Rough ride

by ERIK LEIJON

Much to the chagrin of my more environmentally conscious colleagues and friends, I recently bought a car. A modest Mazda 3, and I’ll save the Top Gear-indebted automotive passion speech for later, but the newfound rush felt while strapping into my pre-owned vehicle did appropriately coincide with taking overthe- top racer Split/Second (PS3, X360, PC/Disney, Blackrock) for a test drive.

Split/Second is probably how I would have felt had I settled on the Chevy Cobalt (which was seriously in contention). The first hour or so of Split/Second is almost euphoric—the speed and visuals form an intoxicating combo, giving the perception you’ve magically stumbled upon the spiritual successor to Burnout. Then, as is apparently common with Cobalts, first the electric power steering goes, then the gear shifter, and pretty soon, thanks to shoddy workmanship, your new car is acting like the mid-’90s Mercury you traded in.

Split/Second takes place on a fictitious television program where, in weekly installments (in the form of chapters here), a group of racers navigate a huge fake city of winding urban tracks built specifically for the show. The unique element to the game is the power play button, which can be used to trigger course-altering effects such as tumbling buildings or various explosions to wreck your rivals.

Power plays provide not only the most impressive pyrotechnical moments of the game, but they’re also essential to every race and therefore still feel vital long after the lustre of calling on a helicopter to drop bombs on your fellow drivers fades. Once the power play bar is maxed out (via drifting, air and drafting behind a driver), one can also access hidden shortcuts.

Despite the game looking great and having a solid main idea backing it, Split/Second doesn’t feel quite right when you pop the hood and start fiddling with the mechanics. About midway through a single-player mode that often feels like the same track played in perpetuity, the AI suddenly becomes horribly frustrating, as their cars are unmoveable (as opposed to yours slipping and sliding around with every nudge) and naturally go much faster than even your best unlocked vehicle.

Eventually, the only way to win is to be the last one to correctly trigger a power play. The tougher races largely consist of three minutes of uninterrupted explosions cascading across the screen, with the actual driving not being all that essential to winning. Online races are better as human opponents are more balanced, but the survival mode trumps traditional races. You and seven other drivers drive along an L.A.-style rain gutter as a truck takes the lead, dumping exploding barrels in your way.

It has speed and terrific visuals, but as a memorable arcadestyle racer, it’s all flash and little heart.

PLASTIC STINK BREATH

The Beatles, Metallica and Van Halen have already gotten theirs, and now punk-poppers Green Day are having their back catalogue immortalized in game-form with Green Day: Rock Band (X360, PS3, Wii/EA, Harmonix). The title says it all: it’s another Rock Band game, this time exclusively featuring the music of a band with a lot of catchy tunes and stinkers. Their two most popular albums: 1994’s Dookie (for me) and 2004’s American Idiot (for the young ’uns), are both selectable in their entirety—a pretty good deal given how cheap these compilations are in forcing gamers to dish out additional cash for downloadable content.

Beyond the music, the venue selection is scarce (where’s Woodstock ’94?) and their latter-day Banksy-ripoff motif dominates the game’s look. A $70 price tag is simply too much.