The Glamour of Singapore, 2013

A street circuit where the race takes place at night? It’s got to be Singapore and it is a spectacle. It’s a challenging circuit, and one of the longest ‘natural’ races at just short of the two hour limit. Every driver is drenched in sweat afterwards but you can tell how much they love it. Sebastian Vettel was in his element again but by no means was it an easy win this year.

The range of strategies in play

We saw varying strategies in play, which gave us a few surprises. Jenson Button took a risk with a massive stint on his tyres in which he almost got a nice reward. Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso both made a long stint work and end on the podium, but McLaren still aren’t at that level yet.

Romain Grosjean and Mark Webber both had problems with the car this time around, a massive shame as both were looking at possible podiums at one point. What this would have meant for the entire race had they both lasted, we’ll never know. Webber’s grid penalty for the next race will also not make things any better. 

The safety car

This was the turning point of the race. It was at an awkward time in the race for the teams as they had to decide how to alter their strategies and predict what other teams would do. This proved to be essential in the final result, as I never would have predicted that podium this time around from the starting positions we had. If the safety car had been 5-10 laps later, it would have been a totally different game.

The unfortunate incidents

Daniel Ricciardo’s accident came after he signed his deal at Red Bull – thankfully – but it had a massive impact on the race, resulting in changing strategies that made for an interesting watch. This race was a lot more exciting than recent events, which the championship needed at this stage.

Paul Di Resta’s run of bad luck continued again – he needs to be careful he doesn’t inherit Webber’s misfortune – and at the worst possible time. With seats available in the driver market, he needs good results to get a better driver and show what he can do. The only positive was his progress until his retirement, he made his way through the field and initial signs were promising.

Good show by Mercedes

It finally looks like the Mercedes team have gotten over their problems earlier in the year but unfortunately haven’t been able to keep up with Red Bull. Then again, who has? There was some good hard racing between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg and it was good to see. I was hoping for a few more daring attempts but I’m not disappointed.

We saw a more upbeat Hamilton this time around, which was good. I do feel for Rosberg, the safety car didn’t help him at all – he might not have finished any higher but it would have been interesting to see – and after his fantastic start where he almost took the lead, I’d have loved to see that battle continue.

Summary

It wasn’t a bad race. It was a result for Vettel, who extended his lead to 60 points. Unless he has at least two retirements or finishes outside of the points twice, it’s hard to see him not taking his fourth world championship. Once again, Alonso showed his form by finishing second as did Raikkonen, even with a bad back and injections, for the final podium slot. The Mercedes team will be raring to go at the next race.

Results

1 – S. Vettel (Red Bull)

2 – F. Alonso (Ferrari)

3 – K. Raikkonen (Lotus)

4 – N. Rosberg (Mercedes)

5 – L. Hamilton (Mercedes)

6 – F. Massa (Ferrari)

7 – J. Button (McLaren)

8 – S. Perez (McLaren)

9 – N. Hulkenberg (Sauber)

10 – A. Sutil (Force India)

11 – P. Maldonado (Williams)

12 – E. Gutierrez (Sauber)

13 – V. Bottas (Williams)

14 – J. E. Vergne (Toro Rosso)

15 – G. van der Garde (Caterham)

16 – M. Chilton (Marussia)

17 – J. Bianchi (Marussia)

18 – C. Pic (Caterham)

19 – M. Webber (Red Bull) – DNF

20 – P. Di Resta (Force India) – DNF

21 – R. Grosjean (Lotus) – DNF

22 – D. Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) – DNF 

Oryx and Crake

I’m an avid sci-fi fan. It was my favourite genre growing up, and while that has given way to fantasy as I’ve gotten older, I’m always on the lookout for good science fiction novels. During my third year of university, I studied a module looking at medical ethics within writing. It was very “sciencey” – yes, not a word, but it is the word used to describe the module to me – but the module was rooted in reality. One of the books on the reading list was Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. I was dubious at first, but this has since become one of my favourite books out of three years at university.

Some will call it science-fiction – and there is enough in there to classify it in that genre. The best term I’ve heard is speculative fiction, as this is something that could possibly happen in the future. This can be said of any science fiction story but some hit a bit closer to home because of the technologies and research being done at the time of writing, and this where Oryx and Crake crosses that line. Genetic modifications and manipulations, a strong underlying theme throughout the book, is in the news quite often anyway. That brings a sense of realism to the story. There’s more, but that would spoil the book.

I enjoyed the flow but it is fragmented. Your protagonist, Snowman, will take you into his past to set up the world the reader is first presented with. There are a lot of questions that are answered as you go through the story, and more questions that are left to your own imagination. Once you get past the change in time frames, there is a good flow to the story. You are given the end of the story at the beginning, and throughout this era, you will go through the events leading to it. It works well, but you need to stick with it, as there are a lot of names thrown at you in short spaces of time and they all have a role to play. Atwood uses everything meticulously. If not, there’s a reason, and I’ll get to that later.

Despite the science-fiction or speculative fiction genre, there is not much in the way of technical talk. Snowman is not a scientist and this shows through with his wording and characterisation. Rather than technical talk which might be more befitting the story and genre, there are much longer and unnecessary words. It really separates Snowman from the story, situation and genre all in one without losing anything. Brilliant.

I found the world addictive; it was fantastically descriptive but left me wanting more at every time. This is why The Year of the Flood was a bit of a saving grace for me. It is set in the same world as Oryx and Crake, but from different perspectives. The changing perspectives mixed with different time frames can disrupt the flow again, but it actually works well. It gives a much fuller account and the characters, places and events all tie in. It’s fantastic, but there will be more on that in a future post.

Overall, I love this book. It’s a great “what if” story and world, which is feasible in some small way – although you hope it definitely wouldn’t happen. Combine Oryx and Crake with Year of the Flood and you get a whole new view of the same story. Excellent planning and I’d love more to come in this world. 

Almost a Standard Day in Monza, 2013

Monza was interesting for a lot of reasons, but I was definitely hoping for some rain – just to mix things up a little! Without the rain, I figured Sebastian Vettel was going to race off and win. He did. There wasn’t as much distance as normal, but in the dry conditions, he was never really troubled. A few gearbox worries and a lockup on the first corner, but nothing he couldn’t handle. It was a good race from him.

The end of Webber’s European road

Well, it’s the end of Mark Webber’s European adventures as a Formula 1 driver, but he will still be racing in Europe in the future (although this detracts from my point). Not only did the Red Bull driver have a decent start this time, it was a solid race and he got on the podium, which was a fitting way to end this chapter of his life. I’m hoping he gets to the top step at least once this year, maybe on the very last race – that would be a really fitting end for him!

More misery for Di Resta

Paul Di Resta is missing something at the moment – it might be luck. He’s had a run of bad weekends and when something goes wrong, the rest of it goes wrong for him too. He’s got a brave face on and doing what he can but this is the time to really step up, mentally, and show everyone how good he is. The car isn’t half bad this year and some strong results to the end of the season could help him next year. The results do need to come his way for that to happen.

Trouble at Ferrari?

A lot has been said about the relationship between Fernando Alonso and Ferrari recently – and it’s hard to interpret what’s really going on. There’s plenty of tension, Alonso does not have the care he wants, but I can’t help feeling something is missing this year. Last year was one of the best seasons I’ve seen from him, or any F1 driver in a long time and that has vanished. Instead of supporting the team, he is making sly comments and statements, trying to get a reaction. I’m not a fan of that. If you have something to say, say it – either to the public or privately to the team. Get rid of the bad air and work past it.

I also didn’t see Kimi Raikkonen going to Ferrari this year. I figured it more likely than him going to Red Bull, but I thought it would cause the same problems. My guess would've been Nico Hulkenberg, especially after his outstanding performance this weekend. Whether it will work out is another question, and we'll see in time.

Summary

Hulkenberg stood out to me this around. It was another flash of the brilliance he is capable of – give the man a decent car and he’ll put it near the front, I’m sure. Force India and Di Resta need to dust themselves off and get back on it for the last races. As for McLaren, they’re still a long way off unfortunately. Can anyone stop Vettel?

Results

1 – S. Vettel (Red Bull)

2 – F. Alonso (Ferrari)

3 – M. Webber (Red Bull)

4 – F. Massa (Ferrari)

5 – N. Hulkenberg (Sauber)

6 – N. Rosberg (Mercedes)

7 – D. Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)

8 – R. Grosjean (Lotus)

9 – L. Hamilton (Mercedes)

10 – J. Button (McLaren)

11 – K. Raikkonen (Lotus)

12 – S. Perez (McLaren)

13 – E. Gutierrez (Sauber)

14 – P. Maldonado (Williams)

15 – V. Bottas (Williams)

16 – C. Pic (Caterham)

17 – G. van der Garde (Caterham)

18 – J. Bianchi (Marussia)

19 – M. Chilton (Marussia)

20 – A. Sutil (Force India) – DNF

21 – J. E. Vergne (Toro Rosso) – DNF

22 – P. Di Resta (Force India) – DNF

No. 5 – Final Fantasy X

After the announcement by Square Enix that Final Fantasy Versus XIII was to be renamed Final Fantasy XV, I’ve been thinking for a while it would be a good idea to go through my favourite Final Fantasy games so far – although I am going from the main, number titles – not sequels, spin-offs or other games at this point. They might come later. So, for this “top five” I’m starting with, yup, you guessed it – Final Fantasy X.

The story

I enjoyed FFX’s story a lot but it was pretty basic. There wasn’t much mystery – other than what really happened to Zanarkand and the truth about the Final Summoning. I think I figured out what was going to happen around the Guadosalam area.

The game was very linear, in that you had to go in a straight line for most of it. Sure, there are times you can turn back and revisit some places but there’s always a limit until you get much further in the game. That is kind of true of a lot of them, but there’s an option for free-roaming in many of these titles and I enjoy that option, so this detracted a little of the fun for me.

Tidus did annoy me overall, and Yuna, while strong in battle, was portrayed as weak and under-confident through much of the game and that annoyed me too. They were supposed to balance out but I never really felt it got that balance. Lulu and Wakka, that was balance!

Combat and the sphere grid

Of all the Final Fantasy games I’ve played, this is the easiest. If you save regularly and spend enough time growing stronger, there’s nothing that can stop you. For more of a challenge, the monsters you fight can have an active ATB, which means they will attack on a clock rather than waiting for a specific turn. If this is turned off, it becomes a simple matter of planning each move and having the supplies and skills to survive.

The sphere grid, while daunting at first, is surprisingly easy to master. The easier setting sets it up for you, allowing each character to master particular skills and fight certain enemies well, but you can do this on the advanced setting just as well, and it changes how you approach the game. This is interesting but it is very easy to make mistakes early on, especially for inexperienced players – although I’ve made a fair few mistakes myself along the way!

Blitzball

One of my favourite mini-games around is Blitzball and most of my time on any FFX save was actually spent on this. It didn’t matter to me you could unlock everything right away, and that you needed to do certain things first – it was a decent game that, with more work, probably could have stood on its own.

What did get to me was the stop-start nature, which is designed to let players make the best decisions but removes some of the pressure, and again, like the rest of FFX, makes it a bit too easy. If I could see one thing changed in this HD remake, it’d be to make Blitzball played in real-time and make it more difficult and fun. 

Summary

I enjoyed FFX – I really did – but more at the time of its release. I was a bit younger and a bit more taken in by the improved graphics (and voices). As I get older, it has lost a bit of appeal to me but it’s still a good game, with a solid story and one of the best mini-games I’ve found in many games, not just Final Fantasy. My biggest problem with it is that it’s too easy, especially as you can make monsters wait before they attack you. Why even have a pause button? Still, with the HD remake on the way, I’ll be playing it again very soon.

Oh, and in case anyone HASN’T done it, collect the Al Bhed primers and play the game again so you can understand the chatter early on and throughout. It’s nothing huge, but you get the nice sense of achievement for doing so.