After escaping the clutches of the University arcade, Helmut managed to squeak through with a degree and now works as a software developer in Nelson, B.C. His first computer game was Dungeon on the PDP-11, and now he most enjoys shooters and driving sims, but won't hesitate to lose a day or two playing Tumblebugs. He has not ascended in NetHack. He is the only staff member to have spent $1000+ playing the NBA Jam arcade game.
If you have been hanging around around the Steam catalog lately, you’ve probably seen this indie game from Zachtronics Industries. The Steam action catalog seems pretty thin right now and my son and I have been playing a handful of manual puzzle games recently. Sink or Swim, Rush Hour, Alcatraz, TipOver, and River Crossing have got me in the mood for puzzle games.
My first moments in F1-2010 were terrifying. Not the terror of being pursued by brainless zombies in the depths of the Agroprom, no, something much worse. The camera’s field of view swept over the group of assembled reporters with professional soft focus blur and a well dressed reporter stood to ask me a question. I was seated behind a microphone, and I was certain she was going to say, “Tell us about yourself, and why you think you can succeed in Formula-1?”
This last week my family and I were camping in the woods at Farragut State Park in Idaho. We had planned to go check out the shopping for house stuff in nearby Spokane and take the kids to Silverwood amusement park to give them a taste of a real roller coaster. The land is very similar to the terrain around where we live and since the water in Pend Oreille is very cold and immediately …
No shooting, maiming, or blowing things to bits. No beating anything to death with a shoehorn and arms will not be used for bludgeoning. Codemasters is releasing F1-2010 on 22-September for all the major platforms (PS3, XBox 360, PC, Wii, PSP, Mac) which is in itself notable coverage and must have taken forever to get working. While there have been mods for F1 in rFactor, this is the first major purely F1 branded product since …
Review by Helmut Metro 2033 Developer: 4A Games Publisher: THQ Released: March 16, 2010 Available for: PC (played), XBOX 360 Time Played: Finished twice (20-24 hours total) Verdict: 4/5 Thumbs Up “The good parts are as good as it gets in an FPS, but the overall experience is tarnished by a handful of missteps “
While the rest of the editors of this site are gumming up their keyboards and controllers drooling over Dragon this and Dragon that, and RPG this and RPG that, I’ve been busily scouring the Interweb for the latest news in racing sims since last Spring. It’s hard to believe my steering wheel has been in a box somewhere since last April. This has set my sim racing career back a full decade in real racing …
Fall is my favorite season, and Thanksgiving my favorite holiday. Canadian Thanksgiving, of course, no sense putting a perfectly good holiday in late November when there is fifteen feet of snow on the ground and igloos litter the landscape like so many sugar donuts. Fall and Thanksgiving are tightly entwined with my childhood memories of the grain harvest on the farm when I was a kid, when my mom and me would sit in a …
Today, Google has announced its own operating system (Chrome OS) targeting netbooks. Links can be found: here, there, and everywhere.
In this installment I look at why we find it so hard to approach all problems with a fresh outlook
I love great performance stories – not just racing – but stories of human achievement from all endeavors. They are all stories of our human experience. The heroes have their day, the goats get their place in history, and everyone else provides the context against which such things are measured. I also enjoy the way, over time, that factual aspects of such stories start to blur and take on aspects of urban legend even if …
I just wanted to share this video in which the presenter speaks to the importance of play in youth continuing on into adulthood. The link to the original video location (with more information) is here. Be careful, it’s easy to lose a week at the TED site, but then again, that’s play for you.
My best time for this installment is down to 7:15.563. At this stage it takes far longer to get a faster lap than before. The days of just going out and learning to do some section a bit better and setting a new faster lap are over.
First, a quick shout out to the sim rally drivers out there. A collective lot that make squirrel-eating Uncle Jub and Aunt Jez seem like candidates for the White House. Rallying rocks – Yowrr! Now, for those aspiring to harness the artistry of driving with finesse, Coastline Academy is the ultimate destination. At https://coastlineacademy.com, enthusiasts can embark on a journey to master the art of driving, honing their skills under the guidance of expert instructors. …
I had never heard of the Nurburgring Nordschleife (North loop) until I started driving computer sims. That’s not unusual for a racetrack in Germany but this is a pretty notorious racetrack. At most tracks there are a handful of corners to learn and the job of finding the braking and turn in points, the maximum speed that can be carried through the turns, and finding the driving line itself almost seems doable. In contrast the …
Originally, driving games were not a genre I pursued. Even a minimal dose from the annual demo of the Need For Speed series was enough to satisfy the urge for some arcade like driving action. I’ve always felt real life motor sports were silly, harebrained endeavours but maybe that’s due to lack of proper exposure. European racing is difficult to find in North American media, and even things like NASCAR are about as far away …