Archive for the ‘Review’ Category

Gran Turismo PSP quick review

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Bought this last week. Graphics are excellent. Sound is ok. But it has some problems that could have been easily avoided had a little more effort been put into the key aspects that make a good racing game imho - mainly views and controls.

What I don’t like:

1) Choice of views. There are 4 (from memory) views, and only two are really usable, and all appear to be non-configurable.
2) The default view looks like it’s at the point of view of a truck in terms of height. As a result, the track width looks smaller than it really is (claustrophobic, esp. on the nurburgring).
3) Yes, they thankfully put in a cockpit view. A pitch black cave. Yes, that’s right, you can’t even see the interior. Also, the fov is so wide that you can’t see where you’re going. Forget all this sensation-of-speed view ideology, this is a ’simulation’, and a crucial point is to be able to see where the road goes so you can look further ahead. The least they could have done was put in a lightened bitmap for the interior and I wouldn’t complain.

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AE82 and Lobethal

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

So much has happened since my last post. My oil cherry has been popped and I now own a 1988 Toyota Corolla SX Twin Cam AE82.
There’s many things that need attention (eg wheel balance, gear oil change, new seat [current one comes off it's hinges under left hand g-force] new steering wheel etc), but I got it for under three grand. While the power is low and economical, it has a modified exhaust system. There’s no conventional radio, so the music volume can be set by altering the height of the windows and the length of my right leg. Although I haven’t heard it from outside being driven by someone else, it is however a little embarrassingly loud.
With it’s stiffened suspension however, it’s cornering ability is surprising. When cornering, it grips really well while braking, but like all front wheel drives, it has some understeer when the power goes on. A lack of power steering gives my arms a bit of a workout when parking, but the feeling from the road when at speed feels connected and in control. The 16V 4AGE engine’s been replaced with a 16V 4AGE engine with TVIS (Toyota’s equivalent of VTEC), which gives it a bit more lower down torque.

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Posted in Australia, Review, Thoughts | 1 Comment »

Touge

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Last night a mate took me for a drive in his 90’s integra into the mountains, on some roads around a lake. As we were almost there (following a slower mx5), we came across a guy who had tapped his silvia into the side of the mountain. When we left a few hours later (around 2.30am), the car was being towed away. Here’s some dodgy camera phone footage.

Ok that’s the boring bit out of the way. A lap of the lake takes around 12 minutes, starting and finishing at the dam (marked with the red cross). There were lots of cars there, some imprezas, silvias, a group of ae86s. Everyone goes anticlockwise.

On the first half of our first lap, we got stuck behind a kei car (car with a yellow licence plate, has limited power) whose driver was driving really fast, it was quite surprising, and fun seeing a low powered front wheel drive getting the rear a little loose. After the first lap, the front tyres were a little warmed up, maybe between 30 and 35 degrees going by touch, with the right tyre a good 5 or so degrees warmer. After the third lap they were maybe somewhere around 40, with both around the same temp.
This video is from the last quarter or so of a lap.

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Posted in Film, Japan, Review, Thoughts | 1 Comment »

Top Gear Australia - Episode 1 Review

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

Overall I think the Aussie producers have done a great job. I think the presenters are quite good, they just need to relax more. The visual style is 100% in top gear taste. I really look forward to future episodes.

Problems I noticed from the first viewing.
1) Scripting. What was the first story about? Was it a review of 4×4s? Was it a road test? Was it a challenge? Was it a race? There was no explanation of the supposed track around the dunes; no explanation that they had to navigate around the flags. They should let the audience know of the rules that they apparently are trying to follow. Of course I guess an Aussie thing would be not taking it seriously and winging it, but it defeats the purpose of the story.

2) Where was the introduction to the track?? What on earth does it look like? We at least need a description of what it is, what kind of corners, straights etc it has, otherwise the laps are meaningless. After the first timed lap, the little guy said something like ‘that’s pretty fast’, but from our point of view there is nothing to compare it to.

3) The filming of the stig’s laps don’t even warrant a 1 star rating. Some of the worst camera angles, camera work, in car shots, and sound I have ever heard. Why on earth didn’t they have a microphone on the track? We didn’t get to hear the exhaust note of any of the cars. The GTR sounded like a vacuum cleaner through the in-car camera’s microphone, whereas it sounds completely different in real life (personal experience). The editing was awful. They mixed in-car sounds with video of completely different parts of the track, eg braking for a corner with the sound of accelerating. This segment needs urgent improvement or else there is no reason to have a stig.

4) What car do the celebrities drive? Is it a barina? What is it’s spec? Again, bad scripting.

5) Who made the ‘Keep Left’ graphic just before the ad breaks? It’s ugly, two dimensional, and completely in the wrong style for the program. If it’s what SBS does for every tv show then I guess that’s excusable.

6) What were they thinking? Printing on paper and not card??? Cheeeeeeap.

7) Car review quality. I didn’t hear any specific specifications. I don’t want to hear ‘it has more power’. I want to hear how many horses it has. By stating facts, opinions are more founded, thus appearing more professional. As this is the first episode, we need more specifics in order to make comparisons. We want car information. As far as I know, the green shark car was only referred two on a few occasions, and twice as ‘this little car’. The least they could do is do a little research.

8) Choice of cars. Very good choice of relevant newsworthy cars, but did they review six 4×4’s in this episode? Or were the three from the first segment the ones used in the snow? Not enough information was given about the cars for me to understand if they were the same or different. If they were the same, there needed to be a link between the two segments. Was it part of a Top Gear Challenge? If so, what were the results? There should be a conclusion to each segment in the studio, whether it be a tally of times or final words.

Top Gear Australia had a good first episode, but serious flaws in segment introductions and execution need attention.

Posted in Australia, Media, Review | No Comments »