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Real racing action!

Nathan Strum

Entry posted by Nathan Strum

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Did I mention I bought a PS4?

 

Years ago. I don't actually recall when.

 

Oh wait, here's an email receipt from Best Buy...

 

11/18/18. Must've been a Black Friday sale.

 

$199. Was that a good price? I'm guessing it must've been. I don't buy new consoles unless I can get them cheap.

 

I bought it in order to... uh... why did I buy it again? Oh, right. To play Carmageddon. Remember the PC (and Mac) game from the late 90's where you smashed up opponents and ran over pedestrians for points (like the camp classic movie Death Race 2000)? It was so pixelated and goofy as to be completely hilarious. There was also a really good expansion pack and a pretty-good sequel. Then a terrible sequel (which I never bought, since it never came out on the Mac). Then an iOS release in 2012 of the original (complete with lumpy polygons and pixelated graphics).

 

The original developers rebooted the game around 2015 for the PC (after a crowdfunding campaign and years of delays), and finally a PS4 version called Carmageddon: Max Damage in 2016. So, because I'm a Mac user and could only realistically play the new version on a console, and there were probably... three?... other games on the PS4 I could think of to buy, I decided to buy a PS4.

 

Two years later.

 

It came with Spider-Man. I haven't played it yet. I'm not sure I even put in the disc.

 

I played Carmageddon pretty-much through the whole game. All that's left is to grind through "achievements". Meh. The original was more fun.

 

I also bought Wreckfest. It's supposed to be like um... that game where you crash into things. FlatOut. Yeah, that was it. So I played Wreckfest for awhile. It was kind of fun. Neat physics. But kind of tedious.

 

I bought Burnout Paradise too. For some reason. Even though I owned it for the PS3 and played it enough there. The series peaked back on the PS2 with Burnout 3. Pretty sure I've never even put the disc in the PS4.

 

I bought Dangerous Driving because it's supposed to be more like the classic Burnout series. Did I play it? Not sure. Probably a little. I wonder if there's a folder or something on the PS4 showing me what I've played?

 

You see, it's been awhile since I actually turned my PS4 on. The last system update was apparently installed in 2019. So the first thing it had to do when I turned it on today was install a software update.

 

I usually use my PS3 when I watch Blu-ray discs. So the PS4 doesn't even get used for that. Not that I watch Blu-rays (or DVDs) much anymore. I mostly stream through Apple TV now.

 

What else did I get for the PS4? Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Pretty sure I haven't played that. Again, may never have even put the disc in.

 

I also bought WRC 8 for my PS4. I really love watching rallying. I really like driving games. I should probably play one of them. I hear WRC 8 is very good. WRC 9 is out now... oh wait, so is 10. And 11 is coming out in the fall. Maybe I'll get that one. If 8's any good. I should probably play it. Or see if I already have.

 

I also bought Gran Turismo Sport. Because I really liked Gran Turismo and Gran Turismo 2. Amazing games.

 

I also own Gran Turismo 3 "A-Spec" and GT 4. And 5. And 6. I don't think I played any of them all the way through after 2 though, because A-Spec was pretty disappointing if memory serves. And I have Gran Turismo on the PSP. I often forget I own a PSP. I wonder where it is...

 

But GT Sport was mostly online. So I didn't play it much. Clearly, my PS4 has gotten very little attention.

 

So then... why did I even bother turning on my PS4 today after three years of it being idle?

 

Because, of course, I bought Gran Turismo 7.

 

Please try to not hurt yourself rolling your eyes. You can get a headache from doing that too much.

 

Yes - I bought another game for a console I haven't touched in three years. Because, I guess, I'm stupid. And particularly stupid this time, because usually I wait for games to hit the "Greatest Hits" bin before buying them at a fraction of their original price. But no, I bought GT 7 for full price. (But not the $90 anniversary version. At least I'm not that gullible.)

 

I suppose the reason is, I was really disappointed in GT Sport because there was no traditional single-player career mode, so it's been nine years now since a proper, new release of Gran Turismo. For all intents and purposes, this is the first real Gran Turismo for the PS4. So I bought it. Pretty much on launch day (or launch week).

 

So how is it?

 

Well, one common complaint about the Gran Turismo series is the lack of realistic damage.

 

Nonsense! I can report, first-hand, that the damage in Gran Turismo 7 is incredibly realistic.


Check this out:

 

real-damage.jpg

 

Look at that damage! Not only is the plastic cracked along the entire top edge of the case:

 

real-cracks.jpg

 

But it actually tore the paper insert, too!

 

real-tearing.jpg

 

So, thanks for that Amazon! That extra touch of realism is just what this game needed!

 

Would it kill them to invest in slightly-less-flimsy bubble envelopes?

 

And yes... I returned it. They sent me an (undamaged) replacement right away. Even before I sent the other one back.

 

Actually, returns are ridiculously easy now with Amazon. I just requested a return, they sent me a QR code, and I took the game and code to my local Whole Foods Market, and they scanned it in and boom! Done! No shipping or packaging required.

 

So anyway, with an undamaged copy in hand, this evening I was finally able to dust off the PS4 and pop in the game.

 

As mentioned before, it had to run a system update first. But I expected that. And it took only a few minutes. So kudos to Sony for speeding that whole process up!


Now then, onto the game itself!

 

real-copying.jpg

 

Oh, right. Uh... 48 minutes. Well, I guess I can go have dinner or something. But that's fine. If it copies it to the internal drive, the load times will be much faster.

 

(Time passes)


Right. Now to put in the game disc. There are actually two Blu-ray discs for the game. The first disc was just data. The second has the game. It's like swapping floppy discs back in the early days of the Macintosh! Ah good times... good times.

 

And since this is a brand new game, it should fire right up! Here we go!

 

real-updating.jpg

 

Ugh.

 

I think BattleBots is on tonight. Guess I'll go watch that.

 

I'm starting to remember now why my PS4 just sits around gathering dust. That's what it's best at.

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Nathan Strum

Finally! After all of the updates, I could actually load the game and... uh...

 

ready-set-what.jpg

 

Wait... what is this? I can't actually get to Gran Turismo until I play something called Music Rally? What the stink is this?!

 

maybe-i-dont-want-to-now.jpg

 

Okay... that was kind-of pointless. It's a "race" where you don't actually race anyone. You just drive around the track as far as you can before the music runs out.

 

For some reason.

 

Anyway, after doing that once, it actually let me into Gran Turismo - the actual game.

 

So far, I've bought a used Mazda.

 

Yep.

 

25 years later, it's still Gran Turismo.

 

Can't wait until I can afford a used Toyota!  :thumbsup:

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EricBall

Hmm... I can't remember the last time I used my PS3 to play a game.  I used it to rewatch LoTR EE a month or two ago. I have GT5 but haven't played it since the wheel controller died.  I did love bombing around the 'Ring.

 

The Wii U gets used to play Mario Kart Wii with my son while we do laundry (he's in residence at a local college).  I sometimes win a race, I never win the trophy.  The Switch gets used to play Mario Party Superstars with him as an alternative to MK.

 

But otherwise I'm playing on my PC, currently Escape from Tarkov.  Lots of games, only so much time to play, so I tend to focus on one game until it's not fun anymore.

 

And I know what you mean about watching DVDs & Blu-Rays.  I've got a Roku & Disney+ so I'm set for content as long as I pay the subscription (which is cheap for the amount of content I'm getting IMHO).  I've actually been watching the Disney catalog in chronological order.  Just finished off the original 101 Dalmatians and now I'm watching The Absent Minded Professor (flubber).  I still like having physical discs for movies I want to "own", but those are few and far between.

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Nathan Strum
1 hour ago, EricBall said:

I have GT5 but haven't played it since the wheel controller died.  I did love bombing around the 'Ring.

I bought a cheap wheel once for one of the GT iterations, but it was so terrible I returned it. Apparently you need to pay for the expensive ones to get something usable. But I'm so used to the Dualshock, I just stick with that.

1 hour ago, EricBall said:

Lots of games, only so much time to play, so I tend to focus on one game until it's not fun anymore.

That's basically what I do. I got into GT7 a little last night and won a few races, and it looks like it's going to be a pretty-big time suck. So that's good. I need to turn the driving assists off though - the auto-braking is annoying. Seriously... braking? In a racing game? That's what the other cars are there for. :D 

1 hour ago, EricBall said:

And I know what you mean about watching DVDs & Blu-Rays.  I've got a Roku & Disney+ so I'm set for content as long as I pay the subscription (which is cheap for the amount of content I'm getting IMHO).  I've actually been watching the Disney catalog in chronological order.  Just finished off the original 101 Dalmatians and now I'm watching The Absent Minded Professor (flubber).

I admire your tenacity! I've gone back and watched a few things from my childhood (Strongest Man in the World, the Herbie movies), some "later" movies (Black Hole, Midnight Madness, Tron) and a bunch of the documentaries about the history of the company and theme park attractions. Hopefully they'll bring more of the Laserdisc and DVD extras from their movies over too. There's a bunch of behind the scenes stuff from Tron that isn't on Disney+ yet (and likely others).

 

There's an absolute ton of content on there though, and much of the new stuff they're making is excellent (WandaVision, Hawkeye, etc). The Netflix Marvel stuff will be there soon too, which is good since I didn't watch them at the time (and canceled Netflix shortly thereafter). I enjoyed the Mandalorian quite a bit, although I thought the Book of Boba Fett was pretty boring. The best part of it? Since I already subscribe, it didn't cost me anything. :D 

1 hour ago, EricBall said:

I still like having physical discs for movies I want to "own", but those are few and far between.

Same here. I need to not pull the trigger so soon on Blu-rays though. When Monty Python came out on Blu-ray I jumped on the box set, because that seemed all that would be available. But now there's a disc-only version which is what I'd rather have. (And don't get me started on this thing.) The more movies or TV series that become available for streaming, the less physical media I'll buy. It's becoming rarer all the time for me, and I'm fine with that.


CDs however - that's a different thing. I'll always want to own physical copies of my music.

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Nathan Strum
1 hour ago, atari2600land said:

Carmageddon is on the Nintendo 64.

It was on the PS1 as well. Never bought it though. Anyway, I don't own an N64. The only Nintendo anything I have is a GBA-SP.

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atari2600land

You're missing a lot then. Nintendo made so many great games: SMB3, Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart DS, and much more.

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GoldLeader
4 hours ago, Nathan Strum said:

It was on the PS1 as well. Never bought it though. Anyway, I don't own an N64. The only Nintendo anything I have is a GBA-SP.

 

Actually it was never released in America on PS1 (Only Europe).  I followed it very carefully in magazines and then it never materialized.  Good thing too,  as they had described it as a Twisted Metal type game that also had a race if you wanted to, and zombies...However having finally played it on N64 a little bit,  it was just a bog standard race game that sucked hard but they did seem to add zombies...Nothing like the Mighty Twisted Metal at all!   And IIRC the race was fully mandatory...**Sigh**

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GoldLeader
33 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

I've heard the console ports were pretty awful. You can play the originals (on Windows anyway) from GOG.

 

Appreciate it,  but I've almost never gamed on a PC.  (I just can't do it).    It should have been perfect on PS1 because Twisted Metals 1-4 were perfect on PS1.

 

Carmageddon was one of those games that should have been Amazing,  but then it never came out...Another car adventure game we all wanted that never came out was a game called Propaganda (PS1)...Oh well...

 

https://www.unseen64.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/pvw_prop_screen03.jpg

 

 

 

 

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carlsson

I charged up my PSP a while ago to see if it still worked, and played a little bit of Burnout Legends. Fortunately the battery hasn't yet swollen like it does on many other PSP units, but probably I should replace it if I want any longer use of the device.

 

I see what you mean about buying games never played. When the Game store closed over here, they had a massive sale and I bought a football manager game for the PSP + some random racing game for the PC. They closed the store about 4-5 years ago, and I still haven't removed the plastic from these two cheap games without any resale value.

 

Edit: Kart Racer (Nordic Games 2009). The price tag says $2 but I think they had 50% off. It seems the launch price was $12.99.

System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista, 1.5 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, 400 MB HDD, 68 MB video RAM, Direct X 8.1, sound card.

Now I'm debating whether I should open the shrink wrap or not.

 

This review seems to sum it up pretty well:

Quote

The game 'Kart Racer' by Nordic games would be more at home on a Commodore 64, with rubbish graphics/sounds and lousy physics. Trying to play 2 players results in very jittery motion and the whole game seems unfinished. Looking at their website it appears they mostly do driving games so I can't comprehend how they manage to release such rubbish.

 

Perhaps it is best enjoyed still in shrink wrap after alll...

Edited by carlsson
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GoldLeader
On 3/12/2022 at 1:06 PM, carlsson said:

I charged up my PSP a while ago to see if it still worked, and played a little bit of Burnout Legends. Fortunately the battery hasn't yet swollen like it does on many other PSP units, but probably I should replace it if I want any longer use of the device.

 

I see what you mean about buying games never played. When the Game store closed over here, they had a massive sale and I bought a football manager game for the PSP + some random racing game for the PC. They closed the store about 4-5 years ago, and I still haven't removed the plastic from these two cheap games without any resale value.

 

Edit: Kart Racer (Nordic Games 2009). The price tag says $2 but I think they had 50% off. It seems the launch price was $12.99.

System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista, 1.5 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, 400 MB HDD, 68 MB video RAM, Direct X 8.1, sound card.

Now I'm debating whether I should open the shrink wrap or not.

 

This review seems to sum it up pretty well:

 

Perhaps it is best enjoyed still in shrink wrap after alll...

carlsson,   You're a card!

 

Seriously don't change...You're a good egg!

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Nathan Strum

Incidentally, for those interested - after playing it for a few days, I find Gran Turismo 7 to be a really fun, solid return to what made the series great in the first place.

 

If you like Gran Turismo, that is. It's not everyone's cup of tea being more "realistic" than an arcade racer. I like both kinds of driving games, but it's taking me awhile to readjust my driving style from "keeping the accelerator flat on the floor and running everyone else off the road" to "wait... I have to brake before a corner?!" ;) 

 

I find myself obsessively doing things like re-running license tests trying to shave off hundredths of seconds to get Gold, and enjoying it. This is definitely going to chew up a bunch of free time. But they've made a proper entry in the series again, and it looks and plays great on a PS4 (a non-Pro at that). I'm sure the PS5 may very well look better, but frankly I can't imagine it being that dramatic. There are no pop-up or frame rate issues here.

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Nathan Strum
On 3/12/2022 at 12:06 PM, carlsson said:

I charged up my PSP a while ago to see if it still worked, and played a little bit of Burnout Legends. Fortunately the battery hasn't yet swollen like it does on many other PSP units, but probably I should replace it if I want any longer use of the device.

I suppose I should check mine...

 

I wonder where it is?

 

I should see if my GBA-SP works, too. I always intended to buy the reissued one with the better screen, but never got around to it.

 

Maybe I should just do this instead:

 

There's a nice how-to article here. Apart from carving up the case, it looks pretty straightforward.

 

I really like how my Lynx turned out with its new screen. Could make for a good project. (Even though I still have a few Atari consoles that need fixing. :ponder: )

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carlsson

I know what you mean. For a while I have been searching for my boxed Matra Alice (red, French TRS-80 MC-10) without any traces. I even contacted the estate after my friend who passed away last fall, in case I lent it to him a few years ago but they didn't find anything matching. I'm fairly sure I haven't sold it but perhaps another friend loaned it from me, or it is stored away at a hidden location.

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