MTM2.com

[Expo 2003]

Track: Hogwarts Adventure
Type: Free Roam
Checkpoints: N/A
Garage Settings: 1500 med tires/soft suspension
Lap time: N/A
Music: RockX

In Tarres' readme he discloses that this track is based on a game called Quidditch from the Harry Potter movie/book. Well, if you haven't seen a "Harry Potter" movie or read any of the books, you're likely to be asking, "What the heck is a Quidditch? And furthermore, what does a Bludger, a Quaffle and a Snitch have to do with it?" What we can say right off the top is it's not the same kind of snitch that officers of the law exploit for info in a quest to make "the big collar". To sum it all up quick and proper like, quidditch is a game that involves three balls and is played by warlocks using broomsticks for transportation around a field called a pitch. The pitch is 500' (152 meters) long by 180' (55 meters) wide, and consists of three 50' (15 meters) posts at either end for scoring. In the middle of the field is a hole that's used to launch the quaffle in order to begin game play. The quaffle is a red ball, 12" (305 millimeters) in diameter with leather bindings, and is the only ball that can be used for scoring. A bludger is a iron ball that will attack any nearby player. The third and most important ball is called the golden snitch. It's a tiny little sucker with wings and it's enchanted (so we're told lol).

Tarres' attempt to capture what was a vivid, extremely intense, high-speed event in the Harry Potter story comes up short in several ways. It's worth mentioning, however, that workmanship of his ring models, the golden snitch, and even the bludger is pretty impressive. The quaffle, according to documented information, is supposed to be red. When examined up close in the game, you'll find that the quaffle and bludger are identical in size and color. The quidditch field itself is a pretty elaborate structure accented with a grassy field. In comparison to the picture, Tarres' version is woefully inaccurate. In his readme.txt Tarres challenges you to find the quidditch, bludger, quaffle, and snitch. The quidditch pitch is fairly simple to locate since it's rather difficult to miss a structure of that size. As for the quaffle, golden snitch and buldger, unless you switch to Gold mode and elevate skyward where the players are, you probably won't pick them up from the ground. By some miracle that you do, you won't be able to tell the golden snitch from the bludger from the quaffle; all three will appear as small dots in the sky. As for the players, a Quidditch team consists of 7 members (with a few in reserve in case of injury), yet Tarres only placed 11 players on the pitch. The houses represent the schoolhouse, where the players live and study. It's unclear what the floating cylinders represent with respect to the Harry Potter story, and nothing is mentioned in the readme.txt about them, as well as why he opted to pursue such an endeavor.

Technically speaking there were fairly significant issues with the houses where placement is concerned. In this picture it shows one houses floating, and the other two are so closely placed that they slightly overlap each other. The rings should have been adjusted to the same height, set to no collide, then fitted with object boxes to accurately form the shape of the model. As is, your truck runs into invisible portions of the ring, and by today's standards such a thing is well, it's borderline criminal lol. The texture work looks to be that of Farm Road 29.

In terms of creativity, as a free roam we would expect more to do and more to see. He's certainly capable of producing more than what we see here. It's just a matter of him fully developing his idea, employing beta testers, and then reworking any problems noted and fine-tuning until the project is complete. We'll be watching closely for future works by Tarres to see how he's coming along. Not watching like a stalker or anything, but we'll be close by lol.

[Mat-Allum]

[SLO_COPE]

My mistake. The reference material I used to describe the rules of the game said only 3 balls were required. If there are 4 in your track I'll take your word for it. I won't be going back to look lol.

As for the innaccurate colors and the lack of custom textures...not much I can do about that but call it as I see it.