Hey folks,

Namco is coming out with a new street racing game in August called SRS: Street Racing Syndicate. Their PR company e-mailed me to see if I'd like to review the game in exchange for placement here on gtvault. In the near future you'll notice a little Flash movie on the right margin which links to the official site. I know that the street racing genre is quite different than the racing sim genre, but I just got done playing Need For Speed Underground and had a blast doing it... even though it only took five days! SRS looks to be as good if not better than NFSU, so needless to say I'm anxiously awaiting a copy of the game.

I will post a review as soon I have the chance to put it through the ringer. In the meantime, back to upgrading gtvault for the release of GT4!

Kerr

I just bought a pair of Diesel jeans online and received them in the mail today. A tag came attached to them that says the following:

"This garment has been treated in order to give particular aspect and characteristics to the fabric all the finishing operation have been performed manually. We learn by experience the impossibility to guarantee the homogeneity of this treatment on fabric, and this is a merit of the article. As in this way every style is different from the other one. For this reason aspect's variations between one garments and the others are absolutely normal. These finishing operations can vary by use and time. For this reason it is possible that the garments loses some of its initial aspect after few washing. We advise you to wash the garment separately and not to expose it at the sunlight"

Now, you'd figure a company that charges and arm and a leg for their product could afford to hire a decent translator, but evidently they spend that budget on 'all the finishing operation have been performed manually'.

EDIT: Updated images I had the opportunity to take a drive in my friend's 2003 BMW M3 convertible the other day. In a word - it's amazing. Any car that can reach 110mph by the end of a standard highway onramp is fast in my book. Anyway, I will post more about the experience later. I just wanted to get these pics I snapped up on the site.

Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4

Kerr

EA Sports has just released a new boxing game for the PS2 called Fight Night 2004. I've not yet had the opportunity to play it, however it looks to be a killer game judging by the screenshots and videos. From the EA Sports website:

Get ready for the fight of your life as EA SPORTS™ returns to the world of boxing with EA SPORTS FIGHT NIGHT 2004. Built from the ground up to deliver all the drama and pageantry of a heavyweight title bout, EA SPORTS FIGHT NIGHT 2004 is the most authentic boxing experience to date, sporting a dramatic new-school attitude, a dynamic new cinematic approach, and revolutionary boxing gameplay.

Take a look at the Fight Night 2004 page here on the vault for some cool screenshots and videos.

Kerr

I recently received a request from an individual to let all the tuners here know about an organization called Major League Gaming. MLG is a professional gaming organization that holds tournaments in various cities throughout the US. The interesting part is that one of the games they feature is GT3.

The next tournament will be held in Dallas, TX on April 17-18 2004. Take a look at this link for registration details.

Kerr

EDIT:

I received the pics my friend took with his camera phone in my e-mail today. For those interested, here they are:

Shot 1
Shot 2
Shot 3

I know this is OT, but last night I saw what has to be the best tribute band evet. I'm a music junkie. I grew up playing tons of instruments and even though I haven't played much in recent years I am addicted to music in general. My aunt started me out listening to Pink Floyd at ten years old when she took me on a road trip and gave me my first dose of PF in the form of Dark Side Of The Moon. Ever since then, PF has held a special place in my heart. I purchased their entire back catalog and download every show I can get my hands on over at sharingthegroove.org. BTW, if you enjoy live music then I highly suggest you head on over to the groove.

Anyway, there are a lot of PF tribute bands out there, but The Australian Pink Floyd Show is probably the most famous of them all. I heard they were coming to my hometown and read a bit about them. I found out they played at David Gilmour's 50th birthday party, so I figured they must be good. I ended up getting tickets the day the show was on sale. The tickets I purchased were on the floor but they were labeled General Admission so I figured it would be a free for all for seating. To my surprise, when I got to the show and handed my ticket to the ticket taker, she said that we could sit anywhere in the first two rows! I ended up sitting in the very middle of the second row with a badass view of everything.

The band played two sets, with the first set being a full recreation of DSOTM. If I were to pop the CD in my player right now, it wouldn't sound any better than these guys did. Far and away the best moment of the DSOTM set was the female solo during The Great Gig In the Sky. This woman's voice was a dead ringer for the original recording. It was so intense that everyone in the crowd was literally mesmerized... or maybe they were just really high! On top of that the light show was top notch. No lasers, but they had a circular projection screen a la The Division Bell tour with some great visuals.

For the second set the band played a mixture of PF's hits from all different eras with the notable absence of any Syd Barrett material. if I remember correctly, the set list was:

Astronomy Domine
Sorrow
Fletcher Memorial Home
Keep Talking
One of these Days
Another Brick in the Wall (Pt 2)
Run like Hell

The band then left the stage but of course there was an encore coming. Thank god, because I would've felt short changed without hearing the two encore songs: Comfortably Numb and Wish You Were Here.

I must say it was an awesome show, and I've been to a lot of concerts over the years. The buddy I went with took some pics with his camera phone, so I'm waiting for him to send them to me. I will post them here when I receive them. I highly recommend that even the most moderate PF fan go see The Australian Pink Floyd Show if they have a tour stop in your area.

Kerr

EDIT: Updated images Each year a custom car show named World of Wheels comes through my hometown. I go every year but and I was about to change my mind because 30% of the cars I saw this year were there last year. That was, until I saw a couple very rare Porsches while going through the show. Here are pics of some of the more interesting cars.

Porsche 911 Slant Nose - as far as I could tell this was not an aftermarket job, but you can't tell for sure unless you can get under the hood
Hot Rod
Stang
Loooow
Flames
Screamin' Eagle
Porsche 356A Speedster - This looked like a '55 to me. Excellent condition. Definitely my favorite of the show.

Kerr

I just wanted to say thanks to all who have donated their hard earned dollars towards the upkeep of gtvault. I have had a lot of very generous donations come in lately, and thought I would thank everyone publicly in addition to the e-mails I've sent. Those of you who donated know who you are, however for those that don't know about it I have a Donating Members link under the Navigation tab. This page serves as a permanent record of all the generous members we have in the gtvault community. Thanks again for your donations, it is very much appreciated.

I know that GT4 is a long way off, but I am already working on major inprovements to the site. I can't go into specifics, but rest assured that gtvault will be ready for the release of GT4 with all the features you're used to plus a number of new ones.

UPDATE 3/24/04: I have erased all existence of demonracer, outbackH6tuner and boxerengine from the database. Some comments in the home page threads may appear out of context because his comments are now gone.

Original Post:
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Hey guys,

Just wanted to give props to nomeite, 69YenkoCamaro and SPOONCIVICTYPER for showing demonracer how a trash talking braggart is received here at gtvault. Alas, demonracer won't be around any more and I know that's going to break a lot of hearts. Just so we won't forget him and his legacy, I will soon update this post with links to some of his best comments. Hopefully this won't happen again any time soon.

Kerr

Hey folks, I turned 29 yesterday. I would've posted last night but I was out getting wasted! Anyway, I have uncharacteristically not purchased much computer equipment in the past 2 years or so. My old 19" CRT monitor was starting to get out of focus to the point where I got headaches after looking at it for 10 minutes.

I'd been looking at LCD monitors for some time but never purchased one because the response times were never acceptable for playing games. A new generation of screens with 16ms response times is now on the market. After much research, I decided to go with a ViewSonic VP171s. I had to drive all the way across town to find one, but it was worth it. I fell in love with the colors, clarity and contrast immediately after I hooked it up. Plus it takes almost no desktop space to boot!

Here is a picture of my new toy. For those of you who are interested, I do a lot of my research for computer equipment at a few sites:

Tom's Hardware
[H]ard|OCP
arstechnica
Designtechnica

In particular, there was a 17" LCD roundup over at Tom's Hardware that influenced my buying decision. Next up is a Logitech Cordless MX Duo. I'm going over to my Dad's today to celebrate my birthday, and will hopefully be receiving some Best Buy gift cards to ease the pain.

Kerr