Microsoft Student Partners

UWA Microsoft Student Partners have teamed up with the UWA CSSC to run a monthly Xbox 360 games night.

The CSSC E-mail out is copied below:

Hello to all the club members out there!

There are times when getting together with your fellow intellectuals
and enjoy some mindless FPS action.

With that in mind the CSSC has grouped up with our UWA Microsoft
student partners and organised what is planned to be the first in a
monthly Halo Tournament.

So here’s what you need to know:

When : Tuesday the 31st of March, 6pm – 9pm 

Where : 1.24 seminar room (the seminar room outside administration on
the first floor…of csse)

What else? : the Halo tournament will run like this, there will teams
of two (either find a friend or be randomly assigned) with a round
robin style set up. No sign up is required, and we will be doing a
pizza run at some point.

It’d be great to see you all there, so get ready for killing some
aliens.

Luke
Aussie MSP Lead
The University of Western Australia

Having recently returned from the MSP Bootcamp in Sydney, I decided that my first task would be to try out my brand new Xbox 360 (courtesy of Microsoft).

Having never played the original Forza Motorsport (FM), I was unsure of what to expect: was FM a more traditional racing game (like Gran Tourismo), or one of the newer variations (like the Need for Speed: Underground (NFS:U) series). Much to my delight it turned out to be a mix of the two, taking the track styles from Gran Tourismo but also incorporating the car purchase\credit\upgrading system from NFS:U. Another game play element that I thought unusual was having to select the “region” that you’re purchasing your cars from (US, Europe or Asia). This makes a bit more sense after I pulled up the FM website, which explains that there are over 300 cars available in the game.

Once I selected my region (Asia (I want to try to get my MX-5…)) and selecting my starting car (A Silvia K’s S14 (unfortunately there is no CA-18…)) I was presented with a feature of the game that almost knocked me off my feet. If you thought that the tuning and upgrading you could do in NSF:U was impressive, wait until you see the options that FM2 has. Although I had just started the game and most upgrades were out of my price range and most tweaks unavailable (due to stock parts); but I could see that what ever I wanted to change was there. The upgrades ranged from the typical turbo, engine block and weight reductions right down to the spark plugs\coil packs, tyre material and flywheel. The only tune-up available to my stock Silvia was its tyre pressure, but I could also see tweaks for camber, drive ratios (each gear independent and the final drive ratio) and suspension stiffness among many others.

The only thing that was more glorious than the customisability of my car is the physics engine that FM2 employs. Your tyres initially start out as being cold and perform poorly until they warm up, conversely doing doughies overheats your tyres, resulting in even more screeching and drifting before they cool down. The old trick of NFS:U of dropping a gear before hitting a corner also backfired as I oversteered heavily and also ended up damaging my engine(!). However, once you get used the realism of the physics engine (I found that playing using the first-person view really helped), steering, counter-steering and drifting through the dog-legs and zigzags comes naturally.

Overall, from what little of Forza Motorsports 2 I have played, I have been thoroughly impressed. The game is an excellent example of how good research, programming and game mechanics can come together.

Daniel
Curtin MSP 

In case you missed it, XNA Game Studio 3.0 has now gone live!

The biggest feature of course if the ability to create games and distribute them through Xbox Live Community Games.

Remember, as a student you can get access to XNA Game Studio free of charge through DreamSpark!

Luke
UWA MSP

Shooting myself in the foot here – as part of Steve Balmer’s visit down under Microsoft are giving away a couple of Xboxs and some games. Only signup is required – so what are you waiting for?

On that note, don’t forget to tune in to hear Steve Balmer’s talk in Sydney this Thursday – more details on the Liberation Day website!

Good Luck on your exams!

It’s that time of year again – exams are bearing down, stress is building up and projects are due. In order to help relieve the stress a bit UWA MSPs are running a Halo shootout during swot vac! Held after all of your projects are handed in but just before the real exam stress sets in this your oppurunity to frag your friends and let out same steam.

We’ll be holding 2v2v2v2 games (i.e 4 teams of 2 per round) in a frag count shootout afterwhich the leaders will progress to an elimination ladder. There’ll be a slew of prizes and giveaways on the day, not just for the winners but also for random criteria (such as most frags in a single game etc).

When? November 4th
Where? CSSE 1.24
Team? Bring your buddy along on the day, otherwise, randomly assigned by our robotic overlord

Signup: http://events.wamsp.com.au/halo

See you there!