So I got a chance to play some X360 games today...
First up was PGR3.....this was the first time anyone played the game so there was no cars in the garage and I didn't like the cars that were available (I thought the Enzo was available right away??)
The good thing is you can test drive just about every car by hitting X when it pops up in the car select screen....I started out with a McLaren F1 LM at the test track but when I tried the in-car viewpoint, it was not as awesome as I remembered from the videos.....
This was a demo X360 running on a small 720p LCD flat panel......I suspected that perhaps the settings weren't right and sure enough, even though the component cable was set to "HD" the dashboard video setting was 480P....Oy Vay!!!
Back up to 720P and things started to look better but it wasn't a night and day difference....
I tooled around with a Lambo Mercielargo 6.2 and a Gallardo on the test track (mostly to dial in the picture settings of the LCD screen) and figured I should take the time I had to try out some other games...
Sadly, the copies of Perfect Dark Zero they had were all preorders (DRAT!) but the guy was willing to open any game that was in the display case, and they had lots of games
Next up was NBA Live 06....I played the 1st quarter of 2 games (Lakers vs T-Wolves and Lakers vs Hornets).....the graphics were nice but the control seems a little off to me....the A button is for "Pass" and the B button is *SUPPOSED* to be for a jump shot (Y is hard dribble and X is layup/dunk" but whenever I penetrated the lane to the paint the FUCKING game kept passing the ball with the B button......other times it would work (jump shot with B) and I though I was going insane so in went the next game....the game I would spend the most time with.....
RIDGE RACER SIX
OMFG....as a Ridge fan I must say I am very, very happy with this game.....
I don't think it will appeal to all ridge fans because the powerslide is ULTRA easy to perform/forgiving.....very much like the PSP version.....
It is obvious to me Namco did this to lower the frustration levels for non ridge fans (the ones who dont "get" ridge power-sliding technique)....one nice by-product of this is the fact there is a much higher level of precision with your powersliding....you can place the car, and correct steering mistakes much easier than in previous Ridge games....moreso than even the PSP version....
As a Ridge fan, I did not take it as "WTF!?!?! they screwed up the Ridge control-scheme"....I actually appreciated this new control dynamic and had a blast "threading the needle" through turns between other cars....
Give it a chance and you might like it
There are a TON of tracks (more like A or B branching paths).....each path is 10 races and through 8 races in 45min I unlocked 0.3% of RR6!!
This is the biggest ridge I have ever seen...
I couldn't really hear the BG music but the announcer (get this) actually trys to mimic Chris Rock!! :lol :lol
"Didn't clear this track??? Next time try some Robotussin!"
At any rate, the graphics are BETTER (yes better) than PGR3 in some ways...
On this particular LCD screen, PGR3 has a "smooth" look to it that *is* appealing but the super-vividness of RR6 just *POPS* off the screen and just appeals to me more somehow...
In some places, the textures have that super-detailed look of a Sega arcade game....they dont seem to have several texture passes....they are just rich and deep to look at.....its kinda hard for me to explain it....you will just have to see it for yourselves
RR6 does not have a "Skybox" background in the distance that you can never reach....it seems to be a very large "bowl" (I am talking about many virtual square miles here) in which the X360 is rendering....
Within this area, there is no pop up or draw in (I did notice a small amount of draw in with PGR3)....if you see a mountain or city waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay in the distance, during the course of that lap you will be able to drive next to that mountain and through that city....it is the stuff I have been dreaming about for a long time.....
In the end, this is one of those polarizing games......the later Ridge Racer games tend to be that, but it is espcially true in RR6....Namco did make some tolken gestured to the mass market non-ridge players and there is no way you can do that without pissing off some of the core fans...
I would bet that most people who "get" the magic of Ridge gameplay (the core fans, such as myself) will lap this shit up.....the best part of RR6 is it not exactly like any other Ridge but is still Ridge Racer....it has its own identity, but at the same time there is some continuity since adheres to some of the general changes and sensibilities of the PSP game, for better or worse...
If you liked the PSP game(I did) you will love RR6....that said it only has a vague similarity with the portable game even though the total flavor is diffrent...
To be expected, RR6 is a game I feel a small core group will abolutely EAT UP, but those outside this envelope won't change their mind of the series because of RR6..
Let em eat cake I say
