Adolpi

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Pupdate! Alright, that’s the last time I’ll ever say that.

As always, check out the full set here.

Just to keep you updated, I have uploaded another batch of puppy photos. Definitely better than the last roll, but I managed to lose the polarising filter, so they are a little (okay, very) blown out. Regardless, I think they’ve good enough to enjoy, so here you go!

Yes, it’s finally here. And holy mother it looks good. If you thought the original was a good looking game, then you’d be quite right; that was a stunning game to behold. Cars looked real, damage felt painful and the scenery simply blasted past until the inevitable fence post brought you crunching to a halt. At which point you realised the world you were hurtling through was every bit as beautiful as the landscape outside your living room window.

But DiRT 2 takes this realism to another plane entirely. Everything that was lacking (and I use the term very loosly) from the original has been implemented, and immediately brought to this new standard of hyper-realism we were first treated to in GRiD.

Take, for example, the water effects. An ominous omission from DiRT, other than a few large lakes far from the beaten track, there is now an abundance of beautifully wet standing water littered very much onto the beaten track. It reacts as you would expect, splashing and spraying and rippling, and grabbing the car in all sorts of fun and ultimately annoying ways. Needless to say, the rally experience is that much closer to the real deal now, and that can only be a good thing.

It’s also exciting to find a plethora of features from GRiD being introduced, such as Flashbacks, Instant Replays, Slipstream Arrows (very helpful for proper clean racing) and the gorgeous damage modelling. We even get new features brought to the table, including Experience Points/Levelling and night racing. We can only dream about how great that’s going to look…

What’s even more astonishing however it that even with all these additions the game runs just as silky smooth as it did previously, perhaps even more so. My primary concern was that this would turn into a lag-monster, barfing at the mere thought of several trucks splashing through a puddle at once, but I am ecstatic to report this is totally not the case. Things just keep moving, no matter what action is unfolding in front of you.

Okay, now we’ve established this game as one you simply must pick up, let me just put to you the downsides. Don’t worry these aren’t deal breakers in the slightest, but they are mild annoyances that I was bugged by in my brief playing window. First up the new menu system. Ack. I know it looks amazing, and it’s a refreshing new way to approach navigation, however, the key purpose of the menu is to get you to the gameplay. Therefore it stands to reason that it needs to be as quick and seamless as possible. And this is one area where DiRT has it’s successor licked; you could be into a multiplayer match within seconds once you knew the correct button presses. Great.

Not so here unfortunately, the menu has to come into focus before you can make your choice, even if you simply want to hit A a few times and jump straight in. This is all very picky of me I know, but what would be an insignificant niggle is exacerbated by the almost slow-motion effect employed for various menu transitions, such as moving in and out of the motorhome. It’s agonising! But forgiveable of course.

Other worries include the multiplayer match making. Now I realise this is a trial, and was only released today, so I’m going to take it with a pinch of salt, but I still couldn’t get online – even with a thirty second pause on all 19 games available. Perhaps we could tighten that timeout up a little for the final release guys? This is the Age of Broadband after all, and if something hasn’t replied in 10 seconds I think it’s reasonable to assume it’s packed up and gone for lunch.

To sum up, go and buy this game (PC, 360, PS3 or Wii) for September 11th (no, really, it’s release is 9/11) and play the hell out of it. You will not be disappointed, and it will make your life better*. If you’re still on the fence I will be bringing you another, more complete, review then that could sway your mind. So stay tuned!

* Life improving claims may not be true.

Just a short update (I am deciding what to do with the whole Adolpi thing, but my planning is taking longer than usual) to show off some photographs of Tango, the adorable Springer Spaniel. More to follow, hopefully out in the sunshine!

And some Photoshop trickage, tips and pointers welcome; I’m the first to admit I’m not a graphic artist by any stretch of the imagination, so don’t hold back.

These are at nine weeks by the way. Our last pup was an Old English Sheepdog, so Tango just seems crazy tiny! Check out the full set, right here.

Ahh, how lucky I am to work in an office where Internet speed is limited by the physical capabilities of the network card, rather than the performance of the ISP

If you want to feel like a kid again, then I guarantee this teaser for Toy Story 3 will do the trick. Magical stuff, brings back so many memories for me; it even moved me to go watch the first two films again. They were even better than I remember

Unfortunately we’re in for a long wait, expected (UK) release is June 23rd 2010. Oh well, we already know it will be worth it.

Don’t know how this slipped under my radar, but Drag Me To Hell was released to the UK yesterday, and is apparently the scariest film of the decade. Sounds awesome, if not a little clichéd… I think it may be worthy though, given that the Tomatometer is currently reading a very healthy 93%

So, everything looks good, we have Sam Raimi writing/directing/producing (yes, he also does the Spiderman) and we get to stare at Alison Lohman all wet and muddy for a good length of time.

No complaints here!

And just in case you were wondering…

…she cleans up pretty well

Never leave Firefox open for a week without restarting. To be fair, I think XP is also to blame, hopefully 7 will be better; I’m upgrading this weekend, so stay tuned for my first impressions.

Is time speeding up, or is it just me? As well as being boring for the blog, it’s bad for me, as I need as much time as possible before August; lot’s of excitement is kicking off then, and I want to be ready!

But before then (just 1 month and four days in fact) is this:

This:

And, because I saved the best for last:

Damn this film looks good. And I mean really really good, like, more-of-the-first-film good. Just what I want! Not that Michael Bay could really screw it up, what with him being Michael Bay and all. That and the fact screwing up enormous CG robots blowing the shit out of things is practically impossible. Roll on June 24th. No, wait…