Ridge Racer: Driftopia

Let's get one thing straight right away: I like racing games; racing games don't like me.

That in mind, I downloaded Ridge Racer: Driftopia because it was free to play and available on Steam. I can forgive a lot of frustration if I'm not paying for a game with real dollars, and that's a good thing with this game because it quickly had me spouting curses.

If you crash, you spend repair kits to fix your car. The better your car, the more kits it will take to repair it and if you can't afford it you'll lose the car permanently. Now, that doesn't bother me outright, but it is very easy to crash either by your own hand or due to the ruthless "spirits" of other players which race against you. I've had to close the game and come back the next day with more repair kits just to save my best car more than once.

Were this a more impressive game, I would feel more compelled to discuss the rest of the notes I made while playing the game, but the simple fact it that the game isn't special. There's nothing glaringly wrong with it, either, so if you're someone looking for a game to waste a little time with, this is as good a candidate as any. You get a car, you drive the car, you get boosts, you get a new car, you drive the new car, ad infinitum.

This is a game you can play for a few weeks, and then forget about forever.

Don't Yank Me!

Tom Warren, Senior Reporter at The Verge and founder of WinRumors, published this article this morning comparing iOS's Siri personal assistant to a new assistant reportedly coming to Windows phones in update 8.1 codenamed...wait for it..."Cortana".

Now, I'm a fan of all things Halo, but this news is, for me, bittersweet. The fact is that this isn't fan service. I don't think this is what I wish it was. It's a codename, so it's very possible that, copyright laws being what they are, Microsoft will decide to change the name before the official release. So what! Right? What's in a name?...Well, actually, probably everything. Smart AI constructs are, unfortunately, entirely fictional. Whatever is meant by "a system that will learn and adapt" probably falls short of a virtual lady with exceptional technical prowess who inspires you to keep fighting when the whole of humanity suffers the devastation of intergalactic warfare and all hope seems lost.

You know what I think the significance of this will amount to? A few easter-egg responses.

It breaks my heart to believe that "Cortana" can't be much more than a Siri-clone with just enough flashy improvements to throw into a snappy commercial taking cheap shots at the PA who came first. I feel like I'm being sold to, and I don't believe there's really much substance to the connection with the Halo franchise. It's a hollow ploy, a Trojan horse, if you will, looking to pull consumers towards buying a Windows Phone.

My iPhone 4 is showing it's age these days, and in the coming months I might be in the market for something new. I'm hopeful that this whole "Cortana" thing is cooler than I think it is, but I will definitely be waiting to see what other fans think of it first.