Game Plan

Is it the trend nowadays that game shows have less to do with intellect and more with blind luck? 'Who Wants To Be a Millionaire' was pretty popular last time until people started realising that they actually had to think to win. I guess people at home were feeling pretty dumb and inferior when they realised they couldn't answer the questions as well so the interest eventually died down.

Enter 'Deal or No Deal' (see ChannelNewsAsia article). The advertisement was retardedly funny (one snippet had a guy saying, "I've waited 30 years to play this game!") so i thought i would catch the show. I'm predicting this show will be popular because the prerequisites look pretty simple, as long as you can call out numbers from 1-26 and can say the title out loud (Deal/No Deal, preferably shouting it out emphatically for effect) you'll probably be eligible. It helps if you're into black magic or had a good run of luck recently because the bottom line is, luck is what this game is all about.

Fortunately (or not) the show was fairly entertaining because the contestant was (in my books) a real (fat) loser. When he was not giving unnecessary winks to the girls carrying the briefcases, he was making exaggerated labour noises when things didn't go his way. In the end i didn't manage to last the entire half an hour because the guy irritated me. But that won't stop me from catching next week episode. It's something like watching 'Loser of the Week'. I can't wait to see if he can outdo this week's contestant.
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A thought struck me while playing Test Drive: Unlimited today, who the hell was the idiot who thought that it would be 'fun' to include traffic in a Racing game? For some of the challenges, it's not a case of me having the skills to drive the route, but more of me restarting till the computer decides not to choke up an important corner or checkpoint with traffic. Another thing i noticed is as the difficulty of the race 'increases', so does the distance. Am i the only one who doesn't see a relation between the two? Can't they make a short race with harder computer opponents (no traffic please..) instead? TDU is still an enjoyable game, but i just about had it with the traffic (and the stupid police patrols). And a 200km race? Are you fricking kidding me?

Too typical traffic collision.

Thank goodness Forza Motorsport 2 is coming out. I tried the demo yesterday and finally it looks like this will be the game that will put the RACE in racing. Real circuits, excellent car physics (and realistic damage) and finally, no more of that annoying street racing crap. I have to say it feels (and looks) much better than Gran Turismo as well.
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I would like to say a big 'Thank You' to Alex for going out of his way (and behind my back) to help me find a solution to my blogger problem, even after i resigned myself to doing without the toolbar. Consider your rep. points raised.