What’s Coming Up? 201902, Munich B (Broadcast Dates 28 and 29 Jul 2018)

Believe it or not, the most interesting part of this week’s episodes comes in the setup one.

Don’t expect to read that sentence too often on these pages.

UFOs. Bigfoot. Having the EXACT SAME, TO THE PIXEL, needle location in different stints yielding two different feedback results.

There are believers, and there are sceptics.

In this weekend’s episode, we offer the most convincing video evidence since that fuzzy, out of focus video of Bigfoot that came to light in the 1970’s.

No, not about the existence of UFOs – about the exact same needle location yielding an Excellent in one stint, and a Great in another one.

But first in the leadup episode, there is good news, bad news and ugly news. We look at all three types.

We think about the question of team orders, their benefits and their drawbacks.

What do we think about Amanda Cavalcanti? What does Sara think about her?

The pedal is dropping on part production. It’s still not fast enough, but we’re getting there. However conditional components cause us some sleepless nights.

We get well and truly done over on the slot 4 sponsorship deal. Hey, what’s new?

On the other hand, Max Porter learns the art of praise which makes a refreshing change from the last couple of years.

Finally, we contemplate the weekend appearances of both Maxes.

Kirkus puts out a tweet and gets a “pretty damn cool” reaction to it as real life collides with gameplay.

In the practice episode we get done over by the weather (again), and discover evidence for the Motorsport Manager equivalent of Bigfoot, as discussed above.

In the race itself, if you’re expecting a repeat of the one-two finish from the last race? It ain’t gonna happen. With our current strategy race 2 is and shall forever be our low water mark of a season.

And to a lesser extent, race 3.

Still, we’re a better team than we have been in the past and we are not devoid of either rabbits, or hats to pull them out of.

How many rabbits? Grab a refreshing beverage of choice, settle back, and yell ‘GO LITTLE MAX!” or “GO SARA!”, according to preference.

Both, if you like.

What’s Coming Up? 201901, Black Sea F (Broadcast Dates 21 and 22 Jul 2018)

Ooops. Mea culpa. I meant to display the car summary sheet during the intro to the race episode (and even said that I would do so in the Practice episode), but then completely forgot about it. So if you’re interested…

The car summary sheet for race 1 of 2019.
The car summary sheet for race 1 of 2019.

Motorsport Manager Evolves. But Not Here, Not Yet

PlayMotorsport has been dropping hints for some time that Something Big Was Coming for Motorsport Manager.

Today, the other boot has dropped; they’ve announced (but not yet released) Motorsport Manager 3… for mobile. The web page will be found here.

It’s interesting that the drivers look much more realistic and less cartoony. It’ll be interesting to see what Gomes looks like behind the shades.

{Max: “Peed off”, I would say, after the method of his “dismissal”.}

Thank you, Max.

Although my first response was to be half-relieved, half-disappointed that it wasn’t PC, this exchange raised hopes:
MM Owner: “So is the PC version is dead? Pretty disappointing….”
PlayMotorsport: “PC is still super important to us. We’ll talk about that more when we can.”

As you all know, I see the Motorsport Manager series on The TM1 Channel as being less “gameplay demonstration” than “grand operatic storyline with more than a few eccentricities” these days. Had they dropped Motorsport Manager 2 on the PC, I would have had no choice but to switch to covering it (unless it turned out to be a total dog, which the history of the series suggests it would not be) or be left behind in the dirt the way Little Max will leave Iannizzi behind in the 2019 season. The fact that I can’t (regularly) crack triple figure viewerships on Motorsport Manager is in part a testament to how woefully late I was getting on board. (More specifically, I wasn’t even doing videos when MSM released on the PC.)

So with a bucketload of luck and a bit more time, I may yet stand astride the WMC podium with Max before the time comes to move on.