GTAMADDOG

I found the Amber Heard interview quite cringe-worthy to be honest, don't really know why, but I did. Another week where Clarkson uses 10-20 minutes to review a car that no-one will buy unless they've got more money than sense. I only really found the end of the Combine-Harvester-Snow-Plough segment worth watching. Clarkson's way of measuring the depth of snow was priceless. They set fire to a Golf though so that deducts more points again in my books :p

I don't really have a favourite, I just drive what I feel like at the time although my Impreza has the most miles on it at 320 after I used it to discover all of the dirt roads on Ibiza. Next would be the SLR 722 which has about 250 miles on it after finding the remainder of the undiscovered tarmac roads on Ibiza. I quite like the SLR because it sounds a bit like the real thing now instead of like it was in TDU1 where it sounded like a 1.4 petrol engine, I always wanted to drive it on TDU1 but couldn't stand the way it sounded.

Lol, I don't know. I'd say I've been one of the lucky ones with this game so far. Most of my DLC stuff has worked straight away, I haven't had any game-ending bugs and I get on the the physics and game performance fine. All I did was put the disc in and install it so I don't know what I've done differently to all of the people who are threatening to issue law suits and what-not on Atari/Eden for releasing the game. *shrugs*

Apart from a few exceptions vehicle wise I don't think the handling is too bad. My G25 pretty much set itself up and I changed a few button assignments and that's how I've been playing the game and apart from the lack of a bit more force feedback I think the handling is alright. I didn't expect sim-like physics, I didn't get them and therefore I'm not disappointed with how the game is and I think some people's minds worked in the opposite way. I adapted to the physics and handling (which to be honest doesn't take a lot of time) of the cars and now it's more than fun enough to drive around the islands. It could do with some work but I wouldn't say it's bad at all.

My pre-order car showed up in the Used Car Dealership as soon as I activated the code and the Casino worked straight away too. I think I was meant to get a suit to go with the car for ordering from Play.com and I think I've got half of it but the other half (trousers) remains to cease to exist. I don't remember buying the top half of the suit and I'm pretty sure I'd buy the whole suit and not just half of it if I had bought it so I don't know what's going on. The Valet trousers looked alright with the suit until I realised the Valet trousers had a massive orange stripe down the side of them. I promptly removed them and went back to wearing my brown suit and trousers which have dark stripes on them but everyone in the Casino seems to wear that and I want something different, lol.

Kill it with fire, nuke it from orbit, etc. etc.

If anyone's still up for a cruise I'll try connecting if I can find you in the first place. Lol.

I get it occasionally. Had it just now because I was trying to meet up with some people on some other forums and I kept ALT+TABing to see what they'd said on the forums and the game crashed after the third minimise. Then it proceeded to throw a bug from the Beta at me where I ALT+TAB then go back to the game to find that none of the keys on my keyboard work in-game any more. Annoying when Miami and Ryan keep phoning you or when you want to quit the game.

FFFFFFFFFF, don't confuse me with your Mathematical jibberish :p I got a D Maths at GCSE, don't ask me anything to do with numbers :sulk: Changed it to 8/10 which is what I voted on the poll anyway.

I'm enjoying it, taking everything into account it's pretty much what I expected it to be. I like how the islands have turned out, in some ways despite me saying so before the game was released I quite enjoy the Casino when I ever eventually go to it. Apart from a few select cars the handling doesn't seem too bad to me either, it's far from realistic but it's fun and easy enough to get used to. Also, from my experience the servers seem stable and I'm always connected to at least two other people, there's never any lag apart from when I come across someone who does just have a rubbish internet connection. I've yet to try the Social side of things because I've just been ploughing on throw the championships to earn some money. Performance is fine, I was running it with the graphics on Medium until yesterday when I tried out all the settings on High and I dare say the FPS has improved slightly, but it was fine anyway. I'm finding the game has a lot of re-playability as well, despite some of it's pitfalls (how easy it is to win) mentioned in the next paragraph. I've yet to meet up with anyone from these forums for a cruise or a race or anything else but the game's keeping me on my toes well enough, I've still got a few championships to go as well as most of the driving missions and multiplayer side of things so it should keep me occupied for a while yet. The things that let it down for me though are the lack of a properly functioning clutch and brake pedal although I'm expecting those two issues to be resolved quick-ish. One of the main things that annoys me though is the story line aspect of it and the characters. These stupid phone calls I keep getting saying Miami, Ryan or Stuart want to race me to prove themselves and they're even silly enough to bet their car are getting on my nerves, I've read that I can't sell their cars if I do win them so I haven't accepted the phone calls. Surely they should get the message after 28,000 declines of their invitations to race that I don't want to show them up any more after beating them silly in every championship thus far. That's another thing, I've yet to lose a race or even come close to it, even in A1, it's a walk in the park. Tess regains some respect with her constantly wobbling breasts though, someone was paying too much attention to detail on that side of things, lol. The commentary at the start of every license and race wears me thin because there's only a few phrases they use and after less than one championship or license you've heard them all. The licenses are all pretty easy and samey as well. "I know! Let's give them a faster car and see if that makes it more difficult for them" - Not really seeing as the faster the cars get they generally handle and grip better as well. I've probably missed some things out but overall I'd probably give the game a 8/10.

Tour of Epynt, it's on a military range the other side of the Brecon Beacons. Usually go there to watch the Halfway stage of the WRC GB rally as well. Search for "Tirabad, Llangamarch" on Google Maps and that's where it is. Lots more walking to do, hopefully it wont be like the last time I went there when it was lashing down rain with gale force winds for most of the day. Couldn't feel my hands to use my camera properly, lol. That was a different rally taking place in September though.

You're too kind :p I think I left my camera on Manual most of time without realising it. I'm going to another rally in a few weeks so I'll have a proper go at the photography side of things then. Uploading HD YouTube videos get's pretty boring quite quickly anyway :( Awesome 458 shot by the way ;)

I gave my thoughts on it. I chose the DBS, I wasn't too strapped for cash at the time so I just went for the car with the best stats although saying that I tried out all of the recommendations for the A3 class mentioned in this thread on some test drives and I much prefered the DBS but it's down to personal preference obviously. Test drive the DBS, CLK and the other recommendation I saw was the 8C.

Kelv was there too? I see where you were now Adam from the video you posted, that corner Andy Burton goes through is where I was stood for about an hour on the inside before finally walking back to Cinderford so I was pretty close to you but didn't spot you. Before that I was stood at the end of the long straight after that corner which is where the MK2 Escort went off. I wasn't really there to take photos although I did have a go at panning before prompty giving up :p P1020383 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr P1020389 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr P1020393 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr P1020401 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr P1020406 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr P1020412 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr All pretty carp, I mean crap, I'm a bit rusty when it comes to taking photos. Had to use Paint to resize the photos and an online photo editor to crop them because I have no Photoshop.

What I've used so far. C4 - Lancia Delta Integrale. C3 - Not bothered with yet. B4 - Range Rover Sport HSE - Bought it because I wanted it, turns out it's pretty decent. B3 - Not bothered with yet. A7 - VW Golf GTI - Won all the challenges easily enough, best suited to people with a wheel. A6 - Audi S3 - On par with the other cars but seemed excessively twitchy under braking. A5 - Lotus Evora "Solar Crown" - Lacked power compared to other cars and seemed a bit twitchy under braking. Made up for it's pitfalls with bravery. A4 - Done but can't remember what I used, will have to check. A3 - Aston Martin DBS - Best stats, handled infinitely better than the AMG which was spinning it's wheels around easy corners in 3rd gear. A2 - Audi R8 V10 5.2 FSI - Was good for quick starts and grip in the corners but lacked the power of some of the other cars. A1 - Bugatti Veyron 16.4 - Steering seems to get stupidly vague the quicker you try and go around corners but it did the job. Also seems to pull alot more than the GrandSport for the last couple of thousand RPMs

I like them both the same really. Haven't had much chance to explore the 'new' Oahu, it's got a few more roads and it had some good roads before but it's a bit old-hat now. As for Ibiza, well it's new and fresh but a lot of the roads are quite straight or not very technical until you get close to the coast and away from the cities.

Platform: PC. Cars/Graphical I noticed that at the start of a race with the Audi S3 when the camera looks around the car for/before the countdown the insides of the back wheels are see-through with only the outline of the tyre and (I think) wheel hub visible. Haven't got a photo of it yet because Print Screen wont work and I haven't got Fraps installed. I'll work on that :p Also the when in bonnet view once you've landed a substantial jump the camera disappears below the bonnet of the car resulting with an innability to see the road ahead for a split second. Not really something important, but quite annoying when there's oncoming traffic. That's about it for now.

Crap looking program, crap music. Doesn't even show the 'hack' working so it's most likely there just to hold a virus. I'm also fed up of seeing the video of that silly girl driving a Mercedes around with her hand at a stupid position on the steering wheel. Good luck when you need to execute a swift change of direction in an emergency, love.

I just did the license tests with the Aston Martin V8 Vantage in them and I don't understand what everyone's talking about to be honest. Only had to restart one of the tests once because I crashed into an AI car, luls, but it was nothing to do with the Aston Martin.

Probably not the best but my personal favourite is the Subaru Impreza WRX STI, shame the gear change sound isn't smooth.

Sorry to say I'm not liking that really. Sticker's in general seem a bit tacky to me. I'd get a silver or black dash and leave it at that really. But if you like it then you can't go wrong.

I haven't had much time to play the game since Play.com delivered it on Saturday and I've been out most of the time since then but I can honestly say I didn't think the physics were too bad from the start. I haven't touched the control settings yet besides telling the game I have a Logitech G25 and the physics/handling don't seem that bad really. The Golf GTI is a bit weird but I've found that if I use more than a certain amout of steering angle the back end will step out but it's perfectly controllable with a step on the loud pedal and some opposite lock. I'm using the H-Shifting but without the Clutch, the funny thing is I still keep pressing the Clutch when I come to a stop thinking I have to do it to make sure the car doesn't stall. I also keep pressing it to change gear some times when I obviously never need to but I guess I should keep the rythm going for when the Clutch does work properly :p This is the thing though really. I wasn't expecting a simulation game and now the game's out I'm hardly disappointed in the driving dynamics at all. I think some people were expecting realism to the likes of rFactor or Gran Turismo 5 or something and they ended up with something arcadey which is why a lot of people aren't happy.

Car got fixed today but in the process we discovered that the automatic adjuster on the fan belt is completely ceized up which if it happens on most cars makes a squeeling noise but mine's completely silent. So that belt didn't get changed, need a new adjuster and then the new belt can go on, but should be fine for now. Also discovered the last owner hadn't put any anti-freeze in it so God knows how the car started and ran fine through this Winter. Also discovered the old Crankshaft pulley was at breaking point so it's a good job it got changed now. Seriously, a few more days and it would've broke and it'd be bye bye engine. Guessing the last owner changed the timing belt but not the Crankshaft pulley or water pump.

Double post. Therefore I am the happiest person on the forums :p Car got (mostly) sorted out today. New water-pump and timing belt and crankshaft pulley went on, the car no longer sounds like a bag of nails (as far as diesels go). It's a lot quieter though and it's something that can be put to the back of my mind now. See the "Had a Bad Day?" thread for second half of the story. Herp derp.