Ancora un articolo di preview per l'atteso Colin McRae DIRT della Codemasters: potete leggere l'articolo di anteprima della versione XBox del gioco a questo indirizzo.

Con WRC parcheggiato ai box e Rallisport pensionato in anticipo, il buon vecchio Colin non ha concorrenti di cui preoccuparsi nel breve-medio termine. Ciò detto, è confortante vedere che Codemasters non ha dormito sugli allori intervenendo su quegli aspetti del gioco che nelle ultime uscite avevano chiaramente stancato, come la scarsa varietà e il limitato realismo...

La System 3 non si è lasciata sfuggire l'occasione di partecipare in Inghilterra alla cerimonia per la celebrazione dei 60 anni della Ferrari per presentare il suo prossimo titolo racing dedicato al campionato del Ferrari Challenge:

Prestigious car-manufacturer Ferrari descended on London this weekend to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the famous Marque. Vehicles spanning the entire history of Ferrari were paraded around the capital as part of the worldwide "Ferrari 60 Relay". The world tour is sponsored by video game publisher System 3, who used the visit to release further details about the upcoming video game.

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System 3's Christmas launch will take the form of a cutting-edge racing game based on the Ferrari Challenge series - featuring real cars, real tracks and true Ferrari racing dynamics. The launch platform for Ferrari Challenge is the PlayStation 3 and the game has been developed to maximise the technology in the new console format such as a 16-player feature, rich simultaneous online mode with elements not yet seen in any race game to-date.

Massimo Fedeli, Managing Director of Ferrari GB stated "Since the launch of the next-generation consoles, the video game industry finally has, at its disposal, a machine with enough power to truly and loyally represent the Ferrari driving experience. The British public's incredible reaction to the "Ferrari 60-Relay" coming to these shores has demonstrated the strength of the Ferrari brand here and we're very excited to be working with System 3 to produce a cutting-edge racing experience for those fans."

Mark Cale, CEO of System 3 added: "Being involved at such an historic period of Ferrari's history is a real honour. We're dedicating all our resources to developing a game that is properly worthy of the Ferrari Marque and are looking-forward to revealing lots more exciting features over the coming months."

Its sixty years since Enzo Ferrari first started producing cars with his name. Since 1947 the famous Marque has become synonymous with pioneering technical innovation coupled with stunning design. The "Ferrari 60 Relay" celebration tour began in Abu Dhabi in January this year and will traverse fifty countries before concluding at the home of Ferrari in Maranello, Italy on June 23rd.

Accompanying the tour will be a specially commissioned baton adorned with 60 badges symbolising the most extraordinary events in the Company's 60-year history, from its first success at the Rome Grand Prix in 1947 - through to the Ferrari FXX Programme of 2006.

The Ferrari Challenge video game will be published on an array of gaming consoles including; PlayStation® 3, PlayStation® 2, Nintendo Wii™, PlayStation®Portable and Nintendo DS™.

La Black Bean ha confermato oggi che la versione per Playstation 2 e PSP del nuovo SBK 07 sarà disponibile a partire dal prossimo 18 maggio. La release per PC è prevista in uscita poco tempo dopo.

SBK-07: Superbike World Championship promises to deliver the closest experience to the biking world championship: feel the sensation of speed and the adrenaline pumping during dangerous overtakes, push your bike to the limits in one of the 13 official licensed circuit, immerse yourself in the glamourous atmosphere of the championship, unlocking tons of extras, including beautiful pictures of umbrella girls.

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All the race teams and big name riders feature in the game and with 22 bikes on screen, this is your chance to go head to head with your biking heros to win one of the most exciting bike racing championships ever.

SBK-07: Superbike World Championship features an arcade mode that allows all race fans and speed addicts to enjoy a full on biking experience, including post-race highlights. It is also a game for the biker or hard core race game fans, thanks to accurate physics models, telemetry and bike setting: which are the best tires to use with different weather conditions available? Would you prefer speed or control?

The game has been developed with the help of SBK World Championship team and will feature all the riders from the 2007, all the tracks and all of the atmosphere from one of the most exciting racing championships in the world. SBK World Championship will be available in UK on PS2 and PSP from the 18th of May 2007 at SRP £29.99. The PC, and X360 editions will follow later.

Nuovo update sullo sviluppo dell'attesa patch ufficiale che aggiornerà il netKar Pro di Stefano Casillo alla versione 1.0.3: come potete leggere qui di seguito, il beta testing sta iniziando a dare risultati soddisfacenti.

This is the second netKar PRO Community Update. This update informs about the latest developments and inside information on the development team.

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netKar PRO v1.0.3 Testing Report
Last Monday, v1.0.3 testing started. Big goals of 1.0.3 are to reduce FPS (frames-per-second) problems, remove join-lag, make the server more reliable and basically improve the full multiplayer experience to level which meets the expectations of you guys out there.

Testing started on Monday. The first impressions were not good. Low framerates and warping. Also, even though the join lag was gone (there is completely no FPS drop and ‘lag’ upon a new client that connects), there appeared some graphical problems when a driver connected. The test was finished and issues reported to the development team.

Soon, new builds were delivered for testing. It contained a lot of fixes for the reported problems. Now the multiplayer code is using multithreading, which improves the communication between server and the clients.

Smooth
Last night, the netKar PRO test team came together for another test evening. The result: very smooth! No warping at all. Higher framerates, also for the guys running on older machines who are suffering from FPS problems in 1.0.2. We never experienced a more smooth experience than the test yesterday showed. The new code really works well and gives almost no warping, no join lag and just a racing experience in which you can drive close to other cars without being afraid that the other car will warp into you.

Also, the graphical glitches occurring when a new clients connects are gone now.

netKar PRO will be supporting online pickup racing in 1.0.3 in a much improved way. Some work has already been done in this area. The join lag removal will enable much more smooth online racing where drivers aren’t bothered by FPS drops and short ‘lags’ when a new driver connects. Besides, a topbar overlay (as seen in NASCAR coverages) displaying the current qualifying and race standings massively improves the information aspect ingame in order for all drivers to have an idea of who is where on-track and what the current standings are.

This is going to help pickup racing a lot. Of course, this topbar will not be available in FullMode. This way, 1.0.3 will be good for both pickup racers who just want to have fun when they have some time and for “die-hard” simracers who just want to have “realistic” information by only using the pitboard.

Issues
Of course there were some issues, too. The new multithreading code caused some CTDs (crash-to-desktop) for some drivers. The test team reported these problems back to the development team who is now working to resolve these issues.

Other problems involve the impact of the join lag feature. This causes some problems in replays and when a new clients connect when the other drivers are already on the grid. In this case, the 3D model and texture of the new clients are not yet loaded for the drivers already on the grid (3D models and textures are only loaded now when the driver is in the pitlane or pitbox). These are typical things that are happening during the development phase and also the reason why the testing is taking place.

All in all, the multiplayer code is really getting more and more mature. Last night’s test (on Newbury, which is really hard on machinery) was the best ever experienced in netKar PRO. As soon as the foundation of the multiplayer engine is good, the development team can start polishing the multiplayer engine.

From now on
So, the testing is progressing nicely. Bugs are fixed. New builds are tested, issues are identified and fixed again.

All things need to be thoroughly tested. Really small things, too.. think of things like the ‘current standing topbar’ that should work in non-FullMode and should be disabled in FullMode. The CTDs must of course be completely gone and basically it should all work well before it can be released. Also, the multiplayer demo will need some work (and testing) before it is going to be finished.

So, as you can understand from the story above, it will take some time until 1.0.3 is going to be finished, but very good progress is being made. netKar PRO multiplayer racing will be much, much improved and really solid once 1.0.3 is here. The test team and development team are working closely together to make sure 1.0.3 is properly tested in order for you to really enjoy it.

I hope you enjoyed this 2nd netKar PRO Community Update. As soon as there is more news to be reported, a new update will appear. If you have any questions, just fire away.
Jaap Wagenvoort

L'aggiornamento settimanale di Forza Motorsport 2 completa la lista-vetture immancabile nei titoli "stile Gran Turismo" che per il gioco targato Microsoft annovera più di 300 modelli, comprese alcune versioni rare. Queste ultime saranno disponibili attraverso varie modalità: alcune nell'edizione limitata per i negozi, altre prenotando il gioco in USA e altre ancora verranno presentate solo nelle "aste" disponibili su Xbox Live dall'interno del gioco.

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Complessivamente le auto speciali dovrebbero essere una decina in tutto. Per l'intera lista visitate il sito ufficiale, le ultime aggiunte riguardano le supercar da competizione ispirate ai modelli che partecipano ai campionati GT.

Mentre continua a crescere l'attesa attorno a Colin McRae DIRT, nuove sezioni sono state aggiunte al sito ufficiale. Se non hai più visitato il sito da quando è stato lanciato, troverai nuovi articoli sulle corse Off-Road con le Buggy, inoltre oggi sveleremo le nuove macchine 4WD che sono la spina dorsale degli eventi rally contemporanei.

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Inoltre, nel caso ti sia perso le ultime notizie dalla rete, sappi che abbiamo rilasciato non uno ma ben due video: il primo è l'introduzione del gioco in FMV, mentre il secondo mostra fasi di gioco vere e proprie. Entrambi i video ti faranno rimanere a bocca aperta e sono scaricabili in alta risoluzione sul sito uffciale.

[Fonte Codemasters]