Ranting Wombat: The Idiocy of Incumbency (Rugby League Editorial)

What is all this idiocy about “incumbency” when it comes to NRL representative sides? 

In the lead up to the naming of the Australian side for the completely pointless upcoming Anzac test (whole other rant for another day right there), the word incumbency was thrown around a great deal; do we go with form, or do we go with incumbency? Do some incumbents automatically deserve their spots, while others do not? How much does incumbency actually count for when the last Test match played was made up mainly of players who themselves were not actually the incumbents at the time?

These are all difficult questions…provided that you are as stupid as the Australian selectors anyway (mind you, the same goes for the NSW, and to a lesser extent, the QLD selectors as well).  The Australian side, even more so than the Origin sides (and certainly more so than the rather pointless City-Country sides), is supposed to be a reward for the BEST players in the league.

So here’s a whacky idea guys, how about you select players on like, you know, FORM?

Billy Slater, despite being the fullback for the best side in the comp, having won a grand final, and represented Queensland like the absolute star he is, has finally gotten the recognition of an Australian jersey because he is in “career best” form; news flash guys, he was still the best fullback in the comp last year…and the year before too, for that matter, and probably the year before that as well.

I’m a big fan of Darren Lockyer, but how does he get chosen after being out injured, and only having played one game this season where he didn’t start from the bench? Greg Inglis, the premiership winning 5/8 (who also won the Clive Churchill medal after the grand final) is in the Australian side…as a centre.  There are numerous other good 5/8s (as well as some versatile halfbacks) in the competition that I would argue deserve the spot more than Lockyer through the sheer fact that they’ve been playing full games and achieving some great form; does Lockyer really need yet another test jumper to his name?

How do Mark Gasnier, Willie Mason, Brent Kite or Petero Civoniceva make the Australian side; they have been playing some terrible football, and Gasnier has been out injured to boot!  The excuse is that they are the incumbents, but why should the myriad of other talented forwards, backrowers, centres, or anyone else miss out? Why is incumbency protection for these players, but the incumbent halfback Cooper Cronk has not even been mentioned in the lead up to the game? For that matter, as glad as I am that Slater is finally getting a run, shouldn’t Stewart still be fullback? I mean, these guys led the Australian side to an unprecedented 58-0 victory.

I’m in danger of posing far too many rhetorical questions here, but the whole situation is just so incredibly illogical.  You know that the system is broken when players are being put into the side and played out of position simply due to incumbency; surely there is enough in the way of quality in the competition for players to be chosen in their own positions purely on merit.  It seems every time one superstar retires, four more take his place anyway.

I mean, at the end of the day, it’s not as though Australia is particularly likely to ever actually lose these games, so what’s the risk in changing things up? By the same token, maybe if we did consistently get our arses kicked the selectors would reconsider the policy of rewarding people that are broken down or out of form (or in some cases, never had the form to begin with) simply because they might have won a game in the past (or maybe due to who their uncle was, or which club they play for…hi Mr Fulton!).

Is it too much to ask that rewarding players with a Test birth for actually being the best be the norm, rather than the exception? 

Probably.

        

- The Evil Wombat

Trackmania Nations Forever (PC) - Review

If there are three constants in this whacky, ever-evolving insane asylum we call the games industry, it’s that 1) free stuff is awesome; 2) the world needs another Stunts; and 3) seriously, free stuff is awesome!  What’s that you say? Freeware spiritual-successor to Stunts, you say? 

Welcome to Trackmania Nations Forever, the most pure fun you’ll have had in a racing game for a bloody long time.

Newly available through Steam, this wonderful little title does just about everything you could ever ask for from a racing game.  There are of course the straight point to point races and longer circuits; however Trackmania also features obstacle courses and acrobatic tracks, complete with corkscrews, loops, insane jumps, and zeppelins (possibly blimps; I’m no dirigible expert).

The singleplayer game consists of about a hundred tracks separated up into different difficulty levels, with some unlocking when certain requirements are met (like win all silver medals on the previous five tracks, or make something in the track editor).  The game follows a time trial format, rather than having multiple cars on the track competing; ghost cars are available, but there is no jostling for position or insane collisions to be found here.  The goal is to beat the gold medal time on each track, something that is generally pretty difficult, especially in later races.

The rather awesome thing about Trackmania Nations Forever is the fact that there are both national and worldwide scoreboards which keep track of times, number of medals, and other fun info; it’s pretty cool finally getting that gold you’ve been after and watching your international rank jump 2,000 spots.  These scoreboards give the Nations singleplayer a rather multiplayer feel, which is quite nice and acts as an incentive to tackle those extra tough tracks again.

Of course, there is an ACTUAL multiplayer mode on offer here, and it is so stupidly entertaining that you’ll be hard pressed to resist it; imagine 32 cars driving through insane custom created courses in their quest to post the best time on tracks that will probably give you bouts of motion sickness, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of why this rocks so hard.

Yes, you heard that correctly, Trackmania Nations Forever also contains that most wonderful of features from Stunts; the track editor.  Here you can let your wildest dreams of inverted road debauchery run wild; best of all, the editor is easy to use (including an easy and advanced mode), and works off a tile-based system that is as powerful as it is slick.  Also included is a car painter which is a tad limited in scope, but still fun to use (the Evil Wombatmobile is currently fanging around in all it’s purple-and-golden glory, complete with advertisements on the side!).

Visually the game is surprisingly attractive for a free, lower-end title; sure it may not bring your DX10 behemoth of a graphics card to its knees, but it’s still a pretty game, and scales very well on a variety of systems.  The sound effects are fine for what they are; car noises sound like car noises, and the crashes are pretty meaty sounding.  There’s music in there, but I didn’t particularly notice it one way or another; at least it’s unobtrusive.

Trackmania Nations Forever is a game that has come completely out of leftfield for me; it’s incredibly fun, surprisingly robust, and, even more surprisingly, completely free.  As an advertisement for Nadeo’s other Trackmania titles, Nations is damn impressive; it harkens back to the old days of shareware releases (although this is a far more complete game than most shareware titles ever were) that gave the player more than the five minute demos that are so common these days.  After playing Nations and really enjoying the experience, I know that I will be investigating buying the other titles in the series, and that to me says that Nations Forver is a definite winner for Nadeo.

Trackmania Nations Forever is good looking, has unlimited potential, is undeniably fun, and (best of all) is completely free; there is just absolutely no reason whatsoever not to immediately get this game.  Finally a worthy successor to Stunts has arrived in the guise of Trackmania, and it kicks some major arse!       

               

Graphics: 7/10 (Surprisingly pretty while still being scalable to a wide variety of systems; it even works on my gimp of a laptop!)

Sound: 5/10 (Nothing stands out, but nothing stands out as being awful either.)

Gameplay: 8/10 (Purely fun, and surprisingly adept at everything from straight racing to completely zany stunt courses; the occasional glitch or unforgiving stage can’t take away from just how entertaining this is)

Longevity: 10/10 (Huge singleplayer, a great multiplayer, and a track editor that is surprisingly powerful ensures that this game will keep you occupied for as long as you want to be; the other games in the series are also cross-compatible, making the game even more versatile.)

Overall: 9/10 (An amazing amount of fun at a price that’s impossible to ignore; this game really does feel like the spiritual successor to the old DOS classic Stunts, and that alone is enough to make me recommend this game.  Plus, remember, IT’S FREE!)

      

-Tim Sweeney

   

If you’re interested in having a game, add tim_the_corsair in Trackmania; or Tim the Corsair on Steam Friends for that matter.

Belkin Router, oh how I hate ye!

Hey everyone,

Have been experiencing some rather massive technical difficulties with the internet at the missus’ house, which is why the site was completely dead yesterday (didn’t even get to change the quote).

Through the power of positive thinking and ramming plugs into various other sockets, I’ve got the net working again; tis slow, but better than nothing.

Now that everything is settled there should be a couple of things going up today (to make up for the lack of content yesterday of course ;P)

I’d also like to keep encouraging people to actually post comments about my articles; I don’t mind if you hate it, just tell me why.

  

- Tim “hatez da innerwebz” Sweeney