Almost getting what I wanted

I actually won't mind a stunted constellation terminating in null-sec today. After behaving with a rather cavalier attitude to my security status by attacking a few pilots in low-sec empire space in the past few days, I could probably use a relatively quiet evening ratting back some of it back. But the one new signature in the system resolving to be a second wormhole puts a crimp in my straightforward goal before I've even left home. Damn you, space.

Still, as much as I don't want to be seen as criminal scum, my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser has an 'I brake for industrial gooers' bumper sticker. The K162 from class 2 w-space could offer some activity and be a better option than ratting. Or it could be an inactive system with three towers. You never can tell, not until you look and become disappointed.

I'll scan, I suppose. Eleven anomalies and four signatures resolve to be two more wormholes and some relics, and having another C2 K162 to explore through is a better result than being stuck with the second static connection to high-sec. I poke through the exit first, though, just to be safe, and bookmark the K162 in the system in Domain full of bunnies. Now back to C2a and onwards, or backwards, depending on your viewpoint, to C2b.

My directional scanner is clear from the wormhole, and exploring the three planets out of range finds a tower with two unpiloted ships. Scanning the three anomalies and seven signatures gets me a wormhole, a data site, and relics, relics, relics. Come to think of it, that first site may have held relics too. I really wasn't paying attention. On top of that, the wormhole I resolve is just a dying exit to low-sec.

Home I go, and definitely onwards this time to our neighbouring class 3 system. My journey this way was straightforward after all, just time-consuming. My notes even say that C3a has a static exit to null-sec. Maybe my plan is coming together after all, a little later than expected. I have no current location for the tower on d-scan, though, where a Helios covert operations boat appears to be sitting. But that's easily found.

The Helios is at the tower, but not for long. As I warp there the Helios warps out, launches probes, and stays out. Let me scan and loiter on our K162, as it seems like he may head this way. I initially cluster my probes around a signature roughly in the direction the Helios warped and, sure enough, I resolve what looks to be the system's exit to null-sec. There's another wormhole out there too, and I finish scanning as the Helios does indeed appear at our K162 and jump through.

Will the Helios come back polarised? Did he see my probes in the system and infer my presence? Or does he have the explorer spirit and I won't see him until he hits the dead end of C2b? By the time my creaking thought processes have considered all of this the Helios is still in our home system, apparently having a good look around. I'll let him, as maybe he'll find the high-sec connection and want to take a hauler that way. I can go ratting.

Balls. The exit to null-sec is dying, naturally (or should that be 'dying naturally'?), hence the Helios coming this way to see if it still lived. That somewhat thwarts my plans to go ratting, on the assumption that I also wanted to come home afterwards. On top of that, the second wormhole is a K162 from high-sec, and to Caldari space, judging by the bland greyness seeping through. So I can't rat, and the locals already have a connection to high-sec to use. Well, maybe I can sit patiently on our K162 and wait for the Helios to come back.

Well, shit. I can't even do that right. I warp back to the wormhole home, after only a quick jaunt around C3a, just in time to see the Helios warping very quickly away from it. I can tell myself that I wouldn't have caught it anyway, because admitting my own failings is bound to cheer me up. At least I note that the Helios didn't go to the tower but to the null-sec wormhole, and as I also see that he returns to the tower pretty quickly and without launching probes I think I can assume the wormhole lives. I think it's time to call it a night.

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Tags: eve online, helios, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Temporarily trapping a transport

I'm scanning. Despite an Iteron appearing at the local tower, I doubt our class 3 w-space neighbours will be throwing any more ships at us. Even so, Aii watches the hauler closely as I resolve the handful of signatures in the system. And along with the static exit to low-sec is a K162 from null-sec k-space, which makes me wonder how long that's been there, and whether the locals were content to mine with the wormhole open. Otherwise, there are just data sites to be found and ignored.

Aii and I go our separate ways. A class 2 w-space system connecting in to our home should have a high-sec exit somewhere, which Aii would like to find, and I go out to low-sec to continue exploration in this direction. I exit w-space to appear in a system in Derelik, where a couple of extra signatures resolve to be a couple of extra K162s from class 3 w-space. That gives me at least a couple more systems to explore.

Jumping through one of the K162s puts me in empty space, with my directional scanner clear. My notes from four months ago suggest a tower is around here somewhere, but apparently that corporation has moved on since then, and the system is now unoccupied. I imagine that gives me a wormhole to find, so I launch probes and scan, sifting through the thirteen anomalies and twelve signatures.

I think I've found a K162 but warp to what turns out to be an N968 connection to more class 3 w-space. That's nice, but doesn't explain who opened this system's exit to low-sec, so I keep scanning. This time I actually resolve a K162, from class 2 w-space. That seems like a good way to go, and although there is a ship and tower on d-scan in C2b I doubt the Orca industrial command ship is up to much.

Locating the tower sees the Orca piloted and acting like he's boosting a mining operation, but there are no miners elsewhere in the system to boost. Maybe they got ambushed and the Orca pilot has yet to wake up from the drunken stupor required for remotely boosting a mining operation. Whatever the reason, the Orca's doing nothing, and with more to explore elsewhere, and perhaps only a static wormhole to k-space to find, I head back to C3c and through the N968 to C3d.

A tower, Vulture command ship, Iteron hauler, probes, and drones all look like signs of some kind of activity when seen on d-scan. Locating the tower, moved one moon across since my last visit nine months ago, shows the deficiency in relying on d-scan. Both ships are in the tower's force field, and both ships are lacking a pilot. Who's scanning? Exploring finds a second tower with a Helios, but the covert operations boat is also empty and so probably not the ship scanning. If I can't find the scout, I may as well take a look around myself.

Four anomalies and seven signatures get distilled to three wormholes: a static exit to low-sec, a K162 from class 5 w-space, and a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space. C4a sounds good to me, but jumping in sees nothing but anomalies littering space. No occupation, no activity. I don't care to scan, as I still have systems behind me waiting to be explored, so it's back to C3d and in to C5a, where I doubt the pair of frigates on d-scan are doing anything but floating empty in the also-visible tower.

The single other signature in C5a naturally resolves to be a wormhole, where hopefully activity lies behind. It's a K162 from class 2 w-space, but jumping to C2c puts me in clear space again. I suspect the system's second wormhole will lead to null-sec too, given the first connection to class 5 w-space, so I won't be scanning unless given cause. And locating a tower with two cov-ops isn't cause. Both ships may be piloted, but who cares? Not me. I probably couldn't catch them even if the unlikely happened and one left the tower.

Backwards I go, in to C5a, to C3d, C3c, and out to low-sec, where another C3 K162 is waiting for me. Jumping to C3b has another pitiful display on d-scan, with a Sabre and tower, and I doubt a solo interdictor is up to much. I think I'd prefer to read about my previous exploits in this system, when I popped a salvaging destroyer before turning my weapons on a hacking stealth bomber that wasn't sensible enough to flee. And as the Sabre disappears from d-scan moments later it seems like he's gone off-line.

But not so. I warp across the system to explore further and bump not only in to a second tower but the Sabre pilot, who swaps from the interdictor at the second tower to a Viator transport. Now that's interesting. I quickly orientate myself, in case the transport heads not to a customs office but the low-sec wormhole, and my awareness looks to be paying off. The Viator aligns away from the tower towards the wormhole, and warps with me lagging behind the stupidly agile transport.

The Viator is fast and can cloak, and I only just see the ship exit w-space to low-sec by the time my Loki strategic cruiser reaches the wormhole. As I expected this I ignored my standard operation procedure of dropping short of the wormhole and instead landed on top of it, letting me follow the Viator with little delay. Back in low-sec, I decloak as quickly as I can, get my sensor booster active, and see the Viator appear. I aim for the ship, get a positive lock, and disrupt its warp drives and start shooting.

Naturally, the Viator returns to w-space to try to avoid my attentions, which despite polarising himself is probably a good idea. I jump through the wormhole to give chase, repeating the process that caught me the transport in low-sec, but this time only managing to see the Viator successfully cloak. Well, that was fun. I get a hit to my security status with nothing to show for it. And the Viator can wait for his polarisation to end and try again, only now he knows I'm watching him.

I don't know how it works, but I don't want to continually engage the Viator in low-sec if it means my security status plummets, only to have him return to w-space and evade me. As such, I circle the wormhole waiting for my polarisation to end before exiting to low-sec and warping away. The Viator follows a minute behind me, but I'm already on the K162 to C3a and heading homewards. Well, nearly homewards. I poke out through the K162 to null-sec that I found earlier, hoping to pop some rats to repair my lost security status, but appear in the middle of a warp bubble in a populated system in Cobalt Edge. Okay, I can take the hint. I'll go home and rest. Besides, it's been a full evening already.

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Tags: eve online, helios, iteron, loki, low-sec, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, sabre, scanning, viator, vulture, w-space

We're still watching

Locating the towers in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system also locates all of the ships. This is no surprise, given that Aii and I have only just ambushed a couple of their miners in an ore site. To find other ships not huddling inside the womb-like comfort of a force field at this moment would be quite unusual. Or, at the very least, be stinking like bait.

Aii finds the Retriever mining barge now nestled up to its boosting Orca industrial command ship in one tower, and an empty Noctis salvager in a second. A piloted Viator transport sits alongside a piloted Buzzard covert operations boat in a third tower, but I doubt the capsuleer is thinking about collecting planet goo right now, more's the pity.

The fourth tower is the interesting tower. The pod of the popped Retriever is here, along with a Viator transport, Dominix battleship, Mammoth hauler, and Bestower hauler, all piloted, and an empty Buzzard. This accounts for the rest of the ships in the system, making the remaining two towers currently irrelevant. And I'm curious about that Mammoth. I'm sure it wasn't visible on my directional scanner a couple of minutes ago. How newly on-line is it?

The Mammoth isn't quite as newly on-line as the Badger hauler now warping in to the tower. Either he came from a wormhole, or is freshly awake. 'Are they going to make a goo run, with all of these industrial ships?' says Aii. They'd be dumb to, so I hope so. Surely no one who was on-line when the Retrievers were ambushed would be unaware of the two strategic cruisers stalking the system, but a pilot only just turned up may remain oblivious.

Would you look at that. It's truly a sight of majesty to watch the Badger align towards a far planet and accelerate. Of course, the two unpopulated towers lie in that direction, but I'm assuming he's heading for the customs office there. I tell Aii which planet the hauler's heading towards and he assumes the same, and his Tengu and my Loki hurtle behind the Badger hoping for a really easy kill, mere minutes after the previous one.

You have to love the lack of communication here. The Badger has indeed warped towards the customs office, which is where I find him. There is a chance that this is bait, but it's an awfully slim chance given that we've not seen any pilots or ships appear or disappear, beyond the Badger itself. I don't think I'm throwing caution to the wind by decloaking and getting my systems hot.

I'm pretty quick. Quicker than a Badger. That's not much of a boast, but it does mean I have to wait a few more seconds for the hauler to finish decelerating out of warp until I can start shooting. I suppose I should wait for Aii, if he's not already creeping up behind me, but I am wary about my target having warp core stabilisers fitted. I think I should just blow the Badger up.

Pop! It takes little encouragement for the hauler to disintegrate, and the pilot is perhaps a little disorientated, as he fails to save his pod. I scoop the new corpse for my collection, and loot and shoot the wreck, before apologising to Aii. The blood lust takes me sometimes. And considering how cheap the basic Badger is and the pilot's empty head, maybe this excursion was intended to see if we were still around and watching. If it was, it worked. Either way, I suppose that's now got to be it for local activity.

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Tags: badger, bestower, buzzard, dominix, eve online, loki, mammoth, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, viator, w-space

Warping in to rocks

What could be in store for me tonight? New signatures in the home system, how exciting! A second wormhole that's a K162 from class 2 w-space is joined by gas and a third wormhole, a K162 from class 4 w-space. I'll explore C2a first, as it's only polite. But jumping through the K162 gives a poor result, with a couple of rookie frigates and a pair of towers visible on my directional scanner. There is one planet out of d-scan range, but warping that way finds nothing more of interest, with just a canister labelled with what must be a really old football score.

Four anomalies and five signatures hold a high-sec connection, but I don't care to scan for that, not with more w-space systems in other direction already found. I head home and through the second K162, to C4a, where a tower holding a Bestower catches my eye. I may have a hauler to hunt. My notes don't help me locate the tower this time, my last visit being around three years ago, but the locals have had the common decency to erect their home around a planet with a single moon, letting me see quickly that the hauler is unpiloted. And reaching the tower brings the rest of the system in to d-scan range, so I can tell there is no activity. Oh well.

Scanning C4a's five anomalies and four signatures whilst loitering on the wormhole resolves no more wormholes, just gas and a data site, so it looks like I'm finished with this system too. Back home and on to our static wormhole, which hopefully will provide some entertainment. Jumping through to C3a sees six towers, nine ships, and plenty of drones, but no wrecks. Is anything happening? Why yes, Penny. Mining is happening.

Two Retriever mining barges are not only not at one of the towers, but pretty obviously in a nearby ore site. How lovely. Quite why they are mining in an insecure system is beyond me, but more power to their elbows, I say. And my gallivanting around the other w-space systems connected to home has wasted just enough time for Aii to come on-line. Good timing, Aii!

I make a perch in the ore site, seeing the two miners merrily mining away, too far from each other for me to even consider catching both myself, as Aii jumps in to the system and warps to join me in my perch. The only problem is that in my excitement I forgot to properly reconnoitre the miners' positions in space before retreating to my perch. Creating the perch is a necessary step that increases the separation of my ship to theirs enough to allow warp travel, but at the cost of being out of range to zoom my view in to see what the Retrievers are sitting near that would allow my warp drive to lock on to them. I'll just have to guess.

We take a specific miner each as a target, and work out what rock to warp to and at what range so that we get close enough to catch them, and get ourselves coordinated. Aii and I are ready and aligned towards the miners, so in we go. And in my haste to catch the pair I appear to have been a little unfortunate in my choice of rock to warp to. I am not in warp scrambler range, not even close, of the Retriever that's my target. But I'll do my best to catch him anyway. I activate my warp drive and burn towards the miner, and although I bounce off a rock I manage to get close enough to disrupt his warp engines before he can warp away. Okay guns, go for it.

I look behind to see Aii pretty much on top of the other Retriever, his approach apparently having gone a bit better, but not for long. The mining barge warps clear, which Aii attributes to finger troubles activating the wrong module. Never mind, it happens. We gave him a scare at least. My target, however, is going back to his tower in a pod. I would have had him waking up in a clone vat if I had my way, but I wasn't quick enough to catch the ejected pod when his Retriever exploded around him.

One Retriever destroyed, one escaped, both pilots safe. That's cool, as any successful ambush is a good ambush. I loot and shoot the wreck of the destroyed mining barge before clearing the pocket, and we both start locating the six towers in the system to see what happens next. I suspect it will involve scanning.

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Tags: bestower, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, retriever, scanning, w-space

Making easy iskies from explosions

There's a Retriever visible in the home system. Kill, kill! Oh, the mining barge's name looks familiar, and Aii's on-line. My Sherlockian skills lead me to deduce it is my colleague mining, and not an intruder. That, and Aii greeting me and asking for another few minutes to chomp on rocks a bit longer before we go exploring. He's already scanned the home w-space system and resolved the static wormhole, which remains the only wormhole in our system, so I'm cool with waiting a bit. He's collecting rocks for our important projects, after all.

Okay, Aii's finished with mining, let's go. Our neighbouring class 3 w-space system looks empty from the K162, but with only one planet in range the odds of that are pretty likely in many systems. I launch probes, blanket the system, and explore, revealing seventeen anomalies, nine signatures, and no ships. A tower sits empty on the far planet, giving occupation but no activity, so I loiter there whilst I scan. Gas, relics, relics, gas. The static connection leads to null-sec k-space, and as it's the only wormhole in the system I guess I'm going that way.

Appearing alone in a system in Malpais gives me an opportunity to rat whilst I scan. Well, rat. The sole signature in the system is the K162 I came through, but as space looks quiet and the system is well-connected I think I'll try scanning again in an adjacent system. I go one way, Aii another, and one hop across puts me in a system with a Drake battlecruiser visible on my directional scanner. There are no rat wrecks that I can see, so the Drake may be idling in one of the two towers. And as there is a single signature in the system I may as well see what it is.

Warping out to launch probes changes my plans. I see a tower and corporate hangar array, but no force field. Finding the tower sees that the CHA is indeed off-line and ready to be cracked open, which is all the invitation I need. I note that the tower belongs to the same corporation as the Drake, and as he's in the system some caution is recommended. But he's now out of d-scan range, so as long as I keep d-scan updated, and stay far enough from the CHA to cloak, I should have plenty of time to get safe if I need to.

I bounce off the planet to warp closer to the hangar, lock on, and start shooting. It's not a glamorous process but it's simple enough, and I'm not interrupted. A lack of explosion is a little disappointing, but the jetsam that survives the destruction of the hangar is a nice little haul. Not only do all the salvage components fit snuggly in to my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser's hold, not needing to get a hauler to pick them up, but they are worth almost 350 million ISK. That's not bad for little effort.

The signature turns out to be a combat site, which I'm not interested in, and Aii hasn't found anything better, prompting him to suggest collapsing our wormhole to start afresh. That's a good idea, although maybe we should pop some Sleepers in C3a's anomalies. I only realised the presence of three decent anomalies in our neighbouring system, and how we should probably profit from them, once I was in warp to the wormhole. But as we've found space to be exceedingly quiet I think we're probably safe enough to bring some expensive ships out to play.

We get home, swap to a Tengu strategic cruiser and Golem marauder, and return to C3a to shoot some Sleepers. There's no real fuss involved, although it feels like the Sleepers have upgraded their weapons at a couple of points, and as my marauder sucks up the wrecks as we fight we don't need to make a separate trip to loot and salvage. We return to our tower with around 150 Miskies of profit from three sites, which isn't bad. Combined with my earlier haul from null-sec, we've made about half-a-billion ISK tonight. That's damned good.

Now I need to do a bit of maths to work out how to collapse our wormhole. Both Aii and I have been out and back in strategic cruisers, then there were the Sleeper boats, including the big Golem. We send a big ship to and fro until a change-of-state occurs, then massage the figures, resulting in the wormhole imploding on schedule. Job's a good 'un. And that's it for me tonight. Exploration, pillaging, and profiting from Sleepers. It's been a full experience, so I'm happy to leave Aii to get back to mining.

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Tags: drake, eve online, golem, loki, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, pvp, retriever, scanning, tengu, w-space

Wii U: Need for Speed: Most Wanted

I like a good arcade racing game, and I really want Need for Speed: Most Wanted (MW) to be a good arcade racing game. Previously on Tiger Ears was Burnout Paradise (BP) on the Xbox 360 and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (HP) on the Wii, both with their good points and bad points. I will find it convenient to make comparisons for the most part, but in ways that will illuminate just how freaking cool MW is.

First, my previous and only other Need for Speed game was billed as an open world, but it was pretty limited. Outside of the courses there was little to explore, and certainly not much to discover. MW touted a big, open city, and this time it has it. I've been driving around for a while and although I recognise some landmarks and areas I am pretty sure there are places I've only managed to find once and don't know how to get back to, and there may still be places I've yet to find. There are twists and turns in the city centre, with side roads and the occasional structure to explore, and different routes to take. The motorway goes everywhere, it seems, and there is even a railway to grind your wheels on. A moving train or two to wrap your car around would be excellent, but it's hardly missing. In this respect, MW is akin to BP and is impressive, immersive, and encourages simply driving around.

BP almost was the perfect arcade racing game for me, but its flaws became too glaring and frustrating to ignore. Having to find a scrapyard to change cars was irritating, especially when combined with needing particular cars for particular challenges. You could open a map and look for a scrapyard, but then you'd have to both remember where that yard is to navigate there and remember the intersection where the challenge is an navigate back, as well as remembering what car you needed to bring back. I found that tedious and unnecessary busywork. MW corrects all of that. The 'easydrive' menu system takes all of the legwork out of getting to the action. Easily accessible, hit the d-pad to open the menu, select a challenge for your current car, then either get directions to the starting location or jump straight in the race.

The directions you are given are a GPS-like guide on the on-screen mini-map, directing your car dynamically. Miss a turn? The guide will recalculate your path and either find a new route or ask you to turn around. Once you are at your destination, spin your wheels (following the on-screen directions if you forget how) and you start the race. This system is good, and used during races too. On top of that, events and checkpoints during events are pointed out in the city by huge but unintrusive markers, so you rarely get lost during a race. Head towards that neatly designed marker and you're nearly always okay.

The mini-map directions are so good, in fact, that early in my game time I thought that the only way it could be better was if obvious signs for unobvious direction changes could be overlaid to the city to stop you driving top speed down the wrong route. One certain race later and there they are, large green arrows directing me the right way along a sharp turn instead of having me barrelling off the circuit. This game has everything!

And driving to the event is not a chore, both because driving is actually good fun and because if you've just logged on then you can benefit from a warm-up sprint before attempting a race. But once you're warmed up, select 'start event' from the easydrive menu and you're away. Even better, you can restart the previous event from the menu too, either because you didn't place high enough or racing that short city circuit was just a whole lot of fun.

But what about car choice? This is also sorted in MW. You can drive around the map looking for car hot spots, where sports cars of all types are waiting to be driven. Just tap 'x' and you swap to the other car. And they are all good cars. Plus you start in a good car and, at least in the Wii U version, have access to just about every car in the game from the start. There's no starting in a Ford Fiesta and grinding your way up. I found the Bugatti Veyron in a not-at-all hidden spot and jumped in for a spin. And don't fancy trying to find that Lamborghini Aventador? No problem. Hit the easydrive menu, change your car, look for the manufacturer, then the type, and you are in the car you want. No hunting, no searching, no building up points. It's liberating.

Still, you're not that great at driving through city streets at 160 mph, so you bump in to the occasional wall. Damage is a problem, right? Not really, and certainly not like BP. In BP, your car would accrue damage until it wrecked, and then it would only be put back on the road in a nearly wrecked state, ready for the next fly on the radiator to wreck it again. You had to find a scrapyard to get it fixed, which meant crawling around desperately looking to get the car back to health, not wanting to go fast lest you wreck again and endure another tedious animation. MW doesn't really care about that.

The repair stations in MW are really obvious, and so easily spotted, numerous, and in many convenient locations, including along event paths. But most damage is cosmetic, even after hitting a brick wall at top speed. Sure, your bonnet is flapping and you have no paint left, but just floor the accelerator, you'll be fine. The only damage that I've seen matter is a flat tyre. Well, running over a spike strip the cops have put down will do that. Even so, apart from a hit to the handling and top speed, you can still race at silly speeds. It's a pain, but not the end of the race or your fun. Drive through a repair station for a fresh set of boots, a refreshed car, and a lick of paint, and you're as good as new.

Driving through repair stations (or selecting the repair option in the menu, although this doesn't fix the tyres) doesn't take away control either. BP had an annoying habit of showing different camera shots when something neat was happening (fixed in multi-player mode, but horrible when solo), which made doing certain stunts impossible because it took control away from the player, as well as making the mistake of making it look like someone else was driving the car for the awesome jump. Naw, I'd like to be in the driving seat for that, which is where MW keeps you, right up to the point where you wreck your car. Much better!

So, MW lets you pick what car you want, what event to do, and even takes you there at the click of a menu, with almost no cars unavailable to the player from the start. That's bloody brilliant, and makes me wonder why the hell games moved away from letting the player have fun the way they wanted. There's also driving, and I'd better mention that it is fast, free, and arcade-like. This is how I like it. It's not as big and outlandish as BP, which is kind of a shame, but it is certainly a lot of fun and continues to keep me entertained. I fishtail a bit, but once I realise I have the pro track tyres on and don't need to drift around the tarmac corners I adapt and drive faster.

Right: upgrades. This is where playing the game rewards the player with extras. Each car has events available, ranked by difficulty, and placing second or first unlocks upgrades, such as different tyres, gear ratios, body types, and chassis. Sprint races go from point A to point B, circuits have you racing laps, speed events need you to average a certain silly speed, and ambushes have you running from the police. Complete them to earn the upgrades, then equip the upgrades and perform additional specific challenges—drifting or jumping a certain distance, boosting for a certain amount of time, wrecking police cars—to get the 'pro' versions.

There are only maybe five or six events for each car, with similar upgrades available, and events can be repeated between car types. But each car feels and sounds different, and the difference in the upgrades seems noticeable enough to warrant winning the events in order to progress to the harder events. Win the earlier events to earn and equip the longer gears and track tyres so that you can average 150 mph on the sprint. And upgraded cars will let you better chase the 'Most Wanted' cars, which are the only vehicles you need to beat in races to unlock.

The most wanted cars are really just another event, even if the title places them as the focus of the game. I don't mind this, as there are so many great, valuable cars available that having a few to race against at least gives the player a solid goal. My criticism about the most wanted cars is that the first of them seems overly difficult! I raced against that Venom GT Spyder when I gained enough points to let me, and it kicked my arse. I raced my car through more events, upgrading its gears, tyres, body, chassis, and boost, then tried again. Still not good enough. I tried again and again, but I didn't quite make it around the course perfectly and the car got away.

And so I gave up on the most wanted cars and just had fun driving around, finding other cars, racing the streets. When I had unlocked the opportunity to race a couple more of the most wanted cars I thought I'd try again, if only to check a suspicion I had. Sure enough, the 9th most wanted car was nowhere near as difficult as the 10th. I beat it on my second attempt, once I had a vague idea of the course and didn't, for example, do a mad handbrake turn instead of crashing in to building that turned out to be a tunnel.

I subsequently beat the 8th and 7th most wanted cars too, just because they are new races and the game is a whole lot of fun. But I don't understand why the 10th most wanted car has such a high difficulty for completion. Maybe I've got better at the game without realising and going back to that first event will have me waste the Viper. I should try that. It's a peculiarity, though.

I should also mention the police more than in passing. There are police in the city, like in HP. They will notice you if you hit other cars or go stupid speeds the wrong way down a road. They particularly notice illegal street races, like the events you take part in. Then they will give chase, set up roadblocks, and drop spike strips. If you can evade and lose them, you gain points.

Having the police adds an extra dimension to MW. Their cars show up in blue on your map, so you can drive to avoid them, or just slow down to not stand out, or you can taunt them and get on the wrong side of a chase for shits and giggles. And they will pursue you. I was being chased when I found a stretch of road with some billboards I'd not crashed through. When attempting to make the jump I span out, which let me see three or for police cars follow me doggedly through the jump, wrecking their cars too. It was like watching The Blues Brothers.

But the police can also be a bit of a pain. I start a game, choose a race, select my destination, and I'm off, spinning up my tyres and gently nudging slower cars out of my way and in to trees. All of a sudden, some copper takes notice and I'm in a chase. But I'm in a chase whilst wanting to start a race, because I want to race, not try to shake some cops from my tail. When reaching the starting point for the event I'm out of luck if I haven't lost the police yet, which changes my current session from racing an event to trying to flee the police.

The issue with the police interruptions is a minor quibble, really. You can just give up, get busted, and reappear back in the car's spawn point. Nothing bad happens. You just don't earn points for evading the police. And although You're now nowhere near the event you can always start it immediately from the menu rather than having to navigate there again. But note to self: when racing an event where the police use spike strips that I never manage to dodge, equip the re-inflating tyres!

Other little touches include: changing between day and night-time conditions at the press of an option on the Wii U controller, which is near-instant, brilliant, and welcome; speed cameras recording the fastest speed along specific sections of road, so you can compete with your own crazy driving or that of your friends; police radio chatter coming through the controller, including spotting you getting a respray or changing cars. And, mind-bogglingly, you can play the whole game on the Wii U controller if the TV is in use.

But, really, it is the player-controlled nature of Need for Speed: Most Wanted that deserves the most attention. No grind, no wasted time, no frustration. Play what you want, when you want, where you want. I want to give the developers a hug for making a game that begs to be played, instead of one that demands to be endured. If you like arcade racing games, you should quite seriously consider buying a Wii U just for this game.

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Tags: console, need for speed, racing, wii u

From ambushed to ambush

Aii's home and scanning, and we have new signatures today with at least one other wormhole. As Aii finishes up, I hop past him through a K162 to a class 3 w-space system, hoping to find activity but instead appearing seven kilometres from the wormhole in what looks like an inert system. An earlier visit from a month ago points me towards a tower, owned curiously enough by a Minmatar corporation involved in faction warfare, where no one is home and the only objects in space are drones.

Scanning C3a's fourteen anomalies and nine signatures gives a promising result, resolving wormhole after wormhole and pausing only to ignore a few sites of data and relics. The first is a K162 from high-sec, which interests Aii for export purposes, and jumping through puts me in a system in Metropolis with DUST bunnies everywhere. It doesn't look that convenient to me, so it's good that there are plenty more holes to check. I return to C3a and warp around, finding that I've resolved a dying K162 from class 4 w-space, the static exit to low-sec, a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space, and a K162 from low-sec.

I poke through both low-sec wormholes, in case there is an exit better than the high-sec one. The first lands me in Aridia, our second home, and the second a system in Genesis, a dozen hops from Amarr in one direction and Dodixie the other. Aii's happy with that result, even with a few systems to cross through low-sec, but I'm more interested in the T405 I found. I go back to w-space, jump through the T405, and see absolutely nothing on my directional scanner. My notes from four months ago suggest no occupation too, but it seems they are out of date.

Exploring C4a finds a newly erected tower on a distant planet, one with an empty Loki strategic cruiser floating in its force field. So there's occupation after all but still no one home. I'll scan the fifteen anomalies and eleven signatures. Gas, wormhole, Dominix—what? The battleship appears under my probes and on d-scan, and is gone again before I've even thought to get my probes hidden. It would have been too late by that point anyway, but still. Damn, and oops.

Naturally, a second wormhole sits roughly where the Dominix appeared, a wormhole that the battleship is perhaps trying to kill. Warping across sees that it is the X844 static connection to more class 4 w-space, so it seems that the neighbours want to be left alone, thank you very much, and they are adamant about it. The Dominix makes another round trip as I drop out of warp, followed by the wormhole crackling again to bring a Loki in to the C4a. Is he fleeing the wormhole's death of come to look for me?

A couple of minutes passes before the wormhole crackles again, this time shrinking to critical stability. A Falcon recon ship decloaks about twenty kilometres from and burns to the wormhole, jumping through as the Dominix appears and returns the way he came, pulling what remains of the wormhole with him. I can't say I mind, as a new static wormhole will spawn to replace this one. Besides, the first wormhole I resolved is a K162 from class 4 w-space, so I already have options. What I need to worry about is that Loki on the loose.

The new static connection is obvious to find and resolve, and a last poke for K162s finds one more, another one from class 4 w-space. Either one could be the Loki's home, so I'll check both before hitting the static wormhole. Oops. As the Japanese girl said to the Texas businessman, wrong hole. Apparently someone's been watching the probes in C4a and has set up a little trap for a scout, as I appear surrounded by ships. Not particularly threatening ships by themselves, but the Onyx heavy interdictor, Arazu recon ship, Falcon recon ship, and Manticore stealth bombers combine to be somewhat dangerous.

Okay, first, bookmark the wormhole. Done. Now to see if I have a clear path to make a break for it. I'd rather get clear in this system and have to get through the camp again than jump back and be polarised with all of them following me. And it looks like I won't be bumping in to anyone, and I could get clear as long as I can move the couple of hundred metres needed before I can activate my cloak. Let's do this.

I move away from the wormhole, pulsing my micro warp drive, and cloak. Do I cloak? Not quite. Now? Yes, now. Or did I? Yes, I did, and then I skilfully managed to deactivate the successfully activated cloak. Latency, thou art a bitch. Right, I'd better abort this attempt to get clear and jump back to C4a whilst I am still in range of the wormhole. It seems to work, too. Maybe the fleet saw me trying to run and didn't expect me to jump, as I get to C4a and move away from the wormhole and cloak with seconds to spare before any of them follow me.

Of course, the fleet does actually follow me, but there's not much they can do about trying to find my Loki. After they realise I've already moved away, and am not foolishly hiding under a session change cloak whilst polarised, they return to their system. To do what, I don't care. I think I'll leave that system alone. Hey, let me take a look through the other C4 K162. Nothing can go wrong with that. Oh, except whilst I am in warp a Mammoth appears on d-scan. Is the hauler local, in the tower? Nope, he's on the K162 I'm aiming for. Hi Mammoth!

I consider ambushing the hauler right here, but I have no idea which way he's going. As I have the system scanned, and there are no exits to empire space, I may as well watch where he goes. Curiously, he appears to be aligning to the wormhole the Dominix recently collapsed. Not just aligning to it, but warping in that direction. Well, that seems like a good place to catch him, so I follow and drop out of warp where the wormhole was. Now it's just the Mammoth in this empty space. And me.

I decloak, and lock and point the Mammoth. A few rounds of autocannon fire shred the hauler, although the pilot isn't so disorientated from not seeing a wormhole to forget to save his pod. I loot and shoot the wreck, finding a bookmark for the killed wormhole in the hold, and muse over how quickly circumstances can change in w-space. It doesn't seem like five minutes ago that I was scrabbling to save my ship from the same fate.

Having cleaned up after myself, I return to the C4 K162 where the Mammoth came from, and pod fled to, and loiter. The Loki I saw earlier comes through the crackling wormhole, cloaking and, presumably, warping to the site of the ambush to check that the wormhole is indeed gone. Quite how he didn't notice the Dominix actively collapsing it earlier, or that he scouted through a healthy wormhole and returned through one mass-destabilised, I don't know. But it got me a kill, so I don't really care. It's also got late, what with so much scanning, a bit of being chased, and popping a hauler. It's time to go home.

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Tags: arazu, dominix, eve online, falcon, loki, mammoth, manticore, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Rattling a 'snake

Penny, bane of planet-gooers, is coming for your hauler. Resolving our static wormhole and jumping through finds a rather better target visible, though. My directional scanner is showing me a Rattlesnake faction battleship and drones, with no sign of a tower in range. I don't see any wrecks, which isn't great, but checking the anomalies using d-scan shows that the Rattlesnake is in one of them, and warping in sees why there are no wrecks: the site has only recently been entered, as the first-wave Sleeper battleship is being engaged.

Not only is the Rattlesnake apparently by itself, but it is sitting on the cosmic signature of the anomaly and isn't moving. That gives me a solid beacon to warp directly to the battleship, if I decide to ambush it. And why wouldn't I? For a start, I don't know if there are any other pilots in the system, so let's take a quick look around. The anomaly won't be cleared in the time it takes to check for towers.

Unsurprisingly, a tower sits around a distant planet, and a couple of other ships are visible on d-scan with it. The Rorqual capital industrial ship is hardly a threat itself, and I don't suppose the Thanatos carrier will be brought out in support, but the Myrmidon battlecruiser could present a problem, simply by adding some firepower to the Rattlesnake's. But this only matters if it is piloted, and I can't quite tell when I locate and warp to the tower.

The capital ships aren't piloted, so their threat level is reduced to zero, but the Myrmidon isn't at the tower. I don't know where he is, at least for a few seconds, after which the battlecruiser warps in to the force field from... somewhere. He doesn't stay for long, warping out again, again to a destination unknown to me. It's certainly not to join the Rattlesnake in the anomaly, so the pilot isn't an immediate threat to an ambush, but he definitely needs to be taken in to account.

My notes from my last visit are a slight concern too. Although we ambushed a gas-harvesting Myrmidon the last time I was in the system, I was then counter-ambushed by a couple of ships that blew the crap out of my Loki strategic cruiser. Then again, I remember that incident, and the countering ships weren't local to the system, so it would be bad luck for the same to happen today. My only other concern is whether I can actually break the Rattlesnake. I hear they are pretty tough. But it probably doesn't have a warp disruptor fitted, which would let me flee, and the best way to find out if I can successfully engage one is to do it.

The Myrmidon isn't with the Rattlesnake. The Rattlesnake continues to sit motionless on the cosmic signature, now battling the cruisers of the anomaly's second wave. As long as he doesn't spot my transitions on the wormhole I may stand a chance. I warp back to the K162, jump home, and swap my Loki at our tower for our ship-killing Legion strategic cruiser. I figure its energy neutralisers give me the my best chance against the battleship, although now would be a great time for some help to come on-line. No? Okay.

I take time during the warp back to our static wormhole to check the database on the Rattlesnake. Its shields are most vulnerable to EM damage, its armour explosive. I can do that. Jumping back to C3a has the Rattlesnake still on d-scan, drones out, so I take a deep breath and command my Legion to warp in to the anomaly. And I drop right on top of my unwitting target. I gain a positive target lock, disrupt its warp engines, and start shooting as I get the energy neutralisers busy draining the Rattlesnake's capacitor juice.

The battleship looks to bug out, but being webbed and pointed makes that rather difficult, so instead decides to fight back. He relaunches a flight of drones and sends them my way, but my Legion is in a fast, tight orbit around the Rattlesnake and, amusingly, the drones can't keep up with me. The energy vampire has no problems tracking my ship, though, which could be a problem. It may not be able to completely drain my capacitor, but the heavy neutralisers that I am running are already doing a good job of that, and I can't afford to stop them running. The Rattlesnake's shields are holding well against my missiles, so I really have to shut down his capacitor if I am to stand a chance of winning.

Shoot, neut, d-scan. Still the shields hold and my capacitor is almost dry. I disengage the web, not really needing it against the fat target, but it's not enough. The reheat is next to be dropped, but that's not much of a drain in the first place. The point and neuts need to stay on the Rattlesnake, but the neuts' heavy demand is taking its toll on my capacitor. One drops, the other is barely able to complete a couple of sequential cycles, and I have to reactivate the dropped point a couple of times. My missiles keep spewing from their launchers, but to little effect. I don't know how much juice the Rattlesnake has left, but at the moment it seems like enough.

I prioritise maintaining the point on the Rattlesnake, at least keeping it from getting clear, and cycle the neutralisers when my capacitor regenerates enough to power them, but I fear this fight is lost. And however close the Rattlesnake is to finally being overwhelmed, it no longer matters. I've stayed aware of the Myrmidon's presence and have been updating d-scan almost constantly looking for it, and now it's coming, no doubt fitted with a warp disruptor to stop my ailing Legion from fleeing. Okay, not today, Rattlesnake. I align away from the site and towards the wormhole, entering warp as the Myrmidon drops in to the anomaly.

I get clear and jump home without trouble, returning to our tower to repair my armour and the heat damage to my modules. That was a good fight, even if it was one I really shouldn't have got. I would be interested to know just how much I threatened the Rattlesnake, as I don't know if I was close to breaking it or if I was the one in peril. A wingman would have tipped the balance in my favour considerably, but that's the story of my life. And at least I took the ship on, not knowing how it would turn out. It was an experience.

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Tags: eve online, legion, mmorpg, myrmidon, penny ibramovic, pvp, rattlesnake, rorqual, scanning, thanatos, w-space

Scanning forwards alerts the locals

I'm back from a break, and expecting at least one new wormhole to have opened. Not at home, though, and not even in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, but definitely connected to our constellation. Well, the extended constellation, as I'll need to bridge through a high-sec empire space system to find that new wormhole. Still, it's worth checking the systems on the way there too, as I could get lucky and find a ship to engage. Or unlucky, I suppose, and ambushed on my way.

There's definitely nothing to get excited about in the home system. C3a remains quiet too, with the same empty ships in the same towers. A new signature has appeared, but it resolves to be only a data site and not a new connection. The K162 from null-sec remains healthy, and poking out sees the same pilots no doubt skulking back to their tower as they did earlier when I entered the system. At least they haven't plotted some revenge for my destroying a dozen jet-cans of mined ore earlier.

Back to C3a and across the system to the static exit, which takes me out to high-sec and through the K162 of interest in to class 2 w-space. I podded a poor industrialist collecting planet goo earlier, before my exploration was halted by dying wormholes. One of the wormholes was the second static connection, leading to class 4 w-space, and it is this wormhole that I am expecting to have been replaced by a new one. Sure enough, the old has died, and, as there is also no sign of locals out to get me, I launch probes to resolve the new one.

There it is. Jumping to C4a gives me a clear result on my directional scanner, which becomes clearer when I open the map and see the system is 190 AU across. That's plenty of space to cover, a little too much, if you ask me, and I can only see the nearest planet to the wormhole. Launching probes to blanket the system takes a couple of scans to cover the system completely, highlighting nine anomalies, three signatures, and one ship. That lone ship isn't too hard to find, thanks to my probes giving me a rough position in this vast system, and I see the Loki strategic cruiser piloted but floating inertly inside a tower's force field.

I'm curious as to whether the Loki was alerted to a new wormhole opening in to his system. Searching for wrecks he has abandoned won't be quick, though, as my probes won't detect them and there are planets far out of range in a couple of directions. But it's worth a look. Nothing in one direction, and passing the tower to look in the other direction has the Loki missing from d-scan. A repeated blanket scan doesn't see the ship with my probes either, so the Loki has either left the system of gone off-line. Either way, he's not here. I'll scan those two unknown signatures.

A data site and static wormhole to more class 4 w-space system gives me an obvious route to take, but entering C4b doesn't offer much to see. A couple of towers with a notable lack of ships appears on d-scan from the K162, swiftly followed by a clutch of probes converging on my position. I hold and watch as the probes disappear and a Cheetah covert operations boat blips on d-scan. The scout clearly saw the new connection appear and resolved it quickly. I don't know what he'll do with the information, but I imagine I won't be catching anyone unawares in this system. I may as well scan my way forwards.

Sixteen anomalies and six signatures are identified as three gas sites, a data site, and the static wormhole, which I know leads to another class 4 system—plus, of course, the K162 I came through. Okay, it's getting late, but I can explore one more system looking for activity. Then again, maybe this will be my last system for the night, given that the static wormhole is at the end of its life. That's a better reason for heading home through still-quiet w-space systems than arbitrarily giving up.

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Tags: cheetah, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Catching up with a customs collection

I've not been out early in a while. Maybe industrialists are sneaking around, hoping to avoid attention. Let's see. Or I would, if our static wormhole lived long enough for me to warp to it. But I suppose having it die now is better than having to wait longer for it to collapse, and the new signature appears quickly enough. I resolve the replacement wormhole, and warp to and jump through it to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

My directional scanner shows me nothing from our K162. Combat scanning probes reveal rather more, including ships and drones on top of the eight anomalies and ten signatures. Exploring pulls the ships in to range along with four towers, and although there are a few mining drones visible no ore sites are in range. I check the one rock field that is present in the system and find nothing, although doing so gets me in range of the some more abandoned drones.

Maybe the pilots have been startled back to their towers. I locate all four, all around the same planet, and see a Scythe cruiser and shuttle in one tower, an Orca industrial command ship, Iteron hauler, and Helios covert operations boat in a second, with the other two towers empty of ships. And, sadly, all the ships are empty of capsuleers. It's all quiet, so I scan, knowing that today we have another exit to high-sec through our neighbouring system. And although a second wormhole crops up in my scanning result it's just a K162 from null-sec. I'm going to high-sec.

Getting the high-sec exit lands me in a system in Derelik. Dullerik, more like. Am I right? The null-sec system may offer better opportunity, so I jump back to C3a and warp across the system to the K162, exiting to be in the Impass region. There are pilots in the system too, with rat wrecks and mining drones visible on d-scan, although the locals all scurry away from ore and combat sites to their tower like cockroaches exposed to the light.

The ships are easy to find huddled together in a single tower, although one of the miners drops to a pod and warps away. She comes back a minute later, having presumably reconnoitred the ore site for whatever reason, and jumps back in to an exhumer. And, of course, does nothing else. Okay, dull-sec—see what I did there?—I guess I'll have to go back to high-sec to scan. Actually, before I leave, I'll pop those dozen jet-cans of ore left in the rock field. If you're not going to collect or protect them I have no problem being disruptive in this manner. At least the rats in the field want a fight.

Right, back to and across w-space, and out to high-sec, where this time I launch probes to scan. Four extra signatures result in only one wormhole resolved, although finding a K162 from class 2 w-space is a good result. D-scan is clear from the other side of the wormhole, even if my scanner is not, with thirty anomalies and seven signatures. One planet sitting out of range holds a tower and Magnate, the frigate piloted and perhaps scanning, as I now see a few probes on d-scan. Maybe I can resolve the system's other static wormhole before the Magnate, and catch it there.

Or perhaps I can watch the Iteron come on-line and warp in to the tower. Go on, collect some planet goo. I dare you. But the hauler doesn't move. So did he come on-line, or return from a wormhole. I should probably scan after all. Whizzing probes around finds a wormhole near the tower, which would be a possibility for the Iteron's movement were it not a K162 from class 4 w-space, and at the end of its lifetime. Hitting the centre of the system with my probes resolves gas, gas, gas, and what must be the static wormhole.

I warp to check the resolved wormhole, dropping out of warp next to a disappointingly dying static connection to class 4 w-space, and update d-scan to see the Iteron is now out of the tower. It's possible he's heading out to high-sec, but d-scan says otherwise. He's collecting planet goo, and I'm missing it! I narrow d-scan's beam and interrogate each planet as I swing the beam around, finding the Iteron within a handful of seconds and surging my Loki strategic cruiser in to warp. I even get to the customs office in time to see the Iteron, but he's unsurprisingly already aligning to warp.

I could pounce now, but I can see that the hauler is not headed back to the tower. He's off to the next customs office. I can catch him trivially there, leaving little point in trying now. I simply align towards his next destination, ensure that the hauler warps that way, and follow behind.

Sure enough, I drop out of warp to see the Iteron still decelerating as it approaches the customs office. Getting in position so quickly makes it a simple matter to ambush the sluggish industrial ship. I even manage to catch and crack open the pod. Scoop, loot, shoot. Job's a good 'un.

That was a good result. I managed to scan and reconnoitre the system, and still catch the Iteron collecting planet goo. The kill makes up for the dying wormholes making this C2 a dead end, even if it means I am still stuck with nowhere else to go but home. That's okay. I can grab a post-kill sammich and come back later, when the static wormhole will have died and been replaced, giving me a new opportunity for exploration.

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Tags: eve online, helios, iteron, loki, magnate, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, scythe, w-space