This column covers realistic car games with the same boundless energy and fierce incisiveness with which it covers flight sim hardware developments and human rights abuses in Central Asia. The reasons for this are too complicated to fully explain in an intro (In short: tiny desk, gypsy curse, Princess Diana). All you really need to know is that from time to time an opportune alignment of Mars and Snickers, combined with a Super Bowl upset and a special offer on elbow grease at Boots, produce conditions ideal for some guilt-assuaging arse covering. Covering my arse today are iRacing’s Kevin Bobbitt, Kunos Simulazioni’s Marco Massarutto, Studio 397’s Tim Wheatley, and Forward Development’s Eugene Gubanov. After their studio status reports, more Thar She Blows!, a blood-drenched Nantucket AAR in which doomed FP readers pull oars and hurl harpoons. Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve hit the mid-point of the week and the see-saw of time is about to tip forward and hurtle us towards the weekend at an alarming rate. Perhaps more ominously, we will also be hurtling towards the litany of PC gaming Black Friday deals that are headed our way in a fortnight’s time.
Before then, however, the deals aren’t slowing down one bit and there’s another big batch of digital deals to check out right here, right now. Everything from this week’s release of Nioh to Cities Skylines and even the absolute gem that is Jagged Alliance 2 is represented across a variety of sites, so consider this a convenient mid-week digital deals roundup if you like. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Get ready for a copyright-related headache, friends. One of the most iconic cars in Formula One racing sim F1 2017 appears to be the work of a modder for a completely different racing game, Assetto Corsa.
The car – Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari F2002 – was reproduced by modder Somchith Vongprachanh last year for players of the Italian-made racing sim. But in May this year he saw a trailer for Codemasters’ latest F1 racer, which featured the same iconic car, and felt that the particular 3D model shown off by the developers had some troubling similarities to his own work. Read the rest of this entry »
Vaguely aware that we’re living in a race sim golden age? Not sure which of the ‘Big Six’ you should invest your precious time and money in? Me too! Hopefully, by the time the inaugural Flare Path GP is over (Oct 14) little of that bewilderment will remain. Guided by the preferences and observations of that section of the RPS community that knows and loves realistic Cars Wot Go Fast games, it shouldn’t be hard to find a high-quality race sim that suits you and me to a GT. Read the rest of this entry »
What are the best Steam Summer Sale deals? Each day for the duration of the sale, we’ll be offering our picks – based on price, what we like, and what we think more people should play. Read on for the five best deals from day 10 of the sale.
Ready to discover once-and-for-all whether X-Plane is better than FSX? Whether Falcon 4.0 is better than Milk Float Simulator 2012? Ready to read the word ‘realism’ 46 times in a single hour, and spit feathers on discovering that the sim that caused got you through your divorce has been cruelly cold-shouldered by an idiot with a bus fetish and a sci-fi blindspot the size of the Crab Nebula? You are? Splendid. You’re in the right place.
Five and a half of the following seven questions will be answered in today’s column:
* What happens when you pass a red signal in World of Subways 4? * Do wargame demos work? * Whatever happened to Command Ops? * Just how dreamy is the Assetto Corsa Dream Pack? * How much does my neighbour’s ex-wife make an hour? * Was Glenn Miller’s Norseman brought down by Nazi geese? * Daffodils?Read the rest of this entry »
What a con! So far ‘2015’ feels a lot like a re-badged ‘2014’. I know you shouldn’t look a free update in the mouth, but gosh, a few improvements would have been nice. How much longer must we wait for that Ebola fix… that promised ‘Peace in South Sudan’ scenario? Surely ISIL-seeking killer bees and colourblind-friendly rainbows don’t take that long to code. I’m beginning to think the devs behind this cruel-yet-compelling massively-multiplayer Homo sapiens sim don’t care a jot for us end users. Read the rest of this entry »
Are you ‘feature complete’ yet? Have you written that novel, made that parachute jump, found that special someone? By my calculations my own personal beta test still has about 250 years left to run. Circa 2264 the handful of people that backed my 1970 Kickstarter campaign will get an email thanking them for their patience. The email will include the following changelog.
The FP works outings are legendary. Every year on the first bank holiday in Spring I pull up outside the office in a hired Abarth 500. Hilde and Hereward, the Reading Room librarians, squeeze into the back seat, closely followed by Roman (Senior Foxer Setter) Kate (Senior Foxer Setter’s Assistant) and Uncle George (Not Totally Certain What Uncle George Does). The hampers, rugs, and deck chairs are then carefully inserted, after which Michaela (Human Resources) Sean (Graphic Design), Oxo (Motion Capture), Lofty (Puns), Simeon (Guns) and Chelsea (Buns) usually threaten to resign unless I return the Abarth immediately and rent a more sensible vehicle. Read the rest of this entry »
Dear Mr Ardmaann Animation. I Notice you have not sent ananswer to my message yet. If you dont answer soon I will send my idea to Pixar and they will make “Charlie Chirp: The Story Of A Sparrow Who Wants To Join The famous Silver Swifts Aerobatic Display Team.” DO YOU WANT THIS TO HAPPEN? If its because you think the bit where Charlie gets bullied by the blackbirds is raceist I will change that. It would be just as good if he was bullied by magpies or special moths. If its because you do not like the end when Charlie gets sucked into the Airbus A320 engine NO PROBLEM!! He could get sucked into a Boeing 787 Dreamliner engine. Actually this could be better! Your good fiend Tim Stone.
A hopeless nostalgic, The Flare Path always finds year ends troubling. On one hand, The Past is about to get a little fatter; on the other, the extra girth means 1692 – FP’s favourite year – is even more likely to get overlooked by historians. What’s so special about 1692? That was the year Thomas J. Halthrope invented the Alliterating Alice, a donkey-powered ‘worde gin’ capable of producing bespoke sim & wargame news preambles at the touch of a lever. This very intro was produced on a 1692 Halthrope that works as well today as it ev///<$> Assetto Corsa <$$> Scourge of War: Antietam. <$$$> Steel Beasts Pro <> hereendethpreface/// Read the rest of this entry »
