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Capcom, Capcom, Where Did Your Mother And I Go Wrong?
Yesterday was supposed to be Zaino day. The day I finally put Zaino on my car and have it shine like nobody�s business (except Sal Zaino's). But, I�m still stalling on it. I�m worried that the optical properties of the Zaino will make the imperfect surface of my car look even more imperfect. Well, when I did get home, the PS2 racing game I�d been looking forward to for nearly a year was on my front porch. After returning a phone call to an insurance lady and then just giving her Aisai�s work number since I don�t know about any of that crap, I popped the game in. It sucks. Yes, Auto Modellista sucks. I really like driving games. My favorites of all time are Rage Racer, Gran Turismo 2, Ridge Racer 4, and Gran Turismo 3. And though the modern Grand Theft Auto games (3 and Vice City) have excellent vehicle physics, they aren�t really racing games. Unlike GTA, Auto Modellista is a racing game and it doesn�t have good vehicle physics. However, like GTA, it�s not making my favorite list. In fact, it may be sold on half.com before the weekend is over. Let�s get one thing out in the open: Cell shading sucks and is stupid and it makes modern 3D games look like they�re on the Sega Genesis. Only when you freeze the replay do you see how nicely modeled the cars are. During actual gameplay, you�re just taking in single color blobs with no shading on them. But, really, the graphics are beautiful. If the control was better, this could be great. But it�s not (either). I�ve never played a racing game that when you get your nose stuck on a wall, you have to put it into reverse, floor it, then change back to first, and then floor it. Why all this flooring it? What ever happened to subtlety? Well, this game, coming out in the third year of the PS2, doesn�t have the pressure sensitive buttons being enabled. It�s an old PS1 floor it or don�t type game. My most hated car physics problem is this: I�m floored and taking a turn a little too fast. I�m not letting off the gas since I�d rather tap the wall a little, but I don�t tap the wall. I don�t hit it at all, but the car seems to almost slide and then comes to a complete stop on the turn. Did I mention I was floored? Yes, I was. So, I watch the replay to see if the car�s back end swung around and maybe the camera angle just kept me pointed the wrong way (oh, yeah, I�d like that as a bug in the game, whoo). But nope, it�s worse than that. The car just stopped while I was floored, hitting some patch of bad mojo in the road. I�ve always liked the concept of money in games. Rage Racer is the only game in the Ridge Racer series that has money. It�s nice to earn it and then spend it on fixing up your car or buying another. Gran Turismo 2 has 600 cars and each one has about 30 parts that can be tuned literally millions of different ways (but not all combinations make sense). You have to buy your cars, and fix them up. Auto Modellista doesn�t have the concept of money. In fact, you don�t buy your cars or unlock the ability to get another car or anything like that. There are about 40 cars available to you, and you can have them all. You can take a Mazda Miata and paint it up and put the best tires on it, and tune the engine, etc, then save it in your garage and make another, and another, and another. It�s all free. What you do unlock is cars they didn�t feel were the ones they wanted you to start with. When I�ve got Mitsubishi GTOs and Mazda RX8s, unlocking the 1960s Subaru 360 (modern golf carts are bigger and have more power) is not a big thrill. The tracks are unimaginative, or at least they seem that way. I can�t seem to memorize any landmarks that come up in front of turns since it all kinda looks the same. Throw a fence or a house in there, guys. The racing is easy once you figure out what�ll trigger the freakish handling of death: brake hard before all turns and tap the gas around them. You�d think driving like that would make you slow, but the computer cars don�t know how to do it either. Nothing like seeing one come to a complete stop on a turn for no reason. Dur. If you really liked R4, as I did, this is at least worth a rent to see how much Capcom wanted to emulate it.
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