First online "race"

[spaceboy]

I can't really call it a race, because we ended up free-roaming...what a great time.  I go into a quick race lobby and there's two dudes in there, so I pick my car and get ready to race.  Just after the race starts they head off track and since we all have mics on I hear them telling me "Hey dude we're going to go exploring and look for FUEL barrels, wanna come with?"  I'm like "Yeah, cool".

So we abandoned the race (the game thought we were just off track) and we drove all over the place just having a really good time, doing jumps off of farm houses, getting barrels.  Just exploring.  The mics made it really easy to communicate and coordinate if someone got a bit off course so we could regroup.  We basically just tried to keep heading South to see what came up.

So we'll probably do the same but try online free roam.  Now that they are tagged as "Friends" on my PS3 I can easily get online with them again.

What a great experience to just "meet" a couple dudes and just take off cruising around.  Nobody trying to "one-up" anyone, just having fun.  In fact they would often be like "hey come get some points by smashing these barrels"  So it was definitely not a competition, just fun.

Obviously if you want to actually race, those will be available as well, but I was glad this one turned out the way it did.  An hour and half trek vs. a 5 min. race.

This game is unlike anything I've experienced, so despite any flaws, it succeeds in delivering something new and in my opinion, exceedingly fun.

[Fiach]

Yeah its great to meet people like that in such a surprising way, especially in MP games, its definately an unusual occurence :)

[PZ]

Sounds like just the ticket spaceboy - I like the microphone feature; typing in a text box is just too cumbersome on the PS3!

[Art Blade]

do you know anything about mixed PC and console races in FUEL?

(comparing FC2, editor maps is what I have in mind, they don't mix)

And ah, I have a headset, too :)

[spaceboy]

no cross platform racing.   Now I've got a picture of you wearing your headset with that head tracking system from that other video. 

Actually that would be cool in FUEL - I should post that thought there.  Looking around the open world while driving would be great.

[RedRaven]

bet the first person / company / game that can do cross-platform games is going to grab a HUGE part of the gaming market, alot if not most games these days are released on all platforms eventualy. kind of suprised microsoft hasnt done it with x-box > pc interaction. All console games are written on PC's to start with so surely it cant be that hard ???

[DKM2]

dke58 here's some interesting comments on the subject;
http://www.gamespy.com/articles/556/556294p1.html

This made me laugh, so true.
"It's the elitism of PC gamers who won't "lower" themselves to play even a PC translation of a great console title"

[Art Blade]

interesting arguments about version differences as in some consoles would stick to say game 1.0 whereas PCs would advance to say 1.5, making it impossible to match them. My favourite quote of that linked text is, "Personally, I think publishers should stop seeing a patch as an excuse to ship poorly-tested games." So true.

[spaceboy]

FYI, that article was from Oct 2004 so some arguments might not be as relevant.  I skimmed through it and one thing for sure is aiming.  We consolers would be creamed by PCers in any FPS I'm sure.  (Heck I often get creamed by other PS3ers online...)

Though I think it's be great to cross-platform because you have friends on diff consoles etc. The reality is it could get ugly.  You see how most PS3 vs. Xbox arguments tend to get ugly I could only imagine if we were actually competing in an FPS!  Yikes.   Probably better that didn't happen. 

[PZ]

Good points, but imagine if there were some kind of cooperative play that sent a team of mixed platform users on a mission, for instance, to the Dogon village to destroy the kilns.  One guy could neutralize the mortar merc while others sweep through the sides of the village.  Yet another guy could w@&k his way to set the IEDs on the kilns.  Then when finished, all pile into a Unimog and careen off through the FC2 world looking for trouble...  add headsets to coordinate your attacks and the spawning of guard posts would then become a pleasure instead of a hindrance.

[Art Blade]

My first online event... Free roam, met a nice player and we went from the top right corner to the lower left corner of the world map, about 120 miles on highways only, mostly full speed around 130mp/h. We used to wait for one another and intuitively changed lead (slow down, let the other one take the lead). Did some cross-country with that guy too, collecting liveries and vista points. Communication is only possible using MS Live! messages (pop-up symbol on your screen, you stop, open MS Live, read, reply) or microphones of course, but mine has not been recognised by Live! although it does w@&k (PC recognises it and I hear myself speaking when I use it) Need to sort that out. Had a couple of online races too, man are those people good... hehe, as always when you start something competitive online, they are all better than you and me :) Was fun though, and I think this is something I'd do more than once. Oh I think XBoX360 can join PC players online :)

both of us jumping off ramps, over some trucks

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[spaceboy]

cool Art.  It really feels like crusing around with a friend in online free roam.  Gotta get that mic to w@&k though, adds even more to the experience.

pretty neat you stuck to the roads, we did almost all off road on our trek.  It takes strong character not to leave the road.

[Art Blade]

strong character or... the fastest bike there is, on roads it's ace, off roads a disgrace... so you better stick to the road if you want to RUN your machine at 130mph  ;D On the motor-/highways there are ramps every couple of miles but only on one side of it,yet there are always ramps to and from the obstacles (beached trucks) so you can use them as long as you are on the same side.

It was funny because basically it's a stupid drive, all straight except for few curves, but every once in a while there are big truck engines (no cargo) that either drive there too or cross the highway. To have some fun, we would jump ramps, try to perform reckless manoeuvres overtaking trucks, hit the handbrake/e-brake all of a sudden, or changing lanes across all four lanes at once, playing ghost driver.

Sidenote: German "Geisterfahrer" - Apparently the AE knows that term, ghost driver, whereas in BE it is described as a "motorist driving against the traffic on motorways" <chortle>  ;D

[PZ]

How did the online roam go spaceboy?  I did some digging into why I had problems, and there were two - one was a DNS issue that I've seen appear in the past day or so, and the other is the fact that the evening time is the busiest for my satellite provider causing significant slow downs.  :'(

It would have been fun to go roaming - just before I lost the Internet connection for the last time, I heard someone buzzing right by me when on that deck/pier looking place.

[Art Blade]

PZ, that problem is "shared bandwidth" - you may have a vast amount of possible  bandwidth, as long as you're alone, but during prime time, when everybody had dinner and goes for a little surf, you're... you're... you know what  ;D

[PZ]

Yeah, I know - the mornings are best for me - prime time halves my download (and upload) speeds.  :'(

[spaceboy]

Wound up roaming for like an hour and half.  You've got to come out soon - I hope it winds up working for you.

It was so funny because we were up on the pavement just off the sandy area and I looked over and saw your name right when you arrived at the camp.  So I'm like oh great he's here.  Then I saw you tear off by the pier so I went after you.  I'm yelling into my mic hoping you had yours working.  Thankfully that part is better than reality in that you can hear each other from a great distance.

Anyways, like I said you dropped off after you'd turned the corner. 

[Art Blade]

good reminder, spaceboy. What I learned is to keep watching the little map down left corner of the screen to check the other arrow(s). If you're stopping and the rest rushes away, you won't see them any more on that map after like half a mile. Best thing is to keep the arrows (other players) close and if one falls back, stop as well, so he can catch up again :)

[PZ]

That's funny - I had my bluetooth on, but it was breaking up so bad I couldn't really hear anything well.  I hope that the new router isn't giving me problems due to the high level of encryption.  Will need to check it out.

[Art Blade]

Today I was asked to do my first selfmade ("edited") race. So I did. When we were going for quite some time, see picture top left, look closely at how many check points we already have and then the amount of time elapsed until that moment... I was laughing for like 10 minutes non stop, tears in my eyes, nearly choking, imagining the other guy's face HUAHAHAHAhahahahahah, and when he finally sent a message "when does the 1st CP come?" I nearly fell off my chair HUAHUAHUAhuahuahuahuahauhuahauhua  ;D ;D ;D

Sorry, Theile (that guy), I didn't know it would take so long. But one of the best laughs ever. ROFL

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