BATTLE OF THE ARCADE RACERS!
May is an interesting month for us gamers, with a number of much anticipated games making their way to store shelves in the coming weeks. Lost Planet 2 as recently seen a somewhat disappointing release and Remedy have finally been kind enough to give us Alan Wake to play. But they are not the subject of my blog today, for I feel now is better time then ever to talk about a genre of racing that as become somewhat forgettable over the past few years. I like many of you, have fond memories of the arcade racer from my youth. In fact it would be frankly honest of me to admit that my main arcade experiences were playing racing games.
Let me get something off my chest which hurts me to even say, considering my love for the Burnout franchise. I disliked Burnout: Paradise! Now I shan't go rattling on giving every small reason why, that would be boring. What I will say is that in my personal opinion, Paradise felt like a step backwards in design, with Criterion adding features that the series didn't really need. Okay, the multiplayer made perfect sense and worked out well, but the whole open city concept was the nail in the coffin for me. The last thing I want to do in a Burnout game is travel around a huge map finding junctions just so I can race, past games in the franchise were direct and to the point. If I wanted to race I only simply at to traverse a few screens and wham! I was racing. Not to mention the fact that having to look at the map every damn second was about as fun as watching paint dry. I shan't even go into the lack of crash mode.
Hang on, Mario Kart meets Project Gotham Racing sounds pretty damn awesome actually. While I won't judge any game by a demo or multiplayer beta, I will admit that Blur blew me away. Speaking in technically simple terms, Blur isn't anything we haven't really seen before. But what makes Blur so potentially huge is that almost perfect combination of PGR car handling and over the top Mario Kart action that as become so loved. The Project Gotham Racing franchise as in my opinion the best handling in any racing game, while maybe not totally realistic it strikes a wonderful mix of realism and fun, something few racing 'simulations' ever achieve (I'm looking at you Gran Turismo). So I shall admit I'm super excitement for Blur when it hits stores on the 25th of this month.
But what of Split/Second, well any gamer will tell you to never totally judge a game by it's demo and it's true for this specific title. The demo for Split/Second was somewhat unspectacular and the fascinating concept of destruction didn't transmit itself as well as one might have hoped. But I'll wait till the full retail release on the 21st of May, or May the 18th for my American friends. Of course I suspect you all have your own opinions on both games, there's a general split between each it seems. Some love the skill, precision and chaos of Blur while others love the explosive feel and concepts of Split/Second. Whatever you think of either game, I'm just delighted to see more arcade racers hitting the market. Speaking of which I haven't even mentioned Modnation Racers which also hits stores in the coming weeks.
Thanks for Reading, and Keep Gaming!
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