After my previous post, I attempted the second set of seasonal races again in GT5. In particular, I tackled the RX-7 one first, then the Nascar one at Nurburgring, and finally I re-raced the Focus one. I will upload videos later. For this post, I will talk about the RX-7 one first.
The RX-7 one is held in Tsukuba Circuit. It's a short track and in the race, you have 10 laps to pass 11 other opponents. All of your opponents are Japanese cars. The restrictions are 394hp or less, 800kg or higher, with sports hard tires. You are also limited to using the RX-7, a list is provided in the race event screen. I am not too sure if the 800kg or higher part is a mistake my Polyphony Digital, as I have no clue how one can get even close to 800kg in a RX-7. I used the RX-7 Spirit R from the Mazda dealership and after all the weight reduction stages, it was still well above 1000kg. The horsepower limit is easier to obtain, and there are many ways to achieve it. I'm not sure if that matters or not. I think it's a personal preference. I like high revving engines, so I modified by RX-7 with more NA parts. If you like to have more torque, the best way would be to fit a bigger turbocharger. Other than engine mods, I bought all of the other mods - full suspension, full transmission, all aero parts, etc. I also bought the adjustable LSD but I ended not using it to beat this event without Skid Recovery Force on.
The actual race. This event actually took me many tries. I must have done 50 laps before finally beating it. Granted, 40 of those 50 laps were done without all of the mods, I thought I would be able to beat it without them. Anyways, there are two important points to beat this race without SRF on. First, you must tune the car properly. I am not good with tuning cars, so I researched online for some setup. I will upload my setup when I have the time. Another important point is to be patient with the throttle and modulate it precisely. The RX7 has some pretty heavier understseer. If you apply throttle too early, you might end up understeering into the grass. Obviously, if you apply the throttle too abruptly, you will end up spinning out. For most, if not all, corners, you can pretty much brake late without running off the track - take advantage of this. If you set your brake controller to have more rear bias, braking late can help or screw you up. It depends on how you do it. If you brake late and control the car well, you should be able to rotate the car more than usual, without drifting the rear end. This helps reduce understeer and you can also use this movement to help you determine when to apply throttle again for the corner exit.
Your target time for the 1st lap is 1:01 and for the other 9 laps, your target should be around 1:00 (+/- 0.5s). Remember, The GTR finishes the race in 10:06s to 10:07s. Do the math. If you are doing 1:01 or higher consistently for the first few laps, restart the race. You won't be able to beat this. You should be able to pass the R34 GTR on the 10th lap at the Dunlop corner. You will notice that the GTR is significantly slower on the 10th lap because it's being blocked by a 350Z or something (Gran Turismo AI isn't that smart after all!).
Good luck!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Liverpool VS Wolverhampton
Unbelievable. Liverpool lost to Wolverhampton in Anfield. If I remember correctly, Wolverhampton had never beaten Liverpool for 26 years. In fact, Wolves had never beaten Liverpool in the Premier League. Not only that, Wolves had never won any away games so far this season, and it was in the last place in the league as well before this game. For Liverpool, this is a really big concern. For Liverpool, they didn't have a choice but to win, yet they lost. This is unacceptable. I must give credit to Wolves though as they played really well as a team. The players and the team were on form today and their pressing game made life tough for Liverpool. But this is Liverpool we are talking about, they should be able to deal with that. They should also be dominating the game. Instead, they gave away the ball cheaply for far too many times. They spent most of the time in their own half defending and not spending enough time attacking. They didn't press the opposition enough either. With this kind of performance, Liverpool can say goodbye to Europa League qualifications, let alone Champions League.
Before this game, many people critisized Roy Hodgson and most people wanted to get rid of him. However, I didn't share the same view. To be fair, he was hired by Liverpool not too long before the season began. He also had to face the loss of Javier Mascherano. The change of ownership was also a factor. To me, it was understandable that Liverpool would not be performing at its best. But it has been half a season already. And the home form has also been very good for Liverpool as well as they have only lost to Blackpool so far. So what happened this time? The team played so poorly. Liverpool lost to a team that they should never lose to. Perhaps it's time to rethink the team formation, the strategy, the style. Perhaps it's time to change the manager. At this rate, Liverpool will never make it to Top 4 as we are 12 points below the 4th place team.
Before this game, many people critisized Roy Hodgson and most people wanted to get rid of him. However, I didn't share the same view. To be fair, he was hired by Liverpool not too long before the season began. He also had to face the loss of Javier Mascherano. The change of ownership was also a factor. To me, it was understandable that Liverpool would not be performing at its best. But it has been half a season already. And the home form has also been very good for Liverpool as well as they have only lost to Blackpool so far. So what happened this time? The team played so poorly. Liverpool lost to a team that they should never lose to. Perhaps it's time to rethink the team formation, the strategy, the style. Perhaps it's time to change the manager. At this rate, Liverpool will never make it to Top 4 as we are 12 points below the 4th place team.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Gran Turismo 5 Seasonal Events
The second set of Seasonal Events came out about 5 days ago. I think that is perfect timing because it's Christmas and what is better than playing GT5 during your Christmas break?
I finished the first set of those seasonal bonus races with relative ease. How about the new set? Well, I must say this time the races are in general more challenging. I haven't finished all of them yet because I have been busy with many dinners lately. In general, these races are very easy if you turn on Skid Recovery Force (AKA SRF, sort of like the "standard" physics setting in GT5 Prologue). The real challenge is to get gold for all events without having SRF on. There are five races in total - Mini Cooper S at Cape Ring Inside, Ford Focus ST at Madrid, Mustang GT at Laguna Seca, Mazda RX7 at Tsukuba, and Nascar at the famous Nurburgring Nordschleife Track. I haven't tried the last race. The Mini Cooper one was fine, and so is the Mustang one. However, I had trouble with the Focus and RX7 one. I had to turn SRF on for the Focus one. To be fair though, I didn't fully mod the Focus (ie. no chassis reinforcement, no suspension mod, and no LSD mod). I will go back to this one and try to beat it without SRF on later. As for the RX7 one, I spent an hour on it. My first try, I was about 10 seconds from the 1st place by the end (I didn't modify everything). I tried again, this time, I got better and cut it down to around 8 seconds - still a long way. I bought more parts and tried to tune the car a bit. This time, I was around 6 seconds behind. I tried again, and now I'm within 5 seconds. It was quite challenging. I didn't have time to try again as it was getting late at night. I figured that tuning plays a big part in these events. With the right tuning, I can cut down about a second a lap, and in 10 laps, I should be 10 seconds faster, and be able to beat the 1st place car by a good margin. I will try it later....but now, it's Arsenal vs Chelsea :)
I finished the first set of those seasonal bonus races with relative ease. How about the new set? Well, I must say this time the races are in general more challenging. I haven't finished all of them yet because I have been busy with many dinners lately. In general, these races are very easy if you turn on Skid Recovery Force (AKA SRF, sort of like the "standard" physics setting in GT5 Prologue). The real challenge is to get gold for all events without having SRF on. There are five races in total - Mini Cooper S at Cape Ring Inside, Ford Focus ST at Madrid, Mustang GT at Laguna Seca, Mazda RX7 at Tsukuba, and Nascar at the famous Nurburgring Nordschleife Track. I haven't tried the last race. The Mini Cooper one was fine, and so is the Mustang one. However, I had trouble with the Focus and RX7 one. I had to turn SRF on for the Focus one. To be fair though, I didn't fully mod the Focus (ie. no chassis reinforcement, no suspension mod, and no LSD mod). I will go back to this one and try to beat it without SRF on later. As for the RX7 one, I spent an hour on it. My first try, I was about 10 seconds from the 1st place by the end (I didn't modify everything). I tried again, this time, I got better and cut it down to around 8 seconds - still a long way. I bought more parts and tried to tune the car a bit. This time, I was around 6 seconds behind. I tried again, and now I'm within 5 seconds. It was quite challenging. I didn't have time to try again as it was getting late at night. I figured that tuning plays a big part in these events. With the right tuning, I can cut down about a second a lap, and in 10 laps, I should be 10 seconds faster, and be able to beat the 1st place car by a good margin. I will try it later....but now, it's Arsenal vs Chelsea :)
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Gran Turismo 5 Initial Impression
Finally, Gran Turismo 5 came out on November 24th, 2010. When was Gran Turismo 4 released? 2004? It's been 6 years or so already. I was still in high school when I was playing GT4. Now with GT5? I already got my engineering degree and is now working. 6 years is sure a long time and a lot of things happened in my life during this period. However, when I finally got my copy of GT5 and started playing, everything felt so...familiar. All of a sudden, it didn't feel like there is a 6-year gap between GT4 and GT5.
In fact, GT5 is pretty much an evolution of GT4. And that is a good thing for me. I enjoy playing the Gran Turismo series because of its style of gameplay. I extremely like the GT mode/simulation mode/career mode. With GT5 though, more features have been added to make the game even more interesting. The level system is certainly a nice touch. It makes the game more like a RPG - and really, the GT mode is arguably a RPG. The Special Events are awesome. From driving Go Karts and Nascars to mastering the Nurburgring and learning how to do rally races properly, there are many different things to try here.
One part that I have always enjoyed playing in the past Gran Turismo games is the License Test section. As a result, I spent my first week doing license tests. Some are very easy to get gold, some are more challenging. In the end I was able to get all gold and it was not that bad. In fact, I thought the hardest test was the B-5 license test. The Super license test is quite easy actually.
Other notable features are weather changes and damage. The damage is quite unrealistic. However, most people won't be able to enjoy the game if the damage is realistic. Just imagine braking late for one corner, and you rear ended the car in front of you. You lose control of the car and fly right to the wall. In real life, chances are, it's game over. So it's understandable that even when you hit a solid wall head-on at 100mph, your car is still drivable. Unfortunately, weather changes is not available in every track. Nonetheless, it's quite "fun" when driving in the rain on Nurburgring. It's quite realistic too.
GT5 is a great game, and I play it almost on a daily basis. However, I'm somewhat disappointed with the game. First, the car list. Sure, it has 1031 cars in total. However, most of them (around 800) are straight from GT4. I am quite surprised that Polyphony did not add more new cars to the game. For instance, why would they include the BMW 330i, but not the newer and better 335i? This gives me the feeling that the development team was lazy. Just use the lsit from GT4, change the physics, then be done with it.
Another area that is a bit disappointing is the camera views. Basically, the game has two classes of cars - premium and standard. Premium cars have way more graphics (more detail), have interior view, you can change rims and add aero kit. Standard cars on the other hand are not as detail and they don`t have interior view. Here is the problem, why don`t they include interior view with the standard cars too? It's ok if the interior is not perfectly modeled. But at least give us an interior. It's a bit annoying to adapt to two different views of driving (some with cockpit, some without).
The game is not bad, just in case if you are getting that impression. It's just that, after that many years, I expected more. I guess the development team spent most of the time perfecting the physics engine instead, which is after all the most important aspect of Gran Turismo. And GT5 is very successful in that category. Also, the game updates the game once in a while. It's possible that my concerns will be addressed in the future. The lack of new cars can also be fixed by offering downloadable car packs or something along that line.
Anyways, that's enough talking...time to play GT5 again!
In fact, GT5 is pretty much an evolution of GT4. And that is a good thing for me. I enjoy playing the Gran Turismo series because of its style of gameplay. I extremely like the GT mode/simulation mode/career mode. With GT5 though, more features have been added to make the game even more interesting. The level system is certainly a nice touch. It makes the game more like a RPG - and really, the GT mode is arguably a RPG. The Special Events are awesome. From driving Go Karts and Nascars to mastering the Nurburgring and learning how to do rally races properly, there are many different things to try here.
One part that I have always enjoyed playing in the past Gran Turismo games is the License Test section. As a result, I spent my first week doing license tests. Some are very easy to get gold, some are more challenging. In the end I was able to get all gold and it was not that bad. In fact, I thought the hardest test was the B-5 license test. The Super license test is quite easy actually.
Other notable features are weather changes and damage. The damage is quite unrealistic. However, most people won't be able to enjoy the game if the damage is realistic. Just imagine braking late for one corner, and you rear ended the car in front of you. You lose control of the car and fly right to the wall. In real life, chances are, it's game over. So it's understandable that even when you hit a solid wall head-on at 100mph, your car is still drivable. Unfortunately, weather changes is not available in every track. Nonetheless, it's quite "fun" when driving in the rain on Nurburgring. It's quite realistic too.
GT5 is a great game, and I play it almost on a daily basis. However, I'm somewhat disappointed with the game. First, the car list. Sure, it has 1031 cars in total. However, most of them (around 800) are straight from GT4. I am quite surprised that Polyphony did not add more new cars to the game. For instance, why would they include the BMW 330i, but not the newer and better 335i? This gives me the feeling that the development team was lazy. Just use the lsit from GT4, change the physics, then be done with it.
Another area that is a bit disappointing is the camera views. Basically, the game has two classes of cars - premium and standard. Premium cars have way more graphics (more detail), have interior view, you can change rims and add aero kit. Standard cars on the other hand are not as detail and they don`t have interior view. Here is the problem, why don`t they include interior view with the standard cars too? It's ok if the interior is not perfectly modeled. But at least give us an interior. It's a bit annoying to adapt to two different views of driving (some with cockpit, some without).
The game is not bad, just in case if you are getting that impression. It's just that, after that many years, I expected more. I guess the development team spent most of the time perfecting the physics engine instead, which is after all the most important aspect of Gran Turismo. And GT5 is very successful in that category. Also, the game updates the game once in a while. It's possible that my concerns will be addressed in the future. The lack of new cars can also be fixed by offering downloadable car packs or something along that line.
Anyways, that's enough talking...time to play GT5 again!
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