RacePro Updated Hands-On

RacePro Updated Hands-On

"The problem is when you have a lot of horsepower." So says SimBin Studio's creative director Diego Sartori, one of the driving forces behind the studio's upcoming racing debut on the Xbox 360, RacePro. Long known for its heralded PC sim-racing games, including GTR, GTR 2, and last year's Race 07, the studio is branching out with RacePro, a game that the studio hopes will please hardcore racing fans and perhaps create a few new racing fans along the way. We've had a chance to spend some time with an updated build of RacePro and, yesterday, we spoke with Sartori about the game's evolution on the Xbox 360.So, back to that horsepower problem. As Sartori puts it, one of the benchmarks in developing a successful racing game is making the upper-echelon cars in the game both compelling and manageable. "We still want to have a game that can handle a lot of horsepower, but still have an intuitive [driving] experience. I definitely think once you open up the more powerful cars [in RacePro], the game begins to flex its muscles and shows how well we have managed."

You go about unlocking those upper-tier cars in the game's career mode, which appears to be the game's single-player highlight. It's organized in a very straightforward manner: You earn credits by placing high in races, and then use those credits to open test drives for teams in other classes. You start off in low-powered rides like Mini Coopers but, soon enough, you'll be piloting 400+-horsepowered brutes around the game's 13 circuits from all over the world. There are eight tiers that you'll need to conquer throughout your career, and though each tier will feature a mixture of car classes to choose from, the further you progress in the game, the hotter the rides (and the tougher the competition).

From a development standpoint, RacePro's mixture of approachability and demanding realism called for a brand-new game engine, codenamed "Lizard," to be built for the console. Although the game is still in development, and the preview build that we played had some rough edges (namely in the unstable frame rate), there are some important high points that improve on what SimBin fans have come to expect on the PC. Take track surfaces, for example. As Sartori put it, track deformations have been significantly improved in RacePro. You need only drive a single lap at a track like Brno--a constantly changing, engrossingly challenging track in the Czech Republic--for proof. When entering and exiting certain corners--turns that we've experienced many times in other console games--we were shocked by the amount of undulations threatening to upset the balance of our car. And the more powerful the ride, the more obvious each and every bump becomes.

As Sartori put it, that extra attention to track surface detail will play a big role in determining how you want to attack any course in the game. Now, of course, every track is different. Sartori describes Brno as a track in which every corner is connected--and a mistake on one turn will have ramifications on upcoming corners, if not the entire lap. Other courses in the game, such as Italy's Monza and Brazil's Curitiba, have a little more room for error yet are still, in their own ways, lots of fun to drive. To help you make the most of your laps, a color-coded racing-line feature can be turned on or off. Although the feature itself has become a racing staple over the years, we were interested in learning why the developers at SimBin went with a static racing line, as opposed to the dynamic line featured in Forza Motorsport 2. As Sartori put it, there's something to be said for a line that shows you the optimal line around a track, not just one that helps you get out of trouble if you make a mistake in braking or accelerating.

While the game's racing line is immovable, there will be lots of options for tuning your car. Like any racing game worth its salt, RacePro will go deep with the tweaking options; gear ratios, downforce, and brake bias are just a few of the aspects of your ride that you'll be able to change. Sartori told us that the development team has put a lot of effort into finding the correct default setups for all of the cars in the game. In fact, once the game's base physics system was in place, a large part of the testing came in the form of determining just how those default car setups should drive. As a result, the cars are currently set to understeer a bit, meaning that they're less twitchy and nervous in the corners, which presumably makes them easier to drive from the outset.

With a list of cars that range from Mini Coopers to open-wheeled F3000 cars, and a host of GT-class cars, race fans will likely find something to love in RacePro. We're particularly fond of the open-wheel Formula BMW rides; with front and rear wings that give you downforce in turns and enough horsepower to be fun, these rides seem to find the sweet spot between control and power in the early goings of the game. This is just a handful of the 44 unique car models found in the game, with plenty of different liveries to choose from.Though RacePro will feature racing for up to 12 players online, there is an offline mode known as Hot Seat that looks like a good alternative for those who don't want to hop online. Here you can race competitively against a friend, or race cooperatively, with each player taking a turn driving the car. When racing cooperatively, you choose how many laps you want, the number of opponents and their skill and, most interestingly, the length of time that each player drives before switching out. You can choose between time (30 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds, and so on) or number of laps. In a race, a prompt appears onscreen a few seconds before you switch over to the other controller. It's certainly no substitute for online competition against real foes, but it is an interesting twist on multiplayer racing.

RacePro will ultimately support online racing for up to 12 players, but the build that we played wasn't ready for online yet. However, we're hoping to hook up with the SimBin folks in a couple of weeks to check out that aspect of the game and hopefully learn some tips from the pros on how to improve our times on the various tracks. We'll be sharing those tips with you in our next look at RacePro in December.

AMD Phenom 2 Processor

AMD had to overcome a few hiccups in the initial Phenom launch and revisit its pricing to stay competitive with Intel in the Core 2 era, but AMD's back in the game with the new Phenom II processor. It's not exactly a knockout blow, but the Phenom II X4 has the right price and enough performance to do some damage.

This year AMD will ship two new quad-core Phenom II X4 processors, the 940 Black Edition and the 920, clocked at 3.0GHz and 2.8GHz, respectively. Black Edition processors come with an unlocked multiplier setting to make overclocking easier for PC enthusiasts. The processors differ only in clock speed, and have identical specifications otherwise. The Phenom II X4 processors will come with 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (512KB total L1 per processor), and 512KB of L2 data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor). The processors will also have a shared 6MB L3 cache and will feature an onboard DDR2 memory controller with 17.1 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Built on a 45nm manufacturing process, the processors will have a relatively cool maximum thermal-dissipation value of 125 watts. Cool 'n' Quiet 3.0, AMD's power-management solution, keeps the Phenom II X4 chilly during periods of inactivity. AMD states that the CPU will now use 50 percent less energy while idle in comparison to Cool 'n' Quiet 2.0.

In a move sure to make existing Phenom owners happy, Phenom II X4 processors will be backward compatible with existing AM2+ motherboards. Motherboard manufacturers will release BIOS updates to ensure compatibility. As a follow-up in early 2009, AMD will release AM3 socket-based Phenom II X4 and X3 processors. Both will also be backward compatible with current AM2+ motherboards and will support both DDR2 and DDR3 memory.

AMD also bundles the Fusion and Overdrive utilities with the processors. Fusion helps to improve gaming performance by disabling scores of Windows services and slightly overclocking the entire system. AMD's Overdrive utility helps to automatically overclock the system and lets users apply those settings on an application-specific level. Overdrive helped bumped our Black Edition up to a final speed of 3333MHz when we tried it out.

The new Phenom II X4 processors will be available immediately in quantity. Expect to find the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition retailing for $275, and the Phenom II X4 920 at $235.

From the pricing angle, the best direct competitor to the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition is Intel's 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad Q9400, a quad-core processor with 6MB of L2 cache. Intel's Core i7 920 sits at a similar price point, but the total cost of ownership is much higher for the i7 after you factor in the cost of the motherboard and memory. The i7 processor requires DDR3 memory and a motherboard with an LGA 1366 socket. DDR3 memory costs roughly twice as much as DDR2. AM2+-based motherboards start in the $50 range and cap off at $200, whereas LGA socket 1366 boards start at $200 and can run as high as $400.

We didn't have Intel's 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad Q9400 processor on hand for our comparison. Instead, we clocked our Core 2 Extreme QX6800 with 8MB of L2 cache down to 2.66GHz and put it up against the Phenom II X4 940 to see how the chips stack up.

Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace's development must have felt like one of those inspirational sports movies - like Rocky or Champions - where the odds are stacked against them from the very beginning. First off, QoS is a movie to video game crossover directly tied in to the launch of the movie it's pimping. Next up there's the whole "Goldeneye" factor, where any game featuring James Bond will always be compared to one of the most famously championed video games ever. Then there's the fact that the game is made by Treyarch - a competent development team commonly known in gaming circles as "Not Infinity Ward".You'll see the effort that went into the game - and the subsequent failure to reach its goal - within the first 15 minutes of the game. Straight up you'll see how much detail has gone into making James Bond look like Daniel Craig. They put a lot of effort into putting Daniel Craig into the game - far beyond just getting him to do some voice acting. It's astounding how good the whole thing looks - and then the rest of the game rears its head. 

While the character models are fantastic, the rest of the game is not so great. The car animations, environmental effects and the gunfire - all the other elements in the game look really average. The cover system is a great addition - because it shows off the work put into Daniel Craig - but the rest of the action is quite poor. Leaping out of cover can be very hit and miss - sometimes you'll run to another piece of cover, other times you'll stand in the crossfire, wondering what went wrong. 

One area you'd think QoS would be safe is the storyline - you've already got a story set out in the movie, right? Unfortunately the game flits between Casino Royale (the previous Bond film) and Quantum of Solace so often you get confused as to who you need to kill. It's also somewhat short - but that's a curse inherent with the movie tie-in genre really. 

The bulk of the game is really in the multiplayer then - and Quantum of Solace is actually quite cool in this regard. You don't have to worry about poor car animations here - it's pure kill or be killed in the game's more than adequate multiplayer. The Call of Duty 4 engine provides QoS with a solid multiplayer foundation - although things do work a bit different. 

You have your average deathmatch stuff plus three other modes - a FFA style Golden Gun mode, a mode reminiscent of the old VIP_ maps on Counter-Strike - one player is Bond while everyone else either protects him or kills him and my favourite - a Bond versus the world mode. One player is Bond and everyone else is a guard - if you're Bond you want to avoid other people at all costs while you find bombs littered around the map, and if you're a guard... Find Bond and kill him! 

Multiplayer makes up for the short singleplayer experience, but we're forced to wonder if it's enough to get people buying the game. With decent support from Treyarch - new maps and regular DLC - QoS's online community might be worthwhile for some time, but Treyarch are involved with so many projects right now we're not sure that will happen. If you can find a core group of players to get your game on with you're at least guaranteed some fun in MP. 

Using the Call of Duty 4 engine was a slick move from Treyarch, and the cover system is a fantastic addition - if a little rough around the edges. Quantum of Solace directly suffers at the hands of a strict movie release schedule - with more time the game could have been the Goldeneye replacement everyone has been dreaming of. If you're a diehard Bond fan you'll enjoy the game - you still play as James Bond - but with so many A grade titles out right now it might be worthwhile holding off on this purchase for now. Oh, and see the new movie first if you want to have some semblance of a clue as to what's going on.