How You End 2016?

2-2-2-2-2016!!! The final days!

To be honest, 2016 has been a crazy year from the start. We had low-poly flying Lamborghinis and alien invasions (shout out to GKRacer @ Trackmania Carpark for this one!), to some WTF-inducing censors, some bigotry here and there, Donald Trump, and too much political drama crippling the year. But even with all that stuff, there are also tons of good things, like Leonardo DiCaprio winning Oscars.

On a personal standpoint, I managed to try out some new things and reconciled with a fraction of my past. And even I am about to start my final paper project, which means this will be my last months of college! Waiting on the horizon are a bunch of job applications ready to be seized, and the road ahead will be more challenging as I go forward.

Reconciling with Soccer

Lately, I've been catching up with some stuffs that had to be finished ASAP. Again, the word "stuffs" is used because it contains two different things: my college assignment (so I can write my final paper project ASAP) and my Turbo Sliders track for use with SCARTS. Skinning projects are also in the works, but as a side job, and meanwhile I am getting my hands dirty at making money off of online projects (well, I have to earn some cash now, although the "Work Bitch" ethos is not in use yet).

Interesting enough, I have reconciled with one particular sport as of late due to a combination of reasons: soccer (or football), now that AFF Suzuki Cup 2016 is already on a roll and I recently got my hands on Pro Evolution Soccer 6, one of my sixth grade games I played. I felt like maybe I should reconcile with soccer, but that doesn't mean I had to stay up late to watch Manchester United and whatnot playing. More like as a fan and a true believer of the Indonesian national team. Who doesn't like seeing an Indonesian represent in the world stage?

As an Indonesian myself, who doesn't like seeing an Indonesian represent in the world stage? (Image: PSSI Official Site)

To be fairly honest, I was a soccer fan when I was in sixth grade, although not a fan of European-based competitions yet more of a national team supporter kind, even I reacted like crazy when Indonesia won AFF U19 Cup in 2013 against Vietnam after a decisive penalty kick showdown. After those numerous bitter endings to Indonesia in the international stages, this was something that Indonesia deserved, although the over-enthusiastic commentator in Indonesia might not a cup of tea for everyone.

However, at that same time, I also despise and hate how crazy our supporters are, even to the point where, if I can recall correctly, a soccer pundit states that our supporters are a reminiscent to the English soccer hooligans circa 1970-1980s, especially when it comes to club competitions here. I also learned this the hard way when I, with my friends, watched a match live in Stadion Gelora Bung Karno where they faced Malaysia, between 2011-2012 if I could recall. The gate we were in haven't opened yet and people were impatient that we had to push and shove our way until I was literally exhausted and almost ran out of breath, and didn't realize that, as soon as I managed to get in, the sharp edge of a fence scratched my left foot with excessive bleeding and I was just writhing at such a pain (luckily, the medic team was stood by inside). The only thing I brought home are my pain, my (almost) bad luck of not able to watch the game, some "colorful" chants to Malaysia (take note that they don't take this rivalry lightly for a variety of reasons), broken eyeglasses, the fact that I lost my N95 which was stuffed with some precious files and whatnot, stitches after leaving GBK past midnight, sleep deprivation, and three days of school absence. One of those darkest days of mine.

But as much as I hate that very moment, there's nothing more dark and hateful than this: internal politics. For numerous times, politics were at play, and there was also a dualism in 2013 (but it was way earlier before they won the AFF U19, and there was a dualism in league existence in 2012 too) although the problem was solved, but the climax was the fact that it was given a FIFA probation due to government meddling on May 2015, and was later lifted during the 66th FIFA Congress. The combination of these two things were one of the main reasons for my broken relationship to soccer.

Pro Evolution Soccer 6, one of the most recent PES entries I have played at the moment in my PS2 days before saying goodbye to soccer games until I reunited with its PC version. How can anyone forget how great its Master League system was? (Image: Balls.co.uk)

Fast forward to a past Friday where I managed to get Pro Evolution Soccer 6, all with the intention of uncovering the preset teams on the Master League mode just for the reference on things I would make, which unfortunately I have no knowledge of figuring out which index within an AFS file all those Master League-exclusive team emblems is stored. I had to learn some modding know-how in order to do that, but apart from that, I remember I used to play this game on PS2, utilizing my own club edits, joining the Master League fray, and play a bunch of modded versions of this game.

What stood out for this game until now however is how Master League system works. Not pertaining to how a club can get promoted or relegated to the next/previous division, but how the negotiation system works, how the unique individual player growth system plays, and others that I can't mention one by one. It's as if this feature would be a perfect scheme for a career-based game of any game genre you can think of, where players can experience different growth each gameplay and a particular player can say either yes or no to your player contract. I'm pretty sure that succeeding entries for PES have a better system, but this very system is my stepping stone for a dynamic career approach where everyone develops.

Also unique to its original Japanese counterpart I also played once, Winning Eleven 10 (featuring a theme from Ukatrats FC, a collaboration of many Japanese musicians), is the mode where you play as a Japanese national team, progressing your way from the Asian qualifiers, to Kirin Challenge, to playoffs, and World Cup. Never got to play that far, but as a sixth grade gamer I found the progression tree in that mode interesting, especially knowing that there are unplayable national teams stirring up the contention, Indonesia was there too IIRC. Also worth noting that the game also allows players to listen to the BGMs from the past Winning Eleven games, by spending a specific WEN (an in-game currency to buy things off of WE Shop, called PES Points in the PES counterpart) to unlock the option.

The trigger of why I started to dig on PES/WE was first initiated by this PES 5 menu music composed by Nekomata Master (Naoyuki Sato), then the menu music of Winning Eleven 2000 (the U23 edition) which stuck on my mind forever even when I rediscovered it again, and the list goes on until the thought of getting PES 6 started to materialize. The second any of PES/WE soundtrack starts playing, thoughts about Master League also come into play. Currently, I am in search of working game controllers in order to play this game fully, as I haven't got used in using keyboard controls as opposed to the same behavior in racing games, but maybe I could see keyboard controls as a temporary solution. As an update, I did find the controller I'm looking for, but one button doesn't work, so I guess the controller I have will be the temporary solution instead until I can afford the one that's new / at least working.

By now fragments of myself as a soccer fan started to recollect by itself. Everything came full circle, and it seems that I could safely still believe in Indonesia, after all the politics we've been through. I always prefer being in the saner spectrum of the fandom for this, especially after looking back at my bitter past numerous times. The stitch was long gone, but the remnant is still there.

But apparently, one thing doesn't change: our national team's defense are still full of loopholes, at least for two previous matches, didn't watch the third one though. On a positive note, however, we just made it to the Semifinals! It's just that Vietnam won't be an easy opponent...

~[R]

Turbo Sliders vs. The Mountain

Closest. Finish. Ever.: Will Davison and Jonathon Webb of Tekno Autosport took Bathurst 1000 victory earlier this month from Shane Van Gisbergen and Alexandre Prémat after the fated incident between Whincup, McLaughlin and Tander which effectively denied Whincup's lead as he was given a 15-second penalty post-race. (Image: PSP Images / Touring Car Times)

So, it was a hot Bathurst 1000 weekend earlier this month. The race itself may not be up to the 2014 standards but everything changed at Lap 92 when Andrew Jones's big crash before reaching Brock's Skyline caused the Safety Car period, which pretty much gave a change of pace in the race. However, there was that one move that got everyone talking: Jamie Whincup, crashing into the Jandal Man Scott McLaughlin and domino'ed Garth Tander, nullifying Whincup's win due to penalty and lodged an appeal afterwards which was eventually dismissed. Thankfully, things took a positive turn for Whincup and McLaughlin, as proved by this clip courtesy of Australian Supercars' official Twitter. The race is won by Will Davison and Jonathon Webb of Tekno Autosport, with Shane Van Gisbergen and Alexandre Prémat just tenths of a second behind, making it the closest Bathurst 1000 finish in history, and apparently, second Bathurst win for Tekno and its drivers if you also count their Bathurst 12 Hour success this year.

So much happened before the Great Australian Race took place this year, one of them being Real Racing 3's own take of Supercheap Auto 1000 event in the new update and its inclusion of three Supercars cars, namely Ford Falcon FG, Holden Commodore, and Nissan Altima (which can be won in the Gauntlet Season 9 event). the three marques with quite a history of their own in the Supercars universe: Nissan marked Bathurst as their territory the first time in the early 90s with their Nissan Skyline GT-R Group A, dominating the 1000km marathon much to the dismay of both Ford and Holden fans. Years later, it was all Ford vs Holden until more manufacturers like Volvo and Mercedes Benz entered (until 2016), and Nissan returned as well (which marked its territory once more last year, but in a different race).

But of course we have lots of Mount Panorama and Supercars being featured already in numerous games, yet something doesn't seem to kick here, and a question popped out of my mind: what if there's Mount Panorama in a top-down perspective? Like...

Opening A New Mobile Chapter

A photo posted by Rendy Andrian Y (@tsukasa_kadoya) on Sep 5, 2016 at 11:31pm PDT

As a result of failing the ROM change for my phone during my first Maximum Tune 5DX outing last week, I returned to Pondok Indah Mall once more the next day for this purpose. In case you missed it, I intended to change my Redmi 1S's CyanogenMod 11 ROM to MIUI 8 after recently being a pain in the buns in which, of all things, it just didn't load app notifications, and message delivery on WhatsApp was delayed, awfully.

Transitioning to MIUI 8 after more than a year using CM 11 would mark the new mobile chapter of mine, some good, some bad, and yes, I made a trade there, which I will explain way below.

The Race is OOOOOOONNNNNN~!

It's early September and I've ran things that I have planned earlier on: upgrading my Redmi 1S to MIUI 8 because apparently it's being a pain in the buns that it sent little to no push notifications like normal (plus some delayed notifications), and trying out Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5DX, which has been out in all arcades throughout Indonesia earlier this week, with Maxi G dress-up system being the headline feature and the fact that this blog title has something to do with the game.

It's been a long time since we have MT5, which was rolled out without a Maxi G system which the Japanese MT5 has, and as it was announced that the international releases of the 5DX would have such a system, it's a full-on hype because apparently players really want to have less burden in dressing up cars, me included, hands down. Although the game has some features that are sacrificed, the new modes implemented in 5DX definitely changed the way Maximum Tune is played.

MAXIMUM TUNE (REMASTERED IN) 5D('s)X

The 5DX version of Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune series of arcade video game is the 9th installment (including the original Wangan Midnight) of Wangan Midnight arcade series based on Michiharu Kusunoki's manga series of the same name developed by Bandai Namco Games, and is the second "expansion" (in my language) of MT5, reusing the fashion used in MT3 (to 3DX and 3DX+). As usual, players will drive one of the cars varying from tuners like Nissans and Toyotas, Euro sports like RUFs and Mercs, and American muscles like Chevys, among others, as they dive to the world of Wangan Midnight and get involved in racing against some of WM's prominent machines, like Akio Asakura's Devil Z and Tatsuya Shima's Blackbird, as well as some tuners like Jun Kitami for instance via the game's Story Mode. Aside from the said mode, there's also Ghost Battle where you can battle against ghosts from different arcades, Japan Challenge which is Ghost Battle with Japanese opponents, ocassional online events such as Online Champion Match, and Time Attack where your time will be submitted to the game's server. The game also allows for modifications (these are called Dress-Ups) and supports progress saving via Banapassport.

GET THAT CASH! You get Maxi Gs everytime you win a Ghost Battle race, and Dress-Up system is drastically changed. (Image: WMMT 5DX official site) 

The international 5DX added several key features missing from MT5, the most prominent being the Maxi G and Maxi Shop system which drastically changes the way you get Dress-Up Parts: first, you earn Maxi Gs everytime you win a Ghost Battle or the like, and this Maxi G applies to your Banapassport AS A WHOLE, meaning that you earn Maxi Gs for your Banapassport regardless what car you are using. The Maxi G you earn can be spent in the Maxi Shop where you can buy whatever the Dress-Up Part you want, but there's a twist: Shop Grade system, which is accumulated the same way the old Dress-Up system in MT does. The Shop Grade holds a set of Dress-Up Parts for a particular car you drive, and at some point you'll get a free Dress-Up Part if you reach a certain Shop Grade. Details about that go here. 5DX also adds a new set of parts too, including the swan-neck mount rear wing and adjustable rear wing!

Also present are three new courses: Hanshin Express R3/Harbor Road in Kobe Area, Shibuya/Shinjuku Line, and Ikebukuro Line/Yamate Tunnel. The first course is Japan's preeminent harbor road, which is characterized by its beautiful tourist scenery and rugged sights of the harbor town, and has quite a unique layout which is a "combination of various elements rom previous courses" (Fukuoka and Hanshin come to mind). The second and third courses are both set in the downtown metropolitan area in Tokyo, which all run through Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Ikebukuro, and feature residential areas, narrow roads, tight sections, straightaways, and skyscrapers. The Shibuya/Shinjuku track features a roundabout while Ikebukuro/Yamate features the blind corners inside the Yamate tunnel, guaranteed to give the players a run for their money.

The game also adds six cars of mixed varieties: Nissan Skyline RS-X, Subaru Levorg, RUF rt-35, Mercedes Benz SLK 350 BlueEFFICIENCY, BMW Z4 S-Drive, and Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport. Not just that, there's also the new-for-2015 Subaru Imprezza WRX STI, RUF RCT, Mitsubishi Galant VR-4, and Mazda RX-3, bringing in a total of 10 new models appearing for 5DX! Also, cars previously introduced in 5 but were not viable for Dress-Up Parts now can be fitted with Dress-Up Parts, so consider dressing up your Toyota 86 or BRZ for that matter! More cars will be slated in the future update, but for now, these are the additions.

Stamps and Shuttles are also two of the new features you can't write off. The stamps, replacing the Challenge and Revenge system, are acquired as a proof of someone racing against your ghost, regardless if you win or lose. A shuttle is created when you and another person send each other a stamp, and you can earn titles, stamp designs, and terminal backgrounds (also a new feature here!) as rewards based on the number of stamps and shuttles you have. The stamps can be seen on the terminal unit car data screen.

The Japan Challenge is reworked with a new system. In this new system, you can select an opponent from up to five cars with a level similar to yours instead of just one per level. Seasonal motifs are also added to increase the enjoyment of each round. With the introduction of the new season, all Japan Challenge progress are reset to zero without any effect on the items you get from your previous Japan Challenge journey (e.g., license plates, Japan Challenge stickers).

Last but not least are the new soundtracks from Yuzo Koshiro himself, the composer for the Maximum Tune series. New to 5DX are Fascination, Let it Shine, The Race is On, and Risky Guy.

WMMT 5DX is released in international servers on August 2nd, while Indonesia server has the update rolled on August 31st, almost a month after the former's release. If you want to know more about the game, give the game's official site a visit!

Now the race is indeed on!

THE TEST DRIVE SESSION

Wrong cab graphics? Who cares!

Some spoilers for this test drive session: it's weekend, and 5DX has just come out so of course I'm in the waiting line and had only three tries each session before I had to give the next person his/her drive but at the time of my test drive, the cabs weren't that full, and this was in PIM 1's XXI arcade. Also, the price per play is increased from a minimum of IDR 8750 (roughly more than one dollar and a half) to IDR 10000.

Pondok Indah Mall is the place of choice for this mission, considering that it is the only nearest place to have a MI Center. Apart from a small chunk of traffic I faced during my ride from home to the scene, there were no significant troubles.

Arrived on the place, I took my time to "steal" some public Wi-Fi session to allow my games to be saved to the cloud (*cough*googleplaygames*cough*) before I go to the MI Center which isn't that far if you enter PIM 1. Apparently, the person responsible for ROM upgrades hasn't come, so I took my chance to try out 5DX, within a very limited budget of three swipes. Between these swipes, I focused my plays on trying out the new courses while doing Ghost Battles on the way. Apparently, the arcade owner might forgot to put some new cabinet parts showing 5DX stuffs, but perhaps the purple LED lights already made up for that.

New in the Maxi Terminal: Beauty shots! I mean... yeah, like that...

Obviously, coming from MT5, Data Transfer had to be done first on the Terminal before I am able to play 5DX, and I started out with Shop Grade 30 for my R34 and 9 for my R33, while I don't care the other cars' Shop Grades are. I took the time to tinker with the Terminal first to see Maxi Shop and backgrounds which is pretty much useful for taking pictures with your car, although I only took pictures of my R34 and S30 which I haven't drove for, like, eons. Maybe I should update my WM Expressway signature now?

And here comes the main part: playing the game! I noticed that the game sports a new Entry music which I really like and somehow reminds me of Mario Kart Wii's menu music. I proceeded with my R33 because, honestly, I had to dress this thing up as a 1996-spec 24 Hours of Le Mans car, and suddenly one ghost already challenged mine for stamps so I took this chance, and apparently I was able to pick the track for this battle, which I picked Shibuya/Shinjuku. This is hands down one of the challenging courses ever considering that it is twisty, narrow, and has a roundabout, probably on par with Taikan (ahem, Hakone Turnpike, but whatever) and Hakone. Having won this battle, not only I received some Maxi G bonus for fighting the ghost the "same day" it defeated me (it netted me 2000 Maxi Gs), but I received two stamps at once, and rewarding me with a new stamp design which is a green gas stand, but I have no intentions to change my stamp at the moment. Oh, and did I mention that the loading is now faster?

The next session would see me trying the new Japan Challenge, and I chose Hokkaido as the first area which comprises of only Hokkaido itself. Another thing that I noticed was that with this new system, I can no longer fight anyone of a higher level for farming purposes, and had to race against anyone of the same level, which in my R33's case is Level 4. Granted, the ghost I chose drove Kobe Area, so it was a plus. But, the best part in trying this track was actually the street part, which somehow gave me some Seaside Street Galaxy vibe from Daytona USA, where a portion of the track crosses a city street. Winning against this ghost resulted in earning 1000 Maxi Gs, clearing the Hokkaido area, and as a reward I got a license plate with names from Wangan Midnight series on the frame, like RGO, FLAT, Black Bird, GT World, and stuff, all in their distinctive colors, talk about carrying the progression of Japan Challenge rewards.

The last swipe began with me choosing a new car which was my main car: the R34. In this game, I initiated a normal ghost battle which is now affectionally titled as "Return Stamp" or whatever, although I had to say the title has a point regarding on this new stamp system. I tried out the last track which is the Yamate Tunnel, the track that prominently features long tunnel sections and a convergence to a portion of the C1 Route and is more twisty than Shibuya/Shinjuku. Sadly, I set the time to Day because if I set it to Night, I could write "dark and twisty" and think about Meredith Grey. I won the race, but the rewards weren't that big, only 500 Maxi Gs earned, and a small progression on the Shop Grade bar for my R34. Nevertheless, I have to consider promoting myself, and by earning 3500 Maxi Gs throughout my first playthrough, this concluded it.

In the end, I returned to the MI Center and found out that the ROM upgrade person didn't come as I spoke to the shopkeeper. But, I made sure that I would keep myself updated, so I left my number to the shopkeeper to make sure that he would notify me when the person in question comes. And apparently, that was it for my visit. I rode home as the condition was raining.

The new age of Maximum Tune is here, and it is here to stay as the race of the new age is finally on!

Yes, everyone, the race is OOOOOOONNNNNN~!

~[R]

Rendy's Car Skinning Life: EP 05 - CRAZY CHICK WITH A GT3 SKIN!

"More Wayhaught horsepower than you can fit in"

FINALLY! After learning useful techniques such as Smart Objects and Reference Point when Free Transforming, I have finally crafted what could be my first TMUF skin! It's actually 90% completion, but it shaped up nicely after spending 2 days and a half figuring out how to work the skin despite the "pain-in-the-buns" template especially when talking about the front fascia part which somehow stretches and bends whatever you put there if you don't pay attention.

After series of WIP which led me to some cases of discontinuation due to template problems (Debenhams DBR9, back when I started to skin in TMUF), HDD problems (anything 2013 and below) and lack of motivation (the FTO, among others), this has to be the most completed skin I ever worked. I felt bad that I had to go AWOL from TMUF forums for almost a year (or is it already?) just to think about my re-entry with the FTO's update, but I know that I finally overcame my problems and can have something worth introducing on my WIP thread. Tell your mothers: TheRebirth is about to reborn once more!

The 360 (No, not the Endurance Race Project!)

Apologizes yet again for the almost-zero activity in my blog this month, because I had to prioritize my unfinished Internship business, which I had to wrestle with a software I am remaking due to my advisor demanding a fix since a couple of months ago, which unfortunately took its toll to my motivation to combine the two applications. What's worse is that my "brute force" approach (read: literally going without any plan whatsoever) also costed a lot in the remaking, so I had to make a concrete plan as I restart this process. Nevertheless, I have to soldier on.

Between the process of "soldiering on", however, I peeked at two of the already-downloaded ZIP and RAR files on my laptop. These two files hold some of the interesting cars that can be useful for my next batch of projects. I'm very amazed at how the roster for those packs are considering that they do relate to what my big project really needs.

Those files are in fact Whiplash's unfinished car packs, divided into two different packs. These cars, while having no defined physics as they are "unfinished cars", exactly what the tin says, have 360 rotated images which reflects the lighting for each rotation. In addition, these cars are taken from 3D models of Forza Motorsport series, of which car models for this series are available at... drumrolls please, this site, of all others.

Rendy's Car Skinning Life EP 04: Everything Looks Better on rFactor Somehow (Probably...)

Skinner's Block is a bitch. The struggles I had in search of paint splash brushes for use in my Desigual FTO Super Touring Car WIP skin took its toll, and so did the Alpha Layer business. But that is just a TMUF story, as right now I tried my luck skinning in rFactor (as the title suggests) because of one thing: Global Racing League. Before starting this post, I cordially invite you to Global Racing League, one of the best motorsport role-playing series based on rFactor, where racing, cuteness, and role-playing mix together with numerous racing disciplines! More on GRL can be seen in the full post.

Working on an rFactor skin for the aforementioned reason, I felt like the process is much more enjoyable than in both GTR2 and TMUF, especially the previewing part. The fact that you can immediately see your car once the game starts is really a plus and makes previewing a straightforward process without all that hassle going through menu and stuff, especially if you turn the "Player Car" option to "Full" in the Settings. That said, this pops out to my mind: "why can't I just do skinning in rFactor?"

Another New Turbo Sliders Version? Are You Serious?

"Alright, who woke me up with an announcement of the new Turbo Sliders version?"

That was exactly my thoughts after waking up in the morning, logging in to my Facebook, and found out that a new Turbo Sliders version is underway, and has some of the new features including more car-related and server-related parameters, although it wasn't documented beforehand. The best thing was it coincided with SpoilerTV's Character Cup timeline and later the day of Primetime Emmy nominations (which I don't feel like batting my eye on right now save for some I got spoilered as a result of Twitter timeline exploration), but I got to try the game hands-on and would love to tell you what the game will have for this new version. The amalgamation of the three revelations were what causing some Spongar Primitive Spongebob effect on me.

Of course that this isn't final as chances are there will be some fixes here and there since the time of this posting, but there are things that are certain: 1) Big shout out to Ande (Antti Mannisto) for the new version work, and; 2) I have to update ALL of my real-life cars!

GeneRally Spirit Re-Awakens Once More!

It's been a long time...

I have never played GeneRally since the long time, all I focused on right now are Turbo Sliders and MiniRacingOnline. There are so many stuffs to be made on TS that I couldn't find the right time to do some GR stuffs, and the only thing that's very recent is the ZOKKER, a random bosozoku-inspired car with a very wide front bumper and a pair of large rear exhausts. Some people point out that it is the ringer to my Legendary Schneider WIP, but it was purely made out of boredom and I don't seem to have an interest on Kaido Battle / Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift series like I did before.

Some time before the fasting month Ramadan came, I remember I shared a link to one of the articles on the GR2's Developer Blog on Facebook, thanks to the "On This Day" feature. As I shared the article, my GR-circle online friends took their time for some hot discussions on my link's comments. Although as hot as it is, I still believe that there will be GeneRally 2 someday.

And then James's recent post changed everything, and what I said on the memory, having them coming up with a surprise, has been true.

Le Mans 24, Before It was Cool

"LE MAAANS TWENTY FOUR!"

As promised, for the rest of June a month post-Le Mans, I'm going to post Le Mans-related stuffs. The two previous posts made up an intense story narrative that summed up how hectic this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans was, but I don't think that any of them are better than a Twilight fan fiction anyway because the traffic is way too low for a race recap to be honest. After two posts of dark-themed craziness, it's time to change up the mood and get over all the emotion aside.

Heartbreak, Sadness, and Sorrow - Toyota and Le Mans

(Image: Autosport / XPB Images)

19th June 2016, 19:50 Jakarta Time. I was listening to Radio Le Mans by my smartphone in my relative's house moments after break fasting (it is Ramadan month as I post this) since fifty minutes before, while browsing Twitter. Prior to Toyota's strong performance, I kept crossing my fingers to make sure that there indeed is a second Japanese manufacturer winning 24 Hours of Le Mans after Mazda in 1991 with its Mazda 787B.

Suddenly, a plot twist happened as John Hindhaugh's voice became even louder just three minutes before the race ended: The #5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid driven by Kazuki Nakajima halted to a stop right at the start/finish straight, allowing Porsche to pass through and claimed its second consecutive Le Mans victory. Nobody saw that coming, and it was enough to break everyone's heart who longed for a different winner, which also included the whole crew of Toyota Team Gazoo team. Of course, the drivers were astounded in heartbreak, Anthony Davidson could only said "Heartbreaking", and the climax of it all was that the radio communication where Kazuki Nakajima wanted to cry after the car finished, which took longer than six minutes and unfortunately kicking them out from the official classification.

2016 24 Hours of Le Mans - The Ballad of Ford GT

The Incredible Ford GT, in its LM GTE/GTLM form (Image: Road and Track)

The 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans marked a return for Ford with its new Ford GT car, competing in GTE Pro class of FIA World Endurance Championship and WeatherTech Sports Car Championship under the GTLM class as well. Throughout their venture in the two mentioned championships, Ford GT has experienced a lot prior to Le Mans, and this year they even tackled the big race by sending out FOUR, yes, FOUR cars in the GTE Pro category, all in the name of celebrating their 50 years of Ford in Le Mans.

For this year's recap, I decided to focus on one car which I already stated in the blog title, instead of the whole grid like last year. Consider that this is the "punishment" for having a tl;dr-ish recap of last year's race, but don't worry, I will also highlight the other categories from the likes of LMP1, LMP2 and GTE Am. LMP1 is of course a hot affair between the trinity of Audi, Porsche, and Toyota as they are now competitive against each other while Rebellion and ByKolles tried to take down the trinity, while LMP2 and GTE Am also delivered a good chunk of battles.

Good Things Always End with "Sport"

A photo posted by Rendy Andrian Y (@tsukasa_kadoya) on May 27, 2016 at 4:31pm PDT

Over the span of two weeks, lots were happened. Gran Turismo Sport, the newest entry to the Gran Turismo franchise, showed its colors with a couple of new stuffs, including the Tokyo Expressway (!), the all-new evolution of Photo Mode called Scapes, and the Livery Editor, as well as the fact that it is now a sanctioned by FIA which means that this game will be equal to any motorsporting event and, taking the e-Sport context into account, would be a good challenger to the DoTA 2 scene.

One week later meanwhile, I managed to try out GRID Autosport in Margo City. Intel Indonesia held an event entitled Intel Game Time which allowed visitors to shop for Intel's products as well as trying out their skills in three different games: GRID Autosport, FIFA Online and Point Blank. This golden opportunity is something that I can't be missed because of the fact that the words "GRID Autosport" and "Margo City" were indeed in the same sentence. It was a unique experience although I didn't expect anything from the leaderboard which would take the Top 3 from the daily leaderboard over the span of the show's run throughout Wednesday to Sunday in a final held in the Sunday afternoon, with the Top 3 in the final get to the Grand Final held in Mall Taman Anggrek.

The Random Business

One of the most recent posts in both Team [R]GARAGE's Facebook and Twitter is that it dropped lots of things. Klaus Mikaelson leading by miles? Not that. Me fighting for second place with Margo Roth Spiegelman? Not that too. Carrie Mathison against Cookie Lyon? Nah. Sora Choi and Katie Moore on the grid? Don't get me started on that. Claire Fraser limping last? Not even that. So what gives?

The essence of the post was not to merely drop the character names into the grid I was racing at that time which I might see one or two of you familiar with at least one of the twenty names shown on the bottom left corner of the screenshot. The real essence was I am making a bunch of random cars for Turbo Sliders lately, and since you can clearly spot two known cars already which are Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 which I finished a long time ago (you can download it here) and Audi R10 TDI which is still unreleased until now, combined the fact that I write many times about getting a mid-2000s Le Mans grid of all classes, the reasoning is set: Le Mans Series! This should help you guess out which three other cars are...

That One Day I Became A Tiger

A Japanese Culture festivity that is unmistakably Ennichisai Blok M, Indonesia's biggest Japanese Culture event featuring the best in Japan's culture, food, and more! (Image: Hai Jepang)

So last week Ennichisai Blok M has just ended and I ended up not going there because I had too many things to settle. On Saturday, I had to tidy up my college organization's HQ with friends, and on Sunday I had family business. Missing the event has its perks though as I witnessed something special in Formula 1: Max Verstappen won the race. Yes, that guy who went "NO!" in Singapore last year went all "YES! YES! YES!" in Barcelona this year, and that one swap with Danil Kvyat really worked, not to mention I could totally see a Supa Hot Fire reaction to two Mercs going kaput at the first lap.

RENDY'S BLOG... ger's Block.

Oh shee, here come dat picture, again! (Image: Psych Central)

Actually, this is just a short, random post that explains why I haven't blogged past two months. Real Life has been keeping me away from blogging here, and the fact that I brought my brother's laptop, which is infamously slow when surfing the internet although gifted with good specs like Core i5 processor, Radeon VGA, and all that stuff, made everything worse. Although I have to say I am still actively involved with fandom stuffs: I wrote a piece of Zimbio TV Couples' March Challenge, the one where Clarke Griffin and Lexa from The 100 won, on my LiveJournal, and also the "cry-post" about the absence of Fandom Steel Cage March Madness for this year, rendering all my horses for the competition of course obsolete. Later on I would spill my recap for this year's E! Online's Top TV Couple although there still isn't any sign of both a winner's interview and a "ranking" post like last year until now.

Is Indonesia Having a Major... Setback?

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Posted by Meme Comic Indonesia on Sunday, February 21, 2016

So recently 2016 isn't off with a great start actually, at least if the context is question is an Indonesian context. Yes, the 2016 was started with flying bike attacks, crashing low-poly Lamborghini, infant punts, and some WALALALALAs from Ghana and Uganda, but they're way out of context. In Indonesia, there is one major setback that gripes me very much recently: the fact that we are still being treated like children, starting by the blocking of the newly-opened Netflix by some telecommunication group a couple of weeks ago continued with the block of Tumblr due to the "pornographic" content weeks later (both of which had their blocks lifted thankfully) and then some random censorships that has now blurred what could be a harmless kebaya showcase in a national-level pageant days ago, as you can see in the picture above. Here, you can see the correlation between "being treated like children" and all the blocks and censors really exists and is quite inevitable, big time.

Looks like the series "Is Indonesia Humiliating Itself?" has been brought back from its death, and now this has become the sign of its rebirth. Though seeing the current context that will be written here, it might be more like a development to the case where Vimeo was blocked due to pornography (and the bad news is, the ban is still there -_-).

2016 BATHURST 12 HOUR - Endurance Redefined

A last-minute thriller where Katsumasa Chiyo's Nissan GT-R GT3 tried to catch up with Shane Van Gisbergen's McLaren  650S GT3 made up what could be the best Bathurst 12 Hour race yet. (Image: Streaming screencap / NISMO)

The 2016 Bathurst 12 Hour has just ended, with a close victory by Tekno Autosports's McLaren 650S GT driven by Shane Van Gisbergen, marking the return of V8 Supercars drivers after their last year's absence due to the clashing V8SC Supertest. Katsumasa Chiyo, the last driver standing for Nissan Motorsports's GT-R GT3, pushed himself to the limits after leaving the last pit stop with 15 seconds of gap, eventually finishing it with a 1.27 second gap. Steven Kane's #10 Bentley completed the podium, while Laurens Vanthoor's #2 Phoenix Audi missed the chance unfortunately. Out of 37 started, only 19 remained till end, with numerous Full-Course Yellows took place.

Future Prospects for 2016

Here's to yet another exciting year! (Image: Digital Trends)

So, this is the first post of 2016 in RENDY'S BLOG. Opening up a new chapter, I am continuing some of my existing WIPs and making new ones. However, there will be changes of how I will do them as in real life I will be focusing on my Internship phase in my college before finally going to the final phase of making a Final Paper and finally getting some job. The playing field is vast, but once you have a certain focus or two you can narrow down and find your best field.

As always, I'm focusing on Turbo Sliders WIPs, but I've got some space for my skinning projects considering that the array of models since the last post about skinning has grown a lot and the roster has become more and more interesting as time progresses.