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First I will say that I am a big fan of arcade style racing games in which you can cause mayhem and destruction. In my opinion Burnout Revenge is the best game in that genre for the X-Box 360 but Split/Second is a split second behind.
Split/Second is set in a reality show where you must earn credits in races, elimination races or time trials, in order gain access to new cars, open up new events and advance to future episodes. Each episode is broken up into events and these tracks are rigged with booby traps that you can set off on your opponents, yourself if you aren't careful, or others can spring them on you. These traps are called power plays and you earn the ability to trigger them by filling up your power meter by drifting, drafting, jumping or nearly avoiding a trap sprung on you. When you do trigger them they make beautiful explosions, hurl obstacles onto the track or even bring buildings down. Also you can activate a route changer which changes the track and opens up a new path. If you time these triggers right you can take out multiple opponents or even yourself if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Spring them at the wrong time and they will miss taking anyone out and the power is wasted. If you finish the race with a top ranking you earn credits which go towards new cars or unlocking events, which are all automatic so you don't have to worry about managing them. You can always go back and retry an event again if you fail or want to better your ranking and try for first place, in order to max out your credits.
Overall this game is a blast, literally. It's really easy to just pick up and play and has a nice tutorial race to teach you about how the power plays and route changes work. The graphics are great. The explosive effects are spectacular, especially when you bring down whole buildings or when an airplane crashes on the runway coming right at you! Your power meter and position in the race show right under your bumper in 3rd person mode or at the bottom of the screen in 1st person mode so the screen isn't cluttered with information that is distracting. The sound is excellent really adding to feel of speed and mayhem. The motion feels fluid and the cars handle nicely, it just feels right to me. You get a good feeling of speed but not so much so that you can't control your car, at least most of the time. Also there is X-Box Live and split screen multiplayer modes and this is where the game will really shine. I must say it's good to see split screen mode because it seems lately I'm starting to see more games without it.
There are a few minor negatives about the game in my opinion. The music is OK, has an action based reality show sound to it but I would've liked to hear some real songs, music with a fast beat to it like Burnout Revenge's soundtrack. Also sometimes I feel the drifting is a bit over the top. You will go around a corner and start drifting and spin out without even really initiating the drift yourself. It's a nice effect in that it's a challenge but sometimes it just feels like you aren't in control of your car on turns that aren't even that sharp. Also the single player portion may be rather quick to complete because so far it doesn't seem too difficult.
Overall though the game really is good quality. If I could I would give it 4 1/2 stars with 1/2 a star off for what I feel are only minor drawbacks, but I round that up to 5 here. I was hooked the first time I played it and really what more can one ask for in a game than that? It is just plain explosive fun.
PROS:
+ Excellent graphics
+ Incredible special effects with things blowing up all around you
+ Great sound
+ Easy to control with a nice fluid feel
+ Good multiplayer and with split screen too
+ Just plain fun
CONS:
Ho-hum soundtrack
Sometimes feel like the drifting is a bit overdone
Limited difficulty on single player
UPDATE (5-31-10):
After having played this some more I would like to make some points which I feel are important. One being a point many on the X-Box forums have made concerning the rubber banding AI, as in you can never really get a big lead on the AI racers because they are always right behind you, and frequently zoom past you even if you are going full speed. This is a valid point and I understand why it is frustrating. You can be in first place about to win and the AI in second place zooms by you. Or you might drift too much, lose some speed and two or three AI racers zoom by you. It does seem kind of cheap but quite frankly I feel that if the developers didn't do this the game would be no challenge at all. You would get into the lead and widen the gap so much between you and the AI that you would never have a chance of losing. In a way it adds a bit of strategy in that you should consider conserving your power plays near the end of the race instead of just blowing them as soon as they pop up. On more than one occasion I was able to win a race despite AI racers rubber banding past me near the finish line by taking them out right after they did, but be warned you will get frustrated sometimes when that doesn't work.
One other problem I have also noticed is how AI racers tend to push you out of the way, nudge you from behind to spin you out, and other means of aggressive behavior. This in itself is not a bad thing except for the fact you really can't do the same back to them. You can barely budge an AI racer at all. You can maybe direct them into a wall if you time it right but it's probably not worth the effort because you might as well concentrate on racing and not crashing yourself.
These AI issues, combined with the Detonator (time trial) races having very hard requirements to finish in first place, make for a more difficult and challenging game than I originally indicated in my review. You should have no problem completing the single player part of the game but completing it with a first place in every event (for a 130 point achievement) will be pretty challenging.
Concerning online play it is fun if you are in races with somewhat evenly matched cars. Unfortunately there is the ability to unlock all cars and tracks available via Microsoft points on X-Box Live. I say this is unfortunate because I feel people should have to earn their cars to compete online, not just buy them. It kind of cheapens online competition at least until the game is out long enough that most people have the cars one way or the other. As a tip I recommend playing through the season mode of the game before playing online because that is how you unlock the cars, plus you will learn the skills necessary to drive better.
The other points in my review stand. I have revised my score down to 4 stars for the AI issues which do become a problem later in the game. I still think that this is a really fun game despite the AI issues but it would be nice to see some fixes to these with smarter, rather than cheap AI. I would recommend trying Split/Second for fans of arcade racers involving destruction. Try renting or getting the demo to see if it's for you. If so go buy it and blow some stuff up now that it has gone down in price.
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First off, I am by no means a racing game enthusiast, actually it's the complete opposite. Honestly the only racing game I've played and truly enjoyed as of late has been Mario Kart Wii, which is a blast by the way. I've purchased Split/Second after hearing the premise of the game, I thought it sounded really interesting and very unique. Looking back I'm very happy I took a chance on this title, I wasn't let down at all and have been really enjoying it.Once you play this game and understand what it's trying to do you will come to the conclusion as I have that the "cons" are what makes this game different than most other racing game out there. "Rubber banding" is necessary to play the game as it was intended to be played. Consider this, if you were able to break out in first place and never have to look back it takes away from some of the main points of this game which is to cause destruction and to trigger traps on your opponets. Besides, if you can't pass the car in front of you do the next best thing, which is to drop a plane on him! Also, a lot of people complain about "drifting", which I must agree there is a lot of, however there are many other ways to fill up your power meter like "drafting" which in my opinion is the easier way to play. My final point is in regard to the lack of customization as far as the cars are concerned, again this is not what this game is about so if that is what you're looking for invest in a different title. This game is not about the cars (as strange as that is to say) it's about the havoc you can cause and to what extent you can cause it.
I hope my review has been helpful to you and thanks for reading, sorry for being long winded LOL. If you like to play games for fun, and not take things too seriously look me up, my Xbox gamer tag is MikeJMele.
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Ok I have to say something about this game I think everyone has already mentioned and that is PLEASE STOP COMPARING THIS GAME TO NFS, RIDGE RACER, OR ANY WORTHWHILE RACING TITLE! Now that is out of the way I have to explain title for this game.Controls are almost broken cause you have to hold down a button to go forward and the braking is not even worth mentioning in the game cause it feels like you have none.
Physics that are in the game are badly done. And what I'm talking about is the drifting in the game. This should not be the only feature cars are based on. Whether you are driving a hummer or mustang (real names but crappy versions in the game unlicensed version really) this should not be your only real choice in a car.
When I play a arcade racer its suppose to be fun not furstrating. ARCADE means not feeling cheated,ragequitting or just flatout not wanting to play anymore. That is what the controls in the game make you feel like.
Cars in the game are something that are not balanced correctly. What I mean is I shouldn't have something that looks like a 500hp muscle car being beaten by their version of a hummer. This is not even remotely possible without the use of nitro, turbo charging, or something that gives the car more of a racing edge but the problem with that is THERE IS NONE IN THE GAME!!!!! Some reviewers mention this as 'rubberbanding' and I thought that there is no game that does that until I played this. Then I thought my driving skills were enough until the forementioned happened and I just quit playing.
Don't get me wrong this applied to the RACING sections of this game. And what really set this game apart from the rest that I saw and they should have done more with were the airstrike race (heli shooting rockets at you. ROCKETS!!!) and the other mode was having a semi throw exploding oil drums at you. Now these races was what made this game interesting to play but alas the controls made it unforgiving at times when you missed a drift or overdrited a corner you truly paid for it. And to me that takes away from the game cause there really is no reward for beating the game/show sucessfully other being able to play the next show/section. No choice of car to pick from if you win the top tier race, no extra boost, speed, upgrade, etc. Just moving along and unlocking more cars that seem slower then the top tier racers.
I have to say when I started up this game and was presented with a intro that showed the whole idea behind the game as being a explosive racing game show immediately I was hooked thinking that this was going to be a wild ride to last for a while even when the novelty wore off I would still pick it up to kill some time or beat my best score. But the cons that I mentioned just turned me off so much that I can't bring myself to want to keep it. I mean hell I didn't even finish the third show cause of cons. Really what game takes the balance then turns it around to the point its almost to broken to even want to finish it.
Sounds like I'm complaining? YES. This took one of my favorite guilty pleasures(big explosions) and robbed me of a good time. So if you have a friend that has this game(don't see many people holding on to this) then borrow it from them. Don't even waste your time renting it from gamefly cause you will feel obligated to at lest finish it and no game should make you feel like you are working when you should be having fun.
Honest reviews on Split / Second - Xbox 360
No one was looking forward to Split/Second more than I. No one. After the disappointment that was Burnout Paradise (that game was a lot of things, it certainly wasn't an arcade racer), Blackrock was finally going to step in and fill the void. The studio demonstrated a great deal of promise with Pure, but unfortunately, Split/Second demonstrates a distinct lack of polish and careless development that will result in me selling it on Glyde as soon as I finish the career mode.I'll try to keep this short and sweet, so let's get the good out of the way:
+ It's GORGEOUS. If there's one thing Blackrock gets, it's graphics (see: Pure). This game puts it's contemporaries to shame (see: Blur). Seriously, crisp graphics, bright colors, amazing explosions. This is a showpiece title for your entertainment system.
+ Explosions galore. Split/Second may be a one-trick pony (things go boom), but what a trick it is! I defy you not to be astounded by nearly every track-changer the first time you see them. I triggered a plane to land on my opponents. A PLANE!
+ Awesome sound. Again, Blackrock replicates the sensory delight they achieved on Pure with speaker-shattering explosions. Well-done.
+ Split-screen. The biggest issues with Pure is taken care of in Split/Second. (Sidenote: It's ridiculous that split-screen has become something we appreciate instead of expect).
That's the good, moving on to my problems with the game. A lot of these may seem like nit-picks, and honestly, you may not notice most of them until you really get into the game, but eventually they'll make the game frustrating and nearly-unplayable (hence the title of the review):
Rubber-banding to the extreme. Seriously, Split/Second is the most egregious offender I've ever seen in this area. It is impossible to get a leg up on the AI. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing the AI going twice as fast as you in the same exact car as you while you're at top speed (though, there's no speedometer to verify you're at max speed, another annoyance).
The cars handle like crap. The great thing about Burnout was, you started off with good cars and ended up with great cars. In Split/Second, you start off with really, really bad cars and have to work your way up to playable ones. Seriously, some of the initial cars are so back-heavy that you can't even turn or veer slightly in either direction without spinning out. You start getting cars that handle much better about halfway through the game. Interestingly, "handling" isn't a stat for the cars. As other reviewers have mentioned, the developers sacrificed any semblance of control for the sake of drifting.
Lazy programming. I can't tell you how many times I've re-spawned two feet from an obstacle and instantly exploded again. Also, there seems to be little rhyme or reason to when drifting into a wall will make you explode, it may be based on very minute angles...something that's uncontrollable given the crappy cars (see above). Finally, the particle effects are really strange. I'll collapse an entire mountainside with an explosion, and then drive right through massive boulders. Collision detection needs major work.
The tracks will get incredibly old. Once you learn where the explosions can be triggered, there's little more strategy to the game. The "detonator events" are the worst, where the game literally just triggers all the explosions while you drive through the track. It's simply an exercise in learning the script. The game relies entirely on shock factor, which only works once. Boring. Lazy.
Presentation seems literally unfinished. They started out with a decent enough idea (reality show) but seem to have given up on it completely halfway through the development. Voiceovers are few and far between, most track introductions don't even have voiceovers and there's a general lack of the reality-show aspect of the game that's supposed to underpin the entire title. It's almost bizarre (now there's a studio that gets presentation...).
Perfunctory multiplayer. There were so many cool things that could have been done with multiplayer (WHY CAN'T I SHOOT MISSILES AT MY FRIENDS FROM A HELICOPTER?), but it's the bare bones here. You get matchmaking, you get private games, and that's about it. Just like in Pure.
If you've only played the game a few hours or even a few days, you'll think my review is insane. But the more you play it, the more the issues become glaring. You'll note a few of the reviewers here have even gone back and made changes to their reviews.
Rent it, don't buy it. Sorry, Blackrock, but you broke my heart.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Split / Second - Xbox 360
First of all the game is fun. The graphics are STUNNING!!for example if you drive through fire ash and stuff will go on the corners of you're screen.you can get power-ups from drafting your opponents or drifting around corners and if you get one bar filled you can crash your opponents when the icon appears above them. if you get three bars filled up then you can dominate your opponentsby hitting the A button and then something random will crush your opponents.you can crash your self because the car you're driving doesnt always maneuver as fastly as you want.here are some cheat codes to help you with your car choice:at options menu hitX up X up X up
left X left X left X left X left X left X right
X down X down X down
(p.s. when it says down or left or right or up it means hit that direction on the d-pad.
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