YouTube video reiew - in Portuguese.

[blackwiggle]

This is the first real look at what's new with PACER, it's in Portuguese, but you don't really need to understand what the reviewer is saying, you just follow what he's doing on screen.

I like that you can now sort your craft for online racing LOADOUT page into 4 categories, you just named them previously and hoped you remembered which ones were which.
Drifter
Defensive
Agility
High Speed
This also gives away what the 4 main different types of tracks/racing you are going to be running across.
As yet I don't know how many craft in each categories you will be able to save [ hopefully quite a few so you can test them one after the other, and then delete the worse ones]

[blackwiggle]

I asked Loadstate what racing views PACER had, and if it had internal cockpit view.
The answer was NO it doesn't, and PACER has 4 racing views.

Basically Near , Far and strangely Left and Right.
At first I thought something must have been lost in translation to Portuguese, but when you factor in that one of the loadouts is named DRIFT, it makes more sense.

Also Loadstates original comment on the video said this.

No Loadstate, nós jogamos Pacer, um jogo de corrida e combate de naves, ao estilo F-Zero, com gráficos maravilhosos e muito combate!
Translated says this :At Loadstate, we play Pacer, an F-Zero style racing and fighting game, with wonderful graphics and lots of combat!

So one could assume that PACER has now morphed more into F-ZERO territory than Wipeout.

Given some of the newest track designs, this also would confirm this [I remember when we tested them in Red Route mode several years ago and commented as such ]

The craft handling in Formula Fusion has always been more Drift weighted, with the center of the crafts gravity pretty much rear orientated, which is what made it different from Wipeouts handling, so this doesn't really come as a surprise.

What has come as a surprise is just how much DRIFT appears to have been emphasized in PACER.

This questions just how much of a straight out race can PACER be as well ?
I was looking forward to racing online with a PSone type Wipeout [No Barrel Rolls ], where racing lines a corner entering / exit speed were what won you races.
How much of THAT is still possible now such a seemingly heavy emphasis on DRIFT has been brought into the game remains to be seen.

If that is still possible all well and good.

But it does bring up the thought that if PACER can be both types of racing game, will it divide a already small player base into 3 different types, DRIFTERS, RACERS and those that prefer Eliminator / fighting type racing ?
We all know what happens when in a room in Wipeout and the original racing format was normal racing, then somebody [using false advertising to fill the room] changes it to a Eliminator race at the last second.....everybody just gets pissed off and leaves without racing.
Your either a person who likes playing Eliminator or your not......I suspect you'll now add if you like DRIFTING or not.

See how this division plays out, and I've been around long enough to know that there will be division / racing preference, and it will happen very early after release and pretty much stay that way.

It's a BIG RISK R8 have taken here, basically trying to satisfy 3 different types of AG Racing fan with the one game, the straight out Wipeout type racer, the cross between Wipeout / F-Zero battle-fighters and the F-Zero Drift type racing.

Is the player base going to be big enough to have enough people playing each type of race so they come back, knowing there is a good chance that they will get a race online ?

We all know how hard it can be to get a online race with the Omega pack.

[Concealed Sequence]

I don't have that worry as I don't play online. But of course this could effect future content/games if it doesn't work out.

[blackwiggle]

Sixaxis published a preview of PACER which you can read below.
https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2020/08...ormula-fusion/

In it they describe what they say is a Wipeout like Zone mode called Flowmentum, You can see it in the video above starting at 14.23
This got a few people really excited.
After watching the video again, it didn't seem like any Zone mode that I'm familiar with, so I contacted the video reviewer again and asked what is different.....his reply below.

"It is very similar to the Wipeouts' Zone mode, with the difference that the Pacer's green targets recover the ship's shield and life. Another difference is that the Pacer’s ship doesn’t increase its speed gradually as it does in the Zone Mode of wipeouts"

Doesn't increase speed is the operative difference here.
Seems more like a speed lap survival mode till your shields fail.

I can imagine how this will go down with those hoping for the insane speed that WO Zone mode can reach, underwhelmed to say the least.

This might of happened for fear of copyright IP infringement, so it understandable to a extent.

[AdHoc]

PACER is basically F-Zero: Tokyo Drift. The physics of the ship seem appalling. Looks like a free game you’d get in a cereal box.

I’m so frigging sick of the "ex-Wipeout devs" argument you read in every single review of Formula Pacer. Please stop attaching this game to Psygnosis’ legacy.

[blackwiggle]

Two more short video previews of the final build


- - - Updated - - -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_HHgp4Ajb0