Action, racing, fighting, shooting, role playing best games for those who looking to find something, not just to waste a time playing tiny flash games.
One of the most celebrated series of recent times has to be Rockstar
North's Grand Theft Auto games. From the original top-down versions
through to the huge-selling 3D incarnations of III and Vice City, not
many games can match the popularity (or sales figures) of the GTA games.
The two years that players have had to endure waiting for their next
dose of street crime-related shenanigans has seen a couple of pretenders
to the throne - notably True Crime: Streets of L.A. and the horrible,
horrible (horrible) DRIV3R - but neither could possibly hold a torch to
what Rockstar achieved with their games. Now the wait is over and the
Daddies have returned to show the pretenders how it's done. And then
some.
If you haven't already, go and buy San Andreas. It is a stunning,
stunning game. With that out of the way we can get into the nitty-gritty
- why is it stunning exactly? Well that is impossible to answer in one
review alone, as it would need more space than most novels take up to
explain the intricacies and nuances contained within. The player takes
control of one Carl 'CJ' Johnson, who is returning to San Andreas, after
spending five years in GTA III's Liberty City, in order to attend his
mother's funeral. No sooner has our protagonist landed at Los Santos
International Airport when he is picked up by a couple of crooked
coppers, who welcome CJ home by leaving him in enemy gang territory. To
go on would spoil the story, but it picks up from there and doesn't stop
for quite a while.
The core GTA experience is more or less the
same as it has ever been - visit marked points on the map to trigger
more than a hundred different missions, each opening with surprisingly
well choreographed cut-scenes. The physical 'acting' of the characters
is of a very high standard, with movements fluid and natural, but the
experience is really lifted by the vocal talent on offer - Samuel L
Jackson, Ice-T, Axl Rose, Chris Penn, Shaun Ryder, Peter Fonda, James
Woods and a great deal more adding their voices to the interesting and
funny characters CJ meets on his travels. As with previous incarnations,
no-one is scared to use every word in the English language available to
them, with San Andreas delivering more curse words than the last two
offerings - and yes, as the game is set in the early nineties West Coast
gangsta scene, you will hear constant use of the dreaded 'N' word. One
more reason for the Daily Mail to go ballistic.
Another constant of the GTA series is the radio service, and the
soundtrack offered up by Andreas is the expected early nineties fare -
NWA, Public Enemy, Pearl Jam, Guns 'N' Roses, Rage Against the Machine
are all included (though there is a notable exception of Nirvana). For
some reason the songs offered up don't have the instant appeal that the
eighties hits of Vice City did, and the radio can get a little tiresome
as a result, especially if West Coast rap/hip-hop is not to ones taste.
The in-between links, adverts and news reports are all of the expected
high quality humour-wise and don't fail to raise a smile, even on
repeated listens, with a definite air of Britishness in their comedy.
The high-quality sound is once again partnered with the same GTA looks
as the last two games, and whilst they aren't amazing, they do a job and
clearly push the PS2 to its limit. If one thing needs to be improved
upon for the next incarnation, it's the graphical performance - but
seeing as the next game will more than likely be for the next generation
consoles, that's pretty much a given.
The much vaunted character customization offers up an opportunity new to
the GTA world - CJ can look how the player wants him to; tattoo's,
haircuts and clothing are all changeable as the player sees fit, simply
by visiting the appropriate shop. Want to be a fat gangsta with a huge
blonde afro? Eat lots of fast food, don't exercise and visit the
barbers. Voila! One fat, unfit, blonde gangbanger. Exercise? Why yes - a
number of gyms are located through the state which can be visited as
and when the player wishes, enabling a number of methods to improve CJ's
physique, increase stamina and get rid of unwanted fat; weightlifting,
exercise bikes and treadmills all being available for use. The
much-talked about system whereby food must be consumed for the upkeep of
the player is far more subtle than most would expect, with the practice
not encroaching on gameplay in any major way - in more than thirty
hours of play we managed to get by on less than ten meals, with health
naturally returning at save points and through the old style collectable
heart icons. These more in-depth character elements are a welcome
addition - they could have very easily overwhelmed the core of the game,
but instead they are implemented in such a fashion that they fun to
take part in and almost totally voluntary in participation.
Amongst the ridiculous number of additions to the game are stealth
kills and stealth missions - obviously something coming from Rockstar's
foray into the world of Manhunt. This is another element in the game
that is not overused and helps to break up the constant run and gun
style that GTA has a reputation for. Along with stealth there is finally
the ability to swim, so no more slipping off a cliff at high speeds to
fail a mission, as CJ can simply get out of the car and swim to shore.
This ability is another thing that isn't simply 'tacked on' as some may
have expected, with a number of missions centred on water-based action
and secret collectables being available underwater. Arcade games,
breaking into houses, jet aircraft, car customisation, girlfriends,
gambling and playing pool - these are just a few of the little touches
that have been added to make San Andreas a much fuller experience.
If
you can go somewhere, nine times out of ten, there will be something
for the player to do in the area - something that doesn't affect the
main story of the game, something that may well give the player little
or no reward, but something that is undeniably cool and fun to take part
in. The little secrets here and there have always been a triumph of the
GTA series, and Andreas has them in abundance - the hidden packages of
old being replaced by graffiti tags, horseshoes, oysters and secret
photographs, along with many, many other elements. Trucking, quarry work
and driving freight trains are all included as little earners on the
side, and each have many fun and highly addictive qualities in them.
Dancing in clubs to a Dance Dance Revolution/Parappa the Rapper style
rhythm-action section isn't something that people would likely expect in
a GTA game, but it is there.
There is just so much to do in the game it's a mini-miracle, and we
haven't even mentioned one of the more core elements, statistic upgrades
- CJ has a stat for just about everything he does; driving, flying,
boating, swimming, shooting (with a different stat assigned to each
different weapon), motor biking, cycling and respect, all having bars
representing how skilful CJ is at the action in question, and each can
be worked on by simply doing the activity - shoot a pistol, get better
with the pistol. Drive a car, get better at driving. Help a friend out,
gain respect. Simple, non-intrusive and welcome. Drivers react to the
player crashing into them, the police chase other criminals, CJ can
recruit a crew to follow him wherever and gun down any opposing gangs,
gang turf is taken and lost throughout the game, BMX parks can be
visited and there is even a two-player mode available at certain parts
in the game. So, so much has been crammed in that players will be hard
pressed to find they have nothing to do - even more so than in previous
incarnations, and that's saying quite a lot.
San Andreas is
worthy of nearly all the hype it received, and is definitely worth your
attention. The nay-sayers have been coming out of the woodwork for this
one, but they are wrong. This is one of the most fun and well-realised
games that has ever been released. Everyone should enjoy San Andreas.
Everyone over the age of 18 anyway.
The Colin McRae series has long been considered king of rally racers. With Dirt 2, Codemasters
pays fitting homage to the late McRae while trying to appeal to a
larger audience. The result is a gorgeous racing game with some
satisfying rally sections and a whole lot of wheel-to-wheel racing.
While hardcore rally fans may be a bit bummed to find pure rally racing
makes up only a fifth of the Career Mode, those who just want a good
racing game will be happy.
The original Dirt, released in 2007, has one of the best menu
designs of all time. It's truly a stunning piece of art, just on the
frontend alone. Dirt 2
has an equally impressive interface that puts you into a RV that you
(somehow) drive across the world. Everything you could want is in and
around this trailer -- from a world map used to select from 100
different racing events to the multiplayer board on the wall to a TV
that shows off instructional videos. Step outside your trailer and you
get a look at the festival-like surroundings for each locale and can buy
and customize new cars or see the latest tournament results. It's an
immersive experience and is in many ways better than the first Dirt.
The core of Dirt 2 is the Career Mode, which starts you as an
up-and-coming racer and builds you into a champion. Each race earns you
experience points, which in turn increases your driver's level. Through
Level 30 you gain new liveries, unlock new races and earn some lovely
parting gifts. These include dashboard items such as a hula girl and
fuzzy dice to hang from your rearview mirror. Rewards are always welcome
and Dirt 2 makes certain to spoil you early and often.
Though you can choose from six different difficulties, they don't
affect your progression (though you earn a little less cash and
experience at lower levels). No matter your skill level, you can make it
up the ranks, starting with Amateur events, moving up through the Pro
offerings and finishing off with some challenging All-Star races. The
100 events are locked based on experience level, cars owned, or specific
races you need to win. Along the way, you'll unlock a series of special
races. First, there are a trio of X-Games (Asia, Europe, and North
America) to open up and then five World Cup tournaments, each in a
different discipline. There's also a special Colin McRae tribute event,
which is a very loving touch from a team that had worked with McRae for
years.
One of the best aspects of Dirt 2 is the variety of locales. Rally
racing games can start to feel a little redundant with endless desert
terrain. Okay, so Dirt 2 has a lot of off-road tracks, but the unique
locales are really brought to life -- the small villages of Morocco with
their narrow streets, the marshes of Malaysia, the serene hillsides of
China.
The rally cars have weight to them and give that sense that you're
driving along the edge of losing control. Rookies will struggle as they
fail to understand the benefits of braking and pros will be tested at
the higher levels by near-flawless AI competitors. The trucks and
buggies don't measure up in the same way. They're easy to lose control
of, especially with the generous bump of a competitor. This creates a
curious dichotomy as any events featuring rally cars (including
wheel-to-wheel Rally Cross races) seems to have an element of technical
finesse while the bigger vehicles offer more of an arcade style.
For the most part, Career Mode is well-executed, offering the right
balance of challenge and a good variety in locations and tracks. But I
must admit that I am one of the previously mentioned rally fans who
expects a rally game to have, well, rally racing. Sadly, only about 20%
of the events in Dirt 2 are pure time-trial rally races. There are a few
other time-based races including Trailblazer (rally races without a
co-driver) and Gate Crasher (hit gates to add time to your run) that use
elements of rally, but if you just want pure rally racing, it's in
short supply. There are no hill climb events either, though there is a
track in China called "Hill Climb" that amounts to a half-minute of
speeding up a twisting hillside. I'd like my rally games to be
two-thirds rally racing and other stuff thrown in for fun, not the other
way around.
Though its roots were PC-based, Bugbear Entertainment's first foray
into the world of console games was quite a solid effort, and more
importantly, something rather unique. The original FlatOut was released
just over a year ago and featured a driving and simulation system that
heavily relied on physics. This meant that nearly every object in the
world was destructible, including real-time deformation of your car,
though the not-quite-perfected physics-based gameplay meant that the
actual driving mechanics were a little touchy and unforgiving at times.
Bugbear has now followed up with FlatOut 2,
a game that betters the original in almost every way imaginable and
most certainly with regards to its handling and physics system. While
many of the changes will likely come off as being subtle or evolutionary
rather than revolutionary, the end result is that the game is a great
deal more refined and fun than the original.
One of the biggest improvements in FlatOut 2
is that vehicles handle a whole lot better than they did previously.
Rather than sliding all over the road like a Chihuahua on ice, the cars
handle quite well and you always feel in control. The game is certainly
arcade-centric in almost every aspect of its design, but the game's
handling does lean a tad towards the simulation side of racing in that
you'll have to carefully manage how much gas you apply at any time. It's
a great mix that makes the game feel much different than something like
Burnout while still maintaining a nice feeling of chaotic competition.
Another nice improvement is that rather than racing against a field
of nameless drivers, FlatOut 2 pits you against a group of seven other
competitors out for blood. They're fairly generic to be honest, but
after a handful of races and looks at the leader board you'll come to
know them all by name and curse them when they knock you out. According
to the splash screens during loads, each one is said to have a unique
driving style and personality, though you don't really get a sense of
this during any given race. What does work, however, is that
they always use the same vehicle for each class of car, making them easy
to spot in the midst of a race. The result is that when you're in the
fifth race of a cup and you're a point behind in the standings, you'll
immediately recognize who you need to beat (or knock out) in order to
stand on the highest step of the winner's podium.
The other really cool part about the other racers this time out is that they get vengeful.
Everyone starts out calm and collected, but if you start pushing other
racers around and attempting to knock them off the track, they'll turn
around and do the same to you. This applies to each and every racer, so
you'll constantly see one computer opponent trying to knock another one
out.
What this boils down to is that races become flat-out battles (pun
not intended). Cars will constantly smack into each other more and more
as a race goes on. It's extremely common to find yourself (or any other
car for that matter) move from last to first to last to first and so on
before a race finally finishes. That doesn't mean that it's a total
lottery drawing of whether or not you'll be able to win as skillful
driving will almost always net you a finish in the top three, but it
does mean that races never get boring.
This is easily FlatOut 2's greatest strength - the races are just pure fun.
With the number of things crashing down around you at essentially all
times and your opponents constantly battling you and each other for
placement, there's always something crazy and chaotic happening
on-screen. The game may not be as fast or deep as some of its top-tiered
competitors, but Bugbear has done a fine job at bottling chaos into a
racer.
One of the original FlatOut's main weaknesses was that its track
design wasn't all that impressionable. Sure, there were some pretty cool
segments here and there, but just a year later it's hard to remember
any specific tracks or sections from the game. FlatOut 2 does make some pretty good strides to fix this, though we still wouldn't call any of these raceways "classics".
One improvement in this area is that rather than relying on woods,
more woods or a rural town setting, FlatOut 2 features tracks based in
not only woodlands but full cities, fields, canals and more. While one
track may be rather open and inviting with huge turns and soft wooden
fences to keep you on the track, the next might have you hopping on
rooftops, through store windows and into the sides of buildings. It's a
nice mix of track designs that keep you on your toes from race to race,
though we're still wondering if we'll remember what any of these
tracks look like a year from now. Still, it's a definite improvement
over the first game and even if they're still rather generic in terms of
look and feel, there are some really cool sections throughout the game.
FlatOut 2 has a somewhat open career path in that while you still
need to unlock races in a largely sequential order, you can jump to any
of the three cars classes provided that you own a car in said class.
This means that you can skip from the beginning Derby class and head to
the third Street class without ever having picked up a car of the Race
variety. You're always presented with a series of cups that you can
choose from, each generally containing between three and five races, but
you'll have to complete a set of cups in order to unlock the next set,
making your progression still somewhat linear. The car upgrade system is
almost exactly the same as last time out where you're able to buy
various parts to enhance your car's performance - pretty simple but cool
stuff.
One of the most popular and certainly original aspects of the first
FlatOut was its stunt mini-games, affectionately called the Ragdoll
Olympics, where you hurled your driver out of your vehicle and at some
sort of goal or target. This time out the count has been doubled from
six to a full dozen games, each varying quite a bit from the next. One
of the most-wanted features after last time out was the ability to hold a
marathon of events rather than skipping from single event to single
event, and Bugbear has delivered. Whether online or off, you're able to
set up a multiplayer sequences of mini-games and track points from one
game to the next. It makes for a pretty damn awesome party game.
Speaking of online games, FlatOut 2 has a fairly robust and
full-featured online setup. Featuring ranked matches, the ability to set
up tournaments that include any mix of game types (race, derby or
stunt) and more, everything plays quite smoothly online. As fun as it is
to race against the crazy computer AI, it's even more fun to race
against live humans (of course) and Bugbear has done a great job of
blowing out FlatOut 2's online features about as much as you could hope
for. Really the only thing missing is full-on racing leagues - maybe
we'll see that next time out.
Like its predecessor, one of the game's most impressive aspects is
its visuals. Most everything on the track is destructible and cars
dynamically deform when smacked. Tracks are literally littered with bits
of debris, poles, boxes, podiums and more to add plenty of visual and
destructive flair, and there's no lack of foliage in the outdoor areas.
This truly is a great looking title, and we can't wait to see what
Bugbear is capable of when it makes the next-gen leap on consoles and
subsequently takes the PC to the next level as well.
The Verdict
FlatOut 2 is one hell of a fun racing game. Sure,
many of its elements feel a tad generic, like the track and character
design, but what it really comes down to is the racing itself and
Bugbear has done a great job at drawing a line between control and
complete chaos. Definitely give this one a try if you're into racing
games whatsoever.
One day, I went 90 miles per hour in my car and crashed into a fence.
The shift in momentum was so intense that my body flew through the
car's front windshield. Eventually, my body smashed onto the pavement.
Yet, that day I suffered no wounds. While this might sound like a
miracle, or perhaps a plot element out of an M. Night Shyamalanfilm, I was simply playing Bugbear Entertainment's arcade racer, FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage.
The PC version is a port of the Xbox 360 game which released in 2007.
Has it made any improvements to become the ultimate racer or is it just
flat out boring? The answer lies somewhere in between.
In many ways FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage
is a lot like the Burnout racing games. It doesn't feature any traffic,
but destruction is rewarded with either speed boosts or points.
Although the game doesn't offer the same speed as Burnout 3 or F-Zero
GX, it still holds its own. However, what good is speed if your car
handles poorly? Thankfully, the cars handle pretty responsively in
FlatOut, but you'll need a gamepad to properly take advantage of the
controls. Even though the default keyboard controls are functional, the
game was clearly designed for the Xbox 360 controller. Even the menus
are mapped with Xbox 360 buttons.
Once you get your preferred control setup taken care of, you'll
notice that cars maneuver pretty well. If, however, you do find yourself
crashing a lot, you won't have to call it quits because the physics
engine is pretty forgiving. Hit a pole? You'll be okay. One area that
could use some improvement is the track layout, which feels a little
simplistic and shallow. The race tracks feel consistently narrow and the
alternating routes are usually two-second unrewarding detours. However,
my biggest gripe with the racing is the satisfaction of power sliding,
or the lack thereof. Attempting to power slide won't yield rewarding
benefits and will often lead to fishtails.
The most effective way to race is by wreaking havoc. Ramming into
opponents will give you speed boosts, which you'll need because your
opponents are pretty aggressive. As a matter of fact, this game offers a
good challenge overall. The Beat the Bomb mode requires you to reach
checkpoints before your car explodes. This is an interesting take on an
old school racing concept, and it's friggin' hard! Not only is it tough
to get good times in races, but it's hard to achieve the game's set
goals in its non-racing missions as well.
Like the Burnout series, FlatOut offers missions that reward
destruction and stunts with points. In the Carnage Races, you will be
tossed into a checkpoint-style race, and your objective is to wreak as
much havoc as possible to score points. A non-racing destructive mode is
Deathmatch Derby, which pits you against a dozen or so drivers in a
dangerous arena to either rank up points or be the last man standing.
But Deathmatch Derby isn't the only non-racing alternative. A big
portion of the game is the stunt jumps. Like famous stuntman, Evel
Knievel, who used his motorcycle to jump over heaps of buses, you too
will be traversing over obscene distances through the air.
Except that in FlatOut you, literally you and not your car, will do
the flying. In the stunt mode, you'll drive your car a short distance
and preload your jump with a launch button. The earlier you hold the
button, the higher you'll fly. However, hold it down too long and your
driver may shoot up instead of forward. As your driver goes airborne,
you can slightly alter your landing trajectory with the directional pad.
If you come up slightly short, the game allows you to do a last resort
body flop, which can be a lifesaver at times. You're going to be doing
this a lot as there are twelve different stunt tracks, each offering its
unique, silly twist to the mode.
Rather than simply jumping over buses, the stunts in FlatOut will
have you doing zany things. One stunt will require you to launch your
driver through an arch of fiery rings. Later, you'll become the bowling
ball in an oversized bowling alley setup filled with gigantic pins. Then
there's the track that has several gigantic basketball hoops, where
you're the basketball. If you're feeling lucky, there's a "royal flush"
card game that launches you into a humungous wall of cards. Each card
represents a point value, and your job is to rank up the most points.
While there's a ton of other modes: soccer, football, darts, etc... It
all essentially boils down to your ability to properly preload a jump.
The stunts are arguably the best thing about the game, and it's enhanced
when you play with friends.
Luckily, FlatOut offers both online and offline multiplayer.
Unfortunately, your offline multiplayer experience consists of passing a
single controller around the room. What adds to the disappointment is
the fact that you can only play the stunt modes together. There's no
split screen racing in this game. The online multiplayer isn't perfect
either and requires gamers to have either a Games for Windows Live
account. Once you get online, you'll get the chance to participate in
all of the game's various modes: races, Deathmatch Derby, or stunts. My
online experience was definitely playable, but the frame rate seemed too
hitch a little more.
However, even offline, the frame rate was very inconsistent. A major
issue that I ran into with my Steam copy of the game is that FlatOut
does not run well on mid-to-lower-end machines. I tried the game on a
GeForce 7800 GTX and an ATI X1900, but both ran at mediocre frame rates
on medium settings. The game would also hitch on the high settings for
my GeForce 8800 GTS. Perhaps this can be fixed with a future patch, but
it's a shame that, in its current state, my pretty decent gaming rig
cannot run the game better than an Xbox 360.
If you do manage to get FlatOut running at a decent frame rate,
you'll notice that it's not a bad looking game. There are some good
environmental effects like dust, smoke, and fiery explosions. Things
like wood pieces will break and your car will be able to run over them.
Driving into these obstacles and other cars will take a visual toll on
your vehicle. You'll eventually see dinks, bumps, and your hood might
fly off. If you're able to run the game on high settings, you'll notice
that the textures look pretty sharp. However, in addition to frame rate
issues, the graphics engine also suffers from clipping. On more than one
occasion, a barrel or pipe got stuck in my car.
Also somewhat of a mixed bag is the audio. While the sound effects
sound natural for a racer, the music is a generic mix of hard rock.
Although it isn't terrible, the track list is pretty short, so you'll
hear the same songs on a pretty frequent rotation.
The Verdict
FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage tries to be part arcade
racer and part simulator, and for the most part it works. The main
problem is that it doesn't push boundaries in either direction. So if
you're trying to get immersed in a realistic racing game, you're better
off with Grid. If you enjoy silly stunts and racing at insane speeds
then you should wait to see how Burnout Paradise PC turns out. Still,
hybrid racers of this type are pretty rare on the PC in this day and
age, and this is by no means a bad game. So if you're looking for a fun
and silly racer that may not blow you away, FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage may be the racer for you. So go break a leg, or two.
Criterion Games'
Burnout franchise has now long been the king of arcade racing. Its
tight controls and overwhelming sense of speed have catapulted it to the
top of the genre, and few games have come even close to matching the
series' strengths. But while Criterion has garnered tons of praise from
both gamers and critics alike, the studio never sits still. With every
release, the developer tweaks the core formula in an attempt to offer
something new to gamers.
Burnout Paradise
sees what are arguably the biggest changes in the franchise's history,
with nearly every single aspect of the game having seen some sort of
shift in design. Some of it works really well, and some of it not so
well, but what we wind up with still remains an intense, blazingly fast
and perfectly controlling racer, one that you shouldn't miss.
The biggest change introduced in Burnout Paradise
is the move to an open world, the streets of Paradise City (cue Guns
'N' Roses title track). The entire city is open at the start of the
game, with the idea being that you can do whatever you want, whenever
you want. Not all of the events are present at the start, mind you, and
you'll have to put in a lot of time to unlock the game's roughly 75
cars, but you're never limited in the options before you.
There are bits of good and bad to this. The good is that the city
design is great, offering up plenty of varying spots for you to race in
and tons of hidden areas to find. There is no shortage of tucked away
passages, underground runs and all sorts of cool spots to hit. You'll
find jumps littered everywhere, including small ramps with kickers on
the side to send you into a barrel roll, which are great for the Stunt
runs (which we'll come back to in a bit).
The main downtown area of Paradise City is very reminiscent of the
downtown tracks in the last couple games, while the western section of
the city harkens back to the long, winding, countryside courses of past
games as well. A couple of highways will put you dead in the middle of
traffic and give you plenty of road to get up to speed on.
Paradise City is very dense, especially the eastern, downtown
section, offering you a myriad of ways to get through a race. When a
race starts, you simply must race from point A to point B as fast as you
can, along whatever route you want. While this means that you're given
the freedom to create your own course, it also means that you'll be
stopping the action and referring to the map fairly often to make sure
that you don't take any wrong turns. Since there are so many different
tunnels, highways and such to take, it can be easy to make a wrong turn
and wind up going off course for a bit. Until you've memorized the bulk
of the map, which given its complexity, will take quite a long time,
you'll likely have to pause and check the map two or three times during a
race to make sure that you're on the right path.
There's an in-game indicator of where the finish line is, but it
just points in the compass direction and doesn't help with turns or
anything of that sort. This is understandable to a degree since
Criterion (rightfully so) wants you to create your own routes and not
rely on what it thinks you should do, but it does mean that you'll be at
the mercy of the pause screen until memory starts taking over.
Another downside to the overall design of the open world setup is
that you cannot simply pause and restart an event. This means that if
you race from one side of the map to the other, which you will often do,
you'll need to turn around and drive all the way back to the starting
point to try again if you lose. While this sounds, and can be, annoying,
changing the way that you approach the game helps to overcome this for
the most part. Knowing that this was the case, instead of trying to
perfect every event as we went along, like we've done in the past, we
instead tried an event and, regardless of the outcome, just tried
something else nearby when it was over. Playing this way makes for a
much more organic experience and will help greatly in lessening the
annoyance of not being able to quickly restart, though if you're aiming
for a 100% completion rating then you will inevitably have to drive back
to the starting line when you're down to the last few events in the
game.
Of course, races aren't the only event type to be found in Paradise
City. Of everything in the game, it's perhaps Road Rage that has seen
the smallest amount of change, which is perfectly fine by us. The only
major difference this time around is that instead of having three target
cars at any one time, you'll now have five or six at a time to take
down. It's a small change, but Road Rage is even more chaotic now
because of it as you'll see more cars than ever before crashing in front
of you and flying over your windshield. We still can't get enough of
it.
The Crash mode of old is essentially gone, replaced by Showtime
events. Rather than racing up to a streetlight and spinning your wheels
to begin it like most every other event, Showtime can be started at any
time (even as you're already crashing) by hitting two shoulder buttons.
Your car will immediately begin flipping and you'll start racking up a
score for the street that you started the Showtime on. While the street
that you begin the event on is where your score will apply to, you can
actually flip and crash across the entirety of Paradise City if you're
good enough.
There are major differences between Showtime and the Crash events of
old, however. You can keep your crash going so long as you keep moving,
which you can prolong by bouncing your car if you have some boost.
Boost is earned every time you hit a car, which also increases your
score, of course. However, you only earn points for cars that you
actually hit, not those that crash around you, and you only earn
multipliers for hitting busses. The bus-only multiplier thing is
disappointing because you can go for 10 minutes without seeing a bus
during one Showtime, but start another and hit a handful right away,
thereby giving you exponentially more points simply because of
randomized luck.
Regardless of that, there isn't a whole lot of skill involved in the
Showtimes, aside from seeing how absurdly long you can keep it going.
But the required scores are easy as pie to hit, and since there's no
planning or anything involved in what you're doing, it feels like most
of the challenge (and thereby fun) of the old Crash modes is gone.
Showtime events are coupled with timed runs for each street. If you
head to one of the ends of any road in the game and start driving on it,
a counter will begin ticking up that shows you your time. It's a very
simple and very natural way of including time trials in the game, and as
simple as it is, it works really well.
Stunt events are the freshest addition to the Burnout formula,
tasking you to rack up a certain amount of points in a given timeframe.
While you'll earn points for sliding around turns and boosting, you'll
only earn valuable multipliers for jumping off ramps, crashing through
gates or performing a barrel roll, which gives you double goodness. It's
a pretty awesome event that'll have you screaming down streets, looking
for just one more ramp to hit to help keep your combo alive. The only
downside here has to do with the different types of cars you can choose
and how they affect a Stunt event's difficulty...
Each of the 70+ cars in the game falls into a certain category,
either Stunt, Speed or Aggression. The Aggression vehicles are large and
heavy, perfect for Road Rage, but not so much for events that require
agility. Cars with the Stunt classification are designed to be good for
jumps and drifting, and most resemble the rides that you'll find in past
Burnout games. Speed cars specialize in excessive boosting as they
allow you to chain together Burnouts to keep your boost going forever,
but they have a downside in that you can only start a boost when your
meter is full.
Having to wait until your boost meter is full means that the Speed
cars are more finicky during races, though the payoff on long
straightaways can be greater. But during Stunt events they wind up being
terrible picks since a quick tap of the Boost in any other vehicle will
immediately extend your combo meter. In a Stunt or Aggression car, you
can take a jump for points, cruise for a bit while looking for your next
jump, and then tap the boost for just a second when your combo is about
to expire to extend it. Not so in the Speed cars. This boosting
difference would make more sense if the Speed cars were noticeably
faster than the other types, but they're not.
One pretty cool thing relating to the vehicles in the game is how
you earn them. When you get a new license, you'll be rewarded with a new
ride in your junkyard for driving immediately. All of the other cars,
however, have to be taken down first. When you "unlock" a car after an
event, it will then appear somewhere in Paradise City and drive around
on its own. In order to fully earn it, you have to find said car and
then take it down. Like our approach to event selection, we found this
to be best when we didn't bother hunting them down after unlocking them,
but instead kept doing our thing while keeping our eyes peeled. Then
when a car crossed our path, we'd drop everything and head out with a
new ride in our headlights. It's a pretty awesome mechanic that helps
instill life into Paradise City.
Perhaps the most well-implemented addition to the franchise is the
way that online play works. Instead of having to jump out to a separate
menu to get online, invite friends to your game, set up challenges or
whatever else, all of this is manageable in-game with the D-Pad.
Pressing right on the D-Pad opens up the online menu where you can then
hop online, invite friends to your game, set up race events or whatever
else you want, all while your engine is still running.
When a friend or two (or seven) hop on, you have a number of
options. You can create a custom race where you can set start and end
points and drop any number of checkpoints onto the map. You can even
save these routes for play later on so that you don't have to keep
making them. You can also start a Freeburn Challenge of some sort. There
are 50 challenges for each number of players in the game. In other
words, there are 50 challenges for two player, 50 different challenges
for three players, and so on and so forth, giving you an absolute ton of
Freeburn runs to complete (yes, 100% completion will take a long time).
These are as simple as having two players race from opposite sides of
an open bridge and crashing in mid-air to having every player do a
barrel roll through a hoop. They're all good fun and give you tons of
different things to do.
Regardless of everything we've talked about, the most important part
of any Burnout game, and the reason they've been so successful in the
past, is simply how well (and fast) the driving mechanics work.
Criterion has nailed the formula once again, offering gamers the
pinnacle of arcade racing mechanics with cars that control exactly how
you would expect them to, with the perfect amount of inferred weight
sent to the player. As well, the sense of speed we've seen in the past
is here 110%, with roadside objects blurring by your outside mirrors at
uncountable speeds.
Lastly, it's worth mentioning that Criterion has also once again
delivered a game that runs incredibly smooth and sounds fantastic. The
game runs at a blistering 60fps, which ties perfectly with its controls,
and it looks impressive at that. The crash effects are fantastic,
slowing down to show you your crumpling wreck as the steering wheel is
shoved into the driver's seat. Were there a virtual driver sitting
there, he'd be dead.
The Verdict
Burnout Paradise has its share of flaws, but it's
also incredibly fun. The change to an open world brought its share of
issues, like having to use the map as a crutch to get around for a
while, but it also allows for freedom unseen in any recent racing game.
Most importantly though, Criterion has once again delivered a racing
experience that can best be described as controlled chaos, one where
even crashing is immensely rewarding. If you're even a remote fan of
racing games, be sure to check this out.
Generally I'm one of the best gamers I know. I don't say that to brag -- I say it to provide some context when I say that Blur, the new racer from developer Bizarre Creations (Project Gotham Racing), can be damn hard.
The single-player Career mode in Blur
features some brutal A.I. While I was desperately trying to master my
drifting skills and just maneuver the game's treacherous tracks, the
A.I. was busy launching attack after attack on me at the most
inopportune moments. You see, in the world of Blur, despite all its
real-world trappings, cars can't just race and see who drives the
fastest -- they have to launch weapons at one another as well.
This isn't that big of a problem in the smaller races of up to 10
cars, but in the larger races with 20 opponents, chaos will ensue,
making racing frustratingly difficult on the Normal skill level. It's
one thing to be a great driver who can pull off awesome turns amidst a
swarm of opponents, but it's quite another thing to do so while
explosions are going off every few seconds as well. Sometimes the A.I.'s
ability to take me from first to 20th place with a barrage of shots
just felt downright cheap.
Not that all the Career events were lessons in frustration. I
actually enjoyed the Destruction levels, where you have to shoot enemies
to gain time and points, and the Checkpoint stages where you're racing
against the clock. But I think it's telling that the best levels in the
game's Career mode were the ones where you generally were tasked with a
single goal like attacking or racing, rather than having to combine the
two together as the standard race mode makes you do.
I eventually swallowed my pride and switched it to Easy in the
latter portions of the Career mode, but found these races to be too
little a challenge. Granted, it made gathering "lights" -- the in-game
collectibles you get for placing in a race or for completing specific
objectives in an event -- much easier, but the thrill of beating
worthwhile opponents was largely lost. Still, If you are going to slog
through the single-player to unlock some items, Easy is a good way to
go, especially if you want to focus on gathering "fans" by doing tricks
and hurting opponents with weapons.
Fans actually play a huge role in Blur, and while they're really
just an arbitrary number rather than people you can see, they do give
you a nice set of goals to constantly strive for. Fans are gained by
driving well, doing specific objectives in a level, or by attacking
opponents. You can gain lights for getting a certain level of fans in a
given stage, but the primary purpose of fans is to unlock new tiers of
cars for your use.
While fans didn't make the racing fun in the face of being blasted
repeatedly by my opponents, the constant sense of reward I got from
seeing little numbers pop up as I hurt the other drivers, or worked
towards some overall goal for my rival, started to scratch that same
itch that competitive FPS games like Modern Warfare do. Perhaps with a
more balanced A.I., or more options to tune them for a greater variety
of skills as, say, other contemporary racing games are doing, Blur could
have been an addiction for me.
Not that facing off against humans is much better. Sure, there's
something to be said for how much fun it can be smashing your friends
with a well placed weapon, but the 20 player online matches quickly
devolve into a chaotic mess where getting first is a secondary concern
to just trying to survive in the flurry of firearms. Thankfully this is
largely not a problem in the game's fun team-based races and battle
modes or in the smaller, 10-player races, which are the best way to play
Blur online.
If you care about unlocking a bunch of items and doing an experience
grind, then Blur's online has you covered, with a host of items and
mods -- stat boosting items to help you in combat -- to unlock. To me, a
game like Blur is at is best when I'm playing with a few friends, which
is why the inclusion of four-player split-screen is fantastic.
Editor's Note: You can play with a controller on the PC version if desired.
The Verdict
Blur isn't the addictive, competitive online game that people wanted it to be. Rather, Blur
is a palate-cleansing game, the type of experience you pop in for a few
minutes with your friends when you're looking for a break between
sessions of a game you really like marathoning. If you love a more
hardcore racing experience, and the idea of truly chaotic combat sounds
appealing, than Blur might be for you. If you're looking for a fun,
pick-up-and-play combat racer, then I think you need to go back to Mario
Kart or, better yet, pick up the excellent Split/Second.
The last time inXile graced the world with a console roleplaying was
with The Bard's Tale back in 2004. Since then, the studio has been
quietly working away on a number of mobile games, so it's certainly
interesting to see the company return to full-scale RPGs after making
games like Super Stacker, Super Stacker 2 and Super Stacker Party.
Hunted: The Demon's Forge has nothing to do with stacking, super or otherwise.
Much has been made of Hunted's unique blend of two different
but equally well-worn genres -- roleplaying games and cover-based
shooters. In fact, a popular way of describing the game has been to dub
it Gears of Warcraft, due to its very obvious modeling on two highly successful franchises.
In truth, the game has very little in common with roleplaying games
outside of its aesthetic qualities. There's no leveling up, no
inventory, and very little in the way of loot. While there are a
selection of weapons that appear with increasingly powerful attributes,
characters are restricted to one melee and one ranged weapon at any
time. You also get a shield and one piece of armor. That's it for your
equipment.
So, Hunted is not so much World of Warcraft. The thing is, it's not much like Gears of War
either. While ranged combat with bows is a central focus of the game,
and a cover system is in place, it won't take you long to work out that
using cover is a bad idea. In fact, even manually aiming is a waste of
time as it's far more useful to run-and-gun -- or run-and-bow, as the
case may be. If you're looking for a game that truly mixes shooters and
roleplayers, you actually won't find it here.
That's not to say Hunted is a bad game. In fact, despite failing in its central objective, Hunted is
a surprisingly fun action title that gives you a choice between ranged
warfare and hack n' slash brutality, managing both with respectable
adequacy.
The Demon's Forge stars two antiheroes, Caddoc and E'lara, a
pair of mercenaries who find themselves working for a mysterious woman
on a particularly shady quest. The story is pretty forgettable and your
mileage may vary in terms of whether you find the protagonists charming
or irritating, but it's a relatively inoffensive narrative with a
lighthearted edge to it, in spite of the dark visuals and a handful of
grisly concepts. There's also an intriguing method of getting alternate
endings, something that could have been truly outstanding if the developers had fleshed it out a lot more.
Although both characters are equipped for ranged and personal combat,
Caddoc and E'lara are each suited to a particular role. Caddoc, with
his ability to unleash a powerful physical attack and equip more
powerful hand-to-hand weapons, is the fighter, while E'lara uses a wider
range of bows and unique projectile attacks to provide support from
afar. The two characters compliment each other quite well, though I find
that E'lara is much more fun despite my usual gravitation toward melee
characters. It's not that Hunted's melee combat is particularly
bad, it's just not very well refined. Enemies tend to crowd the player
and it's much more effective, not to mention fun, to circle them and
repeatedly fire arrows (tip: Always use the weaker, "Fast" type bows, as
they are misleadingly more deadly than stronger, slower ones).
As well as general attacks, players will use collected crystals to
enhance a variety of character-specific and general magic attacks.
E'lara can charge her arrows with unique properties, such as ice and
armor-penetrating arrows, while Caddoc gains offensive charges and
whirlwinds. There are three battle spells that either character can use
-- lightning, fireballs and area-of-attack sigils. Each skill and spell
can be further upgraded by using more crystals, with benefits including
greater damage, less mana cost, and wider areas of effect.
Although they don't level up, Caddoc and E'lara can fulfill certain
gameplay objectives to improve their attributes. These requirements are
naturally earned through the course of play -- for example, earning a
certain number of ranged kills can increase the damage done with arrows.
These extras are cool, and the health and mana extensions are very
welcome, but there's not much to the character development that will
dramatically alter the gameplay.
As well as combat, the game serves an occasional puzzle, mostly
centered around the co-operative powers of Caddoc and E'lara. As with so
much in this game, the attempts at brainteasing are shallow at best,
usually consisting of simply "push this wall" or "shoot an arrow here."
The more puzzling elements are often completely voluntary, hidden off
the beaten path and often bestowing optional rewards -- usually a weapon
with a powerful charged attack that, when out of charges, will become
much weaker. Until you unlock a secondary weapon slot, these "rewards"
are pretty worthless, as any player will foresight will keep
a permanently moderate weapon over a temporarily powerful one.
Hunted is a pretty decent game at its core, and the mix of
fighting styles works better than one would expect, especially from a
company that has never been known for action games and has spent over
half a decade working on very small titles. While there's a definite
lack of polish (for instance, players can perform executions on weakened
enemies, but the animations never sync up properly), The Demon's Forge is a fun ride with combat that mostly remains quite tight.
However, Hunted is let down by the fact that it consistently
reinforces one's belief that it could have been so much more. The bare
bones approach to storytelling and character development is surprising,
when a little more depth could have made this game a real keeper.
Nowhere is this more apparent than with the boss fights, most of which
are built up as large, epic encounters, but end up as rather short,
underwhelming, unchallenging fights. Every time Hunted threatens to make a leap from decent to great, it seems to sink back to complacency, afraid to risk aiming above its station.
Playing with an AI partner brings its own set of frustrations, since
your allied character seems intent on making life difficult. It will
steal your kills, frequently stand in the way of your ranged fire, and
run to weapons racks to steal the loot before you. If you accidentally
swap your shield for one you don't want, it'll likely pick up your
superior equipment before you can correct your mistake. The AI is
unhelpful, greedy and selfish ... and in that way, inXile possibly
deserves praise for creating a partner that perfectly mimics a random
Xbox Live partner.
As far as the vaunted two-player option goes, I'm going to tell you
right now that I wasn't able to try it, but that my inability to play
adequately matches the experience players will have. The game does not
feature drop-in/drop-out co-op, something that I would've thought was obligatory
for a campaign-driven game like this. With that in mind, I tried to
find a game over several days, at different times, and came up short.
Usually the game found nobody online, but sometimes I'd get a "game
session full" message. If I had been able to play the game while keeping
it open for a player to drop in, I may have had luck, but no player
should be expected to sit in an empty lobby, hoping that another lost
soul will wander through Hunted's desolate servers at the same
time. I am absolutely baffled that a game so reliant on co-op gameplay
offered such a pathetically lackluster matchmaking system.
The same can be said for Hunted's "Crucible" mode, inXile's
answer to a map making system. To call it a map maker, however, would be
to heap grossly undue praise upon it. In reality, Crucible mode offers
potential level editors a selection of pre-packed arenas in which they
get to control the type and number of enemies, the available weapons,
and various other simplified gameplay modifications, all of which are
unlocked by collecting gold in Adventure mode. The actual potential for
individuality is rather sparse, and players can't even keep their
developed characters from the campaign. Yet again, what could have been an incredible and differentiating option comes up incredibly short.
If I sound harsh, it's because I genuinely like Hunted and
enjoyed the majority of my time with it. However, to see a game do
itself such a disservice and offer so little in comparison to its
significant potential is exasperating. It's obvious that Hunted
was never going to be a triple-A smash hit success, but that doesn't
mean it had to willingly underachieve. Instead of getting a uniquely
special game, players will get a relatively fun little action title with
an overwhelming sense that many things are missing.
I want The Demon's Forge to be a success because I want inXile to make a lot more games and Hunted
to become a series that fulfills its promise. However, I have to be
honest and say that you will miss nothing at all if you choose to ignore
the game. I'd definitely recommend you try it out if you're bored and
looking for a good time waster, but playing Hunted is just not
essential, especially in a period where bigger and better games are
looming on the horizon to snap up your time and money.
A solid experience let down by the fact that it never strives to be more than a solid experience.
Pity the poor construction workers of Velocity, home to the reality
TV show that's at the centre of Disney and Black Rock's volatile racer Split/Second.
Every day they go to work, building shimmering shopping centres,
towering concrete masts and expansive warehouses, only to see them blown
up, brought down or smashed into submission. It's a cruel loop for
sure, but it does make for some uniquely exhilarating action.
Split/Second
is that scarcest of things: a racing game with some genuinely fresh
ideas. Explosives line the circuit, ready to be triggered by racers
on-track in their attempts to wipe out the opposition. Their effects
range from the relatively straightforward - getting a helicopter to drop
a small bomb on to the track or sending an articulated lorry into the
path of other cars – to the breathtakingly spectacular - bringing Jumbo
Jets crashing from the skies or overturning an entire aircraft carrier.
It's power-up racing with the power maxed out to Hollywood proportions.
Indeed, Hollywood's loudest moments are the inspiration for much of
Split/Second's action. Velocity itself is a compendium of set-pieces
recognisable from the back catalogues of Bay and Bruckheimer, all storm
drains, airports and dockyards told in hazy, bloom-filled vision, that
late summer evening sun casting a gloriously warm light on the city's
stretch of concrete and steel.
Split/Second's real brilliance lies in the fact that it's concrete
and steel that's at the player's command. Power Plays send the
environment tumbling with the push of a button, and they're available in
multiple flavours. A three part meter that's neatly projected under the
car is topped up Burnout-style by drifts, passes and by flying close to
the chaos on track – one section can be traded for a basic power play
or players can wait to unleash a more devastating move, or even send
whole sections of the track cascading and altering the layout of the
entire course.
Tactics are admittedly thin, but that's excused by the sheer thrill
of it all. Races are consistently close fought thanks to some smart
rubber-banding that ensures that the threat of a Power Play hangs over
the entire field, something that's more keenly felt when out in front.
Unfortunately there's no way to apply Power Plays to the chasing pack,
ensuring that agility is the only defence when the scenery inevitably
comes raining down.
It's an aspect of Split/Second that's given full dues in Detonator,
one of several game modes that complement the straight-up races. Here,
in one fully-charged lap run solo, every Power Play is deployed, and
it's simply a case of notching up the fastest time while struggling to
survive the pyrotechnics. It's the game's appeal distilled into a 90
second blast; frenetic, dynamic and most importantly a whole load of
fun.
Other modes show that the Hollywood influence runs deeper than the
aesthetic, taking their cues from some iconic film moments. Survival
riffs off of the big killer trucks that have been a Hollywood obsession
since Spielberg's Duel: articulated lorries course through a series of
bespoke tracks, and the player's task is to avoid the hazardous load
that they freely spill. Blue barrels that fall from the trucks will slow
the player, red ones will wipe them out and the objective is to stay
alive as long as possible – and when the track is littered with deadly
debris and there's other cars all to happy to shunt you into its path
it's a fairly tall order.
Air Revenge takes the idea of a malevolent machine as the enemy one
step further; this time it's an attack chopper that's on the player's
tail, swooping close and low as they race through the city. A torrent of
missiles rains down – dodge them successfully and it'll fill a meter
projected beneath the car that, once topped up, can volley them back at
the helicopter. Rinse, repeat and it'll eventually be sent tumbling from
the sky.
All this is housed within the reality TV framework, though in truth
it only really makes itself known in trailers that bookend the game's 12
'episodes', each housing six events including a showpiece finale.
Credits won unlock further events, while wrecking enough opponents earns
bonus events. It's simplistic stuff, but the variety in events is just
about sufficient to ensure that working through all twelve episodes
doesn't descend into a slog.
With so much focus on the circuits themselves it'd be forgivable to assume that in Split/Second
the car most definitely isn't the star, but the game's selection of
vehicles certainly has a fair crack at stealing the show. Cars are split
into three loose categories – Muscle, Truck or Sports – and though
entirely fictional they're all utterly desirable.
They've a chunkiness about their look that translates into how they
drive – indeed, Split/Second's cars look and feel like Tonka Toys, with a
robustness that invites you to throw them about. Do so and a
satisfyingly solid handling model comes to the fore. Drifts are
initiated, as arcade racer tradition dictates, with a lift of the gas,
and once the back end is out Split/Second asks for more delicacy than
most in order to keep the car on the road.
As a racer, then, Split/Second brings more than its fair share of
new ideas, but it's still got one eye on the genre's rich past.
Multiplayer successfully recaptures the anarchic spirit of racers of
old, with Elimination and Survival available alongside the vanilla
racing. Eight players are supported online, although unfortunately with
the servers under-populated before release we were unable to put it
through its paces. Split-screen for two players, however, has proved
itself to be a blast (pun intended, thank you very much).
The Verdict
Split/Second is an explosive shot of distilled
arcade energy; it’s action that’s fuelled by the slick production of the
Hollywood a-list, and racing that’s infused with an infectious amount
of fun. Armed with nothing more than a handful of dynamite, developer
Black Rock has shook up the racing genre in much the same way that
Criterion did nearly nine years ago with the original Burnout.
