Hello, if I can be of any help...

[jesseleite]

Hello,

My name is Jesse Leite, I am 23 years old, married, and soon-to-be-a-father come June (very excited!).

I am a graphic designer, website developer, and music instructor, located in Southern Ontario Canada. If I can be of any help (with the website, graphics, logos, etc.) I'd love to help; I don't know if you need that kind of help at this point. if at any point you do, I'd love to "audition"!

I am also a gamer. I loved Street Rod and Street Rod 2. Hot Rod American Street Drag was pretty fun too in my opinion. I have never played MCO, just read about it. Anyway, it sounds like you guys have a great thing going, and that MWO that will really build on the success of games like Street Rod and MCO (again, never played MCO, just read about it), but take those genres to a new level with a deeper game and good sense of community. You guys seem really passionate about creating a game for for muscle car buffs. There are lots of great tuner racing games for import street racing fans, but a lack of good tuner games for drag racing muscle heads.

PS. I am mostly a Mac user now (although i don't consider myself a Mac jerk, and am fond of PC's and Linux as well). I appreciate the fact that there is talk of releasing MWO on both PC and Mac, as well as other systems like iPhone, Wii, etc. Maybe even XBOX live and Playstation Network (I am a Playstation guy myself) as well? I know there is a pretty huge market for small game developers now using these "download" based networks on Wii, PS3, and XBOX. Just a suggestion though! I have no clue what is involved in developing this game for multiple systems; probably easier said than done! I think if the game is fun, it will be worth getting whatever system it runs on :)

I'm with you guys all the way. I really look forward to driving, tuning, and admiring good old American muscle in MWO! Remember, there is no replacement for displacement! :) Anyway, I look forward to meeting you all.

Jesse Leite

[PaulTech]

Do you have Yahoo or AIM?. Worst case I can use you as a Mac Tester. I develop everything for Mac first.

[jesseleite]

I don't have either, but I am willing to sign up for either if it would help you for testing, etc. What would you prefer?

Also, I see you need programming help. I am not much of a programmer (I mostly do web programming), but what kind of experience are you looking for? What programming languages?

[Kevman]

Nice to meet you, I'm from Windsor, how bout you?

[roadweasel]

Hi Jesse, glad you found us!

[jesseleite]

Hey Kev, nice to meet you as well. I am from London area.

Hey Roadweasel, well I stumbled across your site a few times before I really read it. I've been searching for another drag racing game to play (other than Street Rod and Hot Rod American Street Drag), but it seems they are all about modern imports or exotic cars nowadays. Looks like you guys have the same passion :)

...any suggestions on any other good muscle drag games to play?

[Ayce]

Nope. :laugh:


Welcome to MWO.:D

[jesseleite]

Thank you, nice to meet you.

Hmm, I didn't think so. I have been searching for hours for a decent PC, Mac, or PS2 muscle drag racing game. Can't find anything though, but countless pages on Motor City Online; which I never got to try during it's short life. Too bad, it looked half decent. After reading some of the posts on this forum, I think MWO is going to blow away any other game in the genre. It sounds like there is going to be a lot of depth to the game!

Oh well, for now I guess I'll keep on playing Street Rod 2 :)

[Allegedman]

hey Jesse,

The only racing games worth playing now are forza motorsport 2 or test drive unlimited for xbox 360.

we need more euro people on here because euro need to start servers over there. Be awesome if you could help test.

[gcountach]

hey Jesse,

The only racing games worth playing now are forza motorsport 2 or test drive unlimited for xbox 360.

:eek:

What about GT Legends, GTR(2), rFactor (and mods)? Favorite of those was GT Legends... mainly because it had some old muscle cars. Game was tuned more toward a European crowd it seems.

[jesseleite]

Hmm don't have an Xbox.
NFS Pro Street looks like it has drag racing and a decent selection of muscle cars, for an import/european racer anyway. The reviews don't look all that good though. Has anyone played this? I'm not sure what to think... EA is really hit and miss; more miss lately!

[gcountach]

NFS Pro Street looks like it has drag racing and a decent selection of muscle cars, for an import/european racer anyway. The reviews don't look all that good though. Has anyone played this? I'm not sure what to think... EA is really hit and miss; more miss lately!

Assuming the idea it's a Need For Speed game doesn't already scare you off, and you still want to try it after reading the gripes the reviewers had, then you can get it here for ~20 bucks with shipping for PC: http://www.gogamer.com/searchresults.htm?keywords=Pro+Street&brandId=&price=&x=0&y=0&653Search=true&categoryId=444710. I've gotten quite a few games from those people during their "48 Hour Madness" sales so they're legit. Local gamestop will have it for about that much as well if you get it used for playstation (don't know if you have PS2 or PS3). Can tell you that if you have a PS3, don't bother with any PS2 version's of the same game. They are no where near as good by comparison. If you have a decent windows computer and only a PS2, I'd try to get the PC version.

All the games I listed are for PC (GTR 1 and 2, rFactor, GT Legends) and are simulators. For the more arcadey racing, you may wanna take a look at DiRT and GRID. They aren't NFS-grade arcade racers by any means as they'll give you a harsh lesson in physics for taking a hairpin at 120mph, but they are decent little time wasters with varying levels of difficulty so that you can make it as easy or hard as you want. In fact, GRID has some fun demolition racing, though there is very little focus on it (1 car type and 2 tracks).

I don't know of any recently made games that have drag racing besides pro street, but there is a group working on a mod for rFactor (you can see that here: http://www.rfactorcentral.com/detail.cfm?ID=AusModders%20Drag%20Racing). I wouldn't buy rFactor with the hope of a mod coming out, but if you like sim racing any, rFactor is a real good buy. Lots of mods and tracks for it to keep you busy 'til sunrise. :)

BTW, I hope you have a Mac with that boot-something-another program, because I doubt any of those games I've listed have a Mac version. GoGamer does sell Mac games though, so if you're really bored you could always check what they have.

[jesseleite]

I do have a mac, but I run XP Professional on it as well (as a dual boot using their "Boot Camp" or whatever it's called). However, I just found it at a local EB games used for PS2; paid $14 CDN. I couldn't pass it up for that price since I wasn't sure if I'd even like it. Anyway, I've played it now for 5 or so hours and it seems half decent. Here's my brief review:

PROS: The upgrade system is not as deep as I'd like it to be, but I guess it's pretty deep for a NFS game. The worst part is that it focuses more aerodynamic and handling upgrades. Engine upgrades (even on the muscle cars) are pretty shallow. However, when you make any upgrades they seem to really make a difference; so I am sure it will keep me busy for a little while. I like the idea of buying a car and customizing it for a certain race type. The game doesn't let you use one car as a swiss army knife. You really have to work on each car's strengths. There are some really nice muscle cars; both old and modern. Pretty nice! You don't see this in many racing games these days; and when you do, you usually cannot drag race them. Now that I've played it a bit and started to make upgrades, the racing is getting addictive.

CONS: The story is not really very gripping (yet anyway), and the announcer is pretty annoying. Even though there is a decent selection of muscle cars, the game still seems to have that modern import gangster feel to it. While the old muscle cars are great for the drag racing, I think that for all the other event types you really need the handling of a newer car. As for as intense drag racing and atmosphere goes, it doesn't come close to Street Rod II (I love the feeling of Street Rod II since it is set in the 70's).

CONCLUSION: It got a bad rating with most gaming sites which I don't agree with. I think it's because NFS fans have always been about imports & exotic cars, illegal fast and furious street racing, and cop chases. I like how this game has more tuning, muscle, and drag racing than any other game... and instead of street racing, it's all about organized events which is cool; which is why the cop chases are gone. Also, some reviewers complained about bad handling, but this is the first NFS game that really makes you slow down and brake around the corners (similar feel to Gran Turismo in that respect). As far as NFS games go, it's the best I've ever played; too bad I missed out on MCO. Well this game will hold me over for a while until MWO!!! :D Can't wait until the beta!

[Ayce]

Also, some reviewers complained about bad handling, but this is the first NFS game that really makes you slow down and brake around the corners !

Sorry, wrong. :D
PU was the closest they got to "real" physics. You couldn't just whip those Porsches around a corner full throttle, and you had to slow down before you hit the corners, or your butt would be in front of you. :eek: Especially if you were running with the stock clans ( [SS] and [RS] ) :cool:
True, with the right setups you could come close, but you still had to drive them.
The earlier versions weren't too bad in some respects, but not up to the level of PU.

Of course, as usual, this is just my experienced opinion. :ciao:

[jesseleite]

Oh really eh? I guess Pro Street wasn't the first then. I was just surprised to see that you actually have to use braking (quite a bit) around corners in Pro Street; especially since most of the NFS games I have played have been way too arcade-like when it came to getting away with tight cornering at 80+ mph. I am really surprised about Pro Street in that respect, even if it's not a true racing sim like PU was (I don't know, never played PU). I am also really impressed with the car selection compared to most of their other games.

I still have gripes about the game though; namely the corny atmosphere and voice acting, and lack of engine customization/tuning depth. It's definitely not a sim in that respect. I know I keep going back to street rod 2, but I loved looking through classifieds, finding new & used parts, changing those parts, and seeing their effect on the car's performance. You even got to physically bolt and unbolt the parts under the hood when changing the parts; it made me feel more like a mechanic lol (this would be an awesome feature to have in MWO)!!! And depending on how you drive your car, parts wear faster/slower, and you need to replace them every so often ....incredible depth for such an old game! Hot Rod American Street Drag had some of the same concepts (lots of customization options) but it lacked real makes and models of cars and parts, and the actual drag racing was mediocre.

Maybe some features to think about implementing in MWO if they haven't already been thought of?