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Sorry, I couldn't Cel-Shade the thread but at least I tried. Any how. Anyone else looking forward to this Cartoony version of GT3? Intrigued me from the start and I actually think it will succeed. I like the idea of being able to customize every single part of your car. I like that I do. Talk.
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Sorry, I couldn't Cel-Shade the thread but at least I tried. Any how. Anyone else looking forward to this Cartoony version of GT3? Intrigued me from the start and I actually think it will succeed. I like the idea of being able to customize every single part of your car. I like that I do. Talk.
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Nå†ßu© wrote:
> I dont mind the cheesy Japanese style, kinda refeshing. I'm more
> concerned about how it plays. So did you dig itout last night Echelon?
Well yes I did. To be honest I wasn’t going to bother, but nothing (100 channels and nothing on syndrome!) took my fancy, so I thought I might as well give it a try, been as I said I would ;-)
This is a long post, so get a cup of tea NOW. or it you aren't interested in Auto Mod, then don't bother reading it, as you'll get bored. Also any Criticisms against the spelling or grammer, direct then to a brick wall. I am writing this on the fly and i haven't got the time to double check it :-p
Well, I gotta’ say it’s better than I remember. I played it for about 2 hours and really enjoyed it. I also had a fiddle around with the Garage Life mode and actually persevered with it, trying to work out what the hell is going on and it’s really quite good. In GL mode you start by choosing a car, and a garage – there was no cash restriction so you can have any car available and the choice of garage is purely cosmetic I think. First thing you do is input what you want on your number plate of the car – this was kind of pointless as my number plate was in Jap, so I could have had anything on there, but in English it’ll be a nice touch. Then you move into your garage and can choose to race, do some modding to your car or checkout any new emails you have. The email system is a way of basically telling you how to do stuff and as you progress and unlock new stuff, mails appear telling you what they are etc.
If you choose to race you start of with Level 1 races. There are three to choose from, each on a different track. All you need to do is win ONE race to open up level 2 – of course, if you want you can race them all and get all golds. Level 2 is the same kind of thing, except the tracks you choose to race on are different, or reverse versions of the first 3, and here you have to win 2 races to open up level 3. I only got as far as opening level 3 – so I am assuming this style of unlocking continues. When you win a race you are given a number of prizes that are listed once the reply (which look amazing) has finished – now this was all in Jap but you they were things like new Turbos, engine upgrades, new spoilers for you car etc etc. How did I know this? Well when you do into the Upgrade section, you can choose to upgrade almost every part of your car, from the engine to the gearbox, the tyres to the exhaust – just like in GT3. Here you start with the most basic part, and unlock the better ones as you go. Ones you haven’t unlock are marked ‘secret’ while the ones you have unlocked are highlighted as new – so this is how I knew what I had unlocked. Even by just playing, and winning, a couple of races I unlocked what must have been about 20 new mechanical parts for the car and fitting them all made it much, much faster. In fact I was having problems with the level 2 races until I figured out how to upgrade the car.
There is a second upgrade mode, and this is called ‘dress up’ – as you can guess, this is where you make cosmetic changes to you car.
Again, as you play and win races you unlock more stuff. And you can mod almost any part of the car, from front bummer to rear spoiler, from headlights to wing mirrors – and all are modded separately which means you can really play about with the look of the car. You can also add decals like white lines and stuff to the car. Better still – ALL of the upgrades, both mechanical and cosmetic, are from big name dealers. Change you tyres for example, and you can choose to have Yokohama, Bridgestone etc. This is the same for every part in the game – you’ll always have a few brands to choose from. As I say, all this kinda’ lots something because it was Jap, but in English the depth here would give you plenty to much around with for quite a while.
Visually, the game is excellent. Sharp colours, nice shading and almost no pop-up. The only problem is slow down at certain congested areas. If you are taking a hair-pin and all 6 cars on screen and once, things do slow down a bit. It only lasts for a second or so, but it is there. Although I expect this to be addressed by the time the US/UK version comes out. Other visual feature of note is the speed lines that appear around you car as you get faster – just the kind of thing you see in Manga films like Akira. The flame that ‘pops’ out of the back of the exhaust when you are slowing down quickly is nothing short of amazing, such a cool and well implemented bit of eye candy. The rain effect is also very good, complete with splashing water from your cars wheels – only downside to the rain is that it tends to make the slowdown problem more frequent.
In terms of tracks, they are a mixed bag. Some are point-to-point races – one for example sees you racing from the top of a mountain to the bottom, the road is very twist with lots of ‘u-bends’ and short straights. The reverse version of this track is also very good, and sees you racing to the top of the hill, natch! Other tracks range from the real life Suzuka track, which is excellent, to a generic city track that is as boring as you could imagine. There are around 8 tracks to being with, and I unlocked 1 extra one. Dunno how many there are in total. I will say this, if the UK version has more than 50 tracks I will be very surprised indeed as there a so few in the Jap version, it’d be like starting the game from scratch – although having said this Capcom have had plenty of time to do this.
Overall I reckon the game is good, if a little ‘soulless’ because of the very generic track design in places. Other faults include: the slowdown as I’ve already said is poor, very aggressive CPU AI – they’ll basically ram you off the road if that’s what it’ll take to overtake. The announcer is classic Capcom, very enthusiastic – just like the guy from Capcom’s fighting games – he gets annoying very quickly. The music in the Jap version is simply awful, it’s a kind of, well I don’t know how to describe it really – it’s just cr@p, although I guess this’ll be different in the UK version. I HOPE! Finally, the handling. It is more of a simulation handling dynamic that you think it will be because of the graphics, but I must say it’s not as bad as it first seems. Once you start to mod your car with better bits, you’ll find that taking corners at high speed it a bit easier – it’s still not Burnout, but equally it isn’t as hardcore as GT3. I personally quite liked the handling after a little while to be honest.
So there you go. A good game and one that has plenty to do because of the Garage Life mode, although unless Capcom add a good few extra tracks, this even this could be rather short lived. I will definitely get a copy when the UK version is released. If nothing else, it’ll be to see what the hell the parts you unlock are called – man I need to learn Japanese.
I’d rate it a solid, 7/10.
Although, if Capcom fix the Slowdown and add more tracks, the UK version could go up to 8/10 – but we’ll have to wait and see.
> I dont mind the cheesy Japanese style, kinda refeshing. I'm more
> concerned about how it plays. So did you dig itout last night Echelon?
Well yes I did. To be honest I wasn’t going to bother, but nothing (100 channels and nothing on syndrome!) took my fancy, so I thought I might as well give it a try, been as I said I would ;-)
This is a long post, so get a cup of tea NOW. or it you aren't interested in Auto Mod, then don't bother reading it, as you'll get bored. Also any Criticisms against the spelling or grammer, direct then to a brick wall. I am writing this on the fly and i haven't got the time to double check it :-p
Well, I gotta’ say it’s better than I remember. I played it for about 2 hours and really enjoyed it. I also had a fiddle around with the Garage Life mode and actually persevered with it, trying to work out what the hell is going on and it’s really quite good. In GL mode you start by choosing a car, and a garage – there was no cash restriction so you can have any car available and the choice of garage is purely cosmetic I think. First thing you do is input what you want on your number plate of the car – this was kind of pointless as my number plate was in Jap, so I could have had anything on there, but in English it’ll be a nice touch. Then you move into your garage and can choose to race, do some modding to your car or checkout any new emails you have. The email system is a way of basically telling you how to do stuff and as you progress and unlock new stuff, mails appear telling you what they are etc.
If you choose to race you start of with Level 1 races. There are three to choose from, each on a different track. All you need to do is win ONE race to open up level 2 – of course, if you want you can race them all and get all golds. Level 2 is the same kind of thing, except the tracks you choose to race on are different, or reverse versions of the first 3, and here you have to win 2 races to open up level 3. I only got as far as opening level 3 – so I am assuming this style of unlocking continues. When you win a race you are given a number of prizes that are listed once the reply (which look amazing) has finished – now this was all in Jap but you they were things like new Turbos, engine upgrades, new spoilers for you car etc etc. How did I know this? Well when you do into the Upgrade section, you can choose to upgrade almost every part of your car, from the engine to the gearbox, the tyres to the exhaust – just like in GT3. Here you start with the most basic part, and unlock the better ones as you go. Ones you haven’t unlock are marked ‘secret’ while the ones you have unlocked are highlighted as new – so this is how I knew what I had unlocked. Even by just playing, and winning, a couple of races I unlocked what must have been about 20 new mechanical parts for the car and fitting them all made it much, much faster. In fact I was having problems with the level 2 races until I figured out how to upgrade the car.
There is a second upgrade mode, and this is called ‘dress up’ – as you can guess, this is where you make cosmetic changes to you car.
Again, as you play and win races you unlock more stuff. And you can mod almost any part of the car, from front bummer to rear spoiler, from headlights to wing mirrors – and all are modded separately which means you can really play about with the look of the car. You can also add decals like white lines and stuff to the car. Better still – ALL of the upgrades, both mechanical and cosmetic, are from big name dealers. Change you tyres for example, and you can choose to have Yokohama, Bridgestone etc. This is the same for every part in the game – you’ll always have a few brands to choose from. As I say, all this kinda’ lots something because it was Jap, but in English the depth here would give you plenty to much around with for quite a while.
Visually, the game is excellent. Sharp colours, nice shading and almost no pop-up. The only problem is slow down at certain congested areas. If you are taking a hair-pin and all 6 cars on screen and once, things do slow down a bit. It only lasts for a second or so, but it is there. Although I expect this to be addressed by the time the US/UK version comes out. Other visual feature of note is the speed lines that appear around you car as you get faster – just the kind of thing you see in Manga films like Akira. The flame that ‘pops’ out of the back of the exhaust when you are slowing down quickly is nothing short of amazing, such a cool and well implemented bit of eye candy. The rain effect is also very good, complete with splashing water from your cars wheels – only downside to the rain is that it tends to make the slowdown problem more frequent.
In terms of tracks, they are a mixed bag. Some are point-to-point races – one for example sees you racing from the top of a mountain to the bottom, the road is very twist with lots of ‘u-bends’ and short straights. The reverse version of this track is also very good, and sees you racing to the top of the hill, natch! Other tracks range from the real life Suzuka track, which is excellent, to a generic city track that is as boring as you could imagine. There are around 8 tracks to being with, and I unlocked 1 extra one. Dunno how many there are in total. I will say this, if the UK version has more than 50 tracks I will be very surprised indeed as there a so few in the Jap version, it’d be like starting the game from scratch – although having said this Capcom have had plenty of time to do this.
Overall I reckon the game is good, if a little ‘soulless’ because of the very generic track design in places. Other faults include: the slowdown as I’ve already said is poor, very aggressive CPU AI – they’ll basically ram you off the road if that’s what it’ll take to overtake. The announcer is classic Capcom, very enthusiastic – just like the guy from Capcom’s fighting games – he gets annoying very quickly. The music in the Jap version is simply awful, it’s a kind of, well I don’t know how to describe it really – it’s just cr@p, although I guess this’ll be different in the UK version. I HOPE! Finally, the handling. It is more of a simulation handling dynamic that you think it will be because of the graphics, but I must say it’s not as bad as it first seems. Once you start to mod your car with better bits, you’ll find that taking corners at high speed it a bit easier – it’s still not Burnout, but equally it isn’t as hardcore as GT3. I personally quite liked the handling after a little while to be honest.
So there you go. A good game and one that has plenty to do because of the Garage Life mode, although unless Capcom add a good few extra tracks, this even this could be rather short lived. I will definitely get a copy when the UK version is released. If nothing else, it’ll be to see what the hell the parts you unlock are called – man I need to learn Japanese.
I’d rate it a solid, 7/10.
Although, if Capcom fix the Slowdown and add more tracks, the UK version could go up to 8/10 – but we’ll have to wait and see.
Thanks for taking your time to write that, I appreciate it :)
I also got the new PSW today, and they gave it 5/10 saying that there are only 7 very dull tracks (You say there are at least 8 in the Jap version, so somehow I find what PSW say hard to beleive). They also said that the handling under sensitive, but the challenge too easy, and the game can easily be completed within 2 hours. I just find that too hard to beleive, but we'll just hvae to wait and see. OPSM2 gave it a 7/10 by the way.
I also got the new PSW today, and they gave it 5/10 saying that there are only 7 very dull tracks (You say there are at least 8 in the Jap version, so somehow I find what PSW say hard to beleive). They also said that the handling under sensitive, but the challenge too easy, and the game can easily be completed within 2 hours. I just find that too hard to beleive, but we'll just hvae to wait and see. OPSM2 gave it a 7/10 by the way.
Read the OPSM2 review and while I would still like to get it, it just doesn't seem worth it!!
The whole point of tuning your car and doing flash paint jobs and decals is to show off. If you can't do it online what's the point? Your PS2 won't be impressed.
I know there's a solid game in there, but is that enough to justify buying it? There are hints that Capcom will release an update / new version in the UK once the Broadband adapter is released, which would make it a worthy purchase - surely online racing was the point of this game?!
We'll have to wait and see on that one. Fingers crossed!
The whole point of tuning your car and doing flash paint jobs and decals is to show off. If you can't do it online what's the point? Your PS2 won't be impressed.
I know there's a solid game in there, but is that enough to justify buying it? There are hints that Capcom will release an update / new version in the UK once the Broadband adapter is released, which would make it a worthy purchase - surely online racing was the point of this game?!
We'll have to wait and see on that one. Fingers crossed!
i think it will fail, another wanna be, just like Project Gothem
Hmm, from what ive seen, its certainly different. Not too sure what to make of it though. So im going to have to see what peoples opinions of it on here are when its been played on some more.
If they do release the add-on internet pack for it then I think it will be a success. So even though I can't show my cars and skills off, I will have the knowledge that I can in the near future, giving me time to perfect my motors :D
Because they didn't know what hardware they were dealing with as nothing had been announced up until a few weeks ago.
Online racing *is* the point of this game. However, if you want top class racing against fantastic AI, get GRAND PRIX CHALLENGE!
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