Quest for the 2008 Turkey Bowl Track Pack

2008 Turkey Bowl Candidate Track Packs:
Candidate Track Pack #1 (posted 11 October 2008)
Candidate Track Pack #2 (posted 18 October 2008)
Candidate Track Pack #3 (posted 19 October 2008)
Candidate Track Pack #4 (posted 30 October 2008)
Stunt Candidates Track Pack (posted 01 November 2008)

On 11 October 2008, FNG embarked on a several week journey to discover 10 really enjoyable
tracks from the DVD collection that we haven't played before.

ThatOneGuy and Atholon played through Candidate Track Pack #1 on 11 October and found 2 really cool tracks to add to the list:
Cross Step
Cross Streets

Cross Step is a sweet, nicely-timed rhythm track (like unto Mosquito Hill) that has some HUGE jumps, especially near the very end. (click the pic below to see the biggest jump, right before the finish.) Notice how far back the camera is from my rider... that will help you get a feel for how big the jump really is. The hangtime, needless to say, is incredible. Much tail-whippage will be had.

Cross Streets is a fun track that has a bunch of custom models inside. You race in and out of the streets, with some construction zones and what not to potentially hamper progress. They made good use of the moving vehicles concept in MCM2, including helicopters... part of your route on the track has you driving past the Helipad on the roof of a building.

ThatOneGuy played solo on 18 October and went through Candidate Track Pack #2. Thundr was going to join but was too tired. I found two more tracks to add to the tourney:
Cutting Corners
Danger Forest

Candidate Track Pack #3 is available for download... we'll play it next week... and I'll continue updating this post with the new Candidate Track Packs as they become available.

Please feel free to race each of the tracks in the Track Packs and rate them 1-5 (1 being "The Suck" and 5 being "Tourney Material!") and tell us your ratings by commenting on this post. Please, when you comment, make sure to list the Track Pack, then each Track Name and the rating you give it.

And feel free to join us for some serious Motocross Madness 2 action over the next several weeks. The verdict isn't out yet on whether we're doing a LAN Party for Turkey Bowl in November, or the usual attempt at a WAN Party on Thanksgiving weekend for it. Look for updates on that soon as well. (I'm hoping for LAN Party; but if enough people can't make LAN but could make WAN, we'll opt for the WAN for Turkey Bowl.)

Happy racing!

PURE PC Demo Available for Download

It's finally here!

Get it from FileFront
Get it from Fileshack
Get it from GamersHell
Get it from GameSpot
Get if from Strategy Informer

Since I own the real game, I haven't had a chance to try the demo yet; so I don't know if it has multiplayer. FNGers are recommended to try it anyway, so you can decide if you want to go buy and start playing it some on Fridays.

(We'll still be on the hunt for Turkey Bowl tracks for the Motocross Madness 2 tourney in November, so don't feel bad if you don't buy it just yet... but give it a whack; it's a ton of fun.)

PURE HD Screenshots

PURE Adrenaline, PURE Fun, PURE Excitement, PURE and Simple

I've only been playing PURE for about a half-hour; but I can already tell that, while not Motocross Madness 2 or TrackMania, it could make a fun FNG game for both WAN Parties and LAN Parties (15-person multiplayer!)



That's me above on my custom ATV... I'm stoked to see how it performs after I've played through the game some. It's the same style as Need For Speed: Underground, where you can get better parts for your ride as you progress through the game.

Online play is a snap... no router/firewall configuration required that I noticed; which means they're either already using ports I have forwarded for other games, or they do a good job of not requiring the user to do firewall configuration.

Mine only gripes so far about online play is that there is no chat feature and no setting passwords on a game so only friends can join. This might make team racing a little problematic... but then again, I've only been in the game a half-hour, so we'll see what I've missed.



The tricks are sik, and it allows linking combos for bigger points. Freestyle mode is interesting because you have a gas meter and a thrill meter... and you have to get as many points as possible before running out of gas. To earn more gas, you must pull off good tricks (and try as hard as you can not to repeat... repeating tricks seems to make you lose gas faster; as does wrecking.) As you can see above, I'm mid-back-flip. You can also pull another trick while back-flipping.

There are trick modifier and special trick buttons, but I haven't quite figured those out yet (did I mention a half-hour?!)

Also... you have to build up from basic tricks to the more advanced tricks as you successfully land them and build your thrill bar. Your thrill bar can also be used to give you boosts (like nitro.)

More to come; I'm sure... and I'm really liking what I'm seeing so far...

Age of Empires II Command-Line Parameters

Microsoft provides a knowledgebase article that describes all of the command-line parameters you can add to your Age II shortcuts.

I really like the "NoStartup" one that lets you skip the opening cinematics.
Enjoy.

Example:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\empires2.exe" nostartup

FNG Report - 09/12/2008

Ok, so I forgot... there was something worth mentioning from FNG last Friday.

When Thundr and I finally got to some MCM2, we ended up playing some casual rounds of classic FNG favorites like Pepsi Max, Funky Flyer and Snowfields.

Without realizing it at first, I beat my own FNG record for Funky Flyer on my 2nd lap. It dawned on me in the middle of the 3rd lap, so I took a screenshot just-in-case; then confirmed it after we finished the race. Sure enough, I beat the old record by 0.29 seconds! I blame the DVI-D cable and 24" monitor. I'm having all kinds of good luck since I got those. :)


After that, we got the fever to beat Toxic's fastest lap on Snowfields and raced it about 10 times; getting worse each time, and completely unsuccessful in achieving the goal. But it was sure fun trying and we look forward to future record attempts.

So FNG wasn't so bad after all... those moments made up for all the crap earlier in the night.

Looking forward to the clan match this Friday... be there or be ... missing out.

Clan Skirmish - This Friday! (Starcraft and/or Age of Empires II)

So last Friday was a bust... not even worth of an FNG Report. It was basically riddled with lack of ability to find CDs and connection issues.

Tsam, Thundr, Toxic, Atholon and I were all present; and most of us played a little TrackMania til Tsam bailed. The plan after was to switch to Motocross Madness 2 (MCM2).

We lost Toxic after several attempts to get MCM2 working on that waste of an OS just a notch better than Windows ME (also known as Vista....) and he left after not being able to find his CD for a reinstall.

Atholon installed MCM2 for the first time that night, and no matter what we did, including Hamachi, he just couldn't get connected with us. So he dropped.

It was down to Thundr and I again, and we finally got a few rounds of MCM2 in; which were enjoyable, but anti-climactic after all the hassle.

So on to the better news:
Clan Skirmish this Friday on Starcraft and/or Age of Empires II!

I received an email not long ago from a Mark Zimmerman; who recently rejoined a bunch of college roommates that used to game together 5 years ago. They decided to call their clan "Wan Party." After Googling for 'Wan Party' he found our site and signed up for our contact list.

We got in touch with each other and have scheduled a match or two for 19 September (time to be announced.)

So FNGers that are intersted in some fun casual Starcraft or Age II games this Friday, make sure to have both games installed and fully patched, ready to go. We're not facing a repeat of last Friday (in fact, I'd recommend we do a connection test-run before Friday.)

Sound off if you're coming to play. I (That One Guy) will be there.

FNG 09/05/2008 - Return to Motocross Madness 2

Thundr and I had a hankerin' for some MCM2 tonight; since we haven't been able to play after Tsam installed Vista Ultimate 64-bit on his system...



We had a blast and many cool moments were had. One of them is in the video below. We were racing Pepsi Max and I full-on spring-loaded the bike entirely over the mountain with a clearance of what looks like about 4-6 feet or so from the top of the mountain! It's probably my best springload ever.





My apologies for the poor quality. I'm just learning Sony Vegas Studio and need to learn how to make good compression but keep the quality (the original file is about 630MB.) I'll try to get a better quality one I can link to on the FNG server later.



There were other moments that we could get some killer screenshots from, but don't have time yet. Below is one Jarin took during Grassy Knoll SE. I had finished the race and backtracked so I could watch Thundr's final jump. He missed it and had to climb the hill past the broken bridge. Instead he smacked the bridge and went twirling off the screen. It was pretty funny... if we got that one on VCR, we'll have to capture the twirl and post it here... if not, the pic will have to do.



If we get time, we'll post more later...

I'm definitely looking forward to getting back into MCM2 more again; especially since it's nearing time for Turkey Bowl 2008. We'll probably spend some of the next few Fridays going through the Track DVDs and trying to generate a new pack for this year's Bowl; then of course, some TrackMania; cause, well, you can never get enough of that...

FNG 08/29/2008

We played TrackMania United Forever on the "Let's Rock!!!" server (We being: That One Guy, Tsam, and Atholon [for a few minutes]).

It was an interesting night. There were always 50+ racers on the server. I only played for 2 hours; Tsam joined me late and stayed after I left, so I'm not sure how long he was on.

I placed in the top 10 twice and spent the rest of the time between 15th and 25th. Somehow, I still earned over 4,000 Ladder Points taking me to 19,000+ points; putting me 13th in the Utah Zone and in the high 60,000's in the World Zone.

It was a good time and a lot of good competition, as it always is on that server. They have a great mix of old and new tracks... the old always classics from our intense TrackMania Nations days... "Let's Rock!!!" is definitely an FNG favorite to play on.

Tsam, come tell us how you fared!

Oddworld is Back!!!

(picture courtesy of Steam)

If you've never played Oddworld, you've GOT to get over to Steam and download it! Two of the games in the series have been released in a pack for $13.49 (regularly $14.99 - so if you wait, you're not out much moneywise...)

The game's name fits... it's odd; and irreverent (including farts - how can you not love a game with farts?!) It's an arcade-style platform game that takes teamwork with others of your kind who you can "command" by the way you make your character Abe interact with them. The goal in the first game is to liberate them from slavery... and certain doom.

Did I mention farts? The second game, Abe's Exoddus lets you control your farts and use them to blow obstacles up. Too cool *Cackle!* Good times... good memories.

Demos are available for both games, so if you want to try-before-you-buy you can.

Get downloadin'!! Then come back and let us know how much fun you had.