The Undeserved Failure of Split/Second, Blur and ModNation Racers
- Thread starter GTPNewsWire
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I remember first playing Blur when I got an Xbox Live beta test code from Gamespy/IGN (which one was it). It was I think 20 players on the road at once and it was the most positively chaotic online racing experience I've ever had. But the best part was how balanced all the power ups were.
KingFrog
(Banned)
- 837
- NOYB
Motorstorm pacific rift/apocalypse was awesome too. Apocalypse had a really simple yet deep online mode that involved betting chips against other racers. You would Bet player X would beat player Y and the odds were calculated by how fast the player was. You could create little rivalries as your pride was on the line if half the room bet against you. Or you could be a smug guy and bet on yourself. For a game about brutal chaos the driving was really clean.
- 317
- Finland
Blur is still my favorite game ever. I once spent an entire week (while on sickleave) just playing and playing it all through the day.. Once you mastered it and remembered what powerup comes up where it added a tactical element to it. Mount Haruna probably my favorite track in any game ever.. In the end, the nitro-glitch ruined it. Still pissed Blur 2 never came out..
Split Second I didn't like at all..
Split Second I didn't like at all..
- 1,690
- Connecticut
- GroupB
Blur had an amazing 2-tier leveling system, but it was flawed. Once you made the grind all the way to Online Level 50, you could choose to become Legendary, which unlocked a whole subset of Legendary cars with special abilities. However...choosing the Legendary path reset your progress back to Level 1, and you lost many of the rewards you’d earned along the way.
- 4
- United States
I think these three games' failures, coming so soon together, may have killed the entire arcade racing genre. The Need for Speed and Forza Horizon series are just about the only arcade racers still being made, and both are much closer to the "simcade" end of the spectrum, with their focus on real cars and tuning. MotorStorm: Apocalypse the following year, with its incredibly unfortunate timing of coming out just days after the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, was the final nail in the coffin. For most of the decade since, racing games have been dominated by sims like Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo, Project CARS, and Assetto Corsa, each trying to outdo the others in dedication to realism.
The only pure arcade-style, non-simcade racing game I can think of that's been a huge success in the last decade has been Grand Theft Auto Online, especially with the Stunt Race update adding more over-the-top courses beyond just street racing. And racing isn't even the primary focus of that game.
The only pure arcade-style, non-simcade racing game I can think of that's been a huge success in the last decade has been Grand Theft Auto Online, especially with the Stunt Race update adding more over-the-top courses beyond just street racing. And racing isn't even the primary focus of that game.
- 7,943
- Wreckage, Turn 1
- PrecisionXCIV
@KevinR1990 I would argue arcade racing in its purest form is not dead. For starters, there is OnRush which came out recently and has been receiving many favourable reviews since launch. I'm not sure if that is translating into decent sales, but I'd advise anyone who wants the arcade racing genre to survive to pick it up because it is actually a lot of fun and different from anything else out there (for starters, it's not really a racing game - think of it as a team-based FPS game with vehicles).
Then there is the Burnout Paradise Remaster which is essentially a 10 year old game, but since EA felt the need to remaster it there is some desire to bring the franchise back. Time will tell if the remaster performed well enough to justify a successor to Paradise.
Then there is the Burnout Paradise Remaster which is essentially a 10 year old game, but since EA felt the need to remaster it there is some desire to bring the franchise back. Time will tell if the remaster performed well enough to justify a successor to Paradise.
- 26,793
- Houston, Texas, USA
- JMarine25
I have played only two of the three mentioned in this thread- blur and ModNation Racers. So I won't be mentioning anything of Split/Second.
blur was a game I picked up earlier this year at a secondhand book store. To me, I always saw blur as Mario Kart with real cars. This game is actually pretty exciting and fun. It doesn't try to be all, you know... bad you-know-what and hard. The game has somewhat of a lighthearted feel to it. Only that you're not trying to be like, "you must kill this driver" or something like that. It just had that unique character to it to where it probably should have been much better liked. I even liked the strategic advantage to driving off-road vehicles on various stages that combined tarmac and non-tarmac surfaces.
ModNation Racers was actually very fun also. However, my problem with MNR was more about efficiency. Loading times were rather long. I even had a blast doing XP races online. I racked up at least 25 victories on the online scene for this game. I even still remember my first XP win as I was turbo boosting away and narrowly won. The customization of karts and building tracks was bomb in this game. I shared a few of my Mods including a few karts in one of my Facebook photo albums. Some good times. But again, if this game was more efficient, it would have been a greater game than what I give it credit for. Oh, and so I don't forget... the storyline was pretty cool, but nothing too special.
I've never played "Split/Second"; and then too, it's not really my style of racing game to begin with. So I skipped commenting on this game.
blur was a game I picked up earlier this year at a secondhand book store. To me, I always saw blur as Mario Kart with real cars. This game is actually pretty exciting and fun. It doesn't try to be all, you know... bad you-know-what and hard. The game has somewhat of a lighthearted feel to it. Only that you're not trying to be like, "you must kill this driver" or something like that. It just had that unique character to it to where it probably should have been much better liked. I even liked the strategic advantage to driving off-road vehicles on various stages that combined tarmac and non-tarmac surfaces.
ModNation Racers was actually very fun also. However, my problem with MNR was more about efficiency. Loading times were rather long. I even had a blast doing XP races online. I racked up at least 25 victories on the online scene for this game. I even still remember my first XP win as I was turbo boosting away and narrowly won. The customization of karts and building tracks was bomb in this game. I shared a few of my Mods including a few karts in one of my Facebook photo albums. Some good times. But again, if this game was more efficient, it would have been a greater game than what I give it credit for. Oh, and so I don't forget... the storyline was pretty cool, but nothing too special.
I've never played "Split/Second"; and then too, it's not really my style of racing game to begin with. So I skipped commenting on this game.
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