ScouserInExile

I did it stock in about that time. I was helped by a well timed skill song, though. A decent run across the dunes should net about 100k a time. Do that 20 times and you're golden.

I actually quite liked Russell Brand in it, despite not liking him every other time I've seen him. The NCAA thing just seemed odd, though I do wonder if it was, essentially, just him kicking up a fuss to try to fix the problem he'd caused with Q. Like they'd do what he wanted just to shut him up.

Oh right. Is there anything else interesting in the body kits? Like 3 had the original Mad Max Interceptor?

What button is the horn, anyway? Forgot how vibrant Spring looks. It's just lovely.

The problem is that there are peak times to release games - Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving... those sorts of times - where failure to hit one can mean the difference between selling millions and having to sell your house...

Rock N Roll Racing is a particular favourite of mine and it still stands up today. Great graphics, music and, more importantly, gameplay. One of those games I could play for days on end in my youth and can still dip into now via the magic of emulation. Spy Hunter was fantastic at the time as well. Loved Twisted Metal when I tested it. But Rock N Roll Racing is king.

With the extra development funded by loot boxes

At the last console / PC game developer I worked for, the publisher (fed up with not seeing a lot in return for their investment) would regularly say "we want a playable demo by the end of the week, showing x, y and z or we'll pull the plug". Pulling the plug would put everyone out of work, so you couldn't really go "I want to be home in time for Hollyoaks. See ya, suckers!" That is a slightly extreme example, but there were always deadlines to hit and not hitting them could have a huge impact on the project, the company and your job. It was just an accepted part of working in games development. I imagine there are thousands of similar stories across thousands of different industries. When my missus worked in banking, anyone who left before all accounts were reconciled would be kicked out in no time. It was just the way it worked.

I worked in games from 1993 to 2004. Crunch time was a normal feature at every place I worked from a hardware manufacturer (Sony, in fact, there's no point being coy) where we'd work long shifts to get first party stuff tested to small developers where trying to hit deadlines would mean virtually never leaving the office for weeks on end. At least at Sony we got paid overtime. The rest of the places, it was just expected and we'd get food bought for us, at most. At one developer, I was moaned at by the producer because I fell asleep at my desk at 3am, having been in work since 8am the previous day. The most profitable was Eidos - at one point we were testing 8pm to 8am so the developers could work 8am to 8pm to get us something to test. Each shift was 11 hours of time and a half (anything after 9pm was overtime, even if you hadn't done a full day prior to that) and weekends were all double time. I could only do all this when I was single, I couldn't do it now. A lot of it was caused by incompetent management - not least because hardly anyone was vaguely professional, it was virtually treated as a hobby for a lot of people I worked with. And, looking back, none of it was worth it - I never really worked on anything of note. I feel it's worth pointing out that, of the ten companies I worked for or with in my time, only one still exists...

I haven't tried it on the longer, motorway drag strip yet. I suspect that might be closer, since that's about top speed. I used the Speed 12 on that one. How many drag strips are there? Beach, ice, motorway, airstrip and festival site (I think) anyone more to unlock? Can't decide which series to have a crack at next. I've done all the Cross Country races, and hit level 10. I've bee waiting for at least Spring before continuing with any of the story stuff. Might have a crack at the road stuff when the snow melts (in about two hours time).

Discovered something interesting last night. If you take the Subaru you get free from the first rally event to drag racing, it eats the AI cars alive. The default category is Modern Rally, that AI brings along a load of Subarus and the occasional Focus RS, but even on Impossible AI difficulty, they just don't pull away from the line anywhere near as quickly as you do. This is completely unmodded as well. I'm not quite getting Rivals. It doesn't seem to restrict me to a certain car, so it's pretty much random whether I'm going to beat the rival or not. It's slightly odd that the first Rival suggestion is always crap, then it just suggests someone who got exactly the same time you did in your first run. So surely I can just switch to a better car at this point? Or am I missing something?

Yep, it all works out the box these days. It still gets regular updates, with a yearly major update - it's currently on v1.8. You can really go down a rabbit hole with customisation and add-ons. There's just so much out there from new industries, to country specific graphics, realistic rolling stock... Last time I was playing it, I just went with making the roads and buildings look like the UK and didn't go much further than that. If you go on the forums, there are some amazing constructions of hyper efficient rail junctions. Again: rabbit hole. Might be time to reinstall this...

Anyone else still watching this? It's still really good, lightweight fluff with some very good characters. They tried to lever in a bit more serious stuff around race and Trump this series, which felt a little out of place. Good ending to the series, though. The big question is:

Is that opinion / a joke or is there some fact behind that?

Bizarre Creations staff maybe? They were based in Liverpool...