A few days ago, I first reported on Codemasters’ F1 2010 now also being available for pre-order on Steam where the title sells for 40,49€. The Steam site offers something else though as the title’s complete manual can be downloaded off Steam. Follow the download link before to get your hands on the PDF-version of [...]

iRacing.com has added another NASCAR Sprint Cup track to their online racing simulation as the Pocono raceway is now available for subscribers to buy. Selling for $14.95, the track comes in five different configurations, including the 2.5 mile tri-oval used by NASCAR as well as four different road course layouts. You can check out a full [...]

2003 World Rally Champion Petter Solberg recently tried Black Bean Games’ upcoming World Rally Championship title, giving the virtual version of his Citroen C4 WRC car a spin. The video below shows Solberg in action, including some in-game footage and Solberg’s opinion about the upcoming title. Unlike other race drivers who´ve tried upcoming racing titles, the [...]

A new reality check video of Codemasters’ upcoming F1 2010 title has surfaced on Youtube, showing the Korean Grand Prix circuit both in real-life and in the virtual world. Located 400 kilometers outside of Seoul, the Korea International Circuit will host the 17th round of the 2010 Formula One season. Designed by Hermann Tielke, the 5.6 [...]

Team Players have released a new batch of previews of their Formula One 1955 mod for rFactor, showing legendary Formula One cars at action. The previews include various cars such as the legendary Mercedes Benz W196 silver arrow, the Maserati 250f and others. Initially released in 2008, F1 1955 features the legendary Mercedes Benz W196 silver arrow [...]

Alan Boiston of VVV Gamer has released a very interesting series of preview videos of Black Bean’s upcoming World Rally Championship title, showing various cars & stages in action. His impressions aren’t good news for sim racers though as Alan comments on the title heavily-leaning in the aracde direction and being nowhere close to Richard Burns [...]

BariCZ has released his HD Gloves & Suits 2.0 pack for GTR2, bringing high-resolution Alpinestars & Momo driver gear to the simulation. Included in the pack: - Alpinestars TECH 1-ZX black gloves - Alpinestars TECH 1-Z blue gloves - Alpinestars TECH 1-Z red gloves - Alpinestars TECH 1-Z white gloves - Momo Pro Racer Club blue gloves - Momo Pro Racer Club [...]

A playable demo of Sony’s upcoming Gran Turismo 5 title is now available to be tried out in various BestBuy stores, featuring a new version of the title’s damage system. As you can check out in the shots and the video below, the cars suffer quite some extensive but odd-looking damage. People who`ve tried the demo [...]

Logitech has released a new version of their driver software for various hardware, including the company’s very popular G25 & G27 steering wheels. The new version fixes a bunch of small problems as listed below. Changelog: Mouse clicks can now be assigned to a device button correctly Added support to allow more than one mouse assignment commands to [...]

The Formula One World Championship's Italian Grand Prix at Monza is coming up and as usual, the Red Bull Formula One Team has released a video of the track in their simulator. The video shows Red Bull F1 driver Mark Webber driving and narrating a complete lap, giving us a chance to check out their virtual version [...]

A week after showing us first moving footage of their Formula Truck project, Reiza Studios have revealed another new preview video, showing the virtual version of the Brazilian Formula 3 Sudamericana series in action. As with Formula Truck, no further info or technical details on the upcoming title are available as of yet. Launched in 1987, Formula [...]

Codemasters has released the first TV commercial of for their upcoming F1 2010 title, getting race fans excited for the release that is just 17 days away. The 30-second commercial includes some new gameplay scenes, you can watch it below. Following their maiden Formula One title that was released only for the Playstation Portable and the Nintendo [...]

Hi guys!

I am here to share my admirable success as Northern Ireland manager! We made it!!!!!!! Northern Ireland goes to Euro 2016! I am really happy to achieve this very tough goal. Let's take a look at the latest events regarding my team.

Final group results

Denmark managed to loose 4 games – so it wasn't too hard to overtake them in the 2nd position race. My home draw against Portugal helped perceptibly as well. Georgia was kind of equal team to Northern Ireland but my new great tactics proved its efficiency. Therefore I can say that the 2nd position was taken in a quite confident way. It allowed to pass through to the playoff round where rival Ireland awaited us!

 

Irish battle

Nothing can be better in football than match between rival teams. I still cannot forget tough games between Ukraine and Russia in 1999-2000 and fantastic mistake of Russian keeper that brought my national team to the playoff round:

So I was really looking forward to play two matches against Ireland!

Match #1. At home

Ireland had better players in all areas apart from defence (thanks to Cathcart and Evans). My players gave out ball possession and tried to act efficiently on a pitch. They didn't allowed opposition to make any clear cut chance. Instead our well coordinated attack scored twice:

I was feeling great - like Northern Ireland hade already made their way to Euro 2016. I didn't believe we would allow Ireland score a lot in the second match but…

Match #2. Dramatic one!

You see, ye? Away goals of Paterson and Davis played decisive role in this game. After the first half I was snatching my head because of 3:0 on a scoreboard. Then I used touchline shouts asking my players to hassle opposition and making hard tackles everywhere. Moreover I replaced Counter Attack strategy on Control. It was risky but I had nothing to loose.

Then we intercepted ball possession and started to make pressure on Irish defence and goalkeeper. And you see the result! It was truly dramatic match!

 

All match results of Northern Ireland

Here is the full list of matches in 2015:

 

Some words about my players and tactics

First of all here is the current squad of Northern Ireland in 2015. I think you will be able to estimate its strength (actually to see it's weakness):

 

How did I manage to cope with Denmark and Ireland having such a weak squad? The key is my 5-3-2 tactics:

It's even better than the tactics I use for Leeds. It allows to make miracles, especially using Control strategy. You may try to use it and say your opinion then.

Martin Paterson

I cannot be silent about Martin Paterson. He has been the best forward of Northern Ireland in these Euro-2016 qualification matches. Not Kyle Lafferty as you would expect. You see the values of his attributes on the screen shot above. Really nothing special, yes? Just good speed, agility and off the ball. In spite of this fact Paterson scored 9 goals and became one of the best Euro 2016 qualification strikers:

Hope he will continue his goal series on Euro 2016

 

Euro 2016. Group C

Regarding the championship… Northern Ireland have been drawn to a very interesting group as for me:

Russia and Ukraine – that's what I was talking earlier about. Of course, our chances are not high because both Russian and Ukrainian league are included in my game. Plus Czech Republic is always rather strong team. Currently they have Petr Cech, Tomas Necid and Jan Simunek as main stars (all having price value higher than $12M).

Anyway I will try to do my best and really looking forward to Euro 2016!

 

___________

Additionally I propose you to recall old good days and look at the encounter of Ireland and Northern Ireland in 1993:

Arnold Wong has released a new preview video of Team RMT’s World Super GT 2 mod for rFactor 2, showing us the Honda HSV 010 GT SuperGT car around Spa Francorchamps. As will all World Super GT 2 preview videos, the footage has been made using rFactor and contains work-in-progress material such as sounds, physics and [...]

Team HistorX has revealed another scratch-made model for their upcoming Historic GT & Touring Car 2.0 mod for rFactor, showing us first previews of the Mercedes Benz 300 SLR race car. Based on the legendary Mercedes Benz W196 silver arrow Formula One car, the 300SLR was the companies weapon of choice for the 1955 sports car [...]

Italian gaming magazine Spaziogames has released an extensive preview video of Black Bean’s upcoming World Rally Championship title. While the Italian narration is lost on most of us, the video includes over five minutes of gameplay footage, including many cars and different rallies. Developed by Milestone, World Rally Championship will be bringing all the action of the [...]

A few days ago, I posted a first story on Playseat’s newest product – The F1 racing seat that aims to replicate the driving position in Formula One race cars. Below is a first video of the seat, showing it in action with a Formula One car in rFactor. The Playseat F1 is compatible with all steering [...]

Team GMT has released an interesting new preview video of their Nissan 350Z road car for rFactor, GTR2 & GTR Evolution, showing the modelling progress on the car step by step. Starting out with the wireframe, we get to see how the car progresses all the way to its current, fully-textured, state. Started by Simulationsfanatiker, the project [...]

iRacing has released first video footage of the upcoming virtual version of the Williams FW31 Formula One car, showing the Toyota-powered car on track from various angles. Furthermore, the video reveals some details on the planned release as the car will be available starting November 2010, a more exact release date is not yet available. Driven by [...]

BariCZ has released new previews of his HD Gloves & Suits 2.0 pack for GTR2, showing us new shots of the Momo gloves that will be included in the pack. Using a huge 4096×4096 pixel texture, the pack will also be using bump map textures of the same size to create an even more realistic look. Following [...]

Codemasters has released a new video, showing developers Steve Hood & Paul Jeal and Formula One driver Anthony Davidson answering Twitter-questions regarding their upcoming F1 2010 title. Included in the interview is Davidson’s first impression of the improved suspension model that was recently added to the title. Following their maiden Formula One title that was released only [...]

DrivingItalia will be present at the launch of Ferrari’s Virtual Academy 2010 simulator in Monza on September 9th, meeting Ferrari’s Formula One aces Fernando Alonso & Felipe Massa. That’s your chance to ask the two F1 drivers sim-related questions, an interesting opportunity given the fact that these two have access not just to real Formula [...]

We´ve already seen a wide variety of real-life racing drivers trying various simulations and driving titles and below is the newest example as NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Joey Logano was recently filmed trying Sony’s upcoming Gran Turismo 5 title. Logano can be seen driving the Toyota FT-86 at Tokyo, beating the lap time of Gran Turismo [...]

iRacing has just launched a new promo deal in co-operation with NASCAR Sprint Cup star Dale Earnhardt Jr., allowing iRacing subscribers to renew their membership for $75 ayear (25% off the regular price). To sweeten the deal, renewers are automaticly entered to win a four-lap ride around Charlotte Motor Speedway with Dale Earnhardt Jr. To [...]