Hey y'all, for those of you with Xbox's and who like autocrossing, you should know that the new Forza Motorsport 4 (My personal favourite racing sim) now has autocross in it, which should be a nifty little feature. Thus far, I don't think it has Fieros, but if it does, you'll be able to practice off-season!

Gamer tags:

Me: Romeo Reject
Kris: Krisduck

Damn and I was perfectly happy with my PS3 now I am going to have to go and buy an XBOX. 

Anyone want to recommend which XBOX to buy and what bundle is best to get for the Forza setup. We have 100mb cable Internet with both 2.4ghz and 5ghz B,G and N Wireless as well as Gigabit Hardline.

1988 Pontiac Fiero GT
Though fuel efficiency was one of the catalysts that kicked off GM's Fiero brand, by the middle of its lifespan, customers were demanding more performance from the line. In 1988, the Fiera featured significant upgrades, including a new suspension designed to better support the Fiero's mid-engine layout. Little wonder then that with more power and a more focused design, the '88 version is largely considered the best in the Fiero line. As it happens, it was also the last Fiero produced, despite a prototype for a 1990 version being produced. The Fiero may be gone but it's still fondly remembered; a quick spin in Forza 4 is all the proof you'll need to know why.

DIGITAL GRETCHIN!

Gah, pardon the sheer excitement, but if you own a 360 - for god's sake, buy this game. The Fiero GT is perfect. It handles the same, sounds the same, the interior is the same, the dyno chart lines up perfectly with reality... Ugh, it's amazing! Also worth noting is that for those of you who were ever wondering about the excess, it's possible to build an 821HP V8 Fiero GT if you like. Don't want the spoiler? You can delete it. Or, you could substitute in an adjustible race wing if you like. Always preferred the "Aero" front end? You can toss that on too. Or a giant splitter. Out back you can choose between the stock GT bumper or the chopped, Notchback one.

I have never been this elated to have a car in a game before.

OMG yes. You beat me to it. I know, I'm a geek, but I was actually slightly shaking when I saw the car in downloads today.  :)

And I've got three of them already. One's stock, and dark red so it looks almost identical to my GT when I bought it, one's yellow, lowered, with wheels as close to mine as possible, and one's got the LS engine and completely done out. First and second gears are useless. It's hilarious and awesome.  :)

My user name's Krisduck if you want to add me. I've got a team and stuff set up already if anyone wants to join mine.

Aw, I'm already in a team with my buddies from BCIT (Our races are usually asanine and retarded, but that works for me). It's amazing how well you can make that little bugger handle, especially when the suspension has been modified severely. Anyways, I will add you in a bit, not actually at home at the moment. =P

Unfortunately I can't open the trunk and doors on the Fiero (Only Autovista cars can do that), but the interior is still really high res, I will just snap a pic through the window. Then I'll find a good angle for another high exposure shot.

Alrighty Mr Graeme, I took a trio more pictures (I also removed the roll cage, restored the interior to stock and painted the bottom trim to be grey like my Gretchin).

Gretchin's sexy interior.

Gretchin in an over-exposed shot.

And Gretchin in what would inevitably be the best Top Gear episode ever.

Video of a recent cruise in the Mighty Duke... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bzxy5OwmWg - Here .

I had a bit of trouble in a couple of the corners. Just the usual problem of too much power.

Graeme wrote: Nice run Patrick.

Heh heh, just in case it wasn't obvious... that was a video that someone else created which had been linked to in http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/087673.html - This thread at Pennock's.

Couple of short videos linked to in http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/087673-4.html#p147 - This post that are as much fun to listen to as they are to watch.

I'm definitely not a gamer, but I have to admit I'm intrigued by how the cars can be designed and then filmed and photographed in action.

Ya know its kinda dumb, I have my own money, and yet I still out of respect ask the wife if she would mind if I brought home an XBOX. I guess first up is the system, the game and a controller, hook up via the HDMI on the 42" TV Plug in the related cables, network and such and get to downloading.

Anyone got any freaker sites, tweaker sites or hackers sites for the XBOX 360 that are MUST have apps for the system, IE PS3 Media Server for the PS3.

Oh and my TV only has 3 HDMI inputs which are all used up by the HD PVR, Roku2 XS and the PS3, can anyone recommend a good HDMI switcher. Would prefer electronic version that has a remote.

Also should I grab a steering wheel and pedals for this. Maybe even start to teach my daughter the basics of driving. The Graphics look better than most "Real" driving simulators that I used growing up.

This might be great to bring to the DEC meeting and show off seeing as the TV has an HDMI input.

If your Xbox came with a Kinect, you can hook that up and it'll track your head, so if you look left in real life, the driver's view will look to the left as well. Your daughter can play the game by holding her hands as if she were holding a steering wheel, and the game will take care of the gas and brake for her. Or, if you have three TVs, you can mount them all side by side and the Xbox will run the middle TV as the windshield, the left TV as the left window and the right TV as the right window. You can even mount a small screen as the rearview mirror for a grand total of four.

On the driving side, you can start her out with automatic brakes (Will slow her down to the right speed in corners), assisted steering (Will slow down the input of the steering so you don't spin the car), traction/spin/brake assists, start her on automatic (Eventually she can choose either a manual selection, or a manual with full clutch), turn on full racing lines (Will show which path to follow, as well as where to brake, turn on automatic transmission let off the gas and accelerate), and finally turn off tire wear, fuel consumption and damage (So she can ride the walls like a pro). Even with all that, if she makes a mistake, she can use a rewind function which will undo a few seconds at a time, and can be spammed as much as she likes. You can force no rewinds in your own game too, so that they don't infringe on your experience. As she gets better, you can start turning off certain assists one by one. Frankly, I do like my sim, but even I still have limited ABS on (Will still allow for steering, but doesn't cycle very fast resulting in huge braking distances if abused) and because I use a controller instead of a wheel, manual but no clutch.

It's funny, normally I would never suggest buying a console for just one game. But Forza routinely blows me away with how amazing it is, and with the Fiero in it now, I simply cannot find a reason why every man, woman and child should play it.

Lisa, Arianna and I are going out to do some club shopping tonight, and I think I might have to get her to take a detour into Best Buy and put her employee discount to good use. 

I still need to know if there is a good way to stream home network content over the XBOX.  Honestly we have not played a game on our PS3 in nearly a year, however it is turned on every single day to be used to stream TV shows over the network.

Capt Fiero wrote: Lisa, Arianna and I are going out to do some club shopping tonight, and I think I might have to get her to take a detour into Best Buy and put her employee discount to good use.  I still need to know if there is a good way to stream home network content over the XBOX.  Honestly we have not played a game on our PS3 in nearly a year, however it is turned on every single day to be used to stream TV shows over the network.

If you have services like Netflix that can be done through the 360 (Including using it by voice-command now) or certain "On-Demand" services, quite a few of them link through the 360 as well. Obvious it goes without saying the 360 can play DVIX DVDs as well. If there is one area where the 360 falls flat, it is it's high definition side. Unless you use an HDMI cable (Which it doesn't come with, you have to buy them seperately). If you use the analog cables, the 360 actually outputs 720p, and then "stretches" the results up to 1080p, which can look kinda sloppy.

Well nearly 600 bucks later, I have my system, we did some shopping around and even with Lisa's discount, of all the Places, Toy's R Us had the best price.  The deal was you got the 250gb XBOX Kineckt Bundle with 2 games and 3 months free membership and built in Wifi with all the bells and such, plus 2 free games.  Price was $359 but the kicker was you got a $100 gift card "after" your purchase.  The catch with after was so that you could not use it to discount the system.  So we took that card and bought Forza 4, and a Kinectables Pet Game for Arianna.  Then I could not resist the Bluetooth Headset and the super cool mini keyboard. Then also splurged for extra warranty's and things, and then some more extra toys for the system.  Oh Romeo, I have lots of spare HDMI cables, I think I have a box of them around here some place.  I usually grab an extra 1 or 2 when I am NCIX.  Plus when we bought our new HD PVR's they all came with free HDMI cables.  

      Now my question is do I hook the XBOX to the 52" 720p TV the 42" 1080p or the 21" computer screen thats 1080p in the garage.   Or just say screw it and go buy those 32" cheap 720p LCD TV's at XS Cargo for $199 each and get the warranty so I can return then when they die.

As soon as I am done with this post I am going to go in and start hooking everything up.  But I needed to come outside sit down relax and have a smoke and post up before I went back in the house and got to work. 

P.S. Whoever gets my present at the club X-Mas party will be sitting pretty.

The thing is, you aren't going to be able to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p when it comes to Xbox games. 1080p in games for the Xbox means 720p, but upscaled. Go with the 52".

The Fiero is SO GOOD at B-Class autocross I have now found out. Played my last few races in it, and I now have top spot in every autocross I raced it in (Of my friends list, anyways).

What's your gamertag? We should organize a Fiero race soon.

Well I moved from the 52" 720 TV to the 42" 1080 and maybe its just because the 42 is a much newer nicer machine, but dang it sure looks nicer cleaner and crisper. Plus the added bonus that the we have surround sound on this TV so I get to hear the Fiero engine noise behind me and when someone is coming around me to the left it actually sounds like they are to the left or to the right of me.

Now we just need to get all the names of all the people and clubs that were posted in this thread, collected and moved to the fist post so we can all add each other. As dumb as this sounds I am not sure what my gamer tag is, but I used the Facebook and MSN Messenger Link to search out my friends that are also on XBOX live using the same info and added them as friends so check your XBOX friends requests.

Also I just got done building my first Race Class Fiero, nearly 900hp Twin Turbo V8. Have not had a chance to race it yet, as I was so tired I was falling asleep while trying to go through all the settings and make sure I had everything maxed out.

Ok my Gamer tag is CaptFiero

And Tristen I have requested you to be friends however not gotten a response from you.

damn wife nixxed my getting a xbox... will have to do it behind her back lol...

I will have to use the kids as a excuse

"Something, something, something, CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR THE KIDS!"

I will hop on right now and accept David. Let me know if you want me to help set up the telemetry on your Fiero, squeeze out a touch more cornering from it.

Fire451 wrote: damn wife nixxed my getting a xbox... will have to do it behind her back lol... I will have to use the kids as a excuse

Bring Kierra and Crystal over here, give Kierra 20mins with the Kinectabls Pets game and she will be so hooked, Crystal won't have any choice but to give in and let you get an XBOX.  Even I had to admit, when the Cub/Kitten comes right up to the screen and starts licking it and purring as you move your hands around it kinda makes ya melt a little bit.  At one point, the kitten finds an RC Truck and jumps on top of it to play, then you have to take control of the RC Truck, steering it by moving your hands around, and drive the cub around knocking over things for points.   Ya Ya the game is geared for kids, but there seems to be a little kid in every adult regardless of how much they try and hide it.

Aw damn, sorry bud. I thought MP4 would've been the preferred file type. I can convert to something else, if that's easier for you.

Eventually I'm hoping to piece together enough interesting drifts to put it all together in to one video, the only issue will be size... The files are 1080p at 60FPS with 5.1 audio... They're massive files.

I have file converters for everything from avi - mpg's and moves them to flv or anything in detween.  If you can get me a full size video something a bit longer even in the high def, I can at least do a direct download for people. 

I'd do it myself, but I have not had time to turn the system on in a few days and still don't know how to make video's. 

If Graeme has an easy way for you to get it to him, Graeme once you get the file just toss it up and I'll download it and put it on the club server.

This link should work

http://www.westcoastfieros.com/Fiero1.mp4 - http://www.westcoastfieros.com/Fiero1.mp4  

 Just two quick side notes, I had to right click and save target to desktop, then had to open it in vlc media player as my copy of Windows Media player choked on the audio.

Romeo wrote: Sorry. Would've done a Duke video but unfortunately it didn't have enough power to spin the tires...

Sorry, but smoking tires doing donuts is as retarded in a game as it is in real life.

Let's see Gretchin racing on a track, real or otherwise!

Can do later. As spinning the tires in that confined of a space was harder than one might think. The Fiero has a tendancy to bite down and launch (Probably due to the sticky 265's out back), which in a box that is only a few feet longer than the Fiero itself, makes it really hard to start a spin.

As for real life, you're just old I guess. Smoking tires is still among my favourite time/money wasters.

Romeo wrote: As for real life, you're just old I guess. Smoking tires is still among my favourite time/money wasters.

Heh heh, it's got nothing to do with age. I thought endlessly burning tires was retarded when I was 16, and that was almost 40 years ago. (Geez, maybe I am old!) 

You were 16 almost 40 years ago? I call shenanigans. That should read "almost 140 years ago".

And fine, maybe it's not because you're old, but clearly there's something wrong with you.

Romeo wrote: ...clearly there's something wrong with you.

Yeah, clearly it's me who has the problem.

"That's not f*ckin' good!" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHCKoUIFroM - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHCKoUIFroM

Initiate ejector button - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIIOpi202Ms - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIIOpi202Ms

Justice is served - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlQr68XplbI - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlQr68XplbI

Darwin's Law - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5kvo2OoxKs - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5kvo2OoxKs

Romeo wrote: Those are stupid people though, the act itself doesn't make it stupid. That'd be like saying because some people blow their engines after tuning, tuning of all kinds is thus a stupid activity.

 .........  .........

Ken, I am sooooooooooo jealous of you right now...

I haven't driven with Kinect yet (My TV is only about a foot and a half away from where I sit) but I was able to get the head-tracking, which is amazing in first-person. You are right though, in literally every other view, it makes things unplayably hard. lol

So, just to show how much I love the club, I spent DAYS working on stupid vinyls. I made the club logo finally. It's like the one in the top corner of this page, but it has the website at the bottom instead of 'of British Colombia'. If any of you have tried making vinyls in the game, you'll appreciate the fact that this vinyl is over EIGHT HUNDRED ... 'objects'. Why can't you just do something in MS Paint and upload it? It's all Microsoft anyway... 

The only downside to it being soooo big is that (aside from the days I lost) you can't put it on the front or back bumpers of the car. It can only go on the sides or top/hood/decklid because there's a 500 limit for bumpers and a 1000 limit for the rest. You'll see when you try applying it.

Also, I did charge a few credits for it. If I had been making minimum wage doing it, I'd have made $100 easy. At least a few in-game credits is worth it, I think. Feel free to rate it too.  :)

Cheers,

Kris

Oh P.S. when I pay you, does it come out of my MS Live points or from the in game points.  I have only got 1700 MS points, or 1.5 million in game points.