XGRA
How does Acclaim’s latest entry in their Extreme G racing series fare?
Tags: XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Oct 1st, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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This is the third entry in this series that I have played – but the fourth to be released (I missed out on the first one). This is the second on the PS2 (having followed GXIII a couple of years ago). The series has evolved over the years, but with a proliferation of racers being released as of late, does the Extreme G series have what it takes to keep players coming back?
The new season of the Extreme G Racing Association will be familiar territory to those that have tread it before – strap yourself on a futuristic bike and hurtle yourself forward at hundreds of miles an hour. Pretty fun stuff. What this entry in the series does is tweak the gameplay a bit to balance out the weapons heavy gameplay of the previous effort (XGIII was good, don’t get me wrong, but the weapons system needed changing).
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The weapon system in XGRA, while similar to previous efforts, tones down the “collect and use at will” mentality. Since the races move along at a high clip, targeting can be a chore – so using the weapons as minimally as possible sometimes is the best course. Other times, getting and using the most powerful weapon available even just once will help to win the race and fulfill your contract.
With the world of the future being run by corporations (granted, not too different from the world of today) teams aren’t necessarily sponsored, they are contracted. It’s now no longer good enough to simply win the race, or a series of races. Now the racer’s employers want certain tasks accomplished – come in first, have the best lap time, take out a certain rider.
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This adds a new degree of depth to the game that wasn’t there before, and makes it more realistic, as far as the setting goes.
What isn’t realistic is the AI – something happened in between XGIII and XGRA – the competition got stupid.
Don’t misunderstand; there are definitely challenges to be had out there. The game isn’t exactly a walk in the park. However, after a serious afternoon of play, most things will be opened up.
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The courses this season (more than in XGIII) have items to shoot out adding a certain degree of interactivity with the environment. While cool, there isn’t really enough of it to warrant inclusion. Hopefully, the next game will take advantage of this.
The sense of speed presented here is done well, something that all futuristic racing games absolutely must have – it’s the linchpin in the gameplay. The framerate is pretty smooth, and the graphics don’t have a lot of draw-in. During an acceleration boost, the vehicle actually appears to move faster, as opposed to having the framerate speed up, which is a cheap trick that a lot of developers use and doesn’t actually give the rider a speed boost above the other racers.
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The details are much clearer in XGRA than in XGIII – the development team (which has increased in size) apparently have their head wrapped around the PS2 architecture now. Being able to see where the turns are really helps.
The audio is also improved over previous games. The voice acting (when necessary) is good, the sound effects are decent, but the real heart of the audio in a game of this type is the soundtrack. Here, players can choose from either a rock or dance style soundtrack – or combination of both. If only Sony’s Hard Disc Drive were released already allowing players to use their own tunes… but that’s not Acclaim’s fault.
The heart of the game is the career mode, which is pretty standard – but does have different rules governing certain races. There will be races when a rider can’t use their turbo, or all weapons are turned off for example. There is also the Time Trial mode where players can get acquainted with a track.
Where the game falters is in the multiplayer aspect – it’s like the kiddie pool.
It’s fun and all, but only being able to do a single race on an opened track frankly, isn’t much as far as multiplayer options go.
Overall, the gameplay is a step in the right direction from XGIII, but the lack of depth, especially in the multiplayer (where is the online option?) hurts the title in the long run. Maybe for the next game the developers can add a few more modes (such as in Wipeout Fusion) or a Track Editor (like in HSX).
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| The gameplay is great - it's about the only new racing game on the market with any sense of speed. | 7.9 |
| What Doesn't | |
| Shallow multiplayer. | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Fans of high speed racing should pick this up - general racing buffs may just want to rent it. | |
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Tags: XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Oct 1st, 2003 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
