ModNation Racers

[DirtyJerz32]

I thought this should be put in the racing section. The demo drops next week so I thought it would be easier to find. It is a racer, so it should be in the racing section. That's my thought anyway.

[budsticky]

Has anyone heard what will be included in the demo? I wonder if any of the customization stuff will be in it.

[Blzer]

I was in the beta and played it religiously. The customization is incredibly fun, the tracks are very interactive and have their nice own personalities and shortcuts. The one thing this game is kind of sore in is the weaponry and armory. Not that they are poor exactly, but they are kind of confusing.

You see, you can gain boost by gaining points in drifting, doing mid-air tricks, etc. and you can either deploy your boost to speed up or you can use it as a shield. But for as slowly as the boost meter drains to use it for speed, it takes out a quarter of boost to use a two-second shield. I don't think that really equates correctly, especially when it's difficult to determine when someone is locking on you with a shot.

Also, there are three tiers for each weapon type that you can collect (four weapon types). They aren't very well explained as to which does what and how the tiers rank, etc. so unless you play for a while, you won't be too sure which ones are best to use for when, and the repercussions for using some of them with those around you (one of them is a speed boost thing on its own and the third tier is a transporter, but other people can go through it as well until it times out). The problem is that sometimes when you're hit, your weapons will be taken away from you. Other times this won't be the case, and I have yet to figure out when it actually does come into play and when it does not.

You can ram into opponents, which is very cool and underused (I used it regularly though). Also there's a way to jump out the gate quickly when you start ala Mario Kart, but I haven't figured out the timing or technique just yet. Be careful because there is a way for you to stall in the beginning as well, so make sure you don't do that either.

The camera was a little close, but it wasn't very distracting at all compared to how other guys put it. I wouldn't mind if this was the only camera option we ended up having despite what others have said. I think it's just fine.

This game is just too cool, and the track creator is one of these things where it's very easy to make one and a decent one, but the best of the best necessitate a lot of patience, devotion, and a good idea of what you're doing. So the user content allows for a bunch of replayability. Twelve man online races are also pretty epic.

[Earl1963]

I loved the beta, can't wait.

[Artman22]

I'm guessing next thursday