Last week, I went to the Namco Bandai offices in Hammersmith to look at what their line-up has to offer…
Ridge Racer: Unbounded impressions
Ridge Racer: Unbounded has come along quite a bit since I last saw it, with a fully fleshed out campaign and different events including domination, frag matches, drift trials and so on through the city. It obviously borrows quite a bit from the Burnout series in its effort that most objects are destructible, like walls to buildings, trucks, signs and pillars. It has the speed behind it to match the turbulence of Burnout’s arcade style racing, yet it doesn’t feel quite as smooth to control.
There’s also not a huge enough distinction on what can and cannot be broken by your vehicle. Sometimes you’ll crash thinking that you should get through the object, which is a shame. We did attempt to do multiplayer, but it kept crashing which is a worrying sign since the game is out in just a few weeks. I hope they can get it fixed by then. It has a nice look to it, the framerate is steady for the most part and if it fixes its flaws, then it could be a contender.
Armored Core V impressions
Giant robot mechs return in this fifth instalment of Armored Core. It’s a series that’s quite big, yet its design choices are questionable, I found the missions to not be very clear on what to do or where to go, and levels are consigned to a certain area so it should be easy to navigate through it, but instead it’s a bit tricky. Hopefully the final code will improve things, but on the plus side it does look good.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations impressions
I didn’t play this for too long, but it did feel very familiar to last year’s game. It plays like a standard beat-em-up mixed with the typical anime craziness that Naruto is famous for. It still looks amazing, but I wonder if it has enough new besides a new script…
Inversion – Multiplayer impressions
Inversion looks like it has some good ideas, although the multiplayer definitely has some flaws…crashing everyone’s consoles after a match wasn’t a good start, but we eventually got 2-3 matches in without a disconnect. The 3rd person shooter does seem to have some balancing issues with the inversion powers, which can pretty much be random if it hits you and if it does, you’re more or less finished. Having said that, it is fun and the levels show some great ideas with gravity. Hopefully the full game will be a sleeper hit…
Overall, I was impressed with Namco Bandai’s offerings. Ok they aren’t exactly flawless and fixes will need to come in to make them superb, but despite this I can still see myself playing them for a considerable amount of time. Time will tell if my words ring true though…