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Monday, June 11, 2012
11:54 AM - June 11, 2012. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Justin Pacheco
Our staff breaks down the NCAA Football 13 demo released last week and gives the low down on what they think about the game. Is it a buy or no buy? Click through the jump to find out.
Read More - NCAA Football 13 Demo Roundtable
Read More - NCAA Football 13 Demo Roundtable
Thursday, August 12, 2010
03:15 PM - August 12, 2010. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Justin Pacheco
It's a slow month for racing games this August, but instead of turning my attention to other sports like baseball or football, I decided to take a look back at a somewhat forgotten title that served as the origin story of my video game racing career.The first racing game that I remember playing is also the first video game that I remember buying with my own money. I had saved up my allowance and some birthday to money to get F1 Race for the original Game Boy. Going back, I have no idea why I picked this game over any other title. Back then I had no access to the Internet or any gaming magazines, so it was just a blind purchase I guess -- or maybe it was just that sweet box art.
Regardless of why I bought it, I did and fired it up immediately after exiting the Toys 'R' Us and climbing back into my parents' car. I still remember a few of my habits from the game, too. One would be working my left thumb raw by holding up on the D-pad to use the game's boost. The other is that I never picked car A. Car A was faster without the boost, but car B had a higher boosted top speed and carried more boost.
Read More - My First Racing Game: F1 Race
Monday, August 2, 2010
04:14 PM - August 2, 2010. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Justin Pacheco
Times are tough, money is tight and it's hard to justify shelling out $60 to get your new driving game fix. Maybe you are a little light in the wallet or maybe you are just cheap. Either way, I have looked around to find some great driving games for various budgets. Below I have picked out one title/series from a couple different price ranges, so hopefully one of these budget titles will fit into your price range.Read More - Budget Racing Titles for the Summer
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
03:40 PM - July 20, 2010. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Justin Pacheco
I tend to be a fairly placid gamer. I will never be someone who lines up at my local GameStop for a midnight release. I can usually wait for games to get a little cheaper in price before buying them, and sometimes I end up really late on even the biggest titles (I just started playing Dirt, for example). Still, sometimes even I get excited for something. I did obsessively check the Forza Web site for months before the game released and could not wait to sink my teeth into that game. The same thing went for Madden 10.
And the nice part about this year is that it has already been a big year for racing games, yet I am still excited about some upcoming releases. So here are my top three most-anticipated racing games for the rest of the year:
Read More - Three Most Anticipated Racing Games for the Second Half of 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
01:50 PM - July 7, 2010. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Justin Pacheco
Racing games are set up in predictable ways for the most part. You progress through whatever the game has for a career mode while unlocking better, faster cars. You also progress from simple tracks to the more complicated circuits. By the end of the game, you are racing on the most torturous tracks the game can throw at you. Those final tracks exist to test your skills and wreck you cars. So let's talk about the top five toughest tracks to ever show up in a video game. Read More - Top Five Video Game Racing Tracks of All Time
Monday, June 28, 2010
The advertisements for Blur depict the game as Mario Kart for grown-ups, which is a pretty good approximation of the game. However, if you use Mario Kart and Blur as metaphors to show the difference between childhood and adulthood, then the developers must find adult life frustrating, unfair and a little boring, too.
Blur takes the standard cart-racing game, puts it on realistic tracks and uses licensed cars. As a pretty big car buff, I loved the fact that I was racing around firing landmines out of a rat-rodded Volkswagen Beetle. While I appreciated the realism of the cars, the real-life locales used for the tracks probably hold the game back in a way.
The tracks, while they do look fairly nice, are not interesting or exciting. They tend be very wide and uncomplicated, with no real shortcuts or anything particularly memorable about them. In fact, most of the turns on these tracks are so wide that you will not even need to use your brakes most of the time.
Read More - Blur Review
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Split/Second is a pretty straightforward example of modern arcade racing. However, what separates it is the mighty good trick it has up its sleeve.
Split Second allows racers to trigger explosions and traps to destroy the competition. These triggered moments range from small-scale destruction such as blowing up a gas station or overturning a bus to large, route-altering chaos like blowing up a bridge or knocking over an air traffic control tower.
These destructive events, which are earned by drifting, drafting and evading other racers’ traps, are really the sole standout feature of Split Second. But these events tend to make every race play out differently, so it adds a lot more to the game than one might originally think. Plus, deciding whether to save up for the big, route-altering events or deciding instead to use a lot of little traps adds a needed element of strategy to the game.
Read More - Split/Second Review
Split Second allows racers to trigger explosions and traps to destroy the competition. These triggered moments range from small-scale destruction such as blowing up a gas station or overturning a bus to large, route-altering chaos like blowing up a bridge or knocking over an air traffic control tower.
These destructive events, which are earned by drifting, drafting and evading other racers’ traps, are really the sole standout feature of Split Second. But these events tend to make every race play out differently, so it adds a lot more to the game than one might originally think. Plus, deciding whether to save up for the big, route-altering events or deciding instead to use a lot of little traps adds a needed element of strategy to the game.
Read More - Split/Second Review
Thursday, May 20, 2010
11:30 AM - May 20, 2010. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Justin Pacheco
Some franchises just seem to procreate even though no one really seems to want new versions of the series. On the other hand, some franchises seem to go long dormant and leave their fans wanting more. Here are five racing games that fall into the latter category...
Read More - Five Dead Racing Franchises That Need to be Resurrected
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
MotoGP 09/10 is a game which tries to straddle the line between arcade racing and true simulation. The game not only does an admirable job of mixing the two the styles of play, but it can be tweaked to be either/or, so MotoGP 09/10 might just appeal to a broader sect of racing fans than the average racing game.
Read More - MotoGP 09/10 Review
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
12:10 PM - March 17, 2010. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Justin Pacheco
Going into this season, NASCAR announced a series of rule changes to make races more exciting and competitive. These changes included freer-flowing restrictor plates, the return of bump-drafting and the return of the spoiler rather than the detached rear wing. These things appeared to be done in response to lower television ratings and attendance figures.While NASCAR responded quickly to make changes to try and reaffirm NASCAR’s place in the American sports’ marketplace, the same cannot be said about their handling of their video game licenses. I say that because Electronic Arts’ exclusive deal with NASCAR is over and yet no NASCAR games are being released this year. In other words, the future of NASCAR games basically leads to a mess of questions.
Read More - The Future of NASCAR Gaming
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
11:11 AM - February 24, 2010. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Justin Pacheco
World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars is a game that wants you to like it. It gets plenty about the dirt-track series right but cannot quite overcome some glaring flaws and broaden its appeal to all race fans.
Since the World of Outlaws is a dirt-track series with unique purpose-built cars, the controls will take some getting used to for most players. The controls are the basic gas, brake and steering. Newcomers should take note that sprint-cars’ brakes are set to be very strong on the left-front wheel in order to pitch the car into a slide to get around the corner -- they are not really used to slow down.
Read More - World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars
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