Write-Up
Write-Up:
After I reviewed Blur a couple weeks back, I received a lot of messages asking me what my thoughts were on some of the other racing or kart games that have come out lately, so I shot Sony Computer Entertainment an email and requested a copy of their latest game developed by United Front Games, the Playstation 3 exclusive Modnation Racers, and they were happy to send me a copy so I could answer your questions. Basically we’re looking at Mario Kart meets Little Big Planet in that you can create all of your own content and it’s an absolute blast to play, so let’s check it out. Released on May 25th, here’s ModNation Racers!
Basically the story puts you in the shoes of the ModNation Racing Championship’s hottest new racer, Tag, and you’re taken under the wings of an ex-racer named Chief who basically shows you the ropes and guides you through the tracks. The owner of a crappy auto dealership named Conservative Motors tries throughout the adventure to buy out Tag because he realizes his potential to make lots of corrupt money and that’s pretty much it. There is a little bit of conflict between the two parties, but it’s not all that interesting. The game is kind of cutsey and funny and the story kind of just plays on that. It’s not deep or anything like that, just light hearted and entertaining.
I think more importantly though, before each race you’ll get a little cut-scene with a couple racing commentators who are pretty damned hilarious. I won’t ruin their conversations for you, but it’s essentially one just totally bullying the crap out of the other one and damn it’s funny.
Well if there’s one thing for sure, you’re going to get your monies worth with this title. I spent about 16 hours playing this and got most of the way through the campaign and did a ton of online matches, but half of my time was spent simply creating content, and believe me, I could spend easily another 100 hours doing just that. The single player campaign provides you 28 different tracks spread out over 5 different racing series, and each one awards you additional mods that you can use on your own creations. You’ve also got built-in 4-player split screen and you can even race others online while in split screen. On top of that, there are Casual races where you specify the track and parameters of the race, or you can let the computer do it for you in an XP race where you level up after gaining enough XP; but I didn’t find any purpose for this other than to flex the size of my electronic penis. See, normally in online games when you level up, you unlock content or get more powerful, but this literally does nothing for you.
When you boot up the game, there is no menu to let you decide what to do, you actually enter a hub where you drive around with other online players and decide if you want to play single player races, online races, enter the creation station or even play the hottest tracks on the net for the week. The Hot Lap Race pits you against yourself and the world as many times as you like on a weekly defined track to see how fast you can complete a single lap and if you are in the top 10% of the day, you’ll get a big chunk of bonus experience, but be warned, you’ve got to be damn good to even compete. The track I played took me 1 minute 30 seconds to complete while the fastest lap in the world was a mere 24 seconds.
Now, there are a couple bad things with the design as well. For one, the loading times in the game are terribly long and they happen all the damn time. 30 seconds to a minute before and after each race and while changing zones in the main hub means you’re going to be waiting almost longer than you’re going to be playing. On top of that, not all of the content in the game is free, meaning that if you want to use the coolest mods in your creations, you’re going to have to fork out some dough for some stupid ass Microtransactions.
The racing mechanics are very similar to those of Mario Kart or Blur but there are actually no differences in the karts. It doesn’t matter how you customize them, they all go the same speed and have the same handling, so it comes down to your use of the games other mechanics to determine who is really the best racer. There are a series of standard power ups that shouldn’t surprise anyone, but they are actually upgradeable so once you grab one and pick up another item pod, the item in your possession becomes more powerful or gains additional features. In addition, you can charge a boost meter by drifting and drafting other players and use this bar to shoot yourself forward, melee other carts or even power a shield to avoid incoming attacks. The use of all of these together make you a lethal opponent, but be wary, because just as easily as you can use them to move to the front of the pack, just as easily they can be used against you to move instantly to the back.
Each track has a set of bonus objectives that are actually really difficult to achieve meaning you’re going to have to race these tracks over and over to memorize the ins and outs to complete them. On top of that, the enemy AI is what seems like nearly impossible, so when you finally do beat some of these levels you’re going to seriously jump for joy.
The rest of your time in this game is going to be spent creating racers, karts and tracks and testing out any others you come across. All three systems offer limitless combinations of objects, materials, colors and patterns, giving all you artistic peeps out there an outlet to show off your skills in public. The top tracks, karts and racers each week are prominently displayed in the hub for you to download and use yourself and the creators of these are truly amazing designers and should likely themselves look into careers in game design.
The graphics in the game combines the cartoony look of Mario Kart with the 3D depth and detail of Little Big Planet. There is animated cut-scenes spread throughout the campaign and they just work really well with the overall look and feel of the game. The voice acting is hilarious, the sound effects are spot on, and the sound track is upbeat and entertaining; but the real star of the show is the limitless customization options of the creation station. There are just so many different ways you can make your racers, karts and levels look, and the detail on the objects that go into the race tracks is amazing. Seriously, you’re going to spend a ton of time creating things here, it’s just so fun.
So, you’ve got a great lengthy campaign with tons and tons of game-play be it single player, split-screen local console, or online multiplayer races, in addition to the top tracks created by the community each week, and a seemingly limitless mod system that can really let your creative juices flow. The game-play is fun and exciting, yet sometimes frustrating and extremely challenging and the game is not without its flaws, especially when it comes to the terrible loading times before and after each race. So is ModNation Racers the kart racing game you should pick up, or should you spend that hard earned dollar on Blur? Well that’s really going to come down to whether you want the realistic aspect of racing at extreme speeds with modern super powered cars, or you want the cutesy yet extremely customizable and endless game-play options of user-created content. Both games are wonderful and probably both worth your money so make sure to look over the details I provide in each review to help you make an educated decision. What do you guys think? What’s the better racer? Leave your questions and comments below!
Developer: United Front Games
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Platform: PS3
Price: $59.99
Review Video: http://www.youtube.com/ZeitgeistReview
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ZeitgeistReview
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**This title was provided to me free of charge from the publisher to review for you.
ill tale both of them