SuperCar Challenge
n Publisher: System 3
n Price: £39.99
n Format: PlayStation 3
n Age rating: 3+
WHILE last year’s Ferrari Challenge offered a solid racing experience, its release went largely unnoticed. To right this perceived injustice, the game’s developers have spent the last 12 months working on a sequel and the result is the much-improved SuperCar Challenge.
Losing the ‘F’ word is the first thing you’ll notice about the game, giving players access to a garage full of some of the fastest supercars on the planet from the likes of Aston Martin and Lamborghini. It’s a sensible move, but while it’s fun to get behind the wheel of a Bugatti Veyron or a McLaren F1, the roster of 40 or so cars is still painfully limited.
Look underneath the bonnet and you’ll see there have been a number of other improvements, including enhanced visuals, meatier sound effects and an additional in-car camera, mounted on the dash, that helps give a real sense of speed as you hurtle round the game’s 20+ licensed racetracks.
To help broaden the appeal of the game, three distinctive handling modes have been introduced. Simulation mode is for hardcore racers and gives you complete control over every aspect of your car. At the other end of the spectrum is Assisted mode that holds your hand every step of the way while Arcade mode tightens up the braking so you can launch into a corner at full throttle without worrying about the consequences.
An all-new Challenge mode lets you compete in all sorts of quirky races for points that can then be used to buy new cars and decals. A Quick Race mode lets you hop into the car of your choice at a moment’s notice while a Time Trial option encourages you to shave vital milliseconds off your fastest lap. An Arcade mode lets you compete in 16-car races for a podium finish while there’s also a separate tournament for every car in the game. And once you’ve tired of that lot, you can then compete against 15 other drivers online.
Sadly, races are confined to single car models, but that’s the price you’ve got to pay to have 16 competitors battling it out at the same time. It’s the only major criticism we have, to be honest, apart from some of the cars’ interiors looking slightly flat and the overall presentation lacking the sparkle of other top-name racers. Those points aside, this is a quality racing simulation, and you really get a feel for a car’s momentum, weight and power when you throw it round a tight bend. With Gran Turismo 5 still several months away, it's certainly worth taking for a test drive.
Score: ****
IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey
n Publisher: 505 Games
n Price: £39.99
n Format: Xbox 360 (also on PS3, PSP and DS)
n Age rating: 7+
WHETHER you want to engage in low altitude bombing runs, provide air support for ground troops or go head-to-head with enemy fighters in a series of spectacular dogfights, IL-2 Sturmovik lets you take to the skies over war-torn Europe and participate in some of the deadliest airborne campaigns of World War 2. It’s all rendered in stunning detail, with 50 single-player missions spread across six theatres of war, including the Battle of Britain, Stalingrad and Berlin. Flight sim enthusiasts will enjoy flying solo, but newcomers to the genre will appreciate arcade mode that allows you to concentrate on the combat aspects of the game while the plane almost flies itself. With more than 40 aircraft to choose from – including Spitfires, Hurricanes, the Messerschmitt 109 and the IL-2 Sturmovik – plus a robust 16-player online option, IL-2 oozes authenticity and class.
Score: ****
Dissidia: Final Fantasy
n Publisher: Square Enix
n Price: £29.99
n Format: PSP
n Age rating: 12+
A REAL-time fighting game might not seem the most appropriate way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of this hugely popular turn-based role-playing series, but it’s certainly a lot of fun. Twenty-two of Final Fantasy’s most memorable heroes and villains have been brought together to trade blows and magic attacks in a number of one-on-one battles. The all-star cast is drawn from FFI through XII, so in-jokes and walk-on cameos abound, but the actual fighting system is surprisingly complex. Each character has a variety of attacks at their disposal with new moves and abilities available once your fighter has gained enough experience points. There’s a ‘Quick Battle’ option so you can jump straight into the action, a lengthy story mode that’ll take at least 15 hours to complete, and local multiplayer if you fancy battling a friend rather than a computer-controlled opponent.
Score: ****
Metroid Prime Trilogy
n Publisher: Nintendo
n Price: £44.99
n Format: Wii
n Age rating: 12+
ALWAYS happy to plunder its back catalogue, Nintendo has managed to shoehorn all three Metroid Prime adventures onto one shiny disc. As the first two games in the series were GameCube-only releases, this has meant a certain amount of retooling, making sure each title is fully compatible with the Wii’s motion controls.
The result is a compilation that offers a satisfying blend of first-person shooting and exploration as players retrace the steps of bounty hunter extraordinaire, Samus Aran, as she hops around the galaxy tracking down space pirates and other sci-fi delinquents. Each new planet is littered with environmental puzzles and traps, plus a pleasing number of power-ups and weapons that gradually transform you into an unstoppable fighting force. It’ll take more than 60 hours to complete all three adventures so this is one trilogy that’s definitely worth revisiting.
Score: ***
First published at 15:50, Wednesday, 07 October 2009 Published by http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk
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