Burnout is trying something a little different to the previous games in the series and has opted for an open-world feel with a major refocus towards the online action.
The single player mode has suffered in order to make this great online multiplayer racer / crasher. The new menu-less free-roaming city feels too vague and unstructured for racing. There aren’t any tracks so to speak as races have turned into point A to point B style races letting you find the best route, but it’s a nightmare trying to keep your eye on the compass, the sat-nav map and the road. Continue reading Burnout Paradise Review→
Last month I was pleasantly surprised with Gaijin Entertainment’s effort to tackle Burnout with Anarchy: Rush Hour. Well they’re off starting fights with the big boys again, stepping into Blur’s and Split/Second’s territory. Admittedly this game started off life on the PC and predates the newcomers.
So it’s a car-combat racing game with destructible environments set in the future. The tracks tear through the crumbling remains of (our modern day) versions of London, Bangkok, New York, Moscow, Prague and so on. The first thing you notice is how good the game looks for a PSN title. Although a little rough, there’s a lot of detail built into each track. They bristle with colour and run at a smooth frame-rate. It’s certainly a better looker than Anarchy. There are lots of branching routes and even short-cuts to unlock. Pretty impressive design overall. Continue reading Death Track: Resurrection (Review)→
The best fun to be had on two wheels so far this generation has been with Burnout’s hell-powered bikes, with Moto GP and the first SBK game missing out on the love, failing to please arcade or simulation fans.
SBK X has split itself into three modes (Arcade, Simulation and Multiplayer) right from the start menu to try and please arcade and sim fans alike. But have they spread things out too much? I’ll split the review into the same three parts to cover all bases.
After the platforming success of Little Big Planet, it’s good to see someone taking a similar approach to racing games. ‘Race Create Share’ is the new tagline for this arcade kart racer with user generated content at its core.
Players can create their own racer characters -or Mods as they’re known here- then create a vehicle for them too. The most exciting part of the game though is the track creator that has a huge amount of depth, but not at the cost of ease-of-use. And as a feature, it’s a great success. But what about the rest of the game? Continue reading ModNation Racers (PS3 Review)→
Anarchy: Rush Hour is a plucky little PSN game that has quite simply waltzed up to Burnout in a bar, spilt its drink, snogged its girlfriend then ran outside jumped into a car and sped off. After backing into Burnout’s ride first for good measure.
Considering kart racers are supposed to be a heavily populated genre, it’s surprising that there aren’t really any on the PS3 and Xbox 360. There’s a few film spin-offs like Pixar’s Cars and PSN titles like Gripshift and Smash Cars but it’s almost like nobody’s got the guts to take on Nintendo and Mario Kart.
No longer though. Sonic’s star may have fallen in all manner of horrific ways over the years, with him even having to hop into bed with the porky plumber to pay the bills, but make no mistake Sonic and pals are back in contention with this top racing title. Continue reading Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (Review)→
It’s been years since the last F1 game and it’s a little surprising to see Codemasters test their newly acquired license on the Wii first, but probably a wise decision seeing as Dirt 2 and Forza 3 are keeping the non-Wii crowd busy for now. While Codemasters’ modern classics of Dirt 2 and Grid were developed in-house, Sumo Digital are in the driving seat for this one. Sumo do have a history of racing titles, but admittedly nothing that comes close to Codemasters’ recent output. Continue reading F1 2009: Formula 1→
EA has decided to reinvent their own wheels as the Need for Speed brand disowns its street racing vibe in a much cleaner break than 2007’s NFS: Pro. Shift is the full transition to track racing to try and compete with the likes of Gran Turismo and Race Driver: Grid. They’ve managed to successfully re-invent FIFA over the last couple of years, so maybe they’ve got a shot.
It’s clear that a lot of time, effort and money have been thrown at the game with a Top Gear style dream collection of ludicrously expensive, top name cars such as the Zonda and Bugatti Veyron all fighting for dominance on dozens of familiar tracks from the USA, Europe and Japan. Continue reading Need For Speed: Shift (Review)→
They’ve done the desert and the tropics so now the MotorStorm tour has decided to cool off and head to the Arctic. There are 100 events to rip through in such frostbitten locations like ice caves, mud bowls, gargantuan bobsleigh tracks (or should that be tubes?) and mountain passes.
The biggest problem facing the PS3 MotorStorm games is they don’t exactly ease you in gently. And if the general lack of interest for last years rock hard sequel has shown anything, it’s that the series needed to relax a little.
Apparently new developers Bigbig Studios may have agreed, as it’s obvious from the off that this time around you’ll be winning races early on and not constantly begging for a top half of the field finish. Continue reading MotorStorm: Arctic Edge (Review)→
What you have here is the best rally game this generation of consoles has seen, it might even be an all time racing great worthy of the late, great Scot. It even (just) survives an ill-advised X-games style make over outside the races.
As a rookie driver you’re given a free Subaru Impreza (very nice) and unleashed on a world map stuffed with over 100 events in Japan, China, Malaysia, Croatia, Morocco, London, Utah, LA and Baja. Continue reading Colin McRae: Dirt 2 (Review)→
The brand new island just off the Eastern coast of the old map is finally here. An early surprise is that it’s only £9.99 on the PSN ($12.99 or 1000 MS Points), I was expecting at least £15. I mean look at how much they’ve been charging for some of the DLC cars!
Thankfully the new island is fully integrated into the existing Burnout map with no loading screens, which is an impressive feat given the already considerable size. The island itself is about the size of the Downtown area, but has a mix of business district skysrapers, beaches, waterfronts, building sites (with some insane jumps and hoop sections), winding drift roads, and a mountainous dirt track. Continue reading Burnout Paradise: Big Surf Island Expansion Pack (Review)→
Gaming reviews, previews and features by Brendan Griffiths
Fury is the first expansion pack to the leading futuristic racer, WipEout HD. Saying it’s an expansion is underselling it to say the least though.
The No Sleep Gamer 