Wow.

Great graphics, awesome sound and music, a beautiful story, and epic gameplay all add up to one of the best games I’ve ever played.  It’s no wonder that Okami was chosen as game of the year by so many in the games press back in 2006.  What is a wonder is that it’s still languishing in relative obscurity.

If you haven’t played Okami yet you really need to.  It’s only about 30 – 40 hours, so a couple of weeks at a few hours a day is a great use of your time to play it.

Get it on the PS2 to see it in all it’s original glory, or get the Wii version and enjoy a new level of immersion as you waggle your stick around to paint with the celestial brush.

If you missed this one and you’ve been needing a good adventure go buy Okami now.

• Final Thoughts: Silent Hill Origins
• Games just aren’t doin’ it for me…
• Final Thoughts: Halo

If you’re a fan of tactical RPGs, but don’t want to invest a ton of time into one, then buy Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment.  If you’re a hardcore RPGer that thinks anything less than 50 hours is a ripoff, then skip it.

Now I can move on to Trine and give it my full attention.

• First Impression: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment
• First Impression: Monster Hunter Freedom 2
• Final Thoughts: Okami (PS2)

Graphically it’s still a decent looking game, back in the day it was great looking.  The musical score was excellent, the Halo theme is iconic at this point, the sound effects were ok, and the voice acting was pretty good.  The story was alright, but not strong enough to keep me engaged.

Basically, if you haven’t played it yet, you aren’t missing anything, don’t worry about it.

Now on to Halo 2.

• First Impression & Final Thoughts: Smash Cars (PS3/PSN)
• Final Thoughts: Silent Hill Origins
• First Impression & Final Thoughts: Portal

This puzzle/platformer will have your noodle twisted up in all kinds of different ways.  Using time as one of the key elements to solving all the puzzles, Braid is a truly unique experience.  There aren’t many puzzlers of this sort out there that leave a lasting sense of accomplishment after figuring out each obstacle.  The difficulty of the puzzles makes for a lasting challenge, most people won’t run through this game in one session on the first play through.

The story is told through books in between worlds and seems to be a very touching story of lost love.  It’s not just puzzles that are affected by time, the story is as well.  A very different twist, demonstrated through game play, rather than story telling, takes place at the end (beginning?) of the game that reveals the true nature of the story and it’s protagonist. 

Graphically Braid is stunning.  It’s water color style visuals and the special effects are quite a sight to see.  The animation is smooth and all the graphical elements are very appealing.  Braid’s music is excellent and fits the theme and style of the game very well.

The controls are simple and taught in the early levels.  As new mechanics are introduced through out the game, small, in game tutorials demonstrate their use and effects.  For the Playstation 3 version there’s 12 trophies to be earned.  Five of them bronze, seven silver.  All but one are easily obtained just by completing Braid.  The final trophy is earned by completing a speed run, which is a play option unlocked after the first successful play through.

It’s kind of a short game, and if you’re better at puzzles than I am, it’ll be even shorter for you.  But at $7.49, or even full price, it’s still a must have game.  Get it for the PS3, XB360, or PC (Windows or Mac)

My one piece of advice about this game, take short breaks from it periodically, or it’ll jack up your brain.  I didn’t, I played it for hours over two days and even after completing the game, my brain was still stuck on the idea of time manipulation.  It kept wanting to rewind time in real life to redo things such as read and reread paragraphs.  Or not spill the soda I had dribbled on myself.  All  kinds of crazy stuff was going on.  So take breaks.

Info

Platforms

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows, Mac OS X

Product Website

braid-game.com

Buy it

PSN

XBLA

Braid (Digital Download, Windows or Mac OS X) Greenhouse

• Final Thoughts: Silent Hill Origins
• First Impression & Final Thoughts: Portal
• First Impression: Trine

Graphically it is very nice and about what I would expect from a hyped up PSN game.  The vehicle models have a decent amount of detail, most of the major components of a real r/c car are modeled.  Watching the suspension work is one of my favorite things about the game.  There is a nice selection of body styles for each of the three chassis types.  Each body is customizable through paint and decal color selection.  The environment is a lush resort island.  Tracks are made up of various sections of the island and offer a decent amount of variety in style.

The sound effects are good enough, but the supposedly nitro cars in the game sound nothing like their real counter-parts.  The engines are quiet and have a low sound similar to a muffled 4 stroke engine, rather than the high pitched, angry bee like sound of the 2 strokers that are standard in every nitro r/c car on the market.  I’m not totally against that design choice, as I hate the sound of 2 stroke nitro engines, but I’m sure it could be a sticking point for some r/c purists out there.

Far more important than graphics or sound in racing games is control.  How easy or frustrating it is to get your car around the track.  In the case of Smash Cars I’d have to say there is more frustration involved than I like.   Steering in particular is slow and unresponsive in every vehicle.  This problem is made even worse under boost.  Your steering is cut down to nearly nothing with it.  None of the cars have decent traction either.  Much of your time will be spent correcting your car coming out of a corner as it slips and slides from one side of the track to the other.  The cars seem to be riding on a cushion of air rather than on tires.  This is somewhat mitigated as you move through the game and earn different bodies that affect the speed and handling characteristics of the cars.  But it’s not enough.  If the handling of the cars in Smash Cars was as tight and responsive as the cars in Burnout Paradise, then this game would be a sure fire winner.  Even real r/c cars handle a heck of a lot better than these digital manifestations.

The best aspect of Smash Cars is it’s stunts system.  It’s very easy to bust out flips, flat spins, barrel rolls, or combinations of all of those.  All that’s required is the square button and the left stick.  In single player mode once you get into a stunt time slows down to give you a chance to focus on completing it.  If you land it, your stunt is rated 1 – 5 stars.  The more stars you get, the more bonus boost you get.  The stars are also a way to unlock extras in the game and trophies as well.  Performing stunts is very enjoyable.

As much as I’d like to see this game through to completion and gain all the trophies available for it, I don’t think that will be happing.  Maybe if a patch is released to tighten up the controls a little bit.  I say don’t bother with this one unless a patch does come out.  There’s better games on the PSN.

• First Impression: PixelJunk Racers
• Short course getting big…
• Final Thoughts: Halo

I’ve seen the Thundertech Pro-2wd featured in RC Driver magazine, talked about on web forums and blogs, and in videos on youtube.  It’s been on my list of must own r/c vehicles for quite a while.  It looks awesome in pictures and is the only r/c short course truck on the market to have a solid rear axle.  Scale realism is it’s intended target, and short course fans it’s intended market.  I’m super pumped about the thought of owning this truck, so will it live up to all of my expectations?  Let’s find out.

Features

For those not familiar with short course off road racing, just think about those awesome Baja trucks on a closed race course or Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off Road video game.

The Pro-2wd is a 1/10th scale, electric, 2wd truck.  It’s got a mid inline-mounted motor that feeds through a two gear transmission to a drive shaft and into a class-unique solid rear axle.  Other trucks in this class have independent suspension all around and a rear mounted motor, losing some of the scale realism compared to the Pro-2wd.  There are also parts made by third party manufacturers included with this kit that would be considered aftermarket upgrades on other kits.  These include suspension arms by RPM, oil-filled coil-over shocks by Tamiya, a custom CVD shaft from MIP, and true bead-lock wheels.  All of these parts and parts makers are well known for their quality and performance, so having them included in the box is a big treat.  It means you won’t have to take your Pro-2wd apart later to put these parts in.

Now, for a kit as expensive as this one, you might think there would be at least a cheap stock motor and pinion gear included, but there isn’t.  The Pro-2wd requires EVERYTHING.  Motor, pinion, ESC, receiver, steering servo, battery, all of it is required.  Though a very hefty and high quality servo saver is included, a nice touch.

Build time

So let me just get this out there first thing.  The Thundertech Racing Pro-2wd kit is not for beginners.  In order to build it you’ll need to have some prior experience with kit building and kit bashing.  There are some steps in the manual that require you to modify parts and carefully measure.  I am an experienced builder and it took me nearly eight hours over two days to put it together.  Typically I average two to three hours in one day to build a kit, not counting painting time.  Beyond the modification and difficulty involved you’ll need to supply your own tools as this kit does not come with any.  Not even the basics, like allen wrenches, that most kits come with.

I say all of this not to denigrate the kit, it was a great amount of fun to build and I love the final results.  But if you’re thinking about building your first kit, I think you should be warned that this is not the one for you.

Before you start building read the manual, all the way through, then read it again.  The manual has a lot of text and technical drawings, so make sure you understand it all before you break open any parts bags.  Once you’ve read and understand the manual, do an inventory.  This kit has a ton of parts and you need to make sure they are all there before setting out.  Separate all the hardware by size and type.  There’s a combination of metric and standard hardware, don’t get it mixed up.

Building the Pro-2wd was fun, but it wasn’t without it’s hitches.  It took me about eight hours of building over two nights, not counting painting time.  It’s the first time I’ve ever had to split my build time for any model over two days.  One thing I would have liked to see was all the hardware further separated and packaged with the subassembly for which it was to be used.  I think separating the hardware and measuring it all to find what I needed was the most time consuming part of the build.

There were a few typos in the manual, one in particular had to do with building the front shocks.  The manual called for one parts bag, when it was the other bag that was really needed.  Other typos were insignificant though.  Something else to consider is that you will need to drill out the bolt hole on the rear wheels to accept the very cool looking and finely machined wheel nut. 

A smaller issue that some who are experienced in the hobby might have is the body painting.  The shell is formed out of white ABS plastic, instead of the far more common clear polycarbonate.  This body requires different painting techniques than what are typically used in the r/c arena and it also requires a different type of paint.  You can use enamel spray paint from the hardware store if you’re so inclined, but I decided to use Testors enamel model paint.  That’s the kind of paint you usually use on static display models.  I was still able to use my airbrush, which is why I picked it over spray paint.  I actually had to stop and think about the way I was going to complete my paint design, the process was a little different from what I’m used to.

You may also need a lead extension for your steering servo because there is a pretty long distance between the servo and receiver.  I didn’t need one using a Futaba servo and mounting my receiver at the very front of the radio tray, but it was close.  You are also limited in how small of a pinion you can use.  The smallest pinion that you can use with the stock spur gear is a 17-tooth.

The designer certainly has an eye for detail.  Every screw is exactly as long as it needs to be and no longer.  The parts have a great fit and finish.  The body and all the panels look great, and the decals add much to the style.

Customer Service

Technical support can be hit or miss at times in this industry, this time it was a homerun.  Email support is very helpful.  Thundertech Racing is more or less a one-man operation, so you would kind of expect support to be slow at best.  That’s not the case though, every email I sent was replied to in a very short time frame.  An early feather in Thundertech’s cap came when I was waiting for my truck to be shipped.  At the time I was also preparing to move but unsure of the exact date.  Darren from Thundertech took my phone number and said he would call me when it was shipping to verify my address.  I just kind of thought “yeah, ok, we’ll see about that.”  Wouldn’t you know it, the day before he shipped it I got a call from him to see if I had moved or not.  This is his first big product and he’s obviously eager to help and please his customer base.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I am extremely pleased with the build of this truck.  The parts fit together great.  The four-link rear suspension is awesome looking.  There’s plenty of great details, including a driver figure.  Of all the short course r/c trucks out there right now, the Thundertech Pro-2wd is the only one that captures the spirit of it’s full scale counterparts.  The Pro-2wd is an expensive kit at $385, but the quality, features, and parts included justify that cost.

Part two of the review will be up shortly and it will talk about performance, durability, and other aspects of this kit.

Info

Manufacturer

Thundertech Racing

Product website

http://www.thundertechracing.com/pro2a.htm

Where to buy

Thundertech Online Store ($385)

• Thundertech Short Course Pro-2wd…
• Short course getting big…
• Tamiya Baja King review

Features

The Highroller has a three gear transmission, a 12-turn closed endbell modified motor, and high performance speed control with reverse and reverse lockout.  Big bore shocks, massive tires, a ton of ground clearance, and skid plates all make sure that this truck can be run anywhere and over any obstacle that might be in it’s way.  Full ball bearings in the transmission and at the wheels are a great inclusion on an entry level kit like this one.  A 2-channel 27Mhz transmitter and receiver offer a reasonable amount of control but little adjustability.  A 2.4Ghz radio like those included in some of Losi’s other kits would have been a better option I think, but Losi was obviously concerned with cost with the Highroller.

What’s in the box?

 As a RTR the Highroller includes almost everything you need to get started, except batteries and a charger.  The truck, radio, manual, and accessory bag pretty much round out the complete contents of the impressively large box.

There are some tools provided for basic maintenance, but in my opinion they are substandard.  The 4-way wrench included only works on the wheel nuts and slipper nut, not the shock nuts or ball studs for the steering.  Add to that the fact that it’s made out of plastic diminishes it’s worth to me.  A steel 4-way couldn’t have been that much more expensive.  Two allen wrenches are included, the smaller of which is easily rounded off if you try to torque the screws too much.  A flat wrench is also included for the turnbuckle tie-rods and it works well enough even if it is a tight fit.  If you’re handing this truck a lot of punishment you may want to consider investing in a better set of tools.

The manual provides a ton of great information on running, tuning and maintaining your truck.  Make sure to give it all a good read before setting out with the Highroller.  And refer to it often if you’re new to the hobby and want to make performance improvements.

Prep time

The Highroller is a RTR, but that doesn’t mean you should just put a battery in and start bashing.  Take some time to check that all the screws are tight, all the tie-rods are the same length, and everything spins and moves freely.  It might also be wise to use some thread-locker on the few metal to metal screws on the truck.  I found a couple of the screws were loose on my truck and the slipper clutch was very loose.  Beyond that the truck was well put together, though I did greatly miss the opportunity to do it myself.

Fun time

As usual I replaced the stock receiver with a unit compatible with my Futaba 4PK transmitter.  Unless you spend a lot of time tweaking your settings and know what they do the 4PK won’t offer many advantages over the stock transmitter other than the better signal of a 2.4Ghz system.  The stock radio will work just fine for pretty much everybody.

I put in a fresh Team Orion 3400mah carbon edition race LiPo and hit the dirt.  This is a big truck with big tires, so it didn’t really rip away, it kind of lumbered up to a top speed of just over 15mph.  It’s certainly not going to beat any speed records or even my Baja King in a drag race, but for what it is the speed was impressive enough.

High speed responsiveness isn’t all that great, I put the Highroller through a slalom course at high speed, the truck didn’t take it too well.  It handled fine at about half throttle.  Trying to swing those big tires and high chassis around takes some serious work on the part of the servo and suspension.  A bit of tuning may get it to handle the corners quicker but may make it a little less stable in other ways.

Trying to make fast stops or sharp turns under braking is a bit of a mess on the street.  The Highroller tends to 180 in both of those circumstances.  From what I can tell this is caused by a very loose differential.  Being a gear diff the only way to tighten it up would be to use a heavier grease.  The diff isn’t sealed though, so applying grease to it would only help for a very short time.

The Highroller flies flat with little input from the driver and when it lands you hear a satisfying whomp from the massive tires compressing.  And no matter how crooked my launch was, the Highroller always landed wheels down and ready for more.  There’s enough ground clearance and suspension that chassis slap never even came up as a concern for me, even off some massive jumps.  The Highroller soaks them all up in stride and keeps on running.  I even managed to pull a couple slap wheelies after I adjusted the slipper clutch a little bit.

All that said though the Highroller isn’t made for racing, it’s made for bashing.  And you can do that with gusto with this truck.  You can drive this truck pretty much anywhere — rocks, grass, bad streets, playgrounds — and have a ton of fun doing it.  The Highroller really is a blast to drive in a way I haven’t experienced in a long time.  It’s going to flip and roll and tumble it’s way over anything you throw at it and you’ll probably be laughing about it instead of running a calculator in your head trying to figure out how much it’s going to cost to fix it.  The Highroller is fairly durable and braced in all the right spots.  Skid plates help protect the steering and transmission and the motor is mounted high over the transmission to keep it up out of the way.  Big bumpers front and rear help to keep walls, curbs, and other cars at bay.  In my drive time I only experienced one bent axle, easily fixed with a couple pairs of pliers, and a couple cracks in the body shell also emerged.

Not so fun time

Unless you’re a gearhead that is.  The maintenance and tuning of the Highroller isn’t difficult, but it would have been easier if I had built it myself and known all the issues involved with it’s assembly.

The truck is meant to be sturdy and as such there’s a lot of braces installed that you have to remove if you want to strip off some of the bigger parts.  Trying to remove the transmission was quite a pain the first time, but then I realized I didn’t need to take off everything that I did, so it’s been easier since.  Instructions for assembly and disassembly would have been very nice to have.

My particular Highroller came out of the box with crazy amounts of toe-out at the front and negative camber all around.  I adjusted the toe to about 1.5 of toe-out and I put the camber to about .5 negative front and rear.  That improved straight-line handling quite a bit and reduced steering a tad which is giving the truck a bit more stable feel during cornering.

What could be improved

Not much is needed to make the Highroller better.  It already comes will full ball bearings and turnbuckle tie-rods, two very nice features for an entry level truck.  I would suggest a stronger steering servo to swing those big tires a little easier, that might make it a bit more responsive.  You might also want to replace the servo tape used to hold the receiver and ESC in place, when I replaced the receiver it pulled off quite easily.  The only other thing this truck needs is a sealed gear diff or adjustable ball diff.  I think that would greatly improve street performance.  Overall the Highroller is a good package out of the box.

Conclusion

 From the outside it may look like Losi is trying to position itself as another Traxxas.  The new Highroller just seems to add to that because it’s obviously meant to compete with the likes of Traxxas’ Stampede or Tamiya’s Super Blackfoot, two other 2WD monster trucks.  Is Losi doing anything better than those two with this truck?  Not really, it’s more or less the same.  Traxxas’ Stampede is cheaper but offers no other real advantages over the Highroller.  If you want to build your own truck though get the Blackfoot as it’s the only kit truck out in this class.  I’m still not a fan of RTRs.

Probably the one place where this truck wins over the other two is style.  It just looks a lot better than the ‘Pede and Blackfoot, but that’s purely subjective.  For first timers you can’t go wrong with the Highroller.  It’s performance could use a little adjustment but it’s no slouch.  It flies well, lands soft, and takes it all in stride.

Info

Manufacturer

Losi

Horizon Hobby (distributor)

Product website

http://www.losi.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=LOSB0103

Where to buy

Stormer Racing ($159.99)

Your local hobby shop (±$159.99)

• More Highroller changes…
• Losi Highroller vs. Traxxas Stampede
• Finally!

Just the other day though a thought popped into my head about KVM switches and software equivalents.  I had remembered seeing on an episode of the long gone The Screen Savers summaries of software that acts as a KVM (or for me, just a KM) switch.  I couldn’t remember the particular software they talked about but a search turned up many software choices both free and commercial.

After researching my choices I decided on a program by the name of Input Director.  I am very happy with my choice as I have been using it quite a bit without issue and it’s options and ease of use outclass many of the others in the market.  The best feature is the clipboard sharing between machines in my opinion.  I’ve made extensive use of that feature with KeePass.  I no longer have to worry about having a synced password database between my computers.  I can just use the one I have stored on my laptop.

Now, having my laptop set up next to my monitor on my desk, I only have to use it’s keyboard for logging in to Windows at startup.  I tend to keep my computer usage segregated — email, blogging, and web browsing on my laptop — photo editing, gaming, and programming on my desktop.  Having a way to control both without having to take my hands off of one keyboard and mouse will make things a lot easier on me.  It’ll also make things easier on my hands as the laptop keyboard, while good enough for quick typing, just doesn’t have cool things like a numeric keypad or easy access to common function keys.  And my desktop keyboard is more spacious, which makes typing longer screeds much easier.

With Input Director you can very easily control one computer from another over your home network.  You don’t have to be super knowledgeable about computers or networks, you just need to know how to install programs and how to find out your computer’s host name.  It’s very simple and the price, free for non-commercial use, can’t be beat.

The only problem I’ve had is a bit of lag of my inputs sometimes, but I think that has more to do with my network than the software itself.

Anyhow, if you’re looking for a way to control your laptop from your pc then Input Director is for you.  Free, easy, useful.  This software meets all three of my criteria for cool software.

• More Vista love…
• I can't live without it now.
• Are you Folding? (repost)

Everything you need is included, and it is the first truly self-contained, travel anywhere off-road r/c truck.  The entire package includes a RTR truck with 27 Mhz transmitter, a battery powered peak charger for the included NiMH battery installed in the truck, a full compliment of AA batteries for the transmitter and charger, and some spare parts and pieces.  The box itself has a carry handle and is very easy to repack exactly as it came from the factory.  The entire package is small enough to be packed in a suitcase and taken with you where ever you go, for those times when you need your r/c fix while sitting in a motel room in the middle of nowhere.

The Micro-T is a downright fun little truck.  You can race it anywhere, use it to harass play with your pets, or just bash around your living room or basement.  It’s perfect if you live in a cramped  apartment.  Or if you live in an area with harsh winters it’s a great fit for tooling around in your just shoveled driveway.  It’s a fast, jumping, agile, wheelie popping machine that will give you many hours of entertainment.

I’ve been driving the crap out of the Micro-T and it’s been holding up well to the punishment I’ve dished out.  You might think this truck would be extremely fragile given it’s small stature.  But it’s pretty robust and has taken many head-on impacts and tumbles down stairs without one broken piece.  If you do break something though there’s plenty of options to replace it with because quite a few third party manufacturers have created a load of hop-up parts for the T.  Aluminum, carbon fiber, hotter motors, wheels and tires, bodies, and tons more stuff is out there for the customizer in all of us.

 The feature that the Micro-T has going for it is that there’s nothing else like it anywhere.  It is a truly unique platform and market that nobody else has decided to get involved in.  Smaller in size than the Kyosho Mini-Z platform and the Radio Shack Xmod series, but not nearly as small as the ZipZaps set.  The Micro-T is small enough to be driven pretty much anywhere, but still big enough to be worked on and adjusted.  And it’s about the only real off-road micro performer.  The Micro-T is an excellent compromise between size, performance, and ease of use.

I’ve given the controller to many friends and let them rip the Micro around for a while.  They all loved it.  The Micro-T’s size and performance give it a near universal appeal that almost nobody can turn down.  I highly recommend you add the Micro-T to your hobby shelf.  Find it online or at your local hobby shop for around $80 with nothing else required to buy.  There’ll be plenty you’ll WANT to buy though just to make this baby your own.

• A brushless Micro-T
• First Impression: The Losi HighRoller rocks.
• New Truck: Robitronic EST- BL Truck

Once all the issues are fully resolved and they add custom soundtracks this will probably become my exclusive online game.  It is really, really good despite the problems.

• What I'm playing.
• First Impression: Monster Hunter Freedom 2
• I’m giving up on PC gaming…