Nurburgring drive

(tags game, driving, Burnout, Xbox 360)
(originally written 2008-06-24 23:42)

Burnout Paradise was pretty fantastic with all the car action. Then again, I played most of the game with the camera on the bumper so I didn't care about how the car looked. So I started looking at racing games again. One integral part of my revival is that Nurburgring track, the 20 km course. I mentioned to a friend that the Gran Turismo 5 Prologue game has a video of the producer Kazunori Yamauchi riding a Nissan GT-R on the track competently. Nice.

I spotted the Viva Pinata and Forza Motorsport 2 combo pack for 1680 yen used, so I nabbed it after a night's sleep. Wow. Stats galore. Paint your car ala PhotoShop layers. The visible racing line. No music during racing. Crispy crispy graphics. I spent about an hour on career mode. I got the perfect racing Achievements on my first try, har har. I hate playing this with an analog pad. I wonder if I could reuse my GT Force. I doubt it.

I then backed out into Arcade mode because I wanted to try out Nurburgring. In my initial crappy car, an asia "soap-shaped" one. Of course I turned down the realism and turned on the visible racing line. I would turn on the training wheels if they had it. So I didn't crash but I clocked about 11 minutes. Is that slow or fast or what? Obviously its slow, because I don't really know the track. I totally forgot my record on the GT4 on PS2, I should fire that up.
I also tried out the online racing spectator mode. It's pretty interesting with all the cars. I would like to loop this mode and just watch it.

So I was in Nipponbashi recently looking for figure stand parts when I spotted Joshin's front display for Toy Land. They were advertising a Nissan GT-R model kit. The 40 inch widescreen TV showed someone driving the Nurburgring in the Nissan GT-R, with the stopwatch clock in big numbers and various stats in the lower right hand Picture-in-Picture. I stood in front of the store blocking foot traffic watching this video. So it took the car about 7 minutes (close to 8?) to complete a circuit. Is that slow or fast or what? Obviously its fast. 150+ kmh average.
I also picked up some other racing games while in the area, Moto GP '06, Project Gotham Racing 3, Fatal Inertia. Again the price point was 1200 yen or less. I don't when I'll start these, yeah.

Need for Achieve: NFS Most Wanted, Portal

(tags Xbox 360, Portal, FPS, driving)

Alright, I am totally addicted to the little Xbox 360 Achievement Points. I can break 5000, all I need to do is buy more games... ;-)

I said I started Need for Speed: Most Wanted which I am kinda digging and kinda not. Mostly I hate the graphics because it feels so autumn dingy. I like Autumn the season. I love Autumn in Japan, it's so pretty. But this game feels like a half-assed port from a PS2 game, ugh. At least it looks smooth. Maybe it's 60 FPS instead of 30.

I then popped in The Orange Box last night and finished Portal, for the first time on console. Yes I have the PC version, but I haven't bother trying the user generated maps. I still can't find all the cameras, and I did a "game FAQ" lookup but luckily I came to my senses and averted my eyes. I can find the last four, I can do it. Make these Achievement Points stand for something solid. (Does that sense of integrity explain the 30,000 foot drop Achievement?)