I received an email from NCSoft announcing a free 14-day trial to try out the massively multiplayer online racing game, Auto Assault. A credit card isn’t required, they only ask for your email address to send you a serial code to start the trial. It looks like the lackluster launch has made them come up with this free trial to help populate the servers and get more exposure. I posted about my impressions on the late beta which you can read here.
Archive for the 'Racing' Category
May 10th, 2006
April 28th, 2006
Gamespot has a review of the recently opened-to-the-public massively multiplayer online racing game, Auto Assault. They mirror my opinion when I posted my impressions of the late beta before it was opened to the public. Namely that the game has potential, but is marred by bugs, lack of a death penalty, and boring quest designs.
On the surface, Auto Assault seems like an entirely different type of massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Instead of running around with swords or laser pistols, you’re a postapocalyptic car, armed to the teeth and armored for protection from all sorts of mutants, scavengers, rogue militiamen, and so on. As you get deeper into it, though, Auto Assault reveals itself as a pretty standard MMORPG. Like most games in the genre, it’s addictive. And the tweaks and the setting itself help make it feel different. But it also has a series of problems that really hold it back.
April 25th, 2006
IGN.PC has the new official trailer for the racing game, FlatOut 2.
April 24th, 2006
C&VG has a preview of the racing game from Bugbear Entertainment, FlatOut 2. The original FlatOut featured racing with an emphasis on fun physics, bringing back the days of Destruction Derby racing, and the sequel looks to continue providing a fun racing environment. I enjoyed the original a lot back when I hardly touched racing games, so I’m certainly looking forward to this release.
The AI has been improved, too - now, instead of all the non-player cars following the same standard routes, there’ll be seven distinct AI drivers to worry about - and all with different personalities and characteristics. If my experience is anything to go by, this will amount to an aggressive Texan guy who goes fast and laughs, a German who takes corners efficiently, a sassy girl in short shorts who playfully drives into your arse, an Englishman who always loses, and… Erm… Grumpy, Sneezy and Doc. That could be wrong though.
April 20th, 2006
IGN.PC has their first impressions written up of the massively multiplayer online racing game, Auto Assault. Their thoughts so far largely mirrored my own from the beta period, and that is the game seems to reach some potential greatness, but falls short due to gameplay mechanics, interface quirks, and overall lack of polish. It felt like the game was rushed out for the sake of making money.
I can’t say at this stage that you should drop whatever game you’re subscribed to and check this one out. I can’t say that the simple, gruesome entertainment herein won’t get stale in a few days, or that annoying glitches won’t pile up. And right now, the game doesn’t run quite as smoothly as I’d like anyway, especially considering that the server populations aren’t that high. Precision driving isn’t really an option, partly because steering is mapped to the WASD instead of the mouse (which you use to rotate a turret), but also because the high speed of the vehicles doesn’t seem to play well with the game’s average latency. I’ll have to try the game on a few other computers before I can narrow down what the deal is.
April 13th, 2006
NCSoft has opened the doors to the MMORG (massively multiplayer online racing game), Auto Assault. If you haven’t yet, you can read our impressions of this game based on the late beta.
Auto Assault is available at retailers in North America at an expected price of US$49.99. The Limited Edition, which includes a headset to utilize the game’s voice chat system and a game soundtrack CD, will be available for an expected price of US$59.99. Both the standard and Limited editions of the game include the first month of online game play. After the first month, players will be charged a monthly subscription fee of US$14.99. Sixty-day game time cards will also be available at many North American retailers for an expected price of US$29.99.
In Auto Assault, players choose from three races and venture into a post-apocalyptic Earth wreaking havoc and vying for control over the few resources left. Players can design their characters and customize many different vehicle chassis to make their own unique fleet of death machines. Players may go on missions with others or on their own, craft unique items, and participate in player-versus-player combat via the arena system and contested outpost battles. No matter what they are doing, players are encouraged to interact with the game world by blasting through buildings, leveling towns and destroying just about everything they see.
March 31st, 2006
From Bluesnews:
A single-player demo for GTI Racing is now available, offering the chance to test-drive the Xpand Rally-engine Volkswagen-specific racing game. Word is: “In the totally hot demo players will find single player mode, with possibility of racing against AI opponents in one of 5 modes on 3 different tracks. There are 3 pre-tuned cars available: Golf I (134 BHP), Golf V (200BHP) and New Beetle RSI (301(BHP)). Demo is available only in English and its size is 443MB.” The download (actually 423 MB) is available from 3D Gamers, Computer Games, FileFront, Gameguru Mania, VGPRO, and Worthplaying.
March 22nd, 2006
NCSoft announces that Auto Assault has gone gold and should be available for purchase soon. As with most MMORPG’s, the game requires a monthly subscription of $15 a month to play. I’ve recently written up my impressions of the game after having played the beta. I don’t see why the game has gone gold already, when the number of bugs the game has is quite a lot. I think the game could use a bit more polish, but perhaps NCSoft is rushing the developers.
March 20th, 2006
After having tried out the Auto Assault beta for the weekend, I’ve wrote up my impressions of the game. Auto Assault is a massively multiplayer online racing game from NetDevil and NCSoft, and is currently in beta testing.
Vehical destruction has always had a home on the PC; from Destruction Derby, to Interstate 76, and the king of them all, Carmegeddon. Now NCSoft brings to you Auto Assault, where you play online against thousands of others vying for a spot of glory. Can a Massively Multiplayer Online Racing Game really work?
March 17th, 2006
Shacknews has a preview of Test Drive: Unlimited up, and they test the MMO racing game from Eden Games to see how it performs.
Test Drive Unlimited, being developed by Eden Games for Xbox 360 and PC, is first and foremost a racing game, but it’s also an MMO–well, sort of. The main draw of the game is that, when played online, every single other online player is driving within the same world you are. Eden has recreated the Hawaiian island Oahu to a high degree of congruence with the real world version, including some thousand-plus miles of drivable roads. Though the game is indeed massively multiplayer, it does not contain many of the gameplay trappings of the MMO genre; again, this is first and foremost a racing game. Atari calls it M.O.O.R., Massively Open Online Racing, which, despite possibly being a PR term invented so that Test Drive Unlimited can be called “the only game in its genre!” or something, is actually a pretty good description.
Gamespot has a hands-on first impression of the racing game from Bugbear Studio, Flatout 2. Flatout 2 is the sequel to the popular racing game that utilized physics and tight controls to make a fun game.
I’m normally not big on racing games, but Flatout had me hooked, so I’m very much looking forward to this sequel. From the Gamespot article:
Another major improvement promised for FlatOut 2 is that the CPU opponents will race more realistically, and each will have his or her own driving style. In the unfinished version of the game that we played, the other racers were uniformly aggressive, which made the game overly challenging at times but afforded us plenty of opportunities to check out the new vehicle damage models, as well as the extent to which the environments themselves can be destroyed. FlatOut 2 didn’t disappoint on either count, although the fact that some of the destructible objects looked far more resilient than the indestructible ones made us less inclined to take a chance by attempting to drive through them.
March 16th, 2006
FileRush reports that Test Drive: Unlimited will be ported from the Xbox 360 to the PC and be available this fall. Test Drive: Unlimited is being hailed as the “world’s first console massively open online racing game” but not the first for the PC, which I believe will go to Auto Assault when it comes out soon.
“In bringing Test Drive: Unlimited to PC we are giving an established online audience an opportunity to take part in this remarkable online driving experience,” said Stephen Baer, senior product manager, Atari, Inc. “The Windows version of Test Drive: Unlimited will boast the same credentials and gameplay as the Xbox 360 version, and will make for an incredible PC title.”
March 6th, 2006
3dgamers has released a Q&A with Business Development Director Jussi Laakkonen of Bugbear Entertainment, developer of the upcoming Flatout 2.
FlatOut’s critically acclaimed physics engine is completely in-house developed. Physics continue to play a critical role in FlatOut 2, so it was easy decision to continue developing engine further. Thanks to a lot of smart optimizations the engine’s performance has increased by 66% and average dynamic object counts for the tracks have gone from 3000 to over 5000. The game also benefits from the physics interaction types such as explosions and chain reactions. Hit a gas pump at a gas station, and you’ll be rewarded with a spectacular explosion. FlatOut was already the benchmark for environmental physics in a racing game, and FlatOut 2 pushes that benchmark a lot further.
You can read more at 3dgamers.
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