Honda Driving Simulator

Honda Driving Simulator-Driving Like You Have Never Driven Before

Get real! Are we sitting inside a real Honda or just a simulator? We thought we could answer the question but we just didn’t. Why? It’s as real as it gets that’s why. Finally we could accidentally hit that dog crossing the road without hurting anyone. Ooops! The Honda Driving Simulator is here with some upgrades. Find out why we are on our toes aching to get on that fake 4-wheels and learn something we missed in driving school.

What you’re looking at…

If secondary students want to learn some real useful skills and develop reflexes vital to driving then this gadget is their best option. For the sole purpose of traffic education Honda has been making simulators for bicycles, motor bikes and, of course, cars for nearly a decade. Secondary schools have their eye on Honda’s latest toy and we think their investment is worth it. The Honda Driving Simulator is built specifically to help driver trainees detect potential threats on the road and develop reflexes to react to them in time.

The Honda Driving Simulator comes with 2-axis motion base type as an addition to the original 6-axis motion base type.

The Sunny Side…

• The high definition 42 inch LCD display is one of the reasons for the realistic driving experience we enjoyed. Looking at the screen, you’re not going to want to take your eyes off the road and your hands off the steering wheel.
• The touch panel monitor is user friendly. How could Honda miss that? Remember, this is a Honda toy don’t forget it.
• So did you pass or flunk? Yup, the Honda Driving Simulator displays the results of your performance at the end of the simulation. You get comprehensive feedback on what you’re doing on that virtual road.
• The Honda Driving Simulator also features “night mode”, “fog mode” and “highway experience mode” for a total and realistic simulation. You’ll be an ace veteran after sitting on this thing in no time.

 

The Shady Side…    

• Driving simulation differs from real world driving with a driving teacher sitting beside you. If you made a mistake the trainer would immediately correct it. This is because of direct communication.
• There are certain scenarios where we thought a trainer was needed but the database and the broad array of situations the machine can create more than makes up for this. There is no doubt that driving simulation is the modern safe way to learn driving.
• The 2 axis motion base costs a huge $ 66,000 while the 6-axis version will cost you an eye-popping $104,540. It seems we won’t be bringing home one of these to keep beside our game consoles!

 

Every time we drive on the road we risk our lives. There’s no doubt that driving simulators like the Honda Driving Simulator are invaluable tools for safely learning driving without endangering the lives of others or risking your own neck. Some people give the Honda Driving Simulator two thumbs up and others give an A+. But if we are asked what we would do, we would take our hats off saluting Honda and that’s it.

Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age: Origins is a role playing game from BioWare, the makers of Baldur’s Gate. It’s a highly complex game, with rich and complex gameplay.

Unlike some video games that are out there it’s available on multiple platforms; Xbox, Playstation, and on the computer, so that everyone that wants to play the game can without having to have the right console.

The game’s main character is one of the user’s choosing, and there is a different introductory origin story for each choice that forms the basis that the rest of the game is built on.

This isn’t to say that the story line is different depending on what choices you make, because over all you go through the same storylines no matter how you interact.

The difference is how you get the tasks done; you may be able to diplomatically diffuse a situation, or you may talk your way into a fight you didn’t have to have. The right discussions with the right characters can lead to rewarding side quests.

Some courses of action will annoy your group, because each character has their own set of morals, and may disapprove of your decision to help, or not help, a certain NPC.

You can affect how the characters feel about you to the point of forming a romantic relationship with them on one extreme, to having them abandon the party on the other. Each character that can join your party has their own unique traits, and the more they like you the more likely they are to impart that knowledge to you.

The plot is the typical one for most RPGs; the world is in grave danger and only you can help save it. Each character has a rich history and a full set of character traits and personality. Morrigan is a mage that lived in the backcountry with her mother learning the art of magic in a way not taught by the Mage Circle of Ferelden. Alistair is a Templar turned Gray Warden who had an interesting childhood.

These two are particularly interesting, because Templars are sworn to hunt down Mages that don’t conform to the Mage Circle standards, but they’re both in your party for a higher purpose. This is another area that the depth of the game comes in, because as you’re walking around town, these two will sometimes start bickering with each other.

There is witty banter, non sequiturs, and comic relief all interspersed in a long and intricately developed game. If you like RPGs even a little bit, this one is a can’t miss.

The actual gameplay is good too. The combat is of a real-time style, but does allow you to pause and control your party’s actions. You can set up tactics so that your teammates will heal when they need to, or pick off a weak enemy, or use a debuff on a strong one. Movement is easy, switching between characters is a snap, and the camera control is excellent.

The best part of the game is that you can pretty much set your own pace. You can speed through things, minimize boring storyline and get to the action. You can also delve into the deep storylines, plots, and history laid out at every turn. You can interact with your party to learn more about them, unlock different abilities, or blow them off and learn nothing about them except how they can help you annihilate the enemy. The game is a long one, but when it’s over you wish there was more. Luckily all signs point to a sequel.

We ARE the Jetsons!

Growing up watching cartoons, watching the Jetsons made me want to live in the future.  All the flying cars, talking robots, and new fangled contraptions were in our future.  Now as I look around at all the technologies, it seems that Hanna/Barbara might have gotten a few things right with their farcical cartoons!  Here are a few examples:

Workstations.  George Jetson is often pictured at his desk with multiple flat monitors around him while he twiddles away on a bank of buttons. 

Video Conferencing.  The computers often show video of his boss, Mr. Spacely as they talk back and forth, usually involving George getting fired.    I wonder if Web Ex knows about this footage?

Moving Sidewalks.  In many of the episodes, the characters don’t walk, but rather step on a moving sidewalk, much like what’s employed at many airports across the globe. 

Video Games.  Elroy played on an Envirosimulator much akin to today’s super realistic video games.  Even George played cards with a robot for fun. 

Robots doing work.  In almost every episode of the Jetsons, there was at least one robot accomplishing some task.  Sure we have industrial robots building cars and welding meta.  Even robots vacuuming our carpets, but none of them talk back with artificial intelligence.yet.

Fooderackacycle.  Sure we don’t have robots making our food yet, but we do have machines dispensing it¢â‚¬â€vending machines.  And not just the old vending machines where food drops to the bottom but ones where arms retrieve the requested snack and even heat it up automatically upon purchase.

Super fast mail.  In some of the episodes, they could mail something and have it delivered almost instantly.  Sure it was a physical envelope, but today’s e-mail is the next best thing.

Virtual Pets.  In several episodes, they have pets that aren’t animals at all, but interact like it.  We have those too, called Webkinz and other online pets for kids.  Sure it’s not a hologram of the pet, but it is indeed virtual.

What is even more exciting is looking at the technology that is still in the prototype stages.  The things that will become part of our lives in the next few years that is distinctly Jetsonian in nature.  For example, the ability to carry the communication devices with you.  Sure, the iPhone and Blackberry are no folding car that fits in your pocket, but they can call a taxi, and track your whereabouts. 

The Microsoft surface technology is another whiz-bang gizmo the Jetsons only wished they had.  Handling data not with buttons but with fingers on a shiny black surface.  This is our future.

Sure we don’t live in platforms high in the sky, parachute to our flying cars or use jetpacks to get to work, but we are getting closer and closer to the Jetsons every day.  With the evolution of the digital camera, MP3 players holding thousands of songs, and the internet allowing us to communicate in dramatically new ways ala Twitter, Facebook, Brightkite, etc. , the future is looking even better than it did when we were dreaming of robots getting us ready in the morning and reading us books.  Now if we could just figure out this flying car thing, I think we’d be set.

Video Games: Sequels, Expansions, Remakes

Video game sequels are some of the most anticipated products in the market. They can be more anticipated than television premiers and sell more than blockbuster movies. Franchise games like Halo, or Grand Theft Auto are among the more popular, and more highly anticipated, video game sequels. Both have released games that have broken all sorts of records for video game sales. The first day these games were on the market they made more money than record-setting movie Spiderman 3, and more money than record-setting book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The problem is some games are billed as sequels when they’re nothing more than expansions. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is one of these games. The game was a lot of fun, it was beautiful looking, and it had a good amount of playable characters and a great storyline. I enjoyed playing it a lot, but it felt too simple. There was very little added to the game that wasn’t in the first one. The customizable aspects and powers gained on each level were watered down a bit, but the way to use your character was a little simpler. The graphics were better and the camera movement was much better, but all of this basically makes the game seem very similar to the first, with a different story.

I enjoyed the storyline; I went out and started reading the Civil War comic books that it was based on. There is a choice that has to be made in the game that branches it into two separate set of levels before they reconnect later, which gives the game a pretty good replay value. The cast of characters is nice, but there are always more superheroes you can add. It’s neat to be able to control some of the supervillians in this game, due to the nature of the Civil War story line.

Another troubling trend in video games is the remake. This seems to happen more often with Nintendo and the Wii. A couple of weeks ago I picked up Wii Punch Out!! which is a remake of the old Mike Tyson’s Punch Out on the NES. The game, obviously, has superior graphics. It has the benefit of modern controls and animation. Even some modern day toasters have more power than the NES system. All this makes for a very nice game. However, the problem is that anyone interested in the game is probably only interested in it for nostalgia’s sake. It doesn’t contain a ton of new content. It almost felt like cheating, because I knew all the tips and tricks to play the game.

This isn’t all bad. You can get a lot of enjoyment out of playing a game spruced up from an old classic. Franchises such as Madden NFL, NHL 2K10 or MLB: The Show release what is basically the same game every year and do wonderfully. The difference is that these games put a lot of work into doing what they can to be at the forefront of video game development. These sports franchise games, unlike other remakes like Punch Out!!, know they have to make people want to buy a game that is basically the same game they bought a year ago. Keeping up with one of these games is like tracking the evolution of the video game industry as they add new features and better graphics and utilize everything they can think of. MLB: The Show added weather to their games, Madden 10 introduced an online franchise mode and improved tackles. The graphics and animation get better every year, and they’re getting to the point that at first glance you could think you’re actually watching the real thing. The Madden franchise doing this for 20 years suggests that remakes, if done properly, can be very successful.

Video games have taken huge strides in the entertainment industry over the last decade, competing with many of the other top products. With the market and technology available to them only growing video games will continue to be a top seller. Whether it’s remakes, franchises, sequels, or expansions, people are buying them at record rates.

What the Gamers are doing for PAX 2009

Some of you may be familiar with Penny Arcade, and online comic based on the adventures of Gabe and Tycho, two gamer dudes who pretty much do nothing more than glorified gamer things. This is my third year in a row, and I found that PAX had a lot to offer this year.

Here are some of the highlights.

Blizzard Entertainment has their Starcraft and World of Warcraft booths up.  No surprise there.  Their new version of Diablo is drawing quite a crowd, which is also not a surprise.

Nexon has three really cool games displayed that are all free to download:  Dragon Nest, D ungeon Fighter, and an FPS game called Combat Arms.

Speaking of completely free, I also got a chance to try out Faunasphere, a browser based game where characters make pets called Faunas and put them in a Faunasphere.  It’s a lot like other browser-based pet games out there, but not as cutsey-wutsey as Facebook’s Pet Society.

The Entertainment Consumer Association (ECA) has a booth that is all draped off with elegant translucent curtains and elaborate dƒÂ©cor.  It almost makes me want to join them, especially for $20.00 a month. It is good for almost $300 worth of savings on video games, as well as a chance to hang around and eat snack food.

CDV has their DS games which include I Love (with a heart) Geeks and My Little Baby.  It also has PC games Divinity II and Serious Sam HD.

Turbine games is proud to be displaying D&D Online.  I believe I covered much of this in a previous article.

2K Games has some sort of display that has this odd room that everyone is searching through.  BioShock II and a new game called Borderlands is the big draw, though.

PAX often has a lot of energy drinks that are free to try.  One of them is called Healing Potion from Mana.  It comes in a fancy bottle like the one from Shrek 2, but it takes awful, like cough syrup.  I feel less than healed.  Another is some new non-carbonated ones from the Jones soda company.  The Jones’ drinks are an improvement, but nothing that I would buy.  Omni Consumer has a product called Tru Blood, which is supposed to be a fruit drink that looks like blood.  I believe there is some vampire show in which characters drink this stuff, and this is actually what the actors drink.  Who would have thought that Tru Blood would taste so delicious?

Nintendo has all the bells and whistles in effect, with the highlight being the displays of the new version of Super Mario Brothers for the Wii.

Disney Interactive has Split Second, which looks like a run-of-the-mill racing game.  Not really what I would expect from the Mouse House.  Pretty soon they’ll have Marvel-related games, thanks to that acquisition thing.

Sony’s PS3 display prominently features God of War, Ratchet and Clank: Future, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and an Eyepet, which uses augmented reality to make a virtual pet come to life.

EA’s booth makes you wonder what they don’t have.  Some of the newest are The Saboteur, Army of Two, Dead Space Extraction, two Need for Speed games (Shift and Nitro), and a new Nerf game.   Not to mention the Dante’s Inferno game that allows you to enter hell.

NC Soft has not one, not two, but three booths based on their successful franchises like City of Heroes, Aion, and Guild Wars 2.  They also have some time to devote to Star Trek Online and Champions Online.

Bethesda is devoting much of their time sharing about Brink, a very Splinter Cell-ish looking game.  Other games include Wet and Rogue Warrior.

FunCom has their barbarian fantasy MMO Age of Conan display set up.  They also have another MMO game going on called The Secret World which takes place in modern times involving a global conspiracy.

As for iHarmonix, two words: Rock Band.  Beatles Rock Band was on display prominently, and it looks very good.  Fans could rock along with the Fab Four for one of the first times.  Also on deck was Lego Rock Band, which uses bricks for the little bars that scroll upward.

Capcom had some interesting offerings with Lost Planet 2 (or Lost Planet Squared, depending if you read the 2 as an exponent or an actual number 2), Spyborgs, and Dark Void.  The real draw was the new Resident Evil game.

Runic/Perfect World had an interesting downloadable game known as Torchlight which looked quite interesting.  It involves you going into a dungeon and kicking butt, sort of like Gauntlet back in the day.

Phantom EFX had one of the most creative games that I have seen in a while with Darkest of Days, a first-person shooter that involves time travel.

THQ had this odd promotion for their DarkRiders game that consisted of a horse known as Ruin that was a mechanical bull that attendees could ride.  Quite a draw for that, and you had to sign a waiver to ride it.

Stardock was up to their old tricks with Sins of a Solar Empire, and some new tricks with Elemental and Impulse.

CCP had their usual EVE Online fare displayed, not much new there.

WB games had Scribblenauts, which is easily one of the most original games that I have seen in a while.  In the game you play a character that has to gather up stars in this virtual world.  To succeed in your goal, you write you want.  For example, if you want a ladder, just write ladder and one will appear.  I am told it can do almost all nouns.

Flying Labs, makers of the Pirates of the Burning Sea MMO, were there in full pirate garb, using cannons to fire T-shirts into the crowd.  Nothing new there.

Alienware this odd set up for that made you feel like you were in a UFO.  They even had a bunch of booth people that were dressed like the Men in Black.

Ubisoft had their new Splinter Cell prominently on display, but I liked the Wii game known simply as Just Dance where you just dance.  All the player needs to do is dance like the guy on the screen.

Nvidia and Zalman showed off their 3D emulators.  There was a booth where attendees could see a preview of the new Avatar game (based off the upcoming James Cameron movie) that showed off its 3D as well.  Yeah, I think 3D is just getting bigger.

So, if you have never been to a video game conference, this is what you have missed.

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