Microsoft’s ACES Studio are lovely people, but they’ve yet to see the wisdom in my regular ‘You know what would be great? An integrated MS Transport Simulator combining Flight Simulator, Train Simulator and Midtown Madness!’ interview interjections. They just don’t seem to realise how spiffing it would be to fly a Spitfire, drive a Spitfire, sail a Spitfire and fire a Spitfire all within the same seamless virtual World.

Ilan Papini, however, is a man that understands. He’s been talking about crafting a combo sim for years, and this summer finally got around to constructing the chassis. At present Vehicle Simulator feels a bit like Micro Flight (his ultralight-focused plane sim) gaffer-taped to Virtual Sailor (his saltier-than-narwhal-tears nautical sim). Even so, in the maddeningly brief 5 minute sessions permitted by the beta, the potential is visible. Don’t expect the realism or polish of an MSFS or X-Plane. Do expect intuitive mouse steering, luscious sunsets, and lots of opportunities for acting the giddy goat.

After the jump, some pics of me acting the giddy goat.(...)
Read the rest of Peculiarly Vehicular (173 words)

Posted by tstone. | No comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: Ilan Papini, Little Book of Calm, Vehicle Simulator
This article is from Rock, Paper, Shotgun. If you're reading it on any other website, they're stealing it from us without permission.

Even at $20, which is definitely budget-priced, Spitfire Heroes: Tales of the Royal Air Force isn’t a game that I could suggest to anyone, whether they’re general plane fanatics or World War II history buffs. The idea itself is solid, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

I read a fascinating speech by J.K. Rowling (yes, that J.K. Rowling) that she gave for Harvard’s commencement ceremony this past week and couldn’t help but smile and nod my head while reading about her life lesson she relates to the graduates.

The speech is about failure and imagination, two things which, coincidentally, game design is all about. Granted, the imagination part is fairly self-explanatory, so I’m not going to delve into it much (especially since her noble idea of imagination is more John Lennon than it is Jim Henson). Rather, I was especially interested that she learned from her failure:

"I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless."

How does this relate to game design? I can see how many would think I’m stretching things a bit. Obviously, we risk the same situation if we fail as an entire team or company, but what I really want to get at is how failure is valuable on an individual task-by-task basis.

Failure in design is more often more valuable than success, because if we’re willing to listen to it, and analyze it, we can determine exactly where we went wrong, and find success faster than if we just stabbed at it randomly:

"So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged."

"I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."

I first learned about the value of failure at the Game Design Workshop during GDC last year, and I feel like a broken record repeating the refrain of the lesson: Fail Faster. Many people don’t understand the concept. In fact, if I didn’t actually experience the phenomenon first hand, I’d chalk it up to cheap business success book lingo like “synergy” or “paradigm.”

We even discussed the phenomenon of fearing failure, and how those who fear failure fail last, which is actually the biggest insult and humiliation in game design, because the teams who failed early almost always had a better concept than the teams who debated too long and waited to test their game ideas - and therefore failed last.

So I smiled when I read J.K. Rowling’s take on “failing last” (the all too common phenomenon of fearing failure so much you take the least amount of risks possible and wait to fail) which she terms “failing by default”:

"You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default."

Who knows if the Harvard grads will be able to learn from this? Failure is a sticky wicket. It’s one of those things you have to experience first hand. Sure, some lessons are self explanatory and don’t require witnessing failure for you to “get” the lesson and learn from it, but that’s where the GDC class really excelled.

They forced us to fail, and presented us with what were almost Kobayashi Maru scenarios, ones where I was almost certain we would not be able to pull a game out of. But the value of failure had already been extolled upon us, and we knew how to learn from it.

As funny as it sounds, we could be heard to say, “We’re not failing fast enough.” I’m shocked that we were able to make games out of the rules we were given in that class. Seriously, a card game based off of one of the seven deadly sins? Making games out of random objects and a Tupperware container? Impossible? Only if you don’t try.

So, if any of you folks reading this are designers, try failing. Fail faster. Fail sooner. Don’t sit there in design meetings arguing all day about where your controller buttons should be laid out. Just map them as fast as you can and try it.

It’s going to suck at first, but accept your failure. Hell, welcome it, and iterate on it as fast as you can. You’ll find the winning solution faster than if you attempted to write it out in a game design doc and debate the virtue of your layout without ever playing it.

[Spitfire is a game designer at a self-publishing development company. Before starting his site game-ism.com, he was a published gaming journalist, and during his career has also worked in television, commercials, and film.]

Ever wanted to smash your way through rush hour traffic? What am I saying, of course you have! We all have, including the people at Activision who are giving us the chance to wreak havoc through city streets in Monster Jam: Urban Assault for PlayStation 2, Wii, PSP and DS this fall.

On their second visit to the massively popular monster truck franchise, Activision is moving beyond the stadium and into cities around the world because, according to Dave Oxford of Activision, “Monster Jam fans and all gamers will enjoy doing things like crushing a NYC cab or smashing through one of London’s famous double-decker buses.” Total destruction will be key as players are rewarded for the amount of damage they do.

For Monster Jam fans that like the old school style, there will still be stadium racing and freestyle competitions - Urban Assault promises to have improved the overall gameplay of the first game as well as added mini games like Monster Jump, Truck Trickster, Skee Ball and Air Strike.

Urban Assault has of a host of recognizable trucks to choose from. Already announced are: Grave Digger, Maximum Destruction, Monster Mutt, El Toro Loco, Captain’s Curse and Blue Thunder as well as newer names like Stone Crusher, Backwards Bob and Spitfire Monster Truck. Since the latest Monster Jam game, a Donkey Kong monster truck has been introduced to the sport and though it hasn’t been confirmed yet, I would be really surprised if this classic gaming star didn’t make it into Urban Assault.

Visit VideoGame2Play for more game related content.

Nintendo DS: Best to Worst Games

Relevent content

• PlayStation Portable: Best to Worst Games
• PlayStation 3: Best to Worst Games
• Xbox 360: Best to Worst Games
• Nintendo Wii: Best to Worst Games
• Best to Worst: Nintendo DS
• Every Nintendo DS Game: Best to Worst
• Every Nintendo Wii Game: Best to Worst

Okami - 91
Boom Blox - 87
Opoona (US) - 85
Battle of the Bands - 55
Secret Files: Tunguska - 63
Obscure: The Aftermath (US) - 50
Baroque (US) - 55
Namco Museum Remix - 50
Death Jr: Root of Evil - 40
Sports Island - 70
Target Terror (US) - 14
Dream Pinball 3D - 50
Detective Conan 2 (JAP) - 61

DS Reviews:

Race Driver: Grid - 80
Bokura Ha Kaseki Holder (We Are Fossil Holders?!) (JAP) - 65
New International Track & Field - 65
Spitfire Heroes: Tales of the Royal Air Force (US) - 51
Matchstick Puzzle by DS (JAP) - 70
Double Sequence: The Q-virus Invasion - 34
7 Wonders of the Ancient World - 63
Doctor Who: Top Trumps - 53
High School Musical: Work it out - 44

Thanks to Spect8re for the heads up!

Cocoto Magic Circus Videos

AMF Bowling: Pinbusters Review

King’s Knight Review

The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian Video

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Screens

AMF Bowling: Pinbusters Images

Cocoto’s Magic Circus Screens

Deca Sports Trailer

Opoona, KOEI’s Role-Playing Game for Wii in Stores Now

Block Breaker Announced for WiiWare

Summon Night: Twin Age Screenshots

Spitfire Heroes: Tales of the Royal Air Force Review

Fritz the Chess Master

First Look: Iron Man DS

Animal Boxing Screenshots

Code Lyoko: Fall of Xana Screens

Zombie BBQ Screenshots

Iron Man Screens

New From Square Enix: Sigma Harmonics

Drone Tactics Screenshots

• DS Fanswag: Pick up a professor-approved puzzle pack!
  Professor Layton and Brain Challenge, all for you!
• Relive Link's Awakening, Lego-style
  Check out Lwelyk's creations in the gallery down below. Hot.
• Super Wings: Download this game NOW
  Destined for homebrew history.

• DS Fanboy Review: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
  Cute, fun, and totally "adulterous!" Just not in that way.
  
• DS Fanboy Review: Spitfire Heroes: Tales of the Royal Air Force
  More like tales of the royal butt-kicking.
• DS Fanboy interview: Red Fly Studio (Mushroom Men)
  Less fungal than their game's heroes.
• DS Fanboy interview: Insecticide's Larry Ahern
  Part action, part adventure, all talk.

• Guitar Hero: On Tour to feature Nirvana, No Doubt, OK Go
  Also: your money. Probably your dignity as well.
• Summer strategy: FFTA2 due June 24th
  Took 'em long enough!
• At last: Guitar Hero on Tour, now with wacky peripheral
  Now we WANT Accordion Hero.
• The DS Lite gets repeatedly busted for 'science'
  If that picture doesn't make you cry, you have no soul.

Gallery: Lwelyk's Link's Awakening Legos