Quick Look: Absolute Drift: Zen Edition

I really enjoy this minimalist style that has become popular as of late. Certainly a better trend than 16 bit. This game looks super hard, but I could see getting really into the lines and such, maybe with a wheel. haha

This game is really fun, easy to pick up but hard to master. Well worth the $12! Very awesome!

Yo, by the way I'm about 85% sure it says #TOFU on the bottom of the car as a reference to the Initial D Manga and Anime franchise I guess you'd call it. It's also about drifting sick cars, but down fuckin' mountains.

There's also a sick arcade drifting game with some console titles as well. The main character of the show or whatever the hell you'd call it helps run a Tofu shop, and his sick mountain drifting car is a Toyota AE86 with tofu advertisements on it.

Random useless information of the day. You're welcome.

Loving the soundtrack.

I am loving the soundtrack and look of this game. Too bad it's not something I'd ever want to play.

Also, since the rest of the world still largely uses manual gear shifting hearing Americans mention it like it's a weird thing bugs me (not really, I just notice it).

Its kind of weird that they didnt do a quick look of the previous version cause they find it kind of hard. I guess it might show the game in a bad light but its still better than not hearing about this game?

I wish looking smooth as hell was the highest reward for more games, its so nice when they align playing well with feeling graceful.

This game is HARD. Really rewarding though.

Thanks for reminding me what I was missing in my playlist I use while playing racing games .

@alistercat: Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure they are saying that it's super weird with manual shifting in the context of the game.

So glad they finally gave this game a Quick Look because it is amazing. When the game clicks, you feel an amazing connection to your car pulling off graceful drifts. I can't recommend this game enough to everyone.

@a_turtle: Maybe, it's ambiguous without having played it. They've mentioned manual shifting being a weird thing in other contexts throughout the years though and I assumed it was part of that but maybe not.

@alistercat: Valid point! :)

I got this game a few months ago and had the same experience as Jeff at first. Switching to manual transmission does at actually help. At first you'll be terrible but being locked into a specific gear can really help you maintain a line through the corners and doing donuts in the boxes.

That said, I'm still not great but I did get a million points once. Excited to try this update out.

Banned endorsement: Absolut Drift

Sweet I was waiting for someone to check this out since it looks good

Something about the way the camera moves makes me feel weirdly sick. Though at the same time, I imagine the camera setup the game is using could have been a lot worse in that regard.

I hate having such a delicate constitution.

Its a shitty thing to say I know, but this is something I'd happily check out for like $5

Do you know what "DK" stands for?

Donkey Kong?

@alistercat said:

Interesting. Initially, I was going to disagree with you as talking with my Australian and Canadian friends this isn't the case (it came up due to us talking about F1 and college SAE), but then I did some quick statistics googling...and it turns out those three countries are in the minority in that they're the only three with a vastly higher percentage of Automatic. Though those three combined nearly overpower the rest in terms of sheer numbers of cars? That stat is a bit ambiguous, though, as the numbers for China are apparently hard to lock down.

TLDR; thanks for causing me to look this up. :D Now I'm a bit less ignorant of worldwide trends.

@xevabis: My go to Initial D jam has always been this one:

I'm with Jeff. I've always like Ridge Racer Drifting and NFS MOST WANTED on PSONE

Having a manual car is pretty key in drifting since it gives you way more control of the car during a drift.

@muchogusto: I thought it was kinda funny how they couldn't realize how that actually makes things better. Each time they mention it they just couldn't wrap their head around it. Being able to keep it in a selected gear, to keep the back end of the car loose is a huge deal.

@marblez3: I am too. Anyway its for download? Bandcamp perhaps?

ProTips™; If you want to play with automatic transmission, The van makes things alot easier.

Very subtle 'Overdrift' reference from Brad.

Manual transmission take rates are plummeting worldwide because autos are more efficient now. Manual used to have those who want to feel more connected with the car and those who wanted to get more performance or fuel economy out of an econo-car. Well, with power up worldwide and autos getting better fuel economy now you only have those who want to remain connected to the car left. And still high-end cars are losing manual options.

Anyway, this is more about video games. It's even more odd to drive manual in a video game because you frequently don't have a useful tach (none here) and the engine notes being able to convey shift points is also hit-or-miss by game. In real driving you drive the same car frequently. In real racing you drive the same car and do repeated practice laps and are expected to optimize your shifting, driving, etc. for the situation. In video games you drive 3 laps of a track and then move to the next with no practice. It's an entirely different situation and having more assist (whether in shifting, braking, etc.) is much more common in video games.

That's why it seems odd to be driving a manual in a video game.

I mean, you played Burnout, right? It's made by Brits and it doesn't even offer a manual option. Micro Machines didn't offer one, also developed by Brits. The list goes on and on. It's a video game thing, not a nationality thing.

Hoonage for days?

Yeah but drifting is almost exclusively done in manual RWD cars, so the fact they questioned that loading screen tip was odd.

Man, the undercarriage of that car must be fucking filthy.

Good Overdrift reference.

I really do like Absolüt Drift, those notes of vanilla are fresh.

Two hot tips. Initiate the drift a sooner than you would automatically assume (you want to enter into a corner while drifting, not get to the corner then start drifting). apply handbrake when you are understeering (turning into something but not sliding).

When I was a kid, the Toyota Corolla Coupe (other names are available in different regions) superseded the Opel Manta as the affordable sports car for young guys who were just as liable to wrap it around a tree as they were to make it home in one piece.

It was the first car I ever did a donut in.

Good to see that they're still being used as the beginner drift car in video games.

Pure anime.

I first saw this game at PAX, last year, in the Indie Mega Booth. I met the developer who made it (by himself!) and after playing it for only one run, I was so overwhelmed with how great it felt, but moreso how amazing the style was.

I bought it on the spot, right in front of him, on the Steam App- which felt really good. It's not everyday you actually get to meet a developer and support him while standing in front of him. (In retrospect, I probably could have supported him more financially by purchasing it though some other means, but i digress)

This game brought me back to a ten year old me that would set up boxes of cereal and dishes on the coffee table, and push matchbox cars around with my hand making them drift around stuff (or as I knew it at the time, "skidding")

... I should also say (and I'm not trying to brag) that took to the controls much more quickly and easily than Jeff did. In talking to the developer at PAX, he got to see a lot of people try it and he mentioned that some people just "get it" and other have to work at it... he couldn't explain why though, and was trying really hard to tweak the difficulty stuff to make it more accessible.

I loved this game, I consumed game. I urge everyone to at least try it out. It's very good.

Loving that #tofu reference. Also this needs eurobeat.

This is a great game. I highly recommend manual, as it gives you significantly greater control over the curve of your drifts and circumference of your donuts - without a top speed limiter, your top speed continues to increase, your momentum increases, and your drifts widen. That being said, it's still really tough and I don't consider myself even 'good' at it. Very much worth the $12 I paid for the original release.

@kcin: Yeah I can't imagine being able to successfully drift with an automatic.

I just love drifty overhead driving games. This one is so technical looking that I haven't tried it yet but I'm sure I will get there sometime.

Handbrake, man. Handbrake.

I tried playing this game and i'm pretty sure it's not a difficulty thing so much as a controls like garbage thing.

@xevabis: I personally prefer this hot Initial D jam

Kind of reminds me of PAKO. I want to like that game but you only have to slightly scrap your car and it's game over which I just find frustrating.

So this is the Dirt 3 gymkhana stuff from a topdown perspective.

Definitely play this game with manual transmission enabled, as the tooltip suggests. Even if you would normally play automatic in racing games, analogue acceleration, in conjunction with manual shifting, plays a really significant role in you not spinning out constantly. Honestly, manual should be the default, with Automatic being a secondary option.

I easily spent a few dozen hours drifting in AE86s and RX-7s in the original GRiD, and this reminds me a lot of that - I was able to pickup the handling model after only a few minutes as a result. I'm only about a half hour in, but so far all of the challenges, even on hard, have been pretty easy - hoping it gets quite serious by the end of the game.

Now I gotta rewatch Initial D, I've never been able to get all the way through the Series 3 movie though...I guess I'm just gonna have to power through.

There is a lot I love about this game, just from looking at it. But I wish the car wasn't always leaving skid marks, which should also make it more realistic for them to not disappear either.
There is some place in my heart for this kind of game.

I just been this place before.