It's been quite a busy week. In my driving fever I've re-watched Initial D Fourth Stage (anime). And being the arcade camper that I am, I've decided to try the new Initial D Arcade Stage 4.
It shall become the most expensive hobby I'll ever have.
Arcades are extremely expensive. Sure, if you camp there to challenge people on fighting games its cheap, but if you play the large machines it's gonna cost a bomb. Initial D Arcade Stage 4, like all the previous stages, gives you a "license" to start out with. It saves your game progress and car(s). In this version we get a new hard card with our character portrait that can be customized EVENTUALLY after playing heaps of games. Our portrait on the card changes to reflect the customization too. The game mechanics has changed quite a bit - in previous versions it's purely grip driving and it's quite impossible to drift. Now it's all about drifting and yet feels more realistic. We also get new cars such as my dream Evo9.
The addictive nature of this comes from the element of progression, in upgrading your car, customizing your character, clearing the story mode and fighting for the fastest timing. Yes, it's all linked up online so the fastest timings are all ranked. It's typically $3 for one play and $2 for each consecutive 'continue'. A new license costs $5 and it all adds up to an easy $40 per day if we just camp there for a couple hours.
Initial D's
official english website has lots of details including cars, story mode characters, courses and stuff.
Coming back to IRL driving, I've progressed faster than I wished, having completed all but 4 practice sessions long before my test on 28/Sept. This means I have about 3 months to take 4 lessons, so I can just do it at my own leisure when I feel like driving. A couple days ago I just went for my last boring auto car lesson. Manual learners need to take a compulsory two auto car lessons. It's just so easy, I don't understand why anyone would need to learn it at all. It's like playing Daytona - any kid can just pick up an auto car and drive it.
