Monday, May 30, 2005
Rockets, Vollies and Sleepless nights
I started Playing Master league again, I have done nice advancements. This time I started with Real Madrid, an already star-studded team and went on to add players like Edgar Davids, Robert Pires, Ronaldinho, Van Nistelrooy, Ryan Giggs, etc etc. I reiterate myself, this is the best soccer game on planet Earth as I speak full stop. It's so tempts you to have just one more go after you finish each game in master's league, and anxiuos transfer negotiation periods, they add so much fun and realism to the game. Off I go to have another swing at the game :)
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Pro Evolution Soccer4
I started playing this game a week ago. Boy, this is the best soccer game that I have ever played, The FIFA series by EA has the licences to all the leagues, clubs and players, but the gameplay is nowhere near the level of PES. PES has all these fake league names, team names and even stadium names, but that doesnt matter as long as the game is downright fun to play, isnt it? I started playing the master league where you get to manage a team and hope to win the WEFA championship, by acquiring and training players. Little did I know that players' salaries are paid at the end of the season(Although it is showed at the beginning in the form of a message I hadnt cared to read through it), I went on a recruiting spree(usually when you apply for transfer negotiations most of them break-down, so I had developed this habit of applying for transfer of multiple players with similar abilities hoping that atleast one will be a success), but unfortunately this time many of them agreed and I went bankrupt, thereby losing my chances of winning the WEFA championships. However, I have started from square one again and I shall live on to fight for the title some other day :)
Sunday, May 22, 2005
colin mcrae rally 04
I have been playing this game since a couple of days. This is my first rally game, leaving Richard Burn's Rally demo and cmr04 demo aside. Initially, playing it on keyboard can be cumbersome, but as you get used to it and start to feel the level of grip on the surface it feels a lot easier. Like many other racing game lovers, I have also played all the titles of the Need For Speed series extensively. The only other title worth adding to my gaming Resume is Microprose's GP4. Almost all the major teams are featured in this version, the only teams missing are Skoda and Hyundai.
There are 2wd cars like Citroen Saxo, Ford Puma and the Volkswagon Golf. Subaru Impreza WRX, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, Citroen Xsara, Ford Focus, Peugeot 206 complete the 4wd lineup. Also, there are some exotic cars from the '80s which were discontinued for their sheer power and their ability to multiply the casualties toll. Each of these cars behave/handle differently, a 2wd transmission car is easier to handle than a 4wd one. And the variation in handling charecteristics among these cars are easily noticeable.
Eight National events are featured in the game: Finland, Sweden, USA, Australia, Japan, UK, Greece and Spain. But, the 2wd normal championship mode has only 6 events with 4 stages each. Some events even have a super special stage in an enclosed area. Whereas the 4wd normal championship mode has 7 events with 6 stages each along with ocassional Super special stages. There are 6 championship events to beat before you can have all the bonus cars. This is includes an Expert mode Championship event where you are forced to use the cockpit camera and the car takes heavy damage.
The game might disappoint the NFS community as you dont get to burn the roads at 150MPH without taking any kind of damage. One more interesting thing is you cant reset your car as in NFS, If you run off-track you should manually get your car onto the track, but the game does reset your car when you fall off a cliff or if your car turns over. Driving the cars in cmr04 is not your easy, pedal to the metal, hurtling down wide circuits, type of game. The circuits in cmr are amongst the narrowest I have ever seen in any rally sim. This is a great step-up in authenticity. The narrow tracks really give you an awesome sense of speed. It also is a great thing when you realize that you can control the cars on a precise path, and that as long as you concentrate and take care, you can place the cars extremely precisely. But watch out for potholes on the road surface. They’ll throw your car off balance and you’ll feel the weight shifting about on all four wheels, acting independently on each! The cars in cmr are not necessarily that difficult to drive. The difficulty is in driving them fast, and not loosing control, crashing out. That being said, with some practice you can reach frightening speeds, frightening because you’re inches away from a wall, a pothole or a tree with 100mph on the clock. The driving experience is really spot on, believable, authentic, governed by real physics so the cars react as you’d expect them to. When you go off you know it’s you who made the mistake, not a limitation or a shortcut in the physics engine.
What adds to the difficulty is the fact that you get only 60 minutes to repair your car after every 2 stages, so if you wrecked your car bad on the previuos stages you'll have to exceed the time limit for bringing back your car to its fullest potential, if you do so, a penalty is added to your next stage time. This brings us to the story of unsung heroes of rally racing, the co-drivers. By just listening to this dude and sticking to his guidelines I have finished rallies with 7-8% tire damage at each service areas, which means my car will be back at 100% within 15 minutes of the alotted 60 minutes. These guys dont just blabber turn directions, they'll tell you the difficulty of the turn and the distance in meters until the next obstacle in the course. they also warn you of any trees/rocks inside or outside the curve, suggest you to cut a corner and sometimes warn you not to cut corners, all these help you tackle the course with relative ease reducing car damage.
There are 2wd cars like Citroen Saxo, Ford Puma and the Volkswagon Golf. Subaru Impreza WRX, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, Citroen Xsara, Ford Focus, Peugeot 206 complete the 4wd lineup. Also, there are some exotic cars from the '80s which were discontinued for their sheer power and their ability to multiply the casualties toll. Each of these cars behave/handle differently, a 2wd transmission car is easier to handle than a 4wd one. And the variation in handling charecteristics among these cars are easily noticeable.
Eight National events are featured in the game: Finland, Sweden, USA, Australia, Japan, UK, Greece and Spain. But, the 2wd normal championship mode has only 6 events with 4 stages each. Some events even have a super special stage in an enclosed area. Whereas the 4wd normal championship mode has 7 events with 6 stages each along with ocassional Super special stages. There are 6 championship events to beat before you can have all the bonus cars. This is includes an Expert mode Championship event where you are forced to use the cockpit camera and the car takes heavy damage.
The game might disappoint the NFS community as you dont get to burn the roads at 150MPH without taking any kind of damage. One more interesting thing is you cant reset your car as in NFS, If you run off-track you should manually get your car onto the track, but the game does reset your car when you fall off a cliff or if your car turns over. Driving the cars in cmr04 is not your easy, pedal to the metal, hurtling down wide circuits, type of game. The circuits in cmr are amongst the narrowest I have ever seen in any rally sim. This is a great step-up in authenticity. The narrow tracks really give you an awesome sense of speed. It also is a great thing when you realize that you can control the cars on a precise path, and that as long as you concentrate and take care, you can place the cars extremely precisely. But watch out for potholes on the road surface. They’ll throw your car off balance and you’ll feel the weight shifting about on all four wheels, acting independently on each! The cars in cmr are not necessarily that difficult to drive. The difficulty is in driving them fast, and not loosing control, crashing out. That being said, with some practice you can reach frightening speeds, frightening because you’re inches away from a wall, a pothole or a tree with 100mph on the clock. The driving experience is really spot on, believable, authentic, governed by real physics so the cars react as you’d expect them to. When you go off you know it’s you who made the mistake, not a limitation or a shortcut in the physics engine.
What adds to the difficulty is the fact that you get only 60 minutes to repair your car after every 2 stages, so if you wrecked your car bad on the previuos stages you'll have to exceed the time limit for bringing back your car to its fullest potential, if you do so, a penalty is added to your next stage time. This brings us to the story of unsung heroes of rally racing, the co-drivers. By just listening to this dude and sticking to his guidelines I have finished rallies with 7-8% tire damage at each service areas, which means my car will be back at 100% within 15 minutes of the alotted 60 minutes. These guys dont just blabber turn directions, they'll tell you the difficulty of the turn and the distance in meters until the next obstacle in the course. they also warn you of any trees/rocks inside or outside the curve, suggest you to cut a corner and sometimes warn you not to cut corners, all these help you tackle the course with relative ease reducing car damage.
This is the most technically demanding racing game I have ever played. If you are looking for a game that helps you wreck havok the moment you install it and allows you to defy physics, look elsewhere. Street racing is for boys, circuit racing is for gentlemen and rally racing is for machomen. I am looking forward to playing Richard Burn's Rally in the future, hope it lives upto my expectations :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)