The Big Forza 4 Problem…
Forza Motorsport 4 was released last week, and with it a brand new wireless racing wheel from Microsoft. This accessory was obviously a planned piece of the new Forza puzzle, being released on the same day and touting support for the title.
There are some downright shocking missteps regarding the wheel itself and its communication with the game, with blame falling on both Microsoft and Turn 10 studios, the game’s developer. Let’s start with the actual hardware.
The wheel itself feels great in your hands, that’s for sure. The triggers are meaty and really have a nice feel. The grip is good, just about everything about the look and feel of the controller is fantastic. There are, however, two major setbacks. The first is the lack of bumper buttons. Having no LB or RB buttons on an Xbox 360 peripheral is downright maddening. Almost every game uses them, including most racing games. What boggles the mind is that even Forza 4 itself uses them by DEFAULT, and the wheel cannot navigate the menus without plugging in another controller, but I’ll get back to that. Having no LB and RB would seem ok if the game supported controller mapping or a layout without them, but shockingly enough, not every racing game will go back and retroactively patch to work without these two buttons. Sure, I haven’t gone through and tested every racing game for compatibility, but I think it’s a safe bet you’ll run into some issues.
The second big problem with the hardware is the complete lack of a headset jack. That’s right, you can’t plug in your first party or third party Xbox Live headset into this wireless racing wheel. The cynic in me wants to think that this is Microsoft forcing a purchase of their wireless headset on me, but I find that hard to believe. Microsoft’s Xbox division is a lot of things, but blatantly leaving out support for one product in favor for another just feels like a colossal failure. Especially if you use any kind of headphones with your home theatre (like I do at night, so neighbors don’t kill me). If you’d like to chat with your friends while using the wireless racing wheel, you’ll either need to buy Microsoft’s wireless Live headset, or setup a Skype call or something similar. It boggles the mind.
And now onto the software, Forza 4. This is a Microsoft Studios product, developed with this wheel in mind. Product synergy is nothing new, and like I stated earlier, there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that this wheel was engineered specifically as a must-have accessory for die-hard Forza fans. This is why it was an incredible shock to me at how broken the connectivity between game and device truly is.
To start, the recognition of the device seems immediate, in the main menu you can use the d-pad to navigate up and down, left and right. But once you enter in any sub-menus, the game changes. The d-pad’s left and right directions begin to get ignored, and interactivity with certain features require mandatory use of LB and RB buttons; buttons Microsoft cleverly omitted from this wireless wheel. That’s right, there are actually lots of examples in Forza 4 where you are downright unable to progress without signing out of your Xbox Live profile, turning off the wireless wheel, turning on a regular controller, and signing back in. This includes the brand new AutoVista mode which right out of the gate requires you to push “up” on the analog stick…a stick that doesn’t exist on the wheel. It gets worse, because by default, the game won’t even let you shift gears in manual transmission without the LB and RB buttons.
If you want to do any car customization, which includes custom paint jobs or tuning, forget it. Want to pick a track? Forget it. Navigate menus? Tour the brand new AutoVista mode? Hope you’re ready to sign out of your profile, power down the wheel and turn on a wireless controller…and then do it all over again to get back to racing with the wheel.
It’s things like this that really blow my mind. How on Earth could this happen? How does the hardware and software it was made for, all created by the same company, not work? How are there not options to play the entire game, menus and all, with this new peripheral? How could this wireless controller not include an audio jack like every other wired or wireless controller? The questions add up, and I’d love to hear them answered.
All this being said, I don’t want to run back to the store and immediately return the wheel. Why? Because once you’re in the game and racing, it feels absolutely fantastic. Microsoft did a great job on one single aspect of this experience, and thankfully, it was the most important one. I have a good feeling a lot, if not most of the software related problems will eventually be patched. Hopefully keeping me from needing to sign in and sign out. If this does happen, I’ll be pretty happy with my purchase, for the most part.
I’ll be able to tell all the competing racers online the same thing too…if they’re in my Skype chat room.
Presenting: Gears of War 3
As you may or may not know, Epic’s Gears of War 3, the final in a trilogy, is coming out in mere days. I’m a big fan of the Gears of War series, Epic Games and NECA Toys, so another photo project was in order.
My last gaming toy piece was also based on a game by Epic and a figure from NECA. That was my Presenting: Bulletstorm piece.
This time, I wanted to portray an image a bit more somber, something that fit the dark mood of Gears 3’s promotional stylings. Once I got Marcus and the dead Locust set up, I took several photos with different angles and lighting configurations.
After I found my favorite angle & lighting, I took the photos into Photoshop, and then, some extensive editing and color correcting later, the piece was finished!
I’ll be getting some prints made to send over to Epic and NECA along with prints of my Bulletstorm piece. I think everyone will enjoy seeing them!
Thanks for taking a look, hopefully I’ll have some more stuff like this up soon.
Miranda Lawson
Like many others, I’m deeply in love with the Mass Effect universe. The games, the music, the books…the women. It doesn’t hurt that I’m also deeply in love with Yvonne Strahovski. Lucky for me, my two loves come together in the character of Miranda Lawson, who Strahovski portrays in Mass Effect 2.
Needless to say, when I saw the beautiful Mass Effect art Patryk Garrett created, Miranda’s stood out to me the most. Long story short, I wanted it as my iPhone wallpaper, so I made it happen. I had to do a bit of editing for it to display nicely on the lock screen, but the end result is sexy! Enjoy.
Presenting: Bulletstorm
One of my favorite things to take photos of are my various action figures and collectibles. I’ve taken and uploaded plenty before, and it’s something I intend to keep doing. Most of the photos I’ve taken so far have been “portraits” or non-action shots. Action shots are something I’ve wanted to try, but haven’t really figured out quite yet.
This brings me to today, with my new piece. Using NECA’s awesome Grayson Hunt figure as a base, along with a couple of bases from misc. figures (can you name them?), I’ve created my first action shot. The process was pretty deep, it required several steps of work to get the final piece.
My first step was getting my pose chosen and then shooting the actual photo. I decided to use my 27” monitor as a background by displaying a screenshot from the game on it. By photographing in front of this, I’d have a dynamic and inclusive background for my piece. I took two shots, one with the figure in the foreground & focused, and the other with the screen in focus.
From there, I took the photos into Adobe Lightroom for editing, and then into Photoshop for all my compositing/post processing. This included removing things like the base the figures were on, the exterior of the monitor, etc. I then recreated missing pieces of the ground and sky, and made them seamless with the image. Up next was creating Grayson’s leash and its effects on Grayson himself & the environment. Rounding the process out was adding all the environmental effects like bullet whizzes & impacts, dust, sparks and more.
One of the cool things about this is the resolution; the final piece is large enough to print on a full sized poster. In fact, I might try to get a few printed to send to NECA, Epic, People Can Fly and a couple other places. I really want to share this with everyone responsible for the game and figure…I think they’d enjoy a print as well!
It’s a stretch, but if anyone else out there would like a print, let me know. I’ll make them to order if so!
This was a really fun process and I look forward to making more. I hope you enjoy it too!
View: Extra Large
“From the cradle to the grave, James…”
GoldenEye 007 (N64)
Special Soundtrack Release
60 Tracks in MP3 Format
I randomly wanted to listen to this soundtrack and found there was no coherent release available online. The only things I found were random tracks with one word names of the levels they represented. Sometimes they only had numbers or letters to signify which part of the game they were from. Being an incredibly OCD music lover, I decided to scour the internet to make the most complete version available.
Another unique aspect of this compilation is the inclusion of several alternate takes and bonus tracks. The majority of the (Alt) versions are compositions by Grant Kirkhope that he’s posted online. These versions are early compositions before being compressed and looped in the game. They’re higher quality and really enjoyable.
The other bonus tracks are multiplayer levels and “Perimeter”, an unreleased track that never made it into the game.
The tracks should be all labeled correctly and sorted in the right order. If you find any discrepancies…let me know. I’m not too worried about it though. Since I wanted to finish off this release with my personal touch, I wanted to compliment it with my own album art.
Overall I’m excited to distribute this since it’s been impossible for me to find a decent copy of this soundtrack until now. I hope you guys enjoy it.
Composed by:
Grant Kirkhope & Graeme Norgate
Assembled, tagged, art and everything else by Matthew Rex Downham
Minecraft Creeper iPhone 4 Wallpaper
OH SHIT! CREEPERS!
Sadly this wallpaper doesn’t drop gunpowder when you use it :-(
Enjoy!
The Journey of Mattcraft…
I’ve recently become quite smitten with a little game called “Minecraft”. It’s a simple yet deep game of quite humble origins. One man has been coding for little over a year, and his product is snowballing into heavy recognition. Word is Minecraft has already broke $2 million in profits. It’s a true indie story.
Having played several hours of the game, and falling absolutely in love with it, I felt like spreading the word of Minecraft to everyone I could. Following Sebastiaan de With’s lead, I decided to try my hand at doing a small video series of my journeys in Minecraft.
I think it came out really fun, and the responses I’ve received so far are quite positive. I definitely plan on continuing the series!
Enjoy,
M
YouTube Link
StarCraft 2 iPad Wallpaper
I’ve created a nifty StarCraft 2 iPad wallpaper for your consumption. Since we’re only a week away I figured it’s never too soon to celebrate.
This looks particularly cool as a home screen wallpaper. It compliments the icons quite well and makes the iPad look decidedly more sci-fi.
Enjoy!
Download (Zip File)
iPad friendly links:
Wallpaper 1 (PNG)
Wallpaper 2 (PNG)
GameStop…more like GOODSTOP!
I ordered 3D Dot Game Heroes and ModNation Racers yesterday (They have a $20 off of $80 coupon right now) and after 24 hours the order hadn’t gone through despite getting the email receipt. I emailed GameStop about it today and they said that the order glitched up (technical term) and that they were sorry. So I reordered it.
Later in the day they emailed me again with a complimentary $20 gift card code.
Bravo GameStop! I’m impressed.
