I had a rare uninterrupted evening yesterday - no work to do, Mrs out with friends, family happy and cats [mostly] asleep - so I thought I would slope off on time from the office, stop for a pint and a bite to eat then head home and get in a little GT5.
Stepping out into the winter evening with a smile on my face I quickly realised the weather was cold, wet and generally grey and the pub too out of my way without some serious upgrades to my outerwear. A not quite family friendly expletive escaped my lips, a beer and some food would be great but hey I knew I could get these at home so with a shrug I headed back thinking "at least I can get in a little more GT5 this way, perhaps I'll run some laps on the nordschleife".
Arriving home I fed the cats, did a few chores and grabbed a beer and sandwich before grabbing a spot in front of the TV and hitting the PS button and firing up the PS3. As usual I took a few moments to quickly go through PSN messages and the online list whilst GT5 is booting but was soon at the GT Life screen.
First thing I seem to do these days is check my B-Spec drivers to see if anyone has run them overnight and sure enough a few credits are waiting to be harvested. Returning the favour I ran a couple of ten minute races against friends who had done the same for me and watched my Bob fight it out whilst I ate [a rather good if I do say so myself] bacon sandwich and listened to the evening news.
Tiring of Mr Bob's passive nature I decided to do a bit of racing myself, perhaps even some quite aggressive, challenging racing. The yang to Bob's ying perhaps? 10 laps in the F2007 on the Indy Road course later and I'm feeling warmed up (and 190+k better off). Maybe I'll do another F1 race, ooh, Eifel. Yes please. 10 laps and a great race later I've got a big smile on my face and am feeling the need for some less predictable competition.
Online it is then.
Checking out the friends list, those who are online either aren't on GT5 or are playing single player so I thought I'd head into the public lobbies.
A mildly frustrated 15 minutes later I find a good, clean looking lobby running 450pp, sports soft tyres and 8-10 laps on an average length track. The host is great, very welcoming, keeping the races clean, changing up the track selection every race and giving enough time between races to do a practise lap or two, change your car, have a little banter, feed the cats or get a drink. Great stuff.
I must have raced at least half a dozen races and the [relatively] low pp level resulted in some exceptionally close racing and a really wide selection of cars being used by everyone. Everything from Kei cars to big saloons to two seater sports cars. No two grids looked the same and no two races had the same result. Fantastic stuff.
Fancying something similarly intense but not requiring quite as much concentration I bid farewell [and made a few friend requests] and did a few solo hot laps of the 'ring in full on cockpit, no HUD, full immersion mode. I hit a few target times and managed to not kiss the grass at Metzgesfeld, more than once I think I probably whooped out loud as I crossed the finish line! More awesome stuff.
Feeling competitive again I headed online again, the earlier room I was in was no longer running but I eventually found a room running similar rules but with racing softs. Again the host was great, keeping things clean despite the higher cornering speeds and lower chance for natural human error. We had some really fun racing, pretty much bumper to bumper the whole way until eventually 'that guy' showed up.
Unfortunately the track was Rome so contact soon turned into carnage, it was still great fun though, I stuck to the back of the pack and had to make a few quick moves though smoke to avoid spinning or sideways cars.
The host gave 'that guy' the benefit of the doubt after a bit of banter (there was some suggestion of Boadicea-esque wheel spikes and James Bond Astons). Then the host chose Madrid as the next course! Nutter! More carnage commenced though this time it was as much in fun as anything. I stuck to the back of the pack and just watched the race from onboard, no better seat in the house for sure.
After the race everyone agreed to calm it down and we moved onto less confined tracks and had a few more really close races before I eventually left happy and a little drained [easy now, it's a family site].
I enjoyed the 450pp races so much I decided to spend a little time buying and tuning a variety of cars in as many different sizes and drive trains as I can to this 450pp limit.
I must have got a little involved in this as before I knew it the door was opening and the Mrs was asking what I had been up to all night....
.... "Nothing dear. Just a little gaming."
Yeah.
Right.
Driving baby.
She wouldn't understand.
But some of you guys do.... and to you..... keep on driving brothers and sisters.
[Yes, this probably is a pointless thread but I prefer to think of it as an illustration of how great this game can be regardless of your skill, a/b-spec level or in game credit situation.]
Stepping out into the winter evening with a smile on my face I quickly realised the weather was cold, wet and generally grey and the pub too out of my way without some serious upgrades to my outerwear. A not quite family friendly expletive escaped my lips, a beer and some food would be great but hey I knew I could get these at home so with a shrug I headed back thinking "at least I can get in a little more GT5 this way, perhaps I'll run some laps on the nordschleife".
Arriving home I fed the cats, did a few chores and grabbed a beer and sandwich before grabbing a spot in front of the TV and hitting the PS button and firing up the PS3. As usual I took a few moments to quickly go through PSN messages and the online list whilst GT5 is booting but was soon at the GT Life screen.
First thing I seem to do these days is check my B-Spec drivers to see if anyone has run them overnight and sure enough a few credits are waiting to be harvested. Returning the favour I ran a couple of ten minute races against friends who had done the same for me and watched my Bob fight it out whilst I ate [a rather good if I do say so myself] bacon sandwich and listened to the evening news.
Tiring of Mr Bob's passive nature I decided to do a bit of racing myself, perhaps even some quite aggressive, challenging racing. The yang to Bob's ying perhaps? 10 laps in the F2007 on the Indy Road course later and I'm feeling warmed up (and 190+k better off). Maybe I'll do another F1 race, ooh, Eifel. Yes please. 10 laps and a great race later I've got a big smile on my face and am feeling the need for some less predictable competition.
Online it is then.
Checking out the friends list, those who are online either aren't on GT5 or are playing single player so I thought I'd head into the public lobbies.
A mildly frustrated 15 minutes later I find a good, clean looking lobby running 450pp, sports soft tyres and 8-10 laps on an average length track. The host is great, very welcoming, keeping the races clean, changing up the track selection every race and giving enough time between races to do a practise lap or two, change your car, have a little banter, feed the cats or get a drink. Great stuff.
I must have raced at least half a dozen races and the [relatively] low pp level resulted in some exceptionally close racing and a really wide selection of cars being used by everyone. Everything from Kei cars to big saloons to two seater sports cars. No two grids looked the same and no two races had the same result. Fantastic stuff.
Fancying something similarly intense but not requiring quite as much concentration I bid farewell [and made a few friend requests] and did a few solo hot laps of the 'ring in full on cockpit, no HUD, full immersion mode. I hit a few target times and managed to not kiss the grass at Metzgesfeld, more than once I think I probably whooped out loud as I crossed the finish line! More awesome stuff.
Feeling competitive again I headed online again, the earlier room I was in was no longer running but I eventually found a room running similar rules but with racing softs. Again the host was great, keeping things clean despite the higher cornering speeds and lower chance for natural human error. We had some really fun racing, pretty much bumper to bumper the whole way until eventually 'that guy' showed up.
Unfortunately the track was Rome so contact soon turned into carnage, it was still great fun though, I stuck to the back of the pack and had to make a few quick moves though smoke to avoid spinning or sideways cars.
The host gave 'that guy' the benefit of the doubt after a bit of banter (there was some suggestion of Boadicea-esque wheel spikes and James Bond Astons). Then the host chose Madrid as the next course! Nutter! More carnage commenced though this time it was as much in fun as anything. I stuck to the back of the pack and just watched the race from onboard, no better seat in the house for sure.
After the race everyone agreed to calm it down and we moved onto less confined tracks and had a few more really close races before I eventually left happy and a little drained [easy now, it's a family site].
I enjoyed the 450pp races so much I decided to spend a little time buying and tuning a variety of cars in as many different sizes and drive trains as I can to this 450pp limit.
I must have got a little involved in this as before I knew it the door was opening and the Mrs was asking what I had been up to all night....
.... "Nothing dear. Just a little gaming."
Yeah.
Right.
Driving baby.
She wouldn't understand.
But some of you guys do.... and to you..... keep on driving brothers and sisters.
[Yes, this probably is a pointless thread but I prefer to think of it as an illustration of how great this game can be regardless of your skill, a/b-spec level or in game credit situation.]
