Right had a good session on the game now and although I'm not a great fan I'm impressed with it! First up I've not been following all the vids and screen shots so I'm kinda using the first game as a bench mark having played that quite alot. First up the visuals as I noticed a few post from people regarding this. There.......well.......Good, nope thats understating it, there fantastic LOL Again using MS1 as a benchmark the grphics are much more realistic with a greater amount of track "furniture" with everything looking like it should be there, rather than "heres the track, and theres a pile of tires strategicly placed" now a pile of tires looks like is part of the track rather than a "item" stuck in afterwards.......bad example I know, sorry. Anyway what this means for the racing is the shortcuts arn't so obvious! And neither is the distinction between the track and the locations, it gives it a more involved feel. Moving quickly on, the cars, Just 3 on the demo, a moster truck, bike and racing pickup. all are much more detailed with the usual bits flying off and panest getting muddied up, again a much more realistic look to them, this is helped by the whole lighting scheme. Final point on the graphics, the framerate......It's only a demo but.......It's rock solid! And I do mean rock solid! Huge multi car pileups, with dirt and body panels flying everywhere and even with the track stretching of into the distance with a full feild of vehicles churnig up the road it never skips a beat. Really good to see!
Ok thats the graphics out the way now onto the handleing. Again mirroring the graphics everythig feels more realistic, less "bouncy" more solid. Cars will understeer more in the dirt and the vehicles weight in comparison to the bumps and lumps of the course are more evident, you don't now "Skip" along you feel like your "ploughing" through the roads soft surface, take a jump and on landing your vehicl "feels" like it's just hit with some force! This also extends to the turbo system, you don't now catapult along at a quad zillion miles an hour, rather you go a little quicker and start to strugle for grip! Finaly the ruble effect is quite strong compared with recent PS3 titles which is a change for the better!
So what else? well the AI is something to mention, took me about 10-15 races to get 2nd........yep it's harder LOL The wipeout crash syaystem is still in place with the slomotion action. In car view is now much more usable with a better camera position though still not available on the bikes. Sound is still the same old same old and the one track available on the demo is verry well layed out with a coule of BIG jumps and lots of multiple routes. There is a single player mode and a 2 player mode in the demo and I've not tried the wheel so I couldn't say if it's working or not, may try it soon and I'll let you all know.
As I stated at the start this isn't really my "cup of tea" but I'm very tempted now after playing the demo, I've also tried the demo of pure recently and it pales into comparison compared with MS2, love the direction of making it more lifelike but still arcadey and if the online aspects are any good I'll be getting the full version.
Owen
i can't wait till tomorrow!
