NIDZUMI+

When should a Beta actually be taken for what it is?

This recent trend releasing ‘Betas’ to simply raise awareness has definitely changed the meaning of the term. So maybe it was the abstraction of the word that left me more disappointed after playing an unfinished version of LittleBigPlanet’s so called successor, ModNation Racers. Maybe United Front have been so busy creating their Mario Kart meets Social Networking experiment, that along the way somebody forgot to tell them that the meaning of the word had changed.

It’s tough not to let lengthy loading times, frame rate issues, system lockups and disconnection problems detract from what is otherwise a promising idea. I know it’s a Beta, but we’ve been spoilt with near flawless ‘tests’ of games before and I couldn’t help but groan at having to restart my system or be stuck in the menus trying to reconnect to the servers.

Nevertheless, let’s put those technicalities aside because the Modnation Racers Championship – or MRC for short – is about to begin at The Modspot. This serves as a large hubworld for you to drive between menu options disguised as stages. The area is then populated with other online racers, think of Playstation Home but everyone has go-karts, so it’s not entirely a waste of time. Once you’ve figured out where you are, and avoided the massive pile up of racers who enjoy the ramp in the middle of the plaza, you’ll be overwhelmed with the choice.

The natural choice, however, is the creation side of the game. God only knows we’ve played many kart games before, but none of them have really allowed us as much freedom over the tracks we create. We’re talking complete 360 degrees of freedom over track layout and total control over pitch, height and depth. Once you’ve created your first successor to Spa-Francorchamps, you could spend hours populating the track with obstacles, shortcuts, powerups and scenery, or you could just let the game do it all for you in seconds.

I did all this without having to sit through hours of tutorials or listen to Stephen Fry’s voice; I guess you take the good with the bad.

Granted that’s the laziest way of finishing off your design but if you allow the game to populate your track, from start to finish, you could have a track accessible and online for everyone in minutes. Uploading is a doddle and done in a flash, we’re talking so fast that other game’s upload times are comparatively dial-up. And I did all this without having to sit through hours of tutorials or listen to Stephen Fry’s voice; I guess you take the good with the bad.

Once you’ve polished your masterpiece you can check out the competition, one brief tap and you’re transported straight to the tarmac of someone else’s spiralling monstrosity. Large caverns and cumbering towers with vertigo inducing bridges to connect them all – my five minute track now looks like the M25. They’re far from Trackmania but they’re still pretty intense and the closest you’re going to get to Nadeo’s PC classic on your Playstation for a while.

The only thing that really lets the game down – apart from forgivable beta issues – is the actual game itself. Karts should feel loose but ModNation Racer’s controls needs a bit of tightening up. Your turning circle is way to big, which although creates chaos, it’s chaos that nobody is really in control of.

This chaos eventually led to me having to make frequent use of the reset button, something that isn’t always reliable. Sometimes the game will reset for you, but more often than not it’s when you’re in first and are very much rooted to the track. Then othertimes, you’ll be yelling at the screen for letting you balance on that fence while the entire pack overtakes.

Admittedly the structure around the game is just as advertised and for a game with loftier ambitions than LittleBigPlanet, that is an achievement in its own right. United Front should use the feedback from the community to tighten the controls, fix gameplay issues and eradicate any troublesome technical issues. If these are done before release then ModNation Racers could live up to following in Media Moleclue’s footsteps, if the problems are left unanswered then we could be left with a sorry waste of potential.