What is it with folks and dimensions? Why is it that some people feel the need to add half a D here and there or even in some cases add an extra D for good measure? You can’t have 2.5d, it’s a nonsense. Equally, no matter what Melbourne House taught you as a kid, you can’t really make a 4d game. It’s a silly.
Talking of silly, what unfortunate timing for Blueprint Racer 4D to make its appearance on the humble Xbox 360. Within a week of Outrun HD? That’s craziness!
So, I’ve been gorging myself on Outrun in my free time. I’ve lost count of how much money that game has stole from me in different incarnations over the years. From the money I pumped into the original arcade game, to home conversions and spin offs like Turbo Outrun to the more recent purchasing of Outrun 2006, Outrun Coast To Coast (once on the original Xbox, once in slightly more broken form on the PC and lord only knows how many gifted copies via Steam) and now Outrun HD. Assuming I’m not alone, it’s likely idiots like me that keep Sega afloat.
It probably seems a little harsh to compare something with such a rich heritage to a community game, but in fairness I’ve seen some fairly good racing games made by just one or two folks in their free time before now so it’s not entirely cruel. More to the point, there’s a reason I wanted to mention Outrun (not just to wax lyrical about it, honest guv) so bear with me.
Outrun, for me (YMMV – especially you, Fog, you big wronger you) despite the odd misstep over the years has been where the art of racing games found perfection in simplicity. With the exception of the Ridge Racer series, no other racing franchise has ever gotten close to getting that perfect balance of car racing for people that don’t necessarily want to drive a real car in anyway whatsoever. It’s a testament to its strength that even for all the bugs in the PC version of Coast2Coast, even for the utterly insane leaderboard setup in Outrun HD, I’ll still keep punting over cash for variants and I’ll still keep playing. Why? Because sometimes I just want to go really fast underneath a blue sky with a girl at my side. And, dear readers, who in their right mind wouldn’t? The whole point of the game is to race, shave seconds of your time and keep your girly happy. Outrun is a racing game. The Ferrari and boobs element, well, I don’t care for them. I’m here for the racing with a nice side order of blue skies.
Blueprint Racer 4d has blue skies. Alright, alright, everything is bloody well blue in it. There’s blue cars, blue walls, blue skies, blue buildings and there’s probably a blue hedgehog splattered across the road too so that’s one whole third of the name lived up to then. We’ve already established that it’s not really 4D, that’s just a nonsense. So the only thing we’re left with to clarify here – and this is the important part – is how well can you race in Blueprint Racer 4D?
Not very well is one answer. Slowly is the other answer.
Let’s pause for a second folks and have a think about this. Blueprint Racer 4D is a racing game where it’s nigh on impossible to do any racing. A more accurate title would have been Blueprint Sunday Drive 3D. No, no, that’s still wrong. Blueprint Sunday Drive 3D Assuming You’re Driving A Brick. Hmm, still not right. Blueprint Sunday Drive 3d Assuming You’re Driving A Brick With Massive Framerate Issues. That’s it! That’s the fella.
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what Blueprint Racer 4D is trying to achieve. The game pretty much consists of chundering around a track where no matter what car you choose it feels like a differently weighted brick, all the while watching the framerate fall on its backside every few minutes. Not slightly on its backside, that slightly sicky everything is currently running through the treacle filter sort of framerate drop. There’s a minor moment of excitement when you get a Trackmania-esque (or Hard Drivin’ I guess) loop de loop type thing, but given the framerate drops so much it’s more like a snail doing a backflip than an exciting stunt. A snail that’s been nailed to the floor at that.
Sure, I don’t expect one person (or even a small team) to be able to match the majesty of Outrun, but I don’t think I’m too wrong in actually expecting a racing game to have an element of racing in it that isn’t crippled at every single turn.
At best, this is a tech demo gone awry and with a price tag attached. No amount of extra D’s can salvage this from the wrecking crew.
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lol
It’s a starter kit. The only thing he did was remove all of the good textures that came with it, and replace it with his piece of crap grid texture. He’s also the ‘creator’ of A Kitchen Sink War, which was also just a reskinned starter kit. I usually try not to swear, but this guy is a fucking talentless hack.
This game spent about 5 months in review, just so he could get a few changes right that anyone else could have done in about 15 minutes. And it still was buggy when it passed! Between guys like this who have no idea how to make games, and the batch of peer reviewers who have no idea how to review a game, it’s no wonder the quality bar is so low on Community Games.
5 months, LOL! I knew it’s just a reskinned starter kit which makes me wonder why something like this can be released. Are those models and tracks freeware? If so, why didn’t anybody release a version of XNA Racer with good textures? I think the ground for a solid racer is set with the engine.
Why didn’t anyone release the original? I’ll tell you why… self-respect.
Despite being a total hack, the shame is that it’ll probably still do okay.
I mean, the starter kit was pretty good. Needed more gameplay, but it was pretty solid and much more technically advanced than most of the current XNA games. And just because of that people will download it.
Reminds me of 3DO’s Crash’n Burn with the SNES’s Stunt Race FX camera and placeholder textures.
In other words, crap gameplay, crap camera, crap textures.
Anyone else notice the windmill blades coming through the track on the third course?
In this particular case there is a good chance of the game being pulled from the service, as obvious technical errors are a legitimate reason for reporting the game to Microsoft for abuse. It will then go back to Peer Review limbo where, considering the author’s coding skills, it will stay indefinitely.
This review couldn’t be more wrong. Outrun is rubbish (never mind “YMMV”, you know I’m right
)
I gotta say, I really hope this game does get pulled from the service.
To take the starter kit and make all the textures a blue grid?!?
I used to know kids like this way back when I first started making games, they would get the source to some game and the first thing they would do is change all the names in the credits to their name.
At least they just did it for attention, this could actually make this thief money, this really makes me mad.
that stuff really makes me sad, i really hope this guy will get his ass kicked for this crap
Hey! I quite enjoyed Crash N Burn on the 3D0, Stunt Race FX (though yes it had a bad camera and the issue was multiplied by the bad framerate) as well as Outrun Arcade for XBLA. These comments are making me a sad panda.
But yeah, I hope this gets taken off the service. Something about selling someone else’s tutorial seems very, very wrong to me. And the sad thing is, it will probably sell. I mean, half the top 10 sellers I just don’t get, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was up there.
Hey nrXic, you are right, and you are so awesome.
Seriously though, only replying to this as an addendum. I just checked the “Most Popular” tab on the Games Marketplace for XBCG, and this hackjob is #1 on the list. ‘Tis a sad day.
I can never remember for sure but I don’t believe the “Most Popular” is sales only. I believe it might be downloads, which are probably 95% trial versions.
Game entered the top 10 on fourth place.
1 RC-AirSim
2 Rumble Massage
3 Aquarium HD
4 BluePrint Racer 4D
5 StrikeForce-Psi
6 DrumKit
7 Drum XPlosion
8 Remote Masseuse
9 Rabid Gophers
10 Ping Time
Ok, so someone is making money off of SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK… This is not right. We should all report abuse for this game. I can’t believe the community let this pass. Imagine if 10 of us all took this starter kit and released RedPrint Racer 5D and YellowPrint Racer 6D all with the same cars and the same tracks as the sample, just like this shameless hack did? Imagine. This is a great way to continue to ruin the user perception of XBLCGs. It makes me want to puke. Shame on the community for passing this.
This could actually be cool if some effort was actually put into the project. Like manual transmission, and e-brake. I like the visual style, but the blur effect makes me nauseated, and doesn’t actually give a sense of speed, despite the 275 MPH speedometer.
Being stopped dead by the guard rails is ridiculous as well. Anybody been reporting this to the oversight people at MS, as far as this being the XNA racer demo?
Even IGN fell into the wow factor trap that Murudai hinted at above (“This has a good engine and it’s all 3d! Other CGs don’t have that! This guy must be one hell of a developer!”)
They voted this ‘game’ as a “Hot Pie” this week
Digusting.
http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/978/978502p1.html
I sent off an email to try to enlighten the author to the situation, and hopefully get the review changed or removed. I would post my email but I guess it’s too long for the comment box here
To be clear, I’m not against putting gimmicky crap on XBLCG or profiting from someone else’s work. Yes, I think it’s tacky and it drags down the whole service, but the license allows it and MS has set no quality standard. So in principle, I defend this sort of thing. In pratice, I wish people would keep this crap to themselves
The gist of the email I sent and why it especially bugs me though is that now he’s getting CREDIT for work he didn’t do – and isn’t capable of doing, obviously, given his track record. There’s a distinict difference there. If the reviewer understood that absolutely all of the impressive parts were part of the default kit, I think this game would have been passed over and ignored, or maybe even publicly mocked, instead of praised as a good start (of course it’s a good start…..that’s the starter kit!)
truly disgusting, and the game itself is shit (the xna racer starter kit was a sample, not a polished game, i mean: no IA, pretty bad collisions…)
“Note: It has been brought to our attention that BluePrint Racer 4D is just a reskinned tutorial put out for free by Microsoft. As such, we have removed it from the Hot Pies section and placed it where it belongs: Cold Soup. Please make original games. ”
Squeaky wheel gets the grease
Nice job getting IGN straightened out.
I’m still waiting for his cat-based RPG. Probably a starter kit, too, but at least it has to have original content, yes? I mean, the starter kit isn’t cat-based, is it?
Yes, it’s a starter kit, but I’m not sure how much changed other than the cat sprites.
Someone else just dropped a starter kit re-skin of XNA Racer. This time it is called 2060 Cyber Racer, released by R3Dr4gon (maker of Petank Party and A Perfect Massage)