[The Good]
Great Graphics. Game could last you for hours.
[The Bad]
The Career is disappointing. Loading times.
[Single-player Review]
[BOOKLET]
This is a little disappointing. There were many things that I had questions about in the game in which the answers could not be found in the booklet. Such as the garage, how many cars can it hold? 4! That?s it! No not really, when I bought my fifth car, the garage somehow expanded. Although the garage is an interesting concept, I would rather just have a list or something easier and less limiting. I also had some questions about the sound options that I wasn?t able to find.
Overall it?s done nicely, it explains the game. It explains what kudos and credits are and how to get more of them. And it even has some fun trivia in it. But it is lacking in a few areas.
[MUSIC]
There is a surprising variety of music in this game. Not just Rock or Rap like some other games. It has Japanese Pop, Electronica, Classical, Dark Electronica and 4 more. But it would have been better if I could arrange for the game to randomize more than just 6 genres. It would have also been great if I know what these genres sounded like. I would?ve like to browse the list to get a feel for it and include only the genres that I like. But then again, I wouldn?t be able really do that either. I have to choose 6. It?s very limiting.
At least they allow you to use the HDD to play music and even an MP3 player. I tried my Ipod, but it seems that only MP3s work, not AAC, which is an inconvenience.
[CAREER]
The career is fun and lasted me hours of playing time, especially if you try to collect the trophies and concept cars. But it?s also disappointing. Throughout this game I feel that it just could have been much better. They got the basics down, now they need a REAL career mode. Yes, a real career mode. This career mode feels like a training center. It?s not about racing so much as it is perfecting your technique. What kind of career is that? This career mode feels like a training camp for the real career mode, which is online. It?s a shame that they left the single player so unfinished, because this game could?ve been great.
The third car I bought is the fastest car in the game. If not the fastest, it is one of the fastest: the Ferrari F50GT. And this is one of the few that feels exhilarating when accelerating. All I had to do to get this car was play on Beginner, which is super easy and earn enough credits to buy it, which took no time at all. Why is it so easy to get the best car. I was hoping for more progression. I was hoping that the racing would lead to better and better cars. But no, I got the best car within the first 2 or 3 hours. The game is too rewarding in this aspect.
Kudos. What are they for anyway? Oooh! I know! It?s a way for the developers to extend the game. Yup. Climb up the ranks by how many kudos you accumulate as you play the game. If a person sucks at this game, they can still get position #1 and all the concept car rewards for each advancement, provided they put enough time into the game to get enough of those kudos. There really seems to be no point to it, since you have to drift to win anyway, so the kudos thing is just this little extra crap that gives you concept cars after so many accumulate. It?s a cheap system.
I would?ve liked a career more like Gran Turismo, racing through many different races, some lasting longer than others, getting money and winning cars. The career as it stands is almost equal to the licenses part of Gran Turismo. I?m not too fond of the licenses. I wanted more racing and less trials and drills. But they saved that for online, which I?m not going to invest in.
The Loading times in the career mode are just ridiculous sometimes. It takes about 10 seconds to reload a level I just played. Why, when I was just there? This can get especially annoying if I?m doing a hard level where I keep losing. Or one of those timed races where I need to race perfect to win, and I crash on the first turn. 10 whole seconds! BS.
[GRAPHICS]
The graphics are great for a first gen game. The cars and most of the environment look photo-realistic, which is a great achievement, especially considering the solid framerate at 30fps. There are also some neat effects like heat dissipating from the GT90?s pipes in the back. And some clever use of motion blur, creates an excellent sense of speed.
There are some disappointments however. First, even though we were promised that all titles would support at least 2xAA, it seems to be a no show. It?s not too bad however, I?m just making note of a false promise. The car damage is also disappointing. It doesn?t affect how you play, nor does it look too damaging, even if you crash at 120MPH. It?s more like a bent mirror or wing? just small things that, if not present, wouldn?t be a big loss. What sucks the most of its present implementation is the repetitiveness of the damages. Another disappointment is that some textures just look plain ugly. Sometimes the ground, such as on the Brooklyn bridge, is highly compressed, as you can tell because of the artifacts that show. And when racing, it feels like it?s one solid color, which kills the immersion. Such great graphics and? oh, what?s that?!
Another disappointment that bothers me even more is the lack of AF. It is apparent in at least half the tracks. The road markings go from really blurry to sharp right in front of your face. It?s distracting. Sometimes, it looks like the road marking just appear out of thin air, due them being so blurred before you approached them. I?ve also seen some nasty filtering on a large building as well. It turned from almost a complete blur to nice textures in front of my eyes. If they extended the AF a little more, the game would have been more immersive.
[Verdict: B-]
It could have been better. There is more online focus than just pure single player fun. Some aspects of the game like the music implementation and booklet are flawed. But it can still last you for hours if you?re interested in getting the concept cars and higher class trophies in career mode.
Great Graphics. Game could last you for hours.
[The Bad]
The Career is disappointing. Loading times.
[Single-player Review]
[BOOKLET]
This is a little disappointing. There were many things that I had questions about in the game in which the answers could not be found in the booklet. Such as the garage, how many cars can it hold? 4! That?s it! No not really, when I bought my fifth car, the garage somehow expanded. Although the garage is an interesting concept, I would rather just have a list or something easier and less limiting. I also had some questions about the sound options that I wasn?t able to find.
Overall it?s done nicely, it explains the game. It explains what kudos and credits are and how to get more of them. And it even has some fun trivia in it. But it is lacking in a few areas.
[MUSIC]
There is a surprising variety of music in this game. Not just Rock or Rap like some other games. It has Japanese Pop, Electronica, Classical, Dark Electronica and 4 more. But it would have been better if I could arrange for the game to randomize more than just 6 genres. It would have also been great if I know what these genres sounded like. I would?ve like to browse the list to get a feel for it and include only the genres that I like. But then again, I wouldn?t be able really do that either. I have to choose 6. It?s very limiting.
At least they allow you to use the HDD to play music and even an MP3 player. I tried my Ipod, but it seems that only MP3s work, not AAC, which is an inconvenience.
[CAREER]
The career is fun and lasted me hours of playing time, especially if you try to collect the trophies and concept cars. But it?s also disappointing. Throughout this game I feel that it just could have been much better. They got the basics down, now they need a REAL career mode. Yes, a real career mode. This career mode feels like a training center. It?s not about racing so much as it is perfecting your technique. What kind of career is that? This career mode feels like a training camp for the real career mode, which is online. It?s a shame that they left the single player so unfinished, because this game could?ve been great.
The third car I bought is the fastest car in the game. If not the fastest, it is one of the fastest: the Ferrari F50GT. And this is one of the few that feels exhilarating when accelerating. All I had to do to get this car was play on Beginner, which is super easy and earn enough credits to buy it, which took no time at all. Why is it so easy to get the best car. I was hoping for more progression. I was hoping that the racing would lead to better and better cars. But no, I got the best car within the first 2 or 3 hours. The game is too rewarding in this aspect.
Kudos. What are they for anyway? Oooh! I know! It?s a way for the developers to extend the game. Yup. Climb up the ranks by how many kudos you accumulate as you play the game. If a person sucks at this game, they can still get position #1 and all the concept car rewards for each advancement, provided they put enough time into the game to get enough of those kudos. There really seems to be no point to it, since you have to drift to win anyway, so the kudos thing is just this little extra crap that gives you concept cars after so many accumulate. It?s a cheap system.
I would?ve liked a career more like Gran Turismo, racing through many different races, some lasting longer than others, getting money and winning cars. The career as it stands is almost equal to the licenses part of Gran Turismo. I?m not too fond of the licenses. I wanted more racing and less trials and drills. But they saved that for online, which I?m not going to invest in.
The Loading times in the career mode are just ridiculous sometimes. It takes about 10 seconds to reload a level I just played. Why, when I was just there? This can get especially annoying if I?m doing a hard level where I keep losing. Or one of those timed races where I need to race perfect to win, and I crash on the first turn. 10 whole seconds! BS.
[GRAPHICS]
The graphics are great for a first gen game. The cars and most of the environment look photo-realistic, which is a great achievement, especially considering the solid framerate at 30fps. There are also some neat effects like heat dissipating from the GT90?s pipes in the back. And some clever use of motion blur, creates an excellent sense of speed.
There are some disappointments however. First, even though we were promised that all titles would support at least 2xAA, it seems to be a no show. It?s not too bad however, I?m just making note of a false promise. The car damage is also disappointing. It doesn?t affect how you play, nor does it look too damaging, even if you crash at 120MPH. It?s more like a bent mirror or wing? just small things that, if not present, wouldn?t be a big loss. What sucks the most of its present implementation is the repetitiveness of the damages. Another disappointment is that some textures just look plain ugly. Sometimes the ground, such as on the Brooklyn bridge, is highly compressed, as you can tell because of the artifacts that show. And when racing, it feels like it?s one solid color, which kills the immersion. Such great graphics and? oh, what?s that?!
Another disappointment that bothers me even more is the lack of AF. It is apparent in at least half the tracks. The road markings go from really blurry to sharp right in front of your face. It?s distracting. Sometimes, it looks like the road marking just appear out of thin air, due them being so blurred before you approached them. I?ve also seen some nasty filtering on a large building as well. It turned from almost a complete blur to nice textures in front of my eyes. If they extended the AF a little more, the game would have been more immersive.
[Verdict: B-]
It could have been better. There is more online focus than just pure single player fun. Some aspects of the game like the music implementation and booklet are flawed. But it can still last you for hours if you?re interested in getting the concept cars and higher class trophies in career mode.
