weekly pic

quick "project car" update

s2000 - i realized i said i would throw some racing hard tires on it and give you a time, but the car is so perfectly balanced with the sport mediums that i just don't care to do it. with the updates in v1.06, they added a power limiter, so i was able to dial the power in the car back to 260hp from 285hp. why lose 25hp? chuckability. with the power came the ability to control a slide with the throttle, brilliantly. but if you over did it, you were backwards and in a ditch. with the power reduction, there is a lose of throttle steering, but the car is much more easily saved when it's pushed past the limit. it's still a ridiculously quick car for the amount of power it isn't making.

rx-7 spirit r blah blah - i also realize that i never actually got around to doing any updates about this car. just some waxing poetic about how important this car is to me. well, 384hp, 2,446lbs and racing hard tires equals a 58.584 on tsukuba. i'll explain how i got here in my next post.

i'm going to add a third car to the ficp stable in the coming days. it's going to be front wheel drive, under powered and over tired, just like every car i build. but it will also be a ton of fun to drive... just like every car i build.

rollercoaster

just about all gt games since the third one have a simple pattern that i follow. start off doing the easy to intermediate races and then when you have to use group c, le mans prototypes, formula cars or whatever else, i get bored and just go back to racing the earlier races. i figured out recently that the reason for this is because i believe there are three types of people who play gt. 1) casual gamers. these people will buy the game, complete around 10% of it and then never look at it again. they make up the majority and are completely overwhelmed by how deep gran turismo is. 2) sport car drivers. this is where i land. the sport car driver is someone who just loves driving. ridiculously fast lap times are nice, but not why we play. if you look at the posts i write about the s2000, there were a few adjustments i made that made the car slower, but increased the fun-to-drive factor. sport car drivers probably never finish the game. we just want to drive. 3) race car driver. to these people, speed is everything. car is an oversteering nightmare that tries to kill you at every turn? doesn't matter, because if you get it right, it's .002 seconds faster! these people live to beat the game. they can't wait to get into the advanced portion of the game and make as much money as they can and just go fast.

lately, however, i've been straddling the line between sport car and race car driver. i have moments where i'm bored with the game, and i go back and drive a 71hp racing modified suzuki cappuccino, or my light weight, but stock powered honda integra type-r. but then i started racing in the racing series events (nascar, dtm, super gt). i'll be honest, nascar chewed me up and spit me out. i have no concept of how to race like that. even on the road courses, i was getting killed. then i bought a dtm audi tt (dtm is german touring cars, kevin) and spent an hour making adjustments to it. i had shaved off 5 seconds from the car as i bought it but was still afraid that i was going to get my ass handed to me like in nascar. turns out that i do just suck at nascar. the time spent dialing in the audi made it perfectly balanced and i crushed it. i did the same with super gt. i was starting the see the dark side.

then i bought a formula gt car. 933hp and 1210lbs. the car is so fast that the first three gears bang off the rev limiter before i can physically shift using the steering wheel mounted paddle. i spent the same amount of time dialing it in and the car is crazy fast. i have to look so much farther ahead than in any other car. for the first time since gt3, i don't have the ability to get the most out of the car. it's better than me. i can't reach its limits and i know it. there's nothing fun about it. to be honest, i'm terrified half the time i'm driving it. but i want to go faster. that's all that matter in that car.

i'll leave you with this; at 242mph, turis' frame rate is still rock solid. that's nucking futs.

weekly photo

new update 2.18.11

they're making more changes this week. apparently there is some file corruption issue and the fixes for gt academy. it makes me happy to see a company so active in improving their game. the biggest advantage, in my eyes, of having a system online is the ability to constantly improve a game. for free. because you didn't get it right (for whatever reason) the first time. big ups polyphony.

enjoy the weekly pic.

weekly pic/gt academy is a shit-show

so, because of corner cutting and people banging off of walls (something that people have used in gt since it's inception) sony has just said "fuck it" to the second round of gt academy and everyone gets a pass to round three. while i think it's great that they are trying to get it right and aren't spending an insane amount of time trying to individually go through every replay and catch cheaters, i think they do need to set an example. i make no secret about being an "honest" racer. if i race against you, and there's contact, i don't flip out and call for someone's head. i assume it was an accident and drive accordingly. if it happens too much, or is obvious you're driving like a dick, i will act accordingly as well. sony needs to do the same thing here. if someone is intentionally cutting corners or using guard rails to maintain speed instead of braking, they need to be held accountable. boot them. it's not fair to the people that are trying to race fairly.

enjoy your weekly pic.

weekly photo

because the photo mode in gt5 turns out some awesome images, and i really like photography, i've decided to start a weekly photo post. i'll take something i think looks awesome, you look at and enjoy, maybe even download if you like. win win.