While many Hurricanes are remembered as the top storms of recent memory in the minds of many Americans, it is important to not forget, there were other storms that were just as deadly, if not more, like today is the Anniversary of the 1974 Tornado Outbreak considered by many to be the worst Tornado outbreak in US History

While many of you reading this blog were not born when this storm hit, if you live in an area that was effected by it, ask your family members about it, they will have an interesting story to share about it with you

I live in Dayton Ohio and 15 miles to the East of me, the worst Tornado out of all of these hits and it looked like somebody had dropped 10000 Bombs on the place, that is how bad it was

Here are some links that recall this Tragic Event

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Outbreak

http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/storms

http://www.april31974.com/

http://www.ohiohistory.org/etcetera/exhibits/swio/pages/content/1974_tornado.htm

https://www.rms.com/Publications/1974SuperTornadoReport.pdf

http://tornadoeshurricanes.suite101.com/article.cfm/worst_tornado_outbreak_1974

Videos from youtube about it,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS-k1fLZXh4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmfk0ItQjBE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmfk0ItQjBE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKgqJFHu5L8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YBpStWWbu8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am_wKfXRU8I&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRXhI-8rRqI&feature=related

My Thoughts on Gamespot and my gaming activity

Well it has been a while since I last posted a blog and I find it interesting as I click on my profile on here and I see on the front page of my page on here Blogs that are 4 or 5 days old, it speaks badly about the lack of activity on Gamespot and that people just do not care about this site anymore, since the way Cnet treated Jeff Gerstmann and the reaction to that has been interesting and hostile and the integrity and the truthfullness of this website are forever damaged, thanks to the cronies at Cnet

Back in the day, when Gamespot was a crediable and reliable website, I would never see blogs anymore then 2 days old on my front page and it speaks volume about how bad things have gotten on here seeing blogs 4 or 5 days old, but those days are long gone

My lack of activity on here or not as much of it, is not in anyway related to that and the sudden decline of this website, I would rather just spend time on my 360 and at the gym and other activities on the computer. I will still visit a few Unions on here and post at them like the NCAA Football Union and the NFL Union and I very rarely ever check the main system forums like I use to, I just find no use for them and the stupidity that exists on them and how dumb people act on them and the only way I go there is if I really need to check something related to a system

As far as from a gaming point of view goes, I could not be loving gaming anymore, I am still on my first and only 360 after 18 plus months and I somehow do not understand why I have been so lucky compared to a lot of other 360 owners and I have more games then I can shake a stick at to play

My main games right now are Call of Duty 4, Guiter Hero 3, Gears of War, and Rock Band and a few others as well

My Return to Gears of War

I decided to make a brief return to Gears of War, a while back I said I was done with that game for good, well one of my friends on Xbox live convinced me to come out of retirement on that game for a short period of time and I am helping him and a few other friends get some achievements on Gears of War and after that I will hang up the game until my old squad decides they want to play their final match and at that point, I will retire Gears of War once and for all then

Because Espurs and Appaloosa were the best ever teammates I had on Gears of War and it is only apporiate that I play my final match on that game with them and that we all go out together, I was the first one to play a match with them on Gears of War and we all formed a very special bond and we have been a team for quite a long time and one that you could not pull apart, expect when me and Appaloosa had some issues, which we finally buried the hatchet and decided to give things a second chance again and although I play with him and Espurs on Call of Duty 4, I am just glad to have my old squad from Gears of War back on other games

I bought a Wii today

I decided to buy a Nintendo Wii today, but the console was not bought so much for myself and my own gaming leisure, but it was bought for my roommate who is an older person and has some health problems and I wanted to do something to help him get better and get him more active

A few weeks ago on the News I seen a special on how the Wii is being used in Rest and Nursing homes to help Seniors get more active and help them rehab and how it has helped them and I really felt the urge and the need to get one for him, so I could help him get better

So I went searching for a Wii Tuesday Morning after Learning that most places will often get a Shipment on Tuesday's, when a Shipment generally arrives at a store and I called many Wal Mart's Monday and learned that they often get a Shipment on Tuesday's and other stores as well, so I went to Wal Mart to hang out there for a shipment and I brought a list of Phone Numbers with a lot of stores that had the potential to get one and I called the Gamestop in the Mall across from Wal Mart around 9:30 Tuesday Morning and boom, they said they had a shipment come in and just got them, so I decided to walk over there and buy one, even though I was under the impression that Wal Mart would get a Shipment, but no use to wait there, when that Shipment was not a sure thing, when a place nearby just got some in and said if you get here soon enough, you will get one and it turned out, I was the second one in line and I bought one and I was glad I decided to call other places and not just hang out at Wal Mart, but that was the whole idea was to call other places nearby and jump on it, if they got them in, and I was prepared to camp at Wal Mart until UPS came, if I would not have made a call and found one at another store

So I was well prepared for it and the area that I went shopping in, they have more shopping in that area, then any other place in my whole area and every store under the sun is in that area

Do not expect to see me online with the Wii or play it that much

Again like I stated above the Wii was bought for my roommate to help him and I have no plans on going online with it and most of my gaming will be done on the 360, but I will play it with my roommate and help him learn the controls and use the Motion Sensor thing right, I only bought a few things for it and a couple of games enough to help him and give him something to do and rehab

I bought Mario and Sonic at the Olympics and this one Crossbow game that came with the Wii Zapper, games that involve a lot of movement and Physical activity and those are the kind of games that will help him out

Well today August 1st 2007 marks the first year that I have owned an Xbox 360 and it has been one hell of a ride and a ton of fun along the way

Little did I know that when August 1st last year around 6pm, the moment that I left the store that I would become a hardcore gamer again and here I am 1 year later, I have not stopped playing my 360 since the day, that I have had it and I am more passioniate about gaming then I ever have been

I remember when I first got my 360 home I opened it up and called the Xbox hotline and registered my console and after that I began my free trial of Xbox live gold and I started playing GRAW and I met a lot of cool people and I was playing it everyday and was having fun with it and those relationships that I established on Xbox live spread to other games and I have met a lot of cool people along the way and of course a lot of idiots as well

I had a lot of fun on Saints Row as well and that game and GRAW kept me busy until the month of November

Though the best time that I have had on Xbox live came during the fall and Winter months of this past year, when I had to feed my addiction to Gears of War at every hour of the day and night whenever possible and I met most of the people from my friends list in Ranked Matches and we had a ton of fun there playing Ranked Matches on Execution and to this day, I still play Ranked Matches some, despite what I said in my last blog about retiring from Ranked Matches, but soon I will be done with the game in general

No game has ever given me as much fun or as much fulfillment as a gamer the way that Gears of War has and this game really kept me playing nonstop

Of course I have exprienced other great games along the way and when I got sick of Gears of War, I turned to those games, like Call of Duty 3 and Forza 2

Despite all that you may hear about the 360's hardware problems, give the console a chance, because I never let the bad news of Xbox 360's dying keep me from buying a 360 and I am still on my first one and it should not keep you from buying one either

Also do not say that online gaming does not matter to you either, you need to give it a chance, because it is much more gratifying and fun to play againist real opponents instead of some computer A.I bots and it keeps things from getting boring and also when you have friends online, it makes you look more forward to playing a game and the interactivity just only enriches that exprience

I can honestly say that when I had my PS2, I know now what kept me from being a hardcore gamer, it is the fact that there was no interactivity on the console and the only thing I was facing was the A.I and it bored the hell out of me and not having any interactivity or anybody to look forward to playing with is what kept me from playing games during that time, there were times where I bought a game and I would play it for a few days or a week and then I would not even touch the game console again for 6 months, because I felt like I had nothing to look forward to by playing

Now with that being said after 1 year of nonstop gaming on my 360, that is not going to change for a long time either, I have plenty of games to keep me busy and plenty more to look forward to and a lot of great people to play games with online on Xbox live

Well this title might be confusing to most of you, that do not know me very well, but I am a big Gears of War Addict and after I have played Ranked Matches on Gears of War for 8 months or so, and getting all of my weapon achievements online for the game, I feel like now is the right time for me to retire from Ranked Matches on the game

I just felt like there is nothing else that Ineeded or wantedto do in Ranked Matches anymore and I am totally at peace with this decision and this has been something that I have been wanting to do for a while now

Gears of War has given me a lot of great memories and Ranked Matches were a lot of fun at times and there were just certain things that I just do not want to deal with anymore like the online community in Ranked Matches is horrible and is full of Racist ignorant people and a lot of screaming kids and a lot of stupid young punk adults, that try and know it all and I just do not want to put up with it anymore

I must admit out of all of my years of gaming, no game has ever given me so much pleasure from gaming and this game turned me into a hardcore gamer again and I met a lot of great people on Ranked Matches and we went to War together and we earned achievements and kills together and without the help of great teammates, none of it would have been possible and it kept me playing and I had a blast doing it with all of my friends on Xbox live

I saw this game exprience a lot of highs and lows during it's time, like the Developers making bad patches for the game, made the game unbearable at times and it has been painful to see a game that I love so much be ruined by the developers that made the game and trying to accept that was painful

Like when the game first came out, Ranked Matches were really enjoyable, you could get your friends into matches with no problem at all and you could see who was hosting the games from the outside, instead of having to guess who is hosting and you did not have to deal with as much stupidity on there as you do right now

Then came the first update in January of this year, they removed the host name from Ranked Matches in hopes that you would have a harder time playing with friends in Ranked Matches and after that the online community started to really go downhill after that, because you had more random people in Ranked Matches and the only way to earn online achievements for the weapons in the game, was by playing Ranked Matches and because gamers are achievement hungry and everything, you had a lot of argueing over kills and heard the you stole my kill crap all the time and that just got on my nerves

Removing the host name never stopped the smart people on the game from Stacking teams and playing with their friends in Ranked Matches, because everybody knew that there was a way around it and I stacked teams all the time in Ranked and I showed all of my friends how to get around it

What the game really needed instead of removing the host name from Ranked Matches and trying to trap you in random ranked Games was a true party system for Ranked Matches on Gears of War, so you could match up againist rival clans and have Ranked Matches actually mean something and removing the host name along with some of the other things in the first update, just only caused more problems

I also hated the fact that you had to play Ranked Matches to earn online weapon achievements, because Ranked is so overrated and that does not always mean that you are going to face a good player and Epic games refused to allow people the option of earning those achievements in Player Matches, where there is less drama and where you can enjoy the game more. Now I understand that they do not want you to feel like those weapon achievements are being handed to you in Player Matches by friends, and that they want you to earn those againist players that you do not know in Ranked Matches, but like I said Ranked Matches do not always mean facing the best competition and I saw that first hand for months

I got my seriously achievement at the end of March and I lost my desire to play, feeling like I done everything I could do at the time, I got tired of the game and I was getting sick and tired of the game developers coming out with all of these crappy updates, that kept ruining the game and it was hard to see a game, that I loved by ruined horrible updates, so I decided to give other games a chance, but I must admit, it was hard for those other games to fill that void, because Gears of War gave me a ton of fun

Then last week, I still needed to earn 4 more weapon achievements in Ranked Matches and I decided I put them off long enough and that I was not going to stop playing until I got them and after 8 days of playing for several hoursa day, I got them all and I feel like I can retire from Ranked Matches and move on in peace and go out on my own terms

Last Night I only needed the sniper achievement and I started early in the evening and I vowed, that it did not matter how long it would take, that this was going to be the last day or night, where I ever have to play Ranked Matches on Gears of War and I was on a mission and I would not stop until I got it and after 9 hours of playing and getting several kills with it each match, I finally got it and I was relieved, because now I never have to play a Ranked Match again, unless I want to

I have decided that I am not going to be playing Ranked Matches anymore, unless they are to help a friend out with an achievement and that will not happen very often either

My future on Gears of War when I decide to play will be mainly player matches on Execution and Annex and even that will not be very much, because I have played for long enough and when I decide to play, I want a friendly enviorement, where I do not have to put up with a bunch of idiots coming in and ruining things and in Player Matches, I do not have to put up with that kind of garbage, because you can boot them from the room, something that you cannot do in Ranked Matches

I want to thank everybody that helped me out during the time, and made playing Gears of War a great exprience, I taught a lot of people a lot of great things about the game and how to master Tactics, that would work and get kills and wins and I learned a lot from my friends as well during that time

Sometimes despite how much you may love a game, you just have to move on and say I had a great time with it and it gave me a lot of great memories, but there comes a point in time, where you need a new challenge and have to try and find another game to fill that void no matter how hard it may seem and that is exactly what I plan on doing and that is just the way it is

Well after almost 4 months of playing Ranked Matches on Gears of War, I finally got Achievement for killing 10000 kills, which is called Seriously and there are only 1575 on Execution that have that and around 7000 players overall out of Several hundred thousand that have that Achievement and I think to be one of those players that have achievement and to have a very high ranking is very good

Well I got what turned out to be an important milestone for me, I got 100.000 overall points on Gears of War on the game type Execution and out of 700.000 players, that play Execution and there are only 4000 players so far that have 100.000 or more points, I think that is very good

The top 100 on the Leaderboard, the guy in like 100th place, he has around 350.000 points

Then one of the guys that I have played with, he is in the top 1000 with 180.000 points

It took me a while to achieve this milestone for me, around almost 3 months, since the game came out, but I think I focused more on getting it the last month or so and I was really racking up the points during that time

Before anybody asks why this is called part 2, I wrote a previous blog about 4 months ago on this very same subject and since I have had my 360 almost 5 months now and I have a lot more games, now is the right time to write this blog

The 360 as a system

Well I cannot say enough good things about the 360 and it is the best console that I have ever owned, I do feel like a young kid all over again, despite being 30, the system is very well setup, a nice controller that is comfortable and easy to use and it is a great next gen system

Xbox live

I must admit as a gamer that Xbox live is the best thing that could ever happen to me as a gamer, I play online everyday and there has never been a dull moment online and it has added great replay value to games, the interface on the 360 with the Dashboard is very easy to use and it is very well setup, everything is easy find and it is setup very similiar to an Instant Messenger Program like AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo Instant Messenger

I must say this much about Xbox live also, I have not been tempeted 1 time to put down my controller and go on a vacation from my 360 and a big part of that is thanks to Xbox live, because playing againist Human Opponents keeps the games from becoming boring and playing againist the AI in games is so old and it does not offer a gamer that much of a challenge, I mean who wants to beatup on the AI, when you can face human opponents on Xbox live and since many of us gamers for the first several years of our gaming lifetime needed a new challenge to refresh us as gamers and keep us playing

My favorite games to play on Xbox live are, Gears of War, Call of Duty 3 and Tiger Woods 07

Gears of War is so addicting it is not even funny, there are many days, where I will only play that and nothing else and just the thrill of going online and playing the maps on that game and just chainsawing somebody or curb stomping them or blasting their head off with the Shotgun in some very fast and fun and intense battles is simply too good and it will definality keep you playing

Call of Duty 3 is a blast to play online as well, you have a lot of great maps to choose from to play, you can play up to 24 online and you have vehicles to play with online and the tanks are fun to use as well and even though, the game still has some connection issues online, the game runs very smooth with no lag at all

Tiger Woods 07 is a fun game, although I am not a golfer in Real life and do not watch it that much on TV and I do enjoy other sports more, it is a great game to play online and one that I can play for hours, I like a good game that requires you to think and one that you have to constantly plan for and ponder your next shot, I especially like to play this game on team play, I like Alternate Shot and it is a great game to play something that is more relaxing and you will find more mature gamers on this game, then you will a lot of other games

The community on Xbox live, if you have been around the forums long enough, you will hear people complain about some of the people on Xbox live and their inmaturity, I have news for you, even though you have a few A$$holes on Xbox live, most of the people that you meet on there are pretty cool and most of my expriences with people on there have been good and the bad expriences that you might have, should never stop you from playing online and trying to meet great gamers to play with

You have to be willing to talk a little bit of trash as well as be willing to take a little bit as well from other gamers and be willing to kick their A$$ and realize that in the end, it is just a game and try and be a good sport play your best, no matter what game you are playing and just have fun

The trash talking and insults do become very fun at times, sometimes you can hear some of the funniest stuff, that you will ever hear in your life between games, while you are waiting in the gaming lobby

My thoughts on the 360's current game lineup and the upcoming lineup for 2007

I feel like right now the 360 has built up a very good collection of shooters and a couple of decent Racing and RPG games and I am very happy with the current lineup

But with that being said the 360 still needs a more diverse lineup of games and in 2007, the 360 will get a bunch of other games, that will make the lineup of games more complete after June of this year

Let's look at the games we have on tap for this year

RPG's

Bioshock, a first person shooter with an RPG flavor to it and the game looks to be awesome so far.

Blue Dragon, ah finally a great Japenese RPG that will appeal to people who want a good RPG from the land of the rising sun

Mass Effect, out of all the RPG's coming out for the 360, this one right now is the most anticapted and since it is made with  the bioware gaming engine and the game looks awesome, why wouldn't it be one of the most wanted games of 2007

Lost Oddsey, another great RPG from Japan that is on it's way

Racing Games

Forza 2, well the most heavily anticapted racing game of 2007 is well on it's well and it will give the 360 it's killer racing App, that it desperately needs and with support for 12 players online and real time car damage and the customization options will simply blow away any other racing game and it will be a system seller and also Microsoft and the creaters of Forza 2, worked together and built a very nice racing wheel meant for that game as well and that is awesome to have first party wheel support with your premiere racing game

Colin Mccrae, this will be a great off road racing game and it will certainly give Motorstorm a run for it's money as far as the best off road racing game

Project Gotham Racing 4, well with the sequel to PGR3, which turned out to be one of the best Launch games, that the 360 had and with the creaters of this game, knowing how to use the 360 hardware early on in it's lifecycle and you surely know big things are expected from the sequel and it will deliver

Other games on the way

Guiter Hero 2, which the popularity of this game on the PS2 and having it on the 360 and being able to play it online, you know this game will tear the house down on Xbox live and will be an awesome game to play with your friends

Assasain's Creed, well this is one of the most anticapted games of the year and it will be a great action game and it will be a lot of fun to play on Xbox live

Grand Theft Auto 4. well as popular as this series has been, you know this game will be very popular on Xbox live and it will be ready to cause a lot of mayhem and a lot of great late at night online fun

Then we have more Shooters on the way.

GRAW 2, after the success of GRAW 1, big things are expected from the sequel and it will deliver and be another awesome gaming exprience on Xbox live, just like the first one was

Brothers in Arm's Hell's Highway, Well like GRAW 2, this is another great game from Ubisoft and one that will provide another great World War 2 game

Halo 3, nothing needs to be said, expect the most heavily anticapted game of the year in 2007 and it will deliver and be the system seller that Microsoft wants it to be in the fall of 2007

First Party Accessories

I feel like Microsoft has assembled a very nice line of first party accessories for the 360 and I feel like there is always room for more

The controller is simply awesome and is very comfortable to use

Wireless Headset, well having something like is great and not having to have it attached to your controller all the time is great

Xbox Live Vision Camera, well this is another great thing that Microsoft has decided to create and it brings more interactivity to a console that is already known for that aspect and it will only enchance things more, being able to see the face of your friends online and having your picture being used on certain games is a cool feature as well

Microsoft Wireless Racing wheel, well I do not remember the last time, that any console company decided to make a first party racing wheel, because that stuff has tradionally been handled by third party support with makers like Logictech and with Microsoft taking a hands on approach with this, this will only encourage developers to program with this wheel in mind and with a game like Forza 2 on tap very shortly, the timing for this wheel could not be any better

Microsoft's commitment to their customers

I certainly feel that Microsoft is doing everything right with the 360 by extending the warranty on the 360 and refunding money to customers, that paid out of their pockets to have their console repaired and Microsoft is very commited to their customers and with services on Xbox live like the Marketplace, where you can download and try demos, with single and multiplayer demos, you know what to expect and everything is just a simple download away and you get a small taste of what you can expect, if you buy the full game at a later date and it is nice to have something like that to sell you on their games

I see a very bright 2007 for the 360 and things will only get better and the 360 will continue to play to it's strength's and it will get the rest of the games, that it needs this year to make their game lineup even more complete

Microsoft definality knows what the gamers like and what needs to be done to sell systems and they will keep proving that as time goes on and that is why the 360 is the right console for me to own as a gamer

Well on Tiger Woods 07 in Alternate Shot Match Play, I have climbed to number 16 on the Xbox live leaderboard for that kind of match

I must say I am very motivated the next week or so to play as many Alternate Shot Matches as possible and go for the top spot on the Leaderboard

The top ranked person on the leaderboard has like 50 wins and I have like 12 and to get into the top 5, I need to get around 30 wins and if I play enough over the next week or so, I certainly feel that I can attain that goal

For those of you who do not know what Alternate Shot Matchplay is, here is what it is

You are playing with a Partner and you are on a team in a 2 on 2 match and basically how it works is, you and your partner much play a shot, like if you hit a shot, your partner gets to hit the next shot, regardless of where the ball is at and so on and then it goes back to you for the next shot and vice vera.

It is a very fun type of match and it is fun to play off of your partners shot and then they play off your shot and to try and play the best shot possible off of each hole and win the hole

Alternate Shot is a match, that they have in the Ryder Cup, when they play it every 2 years and I guess that is something that I really like about it, that it gives you that Ryder Cup kind of feeling

Yesterday, when I logged onto the 360 forum, after Gamespot and Greg Kasavin gave their review for Splinter Cell Double Agent a review of 8.5 and then some of the people in there, who played the game or saw IGN's review started to cry foul over it

Let's get one thing Straight,

Gamespot and Greg did not give it a bad review, just because a game, does not get a 9.0 or higher does not mean that the game got a bad review, go look at the parts of the game, that Greg said were bad and check them out for yourself and see if you agree or disagree afterwards.

Somebody who reviews and plays games for a living is suppose to have an eye for attention to detail and is suppose to examine all parts of the game and the average gamer is not capable of doing this

The reviewer of a game is only trying to help you make an informed decision and bring stuff to your attention in the game about stuff, that you may or may not like

75% of the people on the 360 forum, that were badmouthing Greg and his review of Splinter Cell Double Agent, I am sure at the time did not even play the game yet and have the chance to play through most of the game, like he already did. If anything those people should try renting the game and see if they can notice what kept the game from getting a 9.0 or higher

The staff at Gamespot is more then fair with their reviews, when you look at any console, the first year that it has been on the market, not many games get a 9.0 or higher the first year the console is on the market and the 360 is no different and has had it's growing pains and the games will get better, but we should not expect anymore then 3 games on the 360 that get a 9.0 or higher review from gamespot as far as the rest of the games, that come out between now and the end of the year

I have found the Gamespot staff to be very accurate on many occasions, remember when Madden 07 came out and a lot of people did not like the game and Gamespot and Alex Navarro gave the game of score of 7.9 for the 360 and 8.1 for the current gen consoles and mostly everybody agreed with them

Generally 8.5, is a good review and with that kind of review, the reviewer is telling you, it is a great game, but generally there are a few minor things, that keep the game from being a 9.0 or higher and just letting you know about this stuff, before you head out to the store and buy the game

Look at Oblivion and GRAW, both games got above 9.0 or higher and almost everybody that owns a 360 agrees, both games deserved it

For all the people who want to cry a Gamespot staff conspiracy againist the 360 or that they always give low reviews.

Do people a favor and just Shut up!!!!!

Hello, the new Test Drive Unlimited Demo came out yesterday morning and since it came out, I have spent quite a bit of time playing it "8 hours total" and trying out everything and checking the message boards to here the most commom criticisms about the new demo and I am going to give my thoughts on these issues and everything in the new Demo

The Controls and Vehicle Handling

If there has been one common criticism about the new demo, it has been the Vehicle handling.

Is it really that bad? No it is not

Is it learnable and can it be mastered and can you get good at it? Yes, but it is going to take some patience and you have to understand, that you cannot go 150mph into the corners and expect to handle your vehicle the best in this demo.

You just have to learn how to slow down in the corners and practice the roads enough in the freeroam and learn the speeds that are acceptable to go into the corners and come back out of them, the controls are by no means unworkable

Another mistake, that I believe many people have made is that they do not play this in First Person View, if you are having trouble with the vehicle handling and you are not in First Person View, you are going to have problems, until you change it to first person view, because when you can see your vehicle in front of you, that impedes your ability to see the road more clearly

The bottom line about Vehicle handling is have patience and you can conquer this, but if you are not the type of person who has patience's enough to learn how to control a vehicle in a racing game, then this game is probably not for you

Free Roam and things to do and finding an opponent and the cops in that part of the demo

The Free Roam is available online and I believe offline as well, I am not sure about offline, because I just played it online.

It is great to practice the roads with the free roam and you get to learn a lot about the roads and the course by going over them, again and again.

Do not think for one second, you can get behind the wheel and expect not to get frustated, if your patience is not good and learn the roads.

In the Free Roam, you will encounter players on the roads, as far as opponents and pedistrian cars, you may have to drive a while to find your nearest opponent, because sometimes it takes a while to find an opponent and their gamertag is highlighted on the game screen, while you are playing and you can issue them an instant challenge, basically how this works is you pull up right besides them and you press your A button on the controller to issue the challenge and you go right into the GPS map and you or your opponent can pick the route and you pick a start point on the map by highlighting that and then you pick a finishing point anywhere on the map, it is very easy to setup and you can always issue a rechallenge, which is called avenage and you can go on the same challenge course again or you can change it

Also in the Free Roam at least online, do not expect find any cops willing to chase you, because unlike the old demo, back in May, which was not online, this one is online, so do not expect to go crashing into the other vehicles on the road and expect the crazy pursuits, that you exprienced on the old demo

The reason for not having the cops in the free online roam in the new demo is to probably keep the chaos out of the demo and just let people drive, without having 50 police cars, trying to chase drivers on the map and people that like to speed and crash into other drivers

Also on the Free Roam, you will always get certain things, that the GPS computer tells you, that you can start a time trial or solo or multiplayer race or mode and once you hear it, all you do is press the A button on the controller and you go into that mode

The Races and the Challenges

The Races and the challenges are pretty easy to enter.

The Time Trial is pretty basic, all you do is just race from checkpoint to checkpoint and you get to try and improve your time, each time you want to drive the Time Trial course and beat your old time

The Races

Solo Player you will be racing againist 5 computerized opponents on about 2 or 3 different courses, you can choose the course and the courses are generally very short and require good precision and handling and they are beatable, you just need the right car or motorcycle to do it.

Like on one of the courses is just basically setup with just a long drag strip, with a couple of turns, like the first part of the course is kind of techinal, then you make a Left Hand turn and you get to finish on a straight road, with a few twist and turns and then you get a long straightaway, which you can really go fast in and be a speedster

The other courses are shaped like short squares and triangles and they tend to be more techinal then the course, that I described above and they are much tougher to beat, because you have very little road, that is straight, before you have to turn again.

The Multiplayer Races

You have about 2 or 3 courses to play againist other players in the demo on Xbox Live and you can race up to 8 people at 1 time on each course.

One of the races is called Last Man Standing and that is basically, where you are going around a Triangle shaped course, that is very short and how you win is, well you have to be the last driver on the road left, because if you are in last place on the road, you will get eliminated, it goes from 6th to 1st on the road is how you are eliminated and it is a lot of fun, because it encourages you to drive faster and improve your vehicle handling skills and it will make you a better driver

You can also compete in races, where everybody has the same vehicle and nobody having a faster vehicle, then the other person, if the host wants to set it upm that way, then the playing field is more evening that way

So where are the cops in the demo?

Well I said earlier, that they do not generally factor into Free Roam on the demo nor do they come into play on the Multiplayer races online

They will come into play, when you are racing Solo player or Time Trial Mode on a course and they will scream all kinds of stuff at you like stop your vehicle now and they will go on the radio and say things like, there is a Ferrari, and the driver has prior for Traffic offenses and so on. You can generally outrun them, but sometimes they will catch you and you just pay a fine after they issue you the ticket

The old Demo they would basically chase you everywhere after you hit a car, though that was in offline roam though and online roam on the demo is different, so the crazy cop pursuits, may have to wait until the full game

How are the cars and how is the Motorcycle?

Well the Ferrari is the fast car out of the 3 cars in the demo and it can give you some problems handling it, because it is more stiff then the other cars and if you go too fast and start to lose control of the car going off the road, then the Steering Wheel feels like it is almost locking up on you.

It is a good fast car and you will have fun with it, once you learn how to drive it right

Best advice drive with the Ferrari drive slower and learn the corners and drive with it in Free Roam for a while

The Mustang is not as difficult to handle as the Ferrari and it is not as fast, it is a good average speed race car, it is good to practice with and so on and you can keep it on the road easier to

There was another car, I do not remember, what it is called, it was the slowest of the 3 cars, but it seemed to handle better then the Mustang and the Ferrari, it was probably the best car to practice and roam the road with, but it is the most inferior, when it comes to entering a race though, againist opponents, because it simply does not have the speed, that you need to compete

Then there is the Motorcycle, it is a Kawasaki

The Motorcycle has received some criticism for being hard to handle, it can be difficult at times to handle, but again, there is a learning curb, learning how to drive it, like you must slow down in the corners and learn an acceptable speed, if you are having trouble handling it and you should switch your driving view to First Person View and you will do much better

Tips for driving it better, learn how to lean on the Motorcycle as far to the side and to the ground as possible and it will handle better going into corners and you will not lose as much speed and come out of the corners in much better shape.

The speed and the acceleration on the Motorcycle is especially fun, if you are on a long straight road and you can get it up to top speed in no time and it is easier to weave in and out of the traffic, since a motorcycle is smaller then any car and you can beat almost anybody with a car in the instant challenges and multiplayer races

My final thoughts on the Demo

Is the Test Drive Unlimited a good demo? Well it depends on who you ask and how good your threshold for learning and having patience is, if you have those traits, then it is great

Is it a game for everybody? Certainly not, because some people are not into racing and more importantly and do not have the patience to learn the controls in the demo and the most likely final game

Do I think the demo is worthwhile and offers good challenges? Certainly and it is a game that you can enjoy and learn to enjoy it

Did the Demo do enough to prove the critics of the previous demo and this one wrong? I think people are going to still say, that the controls suck and that the game will get boring and some people will continue to criticise it, no matter what, when the final game comes out, unless there is big improvements in the final game, that could not be seen in the final demo

Do I suggest buying the game? Yes because if you are a gamer, that has patience and loves to race and loves a challenge, this game is going to have something for you to enjoy and the price tag of $40 is a very nice price tag for a next gen game and a very good move by the publishers of the game

If you are a casual racer or not into racing games in general, then this game may not appeal to you and it is better off being rented to see if you can find something in it that you like

How Successful, do I feel that this game can be on the scale of 1 to 10? I feel anywhere from 5 to 7, among people that love racing games. But 5 or 4 or below for people who are not into racing games and are casual racers

Well that is all for now, but rest assured, I am going to have a review of the final game up in about 2 1/2 weeks, when it comes out and I get to play it for several days, because I want to cover as much as possible in my final review of the game