Real Racing
by Chris Thomas on Tuesday 30th Jun 2009

We like to think of ourselves as fashionably late to this party. Real Racing has been out for a few weeks now and we’ve spent the time refining our racing lines, mastering all of the control schemes and generally having a blast with one of the best games on the App Store.

The most obvious statements one can make about this game are undoubtedly regarding the visuals. Real Racing is slick. Slick like a greased up otter down a slip n’ slide, your jaw will drop during the opening cinematic. When it first played I expected it to be pre-rendered video, I expected that by touching the screen it would pull up the typical video controls of skip back, pause and skip forward. Nope. The footage is in-engine. Touching the screen just moves past it altogether, hurrying you along to the main menu where you can get into the game proper. Once you are racing your graphical expectations for all future iDevice games will be adjusted accordingly.

The in-cockpit view is the default camera and it delivers an incredible first impression. The dashboard is fully realised, there is no HUD, all the information you need is embedded within the cars interior. Beyond the windscreen the track winds off into the distance as the suitably PS1 era lens flare makes itself apparent. In fact everything about the way this game looks is reminiscent of the original Playstation as it hit its last few years of relevance. For anyone that loved the first few Gran Turismo games Real Racing is like meeting up with your first love for the first time in many years. Real Racing feels like home.

In terms of features and creating a product with a long lifespan Firemint have not held back. Real Racing packs in a 57 event strong career mode, time trials, quick race mode, local multiplayer and online leagues. There are 36 cars and there are 12 individual tracks to race them across. As if that wasn’t enough the game has some extremely cool bells and whistles attached, most notable is the ability to link your game to YouTube to automatically publish replays of your best laps.

Control is often a point of contention when it comes to the debate around iDevice gaming. Real Racing does everything it can to offer you as much or as little control as you like. For starters you have four control schemes to choose from; two schemes for tilt fans and two for touch fans. Both work well but we preferred the tilt to steer mechanic. The touch system works pretty well (place your thumb on the left side of the screen to create a virtual wheel then rock your thumb left to ride to steer) but on occasion your digit may end up outside of the recognised area causing you to drive straight into a wall. Complimenting these options you can select by means of a slider just how much assistance you would like with breaking. Take it all the way to zero and you’ll be accelerating the whole way until you physically touch the screen yourself. Push the slider to max and you can forget about breaking entirely and concentrate on steering. The hardcore will relish having complete control while the assisted breaking will make the game far more welcoming and enjoyable to those less experienced with hardcore racing sims.

Much has been made of the artificial intelligence in Real Racing which uses genetic algorithms as opposed to pre-set racing lines. It has to be said that you do notice a more natural set of responses from competing vehicles during the races. One issue that did prove quite irksome is the seemingly weighty nature of the competing vehicles. If ever we tried to ram an opponent or trade paint with them Burnout style it was always us that came off worse as our aggression seemed to have little effect beyond messing up our own racing line. Another potential qualm some may have is the little variation in the vehicles. You get 3 classes of vehicle; hatchback, Sedan and Muscle car but beyond a change in paint job there is little to distinguish one from another within those classes. You also don’t get detailed stats on the different vehicles; there is no information about any given cars acceleration, top speed or handling, all you get is the engine size (a 4.0 litre is preferable over a 3.8 litre for instance).

Audio-wise Real Racing delivers some cracking sound effects, the engine sounds, the skid noise; none of it can be faulted. The soundtrack is made up of 10 songs by indie artists, most sound pretty good and add to the excitement but one or two tracks seemed almost inappropriately fast paced for what is essentially a sim racer. Being able to listen to ones own MP3’s during gameplay would be very much appreciated.

At £5.99 Real Racing sits at the top of the gaming price spectrum and it sits there justly and with pride. Show this game to a friend and it will redefine his or her expectations of mobile gaming and as a result Firemint are now ambassadors of the App Store. Real Racing comes agonizingly close to perfection with mind blowing visuals, staggeringly deep gameplay and a complete feature set. It won’t win over those that don’t enjoy the sim racing genre (keep holding your breath for Burnout) but for anyone else this game is a must. Firemint have shown us what they’re capable of and we cannot wait to see what they put their collective efforts towards next.

Page 1 of 1

---

1 comment

---

---

---

---