BBC One Christmas Indent

Good news Doctor Who fans; this year’s BBC One Christmas indent features the Doctor himself. Shows that The End of Time is going to be the BBC’s main thing this Christmas, similarly to Wallace and Gromit last year. You can see it via the kind people at Blogtor Who.

[Rev.] (Games) rFactor (PC)

rFactor

Developer: Image Space Incorporated

Publisher: Image Space Incorporated

Year: 2005

Most of today’s racing simulators are a similar affair, and it is rare that you get something different. But, different is the approach that 2005’s rFactor attempted to take.

What makes it so different is the game’s focus on online. Almost all tracks and cars must be downloaded from the internet, with the game initially supplying only a few. Doing this avoided a lot of the fuss about rights for the tracks and cars, giving the developer more time to perfect the other factors of the game.

This move also seems to have paid off for the player, with large online communities being born around rFactor, with some accommodating other race sims. Some of these communities have become essential for the rFactor player, offering independently developed modifications for cars, tracks, and car skins. This is certainly a good thing, as it enables the player to utilise the online racing option in the game; which is a very good experience.

Of course, this implies that the game plays well, and I will explicitly say that it does. For the majority of mods, cars will handle as you would normally expect, and the more powerful vehicles will take many races to master. The physics engine is the same as used in other PC race sims, such as Simbin’s Race series; and performs beautifully, as you can ‘feel’ the tarmac beneath you, and instinctively can learn how each car handles and performs. This also means that mistakes are costly, with trips over grass and gravel slowing you down dramatically, and impacts with the barriers causing heavy damage to your car.

There are also quite a few different race options to customise your experience, If you want to take it easy, why not lower the AI aggression and turn on the driving aids?  Fancy a challenge? Turn off the driving aids and bump up the aggression. Be warned if you do the latter, for keeping up with the CPU (and even online) competition is very difficult if you are not using a wheel. This also applies to more powerful vehicles; for when using a gamepad or keyboard, they become impossible to control. However, don’t be put off by this, as there’s plenty of digital input friendly mods.

Want even more customisation? If you just shouted yes you’ll be happy, for there’s also tons of work to be done with race setups and pit stop strategies. Practically every main part of a vehicle can be fine tuned for maximum performance, although most mods will come with a default ‘perfect’ setting, so you can just jump straight in, only having to think about the pit stop strategy, which is a must in longer races.

Graphically, the game comes down to your PC’s graphics card, with more powerful cards obviously producing better results. However, don’t be fooled that this is a game that requires a good PC, for the game’s compatibility is perhaps its greatest strength. I have it running fine on a 2001 build Windows XP machine with only 512MB of memory and an nVidia GeForce 3 graphics card. So don’t worry if your PC is a little old, it’ll still run fine. However, I did have some installation problems using the DVD version of the game, but this was easily fixed by downloading a patch from the official website.

The actual game does have some problems, but luckily do not detract much from the true experience. One problem comes from the nature of the games’ design. This is the fact that it is quite basic in the depth of gameplay options. For single player, you have the options of testing, a race weekend, or a race season; and this has been done in most racing sims, so here it feels a bit dated. The fact then remains, that in its essence, rFactor is a multiplayer game, and those looking for a healthy single player experience will be disappointed. And, even though it is a multiplayer game, rFactor only offers online multiplayer, and no local multiplayer; which is a bit of a shame, as I feel local could have been a fun distraction.

The only other problem i could find was with the AI of the CPU cars in single player. it is good, in that they overtake, fall back, and make errors, but they never feel like human opponents. Also, when just starting out with the game, you find that most of the CPU cars are miles ahead of you on lap pace, even on minimum aggression and with you seemingly doing perfect laps for your level. This does dint the player’s confidence slightly, but is rectified with some simple practice.

All of the problems i have mentioned are not present on the online side of the game, which then becomes a refreshing, challenging experience; as long as you can find someone to race.

Overall, rFactor is a fantastic, well built online multiplayer racing game that all racing fans will enjoy; but it’s not a game for single players. i would certainly recommend it, even though a sequel is said to be in production.

+ Runs on anything built in the past eight years

+ Plays exactly like a racing game should

+ Very strong online gameplay

+ Mods add longevity 

- Local split-screen multiplayer is missing

- Over balanced towards online multiplayer

9/10

Young Enterprise North East Engineering Challenge 2009

Today was the 2009 Young Enterprise North east Engineering Challenge, which saw Sunderland sixth form centres competing to design and construct a worthy bridge. And I can proudly say that the winners were: my team: The Bede Beats! Apart from winning first prize on the points table, we also won the best bridge award and also the best financially economical bridge award. There were other prizes on offer, and went to other sixth form centres. So congratulations to my team, and a hearty thanks to all involved!