AgtFox
11-06-2008, 06:22 AM
Pure Review
Title: Purehttp://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=2176
Platform: 360/PS3/PC
Developer: Blackrock Studio (http://www.disney.co.uk/disneyinteractivestudios/blackrockstudio/index.jsp)
Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios (http://disney.go.com/disneyinteractivestudios/)
ESRB: Everyone
MSRP: $59.99 (360 (http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Xbox-360/dp/B0016NM7BU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1225725936&sr=8-1)/PS3 (http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Playstation-3/dp/B00170BV6E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1225725936&sr=8-2)), $49.99 (PC (http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Pc/dp/B0016O8SFI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1225725936&sr=8-3))
Editor: Loren 'AgtFox' Halek
What's Hot: Feels a lot like playing the old SSX games; the trick system is quite varied; variety of challenge groupings available will keep you playing; online is fun
What's Not: Tricks are not necessarily needed to win a race and may hinder you; same loading screen with your character repeated ad nauseum; game loses part of its charm once you realize the important thing is winning the race versus showing off cool tricksI noted in the Baja: Edge of Control review (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=1113) that I had not played Pure as of yet, but obviously with this review I now have. My initial thoughts even before putting the game in was that this was an SSX type of structured game and after playing through it I have come to the conclusion that I was right for the most part. Unlike Baja, this game caters to the arcade racers out there that enjoy don’t have to think too hard when doing such things as building and upgrading your machine. Both of these off-road games are good, however your enjoyment of either really depends on whether you like simulation or arcade racers or if you can find a happy medium and enjoy both games.
Pure shares a lot in common with the SSX games, almost to a fault. The lineup of characters you can choose from are molded much the same. I chose the character that was a son of a famous rocker, Jimmy Williams or something like that. The reason I can’t really remember his name is because there’s really no difference between the characters other than their names and gender/body type and it’s not as if their name is said many times over during the game or anything. This isn’t a bad thing, but it does get a bit annoying seeing the same animation while the game loads the next race every darn time. Yes, Jimmy likes to get off of his vehicle and do a few air guitar riffs that actually make it look like he’s doing something else with his crotch area.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/pure/shot1.jpg
Your next task is to build a vehicle. You can choose to build two different kinds of vehicles to house in your garage: a race built one or an outdoor built one. You can have two distinctly different vehicles for the game at the beginning, one that is geared more toward speed races and one that is built more toward having more power and air ability for the long races. As you go through the Tour mode you will unlock other garage slots to build more as well as get upgrades to parts. Each new part is easily selectable in the garage and you won’t be searching out what are the new parts and what are the old parts. The nice thing is you have total color choice control and how you want to build your machine. It is quite broad, but is simple enough that anyone should be able to build something for themselves.
Once in the Tour mode there are a variety of events to go through set up in different race groupings. Most races are either regular ones or speed ones where you whip around a short track as fast as you can. Some event groupings require you to have a certain class of vehicle, so you will have to build a new vehicle or upgrade your current favorite one to a higher engine level - it’s all up to you. There is some strategy involved in how to mix and match your machines to get the best possible outcome, but after a while you begin to recognize that you need some distinct machines in your garage that can handle different kinds of challenges.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/pure/shot2.jpg
The driving itself is relatively simple and the tricks are explained by the short tutorial in how to pull them off. Remember that you always have a boost via the X button (on 360) if you’ve pulled off any tricks. You may lose the ability to do higher tricks with the B or Y buttons, but the boost will come in handy in a lot of races. You have to balance the need to pull off tricks in order to keep the boost level going and the need to actually finish the race and not crash out while trying to pull off tricks while high in the air. The nice thing is if you reach the top level of tricks where you have to press the R and L buttons together to pull off that you have unlimited boost, so there is a good payoff for reaching that level and then not pulling off tricks and using your unlimited boost.
The graphics and sound in the game are quite nice. I didn’t notice any slowdown in the game at all and I also noticed that the tire tracks I made in one lap did not come back on the second and subsequent lap. I tried really hard to notice these things and I never saw them. They could have been there since there are so many drivers on the track at once, but I thought I noticed the graphical tracks reset every lap. The tracks are quite varied and some of them have some really awesome high jumps in them where you can pull off multiple tricks in one jump. As usual, there is the need to preload your jumps by pulling back on the left analog stick and then pushing forward to lift off. Along with the use of boost this can make your jumps really high and long.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/pure/shot3.jpg
Online play is quite fun as well with races and even freeride options available. I found there were far more people on the ranked matches than the unranked ones. I’m not sure why that was since in many games I find the reverse. The key problem in online is that you can be matched up against a competitor that has a higher engine level than you do and you have no chance of beating them. There is an option to lockdown the engine class, but in most cases I found that people were playing with no engine requirement. This can make your online experience not as enjoyable, but it is still pretty cool to play with 15 other people on a track.
Pure is a good game that relies a lot on what made SSX great. One would guess there will be another game in this series and hopefully they can work at trying to distance themselves from that mold. If you enjoy arcade off-road racers that have a relatively simple upgrade system, this is the game for you. If you’re looking for more simulation in your racers, pick up Baja. You honestly can’t go wrong with either.
Score: 3.5 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG3_5.png
Loren says, "Buy it if you want an off-road arcade racer, rent it if you’re interested but not quite sure whether you’ll like it or not"
- Review this title yourself (http://www.playitreviewit.com/reviews/write) over at Play It Review It (http://www.playitreviewit.com), part of the CoG Network
*Note - Review based upon 360 version of game
Title: Purehttp://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=2176
Platform: 360/PS3/PC
Developer: Blackrock Studio (http://www.disney.co.uk/disneyinteractivestudios/blackrockstudio/index.jsp)
Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios (http://disney.go.com/disneyinteractivestudios/)
ESRB: Everyone
MSRP: $59.99 (360 (http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Xbox-360/dp/B0016NM7BU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1225725936&sr=8-1)/PS3 (http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Playstation-3/dp/B00170BV6E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1225725936&sr=8-2)), $49.99 (PC (http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Pc/dp/B0016O8SFI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1225725936&sr=8-3))
Editor: Loren 'AgtFox' Halek
What's Hot: Feels a lot like playing the old SSX games; the trick system is quite varied; variety of challenge groupings available will keep you playing; online is fun
What's Not: Tricks are not necessarily needed to win a race and may hinder you; same loading screen with your character repeated ad nauseum; game loses part of its charm once you realize the important thing is winning the race versus showing off cool tricksI noted in the Baja: Edge of Control review (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=1113) that I had not played Pure as of yet, but obviously with this review I now have. My initial thoughts even before putting the game in was that this was an SSX type of structured game and after playing through it I have come to the conclusion that I was right for the most part. Unlike Baja, this game caters to the arcade racers out there that enjoy don’t have to think too hard when doing such things as building and upgrading your machine. Both of these off-road games are good, however your enjoyment of either really depends on whether you like simulation or arcade racers or if you can find a happy medium and enjoy both games.
Pure shares a lot in common with the SSX games, almost to a fault. The lineup of characters you can choose from are molded much the same. I chose the character that was a son of a famous rocker, Jimmy Williams or something like that. The reason I can’t really remember his name is because there’s really no difference between the characters other than their names and gender/body type and it’s not as if their name is said many times over during the game or anything. This isn’t a bad thing, but it does get a bit annoying seeing the same animation while the game loads the next race every darn time. Yes, Jimmy likes to get off of his vehicle and do a few air guitar riffs that actually make it look like he’s doing something else with his crotch area.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/pure/shot1.jpg
Your next task is to build a vehicle. You can choose to build two different kinds of vehicles to house in your garage: a race built one or an outdoor built one. You can have two distinctly different vehicles for the game at the beginning, one that is geared more toward speed races and one that is built more toward having more power and air ability for the long races. As you go through the Tour mode you will unlock other garage slots to build more as well as get upgrades to parts. Each new part is easily selectable in the garage and you won’t be searching out what are the new parts and what are the old parts. The nice thing is you have total color choice control and how you want to build your machine. It is quite broad, but is simple enough that anyone should be able to build something for themselves.
Once in the Tour mode there are a variety of events to go through set up in different race groupings. Most races are either regular ones or speed ones where you whip around a short track as fast as you can. Some event groupings require you to have a certain class of vehicle, so you will have to build a new vehicle or upgrade your current favorite one to a higher engine level - it’s all up to you. There is some strategy involved in how to mix and match your machines to get the best possible outcome, but after a while you begin to recognize that you need some distinct machines in your garage that can handle different kinds of challenges.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/pure/shot2.jpg
The driving itself is relatively simple and the tricks are explained by the short tutorial in how to pull them off. Remember that you always have a boost via the X button (on 360) if you’ve pulled off any tricks. You may lose the ability to do higher tricks with the B or Y buttons, but the boost will come in handy in a lot of races. You have to balance the need to pull off tricks in order to keep the boost level going and the need to actually finish the race and not crash out while trying to pull off tricks while high in the air. The nice thing is if you reach the top level of tricks where you have to press the R and L buttons together to pull off that you have unlimited boost, so there is a good payoff for reaching that level and then not pulling off tricks and using your unlimited boost.
The graphics and sound in the game are quite nice. I didn’t notice any slowdown in the game at all and I also noticed that the tire tracks I made in one lap did not come back on the second and subsequent lap. I tried really hard to notice these things and I never saw them. They could have been there since there are so many drivers on the track at once, but I thought I noticed the graphical tracks reset every lap. The tracks are quite varied and some of them have some really awesome high jumps in them where you can pull off multiple tricks in one jump. As usual, there is the need to preload your jumps by pulling back on the left analog stick and then pushing forward to lift off. Along with the use of boost this can make your jumps really high and long.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/pure/shot3.jpg
Online play is quite fun as well with races and even freeride options available. I found there were far more people on the ranked matches than the unranked ones. I’m not sure why that was since in many games I find the reverse. The key problem in online is that you can be matched up against a competitor that has a higher engine level than you do and you have no chance of beating them. There is an option to lockdown the engine class, but in most cases I found that people were playing with no engine requirement. This can make your online experience not as enjoyable, but it is still pretty cool to play with 15 other people on a track.
Pure is a good game that relies a lot on what made SSX great. One would guess there will be another game in this series and hopefully they can work at trying to distance themselves from that mold. If you enjoy arcade off-road racers that have a relatively simple upgrade system, this is the game for you. If you’re looking for more simulation in your racers, pick up Baja. You honestly can’t go wrong with either.
Score: 3.5 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG3_5.png
Loren says, "Buy it if you want an off-road arcade racer, rent it if you’re interested but not quite sure whether you’ll like it or not"
- Review this title yourself (http://www.playitreviewit.com/reviews/write) over at Play It Review It (http://www.playitreviewit.com), part of the CoG Network
*Note - Review based upon 360 version of game