Revvin

Thanks Fates

Thanks for setting up this forum

Had to search to find the forum but its there..thanks!

I bought this last year and played it a lot online, left it alone for awhile with other games around like Call of Duty 3 and Rainbow 6: Vegas but I've started playing it again and really enjoying it. I also have BF2 for the PC along with all the expansion packs but I much prefer the 360 version. There may not be as many players in the server, the maps might be a little smaller but I keep getting frustrated at the unrealistic turn speed on the PC because of the mouse control which I don't think is representative of a soldier carrying a heavy gun and pack. I also find that there is a lot of 'porpoising' in the PC version where players will jump then quickly move to prone and jump again making it even more of an unrealistic enviroment. Although being a mouse and keys guy since Wolfenstein I am getting used to the joypade but I feel it levels the playing field and it seems to have a positive effect on gameplay where players are less likely to break cover unless they know they can move because they know they can't use unrealitic movement or some 'l33t k3wl' script to get them out of trouble.

Is that for the 360 version of AA? if so thats a pretty good way of doing it and perhaps could be used for other games. I wonder if anything could be done with the XNA toolkit for the 360 to mod such games and offer them to the publishers for approval and then download? As far as mods go, yes you can play the vanilla versions of games without the mods but often you get a rush to play the mod du jour and it splits the online community, it certainly happens in rFactor online as you see a raft of servers dump good mods to load the latest mod released just to be popular.

The FSOne mod is excellent, I also found CTDP's F1 2005 mod very good. My favourite open wheeler mod is the Formula BMW mod, as Paul pointed out earlier in this thread Simbin will also create this racing series for RACE 2007 so it will be interesting to compare the two versions. Previously I also enjoyed the Euro F3 mod which was one of the earliest available for rFactor and set the benchmark for mods IMHO. As you pointed out mods vary in quality quite a lot which is why I use rFactor Central as a kind of benchmark, although a lot of good mods are not in that sites 'Hall of Fame' its a good starting point and you get an idea of which mod teams produce quality mods. So how about a racing sim forum? would anyone else like a small spot to discuss them? Would the CombatAce mods consider it please?

I've just seen this thread at the Xbox forums about having an F1 game for the Xbox and someone has posted (how true this is) that ex members of the Sony Studio in Liverpool have been on the PS3 forums saying that Sony is not seeking to renew the license due to the cost and that EA is in the driving seat (if you can excuse the pun) to secure a new deal.

When you buy a console you're not buying it as a modding platform though, of course you can do that on the PC but sometimes its nice just pop a CD into the drive and play. As I've said in the thread about racing sims in the general forum while it is nice to be able to download mods it can have its downsides in finding compatible servers, players to play against and then keeping up with patches for mods and the game. I have Armed Assault but have spent a lot of time tinkering to get it running smoothly so I do enjoy just firing up the 360 to play and I still think the 360 version has the edge over the PC version, just my opinion of course.

Yes it was released a few weeks ago for free on Steam for a limited time only and then as a paid add-on (but still only a few $ ) It doesn't seem clear whether RACE 2007 will use the ISI engine again or Simbin's own Lizard engine but the extra cars sounds great. Its a shame RACE is not more widely used, a lot of people were put off by the fact it uses Steam and that the files are encrypted making modding impossible but for me thats one of its strong points that I can go online and know I won't have any mismatches. If its mods I want then I have rFactor and GTR 2.

I think its a different culture in the racing sim mod scene because they know historically you have had to seek a license because they have a product very relevant to the general public and need to protect that products image. I'm not saying the aircraft companies don't have an image to product butthey don't sell to a fickle general public so are likely to be less inclined to shut down a mod. I don't think its a question of fighting, you have to respect the IP owners decison if you ask for permission. Getting a little side tracked here though, have you tried the Live For Speed demo? that has cars whose performance is closer to real production cars although they also have racing variants of those cars too. I was a little worried about jumping into an online server but did so and as long as you don't cause huge wrecks the community online is friendly enough. It did'nt take me long to win a few races and a lot of the fast drivers will happily share their setups which is another good feature LFS has - the ability to send someone your setup while online, I can't remember if GTR2 allows that?

Hmm I'm not so sure about that, the owners of the A1GP series stopped a free mod as did the British Touring Car Championship. I think the racing sim genre gets hammered more as traditionally racing series have licensed themselves where as the aerospace companies have never enforced it apart from Northrop Grumman with Pacific Fighters. Car makers have a product to sell to the general public so they have an image to protect so they want tight control over anything that bears their name.

Yes there are a few tracks made to look like roads though they all seem to be extremely large circuits, there are a few production car mods out there, they can be found here. The mod scene is a potential minefield, I don't know how the F1 mods have slipped under Bernie Ecclestone's radar but glad they have so to cover some of the production car manufacturers might be possible if you can avoid the gaze of the corporate lawyers. IMO the G25 is the best off the shelf wheel money can buy. I thought my old MOMO Force was good but this is on another level and well worth the price, even better if you can get it cheaper now.

Nice work Paul! I'm not that gifted when it comes to painting cars though I have made a few personal skins for LFS but nothing even close to the level of detail of those cars you painted. Eraser> Its a shame you won't touch consoles as it sounds like Forza Motorsport 2 would be just the thing for you. Its not arcadey and holds up well against the PC sims out there. There are 300 cars modelled which are mainly production models you can tune up with a few car classes covering racing spec cars. With the street cars you can buy aftermarket add-ons for the engine, brakes, ignition systems and many other parts to improve performance and handling.

rFactor's online code is the best I've tried in a sim so far though its great modding potential is also a downfall as it can be sometimes difficult to keep up with mods and that can cause mismatch errors when trying to play online though if you play with a group often you know what files you need. I have always enjoyed the GTR series since its mod days in EA's F1 sims but although its got a nice set of cars and tracks that is also starting to get well modded. A good thing in some ways but like rFactor it can be difficult to make sure you have the right versions. There is something to be said for the more closed file system used by Live For Speed and RACE, at least when I go online with those I know I have everything I need to be compatible with the host server.

Nice work on those cars Dagger, I played Nascar 2003 but never played it seriously in a league. A few people I do know who have raced GPL and Nascar 2003 think very highly of the GP'79 mod and TPSCC's Stock car mod for rFactor, ISI added new content for stock car rules and physics in a patch some time ago.

According to Major Nelson's site Bomberman Live will be released next week for 800 MS points. This game is really good fun with a few friends so over Xbox Live it should be hilarious :)

I have seen quite a few forums ruined by politics. What I don't like is when posters can't separate one thread from another so if they disagree in one thread they will often derail the next thread started by that poster and it just goes on and on just from one initial disagreement and politics is a sure fire way to separate a community.

1. Forza Motorsport series (Xbox and 360) 2. Project Gotham Racing series (Xbox and 360) 3. Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (360) 4. John Madden (Multi Format) 5. Streetfighter 2 (SNES) 6. Super Mario Kart (SNES) 7. Battlefield 2 (360) 8. Sensible Soccer (Megadrive) 9. Golden Axe (Megadrive) 10. Streets of Rage (Megadrive)

I am completely addicted to this racing game on the Xbox 360, its very realistic and holds up well against some of the PC sims out there. Graphically its very nice, better than anything I've seen on the PC though perhaps not as outstanding as say Project Gotham Racing 3 also on the Xbox 360. It's been slated by some for not having an in-cockpit view but I think thats unfair as it does have two 'bonnet views' one of which is a good approximation of the drivers eyeline looking straight out of the window, so if you imagine the TV screen as your windscreen its pretty much spot on and besides I don't often look at the detail on my dashboard when driving a real car and if I'm travelling at speed you can bet your bottom dollar my eyes are fixed on the road! :) With 300 cars modelled from around the world I can forgive the lack of cockpit views. The campaign can become a grind but as you unlock more events it just keeps that 'just one more race' addiction going. You can upgrade your cars using aftermarket add-on's such as sports ignition and fuel systems, racing spec brake systems. You can really feel the difference between the stock car and the upgrades you buy for it though you can upgrade your car to the point where the races can become a little easy apart from a 'factory spec' series. I've just enjoyed tuning a racing spec Viper to race against some of the supercars who have much higher top end speed than my car but I can make up ground with the handling you'd expect from a racing spec Viper. Its good to see some of the old fantasy tracks from the original Forza Motorsport game given a complete makeover to next gen standards, I found it nice to have some familiar tracks on top of the real world tracks like Silverstone and Road Atlanta. Also in Forza 2 you'll find the best looking rendition of the Nordschleife 'green hell' I've seen in any sim or mod for a sim, its simply stunning. Online play is limited to 8 players but its not often I've raced against more than that in a PC sim anyway. There is also a paintshop to customise your cars paintjob which is quite easy to use for basic patterns but some users have used thousands of layers to create some stunning paintwork. If you are looking for a good racing sim to play on your 360 this comes highly recommended from me but there is also a demo on the Xbox Live Marketplace so you can try it out first.

Well my camera work is not the best, you can adjust the exposure etc, as for that first article on porn..I've commented elsewhere but I'll say it again here that article is the headline grabbing garbage I'd expect from a low quality tabloid newspaper. They have singled out Forza and not really done their homework. First of all anyone who has spent just 2 minutes playing around in the paintshop in Forza 2 will know its not easy to make those kinds of images. Each car panel is allocated a few thousand layers of which to apply coloured vinyl stickers. You can make regular shapes and patterns easy enough but to make up images like that Borat one would takes hours of work and many layers not to mention quite some artistic talent. Its not a case of little Johnny importing an image from a porn site on his PC and then sticking it on his car in Forza it takes a lot of craft to do those pictures with a small number or talented people doign them, only a small percentage would choose to make something obscene. This is of course then ignoring Microsoft's control over the Xbox Live service which means someone can be reported and banned quite easily if they are found to be using obscene images or indeed language, this is not the unregulated gaming found on the PC format. Finally, obscene images have been seen online in PC gaming for years going right back to games like Doom and Duke Nukem. You could download naked women models to run around in quake etc and its far easier to import obscene images into a PC game than it is to make those images in Forza 2. Only recently there was some stupid kid running around a Counterstrike server spraying his tag - an ingame feature for those who have never played it, his tage involved animated graphics depicting sex acts including beastiality. Quite often you'll get some idiot spraying XXX images in servers populated by young players.

Since we moved home to a new area the local council has a very good recycling service and we've fully embraced that in out home, it was a shock at just how much actual rubbish we throw away now we recycle all our plastics, paper, glass etc. The central heating has been off for some time now and none of our electrical equipment is left on overnight it gets switched off. Washing goes out on the line as much as the weather will allow so the tumble drier is hardly used.

Yeah I wish I could hook up my G25 but according to the Logitech tech support site its never likely to happen, I am contemplating getting the MS wheel for the 360 though, its got some good reviews. I have rFactor, GTR2, Live For Speed, RACE, GTL and netKar pro but Forza 2 has me hooked right now. It has a nice little upload option to the official site so you can take screen grabs from the game then upload and view them on the Forza 2 web-site, here are a few I took and saved to my own webspace: Racing in an all Porsche race at Mugello My 1967 Stingray racing on the streets of New York My 'pimped' Lotus Elise A custom paint job for my Elise

Its available for download now on Xbox Live's Marketplace. I'm downloading now, its suppossed to be more arcade like than Over G Fighters but if it brings flight sims to a wider audience maybe we'll see more sims coming to the next gen consoles.

Yeah I'd read about them using low energy lighting but they still used a hell of a lot of the stuff, also one of the UK bands the Kaiser Cheifs travelled by train to the concert and avoided flying though I'm not sure just how much better that is. But as you pointed out the plastic bottles its another thing not considered and thats how fans actually got to these concerts, I assume there were rows of bicycles outside these stadiums While some celebs may believe in the cause - after all we all have causes we truly believe in I think a lot of these stars are just rent-a-cause types in it for the publicity, I'm sure if the article is true Madonna will now sell the shares she has in those high polluting companies? Its the same with these fund raising events, you get the likes of Geldof and Bono shouting about people giving money but how much do these stars actually give and when comparing that ammount with their overall wealth I wonder how it compares to the man on the street who can only give a few dollars but does'nt earn much more but its the stars who get the knighthoods and sell more records. Just as one article portrayed Madonna as a being hypocritial with her shares there was another story after the last Live Aid where Bono moved one of his music recording companies offshore to avoid paying huge tax bills to his native country making a lot of people out of work.

You know I get fed up of all these rich 'stars' telling me how to live. I try to do my bit, I recycle, use energy efficient lamps where possible, use the car less but these 'stars' are only interested in the publicity of these events, a lot of them only doing it because they have an album arriving soon. How many of those 'stars' flew to those venues around the world to lecture us on global warming? How much of a carbon footprint did all the lighting and sound equipment create? According to one paper Madonna has shares in several high polluting companies, maybe she should sell them and perhaps buy another bloody baby and shut the hell up!