GDC: Real Racing Hands-On

By Nacho Andrade, USA
for www.touchgen.com

Published: March 24, 2009

I met with Firemint to get a hands-on with Real Racing. It was amazing.In general we here at iPGN are not huge fans of accelerometer controls. They are generally poorly tuned, slopy, and/or gimmicky. They also have a problem when you don’t play flat on the table, or move positions, so we usually feel that accelerometer controls just don’t work. Firemint’s real racing changes all of that.

The controls are what accelerometer controls are supposed to be. First it auto calibrates, so you dont have to zero out the center every time you change positions. When you tilt to steer the controls feel amazing. It turns as little or as much as you want and you feel in complete control. I know looking at the screenshots people were hoping for a touch steering control but I’m here to tell you, even though you have the option for touch steering, you wont need it. The controls are amazing.

Okay, lets talk about the graphics. I haven’t seen anything this impressive since Zen Bound. It looks better than any PSP racing game I have played. I’m not sure if its because of the higher screen resolution of the iPhone or if it’s because of the textures and colors, but this game looks amazing. In the cockpit view you become totally immersed in the game. The draw distance is far, and the details are crisp and bright. I didn’t want to put this game down.

As far as gameplay goes it has what you would expect from a racing game. You have 12 race tracks, 36 cars and 3 car classes (hatchback, sedan & muscle car), and 9 championships. There is tons on single player content. They have also made sure that you can unlock everything in the game in any of the car classes in case you find muscle car, or sedan too difficult.

Firemint has also added online league play. This means if you qualify (through the online leaderboards) as one of the best, you will be entered into an online rally against other players for the title of the best real racer. This works by allowing you a special mode where you get to play alone and fight for the best time. Best times in the online ralley will take the big prize. In addion to the online rally, you can aso upload replays of your races to youtube from the game. What better way to brag about your record breaking time than to you tube it to all your friends.

Real racing is scheduled to come out late April. There is not final word on pricing, but they did indicate it is a premium game. I would easly pay 9.99 for Real Racing when it comes out. Firemint will let us know as things get closer about price and the release date, so make sure you keep on checking the site.

From what I have played I can’t see how Real Racing won’t get 5 stars. Real Racing is amazing, and I can’t wait for it to come out. In the meantime I’m playing Firemint’s other title Flight Control.

Review disclosure: Any games reviewed on this page may have been provided to us by the developer for the purposes of this review. Note: the resulting review score is never impeded by this fact, all opinions are that of the TouchGen reviewer and not the developer. This is in keeping with our O.A.T.S oath. Read more about O.A.T.S here

5 Comments on "GDC: Real Racing Hands-On"

Scott on Tue, 24th Mar 2009 9:04 pm

This has been one of a few games on my radar to buy. It reminds me of the Codemaster racing games for consoles in terms of racing style and look. I’m hoping its priced around 6 bucks. But with great reviews and a lot of depth I’d pay 8.

I have also been playing Flight Control its a pretty cool simple game thats well polished and has easy smooth controls. Only wish there were more runway layouts and even more aircraft types.

Dom Feeney on Tue, 24th Mar 2009 9:23 pm

looks really good. Can’t wait to give it a try I’ve still not bought a “realism” racer for my iphone yet. Matts gushing about ferrari almost made me drop some coin, but I didn’t and I’m glad I didn’t.

There’s only room for one car (game) in my garage (pocket) and this will be it

Legend.inc on Wed, 25th Mar 2009 5:50 am

I agree with Dom Feeni. This is going to be the first real racing game on my iPhone. Ha ha (laughing) get it! real racing. (stops laughing) umm… Maybe not funny.

meek_chezv on Wed, 25th Mar 2009 8:06 pm

WOW i’m really drooling over this one. As soon as I saw a clip of it on YouTube I knew it would be great to play and everyone at GDC is saying its Kick Ass.

Im just getting into Fast Lane after a lot of frustration but this looks a lot better.

By the way I think its going to be more like $10 in the states.

Kamblad on Sun, 26th Apr 2009 5:16 pm

Please come out now damn it. Want some racing action and don´t want to buy Ferrari GT the same week Real Racing enters the store.

GDC: Real Racing Hands-On

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