Fast & Furious Adrenaline [rating: 3.5/5]
Last month we got our hands on a preview release of Fast & Furious Adrenaline which while it had it’s rough edges it had a lot of promise. Well now Fast & Furious Adrenaline has received its full release and the question is have those kinks been ironed out and more importanly is it worth adding to your garage of iPhone/iPod Touch games?
For those of you that don’t know the Fast & Furious line of games are arcade racing games, a dirtier, rougher style of driving compared to track racing and more forgiving to allowing you to drive more aggressively with aggression positively rewarded, where errors are forgiven rather than resulting in you being embedded in a wall. Adrenaline carries on in that tradition. This time the racing takes place in Los Angeles and you are tasked with joining a crew and taking over the city.
This is done by completing various races including Road Races, Cop Chase, Time Trial, Boss Battle and Drag Race. Much of these race types are what you have come to expect in these types of games with the Drag Race offering the only new racing style where you race head to head against 3 other races down a strip using manual gears to get a jump on your opponents. It’s a nice addition to the other standard styles.
While the graphics have been improved from the early version they still aren’t the best that have been seen on the iPhone/iPod Touch, that being said they don’t take away from the overall experience.
The single player mode offers a lot of value, you’ll find yourself racing and competing against 3 other crews in the various races as you aim to take over the city.
What F&F Adrenaline does offer are 3 different control styles. The default option is to use the accelerometer and it works well and is responsive while the 2nd option gives you a virtual steering wheel. The third and my preferred option are the touch controls which enables the left and right sides of the screen to steer your car. This was the most accurate method for me and other than the slight annoyance of your finger covering the mini-map it’s a small price to pay.
There are two multi-player options available too, the local multi-player option worked well and there were no dropped sessions over the 10 or so races I played, and then there is the online multi-player option.
The online multi-player option isn’t a true head-to-head race, instead you will race against the pre-set times of other racers in an attempt to beat them. This is entertaining enough but this is no replacement for true head to head racing and lacks the bite of those games that offer that choice.
What has been well implemented is the Facebook integration which not only allows you to brag about your successes but also allows you to automatically upload video’s of your races.
The results are pretty impressive too with a highlight reel of your action being upload in less than a minute for all your Facebook friends to watch at their leisure.
Overall while F&F Adranaline is an enjoyable racer it lacks the cutting edge and atmosphere of similar titles and may leave you feeling short changed.
The Good
The Not So Good
Price: $5.99 (iTunes Store Preview)
Released: Apr 22, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.0.0
Size: 45.3 MB
Language: English
Seller: Digital Bridges Limited t/a I-play
© 2010. Fast & Furious is a trademark and copyright of Universal Studios. Licensed by Universal Studios Licensing LLLP. All rights reserved. © 2010. Published by I-play. All Rights Reserved. I-play is a trademark and trading name of Oberon Media, Inc. and its subsidiaries.
Rated 4+
Need for Speed Shift for iPad [rating: 4.5/5]
Sets the Bar for Street Racing Games!
The motor racing genre of games has always been one of my favourites, from Sega Rally and Gran Tourismo to Project Gotham Racing and Power Drift I’ve been playing them for a long time and enjoy the chance to get my adrenaline buzz in the safety of my own home rather than out on the roads where instead of damaging a few pixels the damage from a crash would be considerably more damaging.
Need for Speed Shift for iPad like all the other NFS incarnations is a street racing game although while the emphasis is still on the ‘dirty’ racing style these are closed street circuits that you find yourself racing and so you don’t have to worry about other non-racing cars or the police as you race to the finishing line.
The controls are going to be very familiar with players who have played racing games on any of the iDevice’s before. Steering is controlled via tilting the screen left or right while acceleration and breaking are all handled for you for the most part. Certainly for your first few attempts using the Rookie controls are going to be the easiest, however you aren’t necessarily going to have the most fun driving like this so you can also choose from the Professional or Expert control methods that will require you to control the acceleration, brake and gear change.
Which control method you select while the level of difficulty may rise, after all breaking, accelerating, changing gear and steering while navigating a corner is much more difficult than just steering the controls and their responsiveness are a pleasure to use. In addition the method of power-sliding is very well implemented with a quick twitch of the iPad all that is need to pull off that ever so satisfying drift.
While drifting is fun it’s not required as much in other similar street style racing games and considering how well it’s been implemented that’s a little disappointing. What is rewarded though is aggressive driving, again something that is much better kept to the virtual streets than real life, and you will gain additional points for slip-streaming, blocking and aggressive over taking all of which are definitely required as you progress though the levels.
The graphics will want to make you show off your iPad even more than you do already and surpass that of Real Racing. The city back-drops of London, Chicago and Tokyo look great as do the effects of your car as the speed along the city streets. I especially like the slip-streaming effects of the air rushing of your car any time you slip behind the car in front of you to get a tow and a boost of speed, it not only looks great but acts as visual prompt as to the fact that you are gaining the benefits of being in the right place.
So we’ve established that the game looks great and most importantly for a racing game handles great, now lets get under the hood so to speak and look at the numbers.
There are 28 cars in total including 8 exclusive ones including my personal dream car the Koenigsegg CCX which was a joy to drive. All of these cars are customizable with the tires, suspension and nitro’s all purchasable with your winning. As long as you have some money left over from purchasing your car in the first place that is.
You can also pimp your ride to make your truly your own with a range of spoilers, rims and custom paint jobs and body kits. The three locations include a total of 18 tracks with the night ones proving most impressive to me.
The are three modes of play, for those wanting to dive right in there is the simplicity of Quick Play while those looking to build their career can choose the Career Mode. It’s not easy either, which is no bad thing. You’ll have to earn your money on the track and balance the modifications to your car with purchasing new ones.
Even on the lowest of the three difficulty levels the AI seems intelligent and moves well to block and to overtake. While the AI can be aggressive it’s not to the point of frustration and being aggressive in your driving will be rewarded too.
Finally there is the local multi-player mode which works over both Bluetooth and WiFi, it works well but is limited as it requires you knowing someone else with both an iPad and NFS Shift. Online multi-player would have made this a 5 out of 5 game.
Need for Speed Shift for iPad is a winner both on and over the track and is a great balance of racing sim and arcade racer. I would even go as far as saying that NFS Shift for iPad is better than Real Racing!
The Good
The Not So Good
Price: $14.99 (iTunes Store Preview)
Released: Apr 01, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.0.0
Size: 204 MB
Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish
Seller: Electronic Arts
© 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Rated 4+
Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later.
Racing games on the iPhone/iPod Touch are big business, they are extremely popular and they demand the top prices too so they are obviously doing some right. The newest racing game to hit the streets around April 16th is Fast & Furious Adrenaline from the franchise of the same name, and it is to street racing what Real Racing is to track racing.
Something that comes across from the start is the high production values of the game. The graphics of the menus and cut-scenes are well produced and look good however that is not fully translated to the in-game graphics as you race around the streets of Los Angeles.
The street race format see’s you joining one of four crews in an attempt to take over and own the city streets. This is mainly covered in the Story Mode where you will progress through five different race types as you attempt to beat your rivals. The five races types are road race, time trial, cop chase, drag race and boss battle which all offer different types of racing styles.
The path through the Story Mode certainly is pretty linear to begin with although as you progress you will get multiple race types to chose from although ultimately you will have to complete them all in some order to become king of the streets!
The 30+ cars handle well as you race around the city although some of the collisions are a little soft but nothing that you wouldn’t expect from an arcade racer rather than and sim and at times collisions with the track are either to harsh or have no impact at all. Also while using this preview build the game crashed pretty frequently, hopefully this is something that can be fixed before the final release.
It’s great that you are offered 3 steering options to choice from which offer different alternatives to steering your vehicle while the break and nitro’s are all controlled through virtual buttons. The accelerometer controls allow’s you to steer your car by tilting your device left and right and are very responsive. Then there is the steering wheel option which places a virtual steering wheel in the bottom left hand corner of the screen that you use your left thumb to control, and finally the touch controls that allow you to steer your car via touching the left and right hand side of your screen.
For me the best controls are the touch controls, they are sensitive and accurate and most importantly they produce the best results when it comes to accurate, long drifting which is something that is rare in any racing game on the iPhone/iPod Touch!
Multi-player is offered not only locally but also online. In it’s current pre-release version I was unable to download the ghosts and the only Facebook integration was the ability to post bragging rights when I won races and unlocked cars. I look forward to playing the game online and it will be interesting to see how the online aspect of the game via Facebook is integrated in the final release which also includes the ability to upload videos of your best races.
At present, and remember this is a pre-release version of the game so this may change, the in-game graphics feel a little stilted and the overall game currently feels cold and lacking atmosphere which in a street racing game more than any other is vitally important. That being said when you are travelling at high-speed what the city scape looks likes becomes less important.
While Fast & Furious Adrenaline beta build might have a few rough edges it still looks like it should be a great addition to the iPhone/iPod Touch list of racing games especially if those rough edges can be smoothed out. If you are looking for a fun and fast arcade racer then Adrenaline looks like it’s going to fit the bill for you when it’s finally released.
Preview Build Screenshots
Click image to enlarge
]]>
https://touchreviews.net/fast-furious-adrenaline-iphone-hands-on-preview/feed/ 2