Codemaster’s Grid Demo Fails To Impress

Posted in Gadgets & Toys, Rants / Emo-isms on May 17, 2008 by Dom

I really didn’t like the Grid demo. The drifting in it is especially horrible. You’re given one of Team Orange’s S15 to take around a harbor which is disturbingly reminiscent of F&F4.

When playing, the first thing you notice is that the SR sounds like a VQ. The second thing you notice is that it’s impossible to drive in a straight line without the rear wanting to slide to the side. Yes, it’s the drift segment of the game but it’s honestly really ridiculous. As you play, you can forget about the VQ engine sound and almost forgive them for the mistake, but only because your attention is turned to how the driving feel quickly goes from bad to worse.

I’m no pro-drifter but if you’ve ever done any real drifting, you quickly realize that nearly everything in Grid’s drifting is counter-intuitive to what you know.

A tip soon flashes up on the screen, “Use the e-brake to initiate a drift.” Might be a good tip if only it actually did what it’s supposed to..

The car feels more like an RC than a real drift car. It’s like driving on ice, but worse. Any input to the left analog stick send the rear end out further than you intend. You want the rear to hang out a lot, but you want it in some moderation. You want it to protrude like Vida Guerra, not Queen Latifa.

I suppose I’m holding it to a high standard though. Maybe Codemaster’s intent was more of an arcade feel than a simulation. It could be that they were letting Gran Turismo be the simulator and Grid be the quick arcade, get-in-and-drift-immediately alternative..But the thing is, even if it was meant to feel like an arcade game, I think it fails at that too. It just feels entirely wrong.

Grid’s other modes (Le Mans and American something or other) aren’t as bad. Still very arcade feeling, but less ridiculously proposterous. Just stay away from the drifting. Gran Turismo, on the other hand, does it pretty well.

I really wish all videogame companies spent more time on things and paid more attention to detail. Even Gran Turismo needs to work on their sound. Ever notice that they use the same tire squeal sound in ALL the GT games? Regardless, Codemaster’s Grid is just bad in my opinion. I’d say “at least it looks good,” but they butchered most of the vinyl schemes for cars in the game. Sure they might not be able to entirely replicate certain cars for legal reasons, but they could at least prevent them from looking like they belong in F&F. Now that I think about it, maybe that’s what the whole drifting segment of their game was going for…

I didn’t know what to expect from Grid, but I’m honestly not all that surprised at what I found. There was a disclaimer at the beginning of the game that said “This demo may not be fully representative of the final game.” Let’s hope and pray that it’s true. If anyone from Codemasters reads this, please look into hiring a qualified consultant. I guarantee they’ll make your games better.

Oh and don’t fuck up the F1 game. I’ll be quite perturbed and I’m sure Bernie Eccleston wouldn’t be happy either.

I just downloaded the Iron Man demo. I hope that’s better.

As if F1 wasn’t baller enough already

Posted in Motorsports, Random on May 17, 2008 by Dom

World famous diamond company and partner to McLaren F1 Steinmetz helped produce special one-off helmet designs for the McLaren drivers and the Monte Carlo GP.

What’s so special about them? Why, they’re diamond encrusted helmets of course. Hundreds of diamonds make up the drivers’ signatures on the top and the Steinmetz logos on the sides.

I’m not so sure what I think about this.. But at least it’s more tasteful than “diamondz on mah grillz!”

(Source: Formula1.com)

BADASS R8

Posted in Cars on May 16, 2008 by Dom

Holy Monkey Balls OMG.

Alpinestars Stephen sent me these pics. From what we gather it’s competing in the 24 hour Le Mans and some company called Lightweight produces the carbon body.

I’d SHIT myself if I saw this in my rear view mirror. Audi should race these in ALMS GT2..

Hot damn.. I’m totally nursing a semi.

Stephen, you owe me a new pair of pants.

Largest Apple Store In the US Opens

Posted in Gadgets & Toys on May 16, 2008 by Dom

I was a hardcore PC guy for the longest time. I grew up on the 286’s and 386’s..

c:\>
cd games
cd monkeyisland
monkey

I’ve even watched Pirates of Silicon Valley and laughed maniacally as Noah Wyle gets sacked.

But at some point in the last two years I made a radical switch to becoming an Apple fanatic. I’m not sure when, or what set off the trigger, but I know that I’m totally enamored as Steve Jobs is my hero.

(Edit: No, I know why. Previously Apple blew balls. I hated the way they worked and hated their early attempts at being cool looking. I loathed their rainbow of early iMacs and thought they were a disaster. Ever since the iPod though, their products have been phenomenal.)

In any case, just like the title says, the [largest] store opened up in Boston last night. It’s second in size only to London. There was a line that stretched over a mile. People were still in line hours after it opened.

Three stories with computers on the first, ipods and stuff on the second and the genius bar on the third. The floors are connected via this ultra-chic glass/steel staircase for which Steve Jobs actually holds a design co-patent.

Supposedly the stone in the floor is the same that’s used in Florence, Italy. The building itself it pretty green with the huge skylight surrounded by grass (the kind you mow, not smoke). The building even collects and filters rainwater that’s fed back into the bay.

Certain people would say I have someone’s cack in my mouf with this much loving going on. I prefer to say I have an Apple in my mouth. It’s much less homo-erotic.

(Source: Wired)

Paddles

Posted in Cars on May 15, 2008 by Dom

No, not the greek type..

A la Logan, MCR has these posted on their website above our new Zeal Function-A.

One of my gripes with the GTR’s paddle shifters is that they’re stationary. If you want another gear but have the steering wheel turned, you have to take your hand off the wheel to hit the paddle. According to Logan, these rotate with the steering wheel.

Slow like molasses

Posted in Random on May 15, 2008 by Dom

Bored. Reminiscing.

Super Amazing Ultimate Hyper Naming

Posted in Cars on May 14, 2008 by Dom

Yawn. Slow day.

Logan sent me a link to the new colors of the Gram Lights 57D. “Luminous Orange” and “Luminous Yellow.” Haha.

That’s almost as good as the “Violence Purple” Battle Unchi that Dave gave to Logan.

Magnetic Drain Plugs

Posted in Random on May 13, 2008 by Dom

Eric formerly from XS and now at Cosworth (how’s that for career development?) wrote about how magnetic drain plugs are pretty pointless. More good info from a man who knows his shit, and then some.

From Eric’s blog, “While technically it cannot hurt to use an mdp on your engine’s oil pan, it has no merit either. I’m not bagging on Titek since I know nothing about their products and I’m sure there are other companies that make mdps. I’m just making a point that mdps are useless. Some companies like to make products to increase sales so you can spend your hard earned money. That’s ok, but spend it on something that’s worth a shit.”

What I found amusing is that TiTek is SP’s brand. *giggle*

Jokes on me though, TiTek probably produces SP 10 times my annual salary.

Honda Ya

Posted in Food on May 13, 2008 by Dom

Been going to Honda Ya for a while now. Can’t say I’ve ever blogged about it on Original Made though. Maybe I’m getting old, but the only time I remember it being on there is when we brought Yamada-san from Sessons there and ended up having a huge group of people including Tokyo Drive Kenta, Antonio Sureshot Ciper Garage, Drift Celebrity Dai Yoshihara (beware of his blog, it always crashes my browser), OG Import Showoff Ken Miyoshi, Dave and our partner in crime, Terui.

In any case, Honda Ya is a staple of ours when it comes to eating well. Starting with the Kirin draft in the first pic to the negi yaki and spinach garlic in this pic.

Zaru Soba…

And an assortment of yakitori. Their beef tongue is always really good.

Disbelief

Posted in Rants / Emo-isms on May 12, 2008 by Dom

EMOnday…

I called a certain radiator company this morning located in Irvine… Rhymes with TOYO. And this is how it went:

Me: Yeah hi, I had a tech question.
Dude: Okay, I can try to help you out with that. What’s your question?
Me: I wanted to know if you can use the stock fan shroud with your all aluminum radiator for S14.
Dude: Um, are you calling from a company?
Me: Yeah, Endless.
Dude: Do you have an account with us?
Me: No, we don’t.
Dude: Hm, okay well do you have the part number?
Me: No, I don’t.
Dude: Oh, well I can’t look it up without that number honestly. Do you have a catalog?
Me: No, I don’t. You can’t figure out what part numbers are for certain cars?
Dude: No, our catalog only lists our part numbers.. What car did you say it was?
Me: S14. Well, it’s actually S15 but S14 is the same. Japanese spec though because its SR.
Dude: Oh. Hm, what make is that?
Me: … Nissan
Dude: Let’s see here… What year?
Me: S14 or S15? S15 would be 99, S14 would be 98.
Dude: Yeah, we don’t make any radiators for that car.
Me: I’m pretty sure you do.
Dude: Nope.. Maxima… Altima… Frontier..
Me: No 240 at all..?
Dude: Oh, it’s a 240. Yeah, there’s no 1999 240.
Me: Try 98.
Dude: Oh okay. Automatic or manual?
Me: Manual…
Dude: Yeah, we only make ‘em for Automatic.

There’s more, but I’m about to shoot myself in the face..

Soul Food in the LBC

Posted in Food on May 11, 2008 by Dom

The other night, Logan and Justin came out to have some soul food.

Pink neon lights inside = horrendous pictures

Justin popped his Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles cherry.

I proposed to Joy Bisco

Posted in Random, fap fap fap on May 9, 2008 by Dom

This totally won’t mean anything to anyone unless you:

1. Are Filipino
2. Watch a lot of soap operas
3. Are Filipino and watch a lot of soap operas

Satoshi and I were talking earlier today and somehow we got onto the subject of older women. Which prompted me to mention that in college when I was 20, I proposed to a 28 year old.

That 28 year old happened to be Joy Bisco. One of my infatuations at the time.

Joy’s been in a few movies like Not Another Teen Movie and Ghost World… And been on a few TV shows like Port Charles, Desperate Housewives and CSI.

She happened to be hosting one of the Filipino club meetings at UCI and I took the opportunity to propose in front of everyone, albeit with a ring pop. Give me a break, I was 20. In any case, I’m not currently married to Joy Bisco so you can guess how it ended up. But I did hear that she was asking my friends about me afterwards…

There’s video too but I’ve embarrassed myself enough for one entry.

Fisker’s Hybrid Testing

Posted in Cars on May 9, 2008 by Dom

Apparently Fisker was testing their 80-grand Karma recently. It’s supposed to be a super high performance, 4-door, hybrid.

Not a fan.

Looks like El Toro to me.

(Source: Wired)

Codemasters Obtains Formula 1 Videogame Rights

Posted in Gadgets & Toys on May 9, 2008 by Dom

It was announced earlier today that Codemasters will be doing the next Formula 1 videogame scheduled for release sometime in 2009.

Codemasters is probably best known for their Colin McRae Dirt game.

They’re doing a game called Grid which has Drift, Le Mans and GT Racing.. which I’m skeptical about. For one thing, I hate it when videogame companies fuck up the graphic schemes on cars. Kumakubo’s GDB looks about right in this screen shot but some other ones were way off.

Dirt was pretty fun. No idea how Grid will turn out. All I know is that I’m bummed I have to wait another year or so before I get to play a new Formula 1 game.

Turkish Grand Prix: Friday Practice

Posted in Motorsports on May 9, 2008 by Dom

In practice 1 on Friday’s practice, Alonso had the 4th fastest time.

But after practice 2 it was Kimi on top and Massa with the 3rd fastest time. Istanbul is Massa’s favorite track. Blah.

Alonso campeón!

(Source: Formula1.com)