“Classic PS2 Racing games like Midnight Club”
Wait until the author of this article finds out that Tokyo Extreme Racer actually existed like 5 years before the PS2 came out lol
They mention it’s from a franchise in the first paragraph.
I can’t believe I’d never heard of this; I’ve been desperate for something like this to come along.
Any word on how it plays on the Steam Deck?
Having not played any of the previous games I wasn’t sure what to expect going in and I am sort of 50 / 50 on it in general.
It has a good level of polish for something that is at v0.15 or there abouts when I played but there were a lot of negatives for me for example the balancing on the last set of boss “fights” was horrendous but obviously it is early on and hopefully as development moves forward things like that will be addressed.
I hated the upgrade system however which is something I don’t think will change going forward, for example having to “upgrade” your wallet to hold more is stupid. Particularly when you are forced into a couple of boss fights back to back early on. These fights award you with a decent amount of cash upon winning but upon finishing them and returning “home” you are greeted with a screen informing you because those fights went over your wallet capacity that you just lose a couple of mil, which when this happened to me I could have really used for upgrading my car.
Ultimately even though it is less polished I think nightrunners is a far superior game following the same sort of gameplay loop and style of highway racing. It has a more striking aesthetic, the cars look better and have a lot more / better upgrade options, particularly visually. That is made by just one person too, I’m looking forward to its hopeful release later on this year.
Also if you like Japanese cars and modding then check out JDM: Japanese Drift Master due to release at the end of this month, based on the demo version last year this was a lot more fun for me than Tokyo Xtreme.
How would you describe the driving mechanics? I tried NFS Heat to feel that retro night vibe, but the mechanics were atrocious in my opinion. They’re too arcadey. Forza Horizon has become my standard for a balance between realistic (predictable) mechanics without punishing me for every mistake. I don’t mind Forza Motorsports but I’m more interested in cruising and racing stylistic cars more than perfecting lap times.
Is it open world? Japan and JDM aren’t that big in my automotive enthusiasm scale but there’s something deeply nostalgic when I can ride through some highway lights, virtual or real, that resemble the Japan track from Gean Turismo 1 or 2
I would describe them as not great currently xD
I haven’t played Heat but like you I like the Forza Horizon balance of pretty arcadey feel with some sim elements mixed in without it really going too far to either extreme.
I don’t want to be excessively harsh on a game that is still pretty early in its development so far but also not having played any of the previous entries I dont know exactly what feel they are going for, so maybe this is already pretty close to their goal (which would be a shame I think)
As it is right now though it is very arcade-y feeling and in all honesty the “upgrades” didn’t really make the car feel any different as I spent money on the car, it was consistent throughout. The cars don’t really corner that well, you cant really initiate a drift or have any real control through the corners to that level, you can yank up the handbrake but the car doesnt slide in a nice, predictable manner at all. You can either use it to cut a lot of speed suddenly in a quick jab or hold it and spin out.
So generally you’ll be driving flat out dodging traffic until a corner at which point you’ll slam on the brakes to cut your speed enough to try and get around the corner without riding the walls (the races use a battle system with “health bars” to win or lose and hitting walls depletes your health bar)
As I said in the previous post as well the opponents definitely need balancing as well as you will often need to cheese the harder battles or just hope to god that they crash and you can get far enough ahead to win. A lot of the AI drivers will hook their front onto your rear and plow you into a wall which is extremely frustrating.
The game itself is set in an open world of sorts. So when you leave for the night you choose which highway entrance to enter on and in which direction. You are then free to cruise the highways (you start with a small loop and then a little more opens up as you play, I presume the full game will have a lot more) and challenge any other vehicle you see to battles. You can race all the civilian trucks or cars if you want or you search for other rival gangs. When you beat a certain amount of members from each gang then you unlock the boss of that gang for a boss battle.
Whilst cruising you are stuck going the direction you began with unless you pull into a parking spot. Here you can chat to random people about inane shit or challenge some others that are parked up. Here you can also leave the parking area to go in the opposite direction on the highway. It is realistic but also frustrating sometimes to try and find a parking area if someone you want to battle is on the opposite side, I wanna have some places where I could illegally switch sides really.
If you dont like JDM shit then I would say the appeal would be even narrower for you cause it is focused on those cars. This is what I love so what kept me involved to see it through but the selection of parts and wheels etc is honestly shite (nightrunners blows it out of the water by a long way in this aspect).
TLDR: you probably won’t like it that much based on what you said, even cruising the majority of the available world is really fucking long straights and is pretty boring and you dont even like JDM stuff :)
The cars make contact so much in this game that it feels like a missed opportunity to not have damage, at least visually. I want to see those cars crumple!
I know it’s typically because of licensing issues, though.
Can’t have their pretty little cars show a single dent.
It’s good. Simple playback loop. Upgrades are slow but unlocking new cars is rewarding. No micro transactions.
Awesome, that’s what I was hoping to hear. I miss the olden days when it was more realistic that you had to/could work for your car, and slowly upgrade and save up. Now that isn’t even believable in a video game world anymore, it’s been replaced with winning cars in a lottery, the only believable way for people to afford a nice car nowadays. Hehe.
It’s still in early access, to be clear. Looks like it’s already in a good state, however.
Yeah, no kidding. Quite impressed.
