Powerdrome

[englishbob]

Bargin, under a tenner now

http://shop.game.net/ViewProduct.aspx?cat=10148&mid=324868

[Cobertizo]

Sorry to bring this back from the grave, but there have been some passing mentions of this game in the thread about 3D PS1 game, but I don't want to take that thread OT!

I missed it first time around, but it looks like an impressive game, especially since I'm getting back into Wipeout again at the moment. But I don't have an Xbox, so would be getting it on the PS2. Has anyone here tried it on that system? I was slightly worried about the quality of the port, since Gamerankings has the PS2 version at about 45% or so, whereas the Xbox one was more like 68% or so. This could merely be due to the fact that there were very few reviews for the PS2 version though.

Is anyone able to set me straight either way concerning the quality of the PS2 version, please?

[Leon Retro]

This game was mentioned in the Online section a few weeks ago- and HMV were selling the Xbox version for ?5( which I bought )

Anyway.. it's a fantastic looking game- imo in the Top10 looking games for the machine. The gameplay control and features are also excellent.

This is a true lost gem of a game- it's just a shame that on Live it's virtually dead- which is a real shame!

[MonkeyWrench]

Good to see this game still getting a little attention after all this time. Can't believe it was over a year since I first posted about it

I think with all this talk I shall fire it up again in a bit, I've been in a sci-fi racer mood just recently with Wipeout on PSP taking up most of my gaming time. Might even fire up Quantum Redshift (another underrated game).

[Leon Retro]

I think Quantum got good reviews and a lot of respect- but unfortunately for whatever reason it didn't sell well!

[mid]

Horrid boxart and embarassingly naff cutscenes didn't exactly help it, for a start. Someone really should have noticed that they when had half the old wipEout team, a couple of days' worth of trendy design consultancy would have done wonders.

[anephric]

Yeah, the art design in QR is woeful... did they get the teaboy to do the cutscenes of people standing around a featureless landscape breathing heavily and making lame, poorly animated gestures? It had the requisite, middle-of-the-road bigbeat Junkie XL soundtrack though.

It runs as fast as a greased wet ****er - I've never been able to complete well in the Redshift league.

[Cobertizo]

My initial plea didn't get much of a reaction, so I figure that I'm one of the few who now owns the PS2 version rather than the Xbox version. I wasn't intending to get it, but I found it in PC World for ?10 while getting a cheap copy of Killzone, and decided to take the plunge.

When I loaded it up and started playing, I instantly regretted my decision. The handling was twitchy, the character models and some of the texturing looked a bit iffy, and it just wasn't Wipeout.

But then I read the manual, and worked out how to slide around corners without having the Wipeout airbrakes, and the handling very quickly seemed less and less twitchy. I've now completed the first ten or so races in the first racing class, and the handling seems just about right - I'm on the limit of control, so that it is satisfying, but not too forgiving. I've still got a lot of progress to make though in that regard!

Someone (the OP?) mentioned the fact that this is close to the Pod Racing from Episode I, and I totally agree. In fact, it reminds me of Episode I: Pod Racer which I had on the PC back in the day. I might be the only one, but I loved that game, and once you had made some progress the speeds were awesome, and the environments were great. Some of the aesthetics in Powerdrome remind me of that, and the sense of speed is fantastic.

Powerdrome is great fun, and I'm really impressed. And glad that this forum made me aware of it! I can see my self getting a lot of enjoyment out of this game.

If anyone wants to know about the PS2 version, I should be able to help you out there. For starters, it does have a 60Hz (NTSC) mode, and there seems to be a widescreen mode too. As I said, I got it for ?10 from PC World. You can probably find it cheaper if you look around though - it was a bit of an impulse buy for me, so I didn't bother looking around for a better price!