Our New Game, Dirt 2 For PS3!!

Dirt 2 by Codemasters is a great new off road game for the PS3 and other game consoles that really has us hooked right now. It focuses on rally cars, but you'll also find trophy trucks and open wheel buggies.One of the first things to stand out to us when we got the game going was the in cab view. There are other views, as you'll find with almost any game of this type, but this has to be one of the more realistic and involved in cab views we've seen. I normally don't like playing on this camera view, but found it fun to play around with for once. Having a view of the drivers arms fighting the wheel, and shifting gears adds to the feeling, as does the view of the dash and partial side window. The game lets you win different dash "toys" to personalize your cockpit as well. We also noticed right off that it had Utah listed as one of the track destinations. This was very exciting since we do most of our off roading in Utah. We were further excited to find out the locations were ones that we have enjoyed before such as "Hurrah Pass" and "Kane Springs Canyon". Of course these areas may be a bit embellished on the game, but it was really weird to be driving along and know exactly the area or even the turn in the road that the game was trying to portray! Check out this screen shot of this shelf road in Kane Springs Canyon!



This game was produced with some of the stars of the sport, mainly Ken Block, a star of the rally car world and owner/founder of DC shoes. The game lets you choose your own identity, but also lets you become friends and race against Ken, Travis Pastrana, Dave Mirra and others. The tracks range from wide open cross country rally races to the new tight and technical rally cross races found at x-games combining stadium dirt and jumps with pavement. You can go from watching one of these events on tv to playing the game and hardly miss a beat. It's also quite a rush to drive some of the same roads we've been on in real life as a family, but at a MUCH faster pace with no penalty for screwing up. Of course it's not as good as the real thing, but games like this get you close enough to at least feel some of that adrenaline while putting you virtually in some of the worlds most amazing places...sort of.



As with other games we enjoy, this one has no magical "boost" button or the like. It leans more towards reality, which is a good thing, having basic controls such as brakes, a hand brake, steering, and optional shifting with the manual transmission menu choice. Learning to master these controls will speed you up dramatically around the tracks and reward you with wins. It gets addicting trying to shave seconds off and match up against Pastrana or Block on their court while being called out on the radio to "show me what you got". I still might rate "baja edge of control" a better game, but just barely. This one is actually more on the addicting side racing some of the tight tracks, but edge of control has larger environments with much longer races, and you can "freeride". Basically this one focuses on Rally instead of baja, and leans towards the tighter, shorter, technical environments and competitive racing.



Unless you're totally lame, you will enjoy this game. It's a bit on the pricey side right now at around $50, but it's been our experience that you get what you pay for most of the time to a certain degree. The $30 games are worth $30 and the $50 games are worth...more than $30. The price may go down, but if your like us and can't wait it's available now, and it's a great way to kill some time while you're wishing you were actually in the dirt this winter!

Little Moab Trip Report, June 2009

This weekend we went to Little Moab to ride dirt bikes. I really like it here because it has a lot of places to ride, hike, play or whatever. We got a good rain storm on Saturday while we were out riding. Because of the a flat tire on my mom's buggy she had to stay behind while we went to get air for the tire. She built a really cool shelter to stay dry. When we went back to the location we sat in it and then came back to camp and made our own. We also went into an old mine and explored a little. The opening was really small! My mom and dad could barely slide in, but then it got bigger inside. It was a really fun trip. I really like camping with my family and I can't wait to go again.

Summer Swimming, Finally Here!

It warmed up this weekend and we are so glad! The pool water has been heating up a little throughout the week with the pool heater and today it finally made it up to a fairly nice 80 degrees. My dad still won't get in until it's over 82, but he did float a bit on the air chair. The water felt great to me and I can't wait for more fun days in the pool.

Caineville Pics, April 2009

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Caineville last week. I had a great time riding with my family through all the terrain in Swingarm City. The shirt on my head is there because my helmet makes my head itch if I don't have something between my head and helmet. Some of my favorite memories from the trip is gathering around the campfire and telling stories. Sometimes we would trade and sometimes dad would just tell scary stories. My favorite one was "The Ghost Of Caineville" We started the story on the first night and continued the story every night after that until we went home. The scenery is so awesome out there! I can't wait till next time! Go to my Dad's blog for even more pictures and video. Blazeofgloryoffroad.com

Swingarm City Dirt Biking, April 2009

Caineville is probably my favorite place to ride! We just got back from a 5 day trip down there and had a blast. We were able to launch my new rocket a few times too. We put some footage of a launch that I took at the beginning of this video. The rest of the video is me riding my dirt bike. We rode all around this time with the whole family and saw much more of the area than I had seen before. There are so many trails and hills and whatever you could dream of to ride on except maybe rocks and mud, and there are no trees. I really had fun in a wash that my dad took us on. I rode the whole trail and only needed help up one part! My bike is a 2004 Suzuki DRZ 110.

My New 2-Stage Rocket For Caineville

When I was at Grandma and Grandpa's house this week, we went to the hobby store and picked out this rocket that my dad and I could build. It's a 2-stage rocket that runs on 2 big D size engines. It is suppose to fly 1700 feet in the air. We are really excited to see it fly when we take it down to Caineville next week. I wanted to post it up so everyone could see how it turned out. Thanks Grandpa!

Homemade Halfpipe

This weekend we listened to conference and built a halfpipe in our back yard. We found the plans on the internet to build the mini skateboard ramp and basically stuck to the plans. We bought all the materials at Lowe's for under $250 Saturday morning and had it almost complete by Sunday afternoon. Materials included 45 2x4's, 3 sheets of 3/4" plywood, 6 sheets of 3/8" plywood, 6 sheets of Masonite, and a box of screws. The video says it's 6 feet wide, but it's actually 8 feet wide, 24 feet long and 3.5 feet tall. We still need to build platforms on both ends and we are going to remove the railing on part of the deck so we can hop off the deck and right into the pipe. The plans recommended skatelite instead of Masonite, but it's much more expensive. We will paint the Masonite with a spar urethane to make it more resistant to damage and cover it whenever it might rain. We are still learning how to ride our razor scooters and skateboards in the pipe, but here are a few pics of us building it and of what we have done so far! Xtreme skater is a good place to find plans.

Little Moab, 2-28-09, Dirt Bikes

Little Moab is one of my favorite places to ride. It has trails right around camp that are really good for kids to ride on. We built up a small jump right by camp that I really liked and got some pretty good air on. We also shot BB-guns and launched rockets. We also had a good time sitting by the fire, playing playstation, and going on hikes.

Tech Deck Dudes Video

Snowmobile Double Backflip, X-Games

For those that may have missed it on winter x-games, or if you just want to watch it again, this is Levi Lavallee nearly landing the worlds first double backflip on a snowmobile. It's amazing how high he gets on this, and he nearly lands it!! He deserves more credit for this than what the judges gave him, but rules are rules.

Maddo Step Up Game!

(Click To Play!!)