So the game gives you a free car on your birthday, one that was made the same year you were born.  You can get some really nice cars through this and a lot of people have been exploiting that to get those cars.  I figured I'd continue not using any exploits and just be happy getting one nice car on my birthday.  I logged in on my birthday last week and got.... a 1979 Honda Civic.  Ouch.

I hit level 40 in B Spec last night, my drivers (all three that I use are at level 40 now too) should finish the last 24 hour endurance race by the time I get home from work and I'll get the level 24 ticket.  I think I'll backup my save to make sure I can keep trying with that until I get one of the Ferrari F1 cars because I really don't need or want another Formula Gran Turismo car.  The only B Spec stuff that I actually had to actively tune the car and handhold my driver has been the NASCAR series and one of the historic cups, they were otherwise all set and forget.

Edit:  Nice, got the Ferrari F2007 right off the bat, no need to work the backup save.

Edit 2: Cool, if you backup your save before gifting a car to a friend you can restore the backup game to get the car back while they still get the one you mailed.  Anyone have a Chaparral 2J to trade?  haha.

some new screenshots that make Lara look like a dirty, dirty girl.

These are the same ones leo linked to a couple weeks ago, just not as many.

For anyone still in the lower levels (well, level 15 or higher) or lacking a really nice super car, keep an eye on your used lot for the Tommy Kaira ZZII '00.  It's 60k credits, 4WD, and can be tuned to over 740HP and weighs about 900KG.  Far and away the cheapest car that you can win some of the harder races with.  Made in Japan for your country specifics too.

I just got it to play around with because it looked neat and I'm kicking myself for not knowing about it months ago.

I got a very nice pedalboard for Christmas, now I just need to get a power supply and some cables to wire everything together at once. 

It's strange, I've got a pretty nice collection of pedals even though I've never really made use of them in any band I've been in and only treated them as toys at home so I've never had the batteries or cables on hand to ever use more than one or two at a time.  I probably still won't end up using them in future bands since effects are generally not suited to the music I play but at least this way I'll make better use of them at home.

B Spec at level 33 now.  I had my team do a 9 hour endurance race while I slept last night, when I woke up this morning they won it 120 laps ahead of the second place car.  I really fail to see why the devs chose to include this play mode for endurance races when there's no fun or challenge in it but the rewards are so good that it's worth doing when you don't need to use your PS3 for anything else.  1.5 more levels until I get my free Red Bull X1 and Toyota GT-One Race Car.

Still own:

PS3 Slim
PS2 Slim
PS1 Slim (I think I have it in storage somewhere)
Wii
SNES Slim

Only the PS3, PS2 and Wii see any real use.  The PS1 went in storage because the PS2 is backwards compatible.  PS2 would be in storage if I had a backwards compatible PS3.  I keep the SNES around for Mario Kart and Lost Vikings but haven't played either in forever.

haha, for the record, the one A Spec endurance race I did was for 60 laps on one track and I had to split it between 3 sessions and I don't plan on doing it again.  That one took a total of about two hours.

Yes.  There was a patch a day or two ago that fixed some things that annoyed me and added some cool new events and other things so it's possible that it has been addressed and I just didn't notice yet since I've had no inclination to return to the A Spec endurance races after doing the first one once.

Edit: Just read up on the patch, still no save option for the endurance races.  Most of them aren't 24 hours.  In total there are 5 that will take 1.5-4 hours, 1 that's 9 hours and 2 that are 24 hours.  These aren't needed for anything other than some extra trophies as you unlock the credits and the extended credits before unlocking the endurance races.  The only thing you get out of them is some free cars that are still available to buy through the used/new dealerships in the game (most for a couple million credits each or more).  I think the B Spec ones make it worth having Bob drive a car around while I'm sleeping or at work to get them for me.  I just got the Ford GT40 Race Car '69 and am a race or two away from getting a Nissan Fairlady Z-Concept LM Race Car.  After that is Lexus IS F Racing Concept ‘08, Amuse S2000 GT1, Toyota GT-One Race Car.  Sadly, the level 40 24 hour endurance race gives the McLaren MP4-12C ‘10  which you can buy for 300k credits but you do get a free Formula GT car for completing all endurance races at the same time so it's actually still kind of worth it as that's a 5mil credit car and the reward one is a different color than the one you can buy.  

Got my first lockup in the game at the end of race 4 of a 5 race series.  I Had to reboot and it did not save any of the prior races, oh well.  The credits are no big deal, but that was a lot of experience lost towards the next level (which I've since gotten... both A Spec and B Spec are now level 25 and in the endurance races).  B Spec is much less tedious at the endurance level since it takes an hour and forty five minutes for the shortest one so you don't have to be around to start the next race every 10-20 minutes like everything leading up to it.  A Spec is much more tedious at the endurance level because you cannot save progress on a race that will take you 2-24 hours of real time driving to complete, if you want to have a life you have to pause the game and leave your system on.  On the plus side, if you have the Red Bull X1 for the 24 hour races you only have to actually drive for 18 hours because you'll be so far ahead that you can park your car and the AI drivers won't be able to catch up to you over the last 6 hours of the race.

I think I'm going to push B Spec to level 35 just to get the Red Bull X1 since I'm not sure if I can beat the challenge for it using the gamepad (you unlock a challenge at level 30 A Spec and getting all Bronze or better on it gives you a free X1 as well).  I'll push it to 40 if the race reward from the 24 hour challenge there has a worthy reward.

Now, it's gaining momentum, so I'm sure developers will jump on board, but where are the announcements?!

Probably being saved until after the holiday season, if nothing is announced at any of the bigger industry events this spring or summer that might be a better time to question developer interest in the platform.  It's only been out for 6 weeks so far.

I haven't played either but am quite familiar with both nevertheless. They're completely different types of racing games. GT5 is hyper-realistic and the ideal choice if you're looking for the ultimate simulation. NFS:HP is the best choice if you want a focus on action and high-speed chases with only the occasional nod towards realism. NFS:Shift is a better comparison to GT5.

Especially if he liked the racing parts of grand theft auto, NFS is probably the way to go.  Gran Turismo does allow you to adapt and do well with a more arcade-ish play style, notably in the earlier races.  I do a lot of turning off of cars or forcing cars that I know will give me trouble off the track since the AI seems to have problems overtaking each other.  Some of the more advanced races are pretty unforgiving for those of us not playing with steering wheels, I'm tempted to buy one just so a few aspects of the game will be more fun and less frustrating.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/66857

According to Yamauchi, there are plans in place to upgrade current "standard" model vehicles to the same quality of "premium" vehicles. "Among the standard cars are some historical classics, and we plan on remaking them as premium cars. There are currently some cars that have both standard and premium versions. Those are cases where the cars were remade." Yamauchi did not clarify if these upgrades would also come with a premium price tag.

Almost all of the best cars I currently have are standard models and I don't notice anything bad about them, but I play driving games using 3rd person camera.

Also, some helpful links:

Here's a list of all the prize cars you can win from various events.  There's a lot of expensive and/or rare cars you can get for free.  Worth checking before buying any cars, I'm actually advancing pretty far into B Spec because of this list.  Not listed is that at level 35 B Spec you get the Red Bull X1 for free.

Here's a great post where someone is buying/borrowing almost all of the best cars in the game and rating their performance to give you a good idea of which cars are the most ideal choices to acquire first.  I have most of what he's got listed so far and agree with his results.

Edit: Sorry no NFS comparison yet.  Gaming time has been limited this week and almost all of my GT5 "playing" has been letting my B Spec driver race while I work around the house, B Spec level is almost 22 now!  If this keeps up he'll pass up my A Spec level this weekend.

If I were surviving on my own I'd go with Zombies.  Since I have to deal with taking care of family I'll say medical meltdown.

That may not be enough info, a little searching leaves me thinking that it's probably the Olympia OD-10SCE though you'll want to confirm through him before you buy.  Harmony Central reviews for that model indicate that it doesn't suck and that $100 is a very fair price for it used (it looks like new it went for $300-400 and $110-200+ used with most feeling it was one of the better playing instruments they found in that price range).  

If you want confirmation on that particular instrument and trust him, ask what he feels about the overall sound/playability of his actual guitar or if you have any other friends at work who play maybe have them strum it a bit for a second opinion.  If you don't want to spend more than $100 on a first guitar and don't want to spend a lot of time looking around I doubt you'll find better than this for the money.  Be sure to check with him how old/worn the strings are, it's likely that they may be in dire need of changing.

Hell, I read somewhere that a person hit 85 release day.  It took him about 6 or 7 hours.  Anyway, a person can easily max out a toon from 80 to 85 in a week, without power leveling.

That was Athene (now Forscience).  He had a raid of people killing fast spawning mobs after he got threat on them for 6 hours straight to power level to 85 and used heirlooms for 80-81 (which did or still do work).  I think most of my friends who are at 85 now who did it normally through quests, dungeons and BGs took just under 24 hours /played to do it.  Definitely can be done very quickly or stretched out over the course of a few weeks depending on how casually you do it.  Definitely faster than previous expansions which is good or bad depending on how you look at it.

Only planned exchange thus far is a white elephant with the cousins where one of them will receive this.

I got a trophy in GT5 for flipping a car over.  I didn't know this was the kind of game that would reward me for being bad at it.

You got it, I'll force myself to take a break from GT5 this weekend for some NFS:HP action. 

I'm not sure how much depth there will be to NFS but at this point I wouldn't blink at saying GT5 is awesome and has something for everyone.  I've spent most of my time in game doing career mode and have progressed a lot and have some insane cars with my sights set on a few other choice models.  Licenses are no longer required to get access to more difficult races, just "levels" from xp you get fom races and challenges, so I got the B license and never looked back at those.  There's a ton of fun challenges you can do like go-kart racing, NASCAR style races, drift style races, rally races and really goofy Top Gear challenges if you're a fan of the show.  There's also arcade mode and online play that I haven't done since I'm not as interested in those.  Lastly, you can do B Spec mode which has you "coach" AI drivers through races.  This seems dumb to me, but once you get really powerful cars in the A Spec races (where you drive) you can set and go and your AI will win every time so it's a good way to get free stuff (both credits and prize cars - some of which would otherwise cost you several million credits each) while you read or sleep or play PC games or something.

I agree with Kratz and Laner for the acoustic options.  You can usually find a fantastic older Yamaha or other nice guitar for $200 or less.  If you find out she'd prefer an electric, Rondo Music and Guitar Fetish are the best bang for the buck electrics you can get for the under $500 price point.

and distortion hides your mistakes better!

as does the wah pedal!

Kirk Hammet's secret is out of the bag.

You mean the new Need For Speed Hot Pursuit?  I have it but haven't had a chance to play it yet.  Will try and get some time in with it tonight or this weekend so I can see how they compare for me.  I know back when the original Need For Speed HP and Gran Turismo Games came out for PSOne I enjoyed both equally for different reasons and I'm hoping for that to be about the same this time around.

Gran Turismo has a lot of options and it will require a bit of practice and grinding out races to progress further into the single player game though there are a LOT of things to do early on and much of what you could call endgame doesn't seem nearly as appealing to me.  As far as difficulty goes, I'm not very good at racing games and don't have a wheel or anything and so far the game hasn't been too difficult for me.  I'm at level 21 or so and no matter what race you're doing you can always get a car or upgrade your current car to help compensate for any difficulty issues you may be having.  I've not played it online yet.  

New Moneymaker: Used the Vette ZR1 with Race Mods to win the Like the Wind races and get the Minolta 88C-V '89.  Using the Minolta to grind away the second Like the Wind race for a cool 70k credits in under 3.5 minutes per win.  Thinking of doing this until I have the level and credits to buy the Formula GT from the used lot and then I'll get working on my B Spec drivers (while I read books or level some chars to 85 in Cataclysm, ha!).

Backed mine up last night to a thumb drive.  17GB, half of which should be the Gran Turismo 5 install.  I think I'll make this a monthly thing or more frequently if I'm making a lot of progress in a game where I can't backup the saves directly (like GT5).

I've actually never backup up my PS3 saves or other info.  How much space is generally needed to backup the PS3?  Would a thumb drive suffice or should I look into getting a dedicated external for it?

But in either case since watching Penn and Tellers Boy Scout episode, I doubt I will ever be involved with them again. Or involve any of my future children.

I'm on the fence about this one.  On the one hand, I'm completely at odds with the stated beliefs and policies of the BSA and would never feel good about giving them money or being a member again.  On the other, if you get in a good troop (like the ones I was in) none of those things are ever brought up or enforced and there are a TON of opportunities you can get through scouting that are very difficult to do otherwise. 

Parents are to blame.  I was involved in scouting from Cub Scouts all the way through boy Scouts and through most of it my dad was the pack/troop leaders.  He had a HELL of a time getting parents to participate at all, getting to the point where he started enforcing a rule where if you wanted your child to be able to go on an outing either you or someone approved by you had to also go on the outing as their guardian.  There was a lot of resistance with that since most parents wanted to treat the program as a day care where they could drop their kid off and come pick them up when it was done and that's just not how it's supposed to work.  

In the time we were in the program there was one questionable parent who he would not ever leave children alone with and went so far as to have other parents follow them at meetings to make sure nothing questionable happened.  That parent did end up facing child molestation charges for a non scouting related issue years later so it looks like he made the right call on that one.

Any group is safe for your child to be in as long as you're willing to get involved and you really should be.  If you're not willing to get involved I'd do my research into their policies and procedures and the people in charge and use my best judgment.

The graphics have been a non issue for me.  I've raced probably 50/50 between premium and regular cars and at least while racing I can't tell the difference.  The screenshot above doesn't look nice, but that's not a viewing angle I've ever used in a racing game.  Also, as gellar mentioned, most of the cars that are non-premium models are not cars you're going to be zooming in on and showing off to your friends.

Things about the game that I feel are worth complaining about:

Used Cars.  The used car lot cycles through a long list of random cars, I think based on how many miles you've driven.  Some of the races require cars from a specific manufacturer or region and also to have been made during or before a certain time period.  This leaves your only option for some races to wait for an appropriate care to show up on the used car lot and hope you can afford it when it does.  Kind of annoying to have to keep checking the used lot to buy a car that you'll use for one race and never again.  There's a few races early on I've still yet to do because I haven't gotten the choice of a car that meets the entrance requirements and now that I'm about a dozen levels past those I'm just going to get a car that can also be used on some of the more advanced races.

Over/Under Powered competition.  Each race has a set group of cars that you will randomly be up against, there is no alteration in this based on the car you drive.  It's very easy to join a race with a car that is so vastly underpowered that off the line you'll watch everyone pull ahead of you and never be seen again.  On the flipside, it's very easy to look at what cars you'll be facing and go buy something more powerful and then destroy them off the line.  If I'm investing 1+ hours on a single circuit of races I'm going to buy a car that will guarantee I get my golds and don't have to do it again.

Country of Origin.  I'm not generally a car person and there's a lot of manufacturers in the game who I've never heard of and don't know what country they're based in.  The only way to know which country a car was made in is to enter the dealer and view a car to see a small icon with their flag in it.  It's annoying to have to enter and leave each manufacturer (of which there are many) to see which cars are made where when you're trying to pick out what to get for a specific race.  My workaround has just been to look at the typical opponents for a race and then just stick with one of those manufacturers.

That's about it.  For a "realistic driving simulator" game there's a lot of arcade-ish short cuts I've been able to get away with in races but that's still kind of fun for me since I've got a long history with Mario Kart and the NFS games.

Also, I missed out on getting a DeLorean because I was a couple hundred thousand credits short when one popped up in the used car lot.  

Edit:  One last thing.  Reward payout.  A lot of the races don't seem to have enough credits given for the time it takes to drive those races or the difficulty you face to win.  As I mentioned above, there's an advanced circuit I did where each race was 5 laps @ 2-3 minutes per lap and was for 5 races.  You'd get 14k credits for each race and then another 85k bonus for winning gold overall.  That's a lot of credits, but taknig over an hour to do the whole circuit ends up being 2,600 or so credits per minute.  The Lamborghini exclusive race takes about 3.5 minutes to finish all 3 laps and awards 24,400 credits which at almost 7000 credits per minute gives over twice as much payout for your time.  The Lamborghini race is an easier race and requires a lower player level to get access to it.

Edit 2: New Money Maker.  Turbo Challenge + High Speed Ring + Bugatti Veyron = 36k credits per 3 minute race.  w00t.

I'm using the gamepad and for the most part the game plays great with it.  I only had issues on the special NASCAR challenges where anything more than a slight touch on the mushroom stick would send you out of control.  Like you, there's no way I'm buying a wheel anytime soon and I don't feel I'm missing out by not having one.  All other control issues I had were in regards to driving cars that were too powerful for their own good and needed more stabilizing upgrades.

The races are plenty long where you don't need to pass everyone on the first lap and you can still overcome a big goof up (crash) if you've got a lap or two left.  Most of the races I've done so far have been 3-5 laps with typical lap times of 1-3 minutes and most races completing in 6-10 minutes, they also start you in the middle bracket.  There's one race that was a single lap that took 9+ minutes.

It's also really easy to fudge the numbers in your favor by getting a better car than your competition to get easy credits.  My Lamborghini mentioned above passes everyone before the first turn, even against the McLaren F1 and other more powerful vehicles.  If you don't do all the aftermarket upgrades it's a much more balanced game.

Edit: Pro tip, the Gallardo would be a better overall choice than the Murciélago because there's a race in the next difficulty bracket that is exclusive to Gallardo's so you'll need to own one anyway.  I didn't know that when I got mine and once upgraded they're both pretty badass.

How is everyone progressing in this one?  I ground out a lot of Lupo (my favorite race so far) and Mini Cooper races until I could afford the Lamborghini Murciélago LP 670-4 which has been unstoppable in every event I have access to that it's qualified for, especially since I was able to do full upgrades on it (leaving only the transmission and suspension stock).  Was having a lot of issues with stability while braking and turning at speed until I found the aero kit options.

So far the biggest income race I've got available to me is the Lamborghini only one that takes about 3 minutes to run and gives 24k credits.  Even the tuned car cup that awards 14k per race and then an 85k bonus for overall gold doesn't come close thanks to the huge time investment.

I haven't done much of the special events aside from the first events in karting (the second series was too annoying with the AI all over the place) and NASCAR, which was frustrating and made me wish I had a wheel.

I haven't put this much time into a GT game since the first one came out, having a lot of fun with it.

Could save it for games you want to play but don't want to pre-order for release date.

Or if you want to blow all or most of it at once, get:

3 12 Month xbox live gold cards

Video card

Overpriced 5.1 surround headset

Crazy flight joystick setup

Up to level 11 so far and having a lot of fun with it.  The AI has been horridly easy on most of it, they seem to do better on tracks that require a specific car that doesn't handle so well since I tend to be a bit more reckless than I should be (the pickup truck and mini cooper have been the biggest challenge for me so far).  On most tracks I pass them all by the first big turn and never see them again unless I screw up really badly. 

The karts are a fun diversion and have a bit of a learning curve since I keep wanting to drive it like Mario Kart or Modnation.

If I do decide to get a PS3 + GT5 I'm going to be using the stock controller as I don't have the ability to use a wheel + pedals. How good is the PS3 controller? Decent analog triggers for the accelerator and brake?

I'm happy with the triggers on the PS3 controller.  A lot of people aren't and prefer to add these to it.

Batman Arkham Asylum for 360 or PS3 for $15, going fast.

[Spoiler]

Uh, considering what had <just> happened minutes prior to the credits, clapping would be in very very poor taste. All 10 of us in the theater we pretty much still sniffling, even knowing what was going to happen before going in.

My gf hasn't read any of the books since the first couple but has been a huge fan of the movies so she had no idea what was going to happen coming into it.  She really liked the movie overall but it was pretty tough on her since:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Hedwig and Dobby were her two favorite characters (as much as the owl can be a character I suppose) in all of the movies.  She would much rather have seen Harry and Ron die than either of them.

It was rough to not be able to warn her about what was going to happen since it'd be too much of a spoiler.

Upcoming Deal
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Oooooh

Sad that RB3 sold poorly at launch. Hopefully positive word of mouth on how amazing pro guitar, Drums & keyboards is will give it a long term sales boost?

As far as I'm concerned the game doesn't launch until March.  Until then I'm happy playing RB:2, RB: Green Day and the couple GH games I have though it is tempting to get for the pro keyboards now I just don't see myself playing them that much.

Can't wait to see your progress on the bass, Kratz, it should be awesome.  Your instrument builds are very impressive and make me wish I had the patience to do one myself but I'm pretty certain I'd end up cutting a corner I shouldn't or just screwing something up.  I barely trust myself to adjust intonation.

The Wolfetone's and a few other more boutique ones are tempting, but this is an old and relatively cheap guitar that I don't want to invest too much more into.  I was able to get the two pickups, a custom pickguard and new pots/jacks for $150 total.

I was originally going to go with a JB and 57 but wanted to do something a little different.  Always liked Rivers Cuomo's live sound in Weezer and looked into what he put in his frankencasters and these are what he uses.  I think they'll go a long ways in fixing my main issues with having a too bright and thin bridge pickup and a too warm and muddy neck.  I'm planning on getting some form of Les Paul or SG this year and I don't want something too close to what I'll be getting with that and this configuration seemed like a decent way to do it.  If not I can always change them out with something else and put these in a cheapo strat from Rondo.

I'm a big fan of having very different pickups because I only have 1 electric guitar right now and it's nice to be able to get very different sounds out of it.  Both pickups I got are 4 conductor so I might add in a coil tap switch down the road too.

Yes, the routing in this particular guitar is one big empty cavity so I don't think it'll be a problem.  If for some reason the neck position isn't deep enough to accommodate it... that's why we have a drill press.

It depends on the pickup.  The 81 I have in the bridge is all gain with no real tone so it ends up being very sterile, especially when played clean.  I'd much rather have a lower output pickup with better overall sound, can always use a tubescreamer to get more gain going into the preamp when I want it.  The SA and their other single coils actually sound pretty nice, I got the SA because I wanted something that was tonally dramatically different than the 81 and it definitely served that purpose but is too warm to use with a lot of gain in the neck position.  The guitarist in NOFX has their Telecaster single coils in his Tele and everything he does sounds fantastic.  

The 81 and the fact that my guitar was not made to have a 9V battery in it are the main reasons I'm changing.  I had to route a slot for the battery under the pickguard and have to remove the pickguard whenever I want/need to change it, it's more of a hassle than I'm willing to put with even if it only needs to be done once every year or so.

I haven't considered or checked out their bass pickups at all.  My Jazz still has the stock American pickups in it and my P bass has a Duncan quarter pounder in it which sounds great but I'm really not happy with the bass itself (I got it for $80 used like 10 years ago and can't bring myself to sell it yet).

Finally getting rid of the EMGs in my old Fender Prodigy this week (currently have an 81 in the bridge and an SA in the neck).  Ordered a Duncan Trembucker 59 for the bridge and a Dimarzio Super 2 for the neck along with a custom Warmoth pickguard to install them in.

Wow, that's awesome!  Zombie Wilson must be a fun travel companion to have at conventions.

I've had too much zombie stuff on my plate at once (went through the two Day by Day books and jumped right into WWZ along with the Walking Dead compendium) to read ZWD yet but I'm definitely still looking forward to checking it out once I'm caught up on everything else.