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RATING: (weak) 1 2 3 4 5 (awesome) (No Rating Assigned)
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IN BRIEF
Pros: Brings speed, graphics panache and tracks to the Internet. Cons: Lacks the superb graphics that no Internet game could ever offer. In a nutshell: Be part of an online hot rod community--drive, race, customize, talk slang. *ESRB rating: E |
FACTS
Game Title: Motor City Online Platform: PC Developer: Electronic Arts Publisher: Electronic Arts Release Date: Summer 2000 Price: 39.99 |
THE REVIEW by Steven Kent for Gamers Today
The oldest active racing circuit in video gaming is about to evolve. Just try and keep up with Electronic Arts' Need For Speed. It started out as an ultra-realistic, Road and Track Magazine-licensed driving game on 3DO. With the demise of the 3DO Multiplayer, it re-emerged on Saturn and PlayStation as an arcade game. Soon it became a chase game with cops and speeders that migrated to PCs.
What is the next step in this logical progression? According to Electronic Arts, the next evolution is for Need for Speed to go on-line only. Previously Need For Speed: Motor City, now Motor City Online (Motor City), a soon-to-be-released on-line game that will only be played over Electronic Arts' servers, will bring the speed, graphics panache, and tracks that make the Need For Speed games great to the 'Net. As 'Net games go, Motor City will be a tribute to America's long-standing romance with the automobile, complete with game lobbies that look like drive-ins and diners from the Happy Days version of the 1950s. This is not just a racing game, but a massively multi-player persistent automobile RPG world in which people build, modify, and race virtual cars based on just about anything that ever carried the Chevrolet, Ford, or Chrysler logos. (Trucks, foreign makes, and anything more than 20 years old excluded).
Motor City's auto-centric world is filled with slang -- an entire Internet site in which people will know the difference between "pony cars," "fat fenders," and "shoe boxes." This on-line world even has multiple radio stations streaming everything from surf music to fifties rock. (All original tunes, of course.)
Motor City may be thick with nostalgia, chats, and lingo, but the reason people buy Need For Speed is cars and races. Not only will Motor City feature a wide variety of cars that can be souped up and modified, it also allows players to submit skins for custom paint jobs.
And then there are the races. In Motor City, there are only three things to race for: cash, pride, and pink slips. Think that GTO you've been fixing is the hottest rod with its Holley Carb? You can bet it against the guy with the '67 'Vette, and find yourself breaking in a junker two laps later. Motor City will feature many different kinds of races including sanctioned races, invitationals, drag racing and more. As for the cars and handling, the only race I had the chance to run was on abandoned streets late at night. I drove a 'Cuda against a Chevelle and a Mustang -- both appeared to be of the late sixties variety.
My Cuda handled fine, which was more than anyone could say about the driver. One thing cars do in Motor City is take damage instead of this Gran Turismo fiddle faddle with un-dentable cars. When my 'Cuda limped in across the finish line in second place, every panel was crumpled beyond recognition, black smoke billowed out of the hood, and I could no longer accelerate beyond 48 miles per hour. Needless to say, I was thrilled.
Motor City offers an interesting tradeoff. Having played Ridge Racer V and GT 2000 on PlayStation 2, I'm used to superb graphics that no Internet game could ever offer. On the other hand, latency issues do not appear to be much of an issue in Motor City -- they've even tested it with a 28 baud modem at Electronic Arts, and the game's intricate multi-player world is an attractive option.
A Word from Motor City's Chief Mechanic:
John Eberhardt is producer of Motor City Online, and obviously a car enthusiast.
GT: How many car packages are you up to?
JE: We have over 200 different car packages. When I say packages, that means the difference between the RS and the SS. Something like the difference between the standard 9 Mustang and the Boss 402 Mustang. We'll have all of the cars from all three of the American manufacturers.
GT: The Shelby?
JE: Not the Shelby, but we will have all of the other models of Mustang, and since the game is on-line, we will be able to add things like the Shelby engine.
GT: American Maserati?
JE: No American Maserati. One of the things we are trying to take a look at is to be sure the game is balanced. You can't exactly have a bunch of Maseratis, even the American one, racing against a 1932 Ford Coup. They're not exactly going to be running in the same league.
The way that we have the game set up, it is literally a place. It has various locations which includes track racing, league racing, classic cars and muscle cars with stock and modified; and there's Outlaw-that's the Grease version of the racing. There are also stores and dealerships. You can buy junkers out of the auto barn, or go to Muscle Mikes and buy a really expensive car.
The way that everything is built in the game is for it to be a place, and that place is Motor City.
*For a complete explanation of ESRB ratings, check out the official ESRB Web site.
