Perhaps the most fun to be had playing a video game at the E3 trade show last week was sitting in a motor racing cockpit with 3D glasses and trying the new Gran Turismo for PlayStation 3.
The photorealism and visual and force-feedback effects were astonishing. And yet my favourite racing game currently – in a crowded field – remains another Sony game -ModNation Racers.
ModNation Racers is a cross between Nintendo’s Mario Kart and Sony’s Little Big Planet in the way it combines a fun karting game with the ability to be incredibly creative and design the game and characters yourself.
The difference between traditional racing video games and my oldScalextric set is that I don’t have to slot the track together before I start. ModNation Racers restores that need, but it is much more of a pleasure than a duty.
I first saw this demo’d by a developer at E3 last year, but was surprised at how easily a beginner like me could construct a track on screen, rolling out tarmac across a landscape, raising mountains and burrowing tunnels.
The track has to be a loop of some sorts – there is no linear option of creating say the Paris-Dakar rally, but circuits of great range and complexity can be put together in minutes and then pimped out with trees, buildings and variety of obstacles to negotiate on the track itself.
Beyond that there is a tremendous range of “modding” that can be done to the cars and characters. There is an almost infinite number of possibilities for changing clothing and features, meaning every character can be unique.
The same goes for the cars and their paint jobs and many accoutrements – it’s possible to select a toilet as the drivers’ seat and a hamster-wheel as an engine and still get around the track OK.
Like Little Big Planet, there is a big online element, with players able to upload and share what they’ve made.
Sony said at its E3 press conference last week that the game, launched in May, has already spawned more than half a million creations of tracks, karts and mods and was one of the most popular games on the PlayStation Network.
That’s quite an achievement given the current competitors out there – another kart-style game Split/Second from Disney, Activision’s Blur and Need for Speed World - an online way to burn virtual rubber from Electronic Arts.
