Pg. 166 – 168
The conversation between Zade and Shino quickly turns into something akin to a mother-son discussion.
Sorry for the late updates, people, as well as the incomplete pages. I’ve been getting sidetracked a lot with the comic and it’s frustrating me. It also doesn’t help that I’d missed my appointment to get my hearing aid’s earmold replaced today. I’m expecting a rather large package tomorrow for an old, long-neglected hobby of mine that I used to take great passion in: stock car racing.
. . . . . hit the jump to read more. People who are not fans of racing should skip it, however.
Yes, you read that right. I’m a fan of NASCAR and Touring Car/TransAm racing, and I used to be quite the hardcore racer more than six years ago with NASCAR Racing Season 2003. NASCAR’s video game license is exclusively held by Electronic Arts, which is one reason why I haven’t done any simulation racing in years – their products have a reputation for being incredibly arcade-like and not realistic enough. Now, I’ve come across a nice little gem called ARCA Sim Racing, which is a true-to-life racing simulation by Sim Factory, the same company regularly contracted by the real NASCAR racing teams to build training simulators for their drivers. An important thing to remember – the ARCA Re/Max league is currently operating 2007-ish stock cars that were sold by the professional NASCAR teams to the ARCA teams for pennies on the dollar during the switch to NASCAR’s new universal chassis also known as the Car of Tomorrow.
Of course, most of you may think that I’m a redneck hick that likes to turn left, or so the joke seems to go – quite the opposite, really. I like to turn left sometimes, but I also like to compete in races because they are an example of what I consider “level field” competition. Unlike games in other genres such as first-person-shooters and RTS (realtime strategy) where the person with the most experience and knowledge of tricks (and most likely exploits) often have a tremendous advantage. In simulation racing, you are competing with your knowledge of the track, your understanding of how the car behaves, and how well you tuned your car’s setup. That, and anything is possible that can mix up a race in unexpected ways, such as managing to evade “The Big One” at Talladega Superspeedway and suddenly finding yourself in the top three with five laps to go.
Also, there is nothing more thrilling than driving a race car powered by a V8, with the ability to hit speeds of 190MPH on a superspeedway and competing against 40 other drivers on the same track for the lead. While it may seem dull from a spectator’s perspective, it is quite the opposite when you are in control.