Arnold's Press Pause and Rewind: June 3rd

Is Microsoft spying on me and toying with my emotions?

So this week has been a fairly annoying week for me. I'm in the process of buying a new car (a 350Z) and trading in my old car (an 01 Maxima SE). Nevermind the fact that dealerships are annoying, scummy bastards who think the everyday car consumer is an idiot (hint: I'm not), and that they think they can actually feed me their B.S. and make me believe. My inner monologue when listening to these people ramble usually goes something like this: "ROFLMAO!" with the occasional "OMG STFU!"

So it's bad enough that I still haven't bought my car because dealers in NYC are nothing but con-artists, but dammit...must I be toyed with this intolerable teasing in videogame commercials? I open up my Car and Driver...and there's an ad for Forza 2, and the main car featured? A 350Z. I turn on the TV to watch repeats of Scrubs on Comedy Central, and there's a Forza 2 commercial....the main car featured? A 350Z. I'm convinced that Microsoft has planted spy toys in my office and are reading my thoughts, and are attempting to psychologically coax me into playing Forza 2 as a means of suppressing my urge for a 350Z by driving around their virtual re-creation.

Moreso, other car related advertisements also feature the 350Z...it's driving me nuts. I feel like the world is screaming "Lalalalalala lalalalala, you will never get this, you will never get this!" But I will not cave, dammit. I don't need Forza to quench my inevitable purchase of a 350Z. And while I wait for my new car, Gran Turismo 4 via the PS3's new enhanced output does the job for me.

Videogame developers next on MTV's Cribs.

Speaking of Gran Turismo, the creator (Kazunori Yamauchi) owns a track tuned 350Z, but more importantly also owns a Porsche GT3 and two Ford GTs. Yes, that's right, the guy owns $500,000 worth of Ford vehicles. He also has a nice little Spoon S2000 and that makes the car collection of a videogame designer worth more than most people's houses. Oh what it is to dream...

Though, Kaz isn't the only pimp-daddy with a garage of dames and beasts - but Co-founder of Naughty Dog (Jason Rubin) has been seen hopping around in a Ferrari 355, back in the day. Nice. So what is the point of this? Well, I guess you could say the point is that you don't have to be a celebrity to roll around in wheels that break neck everywhere you go. You can actually do something you genuinely love, and not have 3000 cameras in your face and eight pounds of coke up your nose.

Give me the real thing.

On the topic of sim games, how many of you guys prefer the real thing over a videogame? For instance, I can't be bothered to play a game like Guitar Hero. I'd rather pick up one of my guitars instead and play that. Sports games? I enjoy them quite a bit, but I'd much rather go outside and play sports rather than a videogame. Racing games are a little different, you can do things in a racing game that'll normally leave you imprisoned or dead in real life. Extreme sports games like Tony Hawk, SSX, and (to a lesser extent) NBA Street are always much more enjoyable than simulation based sports games. Once again, these games suspend your beliefs and allow you to perform actions and maneuvers that are otherwise impossible to do in real life. These types of games convey the idea of a videogame to me.

But don't get me wrong, I am in no way saying that sports-sims are bad or something like that, I just prefer the real thing. Either way, sims still have a very long way to go as far as truly capturing the feel of a particular sport. We still don't have a proper basketball game (NBA 2K7 was riddled with issues), we still don't have a proper hockey game (ditto for NHL 2K7), and we still don't have a proper football game (thanks a lot, EA). So far, great strides are being made in baseball (MLB 07: The Show) and in soccer (Winning Eleven series). But of course, there's always room for improvement.