Transformers: War for Cybertron

I do like the Transformers as a concept so I was curious about the game.
I tried the PS3 demo and immediately found the multiplayer very interesting and fun so, given also that it is a full co-op and me and my fiancé are avid co-op players it was an instant buy.

The Single Player campaign can be played by up to 3 players, either friends (closed game by invite) or online with casual buddies.

During the story you play both as Decepticons (first) and Autobots (through the end) which is nice and you have four different classes to try out (Leader, Soldier, Scientist and Scout as in the multiplayer) although only 3 and sometimes 2 of them are available at the same time.

The story isn't particularly "amazing" but good enough and the game really is challenging, the gameplay is varied enough and you also need to fine tune your strategy against the different bosses.
If you're playing alone or with only another buddy, as I did, the third character is sort of useless in that he doesn't do much in terms of kills etc. but it's useful as a guide and often takes the enemy attention (and bullets) without ever dying which can come in handy (and very handy when you're alone) so you can definitely use the NPC for your strategy.

If you like to play it in hard mode I strongly suggest playing alone or with friends as resources are pretty scarce so you want to share them evenly with your mate, also, it's important to co-ordinate and always pick the scientist when available (the curing weapon is really helpful in hard mode).

If there's something I have to complain about is the ammo/life supply, in hard mode they are very scarce in many places and highly concentrated where you don't need them at all so you end up craving for ammo (even though you're very careful about not wasting them) or having to leave them behind 'cause you've got plenty already (and usually all this abundance is just before a door or whatever that will close down and become inaccessible afterward.

The Multiplayer is very solid and quite entertaining.
It has good variety with four classes (quite different and that you need to play differently) each of which has different usable weapons, abilities and abilities-boosts you can combine as you prefer to fine-tune them to your own game style for that class.
It's also got several unlocks for each class and many challenges that give you additional experience points.

The soldier is the toughest character and easier to play, so to speak, as it requires less strategy. The scientist, on the other hand is very weak but it's also the only one that can fly which allows for a quite different gameplay.
All in all, obviously every character had their strategy but be warned that if you start with the soldier you'll be "spoiled" by his high life points and you'll really find it hard to manage lower life points characters like the scientist afterward.

One of the most intriguing aspects is the ability to play both in robot and vehicle style, every class has its own vehicle with different weapons mounted on it.
The robot/vehicle transformation is really a breeze, very well implemented and done and definitely adds a lot to the game experience.

The maps (8) are more or less the same style, you don't have snowy landscapes, forests, sea etc. since Cybertron is "just" an hardware world however they indeed are varied.
They are also well build with two or even three levels and weapons, life cubes and ammo well scattered throughout the map.
There is no weapon that gives you an unfair advantage, they are all well balanced and quite different to use.
The Challenges points aren't particularly rewarding however the kills indeed are, they can grant you several points depending on the weapon or ability you used to perform if or even more for weapon/ability combos. You also get points for ending kill streaks, for killing the same enemy repeatedly or when in low life and so on so earning experience points isn't that hard although maxing all four classes will require some dedication.

The multiplayer with the four different classes and the various maps is entertaining and varied enough that you will keep playing it for quite sometimes and it's certainly "refreshing", so to speak, as it's not the "usual" war-like setting (not that I have much against it but changing style every once in a while is cool).

The Escalation mode is also intriguing and fun to play.
You can play it with up to 3 friends although only playing characters will enter the field (there won't be any NPC) and you have to fight 15 waves of enemies.
They start slow with the little spiders and weaker robots and every wave, obviously, becomes tougher and harder to fight.
Kills give you points that you can spend on life, ammo and additional weapons and grenades. You also have to unlock doors to have more of the map at your disposal and reach rooms with shields and more powerful weapons to be bought.

The little squares you get when killing robots fill your ability bar, just as in the campaign. Is very important to pick your characters carefully.
I can certainly suggest Arcee (cloaking and shockwave) and Ratchet (turret and shield) if you're playing in two only (but also do include them in any larger team).

I have to say tough that playing it in only two is very hard but still fun, we have reached wave 11 so far but have good chanced to improve our score!


Conclusion
This is definitely a game worth picking and playing, it's very well done and it's really fun in all 3 modes: co-op campaign, multi-player and escalation.
Definitely a solid 8.5.

Requests to developers

Games grow ever more complex and complete, yet, sometimes the end-users run into smaller or larger choices that somehow do spoil the gaming experience.

Of course, I'm not talking about bugs, those are just that, things to be fixed, but rather about how some things are implemented or some choices that maybe aren't that big a deal for a developer but that can be a bit or very annoying to some users.

So, based on personal experience and "issues" I've had I've compiled this little list for developers, little forethought that can improve users experience (sometimes even a lot!).

- Subtitles everywhere (in game, in cut-scenes etc.)
while nowadays the quality of dubbing in games is certainly superior to what it used to be some years ago the truth is the original voicing is (almost) always superior.
Just think about Uncharted 2, the voice was recorded together with the action, something that even a great dubbing cannot replicate.
Not to mention original actors are usually chosen with great care while for dubbing sometimes choices are more limited (due both to time and money restrictions).

Also, for some languages (in places where game audience is small as well as the money that can be invested) dubbing isn't available so people have to do with the original voicing and subtitles.

Also do not forget there are deaf/half deaf people, for them the subtitles is the only way they can access a game dialogue.

Yet, there are games where subtitles aren't available everywhere.
An appalling example is Ratchet & Clank that only have subtitles for cut-scenes and not for the in-game dialogue. While the in-game dialogue isn't that relevant it still is part of the game, so why no sub-titles?

Marvel: the Ultimate Alliance 2 is another example with the subtitles only available for single player but no multiplayer, however give the amazing sheer amount of bugs in the game that was probably just one of many.

- Well paced subtitles
this isn't actually something I have run into very often, however if you've got Splinter Cell: Conviction you know what I'm talking about: a few sentences that vanish after like a couple of seconds making it impossible to really read it.
I find it pretty amazing that no one noticed this issue for such a big title.



- Separate audio settings for voices/FXs etc.
It's become a habit to separate the audio settings for Music and effects in game, however not every game includes different settings for actual effects and voices making it a real problem.

When I play Red Dead Redemption I really feel like I'm going to become deaf: the shooting is very loud while voices are very low which means you raise the volume to hear the dialogues and then your eardrums are hurt by any sudden shooting: bad feel and bad experience.
This is particularly nasty when using headphones and can easily cause headache if you don't pause the game every ten second to raise and lower the volume (quite annoying!).
This is something that would also be very useful in Ratchet & Clank where the weapons sound really is noisy and it's practically impossible to hear voices while you shoot.

On the other hand there are games that already do it: Demon's Soul for example or Transformers: War for Cibertron: 2 thumbs up for them!



- Easy/fast way to mute players or send messages in-game
Multiplayer is becoming hotter and hotter with many games including such an experience even when they are mostly conceived for single players (see: Uncharted, Splinter Cell: Conviction etc.).

Things very useful to have are:
- easy/fast way to mute players. While I understand the value of talking in-game I really find it annoying to listed to kids bubbling their stuff or people putting their music at high volume.
I really can't understand what drives these people annoy others but the point is there are annoying people so please, let us mute them fast and easy (still have to find how to do it in Transformers: War for Cybertron)

- ability to send messages in-game.
Playing Red Dead Redemption lately it was really a pain when I had send someone a message and had to do so through PSN messaging system. It wasn0t annoying because I had to use the PSN messaging system but because I had to go look for the person among my recently met players and then send him/her the message, there was no way to just click a button in-game and have the PSN message window appear automatically (unless I'm dumb and blind).
Yes, there are headphones etc. but not everyone speaks the same language, you know, especially in Europe ;)!



- Non-locked saves
Please, p l e a s e, PLEASE!!! Or pretty please with sugar on top, if you prefer: make the saves copy-able to an external device.
Really, consoles aren't everlasting and they are subject to failures!!!
If you do play games yourself you probably do know how frustrating it is to just lose all your game progress, especially when you're about to finish a game.

This is also particularly true when one is after trophies and maybe was just missing a few that, however, will require a complete walk-through to get again (and yes, while Killzone 2 is a pretty amazing game playing it for the third time from scratch gets boring).

Many games nowadays have a very high re-playability value so that's not very "smart" to make saves unloackable because once one loses everything the re-play value is lost.
A fitting example is Heavy Rain. I'm 70% done with still some different paths to experience, I'm not into it right now though and if I lose my save (PS3 dies etc.) I'll just have to replay everything from scratch: meh.

On the other hand there are very loooong games, such as Demon's Soul, for example: if you lose your character progress, that's really excruciating!

I can understand there are sound reasons for locking saves but I also imagine XBOX360 and PS£ programmers are smart enough to find a way-out and make "hackers" or smart-asses harmless and players happy.
Really, just think about it: How many smart-asses are you "handcuffing" and how many regular players are you upsetting? I'm pretty sure the latter are many, many more and I'd say it's the latter that should really be your primary concern, right?

- Differently named saves
For those kind and smart programmers/developers that DO actually allow us to put our saves in a safe place (yeah, I've learned by past experiences and I have a tiny PS3 USB key in one of my PS3 USB ports all the time) I do have one more request: could you kindly ^_^ name saves in slightly different ways?
When I go and save my Red Dead Redemption progress I can basically only save 1 save rather than multiple, the same was Biochock 2, but it would actually be much more useful if we could save different progress, or maybe the saves folder as a whole!


- Avoid "tricky" trophies
Ok, this only happened once but it was painful, I played InFamous hard from the very beginning, but the beginning wasn't actually early enough.
Well, those of you that run into this know what I'm talking about. Basically to get the trophy for having played InFamous hard you had to switch immediately after the game starts to hard mode.
The point is you were immediately sucked into the game so it really wasn't that straightforward to go and check those settings.

If you want to do something like that (not just the same thing, you know, simply something that could be compared in flavour), please, just prompt a message or window asking if one wants to switch to hard mode so that one doesn't miss a game-long trophy for a couple of minutes of non-hard playing at the beginning!


- Show "hidden" trophies after the 1st walk-through
Many people like to platinum or max the achievements of a game, it's a way to show they truly like the game and did 100% of what could be done.
While I agree some trophies (story-related) should remain hidden to avoid "spoiling" players I don't get why others should.
Truth is people interested will just check the lists posted online since it's quite impossible to guess a hidden trophy with all things that can be done in most games so why don't developers just reveal all trophies once the first walk-though is over?
That would be quite convenient!



Well, that's certainly not all that could be asked but already quite a few things, hopefully someone will take them into consideration, I think it's good feedback from players!

p.s.: note that my examples usually mention fairly recent games but obviously they aren't based on these games only, it's just that these are the ones I remember exactly about!

Happy Gaming!
Ivy

Controllers: in the end they're all quite pricey!

Many frowned at the announced price for Kinect set at around 149$ but truth be told it isn't much more expensive than Wii controllers or SONY's Move, in fact, if you think about it, it probably is the less pricey.

Don't forget in fact that 1 Kinect will serve everyone using the XBOX360 for any purpose.

Wii and Move controllers on the other hand have to be purchased in pair or even more for multiplayer and not only purposes.

The Move archer sport game, for example featured two sticks, which means 49.99$ (39.99€) + 49.99$ (39.99€) for one player only. If there are multiplayers games where you have to contemporary use two sticks, well, the price rises sensibly and quite easily.
If you put together a Playstation Eye, 2 sticks and the navigator you have reached the Kinect price and surpassed it.

The same can be said for Wii accessories since more or less the prices are the same than Move.

So, of course Kinect seems a tad pricey but it's a one time purchase while the other accessories will likely need to be purchased in multiples but before doing any calculation let's see the first Move releases and the required hardware for playing!

Ivy

An objective take on the E3

Now that Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony conferences are gone we can really look at their take on E3 2010 and, as gamers, rejoice about the months to come since all 3 have shown the audience great things to look forward.

Luckily for us European all 3 conferences were set at good times with Microsoft and Sony in the evening and Nintendo in the afternoon. (EA was in the evening too even if a bit late while Ubisoft and Activision ones were at late night for us in the EU).

I think that all in all they all showed something interesting for their user bases and with a good range of games and styles.

Microsoft (6):
MS's conference was probably the less "exciting" because we already knew about the exclusives Halo Reach, due in a few months, Gears Of War 3 and Fable III and the "usual" sport games were also quite predictable.

All these games are certainly highly anticipated by the respective franchise lovers and will fulfill the expectations however none of these did show something particularly "spectacular" as far as innovations are concerned and I wonder how the 4-players campaign in GOW3 will be handled: just like in GOW2 or with a new system (similar to Lost Planet 3, maybe?).
They were all bigger and better version of their predecessor so will certainly be enjoyable and enjoyed by many!

On the other hand we only saw a title for the new Crytek exclusive Kingdoms but nothing more and just a filmed presentation of Fable 3 too (again, seemed more of the same, so to speak).

As far as Kinect is concerned I think that they showed what what mostly expected: a peripheral for "alternative" gaming: sport, family games and dance.
Perhaps they spent too much time showing it but to be honest this was Kinect's E3 and they certainly have bet on it so it's just natural it was the center of the stage.

As for its appeal, I think that what they're trying to do it widening the XBOX360 experience to the whole family.
You have a X360 at home and you want to buy Kinect for your wife and kids and so on. At least, that's what I perceive as being their target audience for what they have shown.
It's hard to think they are actually targeting casual gamers with a 299$ console + 150$ peripheral vs Wii, it makes much more sense to "widen" the X360 usage to the whole family.

That said however the Star Wars Kinect game wasn't very impressive... although it was the only one that was trying to be a "real game" and perhaps there's more to it that was shown.

We also should not forget they presented the new X360 although the built-in wi-fi and larger HD aren't exactly WOW innovation factor and... is it slimmer?
More aggressive but not really "new" apart from the re-styling.

On the other hand it's always fun how they like to call Kojima on the stage to present someone else to present a Metal Gear on X360... he he.
By the way the new Metal Gear rising really looks cool and interesting, a game to look forward too, for both X360 and PS3 fans!


Nintendo (8):
It seems that people are really excited about the big N conference, I can just say: they finally showed an interesting line-up for gamers!
And tens of pretty girl with a 3DS attached to their belts :P.

They did mentioned NintenDogs(+cats) but then rather focused on the more interesting stuff: Zelda shown on stage, Disney's Epic Mickey, Metroid, GoldenEye, Donkey Kong and Kirby's Epic Yarn. A good lineup with different games for different tastes and definitely something that can be called "real games".
After all, no need to focus on Balance boards or something like that, those are things that you sell through TV ads rather than through E3 but show Zelda and you've won the conference hands off: at least that's what seems to have happened for the majority of journalists.

I'm not a Zelda fan so I can't really understand all the excitement about this new chapter however the game seemed pretty nice and with interesting mechanics.
I don't think everyone can really expect big graphic/gameplay/effects leaps or improvements as long as there is no hardware advancement that allows for them.

Disney's Epic Mouse really looked interesting. They presented it as a carefully thought-out and interesting game, a real game for everyone to enjoy with its own peculiarities and mechanics: certainly something to look forward for Wii owners.

The Mario sports game on the other hand it's more of the same Wii-casual-stuff, a Wii-sport with Mario etc. etc. but Nintendo must have Mario on stage every year, that's it.

3DS was also unveiled and it will certainly be an interesting one to check out although I wonder about retro-compatibility as this has only 1 touchable screen (I'm not sure I didn't pay attention or it wasn't mentioned).

The last note is about myself since while I haven't got any Nintendo console yet after they showed Kirby's Epic Yarn I just have to buy the Wii... Yeah, that's the good of being a gamer girl, you can revel in such cuteness with no second-thoughts!
Anyway apart from the super-cute graphic the new Kirby also featured a very interesting style and the nice 2D platform mechanic that is always be fun so I'm certainly looking forward to it.

Sony (8):
To me Sony's conference was the most anticipated and also interesting if a bit difficult to follow for "buffering" problems.
I also have to say though that their very dark stage and a bit too serious mood didn't convey the same gay atmosphere of the MS and Nintendo conferences; next year, just opt for something less dark and a bit more sparkling, after all it's about games and fun!

I'd say they wanted to convey a more serious approach and show facts but the conference could have been a bit more "brilliant" even though I didn't really find it so boring and anyway Tretton's way of speaking isn't more important than the news and games shown.

Sony has really shown an impressive line-up of games and not just exclusive and the take on Move it's what I was hoping/expecting: something perhaps not as "innovative" as Kinect but probably more versatile as far as games are concerned and more easily adaptable for more "hardcore" games.

They showed great exclusives: SOCOM 4 (with and without move support), Killzone 3, Little Big Planet 2, Infamous 2, Twisted Metal, Motorstorm Apocalypse, GT5 (for real, finally), echochrome 2 together with Move compliant Sorcery, Heroes on the Move etc.
Not many were demonstrated on stage, true, but most were available at the conference for live play.
And anyhow all were shown with in-game footage which is important.

The support for PSP bit sounded a tad "forced" so to speak, like telling we don't have a PSP2 to show because PSP is enough already however they almost exclusively featured PSP3000 rather than the GO which probably means it wasn't a giant success and certainly didn't replace the more classic PSP models.
Truth be told anyway the PSP does have a great collection of games and the most important (first party) PS3 exclusive have almost always a portable counterpart: GOW, Motorstor, LBP, Ratchet and Clank, Modnation Racers.
And perhaps now that 3DS is out they'll take a look at its 3D screen and make a 3D-PSP2!

The coca-cola partnership also did not spark any interest for me, it's junk food in my notes so it's not something that interests me the slightest but I guess that business-wise it's something for them that deserves stage-promotion.

On the other hand the Kevin Butler moment was quite fun and Gabe Newell on stage a BIG surprise, it would be really nice to know what he really thinks after all the bad-mouthing about the PS3 however I'm also certainly looking forward to Portal 2 on the Ps3.

PSN+? Don't know, I want to check out the details but if it's not something that really has impact on the gaming experience (like X360 own servers) it's still interesting but not so exciting.
Still, it sounded like a good deal so for people that are a lot into gaming may certainly be worth it!

On the 3D side if there is a someone that can make 3D gaming a reality it definitely is SONY and they certainly are working to make it come true.
Not using the glasses would be awesome but that's probably not something that can happen in the very near future although there are those working on the technology already (and nope, it's not the same having it work on a DS screen than on a large TV).

Missing: The Last Guardian, The Agent (but them Rockstar hadn't shown anything at all).

CONCLUSIONS:
In the end I think we can safely say that SONY had the most impressive lineup as far as games quality, variety and technology (3D etc.) are concerned so apart from the conference itself that maybe wasn't particularly "brilliant" the truth is PS3 owners will only be spoilt for choice in the forthcoming months.
Their take on the Move device also seemed to please gamers since they showed it as a device even for real games and not just casual ones.

Nintendo raised the bar mostly because they actually focused on the real games this year and presented some very nice novelties (Kirby and Disney's Epic mouse) and actually responded to their core gamers requests.
They also presented 3DS which is certainly an interesting piece of news.

Microsoft seemed to "fail" expectations because they spent much of the conference on Kinect (not to mention the infamous poncho presentation) but actually also did show the next iterations of their exclusive and most important franchises (Halo, Gears of War, Fable and a new exclusive from Crytek) and a re-styled and more aggressive X360 finally with wi-fi and a large HD, so apart from the crazy dances etc. it wasn't so bad.

By the way and whatever you side, just enjoy gaming, there's something for everyone!
Ivy

The 7 things Modnation Racers did wrong

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.

Flower....

Yesterday I show flower to a friend and I felt in love so much again...


This is one of the most amazing games I've ever played!

Flowers looks like a simple game, incredibly beautiful to see and listen to, but there is so much in this game.
It's a sort of spiritual path. From start to the end, where you need to put all your effort to achieve great results.
It's a path for freedom, for your dream and for an utopia.
An utopia that blossoms in your dreams and you don't need to kill anything, but only apply yourself to free your dreams.
There are many important things you'll find during your travel, an immersion into the darkness to find the light and rise high to the sky and swift again over the earth and run free and wild as only the wind can do.

The game is awesome, from the start to the beautiful ending.
Yes, it looks like it's short, but I think the game has a perfect length, because it's a very intense experience and thanks to some people, we are lucky to play this game and it's an experience that no one should miss.

Reported comment from my VG hero
Ivy

Modnation Racers Review: A FUNtastic game!!!

Modnation Racers is the second release in the Play-Create-Share line and just as the first (Little Big Planet) it really is spot on as far as fun, customization and playability are concerned!



PLAY: being a game the core of it is playing and playing is really fun and engaging!
The kart commands are easy to master and driving experience is great.
Mastering the kart doesn't only mean learning to drive but also learning to effectively use the drift, the draft, the boosts and the various weapons against your opponents and obviously exploiting the track shortcuts, boosts, ramps etc.

You can play online against other 11 players either in ranked match (to earn XP) or in private ones.

And you can play the career mode where you unlock bonuses, earn tokens to spend on kart parts and unlock achievements (that also unlock mod parts, tracks items, NPS characters and so on).

The career mode (which also serves as tutorial and presentation at the beginning) is really well built: you basically impersonate a racer that is making progress to the professional circuit.
Everything is well thought-out: your manager, your mechanic, the funny commentators, all the details are there to suck you into the experience.

The races are funny and challenging with a good difficulty curve as you progress to higher level and more difficult races and with ever more challenging achievements.
The challenges get indeed harder and harder and, unfortunately, sometimes the AI really seem to "play against you" since once you complete one of the challenges on a track where you could "easily" win everyone plays against you to not make you arrive 1st, so some of the later tracks achievements are really hard to beat and require a lot of trials (so always remember to keep your boost for the shield)!
I would suggest to go on with the main career first to gather experience and then feel less frustrated at doing the challenges.


There are many little and bigger details that make the experience more intriguing and interesting and that really speak for the creativity and care put into the game:
for example the characters on the circuit show the very character faces so that's is really easy to understand what's your position on the track.
The shortcut scenes in the career mode add depth and involvement to the game.
The racers you race against are also nicely characterized as NPCs and everyone has his/her "cut-scene" when you race on their circuit.

The tracks are varied and really well built, the environments rich and detailed.
They are long enough to be varied but also short enough that you can easily memorize them and the best route to follow.
All tracks were built on different height levels and pose different challenges and options as far as terrain type, boosts and jump or shortcuts are concerned.
Everyone has its own flavour and its dangers and you can really build your own strategy.
They grow more complex as you progress so that you get easily used to the different threats and treats each track includes.

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CREATE: this part is just as great as the play part!
There are basically 3 things you can do:
- customize your mod (character)
- customize your kart
- create tracks.

The editors are incredibly user-friendly and creating custom content really is a breeze.
As you start there are many things that are locked (and that you earn through career mode either fulfilling achievements or collecting points that you can spend at the store) but you can already create a very personal racer.

There are tens of body parts, clothes and stickers you can mix and match, overlap and edit in many different ways.
And the very same is true for the karts!

The only limit is your imagination.

While creating a track from scratch may sound daunting at first it really isn't so and you'll be surprised yourself how quickly and easy you can create your own track.
It really is as easy as it was shown at E3 2009 for those that watched it!
Of course if you really want to create something unique and special you'll have to spend a bit more time on it but the editor is great and you'll just have fun doing it!

One can easily spend hours customizing mods (characters), karts and tracks without even realizing it, it's so much fun!

Fear not, if there are any pieces you're missing for your mod you can mix an already available mod as you like. Above my Black Cherry is based on Lish since I still have to unlock that hair style!

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SHARE: couldn't be easier, you just save your stuff, go at the share boot and upload it using the most appropriate tags!
And downloading is just as easy, go at the booth, browse and download what you like!

Bubble Gum, a cute alien girl (on the left) is the first mod I've shared (Black Cherry coming soon together with her car). On the right Cap. James T. Kirk still needs the final touches :).

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And so....
The game is really stylish, the characters remind those vinyl toys that designers love to customize so much.
The graphic is excellent, very detailed and polished, there is no place where you feel something is missing, in fact the tracks are cluttered with items with nice special effect such as dust, boost and the various weapons effects.

As for the loading times to be honest they aren't so painful or unbearable. Sometimes you have to wait a few seconds indeed but to be honest you can just spend that time imagining your next mod or kart!!!

I have to confess that after trying the beta a few months back I was a bit perplexed as far as the frame-rate was concerned as it felt a bit too low but the final game doesn't have any frame-rate problem.
It probably isn't a 60 frames per second but the frame-rate is high enough and steady for a great racing experience!

This isn't a game for kart/racing games fans only, it's a game for everyone that likes to have fun!!!

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Conclusions:
First and foremost because it really is FUN!
Racing is a breeze, the tracks are very well built and intriguing, the game is really involving.

The create part of the game is fantastic, user-friendly and very easy to master.

All in all is a really involving and funny game you'll be spending hours playing!

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UPs:
funny, intriguing driving experience
infinite room for customization
lots of bonuses/achievemnts to unlock

DOWNs:
you can't invite friends to online ranked matches.
harder challenges can be very hard as the AI seems to really play against you
the online still needs to be finalized: both for matchmaking and disconnections

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My SCORES:

GRAPHIC: 9
ART: Very stylish, the vinyl-toys template for the mods works a treat for customization.
Great variety but the style is always consistent.

ENGINE: works very well, good anti-aliasing and good frame-rate for a smooth race experience. The graphic always looks polished and rich! Nice weapons effects.

SOUND: 8.5
MUSIC: good music that matches the game style

VOICES: the commentators are really fun and nice to listen too, good variety of voices for the mods as well!

GAMEPLAY: 9.5
The racing experience is smooth and well done, the controls are very responsive with nice additions to the basic experience: drifting, side-swiping etc.
The weapons "charging" feature is very nice.

Achievements and unlocks add re-playability and challenge to the game. Well structured tracks.

FUN FACTOR: 9.5
The career mode is an excellent experience, the difficulty level is well balanced.
Challenges are intriguing (though hard) and give nice rewards, The create is incredibly fun and user-friendly.

The online modes are good but need a patch, however the racing experience is smooth and well done!

ONLINE: 8.0
The online is promising but still quite bugged.
Matchmaking is faulty and disconnections all too frequent: a patch should solve the problems and make the experience very funny!

However you cannot create teams and invite friends to ranked races, only private ones.

OVERALL: 9.0

And have fun!!!
Ivy