let me tell you that it was not pretty.  Oil and water is pretty much the best description of me with FPS.  I am just not coordinated enough to handle the controls.  Of course a belly full of beer probably does not help; at least that has been my excuse the last few nights.

I did manage to do a little better with the game once I figured out that I need to slow things down, use the sniper zoom function, and make general use of the crouch button.  I am having a hell of a time with the controls; moving with the left analog and looking around with the right analog stick is sucking the life out of me.  I guess I need to keep working at it, look at a strategy guide, and maybe see if I can find a lock on cheat.

Slowing things down does help, but when three or more Chimera coming at me (or holding back waiting to gun me down), it has been pretty damn hard to not get blown away.  More health pickups are needed; they could be there, I just do not know how to find them.

Second impressions?  I still love the alternative history.  The graphics are impressive; lots of detail and the environments are pretty convincing.  I find the game plenty difficult, even on the easy level, but my inability to master the controls is a contributing factor to my struggles with the game.  I am not a FPS expert, but the AI seems sound.  The Chimera do their part to hide, take cover, yet still be aggressive.

The question for me is one of fun vs. work.  Should I have to “work” so much just to play the game?  I assume the game will get harder as I progress (if I progress), so I may hit a point of diminishing returns pretty quickly.  I have a feeling that this is no way that I can get $60 of value from this game, but I will probably keep at it through the weekend to see if I can get down the controls.