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Underground > Games & Gameplay >

Powerdrome

  
 
Spatula Clarke
15:14 / 02.07.05
Chatting to a regular Xbox Live partner the other day about maybe trying out some of the less well-known Live-enabled games, preferably the cheap ones, and preferably something other than a deathmatch FPS game (as Halo 2, despite its many faults, is still the best of the bunch), it turned out that we'd both been thinking about getting hold of this for a few months. Had a search around and found it for £4.99 on HMV's website (that is the Xbox version, by the way - they've just stuck the wrong boxart up).

Got it today. And it's great - far better than I was expecting it to be. It's a pure racing game, without any of the additional weaponry that tends to dominate these things. Remake of an old C64 game. Handles a bit like Wipeout 2097 crossed with Star Wars Episode 1 Racer (catchy title, that) in that you need to be turning into the corners before they actually arrive in order to get the back end of your craft to swing out in time.

It's also got a clever acceleration/boost system - your ship doesn't appear to have an upper speed limit and, instead of topping out, constantly speeds up as long as you don't brake sharply or hit the trackside barriers. While you accelerate, a boost bar tops up - when it's full, you can fire your boost off. You can store a maximum of three boosts at any one time.

You can actually end up with a constant, unbroken stream of boosts, providing that you keep the steering under control, as the boost bar seems to fill up faster as your speed increases.

And it gets blindingly fast. It really is a total racing game - the combination of the speed and the handling means that you absolutely have to learn the track layouts if you're going to get anywhere.

Looks gorgeous. Bloom lighting coming out of its wazoo, giving everything a lovely soft, buttery appearance. Character designs are a bit meh, but the craft are nice enough. Sound effects work well to increase the sensation of speed, music has a sort of tribal, Farscape feel to it.

Main reason we decided to grab it was to try and get a little community thing going. That's why we plumped for a game that did poorly at retail - to create a buzz about it, help it gain some cult appeal. And Powerdrome certainly seems to deserve it. Rumour has it that the online side of things is a little bit broken, with lag infesting anything over a two-player race and the fastest time tables appearing to have wiped themselves at some point in the last couple of weeks. Feel a little guilty that I didn't buy it at release, as I originally planned to - Argonaut went under shortly after it came out (deservedly, some might say). It seems that they were working on a patch to fix the online pimples at the time, which was obviously never completed or released. Shame.

But it's £4.99, ferfuxache. Anybody here fancy getting it in for some messing about online? It looks like we've got at least seven or eight people from elsewhere who are definitely getting hold of it. And, so far, Barbelith's Live subscribers have been worryingly quiet - I've only played Tom, Paleface, Admiral Sausage and toksik (once), and then that's only been on Halo 2.
 
 
The Strobe
22:16 / 02.07.05
Right, will order it tomorrow. Sounds exactly like my kettle of fish...
 
 
Spatula Clarke
00:25 / 03.07.05
The only real downer with the single player is that it can be extremely difficult to see turns until you're right on top of them. The PS2 version supposedly includes turn indicators, like rally games. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing - I've noticed that they tend to mean that I never learn the courses properly in things like Colin McRae.

It's got some nice variety in the Championship mode. Head-to-heads, elimination races and time trials mixed in with the usual Grand Prix things. The head-to-heads are particularly good - they take place on huge, relatively straight point-to-point tracks with obstacles in the way, a little like KotOR's swoop bike races, only fun and with the ability to actually control your craft.
 
 
The Strobe
13:38 / 03.07.05
OK, have got it now. Five minutes play says: gosh, it's fast. It's also really sensitive on the analogue stick, but am slowly getting the hang of it. When the speed ramps up, though, it's great - rumbling, blurry, chaining boosts. So: Live, anyone?
 
 
Spatula Clarke
14:52 / 03.07.05
It's taken me a while to get used to just how responsive the controls are - when you're trying to hold a line, the slightest twitch left or right can send you straight into a barrier.

Online score tables are behaving a little oddly at the moment. You can't upload times from offline games, for a start, when apparently you used to be able to. That's not a big deal. It just means that you have to select Multiplayer, sign in to Live, then press B a few times to get yourself back into the main offline menu - make sure you select to "exit but remain signed in," or however the option is worded. Also, bear in mind that only times gained in certain modes appear to get uploaded. Time trial times don't, nor do those from Eliminator rounds. Normal races or hot lap challenges work fine. Just means that it you want to time trial it without opponents getting in your way, you have to set up an online race and play it on your own. Again, not a big deal. Probably best to stick with full-on races, though, because of the extra speed you get from riding in the slipstream of other racers.

Had to alter the volume balance earlier, as the music - which is decent and atmospheric - is drowned out by the engine noise at the defaults.

Will be back online again with this later on tonight, Paleface.
 
 
netbanshee
15:40 / 03.07.05
Dammit... no Xbox so I can't join in.

At least there's a PS2 version out there... maybe I'll get to picking it up in the next week or two.
 
 
The Strobe
16:39 / 03.07.05
Had a bit of a longer session with this.

It's really good. It's also blindingly fast; think the Episode I podrace - at THAT SPEED - but you have to control it. Yes, you hit the walls a lot. The analogue stick is very sensitive, and for good reason - tiny alignment shifts at 1000mph make a big difference. The boosting is great - because one boost can, if you're good, chain into another (or if you have two you can chain repair/boost). And though there are no weapons, there's lots of potential for offensive play: ramming other people upsets their boost chain, which can even things a bit.

Love the speed, though, and the replays are really quite good - highlight the excitement very well. Nothing beats a tightly clustered pack, ducking and diving on the final bend... and then you hit boost and sail right past.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
13:55 / 04.07.05
netbanshee> Let us know how you get on with it, if you decide to pick it up. I'm interested in how the turn indicators alter the gameplay - got to a dark, twisty-turny track yesterday that I've had to spend a good amount of time memorising in order to finish with a medal position.

Immense feeling of satisfaction when I finally managed it, though, even if it was only by the skin of my teeth.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
00:12 / 05.07.05
Paleface> This gets satisfyingly difficult in the later stages of the Championship mode. Currently trying to battle my way through the 'Wirethrow Industrial Chip Shield'. Just had seven or eight attempts on getting into the medals on the Acer Niam Orbital - the Halo track that we had a quick race on yesterday.

And it's rock hard. Your opponents hardly make a single mistake and there are more of them than in the earlier stages of teh championship. You can't afford to hit the walls once - you can scrape up against them maybe once or twice in the race, but not a full-on collision. You also need to make use of the ability to slipstream opponents as much as you can, because even with a flawless race you'll never manage to pull away from them. I've been struggling with teh slipstreaming up until now, because there didn't seem to be any visual feeback to let you know when it's working. Just noticed that the feedback is in your hands - there's a specific type of controller rumble for when you're doing it.

Also, I think that you can take almost every turn at full pelt just as long as you start turning early enough, the only exceptions being those that are acute. On Acer Niam Orbital, for example, you only need to make use of air brake-cornering on the one left-hander towards the end of the course that immediately follows a small right-hand kink and the two sharp turns that bookend the long balcony straight.
 
  
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