No, I wasn't enthusing about this latest Jeremy Clarkson offering, but
was commenting that it's getting as cheesy as the Alan Partridge pisstake
in the first episode of his new series.
On the plus side, the title, "No Limits", does not mean we are subjected
to an hour of Jonathan King's mid-80s BBC2 music show, but it instead shows
Clarkson going on about his favourite cars including the BMW Z8, Lamborghini
Murcielago, Porsche Boxter and the "Semtex with a steering wheel", the 1000 BHP
Nissan Skyline R33, doing handbrake turns, powersliding, the quickest way to get
round a corner and how best to stop when things go wrong.
Sounds fine in principle - and at times it can be a bit of fun, but if it wasn't
for the Xmas market, who in their right mind would spend a penny under twenty
notes for such a short video that doesn't even last an hour and is around the
same length as your average episode of Top Gear?
The programme is presented in anamorphic 16:9 and looks fine, but so you'd
expect it to given that it's only been made recently. The sound is in basic
stereo/surround. You can hear the cars growling along the track as you would
if it was on TV, and that's part of the problem - it has nothing to make it
stand out from what you'd see on TV.
The other part is that there's no extras. Just 16 chapters, an animated
main menu on a short loop of music, but no subtitles either. Disappointing.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
