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Ridge Racer 6 keeps on giving. I'm around 16 hours into the main World Xplorer mode and I've only completed 53% of it.
Strange that its hook hasn't yet let go of me, because what you do in the first ten minutes is what you do for the rest of the game. It's just teh same courses, mainly the same cars, only a bit more difficult each time. The Basic races (all 7 hours worth of them) were all beaten on the first attempt, so useless was the opposition, and the Advanced races didn't present any more of a challenge. Expert races are starting to heat things up, but they're still not *that* difficult.
Special class races, on the other hand, are. The rear view mirror - handy throughout the game, as you can get a free burst of speed by having a boosting opponent ram you up the arse - becomes essential. It reminds me of trying to beat the Devil and Angel in Ridge Racer Revolution in terms of the amount of concentration it requires.
Project Gotham Racing 3 is a more attractive version of its prequel. The new driver's-eye view is a superb addition, though, and provides a whole new level of visual feedback. Your head lurches about when taking corners or braking/accelerating quickly, and the business of countering a slide becomes a total instinct thing as a direct result. I keep accidentally locking the wheels up by braking into corners too heavily from the chase cam, but it never happens from the driver's POV.
Entire game looks astounding, but it's funny how quickly you come to accept it as normal. I think there's got to be a point where the increase in the amount of detail on a standard TV screen stops being noticable, and maybe we're there already. I'm actually having to force myself to appreciate the graphics on offer here. You don't get the opportunity when concentrating on the race in hand, obviously, but it's more than that. It's almost as though the huge, expansive and completely three dimensional, real-time backgrounds are *so* good looking that they're indistinguishable from the flat, 2D backdrops that have been integrated so well into the scenery in certain games on the Xbox and PS2. Kind of cements the idea that a high def set is essential if you're going to truly appreciate the jump in technology.
Amped 3 I didn't like very much to begin with. All the structure has been ripped out and it feels, initially, like too much of a step into the virtual sandbox thing. I'm really getting into it now - it comes alive once you open the full mountains up, leading to single runs down from the very top to the very bottom that can take a quarter of an hour to complete.
Control is made even easier, yet again. Something else I wasn't keen on at first, but got used to once I stopped comparing it to the first game in the series.
Doesn't look particularly next gen until you take notice of the draw distance, which is amazing. You can stand on the highest peak available and see for miles, all the way down the mountain.
Story mode is a strange one, having one of the best narratives I've yet seen in a game (in terms of humour and presentation), yet giving you challenges that are less enjoyable than the non-story ones. Not too much of an issue, because the story challenges are in the minority.
Bit gutted that they've taken out the online multiplayer from Amped 2, which was a unique experience, but otherwise it's great stuff. |
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