I think a lot of the outrage over this game has been pretty exaggerated. I've played the game for around 6 hours (the NZ version and the NA version), and I've yet to see any of the horror stories of repair costs that the Eurogamer review describes. Aside from the rare occasion where I have 10 repairs and several maintenance jobs to do at once, I haven't come out of an event with less cash then when I started. Also, I've never been rammed from behind so hard that I have had to pay $2,000+ in repair costs.
A lot of unnecessary costs can be avoided just by playing better and driving with more skill. And it isn't like you are charged for every time you tap a wall or another car. It is only when you hit something with significant force that repairs are needed. One race I was in had me lightly tapping and scraping a dozen or so other cars and I had no repair cost at the end.
Actually, the model this game adopts has a few advantages that make the game more enjoyable to me, as crazy as that sounds. In most sim racing games, you quickly become so flush with cash that buying new cars and events quickly becomes a non-event, you aren't concerned about damage because there is little downside to incurring it during a race, and you are commonly expected to place first in every race. In this game, you are heavily encouraged to drive more safely and conservatively, each upgrade and car purchase feels like a big deal, and winning an event feels earned rather than expected.
While overall the gameplay is really satisfying and engaging for a mobile game, it has some issues. The biggest one is that the game should give you three cars at the beginning instead of one. It's a bad idea to penalize people with no other car to play with when they are just learning and most likely to crash and be forced to stop playing due to maintenance. The other big thing is that the costs and wait times for repairs and maintenance has been altered several times and there is no way to know where that balance will end up. Also, there isn't enough music in the game.
And, of course, I'd like to make a bit more money from each race than you do, but that's the price you pay for a free to play game.
So I thought about creating a new thread for this, but I guess I wont.
I wonder. Do all of you who have played this one think it's the best looking phone/tablet game ever (even if the framerate doesn't always hold up)? What would you compare it to graphically speaking in the world of dedicated handhelds and consoles?
It's definitely the most technically impressive game on a tablet or phone, but between the varying levels of performance even on new devices and some serious pop-in on other vehicles that, on my iPhone 4S, doesn't let you see if someone ahead is braking before the high-detail model pops in, I wouldn't say it is the best looking game on phones or tablets.
Just on a technical level, I'd say it falls just short of Forza 3. It's definitely pulling off more impressive effects and has higher detail vehicles and tracks than a Ridge Racer or a Gran Turismo 4.
Can I play the game offline and if so how? Don't want it chewing up all my data limit.
Yep, no online connection required to play.
