GRG's Miscellany

I bought this game because I wanted a plausibly realistic racing experience without the obligatory grind of Gran Turismo or Forza. I'm a sim fan, ready to face some demanding challenges where practice is required and Race Driver: Grid seemed to fit the bill. It offers an in-car view, with car damage, and even debris left on the track. I would never pay full dollar for a Codemasters game, so I bought it pre-owned. It was a wise choice - there are some serious flaws to this game. My first impressions are that it knows what it wants to be: an aggressive, demanding, plausibly real racing game. To me, it's always a good sign when a game knows what it wants to be. I always find it easier to overlook a game's flaws if you can see what it is trying to achieve. Race Driver does make it difficult though. The most annoying flaw I have noticed so far: No practice mode. I mean, it's a demanding game, which will require practice, so practice should be an easy part of the...

Having played COD: World At War and enjoyed it, I was quite eager to get stuck into Modern Warfare 2. The promise of tactical manouvres in squad-level combat with modern weapons really got me excited. The reality, however, falls far short - at least in single-player. I expected the inane machismo and the inevitable betrayal of characters I don't care about, by characters I don't care about, for items/plot points I don't care about. What I didn't expect was them to take the confusion levels to such heights as to eliminate the tactical element almost entirely. It really is reduced to the level of "I'll try running here....Oh I died. I'll try running to a different spot next time"....and repeat. In order to make tactical decisions, you need to either be given information directly, or time in which to gather that information yourself. You get neither here. But confusion in battle is surely realistic - it's only part of the immersive expe...

A Christmas holiday coming to the end. It's been so full of people and gatherings, I'm actually pretty tired. It's been a fantastic break away from the ravages of school though. I've got just a day or so more and that makes some decent time for planning. Although I do have Far Cry 2, Modern Warfare 2 and Gratuitous Space Battles calling me...

I've just discovered this game, and I'm absolutely loving it. You take a B-17 Flying Fortress on bombing missions over Nazi-controlled France. Each mission starts with a briefing where you are shown the target. Then you fly the mission, where you alternately shoot at fighters from the various gunner positions and guide the bomber through clouds of flak, then do the bomb run. You go through another phase of gunning and avoiding flak on the way home. This all lasts a few short minutes. Shooting at planes is very much fun. You hear warnings like 'Fighters at 1 o'clock low', which prompts you to click on the appropriate gunning position on the touch screen. The top screen is a 3D first-person view from the selected gunner's position, where you press up/down/left/right and fire to fend off the fighters. Dodging flak is less fun. You see a top-down view of the plane, with small black explosions randomly appearing ahead of you. You have to press left and ...

Ohoho, so I had my first official lesson observation today. I'd been bricking it all week, but the lesson turned out to be the best yet with that class. They had plasticine to make shapes with and drop through rice flour paste in a measuring cylinder. Only one exercise book was totally soaked with paste, and I managed to avoid getting covered in it too! So it turns out I'm doing okay. I'm beating myself up too much, but I am actually progressing onto targets about the kids' learning as opposed to my lesson survival. So I'm totally chuffed.

I led my first educational workshop today, on invisible ink and ciphers. Developing lemon juice ink with an iron is a FAFF. Shalln't be bothering with that one again. It worked, but took for EVER. It became a serious timing problem with a group of 30. However, Sodium Bicarbonate dissolved in water worked well. I developed that with red cabbage water, which turned the paper violet, and green where the ink had been painted. Very pleasing colours, and it even generated a few 'wow!'s. :D Through a happy accident, it turns out that lemon juice is also developed with red cabbage water, turning quite a fetching magenta-pink. Not as clear as the green, but visible nevertheless. If I were to do this again, I would try both lemon juice and sodium bicarbonate with red cabbage juice, and try to find another ink for a second one. Or possibly use white candles/wax to draw a message and wash over the cabbage water. Anyway, I'm shattered, but I had fun. It seemed like...

Well, I enjoyed it. I'll probably play it some more to complete some of the missions. The problem is that the missions are the worst part. The raids are fairly random, as are the defend-the-area-from-the-baddies missions, and the demolition experts are puzzley but aren't really satisfying as puzzles. It's very pretty though, and knocking buildings down with a hammer, or by driving through them, or by blowing them to itty bits never ceases to be immensely satisfying. All in all, a worthwhile experience, but with many frustrating wtfs.