Outrun 2006: Coast2Coast

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah the PSP version's framerate is quite choppy in places which is unfortunate but, that aside, the graphics quality is excellent. Music is great and the bright scenery is lovely.

My problem at the moment is the handling. Unlike many of you guys, I haven't played any of the recent Outrun games so this is all new to me. I say new, but in a way I mean old - the handling here feels like Ridge Racer 1 to me. I remember back in the day I was a huge Daytona freak (a bit rubbish at it but loved it). I tried playing Ridge Racer but the handling was really bad by comparison. It wasn't until Rage Racer that I felt Nanco made a big leap forward in the handling, which they perfected in RR4. And yet, this Outrun to me feels like that old RR1 handling I never got on with. It feels twitchy and my car doesn't feel like it's actually on that road, like there's no weight or something. I assume that was the way it was in the arcades too.

It's probably only going to take a while to get used to it but it just took me a bit by surprise. It felt like going back in time. Seems like a great game though with some really interesting game ideas and a lovely polish so I'll definitely give it the time and hopefully I'll get on with the handling soon enough.

[Silvergun X]

Could someone with the PSP version try online play and see if it's working ok when you join a game?

[SegaMark]

Another great review!

http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/launchreview.asp?reviewid=677884

[Silvergun X]

...but on the PSP only Ridge Racer competes visually. The controls work surprisingly well too, with the analogue nub feeling a little better than the Playstation 2's rather twitchy left analogue stick.

Not true.

It's definately playable with the nub, but it's definately not better than playing with the PS2's analogue stick.

I agree with that bitchin' score though.

[MikeF]

Could someone with the PSP version try online play and see if it's working ok when you join a game?

It was working fine for me earlier

[Silvergun X]

Hosting or joining?

Just read about port mapping in the manual. Lemme try that...

[MikeF]

^^ both

[JamesS]

Joining games doesn't work for me. I've set up port forwarding but it didn't seem to help.

Games all show up as 0 players, and I get a message saying the game's no longer available when I try to join.

[Silvergun X]

Ok James, thanks for clarifying that.

[Bleeders]

Liking the PSP version, although I find shunting the cars in the race in SP a tad annoying though, since they spin out, but don't seem to lose any speed at all.

Other than that, sterling effort.

[Silvergun X]

Any other people trying / having success with joining matches with PSP?

[MikeF]

I can't join any matches now, must be a problem at their end

[Geoff D]

I managed to get a time on the leader board for time trial (Garcian is my username, PSP version), although it's probably been superceded by now.

What's a good car to buy? I feel the need to upgrade.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I managed to get a time on the leader board for time trial (Garcian is my username, PSP version), although it's probably been superceded by now.

What's a good car to buy? I feel the need to upgrade.

Testarosa! No idea if it's the best car but it's *the* OutRun car, so I refuse to drive anything else.

[Silvergun X]

In all seriousness though, as I mentioned earlier, the Testarossa OR is absolutely insane.

Seems like a LOT of people are having psp connection problems.

You can tell that you're going to stay in, if your name stops flashing red when you're in a lobby. I just managed to stay in a room.

A lot of other people keep joining, flashing red, then quitting, and trying over and over again. Definately server side then..