Fiddling with the blog

Hello, everyone. I've had this blog for over a year and a half now, and I'm going to change a few things. Nothing too drastic, mind. I'll still be focusing on fantasy and history with the occasional foray into science and sci-fi. But I am going to start promoting a select band of ye olde posts on Twitter, which will hopefully get some more attention to those posts and a few more followers.

   

I'm also going to add an Interviews page. At present I've only done the two (but they're a very good two: Toby Frost, author of the Space Captain Smith series, and Terry Mancour, author of the Spellmonger series) and I plan on adding more.

I've been quite busy writing (and map-making, more on that in the next post) of late, and I'll be a bit more active writing posts now.

Thaddeus

F1 2012 review

I bought this game a few weeks ago, and having finished one full year of career mode, the season challenge and most other modes I think I know enough to write a full review.

Gameplay

I've played half-distance Career races at the first 3 (of 4) difficulty levels, and found them to be set at very good intervals. The lowest level, amateur, ceases to be a challenge after a few races, but intermediate was a bit trickier for a while. I'm up to professional now, and find that to be rather more serious, without being so tough I feel like I'm always on the back foot.

The tyres work extremely well. When tyres are grassy or get gravel on them it does rob them of grip temporarily, and trying a wet tyre on a dry track or vice versa is not a good idea. If you look after your tyres then after losing time to someone who's gone charging off you can make yours last longer, make up the time as they post slower laps and then pass them during the pit stops.

Weather was a key, and great, feature of F1 2010 and the same applies to F1 2012. Sometimes it can rain on one part of the track but not another, and differing parts dry out at different rates too. Rain can be very light or extremely heavy, and this can make tyre choices difficult and very important, and the AI drivers can get it wrong too.

Crashing is always fun, but damage is limited in terms of the bits flying off the car. I think this is due to the FIA not wanting the game showing cars being smashed to little bits. The effect is that losing a front wing (entirely or just a little bit) looks great but a full blown crash will do more limited damage than might be expected (you can lose wheels).

Happily, the drivers aren't entirely realistic, as Maldonado and Grosjean don't crash all the damned time. AI seems to be significantly better than F1 2010 but could still be improved. Cars are generally good at getting out of the way when you're lapping them and the starts seem a bit less crash-prone.

The penalty system (on the default light-touch setting) is much improved. It's not perfect (I once got hit from behind and then got penalised for 'causing a collision') but the instances of undeserved penalties are far fewer, and you can sometimes get away with deliberately damaging another car (not that I would ever do that). The biggest problem with it coincides with the AI. When you get blue-flagged (meaning you have to move aside to let a car about to lap you past) if you don't do it very quickly you get a penalty. However, the other lapped cars know exactly how to do this and then pass you immediately, because they know exactly how many cars are lapping, where they are and so on.

Graphics

The graphics are very nice. This shows up most especially when there's wet or changeable weather. Following a car in heavy rain now means you get spattered with the rooster tail (the spray of water behind an F1 car in the wet) which reduces visibility almost to zero.

The cars, of course, look very nice and the tracks likewise. Effects such as the dipping sun in Abu Dhabi or the floodlights reflecting on the cars in Singapore work very nicely.

Sound

Maybe I'm going mad, but I do think there's a difference between the engines of different cars. And this is a good thing.

The engineer, whilst often telling me what happened 3 seconds ago, has a decent, clear voice. David Croft excitedly explaining certain scenarios (in Season Challenge, for example) didn't do much for me, but I very much enjoyed Anthony Davison's track guides.

Longevity/replay value

Hard to assess without sinking hundreds of hours into a game, but I'd say there's quite a lot. There are variable modes and numerous difficulty options, and the full season offers a great, and lengthy, challenge.

I would say that there's strong replay value. As well as bumping up the difficulty for the second year of a season there are quite a lot of different options.

Bugs and other issues

The frame rate is an issue. I did not think it was before, but in Suzuka (Japan) it slowed down significantly. Not enough to make the game unplayable but enough to dilute my enjoyment of it. It also slows down elsewhere, but usually it's not very serious.

The extreme speed of the sport also means that the race engineer (who I decided ought to be called Jeremy, as he was noisier than he was useful) often said things that were out of date. Not a serious issue, but it does jar slightly.

So, if I were to give it a score, it'd be 8.5/10.  

Thaddeus

XCOM preview

If I hadn't bought F1 2012 so recently (full review probably coming later this week) I'd be tempted by XCOM Enemy Unknown, which comes out on the 12th for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

The game is a turn-based strategy (TBS) and an updated version of a game from long ago (which I must admit I'd never heard of previously). It's been done by the chaps behind Civilization, which bodes well.

In XCOM Enemy Unknown the player leads the defence of Earth against an alien invasion. There are varying unit types (sniper, heavy and so on) on both your own sides and that of the dastardly aliens. Units also have multiple weapons, with more powerful ones requiring the unit to remain still for a turn. Cover also plays a role, and explosive attacks can be strong but destroy enemies and their weapons, reducing salvageable remains and thereby reducing research possibilities. Aliens can also be captured for interrogation, revealing further secrets.

Graphics look to be more functional than fantastic, and voice-acting is hard to assess (but from what I've read it's ok without being great).

In between missions (there are circa 70 with a playthrough estimated at 20 hours) the player can determine research priorities and whether to pour resources into upgrading weapons and armour or helping out countries/regions in distress.

However, most of the game will spent doing the missions which, from the videos I've seen, look like good fun. The video below features interactive gameplay which gives a decent idea of how things might work out:

With Dishonored out on the same day and The Last Of Us due out early next year I'm not sure what I'll be buying next, but I'll be keeping an eye on XCOM's reviews.

Thaddeus

Red Dwarf X

Well, Dave has been banging on about the return of Red Dwarf for ages. Given Back To Earth's lacklustre reception it was perhaps surprising that series X was commissioned, but I'm glad it was (incidentally, the scutters tell me XI will be following soon).

As might be expected for a show that's migrated from the BBC to Dave there are a few differences (different outfits, new model Red Dwarf, an advert break in the middle) but it felt very much the same.

I think the live audience helps, and the jokes are pretty good. The crew are a bit older, and it shows, but the chemistry's as good as ever.

Special effects are miles better than the old series (which had charmingly ropey effects) and similar to, or maybe a bit better than, VIII. (For those wondering, it seems Back To Earth counts as season IX).

I'm not going to talk much about the plot, in case anyone hasn't seen it but plans to later, except to say that it makes rather more sense than a typical episode of New Who. Which is nice.

Probably the most notable absence is that of Holly. It's not clear whether or not either of the old Hollies or a new one will end up making an appearance/becoming a regular.

So, it was an enjoyable and amusing episode, not quite vintage but definitely worth watching, and I'm hoping the rest of the series will be as good or better.

Thaddeus