Split/Second

[spaceboy]

Took a break from the wild west and rented Split/Second.  This is a really fun game where you build your power meter up by drifting, drafting, and jumping.  Then you can set off explosions along the course (buses, buildings, barrels, etc.) and try to knock out your opponents from the race.

The graphics are beautiful, the cars handling are great (not licensed cars, but who cares).  This game is so addicting and fun. It was my only game I played for 6 days straight (then I had to return it).

The setup is that it is a reality TV show.  I highly recommend checking it out if you can.  It was some of the most exciting racing that some real  "oh hell yeah, that was cool" moments.

[Art Blade]

sounds good :)

More than one year without ever changing your forum avatar, you nearly gave me a cardiac arrest, spaceboy  ;)

[spaceboy]

lol Art.  It just seemed time.   Johnny was a pic I had around when looking for a unique FC2 avatar (from the original farcry2world site!)  I like him and all, but he's nowhere near my top artists of course.  But Van is far and away at the top of my list.  No other musician/songwriter has spoken to me and affected my daily constitution the way Van has.  It's a shame the radio only ever plays about 8 songs of his when I've got over 500 tracks from him that I never tire of.

Well, that's why the change.  :)

[Art Blade]

 :)

It's kind of difficult an approach to explain my own avatar like that. Would probably sound rather narcissistic ;)

[fragger]

LOL I'd call it, "The Art of Art" ;D ;D

@spaceboy: Van's a one-off, I too could listen to him anytime, anywhere. Nice choice, mate :-X

[Art Blade]

I recently read a nice recommendation about this game in my favourite mag (which also recommended Wings of Prey). Something I'm also considering, although I'm not sure if I'm going to like destruction-strewn races :) I perfer regular car races on streets or tracks, like TDU or NFS.

[spaceboy]

this is desctruction all right, no two ways around it.  I do recommend it for some fun though.  Too bad you PCers can't really rent a game, or can you?  This would be a good rental to experience but perhaps not purchase (that's what I did)

[Art Blade]

I have never rented a game for my PC so I don't know. But I doubt that with today's fashion of "online activation" and stuff, you'd be able to rent something like a Steam game.

[Art Blade]

Spaceboy, that's it. Today I bought this game from my local dealer.. along with a couple of other games.. might take a while until I'll play it, but I'll keep you posted.

[spaceboy]

cool.  can't wait to hear your thoughts mate.

[Art Blade]

I hope it to be more fun  than the last racer I played, which was NFS:Shift. I've never finished it for some reason. It was definitely not because of physics, graphics, or tracks. All that was cool. I think it was because of the enormous amount of races and you kept unlocking even more races. Not one but a set of races. And so on. I kind of got drowned in races. And there was no story line along with it.. With S/S there is at least a silliness factor to it, those destructible environment events that are supposed to stop your opponents and may stop you instead lol -- I can see why you and other people like it :)

[Art Blade]

OK people :)

Apparently again a game without screenshot ability (prntscrn didn't w@&k at least while in options menu) but I'm finally playing it  ;D

Game installation was smooth (around 15 minutes) and asked which language I wanted, out of a set of commonly used languages such as English, French, German, Spanish and I think one or two more.

It required online registration by typing in a product key from inside your jewel case (yes, a sticker inside the case rather than somewhere on the back of the loser manual) which was then transferred via xml code to a registration server (almost instantly).

The game starts right off with a narrator telling you that split second is the name of a show in which you're going to participate and you start with some car on some racing track to get familiar with the game.

First you complete one round (simple key mapping: arrow keys to steer, brake and accelerate, shift and ctrl for explosion 1 and 2 -- going to tell you about it in a sec -- and a few more like looking back and forward as well as one for "instant replay" and you can change from 3rd person view to bumper view), then you're asked to drift so you gain power for explosions, then you'll have to prove that you can disable opponents with explosion 1 (that is the smaller type, I didn't even see much, but it does hamper other drivers -- also it needs like 1/4 of the power of the 2nd type of explosion) which may be triggered as soon and as long as a turquoise tag pops up near a car in front of you and then you'll have to take out opponents using explosion 2 (a red tag is shown) which is rather spectacular and involves a lot of fire shooting up and so on.

So apparently you drive a car with automatic gear shifting and are quite immune to crashes except you slam straight into a wall at high speeds. Drifting is simple: Tap your acceleration key and whoa, you're drifting. All in all, so far, this is simple fun :)

Graphics are nice and colourful. The menu structure looks and feels very much as if it was yet again a console game.

There are several options for MP: Split screen (either horizontally or vertically split screen, play with a friend on the same computer) LAN and internet.

OK, back to screeching around the track and burn some rubber  ;D :-X

[Art Blade]

The game is addictive.  :)

There are a couple of things which I like a lot. First of all worth mentioning is the fact that there is no difficulty level to choose from. That means, the race events start off easy and progress in difficulty.

Then you are awarded points depending on how well you did on the grid, most points for finishing first and fewer points the lower your finishing position. The game tells you ahead of an event how many points are needed to unlock something and the position required in the upcoming race to achieve it (could be for example a new car or a bonus race) so you know like "finishing 3rd will get me a new car." If you can't finish 1st you may race again as often as you want  (for whatever reason), but you can't get more points than finishing 1st once. You may want to race again if one requirement for your next achievement is something like "wreck 11 more cars in this episode (tier)." If you got a better car in the meantime, you may use it in earlier/easier races to improve your rank or get achievements if you like or just only because it's fun.

The demolition aspect is what makes this game different. I was skeptical at first when I heard about those gimmicks and when I watched some footage on youtube, but once you see the benefit and the fun, hehe, you won't want to miss it. You should be aware of the fact that you're not alone out there using explosives.. your opponents wreak havoc on each other, too, and that includes you.  ;D

When I first mentioned explosion 1 and 2 I hadn't seen much, but actually there is a difference in dimension. 1 means a smaller explosion (you do see those) which may take out one or two cars at once (but your opponents may as well try and doge or "miss" the explosion for reasons unknown) and 2 is something that actually involves big stuff such as make a tower collapse onto the track or some heavy machinery suddenly swinging a massive arm out across the track, funny stuff like that.

Those tags you get to see (blue and red) are sometimes special opportunities such as opening up a shortcut (blue arrow, for one driver) or have the entire pack go a different route (red arrow, "route change" for all drivers). Again, the opponents make use of those features, too. I once saw someone opening up a shortcut in front of me and I slipped in right behind him which turned out was worth a "decal" (achievement) called "cheapskate"  ;D

Then there are something like skill levels, bonus tracks. You have race types like race against the clock while triggered events are meant to wipe you off the track.. not so easy to achieve a 1st rank despite the fact that those events indeed repeat themselves and you can learn them by heart but those tracks are not so easy.. more than once I slammed into something static (so called "unforced errors", hehe) and blew up which of course blew my time. Another event is to doge missiles from some kind of military helicopters which mark the track (blue) and then fire (marks turn red and missiles are being fired) while you have to try and manoeuvre through those. Quite some fun :) Another type is race around some track while some massive lorries/trucks drive around and drop explosive barrels.. lol.. it is always action-packed and never boring  :)

It is a nice idea to combine racing and destruction with today's graphics and CPU power (it's not a new idea, I played "racing destruction kit" on my C64 some 25 years ago). The CPU doesn't have to w@&k too hard, my display shows something like 10% CPU usage while the GPU is obviously being challenged a lot more. I decided to turn down the quality from ultra to high because of that one track with those lorries, there was such a vast amount of dust, motion blur and particles and flares and whatnot that for the first and only time the game turned into a slide show (strange, because the other tracks I played before were all really nice and shiny but didn't produce such a stutter, on the contrary, it was smooth). However, the second-best quality (high) doesn't look any different at a glance.. maybe it skips just a few effects like that dust or maybe motion blur, no idea, but I leave it on high for now.


All in all, so far, this is a game which involves a lot of fun :) Even replaying events is fun.  :-X

oops. "you won't miss it" is something slightly different from "you won't want to miss it"  :-[ ^-^

[PZ]

Good read.  :-X  Too bad about the lack of screen capture - would have been nice to see some of your adventures. 

Although I originally purchased the PS3 to play Gran Turismo 5, I quickly lost interest; I guess that I've never really developed a fondness for driving, which is why I could not get into Fuel all that much.  Now, if those vehicles had been armed...  >:D

[Art Blade]

heh.. just noticed I left out something.. "want to" which is something I wanted to say but for some reason didn't ;)

Cheers, PZ.. I think the first game ever which I played was a racing game.. on a sinclair zx81 and I had to manually type in the code.. the "car" was a moving "X" and the "track" was comprised of moving dots (".") marking the lane...  ^+-+ And I always liked flight games.. particularly WWII planes (for the dogfights) but I also have fond memories of combat helos.. I think it was called "Comanche" and used voxel graphics.. on a 486 I believe.. <sigh> however, racing has always been something I liked, hence the hardware (wheel, 3 pedals, manual 6-gear H-shift) for particularly nice games such as RaceDriver:Grid and TestDriveUnlimited. :)

Some racing games are pure fun without a wheel.. this here, s/s, is one of those. :)

[PZ]

Man, you're old!  :-()

When you mentioned your old 486, it instantly brought back memories of the first Internet server I built - on an old IBM 386-sx junker desktop that I had lying around.  I threw Unix on the box, installed a freeware news group server application on the thing, and I was off and running - that must have been 20 years or so ago - when we were still using pine as an email client.

Sure have come a long way since then.

[Art Blade]

The game is a lot of fun. By the way, if you blow something up on the track, it remains there and will be an obstacle when you're on your next lap.. :)

I found a vid which shows a typical race. Just so you get an idea. :)

Split/Second: Velocity Xbox 360 Demo - Airport Race Gameplay 2

[deadman1]

 ??? that was awesome  :-()

[PZ]

Impressive graphics - quite reminiscent of GT5  :-X

[Art Blade]

Yes.. really nice to look at :)

S/S really is a lot of fun. The races are short (regular races take 2 or 3 laps, special events 1 lap or either until you achieve a certain amount of goals or until time runs out) so it's not a chore. Although some races are tricky.. 95% of them are practically impossible to win with a single go.. so it may take a few or a few dozen attempts  ^+-+

The game consists of 12 seasons, each season is comprised of 6 races. Those 6 races are typically 2 regular races, 2 special races (elimination, revenge, detonator, survival..), one bonus race (you need to achieve a certain goal, usually something like "wreck 30 more cars to unlock that race") and finally 1 elite race which is the core of the game -- winning those races unlock the next season and there is a ladder/ranking which shows the current standings of the seasons.

You keep unlocking cars say every 4 or 5 races (one new car costs like 250 credits, each race win/1st place is worth 50 credits etc) and those cars are usually better than the previous cars.

The best race was when I managed to blow up the two leading cars right in front of me and right before they could take away my win -- I dashed through the flames and won!  "split seconds" :-()

[spaceboy]

glad you're enjoyin it Art!  I thought the explosions could be gimmicky, but they're done quite well.  i just didn't like the helicopter shooting at you events.  Too much breaking and avoiding.   I liked the flat out racing with explosions that rock your car sideways and blasting through debris in front of you.

[Art Blade]

True.. those races with helos shooting at you are the ones I like the least. Plain and simple races, elimination and elite races are those which I like best, and perhaps those survival races when you have to overtake huge lorries that keep throwing blue and red explosive barrels at you.. quite a challenge and adrenalin rush :)

[PZ]

Sounds like JC2  :-()

[Art Blade]

Now THIS is a vid that shows what it looks like on a PC, there are several different race types shown in this one vid.

It really is that fast.  ;D

Split Second Velocity PC Gameplay Part 8 Very High Settings 720p HD

[Art Blade]

just a quick note: I finished my first playthrough. I think winning those main races/events ("elite race") by  finishing 1st rewards you with a few special elite cars. I think I got three of them, the last one for finishing the last or every elite race and therefore the championship 1st. That last car is a blast :) 10/10 acceleration and 10/10 speed  >:D That car is so fast you finish before you started  ^+-+

All in all, a very entertaining game, although there were a total of perhaps 10 out of 72 races which I finished "only" 2nd (mostly those with triggered explosions while you race against the clock and I think one of those races which involve helos shooting at you). Some of those races require a lot of training and quick reactions, I recall one in particular, a race against the clock, which I finished 1st after like one hour of trials.. which means I probably tried more than 50 times until I finished that one 1st. After that I didn't quite feel like repeating that routine with similar races and was fine with finishing 2nd.

It was worth every minute :)