Rally
Latest
A sealed copy of 'Super Mario Bros.' has sold for a record-breaking $2 million
An unopened copy of Super Mario Bros. has sold for $2 million, shattering the previous record set by a video game sale set just last month when a collector paid $1.56 million to obtain a mint version of Super Mario 64.
Formula One champion Jenson Button will compete in Extreme E
Former Formula One champion Jenson Button is joining Extreme E. Lewis Hamilton, the current Formula One title holder, and Nico Rosberg, the 2016 champion, have created their own teams for the electric motorsport.
Uber and Lyft allegedly paid drivers to rally against employee status
There is seemingly no end in sight for Uber and Lyft's ongoing worker status dispute. The raging debate has seen battles in the UK Supreme Court, multimillion-dollar lawsuits, driver strikes and only a few small victories for labor groups. Now, the waters have been muddied even further following reports that Uber and Lyft essentially bribed drivers to protest in the companies' best interests.
GoFundMe shuts down campaigns for Charlottesville suspect
Crowdfunding platforms are taking a no-tolerance approach to campaigns raising money in support of James Fields, the man accused of driving a car into protesters at a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday. GoFundMe has already removed "multiple" campaigns for Fields. Speaking to Reuters, strategic communications director Bobby Whithorne said: "Those campaigns did not raise any money and they were immediately removed." He added that GoFundMe will delete similar campaigns if more are created.
The yellow flag is out for the motorsport.com app
If you are an auto racing enthusiast, regardless of what form of racing you follow, the motorsport.com app is one you should check out. The free universal app requires iOS 7.0 or later and is a winner is some areas but comes up short of the finish line in others. This app is a one stop location for news, photos, and videos of Formula 1, NASCAR, Indy Car, endurance racing, drag racing, dirt track events, motorcycles, and dozens of other racing series here in the United States and around the world. The app opens with the latest news from all of the various racing series. You can then slide the title bar to the left to choose specific series including all the ones named above. The web site employs its own staff and all the stories I read came from members of the staff likely using a variety of services and their own sources for the information. Some of the categories were up to date with new stories but in others I found no new stories posted for more than six weeks. Drag racing for example had a story from November 26th but the next story was dated back in July, then one in June and then the next story was posted way back in January. So it appears some racing series are covered more thoroughly than others. One area I did find appealing is the selection of photos available. You will find more than one million photos posted in the app covering races and events going back to 1921. Users can utilize a search function to narrow the vast number of photos to a more workable amount. For example I did a search for the Michigan 500 and found more than three hundred photos. Another search for Al Unser Jr. found just under a thousand photos. Users can share the photos easily through the app with friends and followers via Facebook and Twitter. You can also upload your own photos to the web site and app if you have pictures from a race, an event featuring a driver, or just about anything else to do with racing. In the video section users will find a large number of available videos from all the racing series. The videos include stories about drivers, races, technical changes, and a variety of topics. You will also see interviews and news conferences plus highlights for specific drivers or races. I even found the complete two hour plus Indy Car race from Sonoma. There is no shortage of material here. For the most part the motorport.com app mirrors the web site. I did a check though and found more news stories on the web site. To be sure you are getting the latest information the web site is the best bet but for pictures and video the app works just fine. So for now we will wave the Caution flag on the app until they get the same news updated to the app that is on the web site.
Daily iPad App: Colin McRae Rally fails to live up to its heritage
When it comes to racing games, Codemasters is one of the most respected developers around, so when one of the company's earliest racing properties -- the iconic Colin McRae Rally, circa 1998 -- hit the App Store, it could have meant great things for iPad gamers. Unfortunately, that is simply not the case. What we are left with is a stripped-down rally racer that not only fails to impress in terms of modern gaming, but also fall short of evoking the pleasant nostalgia of the original Colin McRae Rally. As the title would suggest, Rally is a rally racing title, sticking you in the cockpit of high-powered off-road racing vehicles and asking you to best preset times on tracks ranging from Australia to Greece. Unfortunately, the progression is slow and, if you're hoping to simply hop in and play, you'll be left with just one destination and one vehicle to choose from. You can play the championship mode to unlock additional locales and racing machines, but -- and I can't emphasize this issue enough -- there is a devastating bug that crashes the game as you are in the process of unlocking some of the very first vehicles. After about a half dozen attempts, and shutting off every single other app on my device, along with applying "airplane mode," I was finally able to progress past this section. A cursory glance at the title's App Store reviews reveals that I'm not the only one with this issue, though others don't appear to have been as lucky as I was in eventually moving past it. As this bug will most likely be addressed in short order, let's move on to the parts of the game that won't be fixed so easily. Top of the list is the visuals. Compared to titles like Real Racing 3 or even some of the recent Need for Speed titles on iOS, Rally looks downright ugly. Just about everything in the game aside from the ground and the vehicles themselves are rendered entirely in two dimensions. This includes every tree, bush and tuft of grass on the track. It ultimately just makes the entire experience feel fake and cheap. The knee-jerk argument for this outdated visual style is that the game is based on the original Colin McRae Rally from 1998. That's a fine point, except for the fact that this iteration of the game falls short of even the original title from 15 years ago. For example, the first-person driving mode which was featured in the original title is completely absent from the "new" iOS version. The controls are another sticking point, as the game offers just barebones tap- or tilt-steering options. Not only that, but the tap steering feels a tad too sensitive, while the tilt steering is actually less responsive than you'd probably like it to be. It's nearly impossible to get a good feel for the actual driving. Combine all this with bland and boring menus, zero bonus content after you've bested the championship mode and no option to customize the vehicles themselves -- even with new paint jobs, and you've got a hard sell at US$4.99. Overall, Colin McRae Rally is a disappointing entry into the iOS gaming scene, and comes off feeling like a game that should have debuted for the iPhone 3G rather than the iPhone 5 and top-of-the-line iPads. There are simply too many better racing games on the iPad to bother with this one.
Forza Horizon 'Rally' DLC rolls out these five cars tomorrow
Forza Horizon's Rally DLC hits the asphalt tomorrow on Xbox 360 for 1,600 MS Points, or at no cost for those who have the Forza Horizon Season Pass.To insure you're getting your money's worth, check out the following five cars that are included in the Rally DLC pack: a blue and yellow 2005 Subaru Impreza WRX STi, the "Group B" 1982 Lancia 037 Stradale, the 1992 Ford Escort RS Cosworth, 1992 Toyota Celica GT-Four RC ST185 and the lightweight 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII MR. Season Pass holders will have access to a sixth rally car, the 2003 Ford SVT Focus.A free car isn't such a bad deal, even if it is a Ford old enough to know long division.
Apple investors 'return to senses' with big rally today
A massive sell-off in Apple shares that's been going on for about eight weeks now appears to have been nipped in the bud with a rally from Friday's close of US$527.68 to a high around $560. While the news out of Washington, DC about possible action on the upcoming "fiscal cliff" appears to be driving a broader market rally today, John Paczkowski at AllThingsD points out the real driver behind the AAPL rally -- Wall Street analysts are pointing out the stock slide as "unmerited". This morning, Topeka Capital Markets' Brian White sent a note to clients stating that "The sell-off in Apple's stock over the past eight weeks has gotten to the point of being 'insanely insane' given the depressed valuation, new blockbuster products for the holiday season, the attractive long-term growth opportunities that lie ahead and the company's ability to distribute significant cash flow to investors." Over the weekend, Paczkowski pointed out that the pre-holiday decline in Apple share price is a "historical pattern ... Apple shares slip late in the year amid profit-taking and some irrationality or other. And then the company reports monster first-quarter earnings in January and they spike."
City of Heroes fans buy Paragon Studios a meal and proclaim allegiance
The zeal of the City of Heroes fanbase has not wavered, and fans continue striving to avert the game's shutdown. But it's not just the game that's suffered; the staff at Paragon Studios has been hit with a heavy load as well. TonyV, mastermind behind the movement to save CoH, knew of a restaurant that the studio employees frequented for meals and started a fundraiser to buy the staff a meal. It took three hours to raise $1000, enough for the entire team to have a nice dinner out courtesy of the fans. Fans are also organizing further events in-game. Two massive joint task force runs are scheduled for September 20th at 9 p.m. EDT and September 22nd at noon EDT. Players are asked to gather in Steel Canyon in record numbers to run Positron's Task Force en masse, showing that the entire playerbase is indeed Positron's Ally. Check the official thread for more details and start clearing some space on your schedule for next week. [Thanks to Dr. Toerag for the tip!]
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The fight to save City of Heroes
City of Heroes fans took to the streets on Saturday. Specifically, they took to the streets of Atlas Park, running a massive in-game protest against the game's cancellation. I'm going to assume that you were there if you're reading this column, as I certainly was, and I got quite a number of screenshots of the whole protest part of the event. If you missed it, we've got video. I didn't stick around for the costume contest, mostly because it turns out I didn't have a slot for Melissa Bianco with a crab backpack. The protest was the brainchild of TonyV, who is also the organizer behind the entire movement to save City of Heroes via a special message board dedicated to keeping the community organized. And considering what I've said in the past regarding other games that have shut down, you probably knew I would have something to say about this movement. It's something I support, but there's more nuance to it than just that. So let's talk about the fight to save the city.
Fans show spectacular support for City of Heroes
Years and years of acting out a super-human ideal in-game have apparently worn off on the players of City of Heroes. Faced with the news that their beloved game is due to sunset before the end of the year, CoH fans have been putting on a tremendous show of support for the game and Paragon Studios. Saturday saw a massive rally on the in-game steps of City Hall in Atlas Park as players gathered to show their support and love for Paragon Studios and its employees. The support campaign continues, however: Intrepid CoH fans have organized a call to action to bombard NCsoft with capes and masks through the mail. Fans are also rising up to share their feelings via letters to Taek Jin Kim, NCsoft's CEO, which has caught the attention of fantasy writer and CoH guest author Mercedes Lackey. In response to the original call to letter-writing action, Lackey said said she was extending an offer to NCsoft to endorse, uncompensated, any and all NCsoft products if the company can only find a way for CoH to live on. Skip below the cut for a short clip showing a composite of the 3,000-odd heroes spread across 32 instances of Atlas Park on the Virtue server, or hit up the official boards for some screenshots from the unity rally.
OSCar eO build finally finished, electric offroader prepares for the mountains of South America
It's been a few months since we first heard about OSCar eO and its plans to tackle the (arguably) most difficult task in motorsport: make it from the start of the Dakar Rally to the finish. Well, the race starts in about a month and a half, and the Latvian team building the rugged EV has finally finished its arduous task. Aside from countless welds to create a formidable frame, there was also plenty of wiring and programming involved in getting the range-extended EV ready for the coming off-road battle. Winston Battery packs provide 52kWh of juice to the electric motor, which can produce up to a massive 335kW of power on command. Should a lead-footed driver tap into that tire-shredding ability too much, a 60kW generator driven by a Nissan V6 is there to pick up the slack. You may be wondering just how hard it is to build a machine that can conquer the Andes while powered by humble electrons? Find out for yourself in the video after the break. [Thanks, John]
League of Legends announces ranked team play, Summoner Spell changes
Riot Games has announced that Season Two will bring ranked team play to the online MOBA title League of Legends. Previously, players have had their own individual gameplay rankings, but starting with the game's Season Two update, teams will be able to form up on either the 5v5 or 3v3 maps, and get their own rankings as a group. Teams will need a captain to create and invite or remove members, and will be able to choose a name and tag to go with their rating. The company is also tweaking the in-game Summoner Spell abilities. The Rally and Fortify spells, which Riot calls "underused," are being removed from play, and in their place will be Surge and Promote. Surge will allow Summoners who chose it to boost themselves up with an aura buff, empowering their champions and anyone around them with extra combat effectiveness. And the Promote spell has made its way over from the Dominion gametype, so players who choose it will be able to beef up a minion in the standard game now. Season Two doesn't have a release date yet, but it will also bring the long-awaited Spectator Mode to the game, which has already been seen on the servers in preview form. Odds are that we don't have too much longer to wait for the full update.
ESPN X Games 17 returns with more than double the 3D coverage, takes rally racing to the streets
ESPN has released some of the broadcast details for Summer X Games 17, scheduled to occur between July 28th - 31st, and it's increasing from eight hours of 3D coverage last year to a planned 18 hours this time around. Interestingly, the HD schedule has been shortened slightly from 31 hours to 25, but there's still plenty of sports action to catch, including a new Enduro X motocross competition and a move to the streets of downtown Los Angeles for the Rally racing competitions. Check all the details currently available in the press release after the break, we're going to go find and wash our Travis Pastrana jersey.
OSCar eO will bring EVs to the Dakar rally (video)
The Dakar is the most grueling race in the world and, while that historic location is no longer the destination, the race itself still serves as the most brutal punishment a car (or bike) can take. If you can cover 5,500 miles across some of the roughest terrain in the world you know you built it right. The Rīga Rally-Raid Team has done just that in the past, and for its next attempt it'll make things more interesting with a series hybrid powertrain. Its car is called the OSCar eO, an EV with enough batteries to make it between 150 and 300km on a charge. However, most Dakar stages are well longer than that, so the car also carries an on-board generator, a Nissan-sourced engine fueled by a 200 liter fuel tank. That's 53 gallons worth of the good stuff to keep this thing going over the kind of terrain you can see in the video below, with regenerative dampers helping to add juice as well. Will the whole contraption make it all the way to Dakar Lima? We're hopeful, but then again we all know how well sand and electronics get along.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: magic airplane skin, Japan's nuclear leak, and the circuit board table
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. As the nuclear crisis at Japan's Fukushima power plant continues to devastate the region and one reactor sprung a leak releasing tons of radioactive water, this week Inhabitat reported that green algae could play a critical role in cleaning up the spill. We also brought you Japan's latest radiation-detecting robot, and we took a look at how fallout from the controversial crisis is affecting energy policy around the world -- China is cutting plans for future reactors in favor of solar fields while Germany may trade 17 nuclear plants for wind farms. In other news, green transportation went from the soaring skies to the deep blue sea this week as we looked at NASA's self-healing "magic skin" that will protect planes from lighting, and Sir Richard Branson unveiled a streamlined eco sub that will explore the ocean's depths. We also learned that the European Union is set to kick off an electric F1 racing championship just as Tesla took top place in the 5th Monte Carlo Alternative Energy Rally. Finally, we looked at two innovative technologies for enabling human movement -- a robotic exoskeleton that gives paraplegics the ability to walk and a prosthetic suit that lets people swim like mermaids. This week we also spotted several awesome example of green gadgetry - a colorful Legotron camera made out of everyone's favorite building bricks and a geek chic binary table constructed entirely from vintage circuit boards. We also spotted a concept for an energy-generating playground that harnesses the literal power of play.
Flying Finn Juha Kankkunen demonstrates Nokia's Car Kit CK-200 (video)
More and more cars offer integrated Bluetooth from the factory, but absolutely none offer an integrated Juha Kankkunen. The four-time World Rally Champion isn't even an option at any manufacturer that we know of, but regardless of make and model you can add a little Bluetooth integration with Nokia's CarKit CK-200. It's a display that sits on your dashboard and connects to two Bluetooth devices simultaneously, and through the wireless controller that clips onto your steering wheel (at right above) you can navigate contacts, make calls, and even scroll through text messages. We're not so sure about the texting part, but it should be a great way to enable hands-free calling from one device and Bluetooth music streaming from another at the same time, if that's your thing. Not sold? The video after the break of Kankkunen doing his thing in a rally-prepped VW while taking calls will make you a convert. You know what they say: if it's good enough for Juha, it's good enough for you-a.
100 straight, October 4, don't cut: WRC schedule for HD Theater revealed
We finally know exactly when Discovery HD Theater will deliver the rally racing action it promised now that the official schedule has been revealed. Our friends at Autoblog have plenty of pics to gawk over while we mark off the days, check after the break for the PR with dates and times, plus a preview trailer. We're not sold on how the new NA engines in WRC may sound in 5.1, but we'll always take more HD racing action, you hear that Bernie?
DiRT 2 Achievement takes off-putting meme off-road
Though "meme" is perhaps a euphemistic label for the lurid mental virus that is "Two Girls, One Cup" (don't Google that if the phrase sounds foreign), we're nonetheless pleased to see Codemasters taking the piss out of the fecal internet documentary and turning it into something more wholesome and rewarding: an Achievement (slash Trophy)! Witness the "Two Cups One Girl" Achievement, awarded in the upcoming off-roader, DiRT 2, for winning two team events with the same female teammate. Looking over the game's 47 pop-up awards, you'll also spot a Ghostbusters reference, a pun or two, and a joke that requires cursory knowledge of The Karate Kid. It's like they made this just for the internet. %Gallery-45501% [Thanks, Merkaba]
New Dirt 2 trailers feature fancy cars, lots of dirt
What do a BMW Z4 Coupe, a Subaru WRX Hatch, and a mess of big trucks have in common? They'll all be at your disposal in upcoming rally-racer Dirt 2, silly! Aside from the game's striking visuals -- the ones that we marveled over when we saw it last February -- gameplay has always been a strong suit for Codemasters' dirt racer. While the video above, titled "Baja Raid," looks vaguely similar to games like Motorstorm and Pure, we expect a different, more simulation than arcade, feel from Dirt 2. Check out the rest of the trailers after the break or head over to our sister site Big Download and snag them for yourself in full HD glory.%Gallery-45501%
