ModNation Racers (ps3)

pboreham

pboreham

Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
5 August 2002
C*lchester
Southend Utd
Going to pick this up shortly so will post back some thoughts later. I know a lot of people are concerned about the load times, but hopefully the soon to be released patch will fix this.

Anyone else picking this up today?
 
Ok... wow! Despite the lengthy loading times - which both a) arent THAT bad and b) are hopefully being patched soon anyway, this game is AMAZING.

I've literally scratched the surface in a 30 min play, but I've done no creation stuff at all yet and I'm still dead impressed.

The racing is fun, a bit looser than Mario Kart, but still quick and exciting.

There is a story/career mode played out by cool cartoons thats a nice touch, but after the tutorial you get access to the Hub where all the online stuff happens.

Have to say, I'm on a wireless connection for my PS3 and I havent got the worlds fastest connection, but man, the online is so smooth. All the hub stuff is accessible quickly and I just had a 'quick race' and had no lag (was either 14 or 16 racers) and everything was as smooth as offline, despite loads of explosions, complex track graphics etc... very impressive.

I've already downloaded a Dukes of Hazard car someone has created and cannot wait to look around some of the stuff - when the race ended, I flicked through all the other cars in the race and there was so much variation, which was nice.

I know some of you are a bit 'meh' about this, but from what I've played so far, I'd highly recommend it!
 
pboreham said:
Ok... wow! Despite the lengthy loading times - which both a) arent THAT bad and b) are hopefully being patched soon anyway, this game is AMAZING.

I've literally scratched the surface in a 30 min play, but I've done no creation stuff at all yet and I'm still dead impressed.

The racing is fun, a bit looser than Mario Kart, but still quick and exciting.

There is a story/career mode played out by cool cartoons thats a nice touch, but after the tutorial you get access to the Hub where all the online stuff happens.

Have to say, I'm on a wireless connection for my PS3 and I havent got the worlds fastest connection, but man, the online is so smooth. All the hub stuff is accessible quickly and I just had a 'quick race' and had no lag (was either 14 or 16 racers) and everything was as smooth as offline, despite loads of explosions, complex track graphics etc... very impressive.

I've already downloaded a Dukes of Hazard car someone has created and cannot wait to look around some of the stuff - when the race ended, I flicked through all the other cars in the race and there was so much variation, which was nice.

I know some of you are a bit 'meh' about this, but from what I've played so far, I'd highly recommend it!
Click to expand...

You highly recommend the iPad too so I am gonna wait ;)
 
Looking forward to this, will probably get it this weekend. Hopefully we can get a good group together to have an evo-web league/clan or whatever it is for some fun races on our homemade tracks!
 
CW said:
You highly recommend the iPad too so I am gonna wait ;)
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Ha! Thats a trifle unfair :LOL:

New use for the iPad now... digital magazines, subscribed to Web Designer and GamesTM - £2.99 an edition and the first one is free when you buy the app (£1.19).

Anyways...
 
I picked this up today along with Red Dead. I've only had a quick mess around doing the tutorial race and then the 2nd race and then I started making a quick car and character for myself.

The loading when you first start the game up is annoying. But after that it's not too bad.

I love the top 3 mods that are there right now - Mario, Spiderman and Luigi all look very very nice.


I'm going to have to play through the career mode a lot though before I start creating tracks and vehicles and people myself. I don;'t want to spend ages on something and then later unlock an item that is what i was actually trying to create and looks much better than i managed.
 
Radiation said:
I picked this up today along with Red Dead. I've only had a quick mess around doing the tutorial race and then the 2nd race and then I started making a quick car and character for myself.

The loading when you first start the game up is annoying. But after that it's not too bad.

I love the top 3 mods that are there right now - Mario, Spiderman and Luigi all look very very nice.


I'm going to have to play through the career mode a lot though before I start creating tracks and vehicles and people myself. I don;'t want to spend ages on something and then later unlock an item that is what i was actually trying to create and looks much better than i managed.
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Good stuff! Just done a few more online races as I havent got time at the moment to go creating stuff, but its all very well done and the presentation is good.

I like the racing features like the boost, tricks and the 3 levels of powerups - thats cleverly done - i.e. do you use a power up now, or build it up to something better with another pickup.
 
Anyone seen this cheap in the supermarkets? Parents are over in the UK again this weekend so am looking to give them a shopping list for some games. :D
 
Just had a dabble in the creator and made a character - brilliant! So much to unlock still, but loads of options and choice.
 
Had a look through a few of the creations last night... mainly characters, and WOW :SHOCK:. You wouldn't think that some of the things people have made would be possible!

Some pics of things I've downloaded.
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Played it some more last night (well, couldnt sleep, so I got up at 2am and played it till 4:30am :LOL:) and I've changed my mind... its not 'amazing' - its abso-frigging-lutely superb!!

Really dont know how people are not liking this. They've taken the cart racing genre and pushed it to a great place - not just the modding, but the on-track racing is brilliant.

I think the addition of shields is genius as this balances the race out completely. Now if you are out in front, you can stay there (its harder, but least you have some protection from attacks). You get just the right amount of notice of an incoming attack and assuming you have the boost points saved, can shield yourself and stay out in front.

Also good that this cannot be abused (I think one shielding completely depletes your boost).

All the races I've had have been close and exciting with lots of action and the other new addition (in the cart games I've played) is the sideswipe attack - again very well done but effective.

The general presentation is brilliant too with the TV Show styling overlays and commentary. Sure the cartoons are a bit cheesy, but its nicely done.

Downloading and uploading mods is a breeze and very quick which is good and its nice to have sooooo many unlockables, achievements and the shop tokens to work towards.

Talking of mods, I had a good play in each yesterday and made a character, an IndyCar style car and also a track. I uploaded the character and car and though I didnt complete the track, using the editor was so easy!

I made a replica of the layout of Laguna Seca in about 5 minutes and testing it out was pretty accurate to what I remember (did it from memory). Could spend hours putting in all the details on the trackside.

Its cool you can jump very quickly in to test out the track either alone, or with some CPU cars to see how it works and then jump straight back into edit mode.

To round off the night, I did some timetrials (Hot Laps) and this was well done too, with 2 ghosts on the track - my best and the world best.

All in all, I think this is an amazing package. Sure the load times are long, but generally once you get IN something (i.e. a race, or edit, create etc), then there are no load times, so its balanced out.

What they have crammed into ModNation is pretty impressive and I really hope this gets some decent recognition.

9/10 for me.
 
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Radiation said:
Had a look through a few of the creations last night... mainly characters, and WOW :SHOCK:. You wouldn't think that some of the things people have made would be possible!

Some pics of things I've downloaded.
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Yup, thats very impressive. Its so cool creating a Cart - the amount of options you have is brilliant... different engines, suspension, tyres - even steering wheels and seats!

The painting is nicely done with loads of layers etc... I'm a bit in love with this game!
 
WAY too much for a carting game for me. I might get it when it's dropped to the £15 mark second hand.
 
DagsJT said:
WAY too much for a carting game for me. I might get it when it's dropped to the £15 mark second hand.
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Shame - really because I think the Devs deserve the money for what they have put into it.

If you continue your programming career and (hopefully!) get to a stage where you can put commercial stuff out - if you put your heart and soul into a decent game or app, you'd really want people to buy it so you feel rewarded and motivated to keep innovating.

Thats how I see it and I'm happy to drop the £40 on this due to its quality and the fact a smaller studio produced it.
 
I think it depends on how much you like Mario Kart.

I've never bothered to play the single player on that and have always gone straight online. It's great fun although after a while you get bored of the tracks, and with little online friends for me, you end up in races against randoms.

With this being on the ps3 you have far more friends to play against and you can create your own tracks and characters. I would normally wait to buy a new game (Ive got about 5 lying around that I still need to begin) but I'm pretty sure this is a type of game to start with on release.

@ Paul,
Have you seen if you can create your own league with friends? I think I've read this somewhere but I'm not sure. If you can it would be great, you cold even recreate a F1 season but with it then actually being fun. Shoot a rocket down the monaco tunnel......
 
I'm not sure and can't get to the game at the moment. The only mention of leagues i can find is this ign interview





IGN: What sort of online options will players have for actual racing? Will there be leaderboards for best lap times? Can you set up your own playlist of tracks while hosting? And can you actually create a full-on racing league? We would also especially love a good league system.

Mat Thomas: Without going into the specifics, online racing is a huge component to ModNation Racers. We will be supporting a host of features that will offer the player the ability to customize their race experience as well as deliver them extensive statistics.
 
pboreham said:
Shame - really because I think the Devs deserve the money for what they have put into it.

If you continue your programming career and (hopefully!) get to a stage where you can put commercial stuff out - if you put your heart and soul into a decent game or app, you'd really want people to buy it so you feel rewarded and motivated to keep innovating.

Thats how I see it and I'm happy to drop the £40 on this due to its quality and the fact a smaller studio produced it.
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I see what you're saying but I'm not sure I'd put enough hours into a carting/driving game to warrant £40 to be honest, but that's just me :)
 
TikTikTikTikTik said:
I think it depends on how much you like Mario Kart.

I've never bothered to play the single player on that and have always gone straight online. It's great fun although after a while you get bored of the tracks, and with little online friends for me, you end up in races against randoms.

With this being on the ps3 you have far more friends to play against and you can create your own tracks and characters. I would normally wait to buy a new game (Ive got about 5 lying around that I still need to begin) but I'm pretty sure this is a type of game to start with on release.

@ Paul,
Have you seen if you can create your own league with friends? I think I've read this somewhere but I'm not sure. If you can it would be great, you cold even recreate a F1 season but with it then actually being fun. Shoot a rocket down the monaco tunnel......
Click to expand...

I've not seen that, but that would be cool. With the ability to create an IRL style cart (or even NASCAR), I did think about making the tracks - at least the layouts - as close as I could and offering that up as a series.

Dont know if you can do a 'friends league' specifically though - I'll have to check that out later.

One thing you may miss though, is when going into an XP race, I found last night you can do either a 1 off race, or a 'XP Series' of races... maybe that is what you saw?
 
I think I downloaded it yesterday.......but had it in teh background when I was playing fifa so have no idea atm. :D

Found this in the 1Up review:
Matching online is as easy as driving up to someone and challenging him, and tourneys, events, custom levels, etc., are simple to find and join.
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It's a bit generic, and no other reviews seem to be precise about the online aspects, but you would expect it to be available in one way or another.
 
I'll try and check the game out later on and see if there is anything unless someone beats me to it.
 
Paul - saw your comment on Facebook, I've been curious about this title since I saw the box in GAME the other week, seems to have had good reviews. Grabbed the demo this morning, impressed so far and didn't notice any loading time issues in the demo (maybe its my Spectrum owning years have desensitized me!).

Damn, if only track creation was this simple in RFactor :-)
 
Kenny G said:
Paul - saw your comment on Facebook, I've been curious about this title since I saw the box in GAME the other week, seems to have had good reviews. Grabbed the demo this morning, impressed so far and didn't notice any loading time issues in the demo (maybe its my Spectrum owning years have desensitized me!).

Damn, if only track creation was this simple in RFactor :-)
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Cool :) Yea, track creation is superb - as I said above, I whipped up Laguna Seca pretty well, quite excited to think you can make real life layouts - and then stick bombs and ramps all over them!

All the other create stuff is just as easy.

(If you hanker for the speccy days, go into the 'Share' section in the demo if you can - as it has a background noise of the loading... well, its actually a modem connecting, but its still nostalgic!)
 
Played the demo earlier and liked it. Noticed the loading time, counting up from 0% to 100% is a bit slow. But nothing especially bad imo.

So couldn't wait till the parents got back and went out and have just bought it.

I've got Rad in my friends list and will be adding you guys aswell. My id is the same as here. Hopefully we can have some fun races this weekend!
 
Did you guys stick around for many races last night? Thought the Monaco layout was done pretty well, but the tight walls didnt make it a great race.

The second race I was in with you guys was more fun - really is a great game!

I tried someone elses Laguna Seca and it was 'ok', but the most crucial part of that track (the corkscrew) was not done very well. In my version, when you got to the top of the hill, you could quickly powerslide right, then jump powerslide left to get down the hill - was done well.

I might use his template and change the corkscrew later...
 
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