Multiplayer is awesome. Had almost hour long battle on some african map. Rush attacking mode. We've won, but it was a very tough fight.

I finished single player as well, it's very good, but we all know that mp is the real deal here.

x360, gt: kamkorPL

I couldn't resist and made a pre order. :P

Anyone who would like to play together in squad please send me friend request: X360 - kamkorPL

Game is pretty awesome. Sometimes the experience can get frustrating though, depends mostly on what people are in team or squad. Wanted to buy it, but it's too addicting so I decided not to.

Quote from Alex_Ward :

One thing I hate is when you're Sniping and you're quite well hidden, and some idiot with an assault class comes next to you and opens fire on anything that moves!

And what will hiding in one place help you with? The guy who you killed will know where you are soon enough anyway. This assault class idiot is probably one of those that might destroy the objective and help you win the match.

Some random pictures from Poland.

I really love suicide mission. Must be one of the best if not the best mission in a game I ever played.

Quote from Dajmin :

I agree entirely. I completed it last weekend and have to say it's bloody brilliant. Probably around the same duration as your game too - about 45 hours. My only disappointment was I thought the last fight was a little too easy. In order to stay spoiler-free that's all I'm going to say. F*cking epic but too easy. Well pleased that they let you stay in-game once the story is finished though. Bring on the DLC!

Immediately started again on Insanity difficulty with an Infiltrator, so that should be interesting. Going to make a lot more "evil" decisions this time too. Raar

[possible spoiler]
Yeah final fight was too easy. I saved a nuke for that ocassion and it took out most of the opponent's armor.
[/possible spoiler]

(SaM), Jibber: Maybe it's just not your kind of game. I got sucked in by the whole universe (already in mass effect 1), I even enjoy reading/listening to codex and reading planets descriptions. Plus I have started reading Mass effect revelation book and will read ascension later. There are also 2 issues of Mass Effect Redemption comic out.

Also If you don't care for the characters and their backstory, I can see you will be missing out a lot too. I have spend a lot of time just walking around the ship and speaking to other characters.

Plus the experience is even better if you played mass effect 1.

And you could probably say I am a mass effect and bioware fanboy. :P To me the best non racing games I've played in 2000-2010 are: kotor, mass effect 1, mass effect 2, dragon age origins, fallout 3, gta4 and orange box. I guess you can see a pattern here.

edit:

On my second playtrough I started the game with new character insteed of importing it from me1. It's experiment rushed evil playtrough anyway. So far compared to imported character I've noticed those differences:
- there are some characters missing (the ones invovled in me1 sidequests).
- some galaxy news missing.
- no bonuses for game start.
- Different me1 major choices assumed by game developer.

Last edited by kamkorPL, Fri 12 Feb 2010, 17:27.

Finally finished it with soldier class, still had side quests to do, galaxy to explore etc. About 44-45 hours in. I will do a 100% run some other time on insanity.

Spoiler - click to reveal

My whole crew survived. Normandy was in a pretty good shape too.

In my opinion it's an epic universe and an epic game. As a sc-fi movies and games fan, ex-star wars addict :P I can honestly give it a 10/10.

In my opinion they took the best out of mass effect 1 and enhanced it.

Squad AI was also greatly improved. I didn't have to babysit my crew as much. Most and foremost they use covers much better now and I can focus on using their powers.

I also instantly began second playtrough with vanguard class. I am trying to rush it and take the renegade path just out of curiousity. I wonder how much it will take me to finnish the game by rushing it.

Host is working and online now.

Finnaly received mass effect 2. Had to wait a bit more, since it's harder to get english version in Poland. First impression: I don't remember the last time I jawdropped so much during the beginning of the game. Last time might have been years ago when I first played another world. The fact that I also finished mass effect 1 recently again made it feel even better. :jawdrop:

Update on the dedi situation:

Those who have their server on 500servers.com or lfshost.eu and would like to run modified exe dedis, or those of you who plan on buying a host there, please send me a pm and I will give you further instructions. Plus your host name will be included in steering lock threads and saikod.pl.

Quote from Ales_M :

Dont get to exited... What about ppl who will edit dedi exe himself??

Can they run a server, or u the guy who chose who can have lock mod hosted by dedi?

No offense just wondering, hope it wont be to hard to answer, since im probably not vip/elite enough.

Morpha has got a point. With modified client exe anyone can quickly see where to change steering lock adjustment. If I released the dedi it would be the same. You would soon start seeing lots of badly modified dedis in the master server list with people cheating in many of them. It still doesn't mean that someone else won't modify a dedi himself, but by not sharing it I at least make that task a little bit harder.

Plus I want to make sure that dedi host will have SteerLock in host name and link to mod in welcome.txt. A way to filter the servers for those, who don't want to join them. I don't have a problem if you edit the dedi yourself, as long as it doesn't allow cheating like use of lfstweak and as long as it is ok with lfsforum.net moderators.

We are not making this elite, I simply can't share dedi exe. But I found a solution to let people host dedi without sharing the exe. 500servers.com will have an option to host modified steering lock dedis. The same goes with lfshost.eu.

Last edited by kamkorPL, Tue 2 Feb 2010, 13:44.

Great stuff. I like all your videos a lot. Keep up the good work.

Dedicated servers that are work with this mod:
- Saiko D Steering Lock Mod

We will have two more dedicated servers running this mod in a couple of days. Stay tuned.

Those who have their server on 500servers.com or lfshost.eu and would like to run modified exe dedis, or those of you who plan on buying a host there, please send me a pm and I will give you further instructions. Plus your host name will be included in steering lock threads and saikod.pl.



-----------------------------------
I have made a tiny modification to lfs z28 exe to increase steering lock in live for speed for drifters. Steering lock can be now adjusted in game from 47 to 57 degrees.

First of all, videos that speak more than words:
LFS - Full Lock by Newton: http://www.vimeo.com/8976919
LFS - Two Lane Blacktop by Falken Keisu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w16V-QX4-m4

Some pictures by Keitaro:







Readme:
This is a modified lfs z28 game exe.

With this mod you can adjust steering lock from 47 to 57 degrees. Some people might prefer different settings for different cars and controllers. For example, for Fz5 with G25 @ 900 degrees I prefer 57 degrees settings.

1. What version does it work with?
- Z28

2. How to install it?
- Backup your live for speed directory.
- Copy exe file to the main live for speed directory. Run it.

3.How to use it online?
- Game must be hosted with this modified exe. Users who have this exe will be able to join such host.
- On special dedicated servers that work with modified exe.

4. Will it work on original lfs.exe hosts?
- You can't join hosts that use original lfs.exe (including dedi servers), because there will be OOS error.

5. Do replays work?
- Yes they do. But make sure to play replays with modified exe or increased steering lock will not be visible, or you will get an OOS.

6. FFB feels different, why?
- You need to countersteer less to makes drifts that could be done with 36 degrees. Set your wheel to 900 degrees. Reduce a bit your ffb strength in live for speed and start pushing your car more. Try higher angles, try more dynamic drift transitions etc.

7. Additional information.
- This is a modified exe. I and people who helped with testing haven't encountered any problems. But use it at your own risk only. I do not take any responsibility for any problems that you may encounter.


DOWNLOAD
LFS-TORQUE MIRROR

Enjoy and have fun drifting , [SAIKO^D]Kamkor. More information avaible on: www.saikod.pl

Last edited by kamkorPL, Thu 4 Feb 2010, 08:21.

Some more simple pics from same session as in Keisu pictures:

With wheel you can "fast steer" to value that will cause massive understeer (front tires going over the peak). Not sure if it will let you go to the full lock, but it for sure lets you induce that understeer, which you can't do with a pad.

So understeer wise it's ok. That's the least of an issue here. Oversteer situations are a problem. Now when I drive some cars that I would expect to be harder and can see in telemetry what is really happening with steering, the game stops being fun.. It sucks knowing that the game is driving and not me.

Anyway, look what was pasted by Chromatic9 on gtplanet. I think this is what Danowat was talking about:



No buffers with wheel my ass mr. Dan Greenawalt

gek54 has recorded a video about the steering wheel aid I've written about and more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVkxSZoHbYY

You can see the shaky ingame wheel movements in telemetry that I am talking about and more.

Quote from JJ72 :

you mean even if you hold the steering still, the in game steering will loosen up the rack and recover by itself? i'll have to look into that.

Yes it kind of does. It won't countersteer to the center completly, but during a moment when rear tires are about to regain their grip and a "flick" is suppoused to happen, a steering aid gets activated. On msff I can see in telemetry that in-game wheel during that situation is very quickly turning left/right and slowly moving to the center with that movement. Even with a mid engined car I have to really try hard to make the "flick the other way" happen. If I try to get things really out of control on purpouse then things start feeling very dumbed down. Even the slicks won't bite at all when regaining traction. And it all seems to be the effect of that steering aid, which is a good bet since tire telemetry + in-game steering telemetry says a lot.

edit:

I just checked it again in game to reply on forza central. So definitely the game will recover from slide by itself when rear tires are about to catch the grip. Just awesome.. I really think we have some impressive physics engine here, but when it's dumbed down by shit like this..

Quote from KINGSBPD :

Are you sure you ar enot confusing wheel centering based on caster with "ffb counter steering"?

No. To explain it even more clearly. The steering aid starts returning in-game wheel to the center by itself when rear tires are about to regain the grip. Even If I hold a msff wheel at constant countersteer, at the exact time when rear tires are about to regain the grip, ingame wheel (visible in telemetry) will start in a shaky way moving to the center. This is why forza 3 is so forviging when it comes to oversteer and why it won't flick the other way if driver has too much countersteer at the time when rear tires catch grip.

And this shaky movement also causes unneccesary peak changes in front tires. Moreover, during a drift transitions rear tires are getting close to catching the grip or even catching it for half a second. Because of that, the steering aid will enable itself, which will slow down the countersteer or almost stop it at the center for a little moment.

To be even more clear. If you do use a handbrake during a drift transition at the right time, it will make sure that rear tires peak will be very high and the steering aid won't be enabled then (so the wheel will countersteer all the way from left to right, or right to left). In real life drifting handbrake can be used for the same reason in some specific corners.

Again, this aid makes recovering oversteer especially on racing slicks too easy and smooth (car is very unlikely to flick the other way, there is no "biting" from tires). And it makes especially low speed drifting on tight sections (corner after corner) feel really weird.

Last edited by kamkorPL, Tue 19 Jan 2010, 19:42.

JJ72: That is not so much of a problem. Read what I've written in bold. This is a much worse steering aid in forza 3.

I have made a post on forza central about msff wheel ffb issues and forza 3 steering aid issues. Can other msff wheel users take a look and see if they have similar issues?

Quote :

I've been recently analysing the way forza 3 aids the player with steering when using msff wheel, trying to understand why forza 3 at times feels very realistic, but sometimes dumbed down (as if the game was saving from trouble as automatically).

My observations:
- Game will help the player by countersteering just enough. For example with small countersteer in actual wheel, the steering in game will already have good enough countersteer to catch a slide. Ofcourse if a very small input is made with a wheel then the steering help here might not work.

For msff wheel that is 270 degrees I think it's not a bad idea if we are not allowed to setup wheel linearity etc. ourselves. But I think it would be better if racing cars had more realistic steering lock (as much less than they have no).


Now to the bad part:
- Imagine a situation: Car catches a slide, rear tires have lost their grip (are over the peak). When they are about to regain traction (become green in telemetry) the in-game steering will start oscilating left and right, while returning slowly to the center, making sure that the car won't flick the other way (as it would have caused the pendulum effect). As an example live for speed has pretty realistic "flick the other way", gt5 demo has it way overdone, and forza 3 probably has it, but hides it almost completly with steering aid.

This I hate a lot. First of all it takes away the challenge, makes oversteer feel weird sometimes.

Secondly it makes forcefeedback worse especially for drifting. Turn10 have done a very good job on forcefeedback, the msff wheel can countersteer on itself like a real wheel would do in real life when drifting. But during a drift transition when rear tires are about to regain some traction, the in-game wheel starts oscilating, causing unnecessary peak changes in front tires, which causes forcefeedback to slow down. Why ffb slows down? When front tires go over the peak (or one of them depending on car direction), the steering starts feeling numb/heavy/loose at the same time and doesn't countersteer by itself anymore.

In the end, imagine a situation: You drift left corner, prepare for a transition to the right corner. You let off the steering wheel, it countersteers to the right, kind of slows down/stops in the center, then starts countersteering again to the right.

It is VERY annoying as it makes ffb not dependable, I always have to be carefull to make sure that I turn the wheel myself when it slows down in the center. Moreover, it makes me setup cars in unrealistic way to cope with the ffb slowdowns.


To sum it up, I think this issue is the problem for all of us who are seeking realism in forza 3. For racers, because it makes recovering from oversteer very easy and often feels dumb.

For drifters, because it causes unwanted ffb slowdowns during wheel self-countersteer during transitions, and becauses it makes transitions feel sometimes weirdly smooth and sometimes "slowed down", not agressive enough.

Moreover, we won't know how realistic forza really is, until the steering help is removed. I am the player, not the game. I want to be the one in control when driving.

What do you think guys? I'm thinking about creating such thread on official forums, maybe Turn10 could remove this help for advanced players..

Must have taken shitloads of time to find the proper sounds and synchronize them so well.. Super awesome video, was a great pleasure to watch.

And then we have some G25 owners using way less than 900/720 degrees in street cars, maybe also paddles, and complaining that increasing steering lock for drifters would make it too easy to catch slides during racing. Realism all the way..

I agree that if a person has a hardware allowing him to get as much realism as possible, then a person should use that settings if the person is aiming for realism. Have linear steering, 720 degrees in lfs street cars, xyz degrees in f1, abc degrees in gtr cars etc. H shifter in street cars, sequential in gtr cars, paddles in f1 and so on.

Quote from danowat :

Still going strong for me

And I think I got pretty much addicted.

Quote from jibber :

DA: No idea, but i've probably spent a good 50 hours already, and that doesn't include side quests... and i'm nowhere near finishing the main story.

Took me about 60 hours to finnish with getting 100% locations discovered achievement.

Going back to forza 3. Autoweek january dlc is out.

So far I've only had time to test 3 cars. Lotus - awesome little car, has very fun oversteer on entry. New aston martin - has some proper power, it picks up speed so fast that i have to brake definitely earlier than in other street cars. And Pagani Zonda R has amazing grip.

I think it was 2.1. I didn't say it sounds bad. The way it sounds overall and feedback from sound are two things to me. As quoted:

Quote from kamkorPL :

In my opinion engine sounds were really nice. Tire sound were okay too, but they didn't give much feedback.
+ nice sounds
+ good physics, which I feel can be improved and I hoped they will be for the full version.

Quote from kamkorPL :

Ofcourse GT5TT still has(...) good sounds.

As far as feedback sounds are giving is concerned. I guess it indeed is better on 5.1 and 7.1 sound system. But on 2.1 feedback from tires is bad. 5.1 or 7.1 would have to really do wonders to make it good to me, as there are times were tires are just too loud and times when they are too quiet.

On the other hand there are other games that give me very good feedback on 2.1 and headphones, so it can be done.

To clear things out on 2.1 system or headphones without comparing to other games:
+ engines sound very nice
+ tires sound okay
- tires give bad feedback.

I forgot one thing, my mini review wouldn't be complete if I didn't compare the demo to forza 3. I just played forza 3 again now and even though msff is a shit product I felt more connected with the steering. Tire sounds gave a whole lot more feedback, I always understood why understeer happend, why oversteer happend. Feels like the tires are working, can feel how grip changes in each tire literally (and see in telemetry). But then I've already played forza 3 a lot so I am very used to it and know how to get feedback from it. Therefor it's hard to judge. I am not sure if over 1 hour of driving in gt5tt was enough.

To me GT5TT wins in graphics, suspension movement, replays, 900 degrees. Forza 3 in physics, sounds, feedback. Ofcourse GT5TT still has good physics, good sounds and good feedback. While Forza 3 also has good graphics, good suspension movement, good replays and no 900 degrees.

And both games give a very good fun factor to me. Plus I'm hoping physics will improve in GT5. I think it's fair to say we have two winners here. As far as I am concerned, I would like to own both.

Quote from CoolColJ :

if they can get the drift physics to feel like Enthusia it would be just about perfect for me

I just got that this week for the PS2 and it feels really nice on a steering wheel. I have never had so much fun drifting the 180sx around Tsukuba. It just feels right. Good feeling of speed too.

I loved enthusia when I had ps2. It definitely was the most realistic driving game on ps2.

Finally I had a chance to try demo with dfgt. First the ffb had to be adjusted, I ended up with settings: simulation, power steering on and 7.

Had only 13-15 laps in stock 370z and ended up with 1:50:1 and after 5 laps in tuned 1:38:9. Also done some drifting in stock and race version.

First of all, I think the graphics were absolutely awesome. On screenshots it didn't look so smooth, audiences didn't look good as sprites, trees seemed shit, but when driving it all blends in an awesome way. It's best looking racer there is definitely.

Now the ffb.. It is good, especially after turning on powersteering, as it improved countersteering, but still somethings is wrong. Something during drifting, the ffb doesn't aid you the way it should exactly. In real life you don't really think how far will the wheel countersteer when you let it spin or throw it. In GT5TT I had to be very careful when countersteering. Over all I had to be "on my toes" to not spin out when drifting. But the way drift ended sometimes and the way I could exit the corner with power on - it felt nice. It's just as I've said - sometimes it felt nice, but sometimes it bited for reasons I can't explain.

In stock 370z:

Low speed physics definitely were improved, which I am very happy about. I could do circles and 8 figures in second gear, could do some 2nd gear swinging too. Also the sequence of 3 corners at the end could be linked in a drift. It felt pretty good, but it often definitely was too snappy and not stable enough. It almost felt like sometimes something happend in a scripted way, and sometimes it felt realistic.

During racing slides could be controlled nicely. But sometimes things were getting out of control quite weirdly.

Race 370z:

It was super fun to drive it, I could feel the tires nicely and suprisingly the tires were more forgiving after the limit than street tires in stock version. I never drove with slick tires in real life as a driver in a car so I won't comment on that.

Sound:

In my opinion engine sounds were really nice. Tire sound were okay too, but they didn't give much feedback. Tires were making too much noise when they shouldn't and too little when they should. Rather than giving feedback, I felt they were making things only harder.

Also I didn't like the feel of understeer. It just feels off.

Going back to the good things, suspension movement gives very good immersion while driving, I liked it a lot.

To sum it up,

+ very good graphics
+ nice sounds
+ good physics, which I feel can be improved and I hoped they will be for the full version.
+ fun factor, addicting

- understeer feels off
- tire sounds give wrong feedback
- physics over the limit especially during drifting often feel wrong and too unforgiving
- tires feel bit too much like a solid material and not like tires.

If physics and ffb will be improved in full version of gran turismo 5, then I think I will buy myself a ps3 + GT5.