NASCAR Is Very Serious Business (Kurt Busch Sucks)

At last night's Sprint Cup race at Bristol, Tony Stewart was contesting for the lead when he got in a wreck with Matt Kenseth.  Afterwards, Tony gets furious and throws his helmet at Matt's car.  Tony went from leader to finishing 27th just like that.  EDIT: Replaced video cause some idiot took first one down.

Now that video makes Tony look like a fat old man.  Also, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed spokeswoman Danica Patrick wrecked too (to nobody's surprise) late in the race (was still on the lead lap, amazing) and pointed at instigator Regan Smith as he drove by.  So it was old-school racing at its finest and everyone got angry.  Lol, you mad?

But Tony's helmet toss is not surprising.  Just for fun, here are clips of people getting mad and swearing for the camera.  Warning: PG-13 Language.

And then there's Kurt Busch who is in a league of his own.  You know about his younger brother Kyle who is an asshat, but he clearly learned everything from older brother Kurt.

You could fill an entire 90-minute special on Kurt's antics.  Oh wait, someone already has!!!  The first 50 minutes or so are about Kurt picking fights with practically every other NASCAR driver.  If you want to skip to the good stuff, I'd say go to 55 minutes and watch that.

Not a coincidence that Kurt was fired from Penske Racing in 2011.  He was picked up by Phoenix Racing in 2012 and his luck has turned for the worse (his car sucks).  Even worse, his #51 car is unsponsored since no one wants to be involved with such a troublemaker as him.  Guess what, Kurt?

Courtesy of lolracepics.com

Speaking of arguments between drivers about who instigated a wreck and who's the dirty driver and so forth (the kind that would result in fights over Forza, iRacing, etc.) , NASCAR seldom penalizes drivers in these situations unless it's blatantly obvious/reckless on a certain driver's part.  Otherwise, it comes down to vigilante justice.  If a fellow driver treats you with courtesy & makes clean passes, you return the favor.  If he rubs elbows with you, then you rub him back.  You can type "X gets pissed at Y" in YouTube for anyone and see how these rivalries occur.  What goes around comes around--since Kurt was hated by every other NASCAR driver at some point, he is basically abused by everyone in return.

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I will go ahead and say this: I think auto racing, both in real life and in video games, is probably the most anger-inducing of all sporting events.  Racing?  As opposed to something more violent like football or Call of Duty?  Seriously, I've heard things on Forza that make Call of Duty kids seem pious.  Ignoring the little Xbox Live kids who curse up a storm because they're too immature to be playing games anyway, let me explain why.  There are three factors:

1. You're on your own.

There's two types of competitive sports/games--teams and solo games.  Team games include soccer, football, basketball, baseball, hockey, Call of Duty/FPSes in general.  Solo games include golf, tennis, auto racing IRL and in games, fighting games, chess & poker (I suppose they count).  Yeah, sure, auto racing is a team effort--you have crews and fellow drivers assisting you, but in the end one person raises that trophy and that's you.

The good thing about being on a team is that you usually have fallback options.  If you're doing poorly--either you make one or two bad plays or need to be benched from the game altogether, at least you have your teammates to pick up the slack and hopefully make a few great plays, guide the team to victory, and make up for your mediocrity.  Sure, it sucks for you but at least you still "won."

However, in solo sports, it's all up to you.  If you play poorly and/or lose, there's really no one to blame other than yourself.  If you're having a bad day or are embarrassed, there's no evading it.  You need to keep your composure and finish the entire length of the event, take the loss, and face the music, knowing "I coulda/shoulda/woulda done better but I didn't and I lost, shame on me."  Yet some can't come to grips with losing which is why we kick and scream when that happens.

2. All it takes is one mistake to ruin the race.

Thinking about other games like football, soccer, Call of Duty, even solo sports like tennis & golf, etc., if you make a few terrible plays, such as a turnover or you die a few times, it's not the end of the game.  You can still catch up.  If the other team wins a few rounds/sets/holes and there's still some time left to play, at least you can outplay them later and make it an even game.

However, in racing, all it really takes is one or two miscues and you wreck and are set VERY FAR back.  Well, it depends on the game--in Mario Kart, crashes are expected to happen but in racing "sims," the penalty is much more severe.  It's so easy to just graze the other person's car and you're both flying.  Hopefully, it's a very light wreck and you're only set back about 10-15 seconds or so (Forza) and you can make the comeback assuming you race your ass off and/or the people in front of you screw up too.

But that doesn't take damage into consideration.  If that wreck dings your bumper, congratulations--your aerodynamics are shot which slows you down and makes it even more difficult to win.  Even worse, the engine/transmission could be shot which means you have to putter around the track at half-speed just to come in second to last as opposed to dead last in order to garner a few more points for the standings.  No worse feeling than that.

Now Forza is bad.  Playing with sim settings is awful once you hit the wall and dread trying to finish, but at least you can start a new race a few minutes later.  So think of it from a NASCAR driver's standpoint.  Each week you travel across the country to a new track.  You take the car out for numerous practice sessions, tune the thing over and over and over and over again to make sure it's just right.  Then you race.  Halfway through the race, the car spins out and smashes to pieces.  That's some hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment GONE in seconds and it probably wasn't your fault.  Plus that entire week was in vain as you finish in the bottom third of the standings and have to do it all over again next week and hope the results are better.  That's just aggravating to think about--I would be cursing too if that happened.

3. Driving is a strenuous ordeal.

Even though sports on a high level, such as football, soccer, baseball, basketball, etc. require extreme fitness, at the very least you get breaks.  You can stop for Gatorade, you can call timeouts, sit on the bench, halftime, hit the showers, etc.  Yet in auto racing, that seldom ever happens.  The race begins and it lasts for some 3-4 hours.  Yes, there's yellow flags (and the rare red flag) which means you're not exerting yourself nonstop.  But to sit in that confined car in that racing suit & helmet of yours and experience those G-forces for that period of time is tough.  BTW, did we mention the possibility of unexpected wrecks, wild rides, injury, death???

As an aside: I still fail to believe some of the things in this video, like the 13 pounds of water weight (I imagine they would be unconscious if they were in a 130-F oven being tossed around for 4 hours without a drop of water) but SportsScience tends to paint athletes as these gladiators who are able to ascends to the heavens and wrestle the gods while us plebians need help to even get up out of bed and use the bathroom cause we're so weak (or something).  But you get the idea, racing is tough.

I suppose this also applies to video games to a much lesser extent (well duh).  There's no pauses in the action--the entire game is nonstop "keep moving."  And that can be tough since the goal is always to move forward--you can't slow down for anything (i.e. "let's regroup" in FPS games and stuff) and hence your mind is always racing, trying to keep the car in equilibrium while simultaneously taking additional factors into play like other drivers trying to cut you off and so forth.  Just something to think about.

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Now you know why NASCAR is so hard and why drivers like Kurt Busch get hot under the collar--CAUSE IT'S TOUGH BUSINESS.

BTW, I didn't know this happened at the Daytona 500, hilarious:

Random Thoughts About Gaming School & Design

Hello everybody at 1:51 AM from Orlando, Florida.  Today was just a down day for me.  I wasn't feeling it.  I went to bed really early.  Rofl, you didn't come here to read about me moping around so let's cut to the chase.  Let's put it all in one blog post since I'm lazy like that.

So far, FIEA (the gaming school) hasn't really been hard.  I don't know if talking about this gaming school is "interesting" within the context of Sega games, but hey, I think it's interesting so deal with it.  It's been more enlightening than it has been tough.  The only thing I've worked on thus far is this Flash 2D overhead pizza delivery game.  My main job has been to create the car handling (drifts included) and an arrow system leading you to your next drop off point and it's really sweet--I like it.  It involved some incredibly convoluted math though and I'm lucky I pulled it off.  I can't show it to you yet though.

Today (err...yesterday), everyone showed their game prototypes in class today--all 13 of them.  And sure enough, the instructor had some "suggestions" for each one of our projects.  Ours was "make it less like a poor man's Crazy Taxi."  Which in terms of marketability, isn't that bad of an idea.  So now, our team has to come up with good ideas.

First of all, I will go on record and say I will not criticize my cohorts or their work behind their backs here.  It's shallow and they may be reading this so who knows.  Our team is getting along and putting in decent work so that's good.

The thing that has me most concerned about the project is, well, the grading scale.  This is determined by the instructor's opinion of your game as well as your teammates' opinions of your contributions.  So basically, it's a subjective topic so if you do it "right" but tick someone off the wrong way (even the slightest), then that's probably going to affect your grade.

Now this wouldn't bother me so much if the cutoff GPA was a 3.0.  I said this before--if your GPA drops below 3.0 or you lower than a C in a class, you're kicked out of the school.  Now that leaves little room for error, especially when you throw subjectivity into the mix.  I mean, I wouldn't mind working on a game, plowing ahead, having a good time if there wasn't so much worry on the outcome.  Oh well, that's the gaming biz for you!

And another thing.  The way the instructor critiqued your game is rather weird.  First of all, this game is your "baby" and like any good game, it goes through rigorous trials that may make you cry.  Question--if your team makes a racing game Gran Turismo-style and you all like it but the instructor doesn't like it because "it didn't have enough explosions/Burnout crash-cams" or "it needs aliens to come down and suck up the car," it's a bad game?  Games are an acquired taste anyway--I don't like RPG's or MMO's, for instance, but is it my job to review these games when I have no "expertise" in anyway?

Technically, in terms of programming and in gameplay (driving the car and doing donuts is fun) I would say that my game ranks in the top half of all the projects.  I know it sounds like bragging, but from an objective point of view, that's how I feel.  So I'll be disappointed if I'm docked for that.

Lest you forget--I'm a PROGRAMMER.  It really isn't in my job description to come up with ideas for games.  So if the producers come up with lousy ass ideas, is it my fault too no matter how good of a programming job I do?  I'M NOT SAYING that my current team sucks (cause it's good), but I am concerned about something like this in the future.

Anyway, I'll end my gaming rant on one thing--game programming really is tough if you want to make specific games "in your image."  Unless the game has a really small development team (like Angry Birds or Super Meat Boy), then, assuming all workers aren't drones, people (including those on the outside like focus groups, etc.) are going to want a say in what the game's like.  And the bigger the game gets, the more it'll change.

So it's tough to cope with.  It's not like art where you can paint it however you like.  It's ultimately, about, well...selling a game to make money.  And money's a good thing.  Without it, you're good as dead so screw making what you want--if a man will pay you to make a lousy game where you play a monkey throwing fecal matter at people, then you do it.  Oh, life sucks, lol.  You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one...



How will you deal with PRESSURE??  Lol, I'm good at this song in Rock Band 3 (Pro Keys).

When Gaming Ceases To Be Fun

Why do people play video games?  Well, if you cut the philosophical crap (the desire to be powerful or break the rules, etc.), people play them to have fun.  The same reason why people to go parties, watch movies, sky dive, drive go-karts, make out, etc.  But somewhere down the line, it transfers from having fun to accomplishing goals.  In other words, you don't play to have fun, you play for the glory of accomplishing some goal, whether it be succeeding in something difficult or beating the crap out of your opponents.

Yes, it's entirely possible to have fun and try for goals at the same time--that's not a bad thing.  But the idea is that if you accomplish your goals, then you had fun.  If you don't, then you feel worse than before because you just wasted your time.

Let's take sports for instance.  So you're playing in a league and you should be having fun regardless.  But you lose a lot.  Is that fun?  Okay, now let's step it up to the big leagues.  You play football, work out, study, basically dedicate yourself to the sport.  You take a lot of big hits, are relatively unsuccessful, and the fans and ESPN hosts want you cut from the team.  Are you having fun?  Or even worse, you're a professional boxer or MMA fighter.  Do people like Brock Lesnar enjoy getting pummeled to death?  No, but they do it to win the prize--the glory of achievements.


"I'm too drunk to taste this chicken."

So what am I getting at.  I play a lot of Rock Band now.  It's really the only game nowadays that I dedicate myself to.  I play Pro Keys, this you should already know.  How my "career" works is simple--play a song, hit as many notes as possible to get a high score.  Just keep jumping from song to song to get higher on the leaderboards and make myself look as good as possible.

This is what all the pro Guitar Hero/Rock Band players do.  It gets really intense as people try to FC (hit 100% of notes without breaking your streak) songs that they become incredibly frustrated when their efforts are in vain.  On the other hand, when they do succeed, they're overjoyed, like a 40-year-old woman who just won a Dodge Viper on The Price is Right.  WARNING: Tons of profanity.



I've always said that people have "emotional chips" that they lay down on things, such as games--regardless of whether they have control over the outcomes, like sporting events.  Kind of like putting your eggs in one basket...  You bet more, the happier you are if you win and the sadder you are when you lose.  The only time I really won "big" in the emotional roulette is when I got my Cruis'n USA world record years ago.  My reaction was similar to those people above.  Imagine if the hours that I put into the game, I didn't get the record.  I would be pissed about all the time I wasted.  Reminds me of the time I tried speedrunning in Goldeneye for the N64--that was a huge failure.  Couldn't even get :23 on Runway Agent although the WR is now :22...

So recently, as I get into my RB3 Pro Keys sessions, I'm looking through songs to play.  Nowadays, my choices are very limited.  It's sad that I'll pass over songs I really like, such as Scenes from an Italian Restaurant by Bill Joel because I've already played the crap out of it and it pisses me off or something of that nature.  Instead, a few days ago I made it my top priority to hit all the notes in Centerfold by J. Geils Band.  And for three hours, I failed and failed and failed, missing the glissandos which I could never do consistently.  I got a new high score and decided to walk away saying, "I did okay, let's cut our losses and run."  I was bitter that I failed to live up to my rivals.

I'm not saying this to act jealous or to demean the character of these people but damn, it can get frustrating at times to see other people effortlessly accomplish what you struggle to do.  Like all these good players going out there FCing every song like it's nothing.  I know it's just a game but it can be disheartening.  I have respect for those who act classy about it because we are human beings first and foremost.

And this does have to do with other games.  Back when I actually had the chance to play Daytona USA 2 (in 2004), I discovered the Marubaku videos and my frustration really compounded.  I became angered because I hardly ever improved over time like why am I being bothered with this?  Eventually you know how it ends--in 2005, the cabinet went bye bye and then I couldn't play the game for competition OR for fun.

Another sad excuse of a failure is Call of Duty: Black Ops.  I'm 11th prestige right now and that is sad.  Well, I currently have a 1.5 KDR in Team Deathmatch.  I like to call myself "good" but I go through many slumps.  I've already talked about FPS "skills" here.  I've played FPSes for YEARS and I really can't get over the hump.  I have experience and strategy, but I can't execute 100% of the time.  When I lose at the game, I feel that I've wasted my time, spending it to prop up some professionals at my expense.  Now I know what it feels like to be a "noob."  It is humbling to say the least.  This and Daytona 2--times when my skills would vanish for unknown reasons.  That's not fun.


Gotta go to your happy place...woah look out kids, this could get a little rugged...

And one more thing about achievements--I'm talking about achievement points.  Back in the day, I used to be an Achievement Point Hunter, buying games and upping my score.  I didn't like all the games I've played (thereby removing the "fun" element out of gaming again) but hearing that "badonk" from the chievos made it worthwhile.  But some games once I've unlocked every single achievement, I would just stop playing them.  Fight Night Round 3 was a good example--you had to beat all but the final tier of matches to get 1000/1000.  I hadn't finished the game but I didn't care--I just stopped playing it.  Good riddance.


Why is this video so quiet?  Overall, I think when games become unfun, we're shooting for something better...being loved.  Cause we want to feel good about ourselves.  But it's okay because Jesus has unconditional love for you regardless.  So go back out there AND DO WHAT YOU LIKE AND KICK AS MUCH ASS AS POSSIBLE.

So competition isn't necessarily a bad thing--it's the thing that drives the economy and brings out the best in us.  But when things that are mere entertainment become sources of grief and people are at each others' throats about it, then we need to step back and get a little peace of mind.  Those that get enveloped in the competition usually become so stressed they are twisted into a pretzel.  If that's the case, then I'm glad I'm not that much of a diehard competitor...

Why I Go To Extremes (Graduate Schools)

Well maybe I do to to extremes.

Anyway so I've been thinking about this for a while and I'm going to get rid of the "Just Say No To Burnout/Split-Second/FnF" pics cause overall, I'm trying to build up something (Sega racers), not tear something down (bad racing games).  I get mad, I don't like some of these things, but I think that may be going over the line (remember, take a bit of sarcasm, not pure unadulterated hate with these things).  Don't need to look too sanctimonious here.

EDIT: I'm sorry I went to extremes again.  It becomes necessary in the course of human events to "warn" users of my disdain for these games so a smaller, snazzier pic remains.  But one that is much more kind I might add.

Fine, you want to go play Burnout?  Hey, I'm just saying you might be missing out on SEGA RACERS and that's a shame.

And about the Iggy Koopa pic...well, we can't get rid of that because we know Iggy is bringing the sexy back so he's not going anywhere.  Lol, I'm just kidding.

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So anyway...I am done applying to FIEA.  Read about this gaming college here.  So May 6th was the final day to apply.  If you pursued the Production track, you had to submit an essay of your own game concept within a week's time limit.  If you pursued the Programming track, you had to submit some of your best source code and that's that.

Up until two days before the deadline, I was still dead set on the Production track.  I was plugging away at this essay with which you had some freedom to come up with a game.  I'll tell you what I was planning on...I was writing about a new Monster Rancher game.  Yeah, I want a new Monster Rancher game, now that would be cool.  Maybe I'll write about my ideas soon.

But I got stuck with two days left and then I thought to myself, "What am I doing???"  I don't think I want to do the Production track after all.  So rather than write a monotone essay that they wouldn't like, I found a treasure trove of source code, comment scanned a few things, threw it in a pile, then e-mailed off as my Programming portfolio.  The recipient said, "Awesome!" and then that's that.  Considering the odds of getting into the school as a programmer was MUCH higher, I think that may have been a "gutsy" call.  Then I would be shipped off to Florida where I'll spend a year (and $30,000) staring at a computer screen twelve hours a day.

I had this idea beforehand that producers were the leaders and programmers (aka code monkeys) did all the dirty work.  Like the old "chiefs and indians" metaphor.  And then rather than play the role of subservient loser my entire career, I could call the shots then go to Sega and make new Daytona games and then save all video games as we know it.  But that is sad to pass Programming because there's a few things:

1) My skill set is accomodating to the programming experience.
2) I like programming.
3) It's a tangible job that can keep me employed.  This is contrast to producers who run around saying, "Make this, make that," and then they PAY the man for giving them marching orders
4) I wouldn't say I'm TOO creative.  My goal is mostly to revamp existing series and make them more solid and fun to play, not to come up with arbitrary games like Psychonauts and Katamari Demacy.

As a programmer, I thought I'd have no mouth and that I must scream because my entire fate was decided by a cabal of producers who want to push buggy movie adaptations upon the market that'll be forgotten in a month because that's MONEY.  Well, I do have a mouth and I'll scream at these people (politely, of course).  Like, "Hey, maybe we can do this differently and it would be better," or "I've got some ingenious ideas that would be awesome," and then there I go.

EDIT: Just read in Yuji Naka's Wikipedia entry that he started his career for Sega as a programmer.  He programmed the original Sonic the Hedgehog and then after that, it was off to the races.

It's like The Sims in that you have to get a job at the bottom of the career ladder then work your way up.  So go to school, go to work, keep applying to Sega, get a job there, go to Japan, persuade AM2 to do it, then the rest is history.

So just go to FIEA, take programming and production classes, see what you can learn, then we'll go from there.  I'd be lying if I said I was at ease over this, but you gotta do something eventually.

Finally Done With That Garbage (College)

Today is somewhat of a glorious day since I am now officially done with my Fall 2010 semester of Southeastern Louisiana University.  I expect all A's this semester which would be a huge boost of confidence, I might add.

But this one's quite different for another reason.  This was the last semester I had classes on campus.  I only have Spring 2010 left and that is three (or two, depending on whether I pass the English CLEP exam) online courses and a public speaking lecture in a community center fifteen miles from my home.  I'm not graduating yet, but I should next semester.

Now what does this mean?  Oh God, it means a LOT of things.  The last four and a half (nine) semesters...
driving an hour to campus and another hour back...
spending tons of gas money...
trying to find a parking spot on a consistent basis...
living in that cramped dorm room (albeit with private bedrooms so I can sleep alone) pumping who-knows-what particles through the air conditioner and the water faucet...
eating the same old food in the cafeteria...
living with weird roommates who would never make a noise and would listen to every word that I said (like a ghost)...
busting my ass for A's when nothing seemed to come out of it for the longest time...
killing time alone because everyone else is either a WoW addict or just plain crazy...
taking awful classes like Classical Ideas and Physics Lab, Oh MAN...
making myself look like a fool in front of others because of my pathetic social skills...
pulling overnighters at the computer lab just to correct one or two lines of Java code or to get a little robot or circuit board to move...
being nickeled and dimed by little permits and letters I had to fill out and run around campus for...
did I mention trying to find a parking spot...?

Hey, I'm sorry I had to bring this up.  But let me put it this way.  It's like being a American WWII soldier for the entirety of the course.  Europe, the Pacific, whatever.  You travel so far from home, you get shot at, you live in less-than-stellar conditions, but it's over.  Yes, I know that being in the military is far tougher than being in college, but you have NO IDEA how much of a physical toll it took on me in the last few semesters because the BS started to pile up.

And now, I can say with some confidence that I don't have to go back there next semester.  I just want to move on.  I want to relax a little.  I want to go to video game school and make that Daytona game, I've just had it.  I feel a great sigh of relief, but it hasn't kicked in yet.

To be fair, I did meet some really good people at school.  But they were casuals friendships that only lasted for the duration of one or two classes then I never saw them again.  Oh, when you're like me, you tend to be grateful for anyone who's willing to be in your presence for over fifteen seconds, but those people are most likely gone for good.

So what did I do when I made it home?  Dumped off the stuff from my dorm room and fell asleep.  Now I'm here and I'm gonna go hang out and do stuff.  Yeah, I'll get back to you in like two seconds.  Let me decompress.  Lots of stuff to talk about.

...

Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead? (Midway/Cruis'n Games/etc.)

http://kotaku.com/5612465/so-long-midway-and-thanks-for-smash-tv

Feb '09, Midway declared bankrupcy (which explains why Midway games like Smash TV, Paperboy, and Root Beer Tapper were taken on XBLA).  Apparently, today, all the studios are gone forever or are sold to someone else, as you can tell by the Midway logo in the trash can.  I'm going to say a few words--I'm not going to kick the company while its down but I'm not going to give an eulogy either.

BUT FIRST, let me just say that I'm going into the Cruis'n series quite a bit here.  Before you all call me a fanboy, a whiner, a stupid idiot who doesn't know anything, let me just say that I have played A TON of Cruis'n World and Cruis'n USA in arcades and on the N64.  I sat there with my little N64 racing wheel and got 9,999 points on Cruis'n World, unlocked the Speed Demon as well as all the other cars (except for the Tommy which I think is impossible).  I also set a world record on Cruis'n USA which I think may have been beaten right about now, but since the site that held the record has disappeared, it's really nothing right about now.  What I'm trying to say is that I've spent a copious amount of time playing these games so you can't say I don't know anything about them.

Probably the hardest track in the history of racing games.

Midway has always been a punching bag of mine, mostly because of its IMO mediocre Cruis'n series which has turned Sega racing games into an endangered species as far as I'm concerned.  That latter reason is why I take this a little personally, otherwise it can exist all it wants and I don't care.  But you kind of have to give Midway some credit for they've really pushed arcades ahead in America such as Paperboy, Smash TV, Root Beer Tapper, Defender, Joust, Gauntlet, etc.  They were kind of a "we make whatever games we want and you can't tell us otherwise" developer.  Plus they've released a ton of their arcade games in their Arcade Treasures series (although the emulation wasn't 100% perfect).

Cruis'n Series: There's Cruis'n USA, Cruis'n World, and Cruis'n Exotica, three arcade games that came home on ports for various consoles.  John Marine wrote a pretty good article on this here.  Well, what's my problem with these games?  Well, let me go with what I really don't like about it...

* It's a twitch racer.  Basically, the main difficulty with the game is not hitting the driving lines, instead its simply reacing to turns and oncoming traffic.  Most tracks anyway, some like Chicago and Redwood Forest in Cruis'n USA are insanely difficult.

* No need to use the brake at all.  Very little need for skill and not much room to improve yourself.  Flips, barrel rolls, etc take some skill to do but that's about it.

* Collision detection.  If you're driving along and you make a little love tap with another racer, just flip two coins, one for yourself, one for the other guy.  If the coin lands on heads, spin out.  If tails, lose about 2 mph and keep going.  Basically, it's just like a random integer that causes you to spin out for no reason whatsoever.  For some reason, the likelihood of a spinout is much less in Cruis'n USA which means it got worse then on IMO.

* Rubber band AI.  OH MAN DO I HATE THIS.  You can be in the lead, cruis'n, first place, not doing anything wrong, hitting whatever racing lines may exist, but the computer will still be riding your ass the whole way.  Sometimes when I'm playing this (this is mostly in the arcade version for obvious reasons) I lose and it just makes me want to punch the screen.  And another thing Midway has the kindness to do is offer a "free race" to those who come in first, but you might as well play a light stopper game if you want freebies.

* Time limit is too generous.  Races are too short, some lasting at least 1:30 or longer, depending on how well you drive.

* This one's for the arcade versions of Cruis'n World and Exotica, I'm looking right at you.  When you're on the Kenya track or whatever, little sprite animals like zebras and elephants can wander right out onto the track.  What happens when you hit them?  They explode into blood chunk giblets that fly all over the place.  PETA should've sued Midway for this.  Anyway, I might've found this entertaining...if I were a five year old who likes making farting noises with my armpits and making death threats against Barney the Dinosaur.

NEW FOOTAGE:

About as gruesome as a shotgun-wielding lunatic at a furry convention.

On the other hand, there's a few good things I can say about the Cruis'n games and that is it's got a decent "vibe."  Like it's a game that doesn't take itself seriously.  Good music, good menus, cool cars, a decent sense of speed.  It's not the worse game I've ever played...but at someone whose standards are way up high, I don't know, I just can't take it at all.

Cruis'n USA came out in '94, nearly the same time as Daytona USA and Ridge Racer.

The original Cruis'n USA had a Ferrari Testarossa, '63 Corvette Stingray, a Jaguar XJ220, and some weird '30's Chevy...thing.  The cars were cool and the music was good which IMO makes Cruis'n USA the best in the series.  That was before the series took a dive into Darth Vader territory with a bunch of ridiculous cars like little Beetles, Hummers, that 3-wheel truck thing, as well as flips and stuff which really make zero sense in any racing game as far as I'm concerned.  This game even has drifting which really doesn't make any sense other than to do heli spins moves.

Like I said about the Cruis'n games, they're games that you can't take seriously.  I mean, when I'm playing Daytona USA or OutRun, I always gotta do my best, but here, it's just stupid fun.  But that's the main problem--it's something that NO ONE takes seriously!  It's a game that the average Joe arcade gamer throws money at and then quits because they don't feel like playing a game like Daytona USA and busting their ass to get better at it.  And that's why I think the Cruis'n games are dominating the arcades.  And that's why I have a vendetta against them.

Everything Else: I could've gone into a long list of games but since this article's too long anyway, let's just sum it up quickly.

Mortal Kombat, their most prized possession.  Personally, despite the violence, I never saw it as that great of a fighting series because it mostly ran on the blood gimmick.  The later 3d series has really improved it's visage when compared to serious contenders like Street Fighter, Tekken, etc.  Not going to comment much since fighting games aren't my forte.

NFL Blitz and NBA Jam, not bad.  They got numerous home ports (including a new NBA Jam game coming soon) and they are pretty goofy.  Although I prefer NFL Street, Blitz is basically rugby with QBs and RBs throwing the ball 50 yards with a perfect spiral and late hits and all that crap.  Still, it's good fun and it's pretty easy to pick up.  NBA Jam, fun too.  Decent sports games.

San Francisco Rush, probably their best game IMO.  Decent racing game with low gravity, the tracks are cool, tons of secrets.  And get this, YOU HAVE TO USE THE BRAKES.  Rush 2049 is a good arcade game that actually warrants some replay value (finding coins, gaining miles), but it didn't last long.  Too bad the N64 versions were graphically underwhelming even by N64 standards.

Rampage, basically you play as three Godzilla-sized monsters and go punch buildings and eat people.  Game really makes zero sense whatsoever but I can see little kids getting a kick out of it.  The game basically becomes a "don't lose your HP" game as tanks and helicopters shoot you up and I never really could do anything to stop it.  So yeah, this one's stupid.  BAD.

Area 51 and Lethal Enforcers, compared to Time Crisis and Virtua Cop, this one's just laughable.  There's no way to avoid getting hit so it's really up to level memorization to beat the game.  At least there's a few cool secret items and rooms and crap.

Hydro Thunder, everyone knows about this one.  It's a boat racer which is pretty cool and it's basically in every arcade in the world.  It's one of Midway's best products, but I'm not bombastic all over it.  Check out the new H2O Overdrive for arcades or the Hydro Thunder game for XBLA if you're so inclined.

California Speed, the bastard child of Cruis'n World and San Franciso Rush.  It's basically like Rush but you can't blow up and are glued to the road.  It's got some crazy locales like Silicon Valley and Mojave Desert which leads to environments such as large supercomputers, UFOs, volcanoes, large shopping malls, roller coasters, etc.  It's still a pretty crappy game though.

Revolution X, remember this gem?  It's got Aerosmith in it, but still, not even they can save it.  Why AEROSMITH WHY??

Remember, music is the weapon.

Primal Rage, a bunch of dinosaurs punching each other in a blood bath to the death.  Evo and Major League Gaming is considering adding this one to their lineup.

I could really go on, but that's about it.  After '09, Ed Boon (Mortal Kombat creator) continues to work at the old Midway Chicago studio under Warner Bros.  Eugene Jarvis (Cruis'n creator) bailed out and created his own company called Raw Thrills where he can spam Cruis'n and Area 51 clones to screw us over in the 21st century!  Fast and the Furious = game of the century.  So I guess you can say Midway really isn't "dead."

Anyway, bankrupcy can be bad and there's probably some Midway fans hurting right about now.  But what if something like this happened to Sega?  Didn't they come close to biting the bullet after the Dreamcast?  I don't know, it's just something scary to think about.  If Sega is gone, not only would you lose Daytona USA, but any chance of sequels!  Plus Sonic the Hedgehog, which would make tons of kids and the UK cry.  I'm outta here, adios.