Seeping Matter

The game Forza Motorsport 2 took a step towards greatness tonight when it helped me answer that question you and I have both been wondering about our whole lives:  What would it be like to drive a 700HP blown Aston Martin V12 Vanquish in a demolition derby?

Answering difficult questions is one of the main things that great video games do.

As far as I’m concerned, a great video game is supposed to allow you to make virtual people do things that you would never do personally in real life.  By this I don’t just mean “fight aliens” either.  I also mean things like “fight aliens using only a chainsaw.”  Fighting aliens using only a chainsaw is not a recommended activity for a living person, because the aliens are likely to shoot you with too many fireballs before you can get close enough to saw them.  But I think it is a great thing for a virtual person to do.

Some people disagree with this assertion.  They want video games to resemble actual life.  These are the kind of people who do not have a real life and so they obtain a Second Life.  They grade games based on how “realistic” they are.

Not me.  The point of playing a video game is to escape reality, not create more reality.  The point of playing a video game is to answer difficult questions, the kind that cannot be answered in reality.

Here are some very key questions that, thanks to video games, we have the answers to:

• Is it possible to obtain victory in a military conflict without actually harvesting any vespene gas or training any combat units?
  • Answer:  Yes — at least if you are a Protoss.  Simply build a forge and then overwhelm the enemy with a plethora of photon cannons.  (StarCraft)
• What do you do when a new neighbor moves in next door, paints the entire house black, and goes about the neighborhood wearing a black fisherman’s poncho and sporting a handheld fish hook, looking eerily exactly like the villain in “I Know What You Did Last Summer”?
  • Answer:  You walk over, greet him, and invite yourself inside.  (The Sims)
• What happens when you run into oncoming traffic in a firetruck going around 80 mph?
  • Answer:  Most cars go flying out of your way.  (Grand Theft Auto 3)
• Can Chad Reed win Glen Helen on my KX 250?
  • Answer:  Yes; in fact, he has done so in convincing fashion many times, despite some pretty wicked crashes.  (Motocross Madness 2)
• What is the shortest possible street circuit of any consequence that you can have in London?
  • Answer:  Start in front of the National Gallery.  Drive as fast as you can around Trafalgar Square, back in front of the National Gallery again.  This circuit is known as “Tinier Tim.”  (Project Gotham Racing 3)

I’ve said before, and reaffirm here, that some characteristics of good computer games are to a) allow user generated content and b) allow you to play the game in an alternate way.  These traits, along with c) CHEAT CODES, are very helpful if a video game is going to help answer difficult questions.  As examples, consider the Project Gotham Racing series.  PGR3 includes a track editor.  PGR4 does not.  So, despite having many more tracks and cars, PGR4 will never attain the level of excellentness that PGR3 has attained.  And consider The Sims, an otherwise horrible game.  But it is possible to create neighborhoods with rich coeds and mass murderers and really pathetically poor people, and then run their lives in evil, twisted, masochistic ways.  And Sim Survivor, don’t forget!  Finally, let’s not underestimate the significance of the phrase “give us a tank” to the success of Grand Theft Auto 3!

Forza Motorsport 2 is a driving simulator, and it seems pretty intent on achieving a high degree of realism.  This isn’t exactly a sin, but why would I be interested in driving a Ford Focus in a simulation?  Driving a Ford Focus cannot possibly be fun in real life; how could it be fun in virtual life?

This is a major drawback, until you start winning and earning credits.  Suddenly, you can do some fun things, like buy a virtual car that looks exactly like your real 2003 Nissan 350Z, but then add every upgrade so now your Z is a 215mph race car.

Or you can answer the question that’s been plaguing you for ages, “What would it be like to drive a 700HP blown Aston Martin V12 Vanquish in a demolition derby?”  Since, admirably, Forza Motorsport 2 allows you to drive backwards (unlike some ultra-lame racing games), you can easily answer this question for yourself.

(If you are confused, “backwards” means “around the track in the opposite direction”, which is something that is obviously awesome, not “driving in reverse”, which is something that is only arguably awesome.)

True, it lacks cheat codes and user-generated content.  I’m not allowed to really excellent things, like drive my car into the grandstands (all possible in Motocross Madness 2).  So Forza Motorsport 2 may never achieve true greatness.  But the ability to drive backwards is definitely a step in the right direction.

matt Humor 350z, Gaming, Hobbies, Microsoft, Motocross

Setting up a new computer is one of those things that should be enjoyable, but is mostly just tedium.  That’s because there really isn’t a single OS out there that does for me everything I want in a single distribution – at least not one I’ve found.  In truth Linux comes closest, but in the case of Linux, there are still some things (like Motocross Madness 2, one of the best PC games ever) that you just don’t get there.

And don’t start giving me lectures on Mac.  Same problem applies there.  Even without games, I still have pretty much the same setup overhead for Mac as anything else.  Macs are great, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t write Mac software anymore, so I don’t have to be showing the Steve-love for a while now, until I start doing Mac development again.

Anyway, I’m willing to bet that at my new job my development machine will be a Windows machine – it’s just a hunch I have.  So here’s the rundown of setting the machine up for usefulness and effectiveness.

Basics
	First is Firefox. Firefox is a great web browser, fast and pretty reliable.  Once you’ve got Firefox installed, you’ll want to grab a handful of Firefox plugins.  When I set up next, I’ll be trying Google Gears, AdBlock, FireBug, Better GMail/GCal/GReader, Tab Mix Plus, FaviconizeTab, Fission, and GreaseMonkey of course.  I keep IE around because sometimes I need it, but I make Firefox my default browser.
	In addition to e-mail, I use calendaring and news readers (RSS/Atom) almost every day. A lack of decent free options in the past got me used to using Google for all of this stuff. But if I were to decide to use rich applications for these purposes instead, I’d give Thunderbird, Sunbird, and RSSOwl a try.
	Next is OpenOffice.org. I know, most people use Microsoft Office.  I realize it is better.  I realize it is more powerful.  I realize it is more ubiquitous.  It is also expensive for my purposes.  Stick with Office if you like it.
	For instant messaging I use Pidgin. Since I’ve got friends using MSN/Hotmail, Google, and Yahoo! among others, Pidgin gives me a great way to be able to chat with all of them in a single IM client.  And it has some great plugins that I’m eager to try out.
Multimedia
	For listening to and organizing music, I’ve been hearing a lot about Songbird and I think I’ll give that a try.  I don’t buy music from iTunes and I don’t have an iPod (I know, lame).  If I did I’d go with iTunes.  Although, I do like iTunes Genius feature, so I might go with iTunes just for that.
	When it comes to audio editing, Audacity is where it’s at.  I’ve used Audacity to make ringtones from some of my music MP3s, to edit and mix recorded WAV files into MP3 files, and even for my son’s science project to examine the differences between sound waves.  A must-have.
	In doing research for this blog post, I ran across these apps:  MediaCoder for translating and saving media files, Handbrake for ripping copies of your DVDs to formats for your handheld, and ImgBurn for creating DVDs.  So I haven’t actually used them yet, but I can hardly wait to try them out.  Managing video files and recordings is something I built my computer to do, but finding the software to get the job done has been tough.  Hopefully I’ll find the answer among these tools.
	DoubleTwist is a new application I’m eager to try for managing the transfer and synchronization of files from the PC to your handheld device.  I’ve got a really cool little Sony Ericsson phone that is supposed to work flawlessly with DoubleTwist; can’t wait to find out.
	I’ve used The Gimp for my photo editing for years and, for me, it removes any need for me to buy Photoshop.  I’m sure Photoshop users would disagree.  But hey, I’m not a graphic artist.  I’m just a guy who needs to edit photos from time to time, even for my job, and can’t justify the expense of Photoshop.  Lately, friends have been telling me about Paint.NET, and what they are telling me is that they like it better than The Gimp.  That’s a high standard in my opinion.  I’ll have to check it out.
	Ah – where would I be without Steam?  Steam’s client is free to download and serves as the launching pad for most of the games I play.  A lot of games I really like, such as Audiosurf and World of Goo, I first found out about via Steam.  Every time I launch it it seems there are more titles and more publishers available through Steam.
Security
	Truecrypt is a highly regarded application for encrypting data on your PC – one I’ve been meaning to try for a long time and plan to soon.  I know, I should do this.  Eraser, on the other hand, is one I’ve used for a long time.  It makes it really easy to truly erase files from your computer by performing multiple overwrite passes to keep your data from being restored after you’ve intentionally deleted it.
	For managing the applications that launch automatically when your PC starts, it is hard to beat Mike Lin’s Startup Monitor and Startup Control Panel applications.  Startup Monitor runs discretely in the background, and just notifies you when some application has requested to be run at startup, allowing you to decide whether to accept this or not.  Startup Control Panel offers a simple view of the applications already scheduled to run at startup, and allows you to disable them.  Great for improving boot times and free resources, not to mention helpful in keeping your desktop secure from rogue apps running in the background doing who knows what.
	Spybot Search & Destroy is essential for keeping your PC clear of spyware and adware that want to do evil things behind your back.  It integrates with most common web browsers, including Firefox, to help lock them down to avoid evil cookies and other tracking software from sending information about you to others.
	If you are up for trying a free PC antivirus application, ClamAV is the answer for you. Okay, I haven’t used it and probably won’t for a while because I’ve already got a license for a security suite.  But if you are in the market it is probably worth a try.  It certainly could not be worse than BitDefender (that steaming pile).
Utilities
	Daemon Tools is a simple utility that can mount local disk images as filesystems.  Mac does this very easily, of course, with .dmg files, but you need a tool like Daemon Tools to do it on a PC.  Use Alcohol 120% to create mountable disk images from game CDs, for example, which will enable you in most cases to play PC games by mounting the disk image in Daemon Tools instead of inserting the CD.  Or use it to mount ripped DVD ISOs when you are converting them to a format you can use on your handheld.
	Many years ago, Novell had this really great product called iFolder that you used to synchronize files between multiple computers.  Like many Novell products, it was a really awesome product that nobody ever heard about because Novell can’t figure out how to market anything.  But Novell employees know about iFolder and most of them are like me – once I got used to using it I could hardly stand to not have it. When I left Novell this was a big big problem for me. Finally Dropbox came along to address my problem.  Dropbox allows you to do what iFolder did years ago – synchronize files between multiple computers.  Dropbox is not nearly as full featured as the latest iFolder 3, but at least this one you can use without being a Novell employee.
	As I’ve said before, once I started working for Mozy I realized that online backup should be considered essential for anyone.  I really don’t know why a person wouldn’t use Mozy.  Even if you are backing your data up on a second drive, USB drive, thumb drive, etc. you should be using Mozy, to automatically provide a secure backup copy of your data in a separate location – for recovery from fire damage, for example. Having worked at Mozy for the past 14 months, I can vouch for their solid technology which is, in my opinion, the best in the industry without question.  You need online backup, so why not use Mozy?  You can back up 2GB for free or as much as you want for $5/month.
	For archiving and compressing infrequently-used data, I recommend 7Zip. It will unpackage almost anything and will package in the most common formats, including Linux-compatible TAR/GZ formats.  It’ll also do encryption and self-extracting packages in some formats.  In other words, it’s pretty much everything you want in an archiving tool, for no cost.
	I haven’t tried Everything yet but I plan to soon.  This is a highly rated desktop search engine along the lines of Spotlight for Mac.  Windows search I mostly use as last resort, but if this is anything like Spotlight I’ll use Everything all the time.
	Freemind is a note-taking application that I’m eager to try.  I’ve been needing one of these for some time, so I’m anxious to give it a shot.
	I consider Cygwin an essential PC utility.  Since I’m a lot more familiar with the Linux shell than the PC DOS-style shell, Cygwin provides me with a command prompt I’m comfortable with.  Cygwin comes with a large number of helpful tools, like the GNU C complier suite, ssh/scp, wget, and others.
	I’d also consider SQLite an essential PC utility.  SQLite is a very simple file-based SQL engine that is very useful and freaking awesome.  I’d recommend a PC utility for using SQLite but there really isn’t a good one.  Probably your best option is SQLiteSpy.
Application Development
	I’ve said before that if a person’s going to learn to write software, I think the two most important languages to learn are C and Python.  Since you already installed Cygwin you probably already have a C compiler on your machine, so now you need to get Python installed. In addition to Python, Ruby seems pretty interesting and one you should definitely look at, in addition to Python (and not instead of Python, not yet anyway). You should note that if you plan to do Python and/or Ruby development, you’ll probably want to get used to doing that natively on your machine, and not via Cygwin.  So don’t depend on the Cygwin Python and Ruby interpreters – use the native interpreters instead. If you must, use Java.  Sometimes there’s stuff you just can’t do without it.
	Ah, Eclipse:  the mother of all development environments.  Having worked closely with the Eclipse foundation and been part of starting an Eclipse project myself, I have a strong affinity for Eclipse.  For Java development, I’d consider it one of the best, if not the best, Java IDE available.  It’s also a great free alternative for a lot of other languages and application types.  Get not only the base Eclipse, but the plugins for C/C++, PHP, RCP/Plugin development, Data Tools, Test and Profiling Tools, and Web Tools. And if you aren’t going to get the Eclipse Python plugin, you’ll want to install Eric instead.  Eric is a pretty good little Python IDE that works on both Linux and Windows.  You’ll need PyQt for Eric to work I think. If you are really wanting to do development in C# and .NET instead, but don’t have the .NET platform, you could try SharpDevelop.  I haven’t tried it though, so I can’t say – and in my new job, I’ll be doing my C# development in Visual Studio, which is certainly better.
	If you want to try out simple GUI programming, especially cross-platform GUI programming, try wxWidgets.  You can program directly to wxWidgets in C or C++, or in Python using wxPython.  If you think GUI programming with wxPython is your cup of tea, you might also want to try Boa Constructor, which is a good Python development environment with GUI building tools.
	For web development on a Windows PC, I love WAMP.  This simple bundle offers Apache, MySQL, and PHP all together in a single package that you can easily start and stop all as one. (This is the part where the Mozy PHP bigots comment to tell me how rotten PHP is, and where they tell me how much better Perl is, and where I nod and pretend to agree in order to keep the peace.  So bring it on.) WAMP is great for your typical free-style web application development, especially if you are building from an existing framework, which is quite likely to be built in PHP.  If you’re building from scratch, however, you would probably want to strongly consider Ruby on Rails, in which case you’ll want to install RubyGems to get Rails and other goodies. Finally, I hear Kompozer is a pretty good HTML-style editor and page builder, and I might give that a shot sometime.

matt Technology Custom PC, Gaming, Linux, Mac, Mozy, Novell, Programming, Software Development

It’s been almost two years since Guitar Hero II came out for the XBox 360.  I know this because that is pretty much why I bought one.  That, plus I was working at Novell at the time, and our project had just been cancelled again, so I was kinda bummed, and I needed to blow a lot of money to feel better about myself.

Amber said yes, and I was pretty stoked.  So I bought myself and XBox 360 from BestBuy.  I’d heard about the now-famous Red Ring Of Death, so uncharacteristically I decided to pay for the extended warranty.

Unsurprisingly, our XBox 360 eventually decided to sport the Red Ring Of Death – a fate, much like real death, that is unavoidable for older XBoxen.  What is pretty amazing about this experience is that ours chose to manifest the Red Ring Of Death about one month before the warranty expired.

Really.  That is pretty incredible.  That’s how I know it has been almost two years since Guitar Hero II came out.

Microsoft, I hear, has been pretty cool about handling this Red Ring Of Death thing, and since my machine was less than two years old I figured I could get Microsoft to replace it.  But then I remembered having purchased the extended warranty.  So I took it in to BestBuy today to see if they would replace it.

(By the way, can you guess what the customer service associate typed into the “Reason for Return” field on the return form when I brought back my XBox 360?  ”Red Ring Of Death.”  I don’t know if that is funny or embarrassing.)

So here’s what happened:

• On April 6, 2007, I purchased my XBox 360 from BestBuy for $399.
• Some time ago, Sadie gave one of my XBox 360 controllers a drink of orange juice.  It got heartburn and never recovered.  After that, we let Oakley play with it since it was completely non-functional.
• Last night I packaged up the XBox 360, with all the accessories and the non-functional controller, to take back to BestBuy.
• Today they gave me a brand new one, which means:
  • My new XBox 360 has a 60 GB hard drive instead of a 10 GB hard drive.
  • My new XBox 360 has an HDMI output where the other did not.
  • My new XBox 360 came with two new video games where the other did not.
  • My new XBox 360 comes with a brand new manufacturer’s warranty – clock reset.
  • My new XBox 360 only costs $299. So I got also got a sweet BestBuy gift card for the difference, which I am thinking might be well used to buy something like Fable II.

Yeah, this Red Ring Of Death thing ended up being pretty sweet.  I completely upgraded my XBox 360, got some new games, a new controller, and reset the factory warranty for, uh, negative $40?  Sweet.

Only bad thing:  I lost all my old saved games, because I can’t figure out how to save them to a memory stick.  Am I a doofus, or is it just not doable on the XBox 360?  It seems like a software engineer should be able to figure that out.

Oh well.  It is a small price to pay for such a sweet deal.  I’m looking forward to 23 months from now, when hopefully my XBox 360 will Red Ring Of Death again.

matt Hobbies, Technology Gaming, XBox

Sorry it has been a while. A new job means a new schedule and I’m just getting used to it. But around these parts, we don’t really care about jobs. We care about being a half bad boy, and I have to say I’ve made some real progress in this area.

The first, essential step was to restore my leather jacket status, which was done over the Christmas holidays. I now have a black leather jacket, like before. This was a very important step – I literally felt the levels of half-badness rise once I put it on for the first time!

The second and probably biggest step to increased half-bad-boydom was when I acquired my electric guitar, a new Ibanez RG-350 SP1. You can see a picture of it here to the left. I have to say, this is a pretty sweet guitar. It takes me about 15 minutes to get the thing into tune, but once it is in tune it stays in tune quite well even with the Edge III Tremolo on the bridge – and you can bet that I use that sucker. I am the king of the dive-bomb!

You also gotta love the sharktooth inlays on the neck. The neck is nice and fast, the guitar is not too heavy, and very versatile. It has a great sound for all kinds of music.

If you are going to have an electric guitar, you also need an amplifier, so I got one as well. The Line6 Spider III series amps are, in my opinion, great amps for the money. I picked up this little 15 watt practice amp for $100. That’s a pretty good price for a brand new amp that offers reverb, tremolo and chorus along with the distortion. Four programmable presets make it real easy to find the right sound for a song quickly.

Sorry, this reads like an ad, but I really love this stuff. I can’t really play very well, but I am very good at making lots of really awesome loud noises. Sometimes, all you really need to do is make some loud noises to get in touch with your half bad self.

Another good way to do that is by playing Guitar Hero II, which I bought for my XBox 360. Finding this game was no easy feat. I visited several stores before I was able to find it at a nearby K-Mart. (Good advice for the future – if you can’t find something at a mainstream store, try picking it up at K-Mart, where nobody shops unless they absolutely HAVE TO.) This game deludes me into thinking that I really can play the guitar, until I move over to my real guitar and jump back into reality. Guitar Hero II – a good time in a $90 box.

All combining to make me more half bad than I used to be. When you combine this with the job switch, things are definitely looking up!

matt Music Gaming, Guitar, Music, XBox

I figured since I mentioned Sim Survivor last time, I should tell you how to play.

It is really quite easy.

1. Create a new family with eight people in it. We would do more than eight but families can only have eight people in them.
2. Start a game with this family in a home that you will build.
3. When you build the home, focus only on exterior walls. The home should have a fridge inside and a front door. Carpet, wallpaper, furniture, bathroom, beds – all optional.
4. When the home is built, get everyone to go inside the home. Then pause the game and remove the door.
5. The game is on! Eventually you will run out of money and there will be no food in the fridge.
6. The last person still alive is the winner. Enter the cheat code to give them $1M, and then give them some food – fast!
7. Now that they have won, they can blow their $1M on crap, just like the winners of real Survivor do.

Some considerations:

• The spartan game (empty rectangular house with a single fridge) is interesting enough, but adding some creature comforts, like a toilet, one or two beds, or a couch can make things more interesting. This way, some of the Sims will be more rested than others, more happy, etc.
• Building a smaller house increases the likelihood of unhappiness. Not only are people more likely to be standing (and sleeping) in trash and filth, but they are more likely to get in fights. If you are lucky, some of the contestants will give up and quit the game. They will also try in vain to leave.
• For added zest, include a very junky stove. Odds are pretty good that they will start a fire, and with no front door for the firemen to enter, you have to hope it will just burn itself out. This is a good way to expedite the reduction in contestants, although it sometimes you end up with no winner of the game (for example, the Sims sometimes get so sleepy, that they can’t help but fall asleep right in the middle of the fire).
• You will find that the neighbors come by to meet the new move-ins, and will die of starvation trying to find the door. If you care whether the others in your game survive, you may have to intervene in creative ways.
• The winner of the game may find his/her home haunted with the ghosts of the losers in the aftermath.

Have fun, and remember – it isn’t true life.

matt Technology Gaming

Is it really so hard to create a really good computer game?

One of my favorite computer games of all time is Microsoft’s Motocross Madness 2. Now I’m not a big fan of Microsoft – in fact, in most cases I consider them to be at the same time a fascinating phenomenon and a necessary evil – but they did a lot of things right with MCM2.

If you aren’t familiar, MCM2 is a motocross racing game. Although I do truly enjoy racing games, there are a few key things that make this game special.
The track builder is the biggest thing. Microsoft made available the Armadillo track editor, which admittedly is a pretty poor piece of software. But enough people have figured out how to use this thing well enough to create some amazing tracks. For example, you can download literally hundreds of different tracks, including replicas of almost every track on the AMA Motocross circuit, as well as replicas of supercross tracks from past series. This alone makes the game. Why is it that almost no other racing games offer this feature?
Skins are another big thing. In fact, I went through the work to create a skin that looks an awful lot like my very own 1998 KX 250 with the Factory Effex graphics kit. I have another skin that looks an awful lot like my own Thor Core 5 gear. So, yes, I can play myself, on my own KX 250, flying down Mt. St. Helen at Glen Helen if I wish. This way, I only virtually break my collarbone, again.
I first bought this game in 2001 and I am still playing it. If you can find a copy, you can usually get it for pretty cheap (I’m seeing them on eBay right now for less than $10). Personally, I wouldn’t sell you my copy for $100. I’m still improving, too. For example, after I thought I had the game mastered, I realized that you can actually seat-bounce off the jumps. Yes, you do really go farther if you do it right.

The price point, the replay capability, and the variety afforded by the skins and the track editor is what makes this game.

Oh, and one more thing: The ability to go anywhere in the level I want to, not just on the track. Sure, you have to go into practice mode, but at least you can ride the track backwards, or go anywhere else for that matter.

Let’s compare to another racing game I have, NASCAR Thunder 2003 for GameCube. There are a lot of available tracks, but I cannot create new ones. Skinning options are limited. And, no driving backwards on the track!
When the newer version came out, I went into the local game store and asked the salesperson about it.
“It’s a pretty good game,” he said.
“Hmm,” I replied. “Can you drive backwards on the track?”
He looked at me pretty funny. “Uh, no. Why would you want to do that?”
“Because it is fun,” I said.
What is wrong with these people?
Sure, sometimes I want to race for real, and see how well I can do. And sometimes, I want to start the race, turn around, and race backwards, and see how spectacularly I can crash head-on into the oncoming traffic.

It seems like the game making folks forget this. A computer game is meant to be an alternate reality. It isn’t true life. In true life, Chad Reed doesn’t race my KX 250 on a track of my own design, but in MCM2 he does, whenever I want him to. In true life, I’m much too chicken to seek out hostile aliens armed only with a crowbar, but I dare do it in Half-Life. And in true life, I would never dream of driving the wrong direction on the road into oncoming traffic, for a myriad of reasons. But it is pretty fun to do in a computer game.
At least, I assume it would be, if EA hadn’t been so dumb as to disallow it in NASCAR Thunder.

This is why The Sims is a popular game, and why it is fun – but only if you play it right. Most people I know who play The Sims try to play it the “correct” way. Playing the correct way goes like this:

• Get up in the morning when you are still tired
• Skip breakfast so you can be to work on time
• Spend all day at work
• Come home and eat
• Have a brief moment of enjoyment before you have to go to bed
• Rinse and repeat

Gee, that sounds just like real life. You know what – I do that routine every day. Why would I want to play a game that is just like my real life? Yuck!

Now, when you use the cheat codes, the game becomes fun! Ctrl+Shift+C will open a command box where you can type “klapaucius” or “rosebud” (depending on the version you have) to increase your bank balance. Instead of working every day in order to sleep in a tiny house, you can play all day long in a mansion! You can build an indoor pool! You can play basketball in the house! You can put a full-size jacuzzi in your bedroom! You can hire a maid to clean up after you! See? Alternate reality!
This is also really the only way you can find the time to quickly create meaningful relationships with multiple people. If you want to create Sim soap operas this is a necessity. For example, you can get several of the girls across the street to fall in love with you, or you can pick a fight with your neighbor, and then trap him in a room with no door for as long as it takes. Hey, he should be nicer to you in your own house.
This cheat code is also an absolute necessity if you are going to play Sim Survivor.

It’s too bad that you have to contort the game in order to make it fun. Did they forget what normal people do all the time? Did they forget that a computer game is supposed to be an alternate reality, not a depressing reminder of how lame your real life is?

This is why MCM2 is a great game. Playing it the way it was intended to be played means that you can do whatever you want. Sure, ride your motorcycle down that ski jump if you want to. Make your own supercross track with whoops that are 50 feet high, just to see what happens. Or make a rhythm section that can only be done quickly in exactly one way, if you seat bounce the section in the middle. And for only $10. Highly recommended.

If you do pick it up, which you should if you don’t already have it, you will want the following two links:

• MCM Factory
• Twisted Dirt

You can download a lot of great tracks, rider skins, and bike skins from these locations.

matt Technology Gaming