Obviously videogames are completely ridiculous. This much is made most obvious by the ones that pretend they’re not. Those games which present themselves as very, very serious simulations of real life activities all too easily forget that they’re played in front of a television, usually using a silly piece of plastic with sticks and buttons on it.

It’s always seemed a little pointless for a developer to spend so much time, energy and effort in recreating the exact pitch and behaviour of a pixel-perfect, geometrically-exact, scale replica car blasting out meticulously sampled engine sounds across 200 different rev counts when you’re asked to use a six-inch piece of thumb-controlled plastic to control it with. Videogames are all abstractions of real life behaviours (except perhaps a drumming game) – none more so than driving a car.

For this reason Chewing Pixels has always favoured Ridge Racer or F-Zero over Gran Turismo – those racing games which delight in their videogame-ness rather than trying to obscure it with facts, figures and painstaking mimicry.

There again, that introduction might just be an elaborate excuse for not actually being very good at driving games. It always seems a genuine insurmountable struggle when it comes to knowing how much to brake into a corner or which line to take in order to maintain optimum speed around a chicane, abstraction or none.

So, when Microsoft sent Chewing Pixels one of their new force feedback wheels last week for review (in preparation for the much delayed June release of their serious car game Forza Motorsport 2) I was interested to see how I fared once some of that abstraction was removed. After all, a supposedly serious racing game seems a lot more serious when you have a rubberised wheel, weighty pedals and angry feedback trying to wrestle the car’s control away from you every time a wheel tips off the track onto the grass.

Strikingly, it’s a beautiful piece of hardware – a shiny white bonnet encasing stupendous build quality and weight. It’s clearly been lavished with care and attention form extremely dedicated product designers and, thanks to the sheer bulk, you feel as if your £89.99 has actually gone somewhere other than Microsoft’s profit margin. The wheel itself is small and rubberised – like, one presumes, it would be on a super-expensive sports car. It’s wireless in the sense that it doesn’t need a wire to connect the wheel to the console, but misleadingly it still requires a little wire to connect the pedal to the wheel and you’ll also need to plug it into a wall socket for to feel the full power of the force.

For those who have never played with force feedback before, the first time’s extraordinary – each bump and knick, each transition from gravel type to gravel type is keenly transmitted into your bones with spectral violence. But that doesn’t necessarily make it any easier.

Initially, I was skidding from side to side like a dyspraxic newborn lamb. The bundled special edition of Project Gotham Racing 3 (which contains the required drivers for the wheel to work on the system) is a completely different game in feel and difficulty to that you might have played at launch with a pad. The problem is that the cars that are presented in videogame racing games are often just too powerful to begin with. Tearing around the track in a super-souped up Nissan Skyline is all very well but I kind of found myself wishing I could start off in a Mini and work my way up through a difficulty curve. It’s not that the game is harder, just that you’re missing the required muscle memory to make it all work straight away – indeed, this is probably what it feels like for a non-games player first picking up a controller. After 20 minutes I was still losing every race and feeling generally fed up. The wheel might look and feel incredible, but what use is that when it’s so much easier to win races using an orthodox controller.

Then, a watching friend recommended, I approach it more like I was in a real car – using gentle movements, concentrating on that feel of when the brakes lock to avoid terminal skids and relying more on touch than on sight. Interestingly this change in appraoch completely turned the experience around: now I was feeling my way around corners – trying to push the tyre’s traction to breaking point through feel and, in doing so, changing the way I was interacting with the game. A few days in and now I’m winning Silver challenges easily and, while I’m still not as good as I was with a pad, I’m having a lot more fun with the game.

For those players who have their bedrooms permanently decked out like the inside of a Ferrari and who need to lower themselves into a circular ring of PC monitors to play, the wheel might feel lacking. There are many force feedback wheels for the serious PC driving enthusiast and, with their 900° rotation lock, can cost many times the price of this wheel.

But for the rest of us used to shoddy and cheapish plastic wheels or simply bored by the use of orthodox controllers with driving games, this wheel revolutionises the experience. It might take you a long while before you can surpass your fastest times achieved on a pad but, thanks to the precision and feedback the wheel affords, the talented or persistent will quickly better them. For me, I’d happily trade winning a race with a pad for coming last using this wheel – surely it’s always better to finish poorly but have fun while doing it than to win and be bored. In videogames, the means are always worth more than the ends.

Buy the Xbox 360 Wireless Steering Wheel with Force Feedback.

Forza Motorsport is released on June 8th. Pre-order it here.

Pseudoku? That’s what you might be thinking when you first spot Eidos’ irreverent replacement of Sudoku’s traditional numbers for seemingly arbitrary eastern symbols. But rest assured, this is the same orthodox pen and pencil puzzle game that depressingly saved British newspaper sales in all but name and face.

Of course, the recently ubiquitous Japanese puzzle loved by commuters and evangelised by Carol Vorderman has never had anything much to do with numbers anyway – it’s a pure logic puzzle. Played on a 9×9 square grid, the aim of the game to fill every row, column and 3×3 sub-box with one of each number from one to nine. There can be no repeats and only logic (no guesswork) can be used to fill the grid. Manage to slot everything in its right place and the panic will go away for a little bit and maybe you’ll sleep at night believing you really are in control of your life.

Of course, as each number simply represents a different type of object, one could use nine elements from the periodic table or nine different positions from the Karma Sutra for the game’s symbols and it would still play in exactly the same way. In a sense then, that Zendoku doesn’t share Sudoku’s staid, black and white numerical presentation is irrelevant – underneath the new icons and kung-fu themed textures, it’s basically the same game.

You can read the rest here

“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

Albert Einstein gives Todd Goldman some late advice as to how to keep the entire internet from scrutinising his work and uploading all traces of plagiarism.

Undress any good videogame, be it Crackdown, Chuckie Egg, Civilisation or Counter-Strike, and often what you’re left with is basically Tetris.

Videogames might have ten thousand different faces and costumes to distinguish themselves from one another, but scratch off the scenario and the good ones all employ the same principles, logic, framework and tricks. We’re made to search for patterns, clear obstacles, manipulate objects to progress and stave off inevitable failure for as long as possible. We’ve been sold the same meagre fistful of tasks and routines over and over across videogaming’s short decades and genres.

When Jack Thompson and the medium’s other shrill-with-affected-outrage opponents call all videogames evil or claim they’re just for stupid people they instantly look silly. Anyone who has played Chess or Tetris knows, games are simply re-presenting life’s own puzzles and challenges albeit minus its cruel unpredictability and consequence.

Of course, what naysayers really object to is the oftentimes controversial clothing of these life-mimicking mechanics. A shoot-out in Grand Theft Auto might be based on the exact same principles and requirements as Space Invaders (dodge the bullets, watch out for degrading cover and hit them first) but the skins convey very different connotations.

Likewise, you too are probably guilty of dismissing Diner Dash long before you made it to this sentence – not for its gameplay, which is based upon the most concrete of Soviet foundations – but because of its ostensibly dull skin. Who wants to role-play working in a restaurant serving the unwashed masses for the minimum wage in their leisure time?

You can read the rest here

‘In Hip Hop, every emcee is automatically pitted against every other emcee, sort of like characters with super powers in comic books. No one wants to listen to a rapper unless they claim to be the best or the greatest. This sort of braggadocio leads to all sorts of tirades, showdowns, battles, and sometimes even deaths. In all cases, confidence is the ruling card. Because of the competitive stance that all emcees are prone to take, they, like soldiers begin to believe that they can show no sign of vulnerability. Thus, the most popular emcees of our age are often those that claim to be heartless or show no feelings or signs of emotion.

‘The poet, on the other hand, is the one who realizes that their vulnerability is their power. Like you, unafraid to shed tears on countless shows, the poet finds strength in exposing their humanity, their vulnerability, thus making it possible for us to find connection and strength through their work. Many emcees have been poets. But, no, Ms. Winfrey, not all emcees are poets. Many choose gangsterism and business over the emotional terrain through which true artistry will lead. But they are not to blame.’

The insistently brilliant poet/ rapper Saul Williams pens an open letter to Oprah. Most interestingly he talks about the difference between the apparent strength of bravado-laden rappers compared to the vulnerability (a deeper strength) of poets. Stirring, intelligent and eloquent stuff. (From Stereogum via Ste)

From the quoted section above Williams moves on to insist that religions so often miss that vulnerability is often true strength and that, in particular many Church leaders have missed the heart of Jesus’ teaching. He states:

‘You see, Ms. Winfrey, at it’s worse; Hip Hop is simply a reflection of the society that birthed it. Our love affair with gangsterism and the denigration of women is not rooted in Hip Hop; rather it is rooted in the very core of our personal faith and religions. …There is nothing more mainstream than the denigration of women as projected through religious doctrine. Please understand, I am by no means opposing the teachings of Jesus, by example (he wasn’t Christian), but rather the men that have used his teachings to control and manipulate the masses. Hip Hop, like Rock and Roll, like the media, and the government, all reflect an idea of power that labels vulnerability as weakness.’

Yes, yes, yes.

This reminded me of something Vonnegut wrote before his death:

‘How about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes?

“Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon? Give me a break!’

Strange how Christians are rarely the ones to understand anything about Jesus.

One of my biggest irritations is having missed the ATP where Saul performed.

If you don’t know of him, here’s why:

[A global temperature rise of] three degrees would see increasing areas of the planet being rendered essentially uninhabitable by drought and heat. In southern Africa, a huge expanse centred on Botswana could see a remobilisation of old sand dunes, much as is projected to happen earlier in the US west. This would wipe out agriculture and drive tens of millions of climate refugees out of the area. The same situation could also occur in Australia, where most of the continent will now fall outside the belts of regular rainfall.

In northern Europe and the UK, summer drought will alternate with extreme winter flooding as torrential rainstorms sweep in from the Atlantic – perhaps bringing storm surge flooding to vulnerable low-lying coastlines as sea levels continue to rise.

The Guardian publish an excerpt from Mark Lynas’s book Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet.

So, when’s the best time to relocate from the South Coast then?

The task was to communicate that anything made with Sugar Free tastes the same as when made using sugar. To dramatise this, we decided to use the most credible ambassadors for sweetness – ants. We experimented with syrup made of Sugar Free and sweet lime, and found that even the ants couldn’t tell the difference. We painted the shape of a muffin on a 14” x 19” poster, using this syrup and left the rest to the ants.

Link and Ad Agency.

Applicant ref. no: 9-26-21-14-1
Applicant review

Name: Izuna

Age: 16

Marital Status: Single, straight and under-age

Nationality: Japanese

Address: Currently residing in North America

Blog: http://www.atlus.com/izuna/

Education:

ASCII adventure games, Rogue, Chocobo’s Mysterious Dungeon, Diablo.

Languages:

A native Japanese speaker, Izuna seems to have worked hard and commendably (under the tutelage of Atlus’ expert translators) to become fluent in witty, occasionally irritating but nevertheless grammatically robust, teen-speak English. This doesn’t stop her lapsing into loud spoken Japanese outbursts every now and again – although arguably this adds to her inimitable charm.

Criminal Record (if yes please give details):

Immediately prior to Izuna’s last full-time job she was caught attempting to steal a priceless village gem dedicated to the local gods. This angered said deities who promptly cursed all of the villagers with various character-warping ailments. So began Izuna’s previous employment, which, in short, entailed seeking each of the six deities lurking in the depths of their six respective local dungeons in order to beg forgiveness, atone for her mistakes and rescue her companions back from the hopefully cured villagers.

Employment History:

Izuna worked as a local castle’s in-house ninja until a year ago when she, her sensei, Gen-An, and her sister, Shino, were unexpectedly made redundant. Izuna and her companions became a team of freelance ninjas who were seeking employment in a remote village when the aforementioned criminal misdemeanour took place.

You can read the rest here.

“To listen to CNN and MSNBC is to watch the news people stumble through this story.

Specifically today, there is something over-the-top being heard in some of the reports that this shooting today is the “deadliest” in American history.”

The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow’s Headlines author Loren Coleman writes on his blog about the media reaction to yesterday’s shootings at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, VA.

The argument that the media’s manner of reporting of such events is partially to blame for these copycat Columbine-esque shootings is logical and reminded me to tell everybody how important it is they see Network.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. It is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” – Albert Einstein

Lawrence Thornton’s 1987 novel Imagining Argentina, set in the war-ridden country of the 1970s, presents a protagonist who enjoys “a peculiarly miraculous gift”.

Carlos Rueda has the capacity to create futures by acts of anticipatory imagination.

William T Cavanaugh in his book Torture and Eucharist: Theology Politics, and the Body of Christ says this of Thornton’s narrative:

“What is especially astonishing is that Carlos’ gift is more than just the gift of seeing; his stories about people can actually alter reality. Men appear in the middle of the night to give back babies snatched with their mothers. Holes open in solid concrete walls, and tortured prisoners walk through to freedom. Carlos’ imagination actually finds people who have disappeared…

‘Confronted with evidence of the miraculous, Carols’ friends nevertheless remain skeptical, convinced that Carlos cannot confront tanks with stories, helicopters with mere imagination.’

His friends can only see the conflict in terms of fantasy versus reality. Carlos on the other hand, rightly grasps that the contest is not between the imagination and the real but between two types of imagination, that of the generals and that of their opponents.

The nightmare world of torture and disappearance of bodies is inseparable from the general’s imagination of what Argentina and the Argentines are. Carlos realises that, “he was being dreamed by General Gusman and the others, that he had been living inside their imagination.”

It struck me recently that, in choosing to participate in communal society, we all exist within various others’ imaginations. Most obviously, in democratic societies, we choose to live within the imaginations of our elected leaders. How they view us as a group of people, how they view our position on the world stage and how they imagine what we should look like on the inside as a society is inseparable from my present daily and developing reality. It is inside their imagination in which I choose, through the democratic system (at least to a certain extent), to exist.

Whenever there is a time of exploitation or oppression upon a group of people there comes a point at which someone, either from within or from without of that group, realises that they are subject to the unjust imagination of the oppressor. In these rare but crucial minds is then birthed a new vision and a realisation that they must pit their own imagination against their opponents’ in order to change reality.

So it was with Schindler for the Jews in Nazi Germany, Rosa Parks against segregation on the bus in Alabama and William Wilberforce imagining and then legislating for a world without slavery. Each an example of a socially smaller but truthfully greater imagination toppling the accepted, general reality.

Tanks versus stories.

Helicopters versus mere imagination.

There are numerous current examples of these ongoing clashes. Sony’s recent film Who Killed the Electric Car has just been released onto DVD. This film explores the birth, limited commercialisation, and subsequent premature death of the battery-powered electric car in the US. it specifically examines General Motors’ immensely impressive EV1 car of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The film, if you side with its (pretty darn convincing, if a little drawn out) line that what was an incredibly well-made, economic, and environmentally-benign triumph of an electric car was killed by the oil industry (all of the EV1 units were recalled by General Motors and destroyed) then what emerges is a cinematic examination of imaginations at war.

The car boasted the lowest wind resistance of any production vehicle in history (so was virtually silent on motorways), could accelerate from 0-60 mph in 8 seconds, had a top speed of 80 mph, and, obviously, produced no carbon emissions. It should have been, particularly today in a world post-Inconvenient Truth tipping point, the brave new herald of cleaner, more ethically/ future-conscious human transportation. Instead, this vision was allegedly crushed by a wealthier, fat, desperate but entrenched corporate imagination.

So, of Carlos Rueda’s “a peculiarly miraculous gift”? The truth is we all have the capacity to create futures by acts of anticipatory imagination. His miraculous gift is in the realisation of that fact and then the determination to see that fact realised, I guess.