Videogame Review: Need for Speed: The Run

EA has recently released the newest installment in the Need for Speed series.  As of late, EA has been attempting to compete directly with Turn 10′s Forza series as well as Polyphony’s Gran Turismo range with Need for Speed: Shift and Shift 2.  Unfortunately, the Shift series has not been up to snuff with subpar graphics and botched vehicle dynamics.  It’s about damn time EA went back to what brought them into the spotlight to begin with.  Instead of building a complex series of semi-legitimate racing simulators, the NFS group has reached into the back of the closet and pulled out a bit of the magic that they had lost.

… Continue Reading

Tweet

Adventures in Automotive Technology – MyFord Touch

We’re not averse to new technology here in the Hooniverse. As such, we were eager to get a look at the latest that Dearborn has to offer. Ford’s MyTouch system is a combination of infotainment and HVAC controls available on most new Fords and Lincolns (R.I.P. Mercury). Having driven two vehicles so equipped I found this interface via touchscreen, steering wheel buttons, or voice to be extremely frustrating. It just did not work well for me but your results may.

… Continue Reading

Tweet

The Sound and the Fury: Hooniverse Reviews the Soundracer (with video!)

Are you ready to UNLEASH THE FURY?

Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Ol’ Billy Shakespeare (college hip-hop name: “DJ Shaky P”) wrote this when he was going through his rebellious teenage phase in Macbeth. But the quote is surprisingly accurate: this world, being the stage that it is, is far too short to drive a 1998 Honda Accord LX with enough miles to recreate the first two days of the Apollo 11 mission, especially when you really lust after a Zonda. What happens if you might not have the $350,000 to afford the fine Italian/Argentine stallion? You can either take an senior analyst position with a leading financial firm and run the company into the ground over the course of a decade for a lucrative severance package, or—for an option that won’t result in a Senate hearing—you can recreate it for 0.1% of that price with the Soundracer.

Maybe.

… Continue Reading

Tweet

Hooniverse Gadget Review: Magellan Premium Car Kit

Yeah, there's a suction cup for that.

Here at Hooniverse we don’t just love cars, we also love the stuff that goes into cars – and onto cars, and under cars – so we’ll be testing, and letting you know how we feel about, all sorts of car-related gadgets. Not as a regular feature so much, just what strikes our fancy.

And to that end, I took a look at one way to keep my iPhone from being flung out a window when the force of digging deep into an off-camber, decreasing radius curve makes everything in the car not sufficiently nailed down a prime candidate for a sub-orbital trajectory. Ready? Let’s go.

… Continue Reading

Tweet