8 D Glad you liked it!Originally Posted by Dogg Thang
I like how in Pulse we'll get all the speed classes, no unlocking necessary, but I myself really enjoyed working through Vector and Venom. It went really quickly, and it was a fast cycle of earning the reward (gold medal!) and moving on, so I had no complaints in that department at all. Of course, this is only my first time through the game, perhaps my opinion will change when I finish this one and move on to an EU version.
Continuing my Pure experience, I've finished with Flash for now. Haven't touched it since Friday I think. Been working purely (ha-ha) with Rapier. Damn, but I'm having a heck of a time with it. I'm sure I'll have Phantom unlocked for the WWT, but I won't have much practice with it. Man, I'm SO gonna get stomped...
Flash TT: These were supremely challenging. I'm not even finished them! I couldn't beat the Porto Kora, Odessa Keys, Extrosa Run, or Ubermall gold time. I couldn't even beat the BRONZE time for Khara Descent! The difficulty level is just _way_ up there, and I'd say that the TT challenges are an excellent place to hide the extreme difficulty of the game. Going through SR is laughably easy in comparison. I can't say enough good things about how well it works. Some of the challenge times I could nail on my first or second try, no problem. Some of them really required concentrated effort. Some of them were so challenging I had to put them aside so I could move on to the next speed class. That level of difference between them made moving from one TT challenge to the next a bit of an adventure, and a really good one at that.
Rapier: The game really starts to get difficult here. Going through the SR set really nailed home how well I'd learned each track up to that point. I would either earn my gold fairly quickly, or I wouldn't even place in the race. It's really showing what seem to be some not-so-attractive features as well though. Travelling at these speeds really brings into stark contrast collision events. Getting hit by a weapon, scraping the track, or slamming into a low-hanging sign, they all feel strange at these speeds. I mean, you're travelling at several hundred kph, something drastic happens, and you come to a dead stop? Wouldn't that kill the pilot? And where's the rebound effect? When I hit something (or something hits me!) at these speeds and it's not a head-on collision, I'd expect to be bounced off it a bit. Instead, it's like I scrape a wall and I'm stuck to it a bit, it takes definite effort to come off the wall. I'll likely stop noticing this once I'm a good enough pilot that I'm not hitting stuff all the time, but for what's supposed to be a racing game I'm spending a disturbing amount of time at a dead stop.
FW 3.02: I was finally able to run the Descension tournaments! Went through both the Venom and the Flash without crashing the PSP! Yay!
Teleportation: I'm a definite fan of the system Pure has for determining where to put you back on the track when you track-out. It's a little back from where you left the track, but it's instantaneous. I think it would be a lot better if you had some speed when you came back, since there are times I've been put back at a location where having no speed means I just fall off the track again, sometimes several times in a row, and that's just not good. But that terrible bug from Fusion where you get placed back on the track further ahead than you left it seems totally gone, and that's a great relief. That being said...
Track-out: The system for determining when it's time to teleport you back onto the track seems _way_ too rigid. Staten Park is one my favourite tracks in Pure, but when you turbo over the peak you're looking at the track jog to the right and then come back left, and several times I've been flying over this v-shaped gap, and it looks like I'll make it fine to the other side, but I get teleported back to the peak. If there's a chance I can make it, I want to go for it! I certainly prefer a more stick-to-the-track approach, but flying is a part of WO, and imposing artificial limits on where you can fly is more than a little on the cheap side. If you don't want anyone flying there, put a building there or something! Actually, as a more complete fix, I propose a radical change to the whole wuss wagon concept. Remember Spy Hunter, the arcade box? Remember that button you had in the middle of the steering wheel, and you'd press it to signal your truck to pull over so you could enter and upgrade your car? That's my propsal for the WO Wuss Wagon. Unless you come to a complete stop off the track, the wuss wagon won't pick you up. However, you can (at any time!) press Start and the wuss wagon will pick you up and put you back on the track! That's my suggestion.
Khara Descent: How come Quake doesn't work here? What's up with that? Strangeness!
And so I continue my descent into Pure, ever heading towards the ultimate achievement of beating Phantom races...
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