A demo of the forthcoming racing game Racedriver: GRID, the next game from Codemasters, the developers behind the really rather good off-road racing game DiRT, is now available to download from both Xbox Live Marketplace (795mb) and Sony Playstation Network (962mb).
The demo offers up a few juicy morsels of racing action. “Grid World” looks like the main single player experience as you pick and choose from driver offers which will reward the player with both money and a number of reputation points. Each offer also has a bonus condition (team objective), for example finish no lower than third to get an extra £1000. The three driver offers available provide a good example of the diverse racing that may be available in GRID and the game mixes things up nicely with some touring car racing at the Jarama Grand Prix circuit in Spain, drift racing around the docks in Yokohama, Japan, and finally partaking in a pro muscle car series event on the streets of San Francisco.
Mario and friends are back for another fun packed bout of racing in Mario Kart Wii. Although this is the sixth instalment in the series there aren’t really any drastic changes to the tried and tested formula. This isn’t a bad thing as by and large the series evolves with each generation of Nintendo hardware and introduces some new features.
So what’s new this time around? First and foremost is the introduction of motor bikes as vehicles rather than just karts. Instead of just being an afterthought however the bikes handle significantly differently from the karts to make them a worthwhile addition to the game, generally being faster and more responsive, but feeling a bit more unstable (twitchy). Bikes also tend to be lighter than there karting brethren and thus it’s easier to get bullied off the track while riding a pocket rocket, especially if coupled with a very light character.
Another new element this time around is the ability to perform tricks on jumps. A quick jerk of the wheel upwards at the right moment and you get to see Mario or Toad pull off a random smile inducing trick which upon landing gives you a speed boost for a few vital seconds.
There’s a wide variety of characters to choose from, in fact Mario Kart Wii boasts the largest character roster of the series to date spoiling the player with 25 in total, including the ability to use your Mii. Although half of these have to be unlocked during the course of the game most of the best known characters are available from the start.
It’s approaching that time of year again where one should try and be kinder to their fellow man or woman, turkeys are gazing nervously at the farmer and a new “Need for Speed” title, in this case ProStreet, is about to be unleashed upon the masses.
Ahead of its release later this month you can sample the demo which is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace at a pretty decent download size of 655MB.
The demo lets you try out two game modes, each one with a different track and preset car. “Nevada Highway” is a straightforward speed challenge whereby you, and seven other competitors, have to pass through four speed checkpoints as fast as possible with the winner being the player with the highest cumulative speed total. The other track on offer is “A-54 Interloop” which is a standard two lap race around a street circuit. When you’ve selected your race you’re taken to the race day menu, which just seems to show some of the car entrants for the race with various people wandering about fawning over the cars but with no real interaction from the player. All you can really do is start the race and I hope the final release utilises this menu screen a bit better.
To help the player you can choose from three levels of driver assists before the race starts (casual, racer or king). “Casual” helps the player by managing the braking with some adjustments to find the best racing line, whilst “King” leaves the driving to the player.
Personally I preferred setting the assistance level to “King” as I found that the other two levels, especially the first, interfered far too much with the driving experience and it just didn’t feel right.
Visually the game looks pretty good at this stage and should be able to hold its own against most of the 360 racers out there although it’s hard to tell from the demo tracks whether it will be top-of-the-class. For me the “A54 Interloop” track was the better of the two available as the Nevada Highway was mainly a series of straights, which is fine for a speed test but doesn’t really present much of a challenge.
If you’re into the “Need for Speed” franchise then it’s worth trying out the demo as a taster of things to come but with so many quality racing titles already available for the 360 we’ll have to wait and see what this offers compared to its competitors as the demo doesn’t really give much away.
I tried out the Sega Rally demo last night that’s now available on Xbox Live. The demo lets you try out two courses and choose between two staple rally cars, either the Subaru Impreza WRX or the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. After you’ve selected the course and car you have to decide on one of two setups to determine if your car is either better on tarmac or off-road segments.
As this game is more an arcade racer, compared to say something like DiRT, you will soon find yourself performing stupendous powerslides as you career sideways around corners without any concern for car damage. The handling feels more akin to something like Ridge Racer with a “hovercraft floaty” feel, although not as extreme, and is perfectly acceptable for an arcade racer which allows players of all skill levels to instantly jump into the action and have a blast. Graphically it looks excellent. The car models all look very sharp and the courses themselves looked great. One of the first things that caught my attention were the “tracks” left in the mud by the cars themselves. Rather than just looking flat, like most other racing games, they had depth and there was a distinct rumble from the controller when driven over.
As usual there’s an array of camera views to select from with the “bonnet” camera being my personal preference as I felt I had more control and could judge cornering better than if I were to use an external chase camera.
Overall this is looking like another fine addition to the Xbox 360’s repertoire of top class racing games and if you prefer the more “pick up and play” approach to racing games rather than the depth of something like Forza Motorsport then this is definitely something to watch out for.
After my Xbox 360’s absence quite a few demo’s have built up and I’ve been busy downloading and testing a few of them out. First up was NASCAR 08.
Firstly I’ll have to admit that I don’t know a great deal about NASCAR as it’s not that popular over here in the UK. The demo provides you with one track to race on, which is the “Daytona International Speedway” and allows you to select from one of three available driving personalities (presumably real life drivers in NASCAR).
Before a race you can choose to qualify for track position and you’re given two laps to post your best time. Once you’ve qualified (or skipped) you can enter the race and this commences with a rolling start and lasts for a eight laps with eleven competing drivers. The graphics are OK but didn’t overly impress me and although the sound FX were fine in general when changing camera views there seems to be a transitional sound effect as the engine noise is silenced for a split second until the new view takes over. I’m not sure why the developers thought this necessary, but I found it irritating as I do tend to switch views every now and again during a race. On a positive note there’s a good selection of camera views including a cockpit view which serves its purpose well.
I found that driving at speed on an oval does take skill and finesse even though in principal it sounds fairly easy, and if you’re not careful you will clip the barriers or spin out on numerous occasions. Although the speedometer reported that I was travelling at high speed (over 170 mph) I never really felt a great sensation of speed. This may be due to the nature of an oval track as there aren’t many objects that whizz past or corners you have to brake hard for to enhance that impression.
The demo doesn’t really give you a lot of options to play with but gives a flavour of the game none the less and there are various options that are greyed out that indicate there’s more to the game than the demo suggests.
Although the racing genre is among one of my favourites I’m sorry to say that NASCAR isn’t really my scene and the demo didn’t impress me enough to tempt me into trying out the full retail version.
Released a few weeks ago Colin McRae: DiRT is another great addition to the xbox 360’s fine repertoire of top class racing games. Whereas the majority of racing games released are predominantly circuit or road based, DiRT as you may gather from the title is more concerned with the grittier and dirtier side of off-road racing.
Colin McRae titles of yesteryear were purely associated with Rally driving, but just like the namesake has digressed in the latter stages of his career, the developers, Codemasters, have also branched out and the game now features a whole host of off-road styles with a plethora of vehicles to make the game more appealing to the mass market. It certainly contains lots of variety and one minute you could be tearing down a narrow track competing in a traditional rally stage and the next you could be driving in a CORR (Championship Off-Road Racing) event, wheel to wheel with other competitors as you bounce around a muddy circuit. There are plenty of modes available in DiRT. The main mode, Career, features a pyramid of eleven tiers with the bottom tier consisting of eleven stages, the next tier 10 stages and so on until you reach the final stage on the last tier. When selecting a stage you can choose from one of five difficulties starting from the easiest “Rookie” and moving up to “Pro” class. The level of difficulty you choose directly effects not only the AI opposition skill but also the level of mechanical damage you can sustain, whether terminal damage is switched on or off and importantly the amount of money you can win from placing 1st to 3rd. In a nice change to the financial rewards once you score a podium position the money that will be offered for repeating the race at the same difficulty significantly decreases, thus encouraging you to step up to the next difficulty level.
Money gained through the career mode can be used to purchase new vehicles and liveries. With 46 vehicles and 182 liveries in total there’s something to please everyone from rally cars like the “Suzuki Swift 1600″ and “Subaru Impreza 06 WRX”, to buggies like the “Ickler Jimco” and big rigs such as the “Freightliner Century Class S/T”. All the vehicles handle very differently to one another and the player has to adjust to not only the vehicle but to the track surface, whether it is tarmac, mud, or gravel the differences are very noticeable and the physics engine does a fine job in this department.
Career race events are nicely varied and as-well as covering traditional rally stages and crossover events also feature CORR circuit racing, hill climbs and rally raid events. Once an event has been selected there are a number of additional options available and although you can jump straight into the race you could also practice an event, change your vehicles set-up, repair damage or get verbal feedback on the stage from your co-drivers recce.
As with Forza this game features a good balance between realism and accessibility. For those that want to glean every bit of performance from a vehicle then there are plenty of tuning settings that can be changed for a vehicle such as the suspension, brakes, differential or the downforce. Similarly tuning is not a necessity and a player can quite happily stick to playing the game without ever feeling the need to mess around with the setup.
As well as Career mode there are a couple of additional single player modes available. Championship is the more traditional rally game setup, and the “National” event within this allows you to compete in a single rally event consisting of up to seven individual stages. The “European”, “International” and “Global” championship events bulk up the championship mode by combining a number of single rally events into individual tournaments. Rally World finishes off the single player modes and allows you to choose a single race, event or time trial for any of the career events you’ve unlocked thus far.
The environmental graphics for this game are truly excellent, very realistic with plenty of variety and locations such as the green hills and windy roads of the UK to dusty outback trails across Australia. You get a real thrill as you hurtle down dirt tracks narrowly missing rocks and trees as you slide around tight hairpin bends. The vehicles themselves are all beautifully modelled featuring a good damage system that becomes more realistic on the harder difficulties.
Whereas I was a bit disappointed with the camera views on offer with Forza I cannot fault the number available in DiRT. There are six in total and apart from the usual bumper, bonnet and external chase views there are a couple of cockpit views that really immerse you in the action. The replay camera also deserves a mention with great slow-mo, rewind, and fast-forward actions and I’ve found myself using it on many occasions to watch the action once a race has ended.
So what are the negatives? Well, there are some minor points. The game features fairly long loading times and although an attempt has been made to disguise this fact with some snazzy statistics you do eventually get bored of knowing how many times you’ve failed to finish or the amount of time you’ve spent on two wheels. And although on the whole the cockpit views are excellent, I did find that I had to switch to a chase view when using the “Chevrolet Siverado” as one of the front reinforcement bars badly obscures the view. It may be accurate, but in terms of playability it just gets in the way.
To summarise this is another fantastic racing game, beautifully modelled with a lot of variety and if you’re looking for an alternative to Forza then I would highly recommend it.
I’ve been playing Forza 2 Motorsport for the Xbox 360 for over a week now and thought the time right to post a review of the game thus far. It’s probably an understatement when I say that Forza 2 is a vast game and will keep you occupied for a number of weeks if not months at least. There are so many races available in the different modes that there’s something to suit everyone.
In the single player game you can either play the “Arcade” or “Career” modes. The career mode is the meat and potatoes of the game and to start with you need to choose your home region from either Europe, America or Asia. Your chosen region initially has an impact on the car models available and eventually other cars from your home region will be heavily discounted as your career progresses. After your region has been selected your given 20,000 credits to purchase your first ride and once you’ve selected your starting car it’s off to the races where a number of event meetings all consisting of a number of races need to be completed to earn yourself some more credits. Initially only the “Proving Grounds” race category is available but as you win races and your driver level improves additional categories and event meetings will open up. The driver level advancement is nicely paced and it ensures that you don’t try to “walk before you can run” and the game gradually eases you into harder races and stiffer competition. All in all there are nine categories culminating in a series “Endurance Races” where only those with stamina really need to apply. The events are nicely varied and generally each one will have certain restrictions, for example “cars with less than 150 horsepower”. Thus you cannot stick with one car throughout the game and you will need to either purchase, or win an appropriate car when you fancy entering another event when you haven’t got any other suitable cars.
Every time you achieve a new driver level, or your car gains a new reputation level you will be rewarded. These can range from discounts on upgrades or cars, to opening up new relationships with manufacturers which unlock car models that were previously unavailable for purchase.
As you accumulate winnings you’ll eventually start to think about upgrading your car and you won’t be disappointed with the options on offer. You can buy upgrades, in varying levels, for nearly everything. The upgrades are nicely categorised, and a handy bar chart is available to show you the positive (or negative) effects it will have should you choose to purchase and fit the new part. Upgrading is not the only option available and you can further tweak the car by “tuning” it as-well. Again a number of choices are available from changing the tyre pressure and wheel alignment to altering the brake force, aerodynamics and the differential.
Not only can you upgrade and tune a car but you can also take it to the paint shop to re-spray it, apply manufacturer vinyls or if you’re feeling creative you can apply vinyls in layers using preset or primitive decals to fully customise the look of your ride. Each car model allows you to add up to 1000 layers to the hood and each side and 500 layers to the front and rear bumpers. The sheer number of layers really allows you the freedom to make any design you could think of. I’m no artist and my talent (and patience) is strictly limited but I have seen some truly amazing custom paint jobs that have been created.
The difficulty level of Forza 2 is very customisable. Although under the hood this is definitely not an arcade racer Turn 10 have made a number of “assists” and variables available so you can have fun playing the game whatever skill level of racer you are. If you prefer to have a “suggested racing line”, “traction control” and “anti-lock brakes” with “easy” AI opponents then that’s entirely up to you. However, each variable has an effect on your overall winnings in a race and if, for example, you had all the assists and options set at the entry level then you’d have a -25% deduction applied to your winnings.
If you fancy a break from the career mode you can jump into the arcade mode which offers either “Exhibition”, “Time-Trial” or “Free Run” events. Exhibition consists of 15 races whereby you can choose you car class or select a car from your career garage with the aim of getting a gold, silver or bronze medal in each race. Time-trials features 25 circuits where the sole aim is to beat the target time using a specific vehicle, and finally free-run is what you’d expect it to be and allows you to try out any circuit.
If all this isn’t enough for you then you can try out the multi-player aspect and this offers the usual mixture of player and ranked matches, but there’s also a number of ongoing tournaments which are continually being held for you to enter upon successful qualification. The multi-player mode also plays host to an “Auction House” where you can sell unwanted cars or buy that oh-so-sweet car with the custom paint job you’ve seen if you’re willing to part with the credits.
Forza 2 is a beautiful game to look at, granted some of the courses may not be as complex as say something out of “Project Gotham Racing 3″ but this sacrifice has ensured that the game runs at a smooth 60 frames per second with a complex physics engine. If you’re ever in doubt as to how much is actually going on underneath that glossy hood you just need to turn on the telemetry display (either during a race or replay) to get feedback on a number of physical attributes effecting the car such as the G-forces or the tyre wear as you take a corner.
Although there’s not a vast number of actual racing locations available, each one has a number of different circuit alternatives. These all add to overall total number so that it becomes a respectable figure. Each circuit is nicely detailed and varied enough from one another to provide a challenge.
The cars are a big part of this game and there are a staggeringly high number (over 200) available from all sorts of global manufacturers. Although I’ve not tried out every car I have driven a fair few and each one has handling that is noticeably different to one another. Unfortunately there’s still no inside camera view and I guess it’s a casualty to ensure a smooth frame rate, but I’ve found the “bumper cam” to be perfectly adequate. If you don’t fancy the bumper view there’s also the bonnet camera and a couple of chase camera views.
The beauty about this game is that you don’t have to be a gear head to have fun playing it. The options are there so you can customise and tune to your hearts content but it’s not a requirement. Turn 10 have successfully developed a game that is accessible to all but have still maintained a hardcore racing game at its heart and for this they have to be commended. Without a doubt Forza 2 is a fantastic game and instantly takes its place on the podium along with other great racers.
This weeks Xbox Live Arcade offering is “Mad Tracks” for 800 Microsoft points. It’s a racing game in the “Micro Machines” mold, i.e. small toy cars racing around various environments. I’ve only tried the trial game but I thought I’d give my brief impressions so far.
The game offers up a couple of modes, both “arcade” and “adventure” with a number of different styles of racing within them. The trial only offers a couple of styles so it’s quite hard to decide how much fun all of them will be. The two on offer include “Blackout”, a straight 3 lap race around a circuit in what looks to be a bar. And “Beastie Balls”, a bowl arena format where you have to avoid been tagged by spawning rubber balls (last car standing wins). Of the two I preferred the straight racing and I didn’t find the arena that enjoyable. As you’re powering around the track you’ll be able to collect upgrades ranging from homing missiles to oil slicks to help you get the better of your opponents. The power ups are stackable so you can add to your stash of rockets if you so desire and you can also switch between power-ups.
Unfortunately your little car runs on a spring, and as your driving around this slowly unwinds and you have to remember to take your finger off the accelerator to allow the spring to wind-up before it’s too late and you come to a grinding stop. This can be a bit frustrating at first until you become accustomed to managing the spring and releasing the accelerator during tight turns or on jumps.
The graphics on the racing circuit “Blackout” were pretty good, but for me the arena was just a bit too dull.
The full game is playable over Xbox Live, and with some friends this may be quite an enjoyable little game. However, I wasn’t too enamoured with the single player trail version and I doubt I’ll be getting my racing fix here.
A demo of the forthcoming racing game Racedriver: GRID, the next game from Codemasters, the developers behind the really rather good off-road racing game DiRT, is now available to download from both Xbox Live Marketplace (795mb) and Sony Playstation Network (962mb).
