Just a few screen shots that I caught while playing through L.A. Noire that were quite funny.
That's some toe strength to balance like that!
Power slid into a post box and managed to beach the car on it.
Crashed into a billboard and it seemed to glue it's self inside the car.
This one was pretty amazing. While looking for all cars in the game (for the auto fanatic achievement) I got out of the brown car on the left to enter the one in the center of the screen and the blue car decided just just drive (literally) into it.
Hot Rod! This car was waiting at the lights in a bit of an odd position.
And finally... Poor Roy. His animation froze while getting into the car and he would't move until I drove at him at speed enough to shock him back into life.
I've been playing GRID for about 2 weeks now after purchasing it in the
Midweek Madness offer on Steam. An absolute bargain if you ask me at only £2.74
at the time. I've seen the game a few times in the Codemasters racing pack on
Steam and considered it at full price, but I don't think i would have regretted
paying full price for it.
Given that the game is now just over 3 years old, and the price tag, I
thought the game would come with slightly underwhelming or out-dated graphics,
but that was not the case. Playing mostly on my machine at work (with a Xeon
W3550, some 12GB of RAM and a GTX 460 SE) the graphics have been one of the
stand out achievements of the game. The tracks and surrounding environments
look great. Car models are detailed and include high level of damage modelling,
which goes way beyond what I've seen in either console's flagship racing
titles.
There are not a massive choice of tracks to race on, at only 15, but the
selection that Codemasters made was exceptional. Time and time again I've
played the same tracks on other racing games such as Gran Turismo and Forza,
but I was delighted to see such tracks as Donnington Park, and been a big F1
fan, it was also exciting to finally race around Istanbul Park and Circuit de
Spa-Francorchamps. (OK, yes, this is now DLC for GT5, but it is paid for, and
it costs more than I paid for the full GRID game!!!) The track selection also
has a few city courses which nicely mixed up the race environments.
One thing that has kind of bugged me is that you often find yourself racing
in a different car each race, so it is quite hard to learn how best to drive a
specific car. This is a side effect of the fact that the game offers several
race types and tries to keep you interested in them all as you progress through
the career.
+ Looks brilliant
+ Great tracks to race on
- No weather effects
- Lack of consistency between races
All in all, one of the best racing games I've played and will remember it
for some time.
Good choice of support act for RHCP (at least better than "Chicks On Crack"
back in 2006 during the Stadium Arcadium tour), bringing to the stage a
selection of instruments that I've not seen since back in primary school! Very
chilled, but also energetic music keeping the 90's sound of REM alive. A good
listen for a Sunday afternoon no doubt.
Ok, on to the main event.
I wasn't mega-hyped in the run up to this gig, maybe because I wasn't really impressed with the new album (don't get me wrong, I still enjoy listening to it), but man had I forgot the energy and vibe you get at a Chili's gig.
The set list was amazing. A mix of songs spanning right back to Me And My Friends from 1987's The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, right up to the opening song from the latest album, Monarchy Of Roses, and of course, all the classics in between (Otherside, Give It A Away, Can't Stop and Californication)
Once again, an impressive stage design. Crazy lighting, guys hanging from support beams with spot lights and screens with the ability to split into super-sized strip screens which were used to great effect to add depth to the performance.
Otherside and Californication were highlights of the stage design, creating the stand out moments in the set for me. What was showing on the screens was not exactly related to the songs, but the design of the visuals was amazing.
Only thing I didn't enjoy was, unfortunately, Josh's backing vocals. He's managed to step up well to John's position and the on-stage chemistry with the rest of the band is defiantly there. The same jams with Flea and Chad are still there, which staged the finale of the set, but I just don't like Josh's vocal style compared to John's.
Ok, so I've been contemplating starting a blog for some time, but never got around to it and recently I've started to miss writing (or typing at least) since I finished uni and I'm not writing reports 17 hours a day.
I'm mainly going to focus on video game reviews, so that (when it is complete) I can link up to my portfolio. I'm learning about 3D modelling quite alot at the moment, so my main focus will be on that in the games that I look at, but I'll be doing some other bits no doubt around the music and gadgets that I love.
One of the first things I came across in the game while having a rummage
through the menus was a short video recapping the events of the previous two games in the trilogy.
Kind of like the "Previously On..." clips you get at the start of
many TV show (although this especially reminded me of the intros from Lost). As
this is the first time I have played a game from the Gears series, this was a
really nice feature, although it may not be so useful for the hardcore fan of the series.
Starting out in the game in the first level it was nice to see
animations other than just walk cycles. One example was when Marcus
steps through a doorway, but stopped to step over the higher block in the center,
rather than straight through or over it. Further into
the game this type of animation was continued, but was used sparsely and during
the
slower parts of the game where you are just getting to the next story
advancement. This was effective because they don't get in the way by slowing you down, but keep the flow of the game
interesting.
The level environments are continuously rich in detail (although I did spot some low resolution textures along the way). A nice touch I came across
was some destructible props which made it easier to shoot enemies, and it is
also possible to interact with certain elements of the environment. An example
I found was a button which when pressed dropped some creates into the floor which enemies
were taking cover behind. However, these can also sometimes get in the way, but in a
positive way when looking at the design of levels. I was trying to shoot an enemy higher up than me but a crane hook was in the middle of my field of view so a few of my
shots were blocked.
The active reload system where hitting the reload button, then
quickly hitting it again in the given range makes it quicker to reload
your weapon which can save time at critical time, such as when multiple enemies
are trying to shoot you down. Imagine the number of times you reload in
an shooter? It just makes sense to have this! Although on the flip
side this can have a downside. If you suddenly realise the you need to reload, but the reload sequence has just started, you hit the reload
button and as you do the active reload hits early causing a longer
reload.
Collectibles in games are commonplace now, but in
Gears it actually feels like there is purpose to collecting them (other than for the achievement). For
example, the 5th collectible of the game. It's a journal
entry speaking of how Lambents "go down quick, but there's so many of
them that we're burning through ammo like toilet paper at a chili
festival". I really enjoyed this. Not only does it add to the game by
progressing the story a little, but shows that the
game also has a fun side, and there can still be some humor found in
all the shit going on around.
A great guide I used for finding all of the collecatables:
Given that the game is so strongly based around a quite
complex story line, the facial animations are a bit of a letdown. The lip
sync is really not convincing and words don't seem to match up to what
is said. During cut scenes between the continuation of the main story
line you keep getting little bits to the back stories of the characters
which is nice and keeps you interesting in what is going on outside of
the main story.
After finally completing the main story
campaign in a little under 10 hours on Normal, I would defiantly
recommend this game to somebody that has not played it yet and enjoys a
good shooter. The final
battle was a great conclusion to the story, although at one point I
thought I was going to be massively disappointed with the way you take her
down. I really enjoyed fighting system (especially taking a chainsaw to an enemies face), the slightly slower pace of movement giving the
characters a feeling of the weight that they are carrying in armor and the whole game in general.
