Thanks for your input Ardius, I'm still to play F1:CE for the first time because when we finished with V8SS:NC last night it was already too late and so I just inserted the F1 disc to leave it doing the D/L of the patch.
I will try to play it today if I have a bit of time.
Also, thanks for your review Jeff, I agree with most of your feedback, I felt it the same way.
Now, for my own review.
This test run of the Pentathlon was, as I suspected, very useful to detect the main problems and make me think of how to find a "workaround" them.
First, a special mention to all those that took part, even if only in some of the games:
- mhm66
- TL_Bjorn (previously known as GTP_Graffen)
- hartur
- jjaisli
- Bullie77
- arvore
many thanks guys 👍
We begun a litle late because I didn't know that a HUGE patch had to be downloaded for NFS: Shift. Thanks Jeff for the warning, pity I only read it a litle too late, so when the 9 PM hit I was still downloading it.
I checked my friends list and sent a PM with a brief description of the event to all I could find. Also, opened a text chat window in the XMB, that is a crucial tool to achieve the pentathlon and also to the GT5P part of it, considering there's no lobby in that game.
I - GT5P
After the usual suspects were in (minus arvore, that only entered when we were going to SHift) we all fired up GT5P, went to the relevant online event (the World Event Suzuka Expert 550 PP RWD) and after some discussion on cars and many other things we tried to all enter the same race.
Sadly, I had a connection fail but I think all others went in and did their race. I do not know the result.
We tried a second time, and in this one it was mhm66 that failed to connect. So, I did a race with jjaisli, hartur, Bjorn and Bullie (with only one other car besides us, that was nice).
Result was this:
1st - me
2nd - NZ driver in a Clio (fair driver as far as I could tell)
3rd - Bjorn
4th - hartur
5th - jjaisli
6th - Bullie
A curiosity: "hartur" raced this race with Bullie's previous DFP wheel. Apparently, it is working without any problem
GT5P "afterthoughts": The random matching (or "the lack of a lobby system") is a serious problem if the Pentathlon event proves to be popular. And I can only think of one way to deal with it. To split the participants in groups with a maximum of 6 players (keep in mind that World Events in GT5P are limited to 12 players races) and make them race separately. If we have 12 participants it would go like this:
- all players are in the text chat.
- six do their matching at xx:32
- six do their matching at xx:35
when both races are finished, the top three of both races meet in a new matching (at xx:52). And the bottom three of both races meet in a new race (at xx:55). Then, with the results reported, the final standings of the first leg of the pentathlon is made.
There are a few rules that have to be observed for this to work. 1 - no irrelevant chatter in the text chat window. 2 - matching must be made only after all people write "ready" to match. Then all people must write "ok" to the matching time. Then, it's just a question to press "Start" at the agreed moment.
II - NFS:Shift
We were entering almost unknown territory for me in this one. True, I had made a few online races with Jeff and Biggles, and later with Alan, but I really had no idea on the specifics of lobby creating/hosting in Shift.
hartur meanwhile had to leave, but arvore came on board and that was a valuable addition to our adventure because - let's face it - "arvore" is, from this group of players,the Shift-expert
It proved very difficult to get all people inside a Shift lobby (I sent invites but people weren't getting them for some reason), and the countdown clock only made it worse, with us doing several races at a track called "alpental". Finally I gave up and arvore took charge of opening the lobby and inviting all to enter it. Even then, some problems persisted, with Bjorn having a lot of trouble to get in.
When finally all of us were in the lobby (by this time I knew the Alpental track very well
) we did two races at the Nurburgring, one lap each. After GT5P, going to Shift is a bad experience. Because of the physics, mainly but also because the "pendulum" wheel feedback is really annoying.
But well, at least we were in a lobby, and even with bad coms there was a way to contact each other.
Here the results of the 2 races we did (Bullie had to leave after the 1st)
Race 1 -
1st - arvore
2nd - jjaisli
3rd - me
4th - mhm
5th - Bjorn
6th - Bullie
Race 2 -
1st - jjaisli
2nd - arvore
3rd - Bjorn
4th - Hun
5th - mhm
NFS: SHIFT "afterthoughts": Shift has two main problems to a group of guys that just want to fire up the game, open a lobby, do a race and then leave. A invite system through EA messenger that doesn't work very well. And a countdown that makes it impossible to just wait in the lobby until all players are ready.
The only way to deal with this is: Everyone in the text chat window must write READY before the nominated host starts to send the invites. With careful planning, this shouldn't be too hard.
III - Supercar Challenge
Oh what a joy and a relief !!! I never appreciated SCC online and lobby system as I did yesterday. By now we were reduced to 4 players, because Jeff also had to leave.
And it all worked FLAWLESSLY. Crystal clear coms; invites sent, received and accepted in no time, race settings defined and off we went.
I may add that no lag was present. I tell you, it was just PERFECT. And so relaxing, after all the problems we had i GT5P and Shift.
We raced the 348 Challenge at Spa (5 laps, dry, no assists), and I had the surprise of noticing that mhm was a bit off-practise, allowing me a confortable win.
I guess this is a bit revealing of what a Pentathlon is all about. You can be VERY good at one or two games, but you can only be DECENT at 5. Will return to this subject when I talk about V8SS:NC.
Anyway, the race gave us these results:
1st - me
2nd - mhm
3rd - arvore
4th - Bjorn
SCC "afterthoughts":
Nothing really. SCC is, by far, the best overall package available in the PS3 for online racing. Lacks a few things (the graphics definition of GT5P, the AI option of V8SSNC) but does everything else perfectly.I just hope in the full event we are not "attacked" by the annoying "incompatibility bug"
, the only real threat to SCC online.
IV- V8 Superstars: Next Challenge
Arriving to this one, again it was a simple thing to open a lobby (Portimão, 10 laps, dry, full realism, AI on "Hard" level), write the password for all to see in the XMB text chat window and wait for all to enter.
The lobby-experience was not as pleasant as in SCC (but a lot better and less stressful than in Shift), because the coms simply don't work as they should in V8SS. We had to rely on the text chat to sort a few details out.
Then we race and it became apparent why mhm was lacking pace in SCC. So, it was like this. FOr the first few laps we, the human players, occupied the front positions. After that, mhm and arvore gradually fell to 3rd and 4th, while me and Bjorn fell .... to 15th and 16th!!!!
I suspect the AIs don't have tyre wear as humans do, because they kept almost the same pace until the last few laps. I won't probably have them in the event (hope to have a goof human grid in any case).
V8SS: Next Challenge "afterthoughts"
No big deal to quickly setup a race in this one also, although the experience isn't as relaxed and as pleasant as in SCC (working voice-coms really do add to the experience). So, no new problems have revealed themselves with this test and I'm pretty confident V8SSNC (as SCC) won't be a problem to a smooth-running Pentathlon.
Of course I will have to try and test F1:CE before the event's date (most probably to be run 17th or 18th April) to understand what can be a problem and what solution will be needed to deal with it.
I understand now that the major problem to a Pentathlon, or the major organizational concern to deal with, is about the TIME needed, and how to make a efficient use of it. I will work on this matter, and with the help from others I am sure we will have a fun time doing it, and not a frustrating waiting game punctuated here and here by a few races.
In any case, this is a challenge. And I won't turn away from it
i wonder if i should buy or not the blue toad murder files,myself,is it like cluedo in a videogame?
) we will end the Pentathlon with:
I just hope there's no big update for it also. 
rologue: With a full grid, it could take many, many tries to get everybody in the same lobby. Even with just 6 of us, and carefully coordinating a timed entry, we still had to try it twice. Since Prologue doesn't allow for lobbies, private or otherwise, it's inevitable that we'll end up with additional players in the lobby who aren't part of the event--a variable element which could disrupt but will certainly affect the match in some way. On the plus side, I had forgotten just how wonderful and lively Prologue's physics are and how direct the steering is. NOT including Prologue would just be unthinkable. It's the quintessential PS3 driving game.
