Forza 2 is a great racing game, but to me, what's most impressive about the game are the amazing customized car designs that people are able to come up with. I've messed around with the editor a little bit, but I lack the vision and patience necessary to make one of these masterpieces. I had kind of given up on ever making a cool car, but when Justin told me about the upcoming race weekend for the Forza 2 Paintshop Union I was inspired to try to attempt at least some sort of design so that I could race.

The smily car was cool, but it was hardly a masterpiece

But what should I do? I needed something cool, but I also needed something that wasn't too complex. I was browsing GameSpot the other week when I came across a banner for the interview we had with the developer of LocoRoco. The bright colors and simple design caught my eye, and I figured that this might be a design I could handle.

The LocoRocoMobile has put my artistic abilities to the test.

After procrastinating for a week, I finally got started last night. I found a few images to use as a reference and I got to work. I haven't really worked with the editor much before now and I have to call my girlfriend into the room to help ensure that I pick just the right colors (I'm color-blind), so it has been pretty slow going. But I'm doing better than I thought I would. What you see here is the result of about 2.5 hours of work. I'm pretty happy with the results, though I need to figure out a good way to get the big LocoRoco on the hood to be less circular and more blob-like at his base. I'm also undecided on what to do with the sides. I was thinking of putting "LocoRoco" in the game's font along each side, but I also thought it might be cool to continue the level around the sides.

As you can see, the sides of the car are a work in progress.

Justin and I are planning on putting together a video of the big race weekend, so check back next week to see the LocoRocoMobile and other GameSpot users' cars in action. And if you're interested in joining the union, you can do so right here.

Get to know the people that bring you all of the great content on GameSpot in a regular series of short and lighthearted gaming-related interviews.

Episode XIX: Vinny Caravella

This week's Getting To Know is with Mr. Vincent Caravella. And no, it's not just because the GameSpot Live guys were giving me grief about always featuring editorial guys. You might not see him in front of the camera very often, but Vinny's one of the talented guys who makes GameSpot's video content so darn interesting and professional looking. He has also been more than willing to help me out with all of my video editing related questions such as "Vinny, what is video and how does one edit it?"

So check out this week's episode to find out the details on Vinny's love for Captain N, Dragon Ball, and Chappelle's Show. The next person we'll be getting to know will be the one and only Tor Thorsen. As always, thanks for watching!

I wasn't going to play at all tonight, but I logged on just to see how my scores were doing. What did I find? Carolyn Michelle had beaten my score in championship mode. So I spent the night trying to reclaim it, but things didn't go well. I switched to some other modes and improved my scores and then came back to the one that matters. A few games in I set my new high score of 347,520. That means I can go to bed happy.

Someone suggested the bright idea of one of us trying to get into the top 100 in every single game mode. I don't think I'm going to try that, but my average position across all six modes is #54. I'm pretty proud of that. I think I'm going to have to take the weekend off from Pac-Man. Of course, I said I wasn't going to play tonight either.

Championship Mode
Name Score World Ranking
Aaron 347520 #39
Carolyn Michelle 325210 #95
Carrie 298760 #268

Challenge Mode 1
Name Score World Ranking
Aaron 517750 #107
Carrie 493250 #172
Carolyn Michelle 481470 #238

Challenge Mode 2
Name Score World Ranking
Aaron 400840 #26
Carrie 397790 #29
Carolyn Michelle 382660 #48

Extra Mode 1
Name Score World Ranking
Aaron 266170 #18
Carolyn Michelle 250040 #29
Carrie 191140 #268

Extra Mode 2
Name Score World Ranking
Aaron 547610 #105
Carrie 482750 #332
Carolyn Michelle 471430 #438

Extra Mode 3
Name Score World Ranking
Aaron 671770 #27
Carrie 499480 #813
Carolyn Michelle 457900 #1558

First off, let me go ahead and say it before Carrie does: Yes, I only seem to update when I have good news about my scores. I guess she's right. Last night was GameSpot's Game Night, so I spent most of the evening playing Forza 2 with our users. I had a great time, even if a few of the guys racing seemed to have a penchant for crashing into me. After we got done with Forza I fired up Pac-Man CE for a little practice.

Since championship mode is, well, the championship mode, it's the one where we're most competitive. At 262,000 I was over 30k behind both Carolyn Michelle and Carrie in championship mode, and had been behind the two of them for quite some time. It was obvious that my old strategy had taken me as far as it could, so I had to try something new. The new plan is one that I actually thought of while I was lying in bed the other night trying to fall asleep. Yes, I've got issues.

The first game I played last night proved that I was on the right track. I beat my old high score by 30,000 points and jumped ahead of Carolyn Michelle. About a half hour later it all came together and I topped out at 319,140. Feeling good I tackled the other game modes, reclaiming all of the top positions, even reaching #18 in the world in Extra Mode 1. Even with my new and improved scores I know I can't rest easy. Since I went to bad last night, Carolyn Michelle has jumped ahead of Carrie in championship mode and is no doubt looking to knock me off my perch. I can only imagine that Carrie is at work, plotting her attack as she reads this.

Here are our current standings:

Championship Mode
Name Score World Ranking
Aaron 319140 #125
Carolyn Michelle 299960 #242
Carrie 298760 #256

Challenge Mode 1
Name Score World Ranking
Aaron 500480 #144
Carrie 493250 #172
Carolyn Michelle 481470 #238

Challenge Mode 2
Name Score World Ranking
Aaron 400840 #24
Carrie 397790 #27
Carolyn Michelle 382660 #44

Extra Mode 1
Name Score World Ranking
Aaron 266170 #18
Carolyn Michelle 250040 #28
Carrie 191140 #258

Extra Mode 2
Name Score World Ranking
Aaron 547610 #100
Carrie 482750 #314
Carolyn Michelle 741430 #416

Extra Mode 3
Name Score World Ranking
Aaron 511410 #665
Carrie 499480 #791
Carolyn Michelle 457900 #1511

I've always been a pretty big trash-talker when it comes to video games. This is mostly because growing up, I was typically better than everyone else at playing games and I liked to remind my friends of that fact. Yeah, that was kind of a jerk move. I'm also a really competitive person, so if there's anything I can do to get in someone's head, I'll do it. Then, one day, I had nobody left to talk trash to. Many of my friends had moved away, gotten married, or simply weren't interested in games anymore. I spent my time running up the score against the CPU in Madden, but no matter how creative my insults were, the game just didn't seem to care. I tried playing online, but I quickly grew tired of the cheesy tactics that everyone seemed to use and the fact that people didn't seem to know the difference between insults or flat-out hate speech and good, creative trash talk. But then came online leaderboards.

Online leaderboards are great for two reasons: They bring (back) meaning to high scores, since you can actually share your scores with people, and they're a great way of inspiring some good, old-fashioned smack talk. This is how I found myself in an epic battle for bragging rights with Carrie Gouskos, former GameSpotter and current content developer for Warhammer Online. I've met Carrie a few times and I always enjoyed reading her work, but she had already left GameSpot by the time I arrived, so I don't really know her very well. I knew that she liked playing games, though, especially on the Xbox 360, so I sent her a friend request and she added me shortly thereafter. Before she added me I had been playing a ton of Pac-Man Championship Edition, and I think it's pretty safe to say that I had a bad case of Pac-Man fever. I had the top score on my friends leaderboard, but other than Brendan and Jeff, nobody looked like they'd ever get close to my scores.

But then things changed. I logged on one day and saw that Carrie (and forum moderator Carolyn Michelle) had beaten most of my scores. I quickly got to work and after a few hours, reclaimed my rightful position atop the leaderboards. Being someone who loves to talk trash, I couldn't wait until I got on instant messenger the next morning. I complimented Carrie on her Pac-Man prowess and then informed her of my accomplishments. She, of course, assured me that this change in rankings was only temporary. A day or two later I logged on and was dismayed (actually, deep down I was happy because I enjoy the competition) to find that Carrie had beaten all of my scores, logging an impressive 466,000+ on one game mode. Once again, I buckled down and took back four of the six high scores. And once again, I reported to Carrie that I had taken the lead.

My mom had been in town for a visit, so I hadn't played Pac-Man in a week when I finally logged on last night. It seemed that Carolyn Michelle and Carrie had both been busy, as I was no longer the leader in any of the game modes. To make matters worse, Carrie was ranked #21 IN THE WORLD in one of the modes. (Pro tip: Before you talk smack to someone, make sure they're not one of the best people on the entire planet at whatever it is you're talking smack about.) I knew that crying wasn't going to improve my scores, so I hunkered down and did my best. It turns out that my best is pretty darn good. I broke 500,000 points in one mode, took the top spot, and snagged the top position in extra mode 3, and I'm proud to say that by the time I was done playing for the night, Carrie was #22 in the world--a few thousand points behind the #19 ranked player--a guy named Aaron Thomas.

Becoming one of the top Pac-Man Championship Edition players in
the world wasn't what I had in mind when I started this little feud.

Needless to say, the first thing I did when I got to work was hop on instant messenger and let Carrie know about this Aaron Thomas guy who had leapt ahead of her on the worldwide rankings. She took it surprisingly well, though I like to imagine her at her desk, bursting into tears with her coworkers wondering what horrible tragedy had just occurred. After I broke the news we discussed strategy a bit--after all, this is a friendly competition. Here it became obvious to me that I'm going to have to rethink my approach to championship mode, since I'm currently stuck at around 242,000, which is way behind both Carrie and Carolyn Michelle.

No matter the outcome, when the dust finally settles on our little competition, I will have enjoyed the chance to hone my skills at the game and do some friendly trash-talking while I'm at it. Of course, I can say this because I know I'm going to win.

I don't know when it happened or what caused it, but there's a boatload of negativity in the world of video games. Many game reviews have a negative tone, even if the game's pretty good; message boards are typically breeding grounds for negativity, insanity and hatred; even console manufacturers seem to spend as much time dissing the competition as they do promoting their own product. I'm certainly not without fault, either. I've had to limit the amount of time I spent on message boards because I found they were making me think negative about pretty much everything--even myself! To combat all this negativity I'm going to do something totally crazy. I'm only going to say good things about video games in this editorial. Let's see what happens...

God of War 2 is awesome
I have no good reason for playing this game for 33 minutes on March 12th and then not touching it again until last week. The game is absolutely gorgeous looking and the sense of scale that it conveys is mind-blowing. The gameplay is just as solid as ever and the story has me hooked too.

People can make some sweet rides in Forza 2
I am not one of those people, but I admire anyone who has the talent, time, and focus required to make these beautiful cars. I'm a tightwad with my virtual cash so I haven't been able to pull the trigger to purchase one, but I get a kick out of browsing, or watching over Justin's shoulder as he peruses the auctions during lunch.

Uno is hella fun
Alex, Brad, former GameSpot dude Dave Toister, and I played Uno over Xbox Live for a couple of hours last night and it was a blast. Alex and Brad had cameras hooked up so I got to watch them...sit in their chairs and stare at the TV, which was cool. We mostly played with the 35th anniversary deck, but played a few rounds with the Kameo and PGR decks too. I won a pretty good number of games. Brad did not, and is now threatening to never play with me again, which is pretty amusing. He can't quit me.

Robert Randolph & The Family Band are really good
What does this have to do with games? The first time I ever heard a Robert Randolph tune was "Thrill Of It" in NBA Live 07. I finally got around to picking up the album Colorblind and I'm really digging it. Eric Clapton and Dave Matthews guest on a couple of songs, but even without them the album holds up on the strength of some catchy hooks and impressive guitar playing.

Puzzle Quest has me hooked
Being that I've had this game from GameFly for about two months perhaps it's time to just bite the bullet and purchase it. I'm amazed at how this game keeps me coming back for more. I'm somewhere around level 34, but I don't think I'm that far into the story because I get distracted with side quests, forging new items, and training my mounts. Who knew that a simple puzzle component was all that it would take to finally get me hooked on an RPG?

I'm excited for my mom's visit next week
Now this certainly can't have anything to do with games, right? Actually it has a lot to do with games. My mom and dad were the ones who bought an Atari 2600 back in the day and got me started on the crazy path that eventually led me to a career writing about video games. She was super-into Missile Command back then so she's quite excited to get her hands on the Missile Command cabinet we've got in the office. I figure I'll just bring her into the office, get her a stool, and let her play all day while I work. We're also going to see The Police, so that should be fun as well. More fun than Missile Command? We'll have to wait and see.

It turns out this "being positive" thing is pretty easy--I didn't even say anything bad about NBA Live 07! It feels pretty good, too. Maybe we should all try to lighten up a little.