Gaming News: Prototype 2!!!!

"Holy s***!!" were my exact words as saw the trailer for Prototype 2 on the VGAs. I didn't think it would happen but it looks like we will get Prototype 2 in 2012!

After reviewing the trailer a few times, I've spotted some interesting stuff. For one, this new guy , James Hellan (sp?), looks like he is pretty pissed at Alex Mercer and from the trailer, he looks even stronger. The game still takes place in NYC and it looks even more destroyed from the first game. Rubble is piling up in the streets, some weird black and red stuff is growing everywhere... and people are having trouble picking up what the story is about.

From my understanding.. The new guy James, comes to NYC after a war to help fight the infection but gets killed in the process. So then SOMEONE uses his dead body to do the same thing that happened to Alex at the start of the first game. The Blacklight virus enters his bloodstream and creates a new prototype that is possibly more stronger then the first version. Perhaps this someone who made James the new prototype convinced him to go after Alex? This is all speculation but it's my guess to what this game will be about. No news about Pariah, Alex's sister or Ragland yet. We'll have to wait and see.

Since James is a Sergent, maybe we will fight on the military's side this time? I'd rather fight the infected then a million strike teams. No more strike teams... PLEASE.

All in all, I can't wait for 2012.

Take a look at this:



Yeah, that's him picking up a tank and throwing it on the ground. Alex couldn't pick up tanks. Also, it looks like the whip power could be making a comeback and you can pick up more then just people.



This could possibly be one of the new devastators. Some kind of flying tendril grapple move? After he strikes the target, the tendrils move out and grab cars, people, and objects and crush whatever is in the center.



Another possible new devastator. I'm guessing that he plunges both claws under ground and explodes more ground spikes then the first game. The trailer cuts off this move so there is no way of knowing what this is.

We have armor!



And finally, the trailer ended with this huge...thing that lets out a roar and smashes the ground. It looks like its standing on two legs so maybe its a severely mutated boss hunter?



I've read the comments that people have been making about the graphics. Yeah, the first Prototype could have been done on a PS2 because the graphics were lame but this new game DOES have new visuals just take a look at the pictures and compare them to the first game. Yeah, there is a difference. I can't say they are the best in the world, but they are updated.

Mini Z: A New look

It's been a while since an update...mostly because nothing really has happened. But here is something worth mentioning: a new Mini Z body!

If remember my first Mini Z post, I had a picture of a Woodone Supra body that came with my MR02. Luckily there were enough people at Fast Pace Racing that wanted it and I ended up trading it for this once use McLaren body. The gold wheels are borrowed from fellow Mini Zer JP.

Another note to add, I won my first C Main race on the 10th. We had triple mains and I came in first, second and then last. I was borrowing Scotty's batteries for the mains and after the first race, there wasn't much time to discharge and charge them up again so they were peaked and on the last race, they dumped in the middle of the race. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

Tribute to my TA05

Its been 2 years and after 8 competitions, a few demos and a hell of a lot of sessions, it's time to retire my TA05. I really hate to do this to a car that has treated me well for so long. Never had any serious problems with it...never broke a part...went from box stock to full option. Heh, I've even done countersteer on it. Its the car that got me out of the low end chassis game. I used a TT01 and a Traxxas 4 Tec before the 05 and there is a reason I kept it for so long. Sometimes I feel like this car was made exactly for me.


Since there are too many sessions to count and I don't remember all the demos, here is a list of the comps that my 05 was entered in.

Team Tengu Hobby Town comp (won novice class)
Great Mall Drift
D1GP Anahiem
DriftCon1
Alpha 1 Point Series 4 rounds (best result ever in round 2)


Here's a look through pictures of my 05:

Here is a picture of the chassis when it was fresh built. I'm actually surprised I had a picture of this stage!



The good ole silvercan days...



Here was a picture I took before the comp in Anahiem. This was also the first brushless motor I used in drifting.




Here is the start of the graphite period. It looks weird with plastic bulkheads and a graphite chassis.



And finally, the final full option form.



While this car has treated me well, but it wasn't always like that. If you remember in a previous post, I mentioned the lightweight suspension screw up. Allow me to explain. The stock 05 comes with suspension from the TA04. Beefy thick arms with large uprights and steering knuckles. The lightweight suspension changes all of it to a more lighter parts that are made of graphite plastic. After I put the new suspension on, I noticed lots of play in the parts and what I didn't notice which was more dire, it competely changed the suspension on the car. (duh I know) But at the time I didn't and at the sunday session... oh.. the pain of remembering it. The easiest way to put it is: I had to completely re do my set up. It was not fun at the time.

Also the Square converion. I already mentioned it was a impulse buy and I didn't have plans for it but (when I post the pictures) you have to admit it looked damn good.

So what does the future of the 05 hold? It will most likly be a display car or back up in case my new main car breaks down (which it already has once...)

Speaking of new car...any guesses on what I'm using for the new car? Take a look at the previous posts to find out...

The chassis may be retired but there is no way I can sell this car. I'll keep it on a shelf to look over to remember the car that let me get to this point in driving skill.

New Mini Z body

Thanks to the generosity of Scotty Ducati, I have a new Lamborghini Diablo body for my Mini Z! It was unpainted when I got it and decided to make it look like one of my childhood favorite cars: the Diablo SV

While it's not done, I couldn't help but race it. I got third on the first night I used it. Not bad at all considering the competition at FPR.

Only bad thing about my paint choice, Peter at FPR says its the same color as the prepainted AutoScale body... Oh well I guess.

New Steering

My TA05 has always has limited steering. I never could do much about it except learn to drive with it. Since I've been driving the Yokomo, I forgot how to drive a car with limited steering. But thanks to Scotty Ducati, My TA05 now has the amount of steering throw it should have always had.

He came up with the idea to flip the steering parts and use a shorter arm connected to the servo. All I can say, it works very well.

New Car: Kyosho Mini Z

Here it is...my new MR-02 Mini Z!

Today I went to FPR to get a Mini Z module and ASF board and basically get set up to race at FPR and I spent most of the day driving on the track. This car is a lot of fun to drive.

It started as a NIB Woodone Supra MR-02 and the previous owner told me that the Supra body is a rare one and the guys at FPR confirmed it. It's good and bad. Good because I like to own rare things but bad because it's a real nice body that I want to run but I don't want to risk trashing it.



As you can see in this picture, it's not stock anymore. I wasn't expecting Eric to lend me some spare option parts from his car to use on mine. So now my car is set up with a 70T stock motor and has a set up to run in the stock class.

That picture was during the rebuild process. Here is a picture of the finished car.



I'm hoping to race on Friday but I have an errand to run at the time the race starts... I'll have to wait and see if I can make it on time.

On Board Video at FPR

Scotty Ducati and his vintage RC10 camera car got some nice footage. Scotty has the blue and silver ISF and that's my basher S15 with Eric behind the wheel of the camera car.

New Products from Tamiya!

http://tamiyablog.com/2010/09/future-tamiya-releases-to-be-presented-at-50th-all-japan-model-hobby-show/

Some of the highlights:

TRF 417
TRF 502X
M06 Pro

Still no TA06 though...

New Radio: KO Propo EX10 Helios

Yup, that's right. I got a new radio. My old Airtronics was working fine, but I got bitten by the Mini Z bug and I needed a radio that uses modules. KO Propo seems to be the radio to have at FPR so I went searching on eBay and found this one. It came with a Spektrum module with 2 receivers and a lipo battery. Not bad for 160.

There are some cool features on this radio. I think the best one is the fact you can program music. The menu has A-Z and each letter plays a different sound followed by how long it plays.



There has been some issues with this radio. I wasn't surprised seeing how it was bought used. The minor problem was the steering wheel foam. It was too slippery. So I tossed it and covered it in old worn out Mini Z tires. FPR has a whole box of them and they work pretty well.



The module worked well until I realized the antenna went somewhere into the radio. With some help, the antenna is out but the range went down to 5 ft. The wire on the circuit board was bent and after it's fix, the range was back to normal. I really like this radio plain and simple.

New Mini Z drift track at FPR

Fast Pace Racing now has it's own Mini Z drift track! The surface is a low profile carpet that has some interesting performance when you drive on it with those little cars. I have to get my own Mini Z drifter now...

Removing paint from bodies: an easier method

URC founder the JANG got a tip from a youtube user on how to easily remove paint from lexan bodies. I wish this video was put up before I started the basher body rebuild...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=085nJyj4TBM

Basher Body Rebirth

This is the body that came with the Yokomo I just got. As usual, a body that comes with a used chassis isn't in the best condition. This one was no exception. But it was okay. Why? I was feeling creative today. Actually, it was yesterday...but today is when I put my creativity into action.

This body started out as a Yokomo S15 Silvia (the red and yellow one) but my plan was to give it a fresh new look with a method of painting I've never used before.

When I got the DP, team member Rob suggested I paint the outside of the body since it was already painted. After thinking about it, I decided to try it out. So I masked off the windows, lights, and hood and picked up a can of metallic blue that I had left over.

I started laying down the coats of blue and it turned purple! I know that's what happens when red and blue are mixed but the red wasn't even touching the blue. I put too many coats down and the purple was gone. Oh well. This is only an experiment.

The hood was something I hadn't thought of too well. I forgot that this isn't the inside of the body being painted. But after some creative mask use, I covered up most of the front end and painted the hood without any problems. Some window tint was the last coat I added. (on the inside)

I still have some things to do. I have some Tamiya X paint for models that I'll use to cover up the red spots, and I'll try to find a way to remove the paint from the lights. Maybe I can use light buckets in the future?

A new body at last

It's been a while since I last painted a body. It's been even longer since I painted a body that I was happy with. Luckily for me, the new DP is a good luck charm because when I painted this body for it, it came out exactly the way I wanted it to with minor mistakes.

This is my first encounter with mixing colors so to speak. I wanted a dark red for this body but there isn't a paint of the color I wanted. When buying the paint from FPR, Eric said to back the red with black to get a darker red. I've never done it before and I'm happy with how well it worked.

Now all I have to do is be more patient when it comes to masking/decals.

How To: Stay Calm in a Competition

I know I'm not alone in this. There are other drivers that freak out when it's our turn to qualify/tandem and we just lose our cool and can't drive to our fullest ability. What can we do to remain calm in these situations? This is something I've been working on for a while now and I will list some things that I learned through trial and error and other people's advice.

1. Listen to music when you're up.

This is the best thing you can do when it's your turn. Bring a music player with headphones that cancel out other noises. The ones with the rubber ear peice are my personal favorites because they are cheap, and you can't hear anything except your music. With your music playing, and not being able to hear other noises, you can focus entirely on your car with no distractions.

The type of music is important. Some people like to listen to something that gets them pumped up. This may work for some, but I found that music that calms you is much better in this situation. (at least for me) Here is what I listen to when it's my turn to tandem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4abaowMqnI

Usually it's too quiet to hear in a noisy comp environment. So if that's the case, I would go to this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkNj7Aujme4

The point is, these tracks are calming to me. When I listen to them, I'm centered and I can drive like I can when no one is watching. This depends on what you think is calming to you. I find classical music calming, someone might find techno calming. Just find one track that you like, and keep it on loop on your music player.

2. Enter as many comps as you can

Yup, enter as many as you can. How does this help? The more comps you enter, the more times you are put in uncomfortable settings and the faster you get used to them. I've entered a lot of comps and each time I was a little bit less nervous each time.

You get confident in the situation because you've done it before. When you've done something before, you have experience and you can work in the environment better each time you are there. Think of a new job. You're nervous on your first day, but after going there everyday, you're so used to it that you don't even think about it.

3. Gain confidence with your driving ability

This is similar to number 2. Except this involves getting to a point where you know you can go on any track and learn it quickly. Where you know how to tune your car for any track set up or condition. This is why we have sessions every Sunday. Is for this exact purpose. Come out to the session, hang out, talk, drive and just have a good time. Going to sessions also gives you the mentality of comps being sessions. That's pretty much what they are anyway. If you look at comps like a session, you'll be more relaxed.

4. Don't worry if you lose

This is just a general rule that we have in drifting: Remember to have fun. I know losing sucks, but if you have a good time at the comp, you won't even remember you lost. Besides, it's better to lose 10 times and win once then to win 10 times and lose once. That one time you win is extra special because you worked so hard to get to that point.

A quote from DriftRC magazine issue 2:

"Sometimes you have to lose a lot to truly appreciate winning once. Start at the bottom and motivate yourself to the top."

Good luck!

San Jose Drift Scene: Current events

Countersteer has come to San Jose and more then half of the drifters here are doing it. Yeah, I've tried it with my Square TA05 with limited success. From the people who have tried my car, they say it handles very good. I find it hard to believe because that car just can't drive smooth no matter what gearing, set up, or driving style I use.

Also, Hyperdrift has come from Hawaii and it's the best thing that happened to the San Jose drift scene. More events are popping up all over Nor Cal. So Cal is actually jealous of our scene and that, to me, is a great success.

Right now, Hyperdrift has set up a point series. 4 Rounds. Rounds 1 and 4 are at Fast Pace Racing (set up inside) and 2 and 3 are set up at HobbyTown Fremont. Round two finished not too long ago and I got 4th place! That is my best result ever. Team Tengu is owning the point series. So far, round 1 had 2 Tengu members in the top 3 and round 2 also had 2. That is good news to our sponsor Amplified Boarding.

Team boss Eric came up with a really cool idea for the team bodies as you can see here:



From left to right: Binh, Rob, Eric, Nick, and me.

Before the point series, we had a competition Driftcon 1 at Fast Pace. The first time we ever drove inside the shop. Eric had spent days setting up the surface for the event and when we started practice on the day of the comp, everyone was caught off guard. The floor was slippery at first, but the longer you drifted on it, the more grip you got as the floor surface would cake itself onto the tires. The event was the first that Hyperdrift presented so it didn't go smoothly to some. People had complaints about the judging because the winner (Nick from Tengu) was a judge. I was eliminated early (still have nervous ticks at the time) so I picked up the camera and recorded the last few runs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wy0FPNxAQY

What's in the future of the San Jose drift scene?

From what I know, there will be a charity competition in November. It will be different from other comps we've done. How? Well, this is the first comp that uses a motor limit. We are all limited to a stock 27T BRUSHED motor! I have to say, I really like seeing everyone get nervous when that was posted. I've used a stock motor in my drifter for the longest time when I started out. I think that is the most powerful motor any drifter should have. I'm excited to see how that comp will go...

My Drifter: Update

I no longer run the Velineon brushless system. Why? Too old is my guess. That version of the Velineon was one of the first and I've used it in several cars. One day at a session, the motor kept cutting out in mid drift and when I got it back home and tried to fix it, the system doesn't work anymore. Oh well I guess. Now I'm rocking a Yeah Racing ESC and 5.5 motor. Yeah, I know. It does seem like extreme overkill but somehow it isn't. I got it, used it in one session to set it up for my car, and the next time I used it was in round 2. That's where I got my best result ever. Luck? Skill? I really don't know but I only got it because it was cheap and I've been shopping around for a motor/ESC combo for a long time and I just got fed up with searching.



The set up has been perfected. With the help of Eric, my car has been set up for a universal drift set up that is easy to tune and handles just the way I like it. Every session and comp, I don't have to stress about my car not handling right. If I do, there is a simple adjustment I do to get it right. Would you believe me if I said all I have to do to make my car drive better is the change the tension on the front shocks? Well, it's true.

I'm selling the Square kit so I can buy a Yokomo Drift Package that a local is selling. I splurged and bought a Square front motor conversion for my TA05. I was interested in seeing how it would drive and what do ya know? I didn't like it! From my experiences, the further forward the motor is mounted on a car, the better it does on small tracks. Rear motors are good for medium to large tracks. The majority of tracks we set up at sessions and comps are medium sized and I didn't follow my personal rule: If it works, DON'T CHANGE IT.

I've made that mistake in the past with the lightweight suspension set up. Oh boy, that was a big mistake. So I used the Square for a few sessions (no comps) and I changed it back to the regular TA05. Ever since, my 05 has been getting better and better.

Oh yeah, I'm getting a Drift Package. A local drifter traded it to Eric and Eric is selling it. I've always wanted to try out a DP and since countersteer wasn't working for me... I decided to buy it. I was inspecting it at the last session and I saw a few (what looked like minor) problems, the car could have the potential to be great. The main reason why I wouldn't want to get it? I like being the only Team Tengu member that uses Tamiya. :P



I am sick of belts though. I've owned quite a few belt cars but the 05 is the longest owned car and while I haven't gone through a million belts, I don't like belt drives. The tensioning, the adjusting, the wear... it's too much. There have been occasions where my car wasn't driving right because the belt tension loosened up. It's a simple fix, but it never should happen.

Gaming Update: What's happening?

The Dead Space run isn't getting any view. I got the hint. It's done and won't be finished. I'm still debating on if I should delete them from my channel. It's a shame really since it was a good challenge to a game I really like. Oh well. Maybe I'll have some better success on future runs that are similar.

One game I have to bring up that I've played a lot of is Prototype.

All I can say is: holy crap this game is awesome.

Why? Well, the best way I can describe it is it's a game that makes you feel like you are playing as a god. Sure, there are games where you actually are playing as a god, but this one..

I just love the special effects. For example, the impacts on the ground and how they leave large cracks in the ground. Jump off a tall building and the higher up you are, the more spectacular the impact is when you land. It's insignificant to most people, but I love them.

The devastators...oh the devastators... So much power in a single move.. so spectacular to watch.. My eyes almost popped out of their sockets when I did a devastator move for the first time. Yes, they really did. Most people would say something like that but it didn't actually happen. This however, actually did happen. Groundspike graveyard, tendril barrage and even though it's not considered a devastator, bulletdive drop. Each one is so much fun to do.

The story is interesting but I had to play through it 2 times before it started making sense and now I'm at a point in the story where it's got me and I want to know more. There is the story that you get from the missions, but there is much more details from Web Targets. They are people hiding throughout the city that know about Alex Mercer's past and you have to find and consume them for their memories and unlock more of the story. Problem is, finding the targets. They show up randomly around the city and there are over 100 of them. Plus it doesn't help if you accidentally kill one.. They do respawn but you'll forget where they were anyway.

Just today I stopped by Gamestop and had a look around and I came across this:



For 4.99, it's not a bad find. I picked it up and tried it out. Quite a nice racer. I have to say, from being a Gran Turismo fan for many years, this racer is more realistic. But that doesn't mean it's better. It's just more realistic. The cars handle like they would in the real world.

One thing I'm dissapointed in is the tuning. First off, you can't buy parts like in GT. You level up the car like in Forza but each level lets you tune the suspension and hopefully the engine. The highest level I got was 5 so I don't know what the high levels offer. The cars sound good, and even though there is only 211 cars total, the ones in it are beautifully modeled. The tracks are mostly fictional but they are creative. How many sim style racers have a track that is in a cave?