RSS Feeds
|
US Edition
Babblebaby
|
Defamer
|
Gizmodo
|
Kotaku
|
Lifehacker
Virtual Heroes - the developers behind the America's Army military simulator - have turned their hand to more socially useful, less killing-y areas with humanitarian aid simulator Virtual Peace.
You know who likes the smell of victory in the morning? The British Army, that's who - and now the Ministry Of Defence is pumping research pounds into creating a Virtual Battlefield complete with Virtual Smells so soldiers can sample that smell - alongside the bouquet of bullets, the whiff of weaponry and the perfume of the paramilitary - without having to step into harm's way.
Posted by Seamus Byrne at 12:57 PM on October 29, 2008
I've been playing some Midnight Club LA over the past few days and it's had me thinking about the racer debate of sim versus arcade driving and tuning styles. Unless you are a Gran Turismo or Forza, at some point you are making a choice to plant yourself on a scale somewhere between the extremes (placing the likes of Daytona firmly up the arcade end of the spectrum -- zero car tuning or choice, just slam peddles pedals and steer like hell).
Ignoring the frustrations of AI that almost never crashes, and certainly never makes a wrong turn (I largely agree with the US review, though more weight given to the 'love' column -- really enjoying the game, but it can get frustrating when a single mistake can often cost you a race), it is clear that Rockstar has targeted a very balanced position in the arcade-sim spectrum. Tuning vehicles is quite easy, but as funds trickle into your garage you do want to carefully choose which upgrades to buy and when to buy them -- getting the right performance enhancement with that spare $600 can definitely help win your next race when the competition is tough. But you can also auto upgrade and leave the next choice up to the system.
The best part of what MC LA has achieved is that you can feel the difference in vehicles when you drive them, and that is something that has often only been found in the sims. The tweaks may be simple, but you can appreciate that you have upgraded the car you are driving, and that is where you actually feel rewarded.
Any racing fans out there with their preferred position on the curve? If the tuning system is 'dumbed down', would you prefer it wasn't there at all? Or are true racing sims dead to you?
Posted by Seamus Byrne at 9:55 AM on October 3, 2008
GTbyCITROËN has been unveiled at the Paris Motor Show, and it's an interesting spot of marketing fun. Citroen partnered with Kazunori Yamauchi from Polyphony Digital to design an ultimate fuel cell concept car, and then engineered the beast as a driveable concept vehicle for the Motor Show. The car is now available as a downloadable addition to Gran Turismo 5 Prologue so anyone can take it for a spin. Naturally, they claim the car's in-game and on-road performance are true to form, but how many of us will get the chance to test that theory? Full release after the jump.
Laminar Research has released an iPhone version of its well regarded Flight Sim X-Plane 9.
X-Plane 9 is a cross-platform (Windows, Mac OSX and Linux) flight sim that uses blade element theory to model flight characteristics in real time.
Although the iPhone release is scaled down (it weighs in at 6.2MB, the desktop version is around 25 GB), Laminar claim that the physics engine is intact with around 95% the accuracy of the full version.
Control uses the accelerometer (the iPhone essentially becomes a flight yoke) and some onscreen buttons within the in-game HUD.
Got $US 10,000 handy? Love horse-riding? Hate horses? Well is this the deal for you. This is the Ridemaster, perhaps the most overblown horse-riding adventure we've seen this side of Barbie Horse Adventures. For your 10gs you get a fake horse (which is full of sensors, so you can kick it for being stubborn) and a TV display, but sadly, no jodpers. You'll have to get those on your own. Vid's after the link, for anyone who enjoyed watching Flynn ride a witch's broomstick and wants to see it taken to the next level.
In a slightly different take on the old 'we take too much from film techniques' argument we're all familiar with, a post at the Brainy Gamer takes on television techniques in simulations. Madden et al. aren't simulating playing a sporting event, he says, but watching one on TV:
Aksys Games (don't mix those first two consonants!) is bringing tiny helicopter action to the Wii next Spring with MiniCopter: Adventure Flight. The game will feature mission-based gameplay across seven environments, customizable helicopters, and the choice of Wiimote control or classic, for that true RC copter feel.
"MiniCopter: Adventure Flight is a great game for budding RC modelers and children who enjoy playing with RC toys," said Akibo Shieh, President, Aksys Games. "MiniCopter allows kids to customise their helicopter without worrying about breaking their toy and seeing immediate results.When I was a kid, my dad spent one summer getting up early every Saturday and taking me to the field to spend several hours NOT letting me fly his RC helicopter. While the screenshots look a bit rough, I'm buying this for the catharsis.
Microsoft has announced a new "visual simulation platform," dubbed ESP, to be released in January 2008. The company imagines the toolkit will be used to create applications for training, learning, modening, military, and aviation.
Microsoft ESP enables the innovative use of visual simulation for immersive learning and decision-making, supports PC-based commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software, and enables simulations to be built faster and more cost-effectively.ESP seems to be an extension of the Microsoft Flight Simulator platform, which the company has been extending for some time as an application development environment.
Hard to tell how it will work just yet, but Microsoft does have a history of making visual programming tools very easy to use for ordinary developers. The price? $US 99 for the SDK.
Microsoft ESP Debuts as a Platform for Visual Simulation
[CNN Money]
Will being one of the best-looking, best-animated football games on the market help Naturalmotion's Backbreaker triumph over the Madden juggernaut when it is released next-year? Highly doubtful, I know. The core of the football gaming crowd is NFL fans, and without an NFL licence it probably won't drum up big sales no matter how awesome it looks in motion. Now if the Madden folks could just get their hands on this engine...hmmm.
