#jatech

[wihel2]

Ein Auto, bei dem die Türen einfach verschwinden Etwas, das ich immer wieder höre: Die besten Autos wurden bereits gebaut. Irgendwann in den 90ern, danach kam eigentlich nur noch Schrott auf den Markt. Seh ich aktuell auch häufiger auf YouTube, was aber vor allem damit zusammenhängt, dass ich einigermaßen alte Videos schaue (also welche von vor einem Jahr – in YouTube-Zeitrechnung also hunderte Jahre alt). Da geht es aktuell viel darum, dass die Motoren alle im Arsch sind, weil Leute häufiger Kurzstrecke fahren und die Motoren dafür einfach nicht ausgelegt sind. Irgendwie auch ein schönes Beispiel, wie die Autoindustrie an den (echten) Bedürfnissen der Menschen vorbeientwickelt – ein Schelm, wer da komische Gedanken bei der aktuellen Krise bekommt. Aber es sind nicht nur die Motoren und die ganze Schnickschnack-Technik, die auch ich sehr gern hab, weil es einfach vieles so viel bequemer macht, sondern auch einfach Feature, die über die Zeit wieder verloren gegangen sind. Türen zum Beispiel. Seit Jahrzehnten gehen die nach außen auf und erfordern zusätzlichen Platz beim Ein- und Aussteigen, dabei ist es ja nicht so, dass Autos an sich schon viel Platz einnehmen. Klar, es gibt dann auch Flügeltüren, die den Platz nach oben verlagern, aber Parkhausnutzer und Garagenbesitzer wissen, dass auch das nicht so wirklich praktikabel ist. Dabei gab es Anfang der 90er eigentlich die ultimative Lösung mit verschwindenden Türen. Weiß der Geier, warum sich das nicht durchgesetzt hat, aber im nachfolgenden Video spricht absolut gar nichts dagegen, warum das nicht eigentlich jedes Auto haben sollte: Weiterlesen ->

[cmorring]

Just in time for this weekend supplies from #coastairbrush arrived. #createxcolors reducers, #jatech air hose and fittings.

[drivesleeprpt]

The disappearing door first showed its head on the BMW Z1, but a California based company named Jatech have chosen to implement it on much larger executive saloons. 

Do you think this will work? It will certainly help stop dings in supermarket car parks. 

[judysp-blog]

Disappearing Car Door

This is quite a good idea but they don’t say how this affects the safety of the car. Do they still have air bags on the door etc ?

This is certainly great for anyone who has difficulty getting in and out of a car.   Someone had a bright idea in England.…

View Post

[watchmemes]

Disappearing Car Door

View Original Post @ http://watchmemes.com/cool-shit/disappearing-car-door/

[jatech-blog]

Thanks very much to our brand new followers! We have lots of big things planned here at Jatech and we're really happy that you guys are here being a part of it. 

Here are some of the things we've got coming up!

- weekly drunk game reviews (as inspired by thedrunkenmoogle who we follow and you should too because it's an amazing blog).

- more game reviews, of course (of Uncharted 2 and Borderlands 2, just to name a few).

- also, we continue to be on the look out for the best news in gaming. We don't want to replace Kotaku or IGN (lol IGN), but we do have things to say about specific news.

- anything you guys submit, of course!

Thanks for joining us here, please feel free to submit anything you want. We want this to be a community with you involved in the game-related things that are posted here - we want your opinions!

Love as always,

Jatech Administration.

[jatech-blog]

Spec Ops: The Line - Not your daddy’s Third Person Shooter

Reviewed on PS3

Oh boy, this game. I mean it, this fucking game. I knew from all the furore surrounding this game that it was something special, but from my impressions of the demo and general skepticism of anything on the net I went in with little expectations. The game then proceeded to bash my head in with the butt of an M4A1. This is not a generic “AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!” hoo-rah shooter in the vein of Call of Duty. Spec Ops: The Line is instead a deconstruction of that very type of game and the type of people who derive enjoyment from them.

But maybe that’s the entire point. As I said before Spec Ops: The Line is a deconstruction of the whole “realistic” military shooter genre and the preposterous idea behind it. The bland, austere mechanics of the game could be a reaction against the glamorisation of war and combat prevalent in the genre, the game does certainly go to show the brutality of modern warfare in a way the flashy, homogenised titles such as Call of Duty and Medal of Honour never do. But maybe they’ve gone to worsen the game as a whole by doing this, after all an ironically bad game is still a bad game. Which is why it’s important to realise that this is not at all the point the Spec Ops wants you to focus on. There is another whole new layer to this game that is not directly reflected in the gameplay.

The narrative focus of Spec Ops: The Line revolves around an elite team of soldiers referred to as the Delta Squad, consisting of the protagonist character Captain Walker (voiced by our ever present friend, Nolan North), sniper specialist Sergeant Lugo and light machine gunner Private Adams. The three of them embody every trope you’ve ever seen in any piece of media about the military (does it surprise you that Adams is black?) but these characters are fleshed out in a way that goes beyond these stereotypes, with particular regard to Captain Walker. The task these three gentlemen are assigned is infiltrating the dilapidated Dubai to recover a missing Colonel and any survivours. Of course this does not go exactly to plan, but not in the way that you think. There is a moment just before halfway in the game that is a turning point and absolutely gutwrenching experience like no other I’ve seen in a video game narrative. And that's not even to mention the ending of the game, which takes Arkham City’s deservedly gained crown of the most shocking end to a game in history. But it does go deeper than that. The game, on numerous occasions, appears to be talking directly to the player. Later in the game the loading screens begin to talk explicitly to the player saying things such as “Do you feel like a hero yet?” or “How many American soldiers have you killed today?” and most interestingly talking about cognitive dissonance. This is interesting because it is one of the main themes of Spec Ops there are many points that the player feels as if what they are performing as Captain Walker is inherently wrong, but they must continue doing so for the sake of finishing the game. On top of this there are many moral choices put to the player along the way, but these are much more confronting and organic choices than the idea that normally comes along when you hear the term “moral choice”, there are no “press this button for good and this one for evil” choices here, simply a situation put in front of the player for them to respond to. I really wish I could go into specifics here because these moments in the game are better when put under that kind of analysis, but the simple fact of the matter is that these moments need to be experienced first hand to understand just how much an impact this medium can add to these kinds of issues being raised within an interactive space.

And with that comes my bottom line. The overtly generic posterior and aesthetic this game may portray to an outside looker is purely to strengthen the game’s sucker punch when it reels the player in. This is a game that is confronting in a way no game has been before. It is not always fun, but that is what makes it so engaging, the fact that someone has finally had the balls to make a game like this speaks volumes about the medium. We are on the precipice of games truly transcending their humble origins as being child’s playthings and reaching the point where games can hopefully be considered in the same light as the great pieces of literature and film that are revered by the unwashed masses and academics alike. The internet tells me that Spec Ops: The Line has done relatively modestly in terms of sales figures, which in my eyes is not unexpected, but is indeed a travesty. It is important that if you care for games as an artform at all that you play this game and show your interest in playing games that express and confront ideas like this by buying it.

By: im-with-the-stills

[jatech-blog]

Need for Speed™ Most Wanted Gameplay Video -- E3 2012 Official

Hi, all! This isn't a review, but I thought I would talk a bit about the Need For Speed Most Wanted remake for PS3. Mainly why they did it. But also that it looks cool. But yeah, let's go!

Unfortunately though, I don't see the point in this reboot. It incorporates Need For Speed Underground 2's open world, as well as Burnout's (absolutely incredible) destruction mechanics, but why reboot a game that was released in 2005? Hell - the old Need For Speed is already on PS3. It seems to me as if Criterion were brought in to help with a new NFS, went over the past titles and went "Nope, not good enough. Go sit in the corner while we fix this."

There are already lots of questions being asked about what sort of storyline it will have, but it seems like the open world will contribute a lot to the "story" of the game (for those of you who aren't aware, there is no story in any Need For Speed game. You race cars and you win prizes and then you race more cars). From what has been circulating, it seems as though there will be many different ways to go about making yourself the Most Wanted - from doing huge jumps off big things to racing a friend online. 

In the old NFS; Most Wanted, there was a list of 15 racers and the way you rose through this list was by defeating the person above you five or six times in a race. In terms of the "Most Wanted" title, it seems like an apt way to go about it. How can you sit atop a throne of your defeated enemies without a linear progression of in-game events? In terms of the fluidity of the open world and the rigid nature of the "Most Wanted" goal, I'm struggling to see how they're going to pull this off.

However having said that, the game does look beautiful. Truly incredible. I'm no professional gamer so take this with a grain of salt, but the last racing game I saw with graphics that impressed me this much was Gran Turismo 4 and that was actually ridiculous (they measured, inch for inch, every single track, car, and car accessory that they could get their hands on and then replicated it perfectly in the game). After all, a Need For Speed title is generally not supposed to be a paragon of excellent storytelling or a serious, story-based game. It's just racing against a bunch of your mates. And all you can really ask for is what it provides - pretty cars and prettier crashes.

I really look forward to reviewing this game properly when it comes out. I won't buy it myself because I've got Need For Speed Most Wanted 2005, but I will go over to Patrick's house and absolutely destroy him at it.

By: Robert Honey.