Soccer World Cup and NZ's Turn Of Attitude

No one needs to point out the irony to me that we sent a team called 'The All Whites' to South Africa... especially given the turbulent history of that topic NZ has with the country in the early 80's. Aside from this, which I just wanted to get out of the way first... don't get me wrong here, but I'm not a Soccer fan... and not really much of a sports fan in general really, casual observer really.

However NZ was the rank rank rank outsiders in the countries that made it in (I think we're like 81st or 82nd in World Rankings), and so there was no expectation for the team to win. And they didn't. But they also didn't lose any match they were in, instead managing to tie all 3 games they played and not making it through on clear points due to Italy's unexpected defeat. As a country, many were happy to be in and playing that first game. If we drew or even scored 1 goal people would have been happy, and many even said as long as we lost by 1 or 2 points we'd still be happy to have been there. It's nice to see positive support regardless of outcome by our nation... it's not something I'm accustom to here.

You see, our main sport here of course is Rugby... our team for this sport is The All Blacks (thus why the Soccer team is the Whites), but they - for mostly as long as I can remember - get a hard time for every loss they've had. The pressure is always on, especially for their world cup (to be held here next year too)... but honestly, big or small game, if we lose - even if the team battles well and literally loses by a point or so, you'll be hearing about it everywhere for weeks as if it was the end of the world.

There are justified reasons for complaining sometimes sure. NZ has a history of still being bitter about the "1981 Trevor Chappell Underarm bowling incident" in the cricket. At the time I'm sure this is all justified, but it's almost 30 years later and it's still often cited. Then there is the 1995 Rugby World cup loss for the AB's, which sparked a conspiracy stories about food poisoning, listening devices, and car alarms going off waking up players the night before the match, all which personally I'd state as poor excuses for just not being happy at losing.

Ref mistakes too seem justified, regardless of if it was unfair or fair, but a team losing is treated as the worst offense ever. Personally I've never gotten this... there are 2 teams in the game. One wins, One loses... it's just a fact. If you don't win then you don't win. You can get over this and hope next time you just win. Simple. So of course it was nice to see a change here... constant positive news stories about how well the team was doing, how they were being great role models as being a team to just take part... that it's what matters the most.

Game Of The Post #5: Auto Modellista

Format: Sony Playstation 2
Racing
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Released: 2002

Auto Modellista is an odd little gem that turned up on my doorstep thanks to the late great PSM magazine. Several years ago I entered a competition to win a Capcom prize package, and amazingly I won. The item which turned up on my doorstep? A Street Fighter t-shirt and 3 games. The games were the awesome Onimusha 2, the odd Dino Stalker (aka Gun Survivor 3), and the crazy (and also odd titled) auto modellista.

Modellista peaked my interest however so much I ended up writing a guide for it

Interestingly this is Capcom's first (and only still) racing game that they've ever made. Considering they managed to licence a number of brands and car types, they did an exceptional job and I can only guess a lack of overall sales may have been the cause as to why they never made a sequel or any other games like this. 

 

The game itself is fairly simple. It's a mix between arcade and sim, focusing on officially licensed parts and a balance system in the garage in which you tune your car to the best for the upcoming race. This however goes against type and gives you cell-shaded arcade style gameplay. 

 

Provided you've tuned your car correctly, you'll be drifting and power sliding your way around corners, splashing up marks behind you like in the photos shown.

My friend who saw the game said Capcom nailed what should have been the Anime 'Initial D' look which surprisingly the officially released titles hadn't actually managed to do. I've never seen the series myself, so I can't comment greatly, but looking at the games online they look very standard.

The other interesting thing about it is the replay theatre option, which went beyond the standard editor and allowed you to mix in various visual elements and grades over the top, which wasn't something often seen. The outcome, mixed with the cellshades, made something of a music video out of your replays.

Sadly the game lacked a lot of depth. Aside from unlocking all of the cars and extras, there was a very limited number of tracks and the version in PAL areas lacked the Online play.

The US had a delayed version which went multiformat and included extra unlocks, cars, modes, and the online play. The game was re-released in some countries as "U.S. tuned" which added these features back into the game for those markets, however it was never released over here and thus I never picked it up.

I currently still own the game, however it will probably end up on my sell pile at this stage as, while doing the guide, I've basically played through everything I could in the game. It's a great quirky little title and I suggest if you get the chance to play it then definitely do so, I don't think you'll regret it.

So... my PS3 died... but how are you?

So I had intended on doing my long delayed follow up to the PS3 update saga from a few months back, however last week my PS3 gave way to the Yellow Light Of Death, or YLOD as it's known online. This in of itself wouldn't have been an issue as I'd somehow managed to cover myself for problems for 3 years when I brought it.

However, the first thing was I was playing a game when it died... a copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine that I rented... which was stuck in the console. Apparently every PS3 since the original 60GB BC models have a manual eject option... except mine was a 60GB model. Secondly I haven't backed up my drive... so while I can re-download all my DLC contents and add-ons, my save files have gone. Which is a shame about for a number of the games on my shelf.

- Assassin's Creed II
I was 3% away from 100% trophies, which mostly entitled to getting feathers on the game map. This in of itself isn't so hard to do in perhaps a normal replay, however I also had side quests to do. I also don't know how that impacts on the stuff I got from the Uplay website via Ubisoft.

- Burnout Paradise
Starting over for the third time (once before trophies, once after trophies).

- Ghostbusters
Was currently replaying in pro-mode, and was a half of the way in and working on trophies.

- GOW Collection / GOW 3
Have to replay the games all over again to unlock the challenge modes which I was going to play next.

- GTA4
Completed save file is gone.

- Lego Star Wars
Thanks to my friend Ryan, my save was around 76% complete. Restart.

- MGS4
Aside from the completed save files and bonus from replaying the game, the MGS Database uses a complete game file. What is more annoying though is the in-game DLC for the game is painfully slow to get from Konami's servers... it took me a day to get all the bonus music, camo, and podcasts.

- RE5
Aside from the fact I'd just gotten the Gold Edition, which requires me to have at least finished the game for all the bonus content to become unlocked, I have to re-earn everything... which I figure I funneled about 30-40 hours into on the original game.

- Rock Band / Rock Band 2 / Beatles Rock Band
I don't know how to recover a band stat (will check the RB website, it is assigned to my PSN name), because my band (Sure, Not ) but all my stats on RB1 is gone. Thankfully the unlock key for RB2 unlocks them all for use in it without the legwork, but still I put a lot into that as well.

- Uncharted / Uncharted 2
Was needing to finish Crushing in both titles, plus everything I unlocked is gone. I think you have to play through Hard before you unlock Crushing.

The rest of the games I have can be replayed still and aren't as a big deal. The only other thing on there I wanted to finish aside from Wolverine, which I was playing at the time of death, was a save for Batman: Arkham Asylum which I was about 40% into from a 3 day rental. Considering I want to buy it still at some stage, thats not so bad.

In any case, you live and learn... and next time I will backup my drive to another drive space regularly and copy individual save files across as well. With any luck my PS3 when it returns will last longer than 2.5 more years.