You can check out my review impression on the video below. This tests the Xbox Series X version and goes through a rather brief top line review highlighting a few core strengths and weaknesses. Suffice to say there is fun to be had if you’re a fan of the genre or franchise, however the game does a feature a range of bugs and issues that need to be smoothed out while the UI and navigational experience is dated at best. One purely for fans of the genre.

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F1 2021 is a huge package. There are so many game modes and settings that quite frankly it can be a little overwhelming to really understand how to initially play the game. But it is possible to play the three core single player modes concurrently and thankfully these do now play differently from each other. In 2020, ‘My Team’ was a direct copy of ‘Driver Career’ with a new shell – we do this year at least have your team members now referring to you as the boss instead of just another driver. It’s those small touches that bring a game mode together better.

With the staggering variety of game options available I feel that Codemasters have missed a trick in terms of introducing players to the game, and they could go some way to assist in setting the game up for players more directly. Getting the difficulty level right has always been a challenge – gamers want a good competitive fight, but equally when racing your own team or a team that realistically should be rooted to the mid-field it is very difficult to get that difficulty setting accurately placed. So, when you do develop the car you see genuine improvement in pace from race-to-race. This can only reliably be accomplished if setting the game on the hardest difficulty setting – but only a small percentage of players out there are capable of racing on that level. So, what is the solution? Adaptive difficulty, giving the game the option to change the difficulty as you progress through the relevant game mode – but players always need a starting point. The game should ideally start in a test session, it could even be a prologue to the Breaking Point story mode, where players are set a task to complete some lap times, or a dummy race etc – the results of that dictate the AI difficulty and maybe experimentation with various settings enabling players to explore the rest of the game comfortable in the knowledge that it will be a decent and fair challenge.

This year we have the much talked about ‘Braking Point’ story mode which puts gamers into the shoes of two racing drivers – a young upstart and his old-timer teammate at the end of his career. It is an entertaining game mode but comes across as a bit gimmicky and limited in the overall experience. It is a very linear story whereby you must achieve everything asked of you – fail to do so and the story effectively ends, forcing players must repeat the “mission” again. It would be nice if there were multiple ways to play through the game with different story threads depending on what your result was in a race or situation. A lot of the story also takes place during the 2020 F1 season, but the pandemic or the unique season we had last year in real life was not even mentioned – which is a shame and could have brought some additional creative storylines. However, it is still a fun game mode and I hope to see this expanded in future releases – EA has depth of experience here with similar story modes in its FIFA series, so let’s see how this plays out.

My Team and Solo Career are both back of course and have been expanded accordingly, particularly Solo Career allowing players to start off in a full season of F2 – I hope we get to see F3 added in a future release. My Team and Solo Career feature the possibility to develop cars through the season, so, both now include the much-needed overhaul of R&D, which is more intuitive around how to develop a car. Also tweaked this year are the practice sessions, whilst these are still the same type of practice sessions we have seen in every game for years; they are at least less of a chore. When will Codemasters (EA, please take note) realise that there is a mini-game shouting out here where you can have different practice challenges and give players something different achieve within a practice session – this could be prime paid-for DLC content.

Included as a bonus this year are Driver Icons – these feature highly performing drivers across the past 30 years, and whilst not all are world champions it is fun to see the likes of Felipe Massa and David Coulthard included amongst Senna, Prost, and Schumacher. You can choose to hire these greats within My Team (you can decide how you feel about the realism of doing this) but in a world imagined by Codemasters where you can be a Driver/Manager it probably works.

Handling has without doubt been improved this year and whether using a wheel or pad there is greater confidence in being able to place the car appropriately on the entrance to a corner and thread the throttle as you accelerate out. Default setups do tend to understeer more, but they are still very driveable. It also must be noted that if you play on a PS5, the additional touches of having your mechanic talk to you through the speaker on the pad and lights matching the flags (red, yellow, green, blue) appear on the pad itself are unspoken about features that really makes this version stand on its own.

Multiplayer remains a challenge for Codemasters and whilst new modes included this year to separate new drivers away from those seeking a serious gaming session, the whole online experience remains clunky. When reviewing the title, I struggled to get into a lobby and when I did a race session was already underway and had to wait 15 minutes before getting to race myself. Whether its timed racing sessions, driver ability or sportsmanship, why Codemasters simply do not copy the Gran Turismo model for online is baffling.

Accessibility for F1 2021 is incredible with so many options to tweak your gaming experience to make it full arcade or full simulation. Whilst some may still argue its credibility as a full simulation, the F1 franchise is made to sell to as many consumers as possible but they do a fine job in appeasing most gamers. One aspect I would like to see amended is helping players learn racing lines and braking points (actual braking points, not the story!). We have seen the same racing line graphic for many years, but I don’t think it helps anyone learn the tracks – taking another feature from Gran Turismo I’d like to see instead of the full or corner racing line graphic, just a simple notification of when to brake for a corner and nothing else. Over time you will learn the racing line itself but knowing when to brake is key.

One major omission this year however is that Classic Cars have been removed which seems an odd decision. I’m sure they will come back again in a future release, but we were getting used to seeing which cars they would include from the past in each year’s release that to remove them all is disappointing. Also, you will not get Imola, Portimao or Jeddah at release but these will be added as free DLC later this year. Ideally Codemasters would release a video on what it takes to create a track for F1 2021, as it seems painfully slow from Codemasters to create tracks for the game, especially when they already have the circuit maps and assets created for other titles in the Codemasters catalogue.

F1 2021 is the best entry in the now long and established F1 franchise from Codemasters. Accessible, fun to play and at its core the racing truly reflects the product it is based on. F1 is at the end of an era with next year seeing a whole new raft of regulations. It is perhaps fitting that F1 2022 will start to see some influence from its new owners EA, and we are all keen to see how that develops. I for one hope it allows for greater investment and for each title to feel genuinely different from one year to the next (I’m looking at the same cutscene celebrations for five years now at the end of a race and isn’t it amazing how the same people in the garage celebrating are the same in every team). But F1 fans and particularly F1 gaming fans are perhaps some of the most demanding and expect more than can be delivered in a 9-month development window each year. For now, enjoy F1 2021 – best F1 game made to date.

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Art of rally is clearly a passion project, and it oozes that passion in every aspect, from the detail of the environment, to the range of cars, the atmosphere of the rally stages, to those small details scattered throughout that give you a wonderful sense that this world has it’s own sense of life to it.  That those enthusiastic but blocky rally fans run around that world inhabiting every aspect. It is a wonderful adventure playground of rally. Art of rally features all of the usual modes, Career, Time Trial, Single Rally options. The career sees the player meeting Buddha and learning about the history of rally, before going back in time and working their way through from 1966 up to present day.

It’s the little details, the cubic crowds splitting apart as you storm though that stage. Giving that wonderful essence of Walter Rohl and those legendary Group b videos that saw the crowd passing just inches from the car. Everyone wants to get closer, to feel the essence of the car, to feel that energy, that danger, the rush that only racing fans will understand. I loved this feature and it is something I’ve wanted developers to include for a long time, if only a compromise could be found. In the case of art of rally the solution seemed obvious due to the nature of the art style and it works perfectly.

I also liked the vision option for seeing through buildings, trees and any objects that could potentially block a player’s vision of the car. Little touches that bring it all together, often design decisions that would be impossible with larger development studios can make all the difference.

Handling works well but does take some getting used to and there always is room for further refinement. It is all a matter of weight; the undulation of the road can sometimes be difficult to see or determine. This can affect braking besides under or oversteer depends on if you a going up or down hill. Weight can also carry a player clean off the track. The makes understanding your car key in getting around safely.

I’ll continue to work my way through the game and update this review but you can see my initial impressions in the video below.

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It came as exciting news to see Burnout Paradise Remastered would be coming to the Nintendo Switch and as expected, this is a fine conversion. However, the game certainly isn’t for everyone, compared to the older more linear titles, Burnout Paradise Remastered aims for a full open world feel. Forcing players to learn the layout of the city over time via trial and error. This can also make the game feel quite sporadic and difficult to get into. Indeed, many of the challenges require knowledge of the roads to maximise, hence I did find this as a chore as my personal enjoyment comes from purely the driving aspect. Now I did consider the similar process in NFS Most Wanted 2005, but that was a more linear progression and hence worked more intuitively. However, stick with it and there is bags of content to discover and lots to explore.

Graphics have been well converted, though my experience on docked mode was certainly better than handheld mode. I tend to play Switch games almost exclusively in the handheld mode, on Burnout Paradise Remastered distant objects were often hard to see, they appeared very low resolution, lower LOD detail and little in the way of anti-aliasing. I’m not aware if there is some form of dynamic resolution at play and my eyes did adapt but it felt like a disadvantage. I also wasn’t keen on the way in which players are forced to sign up to various EA agreements on first play, much like the initial experience with Bethesda titles before they took that process out.

There is a lot content here, including eight DLC game packs released during what EA refers to as the ‘Year of Paradise’. The package also includes the extension to the drivable world with Big Surf Island. I’ve tested various cars, some of which were not available to me on testing the original game and it’s great see the range and dynamism that brings but with everything seemingly unlocked from the outset, there is no form of progression. EA also made note of the touch screen map, though I couldn’t really see much use for this, especially if you play half the game in docked mode.

Burnout Paradise Remastered is a fun but repetitive gaming experience, the DLC addition is welcome but also destroys the flow of the game design by offering all of these powerful cars from the start Graphics are impressive but resolution in handheld mode is an issue and could really do with an update. Overall, one of the biggest detractors is price, while it’s great to see remasters, the price should be reflective of that across formats and as it stands the Switch version is considerably more expensive.

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Taking Your Team to Glory

My Team is the pinnacle for a passionate F1 fan to develop their own team and see it progress to championship glory. Codemasters have succeeded in producing a fun game mode which certainly sets the foundation for building on this aspect in the coming years. You can choose your branding, colour scheme, team name, engine partner and a second driver. As you progress in your team management career, of which you are also a driver for, you earn money through sponsorship and achieving goals set by sponsors – these funds can then be put towards improving your team facilities and in turn improve on-track performance.

All sounds very promising, but it has been implemented in what can only be described in a lazy way. Once you get through the gloss of setting up the team and getting into the first race, the interaction as a driver-manager is totally overlooked and I was lost on the whole concept of this driver-manager when asked in a PR interview whether my team supported me – where is the option for, “duh…its my own team you blithering idiot”. The racing aspect of My Team is identical to the normal driver career and there is no real difference outside of developing your facilities and having a few more options to play with in between races. 

I feel Codies have missed a huge opportunity here. The My Team mode should be all about the team – both drivers. Back when I was playing Geoff Crammond’s series of F1 games, you had the ability to choose multiple drivers to race as. I don’t like racing as myself in My Team – I’d like to choose both drivers and race as them both. Fade between both drivers a couple of times through the race, you can literally play out team orders and you are driving as the team. After 3 races in the My Team career my car needed replacements to its engine components – but as team manager I can only make changes it seems on my own car…the second driver for whom I am paying looks after themselves. It is this laziness in overlooking the small details that causes irritation and will hold back the product from getting a top mark.

New Features

The My Team is the leading feature this year but there are some additional features worth mentioning. Split-screen returns which is great to see but it would be nice if you could complete a co-op career in this mode. For solo-paying we now have a virtual rear-view mirror and instantly becomes a must-have option turned on as on-track battles become much more intense. The full Formula 2 season can now be completed as a precursor to doing an F1 career – however there is no new story mode which is sad to see. You also get two new tracks this year in Hanoi (Vietnam) and Zandvoort (Netherlands) which won’t be raced on for real until 2021. Hanoi is a Korea/Valencia hybrid and feels very soulless. Whereas Zandvort is a fun circuit and the closest F1 can get to as a rollercoaster ride.

Michael Schumacher Gets the Classic Treatment

The seven-time world champion takes his turn in being the classic era feature driver for F1 2020. It is great to see the Jordan 191, Benetton 194, Benetton 195 and Ferrari F2004. Whilst great to see more classic cars – particularly from now defunct teams the point of their inclusion is minimal. Upon loading the game there is no pomp and circumstance about Michael Schumacher featuring in the game and I had to go find it buried in the Time Trial section. The classic cars remain a gimmick, nothing else. Codies cannot even find the time to create car-specific leaderboards for online – so if you do an incredible lap around Monaco in the Jordan 191, you’ll likely still be at the bottom of the leaderboard because someone has set a time in a 2010 RedBull.

It is a similar story with the in-season invitationals. No change here – same type of arcade events we have seen in previous years which have zero resemblance to anything happening in real life. Instead of these boring “invitationals” why not have them as part of a race weekend or ideally create a fake Goodwood Festival of Speed where you take a car up a hillclimb. I often find these invitationals get in the way and take away from the simulated season feel of F1. 

What about the racing though?

Thankfully, the core of the game remains strong and the handling is better than last year which was already good. There have been some noticeable tweaks and the car feels like it is rooted to the track more – I immediately found I could throw the car around a little more and didn’t have that loose rear end haunting me. Another area which has been improved is the race start and the getaway from the lights is a lot more balanced to your rivals. The onscreen display has been improved and the inclusion of more TV-style data coming up along with a higher number of driver time intervals shown is good to see.

Same old, same old…

As a standalone product F1 2020 is the best F1 game to date and if it was the first game released, it would easily get a 9/10. But this is the tenth iteration in a franchise and once you get through the new features you will find little new to the actual game itself. The commentary intros are similar or even identical; the engineer is still the same at all teams, even in F2; the engineer makes the same idiotic statements, such as being told at the start of qualifying, “we have a problem with the car, you’ll have to remain in the garage until its fixed” (5 minute countdown on screen), and then says, “you should get out on track!”; the celebration videos are the same again and we still see the same faces in all teams, and why do they celebrate in the garage – I want to see team members hanging over the pit wall cheering as I cross the line; there is still no fully manual formation lap or pit entry nor a manual slowdown lap. Also it would be nice instead of the 2D/3D line markers to simply have a Gran Turismo style “Brake” flash up on the screen – just that, nothing more.

But my biggest bugbear is the practice sessions. They have been the same practice sessions for years now. They are not enjoyable, they do not reflect real F1 and are simply a dull chore. Incentivising completion by rewarding you points as part of driver acclaim is not the answer – they are simply boring. This is a massive area for opportunity to create a fun gaming element – create over a hundred different practice programmes of which are randomised and you get six or seven at each track. You turn up and you don’t know what you are going to be doing in the practice sessions. They could be unique to the track, R&D improvements, testing on worn tyres, doing aero work, systems checks, pitstop practice – so many ideas. There could be DLC – I would pay for new practice programmes! That all said, this is the best F1 game ever made and as a stand alone product we’ve given it an 8 out of 10, but for those who have been along for the journey a score of 7 would probably be more appropriate. There is a lot that is positive in F1 2020 but as raised in the review, a lot still to get on with improving.  Codies have introduced a solution to boredom for this year – thankfully you can simulate practice and still get rewards from it. Job done.

F1 2020 Deluxe Schumacher Edition will be released on Tuesday, July 7, 2020, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows PC (DVD and via Steam), and Google Stadia. A Limited Edition F1 2020 Steelbook, also featuring Michael Schumacher, will be available in via selected retailers and if you are interested in our video podcast supporting this review, you can see it below.

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Where the aforementioned series have stagnated in recent years, the Monster Energy Supercross games have showcased an air of quality and can be considered one of Milestone’s premier brands. The first two Monster Energy Supercross titles set the bar high, can the third continue to go from strength to strength to create a new benchmark for Milestone?

Suspension of disbelief

The development team has clearly spent a lot of time perfecting their off-road bike physics. The ‘advanced’ physics suspension simulation is particularly impressive making for less stable bikes than before which really livens up the rear wheel – much like we’ve experienced in MXGP 2019 recently. Bikes no longer understeer through turns (something we criticised in the last title) making the process of completing laps a very satisfying experience.

The ‘advanced’ physics option is not for the faint of heart though: it’s noticeably harder to stay on your bike compared to last year’s title so you’ll need some practice to adjust to the more in-depth physics model. Those of you that are not quite up to the task can, of course, opt for the default ‘standard’ option which enables you to be much more aggressive with the bike before hitting the floor; there’s also much less chance of pulling an impromptu wheelie or stoppie.

The title also gives you the option of using the rewind feature allowing you to undo any costly mistakes. However, for the most rewarding and tense racing, we strongly recommend using the ‘advanced’ physics option and to disable the rewind function altogether. This will result in truly on-the-edge racing where a single fall can ruin any chance of a podium finish.

A mouthful of dirt

We don’t have too many complaints about Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 3 in the visuals department, although it would be nice to see animated crowds along with flags and banners as currently the cheering masses are reduced to inanimate objects. Also, the falling rain effects are poor at best, although fortunately wet track surfaces are simulated very well: you really feel you are battling against the soaked ground to maintain traction.

Bike sounds remain a constant bugbear of ours as the audio offered here just does not even come close to replicating the wall of sound found in the real-world sport. This is something we hope to see rectified on next-generation consoles as it is sorely lagging behind the visuals and physics offered. Technically, this year’s officially licensed Supercross title fairs better compared to last years. Running on a standard PlayStation 4, the frame slowdown at the start of each race is all but eliminated now.

Familiar ground

Anyone who has played any of the earlier Supercross titles will be more than familiar with the career mode. This year’s title gives you the option to choose a sponsor team (where you’ll upgrade your bike from cash earned), or you can also opt to race for an official Supercross team if you prefer.

The 2019 Monster Energy Supercross season is replicated with 100 riders from both the 450SX and 250SX classes and you’ll race across the game’s 15 official stadiums. As before, you’ll start your career in one of two 250cc competitions as you try your best to satisfy your season’s goal in order to move up to the beefier 450cc class.

Races are challenging and tense and you’ll need to make full use of your qualifying session thanks to the absence of any practice sessions. This means you’ll have just ten minutes to learn a track layout (using the default racing weekend structure) which is simply not enough. The AI can prove very challenging but can be guilty of being a little too aggressive at times knocking you off your racing line or ploughing through you as if you weren’t there.

Besides the career, you also have single event, time attack, and championship modes as well as a challenge mode which asks you to perform certain actions such as perfecting jumps and flow, performing scrubs on designated jumps, crossing gates against the clock and more.

Elsewhere, the two-wheeled racer features the compound – an open area complete with obstacles and jumps which plays host to a number of online mini-games including treasure hunt and checkpoint modes. There’s also the track editor which comes with a few extra bells and whistles but remains largely the same from previous titles.

An online world of difference

This year’s Supercross title has a proper lobby system making finding online games a doddle. The lobby list displays each lobby’s race type, physics used, bike class etc, and crucially whether the current session is racing, voting on track and weather pre-race, or still at the lobby stage. There are options to create your own public and private lobbies and you can dip your toes into the race director mode too should you wish to create and manage online competitions.

Thanks to the much-needed addition of dedicated servers, the online action finally lives up to its potential. Races are challenging and fun and if you’re competing in a lobby with over ten players, the action can get particularly hectic. As a result, we can see players enjoying the online action here until the next title rolls around.

Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 3 is the strongest game in the series thanks to the ever-improving physics simulation and for the first time in the series, a much overhauled online component which benefits massively from the introduction of dedicated servers.

Granted, we may still not have ruts we can ride in nor great bike audio, nonetheless, strides have been made to the series this year ending the generation on a high point. We can’t wait to see what Milestone can do with the franchise in the next generation.

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Need for Speed Payback followed in 2017 barely registering a score of 60 on Metacritic further failing to reinvigorate a series which seems to have completely lost its way. This year’s title has a lot to do to turn around the fortunes of a series which has fallen well behind the ever successful Forza Horizon franchise. Can Heat reignite the series?

Bad cop, bad cop

You play as one of twelve customisable street racers who go up against Lt. Frank Mercer – a morally grey cop willing to do whatever it takes to keep the street racers at bay. Some of the cops are so crooked that it becomes apparent they are the bad guys and the street racers the good guys.

After you’ve picked your character and first ride you’ll be introduced to Heat’s daytime and nighttime racing scenes. During the day you’ll compete in legal sanctioned races to earn money for new cars and upgrades. At night you’ll earn reputation points which allow you to progress through the title’s story as well as unlock beefier car upgrades and additional cars to purchase.

Racing at night can be tense thanks to the ever-present police force. Once you are at heat level three and above you’ll find the police can get very aggressive often smashing into you without a care for their own safety. Should you be arrested, you’ll forfeit a hefty portion of your rep points. Once you’ve bagged a decent number of rep points at night you can cash them in by driving to your nearest garage or stay out to gain more – just keep in mind your heat level: the higher it is the more police presence you’ll encounter. In between events you’ll be treated to cut scenes which add meat to the characters around you. While no Oscars will be won here, the story is reasonably interesting at least.

Need for Speed’s campaign gives you a reasonable mix of events to take part in including circuit races, point A to B racing, drifting events and even off-road racing. Most events allow you to challenge others online although finding willing participants can prove difficult. Outside of races, online players can be seen in real-time and it can be entertaining to drive alongside a fellow player. You can opt for the single-player offline experience too if you wish.

Besides racing, there are a number of collectables scattered throughout the map including graffiti tags and flamingos which in turn grant you car wraps, reputation and cash. There are also billboards to smash through as well as an array of speed traps which you can drive through at high speed and some drifting challenges. In short, there are plenty of little distractions in Need for Speed Heat which will keep you busy in between events. It’s this variety which helps to keep Heat an entertaining experience throughout.

Not taking stock

Car customisation remains a strong element in Heat. Fourteen components can be upgraded including ECU, exhaust, tyres and more. There are several grades of each car part ranging from Stock to Elite+. It’s always satisfying witnessing your car go from its stock build up to a road-munching racer – just be prepared to work for it.

With both on- and off-road racing as well as drifting events available, you’ll need to tailor your car’s setup to stay competitive. Altering your suspension, tyres and differential upgrades allow you to create on- and off-road street racing machines as well specialist drifting and racing vehicles which can be essential.

Visually, you can swap out bumpers, spoilers, fenders, wheels and more, however, we found there can be as few as two or three alternatives only (don’t worry, there are plenty of wheels). You can, of course, customise your car’s paint and finish as well as create your own designs courtesy of a livery editor which allows you to create anything providing you have the talent. You can also change the colours of your nitrous, tyre smoke and underglow, as well as add air suspension and even change your car’s horn. Lastly, you can alter your car’s stance and exhaust sound to make your racing machine truly your own.

Once you’ve progressed sufficiently, you’ll unlock auxiliary upgrades which range from kill switch jammers, and repairs kits, which can be utilised when things get tough, to passive abilities including radar disruptors which make you harder to detect, a range of nitrous bonuses, inflatable tyres to negate the impact of spike strips, and more.

Rear-end fun

Building a pure racing or drifting build is not always the best approach as we found racing cars too rigid and conversely pure drift builds can be too loose at the rear. As a result, you may find that you have to reverse some of the upgrades to find a good middle ground. That said, the handling, in general, is fun and drifting around turns (which is achieved by coming off the accelerator and back on it) works well for the most part and can be very satisfying when you absolutely nail a drift at high speed.

Need for Speed Heat is a good looking game. The streets are teeming with detail which helps to make the environments believable. Skyscrapers, palm trees, yachts and bridges give the fictional location a pleasant vibe, although the less said about the water wave effects the better. There’s also a definite graininess to the visuals on the standard PlayStation 4.

Although many of Heat’s vehicles sound purposeful and throaty at relatively low speeds, the same can’t be said once you’ve gone through a few gears: there’s far too much of a muted note which can negate the thrill of driving at high speed considerably. This is an area which still requires work to maximise the visceral feel of driving and literally hanging on to these super desirable, over powered automotive machines.

Heat’s car selection aims for quality over quantity. You’ll find the usual assortment of American muscle both classic and new, popular Japanese street machines, a smattering of German Bahnstormers, some capable off-roaders as well as a decent number of supercars. We did find it frustrating to see the classic Golf GTI, Bettle and the Civic Type R ’00 locked so deep into the game as they would make for great starting cars. Those expecting a wealth of cars may be left disappointed.

You’ll need to amass a decent amount of credits and rep points to build your dream car which can take a fair amount of time – this is not a criticism either. As a result, you build an attachment to the first few cars you purchase which is something missing from the Forza Horizon games that are all too happy to throw supercar after supercar at you very early on.

Need for Speed Heat is a solid arcade racer that steers the long-running series in the right direction. Although Heat doesn’t reinvent the wheel, the missions, events, and mini-games are varied enough to make for a fun experience overall. The story segments are of a high quality which gives Heat a polished and premium feel.

Need for Speed has finished this generation on a much-needed high point. As a result, we can look forward to the next-generation Need for Speed titles with a little more enthusiasm and excitement as long as Ghost Games can build upon the foundations set by Heat. Need for Speed Heat gets a strong seven from us, a worthy title for your racing collection, let’s hope we get interior views and wheel support in the next iteration.

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All has been quiet on the GRID front this generation leaving us wondering if the series had met its demise. Luckily, all fears were put to rest with the announcement of the new GRID earlier in the year. The 2019 version of GRID has left us confused, though. Is it a remake of the original Race Driver: GRID? Is it a reboot of the series, or something else? Let’s dive in to find out.

GRID doesn’t strive to be the most realistic simulator nor does it want to be a physics-defying arcade racer, it takes its pride of place somewhere in between. This middle-ground is especially evident when you turn all car assists off and find physics which feel unnatural. As a result, GRID is at its most intuitive and fun when playing with assists on.

Once you’ve spent a decent amount of time with GRID you will begin to drift around turns with precision and control which can be very satisfying. Just be prepared to hit a few walls here and there as you get to grips with the game.

There are a total of 60 vehicles in GRID ranging from the Volvo Estate touring car to Fernando Alonso’s Formula One car. You’ll find stock cars, touring cars, open-wheel racers, GT cars and more giving you a decent spectrum of vehicles to tame.

Frame rates may appear lower than they are

Playing on a standard PlayStation 4, GRID has some rather large missteps in the visuals department. Although the environments are well realised, the textures appear low resolution at times giving the game a surprisingly blurry and dated look.

A lack of anti-aliasing gives distant cars and trackside objects a distracting shimmer, and car texture detail can often be seen popping in at the start of an event. When you consider how good Race Driver: GRID looked in 2008 (not to mention the recently released DiRT Rally 2.0), GRID’s visuals are somewhat underwhelming on the standard PlayStation 4.

The problems don’t end there, however. The frame rates in the rearview mirrors are some of the lowest we’ve ever seen, and the game only runs at 30 fps to boot.

Codemasters usually treats us with a high standard of car audio in their games. While the audio in GRID is in keeping with this standard, it doesn’t hit the lofty heights that we’ve seen in the DiRT Rally series. Still, vehicles bellow out with aggression and purpose across the range of vehicle classes, although sound strangely muted in any of the chase camera viewpoints.

For a game striving to provide an intense experience, the omission of any background music during races is almost unforgivable. Environmental sounds also need some attention, driving through a tunnel is not nearly as much fun as it should be, for example.

Quantity over variety

GRID’s extensive campaign mode is split into the following six categories: Touring, Stock, Tuner, GT, Fernando Alonso’s racing team, and Invitational. Each category plays host to at least fourteen events or championships.

Once you’ve completed the requisite number of events in any of the six categories, you’ll unlock the showdown events. Complete four of these, and you’ll unlock the GRID World Series finale.

While it sounds like there is plenty here, events simply boil down to circuit races with a differing number of laps, point A to B races, and time trial events: GRID is sorely lacking in variety making the campaign repetitive and not nearly as much fun as the original title from 2008.

Furthermore, you will get so far into anyone of GRID’s six main categories before finding out you don’t have enough cash for the required vehicle to proceed making you compete in a different category to build up cash. This happens several times during the campaign which is frustrating if you want to master one category at a time.

Before starting a race you can opt for the one-lap qualifying session. Although this sounds exciting, after you’ve completed the session the track loads in a second time and you still have the option to opt into qualifying making the thrill and intensity of having just one lap to put in a qualifying time redundant.

GRID provides you with a teammate who can earn you extra cash during events. Through the race engineer, you can order your teammate to push harder or to hold their position and block others from passing. While this sounds very strategic and nuanced, the truth is you’ll be so concerned with threading your own car through the field that these features will become mere gimmicks.

Although technically a team-based racing experience, it matters not if you completely ignore your teammate: you’ll progress all the same. You can also interact with your race engineer for general tidbits of information as well as to find out where your nearest rival is in relation to you – a very nice feature indeed.

GRID features 12 locations including the real-world circuits of Brands Hatch, Indianapolis, Sepang and Silverstone. While this might seem like a small number, the game actually contains over 60 different circuit configurations which help to keep the game fresh even hours into the campaign.

Wet weather is handled very well in GRID and is where the title arguably looks at its best. Rain cascades down at angles and collects on the screen and ground surfaces, whereas water spray is kicked up by cars ahead of you. The visual effect is very convincing at times and blasting your vehicle around rain-soaked circuits can be a challenge thanks to reduced grip levels.

Unfortunately, the damage model in GRID leaves a lot to be desired. You can bash your car around a lot only to sustain seemingly no mechanical damage. On one occasion, we hit a trackside barrier jutting out at the exit of a tunnel which completely wrecked our car. Clearly, the damage model has to be better balanced.

Besides the career, GRID also offers a free play mode enabling you to take to any circuit in any car. The multiplayer options are limited to quick match and private match only: to say GRID’s multiplayer offerings are scant is understating it.

The multiplayer action plays out well for the most part, however, cars can defy physics and stutter in a chaotic manner: some tweaks to the net code is needed. When things do run smoothly, online races are chaotic and fun but it remains to be seen how populated the servers will be in a few week’s time given the paltry online offerings.

Although featuring a large single-player campaign, GRID feels fairly bare-bones thanks to a lack of variety in its events. Granted, the game features a wide array of vehicle types, however, these are not utilised well thanks to the absence of drifting battles, touge, multi-class racing, and any 24 hour Le Mans events found in the original GRID eleven years ago.

As a result, GRID feels like an experimental title, a game that is testing the waters for a fully fleshed out GRID sequel for next-generation perhaps. Either way, GRID fails to hit the heights of earlier titles in the series and is a game that will be forgotten about all too easily in the not so distant future. Consider GRID a 6.5 rounded up to a seven, best to wait for a sale before adding it to your collection.

The post GRID review appeared first on Team VVV.

Kylotonn improved the series dramatically with its follow up games WRC 6 and WRC 7 releasing in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The series then took a break in 2018 allowing the French team a two-year development cycle for the very first time. Will the extra time enable Kylotonn to truly realise their vision?

Rally rather good

Physics have seen improvements over WRC 7. All three car classes exhibit more depth than before giving you a very authentic driving experience. Granted, the title is more forgiving than DiRT Rally on gravel surfaces, however, an easy title to pick up and play this is not. Driving the various vehicle classes on a variety of surface types was a joy using a racing wheel. Once you’ve cranked up the force feedback’s road feel and self-aligning torque, the experience only gets better. The handbrake now works properly and features a fully analogue input.

The tyre and suspension model exhibit greater depth than ever before making the car respond in an intuitive manner: this makes playing WRC 8 a blast for the most part. However, there is still room for improvement, either way, this is a positive step in the right direction.

The game also handles well using a controller, though the WRC class is still a huge challenge and small alterations on tarmac can see over-sensitive movements on the car – great progress but could do with further refinement.

Collisions also need some attention. Bumps to the side of the road often send your car into the air as if it has a penchant for rolling onto its roof: this can lead to some very frustrating moments.

Car audio has been enhanced from earlier games in the series. Cars sound more menacing and closer to their real-world counterparts than ever before. The environmental sounds too are particularly decent making you feel the crash of driving through deep puddles, and the impact of pebbles assaulting the underside of the car. That said, there is still a lot of room for improvement if Kylotonn wants to rival its competitors.

Dream team

WRC 8 sees major changes to the career mode which has remained largely stagnant since Kylotonn’s WRC debut in 2015. The newly added crew management aspects will see you hire team members across six different job roles, selecting events to compete in between rallies, and you will dictate your team’s path of development through four skill trees, all while maintaining a good reputation across a range of manufacturers.

Assigning R & D points (earned by levelling up) across the skill trees enables you to unlock additional staff members and bonuses. Bonuses include more accurate weather forecasts, increased XP and cash rewards, grippier tyres, a more powerful turbo, and less wear and tear of car components amongst other things.

Besides competing in any of the 14 rallies on offer, the career mode also gives you a range of varied events to break things up nicely. Historic events allow you to get behind one of the title’s classic rally cars; Training events task you to beat the gold times on small custom made circuits; whereas Extreme Conditions events thrust you into a damaged car in severe weather conditions. Completing these events will net you cash, XP, or reputation points.

Elsewhere, you can take part in manufacturer tryouts which enable you to gain reputation with other teams. This is absolutely essential if you want to progress into the higher tiers, unfortunately, this is not stated clearly enough.

Of course, all these extra career mode elements won’t be for everyone. Thankfully, Kylotonn has included a “Season” mode which allows you to experience the game minus the team management components.

Environmental triumph

The environments in WRC 8 are undoubtedly the star of the show. Nearly all of the stages have been updated and a handful has been completely overhauled bringing their standard up dramatically. Sadly, this means there are some inconsistencies with Finland looking particularly dated. However, when you’re driving through the extremely impressive rocky hills of Argentina, winding through the gorgeous Monte Carlo mountains, or navigating through a gritty-looking UK stage, these inconsistencies are largely forgiven.

A once picturesque scene can change very quickly into a hazy, windy, and rain-soaked landscape where WRC 8 arguably looks at its best. Puddles have a great impact on your car when travelling at speed and are best avoided if possible. Unfortunately, the water splash effect leaves a lot to be desired and jarring lighting changes can happen as the weather is in transition.

Sadly, the console versions of WRC 8 still run at just 30 fps with some frame dips here and there. This is especially difficult to accept on the more powerful PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X machines. The challenge for Kylotonn will be to hit 60 fps across the consoles to bring their titles up to the vastly superior PC versions.

Impactful damage

The car damage in WRC 8 finally has a true impact on your car’s performance especially if you opt for the realistic setting.

When your car is sufficiently damaged you’ll hear the tyres flap, the gearbox crunch and whine, brakes will fade and your engine will struggle through its rev range. Damage the car too much and you’ll get a dreaded DNF for the stage but will be able to compete in the next stage with an impaired car.

Should you puncture a tyre, you will have the option to change it during a rally at a cost of 30 seconds. Of course, you may instead decide to limp across the finish line depending on where you are in the rally.

Regrettably, the cosmetic damage in WRC 8 is sorely lacking. A severely damaged car should be reflected with critically dented and deformed body panels, instead, you may lose your front bumper and exhibit minor signs of battling the elements.

Occasionally the co-driver will not mention a hazard which can ruin your rally. Indeed, several crashes could have been easily avoided if I was forewarned, also at times I found I was struggling to comprehend some of the calls barked at me: a new co-driver with improved pronunciation and clarity would be a useful addition.

The replay mode in WRC 8 is a little rough around the edges and still lags behind the competition. Texture detail can clearly be seen popping in once the viewpoint has switched, and you’ll come across the occasionally wonky camera and some other oddities.

The title’s general presentation has seen a radical overhaul. Although not genre-leading, Kylotonn has taken a definite step in the right direction here:  menus work better than ever before and aptly display the many aspects of this considerable package with confident clarity.

Besides the career mode and the stripped-down alternative known as “Season”, WRC 8 offers a host of modes to keep players coming back for more. Highlights include the Test Area, a limited area enabling you to skid your car around warehouses and bus garages as well as take on a rally route. Then there’s the Training mode complete with 25 small closed circuits to keep you busy.

WRC 8 also has support for online multiplayer and local split-screen modes, and those looking for some serious competition will spend time in the Weekly Challenges and Esports Challenge modes.

Featuring 100 special stages, dynamic weather, impactful damage, in-depth team management elements, as well as improved physics and audio, WRC 8 is the most complete rally game so far this generation and is a must-buy for any petrolhead.

There are a few rough edges though. Wonky collisions can lead to some infuriating moments, the co-driver can lack clarity and detail at times, the lighting transitions can be harsh, the replay mode needs an overhaul, and let’s not mention those awful water splash animations.

The post WRC 8 review appeared first on Team VVV.

I’ve always held the Sonic series close to my heart despite its much publicised checkered past. However, there has been one Sonic-themed series which has been consistently solid throughout the years: Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.

After a strong series debut, the second game – Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed – became my favourite kart racing game of all time. After a frustratingly long wait of over six years, the spiritual successor is finally here. Will the latest Sonic kart racer make me fall in love once more or will it leave a bitter taste in my mouth?

Transformed game

Those expecting a direct sequel to Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed may be left dissatisfied. Much to my disappointment, the general SEGA theme has been axed in favour of a purely Sonic-themed affair. The transforming vehicles from 2012’s Transformed title are also gone opting instead for an entirely kart-based experience.

It’s not all bad though. As the name suggests, the very latest Sonic kart racer has a focus on team-based action. Racing in teams of three, your combined race placings are scored and tallied to determine the winning party. Continuing with the team theme, a new ‘Slingshot’ mechanic – which involves slipstreaming a teammate – grants you a boost of speed, whereas gifting powerups to your teammates can create a more powerful version of that item.

Participating in these team-based elements enables you to build up your ‘ultimate bar’ which, when full, can be unleashed for a satisfying team-wide speed boost with the added bonus of invulnerability – something you may be familiar with from previous titles.

Making the dream work

The single-player campaign, known as ‘Team Adventure’, does its best to intertwine some semblance of a story to proceedings. The mode plays out across seven zones featuring three different circuits apiece for a grand total of twenty-one tracks.

Some of these tracks have actually been cherry-picked from previous Sonic karting games. Playing on a modernised version of a classic circuit really highlights the graphical leap forward we’ve taken in recent years. Environments are packed full of detail and whiz by at a mostly solid 60 frames per second (the Switch version runs at 30fps).

Events in Team Adventure range from standard team races to solo ring collecting events where you have to continually drift into rings to keep the timer from reaching zero. The difficulty of some of these solo events are harsh, trophy/achievement hunters will be in for a hard time I’m sure.

Following traditional racing game fare, Team Sonic Racing’s main campaign tasks you to complete events to earn stars, which in turn unlocks even more events. Earning stars requires you to satisfy a range of objectives ranging from winning as a team to finishing in a certain position as an individual. Some special objectives enable you to obtain keys which unlock additional events, predictably, these special objectives are usually quite challenging.

Besides the Team Adventure mode, you have the usual suspects of Grand Prix, Exhibition Race, Time Trial and various online multiplayer modes, the latter obviously being one of the main draws of the game.

Super Sonic

Team Sonic Racing features a fairly comprehensive customisation mode for a kart racing title. You can change three sections of each vehicle (front, back and wheels) which alters the performance of the kart accordingly. Cosmetically, you can modify the colours of each part and add vinyls (patterns), there’s even the option to swap out your kart’s horn if you so choose.

All of the game’s customisation elements are unlocked via tokens (earned in events) which can be used to open ‘Mod Pods’. Thankfully, tokens are generously dished out during most events and I can confirm the game does not contain any microtransactions.

Team Sonic Racing features a decent single-player mode for solo players to revel in as well as an enjoyable multiplayer component. The new team-based mechanics beautifully compliment the excellent handling model found in previous games. Having said that, it doesn’t knock Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed off the top spot of the podium. While the title retains a lot of the things that made Transformed great, it has lost many of the elements that really made that game special, most importantly the transforming vehicles and tracks.

I suspect this may be down to a tighter budget but it’s still a little on the disappointing side. To make up for its shortcomings, however, the game is launching at a lower price point of around thirty pounds. For this price, it’s definitely worth taking for a spin. If you’re after a decent kart racing game, you could do far worse than this.

The post Team Sonic Racing review appeared first on Team VVV.