2012 Gaming Resolutions
Every year millions upon millions of individuals around the world start the new calendar year with new year resolutions. They mostly include get in shape, go to the gym, eat healthier, etc some individuals succeed in keeping this goals but the vast majority of society fail.
I’ve set out some gaming goals for 2012 that I think our realistic and achievable for myself.
The first gaming resolution I have for 2012 is to control my gaming purchases. By this I mean just because 3 or 4 new releases come out on any given Tuesday that I shouldn’t rush out and buy every single one of those games. So let’s buy a game and finish it before moving on to the next one instead of buying a game and playing a bit and putting it on the shelf and moving on to the next game. If I can achieve this I think I can reduce the number of games I have on the go, my gaming back log and most importantly allow me not rush and finish a game just to get to the next one. There are a lot of great games out there let’s enjoy them a bit more.
I’m a huge first shooter, racing and sports gamer. Plain and simple those are my bread and butter. In 2012 I’d like to expand my gaming genres and enjoy other types of games than I normally would. This year I’ve already started playing Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and MMO developed by Bioware. I’m at level 11 as a Sith Warrior and struggling as I go. I’ve also started Skyrim. I”m only level 2 but I vow to invest more time in the coming weeks to this game. Let’s see if I can become a better RPG player in 2012.
Blog more. Very simple I want to review and write about more games here whether there on PC, console or iOS platforms. I also want to produce my own original content at least bi-weekly.
Establish or join a board game group. In 2011 I started to play board games and started to acquire a nice little collection as well. I picked up Carcassonne, Gears of War, Munchkin Quest, Munchkin Zombies, Arkham Horror, Flux and probably my favorite of Pandemic. I really need to get that expansion pack.
So that’s what I want to accomplish this year. How about you ?
read moreGran Turismo 5 DLC
Paint Pack (100 colors)
This DLC pack adds new paint items to Gran Turismo 5.
From chic subdued color tones to bright shining colors, there are 100 new colors spread across 10 different themes. Find new unique colors for your favorite cars.
$1.99
Release date: 10/25/2011Price: $1.99
Racing Gear Pack (90 items)
This DLC pack adds racing gear items of famous drivers to your Gran Turismo 5.
Contains helmets and racing suits of 8 famous WRC and NASCAR drivers, 12 helmets and suits in all. In addition there is the Official Gran Turismo helmet, and new gear from Alpinestars and Simpson.
$2.99
Release date: 10/25/2011Price: $2.99
Racing Car Pack (15 Cars)
This DLC pack adds new cars to Gran Turismo 5.
Includes the new model of the X2010 ultimate racing machine, the Red Bull X2011. There is also a lineup of specially tuned touring cars and three new racing karts. Expand your garage with these exciting new racing machines.
$7.99
Release date: 10/25/2011Price: $7.99
Course Pack (2 Tracks, 5 layouts)
This DLC pack adds the new tracks to Gran Turismo 5.
The new Course Pack includes SPA-Francorchamps (with weather effects) and Kart Space layouts I and II (each layout supports normal and reverse).
$4.99
Release date: 10/25/2011Price: $4.99
or all for 11.99?
read moreGran Turismo 5 Patch 2.0
A new update has been released for Gran Turismo 5.
The main contents of the update are as follows:
[Major Changes and New Features]
- Standard Cars now given simplified cockpit views
The over 800 standard cars included in the game are now given simplified cockpit views. You can change your view using the SELECT button when racing, to change your display to the exciting cockpit view.
*Unlike the cockpit view of premium cars, the simplified cockpit is shown in a dark silhouette, and the gauges used for the car will be standard in-game instruments.
- New Opening Movie
A new opening movie is now available from “Gran Turismo TV”. When you download this movie, it will replace the current opening movie. The previous version will be viewable within Gran Turismo TV.
- Addition of the weather change menu
On some tracks with weather changes, it is now possible for the user to set time and weather changes from the Quick Menu in both the Arcade Mode, and “Practice” of the GT Mode. Also, you can make more detailed time and weather changes while editing in the course maker and in the online lounge.
- Multiple car settings/save feature
We’ve added a setting sheet feature that allows you to save multiple car settings.
From the [Setting Sheet] on the lower right of the screen, you can check the current settings. You can switch between 3 settings A, B, and C, allowing you to change between your personal settings easily according to the type of race and your objectives.
- Added 11 NASCAR cars
The newest NASCAR 2011 models have been added to the car dealerships. The added cars are the following:
Toyota 2011 Denny Hamlin #11 FedEx TOYOTA CAMRY ’11
Chevrolet 2011 Tony Stewart #14 Office Depot CHEVROLET IMPALA ’11
Toyota 2011 Kyle Busch #18 M&M’SR TOYOTA CAMRY ’11
Toyota 2011 Joey Logano #20 The Home Depot TOYOTA CAMRY ’11
Chevrolet 2011 Jeff Gordon #24 Drive to End Hunger CHEVROLET IMPALA ’11
Chevrolet 2011 Juan Montoya #42 Target CHEVROLET IMPALA ’11
Ford 2011 AJ Allmendinger #43 Best Buy FORD FUSION ’11
Chevrolet 2011 Jimmie Johnson #48 Lowe’s CHEVROLET IMPALA ’11
Toyota 2011 Brian Vickers #83 Red Bull TOYOTA CAMRY ’11
Chevrolet 2011 Dale Earnhardt Jr. #88 AMP Energy/National Guard CHEVROLET IMPALA ’11
Ford 2011 Carl Edwards #99 Aflac FORD FUSION ’11
- Added the Nissan GT-R N24 Schulze Motor Sports
The Nissan GT-R N24 Schulze Motor Sports has been added to the car dealer. This is the car entered in the 2011 Nurburgring 24 hour race by Schulze Motorsports of Germany, and is the very car in which Kazunori Yamauchi drove and achieved a class victory.
- Avatar now usable in Photo Travel
An Avatar ON/OFF feature has been added to Photo Travel. Now you can photograph your avatar together with your car.
You can turn the driver avatar ON/OFF by pressing the △ button while positioning the car.
- Replay Fast Forward/Rewind
All replay videos recorded after the 2.0 update will have [Forward] [Rewind] buttons.
You can now easily search for the scene you are looking for and play back a certain section whenever you want to, adding even more fun to the photo mode.
-Improved Online Lounge
[Car Restrictions] has been added in the regulations. You can now limit participants to specific categories such as “NASCAR” and “Super GT”. Also, there are now more cars that can be used in shuffle races, and a new “Shuffle Base” setting allows you to set the performance level of cars allocated to each player.
For details, please see Top screen – [Manual] – [Online Race] – [Event Settings] and the “Regulation Settings”.
- Additional features to Remote Racing
A “Graph Display” has been added to the remote race screen in GT My Home of granturismo.com, where you can enjoy B-Spec racing. This allows you to visually see the changes in positions in each lap. A time difference display for each car in the race has also been added.
- New Photo Stage Added
The “Indy: NASCAR Pit Stop” stage has been added to photo travel. We invite you to come see and capture the energy of NASCAR’s famous pit stops.
- Addition of the Consecutive Login Bonus
When a user logs in consecutively, a bonus will now be applied to experience and race rewards.
It will increase to 110% in the 1st day, 130% in the 2nd day, 150% in the 3rd day, 170% in the 4th, to a maximum of 200% in the 5th day. This will apply to all events both online and offline, so logging in every day will make the game progress faster.
- DLC (Downloadable Content) Compatibility
A [Downloadable Content] button has been added to the lower right of the top screen. Here you can install content purchased from the PlayStation®Store.
Please refer to the product information page of gran-turismo.com for details regarding downloadable content.
*The release of the DLC is planned for 25th October, 2011.
- Official Support for the G25/G27 Racing Wheels
The Logitech G25 Racing Wheel and G27 Racing Wheel are now officially supported. You can now change button assignments for various racing controls on these wheels.
[Other Improvements]
- User interface improvement
- Quick Menu can now be accessed while the race is loading.
- It is now possible to save and resume endurance races.
- Two NASCAR cars selectable in Arcade Mode have been changed from the 2010 models to 2011 models.
- In the Arcade Settings of [Options], AI Car Characteristics settings has been added. You can now change the aggressiveness of the AI against you in Arcade races.
- Some effects of Traction Control have been adjusted. When the TCS level is set to 1, it will not come into effect as much especially in tight corners on dirt tracks.
- Surface Water and Tire Load Indicator displays have been added to the race screen. The Tire Load Indicator can be set from the Quick Options menu that is displayed during the race (when the game is paused using the START button), or the standard Options menu.
- The option to Create Thumbnails for All Cars has been added to the context menu of the Garage. This will update the thumbnails of all cars in the garage.
- Experience gained in online races have been increased by 60%, and rewards have been increased by 66%.
- You can now change the Slipstream Strength settings in the lounge.
- In the Lounge and in [Option] – [General] – [Arcade], it is now possible to turn Visible Damage ON or OFF.
- Drivetrain settings has been added to the regulation settings in the Lounge.
- A setting to prohibit “Tuning” of cars has been added to the regulations settings in the Lounge.
- Adjusted the driving speed of formula cars in banks, and auto-drive when coming onto straights.
- Added a button to [Reset Playlist to Original Settings] under the settings menus of [Menu BGM], [Race BGM] and [Slideshow BGM].
- Personal BGM can now also be set in [Slideshow BGM]
- A new brand “AMG” has been added to the MUSEUM.
[Correction of Known Issues]
- Corrected an issue where the “Torque Sensing Center Differential” installed on a Lancer Evolution X was not functioning.
- Fixed an issue where you could participate in the Intermediate/Tarmac Rally of the Gran Turismo Rally in a Ferrari F1 by using the power limiter.
- Fixed an issue where the Controller Steering Sensitivity was not applied correctly.
- Fixed an issue where there was a server connection problem in certain network environments.
- Fixed an issue where auto-drive would make braking mistakes.
- Fixed an issue where the system would misjudge whether deceleration happens in time when making pit stops in the rain.
[To Check Your Current Version]
To check the version of your software, press the “Manual” button at the bottom of the main menu screen. The version number will be located on the upper left of the index page.
If the number starts with Ver. 2.00, you are playing the latest version of the game.
If not, please press the PS button and exit the game. The game will be updated automatically when you restart it with your PS3™ system connected to the internet.
read moreModNation Racer’s Review
Ever since the launch of the PlayStation 3 and the inevitable delay of Gran Turismo 5 there has been a huge gaping hole in Sony’s first party line up for racing games. Now that’s all changed with the release this week of ModNation Racer’s which was developed in Vancouver, Canada by United Front Games.
We all remember Sackboy and Little Big Planet the flagship game that brought the whole family together to “Create” levels together, “Play” levels together and finally to “Share” where they tackled puzzles in one of the best platformers of all time. United Front games has updated kart racing to the 21st century as their motto is also Create, Play and Share while keeping with some of the traditions that we all grew up loving in the Mario Kart franchise. Don’t freak out fan boys I’m not saying this is here to replace Mario Kart, this is just a new take on kart racing and I’m absolutely loving it so far.
The game’s lobby is something we don’t see very often, long gone are the menus and say hello to the Mod Spot. The Mod Spot is little track you race around in to get from one place to the next. Want to check out the top karts, top tracks, hot laps drive on over to it. Another little feature is that or Mod’s can enter your track and race around. I’ve had plenty of good laughs playing king of the hill on this little jump in the middle of the spot where all the racers would pile on top. Who knew you could have so much fun before the game has even really started.
How much you want to customize your character is totally up to you, you get a factory pre-set character but you can spend hours tricking him out. You can essentially start with a blank character and design him or her however you want. From the colour of skin, the type of eyes or mouths and then there’s clothing options like shirts, pants, hats, horns and so much more. Then there are basic shape stickers along with layering them allows you create one of your kick ass logos or you know the logo from your favorite movie or game.
Don’t like the way your kart looks? No problem there is a zillion different options to customize it. The first day I looked at the top karts available for download it was a Ferrari F1 car. Honestly, how freaking cool is that? That I can pretend to be Michael Schumacher driving around the tracks like a mad man while dropping power ups on my fellow drivers
When you feel like you’re ready to make your track so you have everyone on Playstation network test out your design skills you’ll have 4 preset themes to choose from – alpine, desert, seaside and jungle. Pick one and get to work by using the right analog stick to control any elevation changes you want. Make it is as high as the sky or dip low into the ground and maybe a figure 8 to boot. When you’re done designing the track it’s time to lay down the asphalt and if you want throw some chickens on the track for good laughs or have the game auto-populate everything for you.
Once your done creating it’s time to move on to single player career which is essentially training for the online XP races or XP series. ModNation Racer’s is a kart racer racer that allows players to race there way around tracks collecting power ups to blow other racers to kingdom come, while hitting boost pads, with drifting and drafting. You need to place in the top 3 to move on and you do unlock items to be used in creation mode. There are a ton of different power ups that feature 3 levels and didn’t features across each level. Drifting and drafting are important as they allow the player to fill up their boost meter to provide them with a shot of turbo or allow them to use that power to block enemy attacks. Getting point’s is easy, blow up a fellow racer or drift. The drift mechanic is really well done and it makes the game a ton of fun. The only disappointment about the drifting mechanic is that if your drifting in to a left hand turn you cant switch that into a right hand drift for the next turn. You need to stop and restart your drifting. So once your power meter is filled up the big question is do you use it for boost or do you save and try to block attacks from fellow racers. The attacks are the typical rockets, lightning, etc and these attacks can be quiet devastating however they can be also be annoying. On many occasions I’ve found my self getting blown to pieces only to respawn and get blown up as soon as I respawn. I’ll talk more about that in the multi-player portion of this review. I also feel like I need to mention that during the progress of your career that AI get’s stupid difficult and can make it very tough for you to progress to the next race.
I need to mention that this game as some of the worse load times I’ve ever seen in a video game. I’m not sure how these got through certification. I’ve gotten so frustrated with the load times I’ve almost quit playing the game. I’ve literally had time to do the dishes in between races that maybe a bit of execration but you get the point.
The multi-player portion of this game consists of playing with friends or for XP. There are only 2 races types in the XP mode which are XP races or XP series. The XP races are fun if you don’t have much time to play but the real meat is the 5 race XP series. I haven’t experienced any issues with lag so that’s gotta mean United Front Games has developed some really solid net code for this game. I’ve had an absolute blast playing against a solid group of players for 5 racers. If you have the chance I highly recommend to hop online and play the game. Like I mentioned earlier you can get spammed by enemy weapons and it’s one of the most annoying parts about playing online.
ModNation Racer’s is a solid game with very easy but deep creation tools. The game mechanic’s are fairly solid and it’s just a ton of freaking fun. This game isn’t perfect it has it’s faults but definitely worth spending your money on. Oh yes I forgot to mention it does feature 4 player split-screen for you family gamers.
read moreReview :Heavy Rain Chronicles: The Taxidermist
The first piece of downloadable content for Heavy Rain has arrived for $4.99 USD. This puts back into the game as Madison Paige as she cruises on her motorcycle on her way to continue investigating the Origami Killer story. You arrive at the Taxidermist and low and behold he is not home and Madison needs to find a way in to the house so she can begin to investigate the situation and create an article for her paper. Madison ravages through the house and stumbles upon a room covered in blood, guts in a sink and a dead body in a bathtub. She stumbles out of the room. I won’t reveal what happens next as its pacing, background noises and following game play are some of the best in Heavy Rain. It’s unfortunate that this chapter was potentially cut from the game.
The issue I have is it’s only 15 minutes in length, very short piece of game play for $4.99 however if your like me and loved Heavy Rain this is something you should play.
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