There were a lot of racing games being shown at E3 2010 this year, but three of them really stood out. F1 2020, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and Gran Turismo 5 all were getting a lot of attention, and I got to try each of them out. Fans of racing games have a lot to look forward to in these three games. All three of these racing games are schedule to release before the end of the year.
F1 2010 is due to release in October 2010 and will be the first of the three games available. From Codemasters, F1 2010 looks amazing visually and the handling feels great. The handling actually realistically changes based on the in-game dynamic weather. Corners that were smooth and easy in the sun get slick and hard to control in the rain. In the F1 2010 career mode you not only have the races to deal with but the media and your team as well, or you can take the racing online against real life opponents. With a full set of assists to help racers a little, or a lot, I found F1 2010 to be a lot of fun. The visuals and realism were astounding. If I turned off all the assists and then made even small mistakes I was in the grass or a wall just like it would be in real life F1 racing.
Gran Turismo 5 is shaping up to be one of the largest racing games ever made. There are going to be over 900 cars and hundreds of tracks available. They are including rally, road, drift and NASCAR events to compete in. I’m not very good at simulation races like Gran Turismo 5, but it was a lot of fun to try out some amazing cars in game and know that they fell just like that in real life. The game looks really good and will support 3D HDTVs for those that have them. If you’re getting only one racing game this year then when Gran Turismo 5 releases in November it should be in the top of your list just because of the sheer amount of stuff in the game.
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit is bringing the series back to it racer verse cop style matches. I got to try a few of these one-on-one matches as the racer and it was a great game play mode. It was a lot longer than I expected per match, but that may have been because my opponent and I were evenly matched. The racer is trying to get away from the cop, and the cop is trying to run the racer off the road. Both sides have a few special abilities that slowly unlock. As a racer you can jam the radar of the police, but use it wisely because the cops can call in a road block or a spike strip. The dynamics of the race were really fun. The controls felt a little heavy but I got use to them fairly quickly. I’m assuming in the full game that sensitivity can be adjusted. Need for Speed Hot Pursuit is releasing in mid-November 2010 and will be a great game to play against friends.
Sources:
E3, E3Expo.com
Gran Turismo 5, Gran-Turismo.com
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, NeedforSpeed.com
F1 2010, Codemasters.com
