The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was this week and there are a few
notable driving games that made their debut -- Forza Horizon, Need for Speed
Most Wanted and Formula 1: 2012. We had a chance to try them out on
the show floor. Here are a few on-the-spot impressions of each from one of our
resident gamers, Ron Montoya.
Yesterday, we gave you the basic rundown on Forza Horizon. Now here's
some commentary: There was only one point to point race and one car (an SRT
Viper) in the E3 demo. The premise of the game is a car festival being held in
Colorado. As you win events, your fame increases, which then opens up unique
sponsored events. One such race has you racing a '70s-era Boss Mustang against a
P51 Mustang airplane.
In Horizon, you are awarded points based on how well you are doing,
drifting, passing cars, and avoiding oncoming traffic. These points add to your
reputation which can be used to unlock other vehicles or purchase upgrades.
While the overall look of the game and the races may seem like Forza Horizon
is more of an arcade racer, the Forza underpinnings have been left intact. The
driving physics are identical to Forza Motorsport 4, and have been modified to
represent the suspension of the car as it travels through dirt, pavement, and
combinations of the two.
Need for Speed Most Wanted
Although the title suggests this is a sequel to the 2005 game of the same
name, NFS Most Wanted is actually the spiritual successor to Burnout
Paradise. Criterion Games has taken many aspects from NFS Hot Pursuit
(cop car chases, spectacular crashes, Autolog stat tracking) and expanded them
to an open-world city.
NFS Most Wanted was one of the best looking games on the show floor.
Although most racing games these days have photorealistic cars, it was the
lighting and the clean onscreen HUD that made it look a notch better. Race
checkpoints were displayed three dimensionally and could be seen in the distance
over the buildings. This kept your eyes on the race, rather than having to look
at a minimap in the corner of your screen.
After the quick point to point race in the city, you have to lose the cops,
whose attention you piqued by speeding throughout the city. Then, the world
opens back up and you can explore the city and choose events at your
leisure.
Video You Tube
NFS Most Wanted will be released on October 30, one week after Forza Horizon.
Formula 1: 2012
After receiving feedback that their games were too hard, the team at
Codemasters, developers of the F1 series of games, set out to make F1
2012 more approachable. They added a driving line that not only turns red
when you need to brake, the tiles also raise up to give you another visual
reminder to stop. A series of license tests will be used at the beginning of the
game that will serve as a tutorial and as a means of determining your skill
level.
F1 2012 will be the first game that includes the Circuit of the Americas
as a playable track. Although the track is not completed in real life, the
developers of the game were given a number of artist renderings and measurements
of the track to come up with a close approximation of how it will look.
Finally, the weather system has received an overhaul. In the past, if it
rained in the game, the whole track would be wet. Now the weather system can
simulate a cloud that rained over a certain part of the track, while the rest of
it remains dry.
F1 2012 will be released in sometime in September.
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