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This thread has been linked to the game 'Split/Second'.
A couple of weeks back I gave my opinion on the Split/Second Velocity demo walking away with a few minor concerns but overall fairly impressed. With its unique use of scenery and explosions as a means of creating weapons and obstacles I figured I’d pick up the full game and see just how well and how long this concept would remain fun and fresh. Well all I can say is I still love every minute of Split/Second and its still great fun. If the Burnout series was the definition of speed and brilliant crashes in a racing title then Split/Second defines true mayhem and immensely involving courses.
This is an arcade racer through and through. If you’ve ever played Burnout you’ll know what to expect with an emphasis placed on speed and drifting. It’s an extremely simple game to grasp but takes a lot of skill to master.
So what really separates this racer from the long list out there already? They’re called power plays. Drifting, jumping and drafting slowly fills up a power meter below your car which can then be used to trigger events scattered throughout the track. These range from smaller things like exploding cars and rolling trucks that try to get in your opponents way to larger occurrences such as collapsing bridges, incoming freighters and crumbling dams that alter the route of the race. While it may seem like a simple gimmick at first, you’ll soon realise that there’s more depth to this system than you may think. Do you use a smaller portion of your power meter to take out a single opponent, or use the full amount to take a risk in nailing all of them.
You’ll spend most of your time progressing through the season mode where you’ll face twelve episodes consisting of six events each (more on them later). Episodes? Season mode? That’s another thing. While many racers tend to lack any story or narration whatsoever, Split/Second actually has a unique twist. The races themselves are part of a television show staged on a giant set complete with set pieces and even tacky trailers so really you’re in a way performing to an audience in a reality TV show. The idea works in the games favour as constantly throughout the game you’ll see little nods to the televised premise the game holds such as cameras, the slick menu system and more.
Multiplayer provides some good laughs as you can play both split screen and online in race, elimination and survival. Sure compared to the likes of the newly released Blur it seems fairly tame, but what you get here is enough to keep you entertained for a while.
The number of cars is decent enough with each falling in one of three brackets. Speedy, drifty and heavy are your choices and each type is suited to different tracks and events so choosing wisely can often be the difference between first and fifth. The biggest complain I have however is with the lack of tracks. You have just eleven to select from (some intertwining with other tracks at times) and over the course of the campaign, you will have gone through each at least five or six times. Sure it is great you can alter routes and try new shortcuts, but eleven is far too slim. Whatsmore some more variety would go down a treat. Maybe racing through a theme park, or past the beach and so on. There is a little too much cityscape at times it can tend to mesh into one.
What Split/Second lacks in track numbers, it more than makes up for in race types. While in most games you’ll find modes you love and modes you hate, here I actually found myself enjoying every type each bringing something new and more importantly fun to the table. While racing is the format you’ll find yourself performing more often than not, you’ll also come across elimination, (where the person in last place is eliminated every twenty seconds) survival, detonator, air attack and air revenge.
Survival is great fun and sees you racing along a never ending circuit avoiding explosive barrels and trying to overtake huge trucks. The longer you survive and further you get the more points you win. Detonator is a time trial mode but with a twist. Here, you’ll complete one lap with every power play being detonated along the way. It definitely provides some of the most chaotic moments of the game as at times you’ll have to deal with planes, towers, trucks, rubble and more all within seconds. Air attack has a helicopter shooting missiles down onto the track while you try to get as far as possible without becoming a toasted wreck. Air revenge is very similar except here the goal is to return fire and destroy the helicopter as quickly as you can.
This game can be enjoyed whether you’re playing alone, with a friend or wanting to get involved online. The great thing about Split/Second is it caters enough for all these types of players. If there’s one issue I have with the single player though, it’s that the difficulty curve can be all over the place. At points you’ll have an easier time grabbing first place, but others you’ll barely make the upper half of the league. Furthermore the rubber banding is so stress inducing that it can at times make the game border on frustrating rather than challenging. As for the multiplayer it seems that power plays have less an effect on human players and really needed to be given extra oomph to make them seem more useful.
Visually this is perhaps the best looking racer out there. Sure the cars themselves look shiny and sleek, but it’s the tracks that are the real star of the show. Having ridiculously huge towers collapsing meters in front of you, airplanes crashing and trains plummeting from their tracks looks amazing and no other racer out there even begins to compare in terms of visuals as far as I’m concerned. Having this element of interactivity with your environment makes all the difference. The sound and music too are just as polished with crashes and explosions sounding intense. This game really does beg for a top notch sound system. While originally I wasn’t a fan of the music seen in the demo, I must say it has grown on me and with its often fast paced beat it really suits the style of gameplay well.
You have to admire Black Rock Studios for trying to mix up the racing formula with Split/Second Velocity. There are some areas where the game can be improved, but overall what you have is the most explosive, exhilarating racer to be released in the last couple of years.
This is an arcade racer through and through. If you’ve ever played Burnout you’ll know what to expect with an emphasis placed on speed and drifting. It’s an extremely simple game to grasp but takes a lot of skill to master.
So what really separates this racer from the long list out there already? They’re called power plays. Drifting, jumping and drafting slowly fills up a power meter below your car which can then be used to trigger events scattered throughout the track. These range from smaller things like exploding cars and rolling trucks that try to get in your opponents way to larger occurrences such as collapsing bridges, incoming freighters and crumbling dams that alter the route of the race. While it may seem like a simple gimmick at first, you’ll soon realise that there’s more depth to this system than you may think. Do you use a smaller portion of your power meter to take out a single opponent, or use the full amount to take a risk in nailing all of them.
You’ll spend most of your time progressing through the season mode where you’ll face twelve episodes consisting of six events each (more on them later). Episodes? Season mode? That’s another thing. While many racers tend to lack any story or narration whatsoever, Split/Second actually has a unique twist. The races themselves are part of a television show staged on a giant set complete with set pieces and even tacky trailers so really you’re in a way performing to an audience in a reality TV show. The idea works in the games favour as constantly throughout the game you’ll see little nods to the televised premise the game holds such as cameras, the slick menu system and more.
Multiplayer provides some good laughs as you can play both split screen and online in race, elimination and survival. Sure compared to the likes of the newly released Blur it seems fairly tame, but what you get here is enough to keep you entertained for a while.
The number of cars is decent enough with each falling in one of three brackets. Speedy, drifty and heavy are your choices and each type is suited to different tracks and events so choosing wisely can often be the difference between first and fifth. The biggest complain I have however is with the lack of tracks. You have just eleven to select from (some intertwining with other tracks at times) and over the course of the campaign, you will have gone through each at least five or six times. Sure it is great you can alter routes and try new shortcuts, but eleven is far too slim. Whatsmore some more variety would go down a treat. Maybe racing through a theme park, or past the beach and so on. There is a little too much cityscape at times it can tend to mesh into one.
What Split/Second lacks in track numbers, it more than makes up for in race types. While in most games you’ll find modes you love and modes you hate, here I actually found myself enjoying every type each bringing something new and more importantly fun to the table. While racing is the format you’ll find yourself performing more often than not, you’ll also come across elimination, (where the person in last place is eliminated every twenty seconds) survival, detonator, air attack and air revenge.
Survival is great fun and sees you racing along a never ending circuit avoiding explosive barrels and trying to overtake huge trucks. The longer you survive and further you get the more points you win. Detonator is a time trial mode but with a twist. Here, you’ll complete one lap with every power play being detonated along the way. It definitely provides some of the most chaotic moments of the game as at times you’ll have to deal with planes, towers, trucks, rubble and more all within seconds. Air attack has a helicopter shooting missiles down onto the track while you try to get as far as possible without becoming a toasted wreck. Air revenge is very similar except here the goal is to return fire and destroy the helicopter as quickly as you can.
This game can be enjoyed whether you’re playing alone, with a friend or wanting to get involved online. The great thing about Split/Second is it caters enough for all these types of players. If there’s one issue I have with the single player though, it’s that the difficulty curve can be all over the place. At points you’ll have an easier time grabbing first place, but others you’ll barely make the upper half of the league. Furthermore the rubber banding is so stress inducing that it can at times make the game border on frustrating rather than challenging. As for the multiplayer it seems that power plays have less an effect on human players and really needed to be given extra oomph to make them seem more useful.
Visually this is perhaps the best looking racer out there. Sure the cars themselves look shiny and sleek, but it’s the tracks that are the real star of the show. Having ridiculously huge towers collapsing meters in front of you, airplanes crashing and trains plummeting from their tracks looks amazing and no other racer out there even begins to compare in terms of visuals as far as I’m concerned. Having this element of interactivity with your environment makes all the difference. The sound and music too are just as polished with crashes and explosions sounding intense. This game really does beg for a top notch sound system. While originally I wasn’t a fan of the music seen in the demo, I must say it has grown on me and with its often fast paced beat it really suits the style of gameplay well.
You have to admire Black Rock Studios for trying to mix up the racing formula with Split/Second Velocity. There are some areas where the game can be improved, but overall what you have is the most explosive, exhilarating racer to be released in the last couple of years.
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A couple of weeks back I gave my opinion on the Split/Second Velocity demo walking away with a few minor concerns but overall fairly impressed. With its unique use of scenery and explosions as a means of creating weapons and obstacles I figured I’d pick up the full game and see just how well and how long this concept would remain fun and fresh. Well all I can say is I still love every minute of Split/Second and its still great fun. If the Burnout series was the definition of speed and brilliant crashes in a racing title then Split/Second defines true mayhem and immensely involving courses.
This is an arcade racer through and through. If you’ve ever played Burnout you’ll know what to expect with an emphasis placed on speed and drifting. It’s an extremely simple game to grasp but takes a lot of skill to master.
So what really separates this racer from the long list out there already? They’re called power plays. Drifting, jumping and drafting slowly fills up a power meter below your car which can then be used to trigger events scattered throughout the track. These range from smaller things like exploding cars and rolling trucks that try to get in your opponents way to larger occurrences such as collapsing bridges, incoming freighters and crumbling dams that alter the route of the race. While it may seem like a simple gimmick at first, you’ll soon realise that there’s more depth to this system than you may think. Do you use a smaller portion of your power meter to take out a single opponent, or use the full amount to take a risk in nailing all of them.
You’ll spend most of your time progressing through the season mode where you’ll face twelve episodes consisting of six events each (more on them later). Episodes? Season mode? That’s another thing. While many racers tend to lack any story or narration whatsoever, Split/Second actually has a unique twist. The races themselves are part of a television show staged on a giant set complete with set pieces and even tacky trailers so really you’re in a way performing to an audience in a reality TV show. The idea works in the games favour as constantly throughout the game you’ll see little nods to the televised premise the game holds such as cameras, the slick menu system and more.
Multiplayer provides some good laughs as you can play both split screen and online in race, elimination and survival. Sure compared to the likes of the newly released Blur it seems fairly tame, but what you get here is enough to keep you entertained for a while.
The number of cars is decent enough with each falling in one of three brackets. Speedy, drifty and heavy are your choices and each type is suited to different tracks and events so choosing wisely can often be the difference between first and fifth. The biggest complain I have however is with the lack of tracks. You have just eleven to select from (some intertwining with other tracks at times) and over the course of the campaign, you will have gone through each at least five or six times. Sure it is great you can alter routes and try new shortcuts, but eleven is far too slim. Whatsmore some more variety would go down a treat. Maybe racing through a theme park, or past the beach and so on. There is a little too much cityscape at times it can tend to mesh into one.
What Split/Second lacks in track numbers, it more than makes up for in race types. While in most games you’ll find modes you love and modes you hate, here I actually found myself enjoying every type each bringing something new and more importantly fun to the table. While racing is the format you’ll find yourself performing more often than not, you’ll also come across elimination, (where the person in last place is eliminated every twenty seconds) survival, detonator, air attack and air revenge.
Survival is great fun and sees you racing along a never ending circuit avoiding explosive barrels and trying to overtake huge trucks. The longer you survive and further you get the more points you win. Detonator is a time trial mode but with a twist. Here, you’ll complete one lap with every power play being detonated along the way. It definitely provides some of the most chaotic moments of the game as at times you’ll have to deal with planes, towers, trucks, rubble and more all within seconds. Air attack has a helicopter shooting missiles down onto the track while you try to get as far as possible without becoming a toasted wreck. Air revenge is very similar except here the goal is to return fire and destroy the helicopter as quickly as you can.
This game can be enjoyed whether you’re playing alone, with a friend or wanting to get involved online. The great thing about Split/Second is it caters enough for all these types of players. If there’s one issue I have with the single player though, it’s that the difficulty curve can be all over the place. At points you’ll have an easier time grabbing first place, but others you’ll barely make the upper half of the league. Furthermore the rubber banding is so stress inducing that it can at times make the game border on frustrating rather than challenging. As for the multiplayer it seems that power plays have less an effect on human players and really needed to be given extra oomph to make them seem more useful.
Visually this is perhaps the best looking racer out there. Sure the cars themselves look shiny and sleek, but it’s the tracks that are the real star of the show. Having ridiculously huge towers collapsing meters in front of you, airplanes crashing and trains plummeting from their tracks looks amazing and no other racer out there even begins to compare in terms of visuals as far as I’m concerned. Having this element of interactivity with your environment makes all the difference. The sound and music too are just as polished with crashes and explosions sounding intense. This game really does beg for a top notch sound system. While originally I wasn’t a fan of the music seen in the demo, I must say it has grown on me and with its often fast paced beat it really suits the style of gameplay well.
You have to admire Black Rock Studios for trying to mix up the racing formula with Split/Second Velocity. There are some areas where the game can be improved, but overall what you have is the most explosive, exhilarating racer to be released in the last couple of years.
This is an arcade racer through and through. If you’ve ever played Burnout you’ll know what to expect with an emphasis placed on speed and drifting. It’s an extremely simple game to grasp but takes a lot of skill to master.
So what really separates this racer from the long list out there already? They’re called power plays. Drifting, jumping and drafting slowly fills up a power meter below your car which can then be used to trigger events scattered throughout the track. These range from smaller things like exploding cars and rolling trucks that try to get in your opponents way to larger occurrences such as collapsing bridges, incoming freighters and crumbling dams that alter the route of the race. While it may seem like a simple gimmick at first, you’ll soon realise that there’s more depth to this system than you may think. Do you use a smaller portion of your power meter to take out a single opponent, or use the full amount to take a risk in nailing all of them.
You’ll spend most of your time progressing through the season mode where you’ll face twelve episodes consisting of six events each (more on them later). Episodes? Season mode? That’s another thing. While many racers tend to lack any story or narration whatsoever, Split/Second actually has a unique twist. The races themselves are part of a television show staged on a giant set complete with set pieces and even tacky trailers so really you’re in a way performing to an audience in a reality TV show. The idea works in the games favour as constantly throughout the game you’ll see little nods to the televised premise the game holds such as cameras, the slick menu system and more.
Multiplayer provides some good laughs as you can play both split screen and online in race, elimination and survival. Sure compared to the likes of the newly released Blur it seems fairly tame, but what you get here is enough to keep you entertained for a while.
The number of cars is decent enough with each falling in one of three brackets. Speedy, drifty and heavy are your choices and each type is suited to different tracks and events so choosing wisely can often be the difference between first and fifth. The biggest complain I have however is with the lack of tracks. You have just eleven to select from (some intertwining with other tracks at times) and over the course of the campaign, you will have gone through each at least five or six times. Sure it is great you can alter routes and try new shortcuts, but eleven is far too slim. Whatsmore some more variety would go down a treat. Maybe racing through a theme park, or past the beach and so on. There is a little too much cityscape at times it can tend to mesh into one.
What Split/Second lacks in track numbers, it more than makes up for in race types. While in most games you’ll find modes you love and modes you hate, here I actually found myself enjoying every type each bringing something new and more importantly fun to the table. While racing is the format you’ll find yourself performing more often than not, you’ll also come across elimination, (where the person in last place is eliminated every twenty seconds) survival, detonator, air attack and air revenge.
Survival is great fun and sees you racing along a never ending circuit avoiding explosive barrels and trying to overtake huge trucks. The longer you survive and further you get the more points you win. Detonator is a time trial mode but with a twist. Here, you’ll complete one lap with every power play being detonated along the way. It definitely provides some of the most chaotic moments of the game as at times you’ll have to deal with planes, towers, trucks, rubble and more all within seconds. Air attack has a helicopter shooting missiles down onto the track while you try to get as far as possible without becoming a toasted wreck. Air revenge is very similar except here the goal is to return fire and destroy the helicopter as quickly as you can.
This game can be enjoyed whether you’re playing alone, with a friend or wanting to get involved online. The great thing about Split/Second is it caters enough for all these types of players. If there’s one issue I have with the single player though, it’s that the difficulty curve can be all over the place. At points you’ll have an easier time grabbing first place, but others you’ll barely make the upper half of the league. Furthermore the rubber banding is so stress inducing that it can at times make the game border on frustrating rather than challenging. As for the multiplayer it seems that power plays have less an effect on human players and really needed to be given extra oomph to make them seem more useful.
Visually this is perhaps the best looking racer out there. Sure the cars themselves look shiny and sleek, but it’s the tracks that are the real star of the show. Having ridiculously huge towers collapsing meters in front of you, airplanes crashing and trains plummeting from their tracks looks amazing and no other racer out there even begins to compare in terms of visuals as far as I’m concerned. Having this element of interactivity with your environment makes all the difference. The sound and music too are just as polished with crashes and explosions sounding intense. This game really does beg for a top notch sound system. While originally I wasn’t a fan of the music seen in the demo, I must say it has grown on me and with its often fast paced beat it really suits the style of gameplay well.
You have to admire Black Rock Studios for trying to mix up the racing formula with Split/Second Velocity. There are some areas where the game can be improved, but overall what you have is the most explosive, exhilarating racer to be released in the last couple of years.