Tag Archive: cars


Gran Turismo Sport review

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment
March 15, 2018

When you start up Gran Turismo Sport (after a massive day one patch), you’re treated to an opening cinematic that takes you through the history of car racing. There’s no narration here—just a simple, yet elegant classical music piece over the moving montage. This opening movie serves as a perfect metaphor for the game, really. Gran Turismo used to be the pinnacle of racing games franchises, and is a key contributor in the genre’s long history. I, like many others, still fondly remember playing Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec with my friends on the PS2. Much like the footage in that opening movie, however, it’s all in the past. After waiting so long to finally get a proper GT game on the PS4—GT6 launched only on the PS3 at the very end of that system’s life—GT Sport feels like it’s leaning far too heavily on its brand than actually delivering anything new. And, like the classic music bed underneath the movie, it has a very limited appeal when considering modern audiences.

Part of the reason that appeal is so limited is that most of the game’s focus is on preparing you to race online. GT Sport is recognized by the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) and thus has legitimate prizes and trophies surrounding the game and the online competitions it will hold. In order to rank up online and have a chance of competing for the fantastic prizes, you need to do two things: win a lot, and win in a sportsmanlike way. The game even goes so far as to make you watch a pair of “tutorial” videos before it lets you online the first time and how to be a courteous driver. It warns against crashing or taking turns too quickly; better to race smarter and safer. Of course, in the handful of races that I took part in—with official races being held every 20 minutes in order to be counted towards potential advancement—that didn’t stop most people from launching themselves like missiles when it best suited their needs. There were no issues connecting online at the very least, and that’s a good thing, because GT Sport needs to always be online.

Yes, one of the most annoying things a game can do is at the core of GT Sport. If you don’t play the game online, you can’t save your game, and most of the game’s features—only single arcade races are available offline—are locked away. It’s another way that GT Sport tries its damnedest to force you to participate in their ongoing online tournaments.

Even if you are online, but don’t want to participate in the online races, there is extremely little content to enjoy anyway. I can’t remember the last time I saw such a bare-boned racing experience. There is no offline career to speak of in GT Sport; instead, the “campaign” is three modes meant to help you learn how best to drive in GT Sport and how to quickly learn the game’s limited track selection. So, in the hopes you do go online, you’ll be able to perform at your very best without maybe embarrassing yourself.

The first offline mode is Driving School, which is exactly as it sounds in that it starts off with how to accelerate and moves up to taking difficult turns and maneuvers. Then there are Challenges, which give you some oddball scenario on occasion—like knocking over so many cones—but usually just drops you into a race midway through and asks you to win. Finally, there is Track Mastery, which focuses on specific tracks and sections of tracks to help you learn the less than 30 track configurations in the game. GT Sport isn’t a racing game folks—it’s a super-advanced Driver’s Ed program.

From a technical standpoint, I wouldn’t say GT Sport is the best the series has seen either. It feels like Polyphony Digital spent most of their development focus on how this game looked, because—credit where it is due—the game looks gorgeous. If you don’t have a 4K TV it’s going to be hard to fully appreciate the visuals, but even still, it looks really good. Of course, when you only have one-eighth the cars from your last game, it’s easy to focus on the little things. That’s right, there are only 160 or so cars (if you count all the variants) in GT Sport, a far departure from the nearly 1200 in GT6. Throw in only three camera angles to use during races, and ridiculously long times, and you wonder what the heck took so long for this game to come out.

Not everything in GT Sport appears to be a bust, however—the cars do handle well. It’s easily the strongest aspect of the game, and at least that wasn’t sacrificed in this latest entry. The menus of GT Sport are a bit of a mess to navigate, but there are also all the expected driving assists you can turn on or off depending on your driving preferences. Gran Turismo prides itself on being more simulation than arcade, so everything seems to work best when the assists are off—another reason why the game focuses on teaching you everything.

The game also handles surprisingly well in VR, where you can play one-on-one races against the computer or inspect your cars up close and personal. Racing against the computer was exhilarating here, because you could look in your mirrors like you would in a real car, and see where your competition is on the track. However, after a few races, I admit all the twists, turns, and high speeds started to wreak havoc on my stomach a little. Still, playing in VR was supreme fun while it lasted, even if it’s all a bit gimmicky.

The only other aspect where GT Sport competes with its contemporaries is the customization. Not only can you customize your cars, but also your driving suit and your helmet. You can’t choose to be a female racer, though—so close GT Sport, so close. You can save your various liveries and share them with the community online as you place decals and paint everything whatever color your heart desires. You can also earn more cars and gear via the game’s two in-game currencies earned from winning races or completing challenges. Thankfully, there are no microtransactions here, so if you want to pimp your ride, you need to get driving.

For as long as fans of the series have been waiting for Gran Turismo to finally debut on the PlayStation 4, Gran Turismo Sport under-delivers. The game looks nice, and has a few neat bells and whistles like its VR capabilities, but there’s absolutely a dearth of content here that makes it hard to recommend. With everything trying to funnel you into competing online, there’s little room it seems now in the GT universe for anything but the most hardcore racing game fan—and, ironically, that puts GT Sport squarely behind all its competition.

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment • Developer: Polyphony Digital • ESRB: E – Everyone • Release Date: 10.17.17
6.0
Gran Turismo Sport purposely limits itself as it revolves solely around getting players racing online in various competitions. The VR gimmick and customization options are nice, but otherwise there simply is not enough here for anyone but the gamer that wants to turn video game racing into a potential career. GT Sport is a shell of what we expect from this series, and will disappoint anyone looking for any significant content in its offline modes.
The Good The cars look and handle spectacularly.
The Bad An overall lack of content and always needing to be online.
The Ugly How much I loved the VR aspect of the game—and how quickly it started to make me nauseous.
Gran Turismo Sport is a PS4 exclusive. Review code was provided by Sony for the benefit of this review. EGM reviews games on a scale of 1 to 10, with a 5.0 being average.
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This Pixar Cars Theory is Disgusting and Totally Possible

Filed under: Video — Leave a comment
February 24, 2017

I got to guest host on Nerd Alert this week with Kim Horcher. We talked about myriad topics, and in this episode, we discuss one potential theory behind how Pixar’s Cars universe came to be.

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EGM Review: Forza Motorsport 5

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment
November 27, 2013

Getting off-track

Before last week, if I had to make a bet on which game would be the strongest overall release during the next-gen console launch, Forza Motorsport 5 would’ve been my pick. You’ve got a first-party developer in Turn 10 Studios with a well-established pedigree and a ton of past success, plenty of time between entries (Playground Games was the primary studio behind last year’s spin-off, Forza Horizon), and excellent access to the Xbox One hardware. But, as is often the case when I gamble, I’d have been walking away from that table a poorer man.

Forza Motorsport 5 feels like the extended demo of an incomplete game. It looks great, it sounds great, the cars all handle wonderfully, and the physics are absolutely phenomenal. But after a couple of hours, I realized there weren’t nearly as many cars as previous years and barely a dozen tracks–with classics like Nürburgring and Suzuka­ notably absent–which got very old very quickly. The new features like Drivatars and an expansion of the relationship with the BBC’s Top Gear are both welcome additions, but the game just feels unfinished.

Now, I know that the tracks that are here have been completely remodeled for greater detail, along with the 200 cars in the game (compared to 500 at launch for Forza 4, mind you) so that they can all be seen in Forzavista, and 60 more cars are coming down the line via DLC, but Forza’s always been a series that provided a lot of content for gamers right out of the box. It looks great on next-gen, but quite honestly, I couldn’t care less about the damn upholstery of a Honda S2000 if it means I’m losing out on actually racing several other cars because of it. By providing such a small selection of racing locales and cars in Forza 5, it feels like Turn 10 is banking on players falling in love with a vehicle, drooling over the interiors, and tuning it up and down the class ranks while taking on the game’s various championship series.

Speaking of the championships series, Forza’s Career mode has been changed considerably, and not for the better. Instead of working your way through different racing tiers over the course of several calendar years, all the championship series in Career are unlocked from the start as long as you can afford the cars necessary to race in them. You’re given enough credits for your first car in the first series, and where you go from there is up to you.

I appreciate Turn 10 allowing us to have more choices in the way we compete, but they’ve taken away much of the value of Career mode in the process. Forza no longer offers bonus rewards for finishing a series. You don’t even get a new car anymore—since so few cars are featured in the game, they can’t afford to give them away, after all. So, by making you have to pay for all the cars—either via the game’s real-world money-exchange system or digital cash earned by racing—you’re more likely to keep playing (or paying) to flesh out your collection with different car types to take on different series, since the game itself won’t reward you for your skill. Nearly all sense of accomplishment has vanished. You don’t even need to get first place in most races, just finish in the Top 3 to get the most XP and credits.

The counterpoint to all this, I admit, is that Forza 5 offers more championship series in Career than any previous entry. Forty are available in all, including many classic car and exotic options. But with only a dozen tracks, you’re driving the same courses hundreds of times if you want to beat Career mode. This option—once one of the biggest draws of the franchise—now sees you literally driving around in an unending loop, and it’s a shell of its former self.

Despite this major issue, Forza 5 isn’t a burned-out clutch of a driving game—and a few new welcome features show why this is still a racing franchise to be reckoned with. The new Drivatar aspect is a nice way to earn credits offline, since your digital imprint can travel to your friends’ single-player modes, and it only takes three races before the game can make a general outline of how you drive. Obviously, the more you drive, the more detailed the profile can get, and the better decisions it can hopefully make. The idea of racing 15 of your friends at any given time instead of just ghosts or randomly generated computer cars does instill a little greater sense of competition.

Also, Forza 5’s expanded relationship with the BBC’s Top Gear definitely adds to the enjoyment. Not only do hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May provide humorous dialogue introducing every championship series, but the game also includes Top Gear challenge races. Not every championship series has them—and they’re unfortunately few and far between—but they’re the most entertaining objectives, hands down. Whether it’s racing against the digital cousin of the Stig or using your car to knock over giant bowling pins on the show’s famous test course, the tiny bit of diversity in Career mode comes right here.

In fact, I almost wish there were an entire mode—if not an entire racing game—devoted to Top Gear after seeing how Turn 10 seamlessly implemented the show elements into Forza 5. While the game offers a few other challenge types that don’t feature the Top Gear brand (like passing challenges or racing on a track with pedestrian traffic), much like the regular circuit races, they grow old quickly.

I look back at the Forzas that have come before, and I can’t help but wonder if the ever-growing push for interconnectivity is part of the reason why the Career mode is so sparse here. Just like in all Xbox One games, you can take screenshots and videos of your exploits and upload them to the Forza community, along with custom paint and tuning jobs. The multiplayer is a direct extension of the single-player, where you can race whatever cars you’ve earned against your friends in head-to-head competition—but if you all can’t agree on the car tier, you may have to pony up some cash to buy a new one, since maintaining a diverse garage is far harder now.

But when you finally do get on a track, Forza Motorsport 5 maintains the tradition of providing great control along with some stunningly realistic graphics. For all my complaints, this is still Forza, and the actual act of zooming down a virtual raceway is still top notch. The issue is simply this: When you slap down $60 for this game (and possibly another $50 for the DLC Season Pass), you’re not getting nearly as much out of it as you did with previous entries. Career mode has been unnecessarily dumbed down, and the lack of tracks gets boring fast, overshadowing the game’s positive additions like Drivatars and the still-stellar racing mechanics. If you’re in it for the social features, the multiplayer, and just plain driving, then this is still a solid pickup, but if the new grind of Career mode isn’t what you’re expecting, then you should steer clear.

Developer: Turn 10 Studios • Publisher: Microsoft Studios • ESRB: E – Everyone • Release Date: 11.22.13
6.5
Forza Motorsport 5’s Career mode is a shell of its former self, giving little reason for players to keep coming back. Couple this with a dismal launch lineup of cars and tracks, and this is a surprising step backward for the Forza franchise as it helps kick off Microsoft’s next-gen console.
The Good One of the best looking and handling next-gen games; the Top Gear cross-promotion fits seamlessly into the experience.
The Bad No sense of accomplishment in Career mode; an obvious lack of tracks and cars at launch.
The Ugly Laguna Seca’s corkscrew turn.
Forza Motorsport 5 is a Xbox One exclusive.
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More Than Meets the Eye

Filed under: Written — Leave a comment
April 20, 2010

Originally Published: June 30, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com), Examiner.com, and Lundberg.me

Continuing with my summer series analyzing blockbuster movies and the video games based off them, today I look at Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.

This sequel to the smash-hit based off the Hasbro toys and cartoon of the mid-’80s picks up two years after the first movie. The Autobots, led by Optimus Prime (still voiced by Peter Cullen, the same man who voiced him in the cartoon), are now known by the world’s governments and work in tandem with them to cull the persistent Decepticon threat, even after the defeat of their leader Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving of the Matrix, V for Vendetta, and Lord of the Rings fame).

After extinguishing the sixth Decepticon attack in eight months against the humans, this time in Shanghai, Optimus receives an ominous threat from the dying Decepticon Demolisher that the Fallen shall rise again. Unsure of how to perceive this threat, the Autobots return to US shores to try to appease political red tape that has arisen from the damage their latest excursion.

Meanwhile, Autobot ally Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) prepares for college on the East coast by consoling his girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox). After delivering her a long-distance-relationship survival kit and breaking the news to Autobot Bumblebee that he will be leaving him behind, Sam begins to pack. As he rummages through his closet, he comes across a shard of the all-knowing All-spark (which was the focus of the first movie) that embedded itself in his clothes.

Upon touching the fragment, Sam has the language of the Autobots and Decepticons, Cybertronian, embedded into his mind with a map of where an ancient Autobot artifact, the Dagger’s Tip, is located. Unable to decipher the information, Sam goes off to college, spasming all the way. Now, as the mystery of the Fallen begins to unfold, the Autobots and Decepticons race to the East coast in order to procure the map from Sam; one side trying to prevent a worldwide catastrophe, the other trying to ensure its outcome.

This movie was amazing. I loved almost every second of it. From the first fight scene in Shanghai five minutes in, to Optimus battling three Decepticons at once midway through, to the final climatic battle between the Autobots and Deceptions in the deserts of Egypt, this movie was non-stop action. It is no surprise, though, that the fight scenes between giant alien robots would look phenomenal from director and special effects guru Michael Bay.

Die-hards of the Transformers will be thrilled with this movie because it held true to a lot of the original cartoon. From the inclusion of the Decepticons’ moon base to Soundwave unleashing his pet robo-dog as an advanced scout were both brilliant moves that only fans of the cartoon will truly appreciate. Die-hards would also recognize all of the extra Transformers that were thrown in to flesh out the rosters, from Mudflap and Beat for the Autobots to Grindor, Sideways, Long Haul, and Devastator for the Decepticons.

These additions though may ostracize more casual fans because they see these brightly-colored robots dropping bombs (literally and figuratively) and they’re barely acknowledged in the movie by their more popular counterparts, such as Bumblebee for the Autobots or Starscream for the Decepticons.

I felt that all of the main characters were used almost perfectly in this big screen visualization of a giant alien robot war. With all the new robots though, I was surprised, as a die-hard myself, that Breakaway wasn’t included for the Autobots (an F-14 fighter jet and the good counterpart to Starscream), but I guess too many planes might take away from everyone’s favorite evil second-banana.

The only other point that takes away from the overall experience is that the movie is two hours and a half hours long. For the most part, it flows surprisingly well for a long movie, but there easily could have been 15 to 20 minutes cut from the entire Cairo excursion scene. It felt drawn out and you just keep asking yourself, “When is Sam going to get to Optimus already?”

Aside from those minor complaints, this movie really delivers the goods. You have funny, memorable characters, like Leo, and John Turturro coming back to reprise his Sector 7 role from the first movie (some would say there were a few too many of these characters, but I understand the need to have a counter-balance between the human and robot characters), deeply dramatic moments, a compelling plot combined with over-the-top action, and giant robots. What else could you ask for from a summer blockbuster?

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen gets 4 out of 5.

One of the problems with most summer blockbusters is that the movie will typically deliver the goods and you’ll have a sub-par video game that takes away from the overall experience. The only exception to this trend, where both the movie and the game have been exceptional, was Spider-Man 2.

Spider-Man 2 finally has some company on that short list.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is also an awesome video game. Getting a chance to hop into the driver’s seat of both your favorite Decepticons and Autobots as you follow the plot of this amazing summer blockbuster is a thrill. It appeals to both die-hard and casual fans because it fleshes out the roles of more minor characters from the movie while also letting you wreak havoc or save the day with Megatron and Optimus Prime.

The transformations from vehicle to robot and back are seamless and often necessary to complete the missions in the fastest possible time. You need a fast time in order to get an energon reward (energon is the life force for Autobots and Decepticons) and upgrade your characters’ firepower, speed, recovery time, etc.

As you progress, you can also go back and perform the same missions with different robots. Sometimes Starscream’s fighter jet is more apt for a mission than Long Haul’s dump truck or Iron Haul’s turret ability is more of an asset against a large group of foes you’ll face compared to Bumblebee’s EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) ability.

Along with the ability to replay missions for better scores or to play through two different storylines as either Decepticons or Autobots, there is also an online versus mode that will pit you against different people in team or single death-match, capture-the-flag mode, or Guardian mode where a team has infinite re-spawns until one of the teams’ leaders is defeated. This really ups the ante in terms of the game’s replay value.

Included with these aspects, the unlockables are probably the best feature of all. By meeting certain mission requirements, you can unlock original episodes from the mid-’80s cartoon. There are six episodes in total, three from the Decepticons and three from the Autobots, and this will bring die-hards back time and time again.

The only real knock on the game is that the high-end graphics, such as the transformations and explosions, create a real strain on the system’s processing power. In order to prevent further slow-down, developers had to tone down the backgrounds. Not to say the terrain graphics are bad, they’re just a little bland.

The sound effects are perfect for the game in terms of transformations, explosions, and jets screaming through the air, but the music is generic at best. Aside from this minor complaint, the audio works pretty well.

Overall, this game is a must-have for any Transformers fan because you’ll flash back to all of your battles with your action figures as a kid, except the explosions will be more than you making swooshing sounds. Casual fans will appreciate the game because it will help them get into the lore of Transformers and probably help them understand the movie better because it cuts away all of the superfluous comedy of the plot and gets to the heart of the matter. Either way, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is a great game that is worthy of this great movie.

Ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest.

Graphics: 7.5: Nothing special in terms of graphics. The transformers themselves look great and the transformations look smooth, but this needs extra processing power and it leaves the terrain looking bland and monotonous.

Audio: 8.0: The SFX are great and fit the game perfectly, but some generic music takes away from the overall experience enough to dock it a couple points.

Plot/Plot Development: 9.0: The plot follows the movie perfectly in the Autobot storyline and only deviates slightly towards the end for the Decepticons (obviously so that they can win), but does so in a way that was a little bit of a stretch. Aside from this blemish, the plot is just as good as the movie.

Gameplay: 9.0: No glitches to speak of keeps the game flowing at a great pace just like the movie. The only thing that knocks this down a peg is that the targeting system can be a little fickle at times, but not enough to take away from the overall experience.

Replay Value: 10.0: When you offer entire cartoon episodes as unlockables, you’ll be working towards them all night long if need be. Add in high score online leaderboards and a near flawless online versus mode and this game is definitely worth the $60 pricetag.

Overall (not an average): 9.0: Minor aesthetic complaints aside, this game delivers on all fronts. Die-hards will love taking control of their favorite characters and wreaking havoc or saving the day with them and casual fans will love how it fleshes out a story they might have a little difficulty understanding at first. Couple this with tremendous replay value, classic cartoons, and just as many explosions as its movie counterpart and you have a sure winner on your hands.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is available now on all platforms.

-Ray Carsillo

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