Craz
September 12th, 2004, 22:41
Street Racing Syndicate
Well, i have been raving about this game for a long time, ever since i saw the first screenshots for the game. So I went out and got me a copy on the release date and played the hell out of it. I was a bit less than thrilled after the first week.
Upon first booting the game up with my friend Eric, we were in awe to watch the opening video. All the lights, cars, girls. It seemed like heaven. So we jumped right in. Like Need for Speed Underground(NFSU) you start the story mode by racing some uber tricked out car. After that, you get paid. You start off with $30,000 to buy a car. Though the selection isn’t quite stellar. The game boasts "over 50 cars" though most of the cars are different tuning of the same car. Three different Celica's, 4 Supra's, 4 350z's and a friggen army of Skylines. The cars were nice yes, but there were 2 major car companies and 1 minor one missing. Honda, Acura, and Hundai are gone front the game. No civic's, no Prelude's, no S2000's, no RSX's, TL's, or Tiberon's. This made me go "wtf?" Also, the absence of WRX's made me blink a few times as well but all you initial D fans can rejoice. The Tureno is in the game.
Now, after buying your first car, you take it to the garage where the game excels. Its not Grand Turismo 3, but its damn close. There are so many parts, it blew my mind. From intakes, to exhausts, to turbos, to Nitrous kits, to rims, to a body kit (yes, each car has ONE body kit), ect ect. Each part doing its own to help the car. I have spent a good hour just try out different parts to see how each one affects the torque and horsepower of the car. Once I found the perfect combination, i went to make my car look all pretty and I was disappointed once again. The interface was clumsy at best. You have to use the right analog stick to move around the car and select a part of the car to place a sticker or vinyl. The vinyl selection is less than stellar along with the colors in general. Eventually, I found something I liked, so I stuck with it and went to where the action is, on the streets.
Once you left the garage, you are free to drive around the city as you see fit, racing other cars with the "RACE ME" logo above their head, trying to impress girls, or racing against other crews. This is the where racing games shine or fall flat, and SRS holds a middle ground. SRS is based around drifting. You score style points by pulling moves,( like 2 wheels, power over, near miss), but the majority of points come from pulling actual drifts. There are different types, and honestly I wouldn’t know how to pull some of these on command. Many times I would find myself trying to pull a Faint drift and end up in a jump drift or a side break drift. Needless of how you pull these drifts, you need them. Out of racing, they help refill your Nitrous meter. In race, the points you gather (up to 250) add to your respect score at the end of a race. To open up new races, or even have the ability to race in them, you need respect points. Unfortunately, when calculated, you cant race the final series of races because you will be short.
(Quick note: I have not fully beaten this game, nor do I think I will any time soon)
Once you’re actually racing, the game......still doesn’t get any better. Its like every other racing game out there but with a VERY crappy sense of speed. Going 175 and it only feels like 105, that take away from the experience. Though, it helps to give a better reaction to items such as oncoming cars. Also the turning is spotty at times. There are times where I tap to the left and my car ends up sliding sideways and others where i dont even move. The AI doesn’t help much either. They are smart enough to break when you cut them off so they don’t damage their cars, but when you spin out, they wont even think twice about swerving to miss you (unless they are in 1st) and end up sending you into an even more screwed up position than you were before. Many times I would be hit from behind on a sharp turn while I’m breaking and send me from first to last.
One thing you almost will never have to worry about it Police. During a race, you will never find a cop. The only time you will find them is out of a race, or they will try to arrest you right after taking on a crew challenge. They are not hard to out run either. Just go real fast and make a left, repeat until you lost the cops following you and come to a dead stop. wait for the meter to move all they way to Evade and continue on with your day. I was expecting to have a few races to come to a quick end because of a police raid, but maybe next time.
Now, one of the thing SRS boasts is the ability to get "girlfriends." To do this, all you have to do is impress them by doing a simple checkpoint run or make a few cool drifts. Then when you go to your warehouse, you can watch their videos of them dancing very badly to even worse music. Hardly worth the time.
In the end, SRS isn’t a BAD game. It just doesn’t have anything new or worthwhile things to keep playing unless you’re a street racing junkie. And even then, the game still feels recycled. If you’re really into the street racing scene, this game will shoot enough Nitrous through your veins to hold you over until November when Underground 2 comes out. Other than that, November isn’t that far away.
Rating:
***
out of
*****
Craz
Well, i have been raving about this game for a long time, ever since i saw the first screenshots for the game. So I went out and got me a copy on the release date and played the hell out of it. I was a bit less than thrilled after the first week.
Upon first booting the game up with my friend Eric, we were in awe to watch the opening video. All the lights, cars, girls. It seemed like heaven. So we jumped right in. Like Need for Speed Underground(NFSU) you start the story mode by racing some uber tricked out car. After that, you get paid. You start off with $30,000 to buy a car. Though the selection isn’t quite stellar. The game boasts "over 50 cars" though most of the cars are different tuning of the same car. Three different Celica's, 4 Supra's, 4 350z's and a friggen army of Skylines. The cars were nice yes, but there were 2 major car companies and 1 minor one missing. Honda, Acura, and Hundai are gone front the game. No civic's, no Prelude's, no S2000's, no RSX's, TL's, or Tiberon's. This made me go "wtf?" Also, the absence of WRX's made me blink a few times as well but all you initial D fans can rejoice. The Tureno is in the game.
Now, after buying your first car, you take it to the garage where the game excels. Its not Grand Turismo 3, but its damn close. There are so many parts, it blew my mind. From intakes, to exhausts, to turbos, to Nitrous kits, to rims, to a body kit (yes, each car has ONE body kit), ect ect. Each part doing its own to help the car. I have spent a good hour just try out different parts to see how each one affects the torque and horsepower of the car. Once I found the perfect combination, i went to make my car look all pretty and I was disappointed once again. The interface was clumsy at best. You have to use the right analog stick to move around the car and select a part of the car to place a sticker or vinyl. The vinyl selection is less than stellar along with the colors in general. Eventually, I found something I liked, so I stuck with it and went to where the action is, on the streets.
Once you left the garage, you are free to drive around the city as you see fit, racing other cars with the "RACE ME" logo above their head, trying to impress girls, or racing against other crews. This is the where racing games shine or fall flat, and SRS holds a middle ground. SRS is based around drifting. You score style points by pulling moves,( like 2 wheels, power over, near miss), but the majority of points come from pulling actual drifts. There are different types, and honestly I wouldn’t know how to pull some of these on command. Many times I would find myself trying to pull a Faint drift and end up in a jump drift or a side break drift. Needless of how you pull these drifts, you need them. Out of racing, they help refill your Nitrous meter. In race, the points you gather (up to 250) add to your respect score at the end of a race. To open up new races, or even have the ability to race in them, you need respect points. Unfortunately, when calculated, you cant race the final series of races because you will be short.
(Quick note: I have not fully beaten this game, nor do I think I will any time soon)
Once you’re actually racing, the game......still doesn’t get any better. Its like every other racing game out there but with a VERY crappy sense of speed. Going 175 and it only feels like 105, that take away from the experience. Though, it helps to give a better reaction to items such as oncoming cars. Also the turning is spotty at times. There are times where I tap to the left and my car ends up sliding sideways and others where i dont even move. The AI doesn’t help much either. They are smart enough to break when you cut them off so they don’t damage their cars, but when you spin out, they wont even think twice about swerving to miss you (unless they are in 1st) and end up sending you into an even more screwed up position than you were before. Many times I would be hit from behind on a sharp turn while I’m breaking and send me from first to last.
One thing you almost will never have to worry about it Police. During a race, you will never find a cop. The only time you will find them is out of a race, or they will try to arrest you right after taking on a crew challenge. They are not hard to out run either. Just go real fast and make a left, repeat until you lost the cops following you and come to a dead stop. wait for the meter to move all they way to Evade and continue on with your day. I was expecting to have a few races to come to a quick end because of a police raid, but maybe next time.
Now, one of the thing SRS boasts is the ability to get "girlfriends." To do this, all you have to do is impress them by doing a simple checkpoint run or make a few cool drifts. Then when you go to your warehouse, you can watch their videos of them dancing very badly to even worse music. Hardly worth the time.
In the end, SRS isn’t a BAD game. It just doesn’t have anything new or worthwhile things to keep playing unless you’re a street racing junkie. And even then, the game still feels recycled. If you’re really into the street racing scene, this game will shoot enough Nitrous through your veins to hold you over until November when Underground 2 comes out. Other than that, November isn’t that far away.
Rating:
***
out of
*****
Craz