Racing Evoluzione/Apex first impression

SwedBear

Newcomer
Well, I picked up Racing Evoluzione today. It's the game that is called Apex in the US (according to Infogrames webpage).

I've been playing it for 3 hours now and so far I love it.
Of course I haven't dug deep into the game but I've been playing the Dream Mode for a while now and built my first car and even managed to race good enough to get it into production :).

Graphics are stunning - absolutely stunning. No slowdown what-so-ever even with 5 other cards just ahead of me in a tight corner. No pop-ups at all and I actually think that they have managed to keep the texture-shimmering to a minimum. It's a lot better than other X-Box games.

Oh - BTW. Why on earth does every damn racing game have to have a helicopter or a airplane flying over while you are racing?

There seems to be a lot of cards to race but I haven't unlocked enough yet to say how different they handle. My first car handles fine although it is a bit sluggish in the conrers. I changed the driving style on it to get a bit more skid.

As I said - the graphics are beautifull. I've raced 6 tracks so far and they ahve all been great. My favourite so far is a city track that goes through a park. the trees look great, not flat or anything but like real trees. And there is no texture-shimmering on them.

I'm not sure if this game uses AA ... I didn't notice any jaggies though but I didn't look that close while racing.

Difficulty-setting so far has been good. I neither loose big or win big. Every race is a fight for the places.

Hmm, what more to say. The car does suffer damage but so far I haven't noticed any changes in the handling of the car so i think it is mostly visual.

Hmm, did I say it looks great ;).

So far this is a very nice racing game. since I picked up both BF1942 Road to Rome as well as Unreal 2 today and still only have played this game tongiht is a good sign.

We'll see in a week or so if it has kept my interest. Now I got to get back and race some more. I need money for my R&D so I can develop a new car.

/B
 
Well, I'm gonna be honest here to say .... I have no clue. What's the best way to find out?

Hmm, i could make a movie out of it .... I can try to hook it up to my video-in card ... although that won't do much good I guess it wouldn't capture at 60 fps anyway?

So - what is the best way to figure out the framerate? It's smooth to my eyes but that doesn't say much ...

/B
 
Figuring out the frame rate is nothing more than a guess in most cases. unless the developers come right out and tell you the performance.

Many people had no idea the first grand turisimo actually ran at a solid 20fps on the PSX at 320/240 resoloution.

look like a cool game, i can't wait to try it!
 
Wow, I didn't realize it was so close to be released! I haven't heard squat about it other than here...
 
It's obviously already been released in Europe. The NA release date is set for later this month (26th?).

The game runs at 30fps I believe. They lowered it from 60 in order to add AA.
 
figuring out the frame rate is nothing more than a guess in most cases. unless the developers somoe right out and tell you the performance.
On the consoles, it's extremely easy to judge that, if you've ever seen both and have been told which is which. Difference in smoothness of motion in 30 vs. 60 FPS is glaringly obvious, especially in the games that feature fast moving objects like the racing games normally do. In 30FPS games, 'jumps' between the frames are much more visible, and the scanline 'combing' (I don't know the technical term for this) is also very obvious.

Swedbear, try playing Rallysport Challenge, Sega GT 2K2, Project Gotham, Moto GP or Quantum Redshift. Those racers all run at 60FPS. Halo and Wreckless, for example, both run at 30FPS.
 
marconelly! said:
In 30FPS games, 'jumps' between the frames are much more visible, and the scanline 'combing' (I don't know the technical term for this) is also very obvious.

Eh? I would expect that scanline combing would be more obvious at 60 fps, since an object can move between one field and the next.

At 30 fps, both fields would show the same object in the same position, so there shouldn't be any combing artifacts...

:?:
 
Eh? I would expect that scanline combing would be more obvious at 60 fps, since an object can move between one field and the next.

At 30 fps, both fields would show the same object in the same position, so there shouldn't be any combing artifacts...
By some logic, you would be correct, however, it's completely the opposite in reality. Just try playing some games and look for what I've described.

What I THINK is the case, is that objects travel longer distance in 30FPS games, since they have twice the time to move, so when the first pass of the next interlaced picture gets drawn over the already completed frame, that larger movement results in longer 'streaks'.
 
marconelly! said:
What I THINK is the case, is that objects travel longer distance in 30FPS games, since they have twice the time to move, so when the first pass of the next interlaced picture gets drawn over the already completed frame, that larger movement results in longer 'streaks'.

Ah, good point.

Luckily for me, I haven't had to use an interlaced display device in years. :D
 
This month's EGM reviewed the game. And gave it an 8.0. And a 9 for the visuals. They said the AI was unfair that if another car so much as touches your car it'll pass you. But they said the sense of speed was great.

Also it's gonna be on the PS2 as well. But there is absolutley no fanfair about this release. I'm afraid it'll get lost on the shelves amongst other games.
 
Speaking of framerates. Here's another 'test example if you will. Take Rogue Leader for the Cube. Most of the game runs at 60fps. Watch someone else play (you notice fps and graphics better when watching someone else play rather than yourself playing.) Follow a TIE Fighter (or group) fly from area of your screen to another (ideally a TIE off in the distance). Notice how smooth and steady the frames of animation is. Now pop in Rogue Squadron N64. Do the same test. You'll notice the huge differences in the frames of flight.
 
It comes out either the 18th or 19th in the US, I can't wait.


Goldni said:
This month's EGM reviewed the game. And gave it an 8.0. And a 9 for the visuals. They said the AI was unfair that if another car so much as touches your car it'll pass you. But they said the sense of speed was great.

Also it's gonna be on the PS2 as well. But there is absolutley no fanfair about this release. I'm afraid it'll get lost on the shelves amongst other games.


The EGM review is horrible, like most of their reviews, they need to have much longer reviews. The short paragraph that was written isn't close to enough to give me any sense to how the game is.

On the official website it shows that it is only for Xbox. The box of the game on the site even says "Only on Xbox".
 
SwedBear, I've got some questions for you about the game. For arcade or multiplayer races can you choose time of day, weather, laps, # of opponents, difficulty, mirrored, or reversed? I remember reading that you can choose normal or drift for driving style in dream mode, can you also choose this for arcade?
 
Actually, I believe this game is truly an Xbox exclusive. Neither Milestone nor any other reliable source has even come to the point of hinting at a possible port.
 
Dural. Let me get back to you on this one as soona s I get home and can play a bit more.
I will see if I can at least make a qualified guess about the framerate also - I don't have Rallisport or PGR anymore. I do have Quantum Redshift and Moto GP demos though.

I never felt the AI so far has been unfair and even if they nudged me I had no problems making sure they wouldn't pass (well, most of the time).

/B
 
marconelly! said:
So finally, is it really 30FPS?

Yes it definitely is. And it's not bad when you drive straight but when you turn (now that's hard to explain) the backgroung kind of loses the two semi-frames synch causing the BG image to blur badly. You don't really pay attention to it, but if you do it is quite evident.
 
thanks to projectmidway at GA, we have the first TV-ish captured screens of Apex! Bad caputres and all, but it does show how Apex will look like on a TV.

re.jpg

re2.jpg

re3.jpg


I dont know aobut you, but the first image looks almost photorealistic!!!! :oops: :oops: :oops:
 
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