Task
10th November 2006, 06:12 PM
So I saw XGRA on sale for the Game3 the other day for $10.
Remembering what a great game XG3 was, I picked it up. The main effect however was to remind me that I _still_ hadn't beaten XG3. I couldn't recall how exactly I had managed to put such a great game down without beating it utterly, but more than likely giant robots had something to do with it.
So I plugged it back in earlier this week and continued from where I'd left off.
Let me start out saying what an awesome game it is, and why.
First off, futuristic racer with techno soundtrack. Even better, it's visually excellent. Simply beautifully rendered, crisp and clear images, flowing with near-constant 60fps beauty. So yeah, instant win there. Of course, I picked up XG3 the same day I picked up Kinetica, you win some you lose some.
XG3 was my first Game3 game that wasn't monkey-based. The reason for that is simple: It supports 4 player arcade play. You select the available weapon set for each race, and the speed class for the race. They're called 250G, 500G, 750G, and 1000G, but you can call them Vector, Venom, Rapier, Phantom if you like. 8 )
The main part of the game is the Career mode where you work your way from the bottom to the top, earning money by winning races. Those winnings you use to upgrade your bike: nastier weapons, a better engine, or support infrastructure. You're lucky to be able to afford one of these at a time, so after every race it's a tough choice of where to spend your winnings. Very nice. Additionally, you can pay to race Time Trial and the better a lap time you can make (you get 10 laps to do the best you can) the more you make back. Very well implemented.
If that weren't enough, there are 6 teams and 2 entries per team, meaning you versus 11 on the track. One of them is your teammate though, so you're really only versus 10 and you've kind of got an ally. This is really well utilized in the Team Career mode whereby you and a friend do a co-op racing career. Let me say that again: Co-op racing. Hands down, best feature of the game. You haven't experienced a great race until you and your best friend are working together to destroy everyone else on the track and take both the 1st and 2nd place positions.
The racing itself has a beautiful simplicity to it. Your opponents actually take effort to pass, they can drive and they can use weapons against you quite effectively. They're not perfect, but they've got sufficient skill to give you a fight. You've got airbrakes (that you really need to use to keep off the walls in the higher speed classes) and shield power and weapon power. You use weapon power to fire a weapon (the best weapon is a rear thruster, which gives you more speed!) and you can use your shield power as hyperthrust. There are coloured strips on the side of the track that rechage both those power bars. Additionally, nose control is critical. You're always stuck to the track (unless you're flying off a jump, which happens often enough to keep it interesting) but there's a LOT of uphill and downhill, and proper nose control has a serious effect on your speed. So overall, lots of skill required and definite strategy in the use of your two power bars.
Now let's start on the downsides of the game.
You always start at the back of the pack. I have no idea what's so awful about "the qualifying lap", but for some reason I see it in games as often as I see Yeti. There's a reason that real races put the faster people at the front and the slower people at the back and not the other way around. It might not seem like a valid complaint, but I'm gonna complain about it till it goes away and that's all there is to it.
Here it is though, the #1 game-killing feature: Mines are f-ing cheap.
There's a weapon in the game that is totally useless to you, and almost the only weapon the computer opponents use. They drop half a dozen at a time, and they're proximity mines so you only have to get somewhat near them for them to go off. The implementation is actually really good, they come out of the back of the bike with the bikes speed and go rolling all over the place, totally subject to gravity and friction, even the worst feature of the game is really beautifully implemented. So far, they're not too bad, but here's the killer point: You slow down when they go off.
So you've got this swath of rolling orbs coming at you, and if they get anywhere near you you take the damage _and_ slow down. Not just a little bit, either. We're talking "dead stop" sometimes. You start at the back of the pack and every opponent is going to throw at least a dozen of these at you. Their only purpose is to make it extremely difficult for you to get into 1st place, there's nothing you can use against them and since once you pass someone they're inconsequential they're not of any use to you.
So now I can't hardly stand to play the game. And it's such a well made game, so I really _want_ to play it. But it's far too frustrating to be beaten by such cheapness. It's like I'd have to play the track a dozen times till I get lucky and manage to avoid 90% of the mines thrown at me. Rinse and repeat for every track. I've already got the track down, I don't need extra practice on the track, I just need to see the mines a split second before I hit them so I can airbrake out of the way. Each of the 10 times it happens. Grrr.
Anyway, that's it, if you've actually read through all that then, uh... You win a cookie! 8 )
Remembering what a great game XG3 was, I picked it up. The main effect however was to remind me that I _still_ hadn't beaten XG3. I couldn't recall how exactly I had managed to put such a great game down without beating it utterly, but more than likely giant robots had something to do with it.
So I plugged it back in earlier this week and continued from where I'd left off.
Let me start out saying what an awesome game it is, and why.
First off, futuristic racer with techno soundtrack. Even better, it's visually excellent. Simply beautifully rendered, crisp and clear images, flowing with near-constant 60fps beauty. So yeah, instant win there. Of course, I picked up XG3 the same day I picked up Kinetica, you win some you lose some.
XG3 was my first Game3 game that wasn't monkey-based. The reason for that is simple: It supports 4 player arcade play. You select the available weapon set for each race, and the speed class for the race. They're called 250G, 500G, 750G, and 1000G, but you can call them Vector, Venom, Rapier, Phantom if you like. 8 )
The main part of the game is the Career mode where you work your way from the bottom to the top, earning money by winning races. Those winnings you use to upgrade your bike: nastier weapons, a better engine, or support infrastructure. You're lucky to be able to afford one of these at a time, so after every race it's a tough choice of where to spend your winnings. Very nice. Additionally, you can pay to race Time Trial and the better a lap time you can make (you get 10 laps to do the best you can) the more you make back. Very well implemented.
If that weren't enough, there are 6 teams and 2 entries per team, meaning you versus 11 on the track. One of them is your teammate though, so you're really only versus 10 and you've kind of got an ally. This is really well utilized in the Team Career mode whereby you and a friend do a co-op racing career. Let me say that again: Co-op racing. Hands down, best feature of the game. You haven't experienced a great race until you and your best friend are working together to destroy everyone else on the track and take both the 1st and 2nd place positions.
The racing itself has a beautiful simplicity to it. Your opponents actually take effort to pass, they can drive and they can use weapons against you quite effectively. They're not perfect, but they've got sufficient skill to give you a fight. You've got airbrakes (that you really need to use to keep off the walls in the higher speed classes) and shield power and weapon power. You use weapon power to fire a weapon (the best weapon is a rear thruster, which gives you more speed!) and you can use your shield power as hyperthrust. There are coloured strips on the side of the track that rechage both those power bars. Additionally, nose control is critical. You're always stuck to the track (unless you're flying off a jump, which happens often enough to keep it interesting) but there's a LOT of uphill and downhill, and proper nose control has a serious effect on your speed. So overall, lots of skill required and definite strategy in the use of your two power bars.
Now let's start on the downsides of the game.
You always start at the back of the pack. I have no idea what's so awful about "the qualifying lap", but for some reason I see it in games as often as I see Yeti. There's a reason that real races put the faster people at the front and the slower people at the back and not the other way around. It might not seem like a valid complaint, but I'm gonna complain about it till it goes away and that's all there is to it.
Here it is though, the #1 game-killing feature: Mines are f-ing cheap.
There's a weapon in the game that is totally useless to you, and almost the only weapon the computer opponents use. They drop half a dozen at a time, and they're proximity mines so you only have to get somewhat near them for them to go off. The implementation is actually really good, they come out of the back of the bike with the bikes speed and go rolling all over the place, totally subject to gravity and friction, even the worst feature of the game is really beautifully implemented. So far, they're not too bad, but here's the killer point: You slow down when they go off.
So you've got this swath of rolling orbs coming at you, and if they get anywhere near you you take the damage _and_ slow down. Not just a little bit, either. We're talking "dead stop" sometimes. You start at the back of the pack and every opponent is going to throw at least a dozen of these at you. Their only purpose is to make it extremely difficult for you to get into 1st place, there's nothing you can use against them and since once you pass someone they're inconsequential they're not of any use to you.
So now I can't hardly stand to play the game. And it's such a well made game, so I really _want_ to play it. But it's far too frustrating to be beaten by such cheapness. It's like I'd have to play the track a dozen times till I get lucky and manage to avoid 90% of the mines thrown at me. Rinse and repeat for every track. I've already got the track down, I don't need extra practice on the track, I just need to see the mines a split second before I hit them so I can airbrake out of the way. Each of the 10 times it happens. Grrr.
Anyway, that's it, if you've actually read through all that then, uh... You win a cookie! 8 )