While I really, really love modnation racers (see my review here: http://thechickgamer.blogspot.com/2010/05/modnation-racers-review-funtastic-game.html) after playing like 50 hours with it and finishing the career mode I can say I gathered enough experience to look at it from a more critical standpoint and highlight some of the things that didn't make it a "perfect" (or almost) game/experience.
1- Badly programmed AI for challenges that makes the game very frustrating
This is something that many complain about and with reason.
While the challenges do indeed add a lot to the gaming experience some are simply badly designed (I'm talking about some of the 4th/5th level).
Not only the challenges are hard on their own but the AI is simply ruthless, it's programmed to not make you achieve the final goal.
This also seems true in the first levels but ones you gain experience those challenges become easier but later in the game, when you already race as perfect as you can it's just a matter of being nuked to not get to the goal.
And it's definitely not a matter of "false impression" because when you can arrive (fairly easily) first unless you fulfilled the challenge requirements it's pretty clear that the game it's just programmed to make you fail, which isn't a very nice feeling.
So what? You simply have to try again and again and again until for a stroke of luck you arrive first.
When something is more a matter of luck than skill then there's something wrong with the design decision because a game should reward a player commitment and experience not him/her being lucky enough.
Ok, however there's plenty of very hard games, just think about Wipeout (although there is still a matter of skill rather than ruthless AI) but the point is, the challenges are necessary to obtain parts for your mods, karts etc. They are strictly linked to the Create part of the game so by not completing them you're also missing items for your own creation: perhaps this is the focal point: not being able to get all available parts.
2- No possibility to create TEAMs or invite friends to XP races
nowadays most games include an online/multiplayer part, even those that mostly focus on the single players campaign experience, such as Uncharted or Resident Evil 5, for example.
While playing online with people you have never met is fun the social part of multiplayer, sharing the experience with friends is VERY important.
I really find it stunning that Modnation Racers does not have a create Team feature and, at the very least, the ability to invite or join friends to and XP race (or join a friend to join an XP race together, like in Resistance 2 which featured a very effective team join system!)
3- Awful match-making (and region locked)
There are tens of messages/discussions online that talk about how awful the match-making of Modnation Racers is and it really IS that awful, unfortunately.
Waiting for 10 to 15 or even more minutes for a race to start because there aren't enough players in the same room is awful.
And no, it's not the lack of players (not just that, at least), it's just that the online players aren't put together, they are scattered across many different rooms that have to be filled.
So if you're online with a couple more friends you're very likely to end up in 3 different rooms with 2 players for each room and have to wait for enough players (4) to start a race.
Racing with more than 4 players (12 is the limit) is almost a mirage.
Also, those of us European that thought the situation would improve when the game released in the US were certainly disappointed that the game is region locked.
Of course the reason behind that is sound: to offer anyone a smoother and better racing experience, however, as someone pointed out they could just add and ON/OFF option for the region lock as is not that usual that gamers have friends in other parts of the world and want to play with them (just in private matches though since, you remember, you can't invite friends to XP races...).
By the way, it seems they are working to improve this so let's be hopeful (I have to say I just put the game apart until I heard any news about patches and/or improvements)
4- No highlighting original creations
I have to confess I'm a bit sick of Mario in every form and shape, maybe it's because I don't find it so charming, style-wise.
He certainly is an icon but an icon with his very own games and space.
Of course it's not a crusade against Mario as if you look at the first 50 pages (and perhaps more) or the most-popular mods you can hardly find any original creation.
In fact while it is cool to have the ability to re-create characters and sort-of fan-art mods (I did a J.T.Kirk myself since I'm currently watching the TOS) it would be much, much nicer if original stuff were highlighted in the modspot along with the most downloaded mods (Mario, Luigi, Spiderman, Ironman... who will be next?).
Someone (a moderator, PR) could look at the uploaded mods (s/he won't have to check everyone in detail, nice ones can easily be spotted) and maybe choose 3 original mods each week to focus on the really CREATIVE part of the CREATE side of the game, or just have people post their mods in an official thread for consideration as "original mods of the week".
5- Mix race XP and create XP
When taking certain decisions is not always easy to understand how they are going to affect the game, what kind of impact they will have etc. etc.
However it really wasn't a sound decision to mix race XP and create XP. Why? Because this game is first and foremost a racing game and the XP level of players should be based on how good they are at racing, on the fact that they have mastered the peculiarities of MNR karts and tracks and so on.
A player that has raced two times but is 30th level (which IS high) because s/he has done a Mario-clone mod IS ridiculous.
Racing XP and creation XP should simply be separated! And this is something that could be done even now since the racing and creation stats are separated already: why not make the change?
6- 250k trophy
Some trophies (or achievements) are really out of scale and this definitely IS one of those.
While no one should play to (just) get trophies they certainly play a part in the gaming experience.
In this case I really think that a 250.000 create points trophy is really a bad choice for 2 main reasons:
- 1: it's really VERY hard and nearly impossible to earn that much points unless you create a very popular mod (Mario-clone preferably... and there we go again). You need to have tens of thousands of downloads to earn that much points and that's gonna be almost impossible
-2: such a trophy won't make people be more committed to the create part but just look for other people to exchange downloads, ratings and so on.
Since the 250k mark is really too high people will just post in forums to earn create XP simply by asking other to download and rate their creation regardless of the creations quality and worthy.
This is really a "lottery" trophy, almost impossible to achieve without making Mario/spiderman etc. or without "exchanging" votes with other players.
If you think about it really doesn't stimulate to create because any player that just creates original mods and shares them on the quiet will never get it.
7- No direct contact with the creators
There's no official forum or other way to get in touch with modnation racers creators, the official forums are actually the playstations ones, different for every region and language which means it's very hard to see what other complains/suggestions have been posted already or if there is any communication from MNR stuff people and so on.
I think it's a pretty common practice for a developer to have a central communication hub where users can post their suggestions/complains and have everything so scattered won't certainly help gather such information in an efficient way.
Moreover there's no link from the Modnation Racers site to the official forums etc., you just have to google for them and realize it's the official playstation forums.
1- Badly programmed AI for challenges that makes the game very frustrating
This is something that many complain about and with reason.
While the challenges do indeed add a lot to the gaming experience some are simply badly designed (I'm talking about some of the 4th/5th level).
Not only the challenges are hard on their own but the AI is simply ruthless, it's programmed to not make you achieve the final goal.
This also seems true in the first levels but ones you gain experience those challenges become easier but later in the game, when you already race as perfect as you can it's just a matter of being nuked to not get to the goal.
And it's definitely not a matter of "false impression" because when you can arrive (fairly easily) first unless you fulfilled the challenge requirements it's pretty clear that the game it's just programmed to make you fail, which isn't a very nice feeling.
So what? You simply have to try again and again and again until for a stroke of luck you arrive first.
When something is more a matter of luck than skill then there's something wrong with the design decision because a game should reward a player commitment and experience not him/her being lucky enough.
Ok, however there's plenty of very hard games, just think about Wipeout (although there is still a matter of skill rather than ruthless AI) but the point is, the challenges are necessary to obtain parts for your mods, karts etc. They are strictly linked to the Create part of the game so by not completing them you're also missing items for your own creation: perhaps this is the focal point: not being able to get all available parts.
2- No possibility to create TEAMs or invite friends to XP races
nowadays most games include an online/multiplayer part, even those that mostly focus on the single players campaign experience, such as Uncharted or Resident Evil 5, for example.
While playing online with people you have never met is fun the social part of multiplayer, sharing the experience with friends is VERY important.
I really find it stunning that Modnation Racers does not have a create Team feature and, at the very least, the ability to invite or join friends to and XP race (or join a friend to join an XP race together, like in Resistance 2 which featured a very effective team join system!)
3- Awful match-making (and region locked)
There are tens of messages/discussions online that talk about how awful the match-making of Modnation Racers is and it really IS that awful, unfortunately.
Waiting for 10 to 15 or even more minutes for a race to start because there aren't enough players in the same room is awful.
And no, it's not the lack of players (not just that, at least), it's just that the online players aren't put together, they are scattered across many different rooms that have to be filled.
So if you're online with a couple more friends you're very likely to end up in 3 different rooms with 2 players for each room and have to wait for enough players (4) to start a race.
Racing with more than 4 players (12 is the limit) is almost a mirage.
Also, those of us European that thought the situation would improve when the game released in the US were certainly disappointed that the game is region locked.
Of course the reason behind that is sound: to offer anyone a smoother and better racing experience, however, as someone pointed out they could just add and ON/OFF option for the region lock as is not that usual that gamers have friends in other parts of the world and want to play with them (just in private matches though since, you remember, you can't invite friends to XP races...).
By the way, it seems they are working to improve this so let's be hopeful (I have to say I just put the game apart until I heard any news about patches and/or improvements)
4- No highlighting original creations
I have to confess I'm a bit sick of Mario in every form and shape, maybe it's because I don't find it so charming, style-wise.
He certainly is an icon but an icon with his very own games and space.
Of course it's not a crusade against Mario as if you look at the first 50 pages (and perhaps more) or the most-popular mods you can hardly find any original creation.
In fact while it is cool to have the ability to re-create characters and sort-of fan-art mods (I did a J.T.Kirk myself since I'm currently watching the TOS) it would be much, much nicer if original stuff were highlighted in the modspot along with the most downloaded mods (Mario, Luigi, Spiderman, Ironman... who will be next?).
Someone (a moderator, PR) could look at the uploaded mods (s/he won't have to check everyone in detail, nice ones can easily be spotted) and maybe choose 3 original mods each week to focus on the really CREATIVE part of the CREATE side of the game, or just have people post their mods in an official thread for consideration as "original mods of the week".
5- Mix race XP and create XP
When taking certain decisions is not always easy to understand how they are going to affect the game, what kind of impact they will have etc. etc.
However it really wasn't a sound decision to mix race XP and create XP. Why? Because this game is first and foremost a racing game and the XP level of players should be based on how good they are at racing, on the fact that they have mastered the peculiarities of MNR karts and tracks and so on.
A player that has raced two times but is 30th level (which IS high) because s/he has done a Mario-clone mod IS ridiculous.
Racing XP and creation XP should simply be separated! And this is something that could be done even now since the racing and creation stats are separated already: why not make the change?
6- 250k trophy
Some trophies (or achievements) are really out of scale and this definitely IS one of those.
While no one should play to (just) get trophies they certainly play a part in the gaming experience.
In this case I really think that a 250.000 create points trophy is really a bad choice for 2 main reasons:
- 1: it's really VERY hard and nearly impossible to earn that much points unless you create a very popular mod (Mario-clone preferably... and there we go again). You need to have tens of thousands of downloads to earn that much points and that's gonna be almost impossible
-2: such a trophy won't make people be more committed to the create part but just look for other people to exchange downloads, ratings and so on.
Since the 250k mark is really too high people will just post in forums to earn create XP simply by asking other to download and rate their creation regardless of the creations quality and worthy.
This is really a "lottery" trophy, almost impossible to achieve without making Mario/spiderman etc. or without "exchanging" votes with other players.
If you think about it really doesn't stimulate to create because any player that just creates original mods and shares them on the quiet will never get it.
7- No direct contact with the creators
There's no official forum or other way to get in touch with modnation racers creators, the official forums are actually the playstations ones, different for every region and language which means it's very hard to see what other complains/suggestions have been posted already or if there is any communication from MNR stuff people and so on.
I think it's a pretty common practice for a developer to have a central communication hub where users can post their suggestions/complains and have everything so scattered won't certainly help gather such information in an efficient way.
Moreover there's no link from the Modnation Racers site to the official forums etc., you just have to google for them and realize it's the official playstation forums.
