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We found this motorcycle game over at the Motorcycle Association’s booth at GamesCom last week. More »
The entire country may be captivated by underdog Butler’s Hoosiers-esque tournament run, tipping off now on CBS, but not NCAA Basketball 10. The video game spit back a simulation saying Duke will romp to its fourth national championship. More »
Virtual residents of the last version of EA’s popular life simulation get a stay of execution today, as the company officially pushes the release of The Sims 3 to June.
Bad-ass US Airways pilot Chesley Sullenberger recently completed the first successful water landing of a commercial aircraft in 45 years, touching down on the Hudson River. Now, you can relive the magic, via flight sim.
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.
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? More »
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. More »
