Last weekend's tournament was a disaster for me in my ways. Its ok to lose but to not fight at all is something I find hard to accept. Usually when things go wrong, I try to bundle up all that anger and use it to propel me in something else. So, I decided to go AWOL for the next tournament and set my sight on the racing game Trackmania Nations Forever. I've for long been a fan of racing and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to see whether I've still got it in me to compete.
I went berserk; bought myself a new Xbox controller and started practicing like crazy. I kept playing till my fingers hurt. It has been just three days though but I've already seen around 20 videos of the game, the last year's finals and the various tactics in the listed maps. The city level qualifier is on 23rd & 24th July and so, I laid out a plan to practice in an organized fashion, with one map on each day.
I even set myself a target which I hoped to achieve considering all went well. My target was a podium finish at the national level. That maybe a hard target but what's there in competing if you don't aim high! I got all geared up, even started listening to some uplifting music. And suddenly, like all things in life, it came crashing down! (as usual)..
You see, the national finals is on the weekend in August. I had agreed a month back to go on a trip with my family on this particular weekend, which I obviously forgot. Damn! I've heard of anti-climax, but this is anti-intro.. Do I feel dumb right now!! :|
Oh well! I fell in love with the game in these past three days and so, gonna continue the practice and at least compete at the City Level.. I do hope I get some opponents to make this worth my time..
Monday, July 11, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Racing in the DiRT
I was looking for some new game to kill time and I heard that DiRT3 was out. Being a fan of Colin McRae and racing in general, I decided to check it out. The first thing that caught my eye was the graphics. I don't know how they do it but with each version, the graphics just keeps getting better. Maybe its just that we spend so much time looking at concentrate walls in NFS that the tracks filled with greenery in DiRT becomes a welcome sight for sore eyes.
If you have tried Colin McRae before then you'll know that DiRT is no easy game to master. So, I took it slow for a couple of races so that I can settle into the game. What I realized soon after is that the game was pretty darn easy (compared to the usual Colin McRae). So, what's the big deal you ask? Damn man! The difficulty is everything.
In a normal racing game, you win most of the races in the first attempt and you keep moving forward along with the story. Your interest in the game is maintained by your desire to drive faster cars while you are immersed in the story. But in Colin McRae, its different. There is no story and the slow cars are as much fun as their faster siblings.
The USP of a Colin McRae game is that its insanely difficult. A normal game has Easy, Medium and Hard whereas a CMR has 6 to 9 difficult settings and not to mention the various assists that can be turned on or off. Reaching pole position in medium difficult will take you months. To win a race in high difficult setting is near to impossible for most players.
You know you can't beat the computer, so, you keep trying to beat your own time. If you ace one corner, you might get a .4 sec advantage. You keep trying again and again for hours perfecting every single turn. All of a sudden you get that perfect lap where you kissed the apex in every corner to beat the computer by .2 seconds! In that moment, you will feel INVINCIBLE! In that single moment, you will have realized what gaming is all about!
Its that feel that I miss in this game. They have toned down the difficulty and I'm finishing first regularly even though I've played the game for just two days. I'm hoping that the game will get more difficult as faster cars get unlocked.. *fingers crossed*
If you have tried Colin McRae before then you'll know that DiRT is no easy game to master. So, I took it slow for a couple of races so that I can settle into the game. What I realized soon after is that the game was pretty darn easy (compared to the usual Colin McRae). So, what's the big deal you ask? Damn man! The difficulty is everything.
In a normal racing game, you win most of the races in the first attempt and you keep moving forward along with the story. Your interest in the game is maintained by your desire to drive faster cars while you are immersed in the story. But in Colin McRae, its different. There is no story and the slow cars are as much fun as their faster siblings.
The USP of a Colin McRae game is that its insanely difficult. A normal game has Easy, Medium and Hard whereas a CMR has 6 to 9 difficult settings and not to mention the various assists that can be turned on or off. Reaching pole position in medium difficult will take you months. To win a race in high difficult setting is near to impossible for most players.
You know you can't beat the computer, so, you keep trying to beat your own time. If you ace one corner, you might get a .4 sec advantage. You keep trying again and again for hours perfecting every single turn. All of a sudden you get that perfect lap where you kissed the apex in every corner to beat the computer by .2 seconds! In that moment, you will feel INVINCIBLE! In that single moment, you will have realized what gaming is all about!
Its that feel that I miss in this game. They have toned down the difficulty and I'm finishing first regularly even though I've played the game for just two days. I'm hoping that the game will get more difficult as faster cars get unlocked.. *fingers crossed*
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