Gran Turismo 5

It's finally here (metaphorically speaking; mine hasn't arrived yet). It's crazy to think that GT4 came out almost 6 years ago. The wait was long, but it looks to have been worth it. 1032 cars, dozens of tracks and track configurations, track creation, kart racing... It seems to have it all. I can't wait to get mine and start being angry at the simulation and how hard it will be to complete the S licenses.

I'm even considering getting a Logitech G27 wheel + support to play it. Sure, I will use it with other games, like NFS: Shift, F1 2010 and so on, but GT5 will be the main reason for purchasing it.

While waiting for the game, here are some excellent (as always) articles from Digital Foundry:

• Making Tracks in Gran Turismo 5
• Gran Turismo 5: Installation Analysis 
• Gran Turismo Evolution

 The last one in particular shows how much the series evolved since its first iteration. The models, the lightning, it's all evolved so much.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

The new NFS, this one coming from Criterion Games of Burnout fame, is a week from release and the reviews are starting to pop. IGN gave it a 9.0 and praised most of the game. Game Informer gave it an 8.75. Good scores, definitely. But why have I lost interest in the game?

Burnout Paradise is my favourite racing game, ever. I played it more than I played any other game of the genre, and it's so good I could play it right now, years after it first came out. The game was excellent in every aspect, and that got even better with the amazing free DLC that came out after launch, giving us more cars, more events, event restarts (a major game-changing option that corrected its biggest flaw) and bikes. Bikes! Driving a motorcycle in Paradise City was simply amazing. The game had everything I could possibily want: great graphics (which are still great today), an awesome soundtrack and a very fun gameplay. Let's not forget that it was just great to simply drive around Paradise City, discovering new events to try, finding out new parking garages and beating road times. There were dozens of billboards to destroy and hundreds of special gates to run over. And at any time you could start Showdown and cinematically crash at anything you could see. At any time you could press a few buttons and almost immediately join an online lobby and try one of hundreds of great challenges with friends or randoms. I can't praise the game enough. If you haven't tried it, you're missing out, big time. Please get the game and all the DLCs.

All that seems to be absent from Hot Pursuit. There's a new location, Seacrest County, but it looks really bland. Paradise City had a personality, with great, remarkable locations everywhere, from the beaches to the long bridge and the Quarry. Seacrest, from what I have seen, has some great-looking scenery, but that's it. There's no personality in the locations, it's just a bunch of road put together with different background. There's no reason to roam freely around it: you have to choose the events from the main menu in a world map. The events seem to include only racing as a cop, or racing away from them. There are no secrets to be discovered (shortcuts don't count). The new Autolog feature is definitely great, but it doesn't seem to compensate the other faults.

You may be saying "this is a Need for Speed, not a Burnout" and you'd be right. This isn't a Burnout, and that's why I think I'm disappointed. Criterion has so much potential to make a new, awesome Burnout, but their talent was somewhat wasted with a new NFS that looks good, but not great, and not nearly as exciting as a Burnout. Sure, they're probably working on a new one now that NFS is done with, but how long will it take to finish that? A year? Two? That's too much. The world needs a new Burnout, and it needs it now.

Kung Pow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Pow

One of my favourite comedies from all time. I just rewatched it, after many years, and it's still hilarious. The sequel is supposed to come out in 2010 according to IMDB, but I doubt it will.

In the meanwhile, watch one of the best scenes in the movie:

The box 2

Tablet

This post should have come before the previous one, but whatever. I bought a Wacom Bamboo Fun and it's awesome. It's great to work and I'll slowly try to learn drawing with it.

And it's not a Jack.

The box

Review: Joe Danger [PSN]

I just posted a new review in PS3Brasil:

Joe Danger - Playstation 3 (available through the Playstation Network)

Here's the link for the Google-translated English review, and this is the link for the original version, in Brazilian Portuguese.

2010 FIFA World Cup

So, the World Cup is well on its way and Brazil has managed to get to the quarter finals. Besides some disappointments with the squad, the team has advanced on its own merits and is closer to the finals. If things go well, we could have the most antecipated game of History in mid-July: Brazil x Argentina in a World Cup final. I hope we get there, and I hope we win. Losing to Argentina in a final would be humiliating, to say the least.

Meanwhile, I think I'm buying EA's 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa for the PS3. I wanted to get Fifa 10, but apparently this is even better. EA has managed to make a football game that interests me, something Konami and its Winning Eleven / Pro Evolution Soccer could never do.

Millennium Trilogy - Part 1

I just finished reading the first book in Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (the original is called Män som hatar kvinnor – "Men Who Hate Women" and it's a much better title, but anyway, I digress). I was really looking forward to it, and thankfully it reached my expectations. I enjoyed it thoroughly, from the story to the setting and the characters. The ending, particularly the epilogue, was great, and now I can't wait to read the second book, The Girl Who Played with Fire. I'm also going to watch the first movie in the theatre this week, if plans go accordingly. Nothing like a good movie spoken in swedish to make the week a little bit stranger.

Three songs for Europe

Last July I went to Europe (I can't remember if I've said this here before, and I'm too lazy to bother looking). I took my iPod, but I only had a USB charger and no computer to connect it to, so I had to rely on my cellphone (it has an AC adapter) to listen to music. There weren't many songs in it, so I had to constantly liten to the same ones over and over again. At least most of them were pretty good.

Out of the hundred or so songs, three of those marked me most. Every time I listen to any of them it reminds me of my trip, and the great moments I had. So it's a very special and immaterial souvenir I brought back.

These are the songs:

Gorrillaz - M1A1

A relatively unknown song from them, it's probably my favourite. The intro is just excellent, with the sample from Day of the Dead.




Mew - She Spider

I like how the song changes its pace throughout.




The Decemberists - A Bower Scene

The CD where this song is from is a concept album, telling the story of a girl. Most of the songs are great, but this one is the best in my opinion.

MGMT - Kids

I had heard about the band many times, but never had any interest in listening to them. I accidentally did, when I watched the video below, which has Weezer singing their song "Kids", as well as Lady GaGa's "Poker Face".



The great thing about the Kids video is that it's not official, or at least wasn't at the time of conception. It was made by a fan for a school assignment, and he made it in just one night. It turned out amazing, and really fits the song. The two people with make-up that appear on the video are two of the fan's friends, and not the duo from MGMT. It was a relief to find that out, because one of the people really looked like a girl, and I was afraid that it was actually one of the guys from the band.

This link explains the story behind the video, and it's really interesting to see how a small project managed to get over 28 million views on YouTube