Thursday 8 March 2007

Need For Speed (NFS) Carbon

Just when you thought the NFS series couldn't get any better, along comes the Wii to prove you wrong...

The last NFS game I played on was NFS Underground 2 on the PC and this game on the Wii is exactly the same, only better!!!  The graphics and in-game music and sound effects are of the high standard we have come to expect with the NFS series of games.  The premise is pretty much the same as before, you have to drive around winning races so you can upgrade you car to be able to win even more races!

When you are fed up with drifting, race wars, sprinting and racing through checkpoints you can simply drive around the places that you have unlocked and annoy the police and see how many cars you can destroy and how many road blocks you can evade!

How can you win a race but pass the finish line in 2nd place??? Crew racing, that's how!  No longer are you racing alone, as you progress through the game you find yourself recruiting different crew members which you can hire for particular races.

The crew members come in 3 different varieties:

1) Drafters - as the name suggests, these crew members speed off ahead of you and allow you to make use of their slipstream.

2) Pathfinders - the name says it all really, these crew members will find all the shortcuts that you can take so make sure you follow them!

3) Blockers - these guys will take out your opponents that you see coming up close in your rear view mirror.

What really makes this game on the Wii standout is the gameplay, more importantly the unique way this game has made use of your Controller & Nunchuck!  Just when you thought playing Excite Truck by tilting your Controller was innovative, NFS Carbon goes one step further and offers you 5 different ways of controlling your car!


This is the standard way of controlling a car on the Wii and is just like the way you would do so if you were playing Excite Truck of GT Pro etc.

When I first started playing this game, this was the only control method I was using as I hadn't realised I had another 4 more options to choose from!

The only thing I don't like about this control set is that to turn round sharp corners you have to hold down the A button which is for over steering.


The method shown here on the right is the one I am currently using and it is absolutely awesome!

You tilt the nunchuck left and right for the analogue steering and (quite literally) use the controller as the accelerator pedal!

Without a doubt the control methods in this game make it stand out from the rest!

If you were umming and arring over this game and GT Pro then forget GT Pro and get yourself Carbon - you won't regret it!

Wii Mans Game Rating

Fun Factor: 9/10 - If you like car racing games then buy this NOW!
Playability: 10/10 - With 5 different control methods you are bound to find one to suit.
Gameplay: 10/10 - Carbon makes full use of the Controller & Nunchuck!
Graphics: 8/10 - Fantastic graphics that we have come to expect on the NFS series of games.
Sound/Music: 8/10 - Nothing fancy but still quite good. I would have liked to see MP3s from your SD card being used in this game though...

Overall 45/50

*** A Wii Man Recommended Title For Car Racing Fans!***

Thursday 1 March 2007

Brains!

It seems that scientists have been messing about with brains, pigeons brains...

What they have managed to do is plant electrodes in to a pigeons brain allowing them to remotely control how the pigeon flies.

"Xinhua News Agency said the scientists at the Robot Engineering Technology Research Center at Shandong University of Science and Technology in eastern China used the micro electrodes to command the bird to fly right or left, and up or down."

"It was the first such successful experiment on a pigeon in the world, said Su, who conducted a similar successful experiment on mice in 2005. (AP)"

WHY? What is the point of this bizarre experiment and how can mankind benefit from such experiments???

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Talking of brains, boffins have now come to the conclusion that "The Brain is Chaotic".

I could of told you that and I aint no boffin!

Even I know that the brain is a complex and weird organ that no-one really understands as it is too complex for us to ever fully understand.

I will even go as far as to say that the brain is infinitely more complicated than we ourselves can ever comprehend.

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Bees!

News stories about the missing bees seem to be doing the rounds again. Did you know that here in the UK we actually IMPORT bees? Well apparently

we do as they keep disapearing! Can you remember the last time you saw lots of bees flying around during the summer?

The mystery of the vanishing bees continues...