My US copy (PS3) arrived yesterday and had just enough time to try out the menu's and a quick race.
After the install, your presented with quite a standard menu as a parked Ferrari has a camera slowly revolve around it accompanied by opera. To add to the classy nature of the Ferrari theme even the cellophane wrapper has an 'Officially licensed product of Ferrari' sticker on it. From what I can gather there are the usual modes of online, career and time trials with only the career really structured in any particular way. The game certainly has little time for dressing up the experience with the usual gloss you'll find in most big racers. Instead SlightlyMad Studios seems to have taken the Shift engine and created a racer entirely fixated on its attempt to represent Ferrari history. In total the game has 36 courses (including variations) and 52 cars with the career mode split over three eras in Ferrari's past.
The first race in the game is a 2 lap race in their first car, the Ferrari AAC 815. As it's the first era the race starts with a brown filter which fades into colour to give a bit of a sense of time to procedings. I struggled to get on with Shift 2 which was a concern for this, however it feels much more accessible from the off. The driving model has 3 modes 'beginner', normal' and 'pro' which affect the default driving model however there are additionally a whole host of toggles in the menu's to help affect the steering etc so it might take some effort but you should be able to find a suitable set up.
There are 4 camera settings:
-Cockpit: The usual driver position view where you can look at the interior of the car, works well.
-Bonnet: Feels a tad high and doesn't offer anything better over the cockpit view
-In-Car: The typical full screen view
-Chase: Full car in sight however the camera is far to behind and high
On the default controls the car feels pretty easy to control and the Beginner medal was a doddle, some reviews have said that the normal/hard medals become a brick wall later on though. However without the visual gloss the tracks really show some low detail and rough edges, something that might grate some but as these are nearly all traditional race courses there's not much trackside detail to be had anyway. Physics are bit of an issue too, it's quite easy to ram into a car and have it flip over in the air and ride for a second on top of another car. It's illusion breaking but personally I love stuff like that, adds entertainment value.
A UK release is still proving illusive as well oddly, Ferrari fans and possibly Shift fans will get some joy from this. The reviews have been very dismissive but taken on its own terms this could be quite fun for a while.
After the install, your presented with quite a standard menu as a parked Ferrari has a camera slowly revolve around it accompanied by opera. To add to the classy nature of the Ferrari theme even the cellophane wrapper has an 'Officially licensed product of Ferrari' sticker on it. From what I can gather there are the usual modes of online, career and time trials with only the career really structured in any particular way. The game certainly has little time for dressing up the experience with the usual gloss you'll find in most big racers. Instead SlightlyMad Studios seems to have taken the Shift engine and created a racer entirely fixated on its attempt to represent Ferrari history. In total the game has 36 courses (including variations) and 52 cars with the career mode split over three eras in Ferrari's past.
The first race in the game is a 2 lap race in their first car, the Ferrari AAC 815. As it's the first era the race starts with a brown filter which fades into colour to give a bit of a sense of time to procedings. I struggled to get on with Shift 2 which was a concern for this, however it feels much more accessible from the off. The driving model has 3 modes 'beginner', normal' and 'pro' which affect the default driving model however there are additionally a whole host of toggles in the menu's to help affect the steering etc so it might take some effort but you should be able to find a suitable set up.
There are 4 camera settings:
-Cockpit: The usual driver position view where you can look at the interior of the car, works well.
-Bonnet: Feels a tad high and doesn't offer anything better over the cockpit view
-In-Car: The typical full screen view
-Chase: Full car in sight however the camera is far to behind and high
On the default controls the car feels pretty easy to control and the Beginner medal was a doddle, some reviews have said that the normal/hard medals become a brick wall later on though. However without the visual gloss the tracks really show some low detail and rough edges, something that might grate some but as these are nearly all traditional race courses there's not much trackside detail to be had anyway. Physics are bit of an issue too, it's quite easy to ram into a car and have it flip over in the air and ride for a second on top of another car. It's illusion breaking but personally I love stuff like that, adds entertainment value.
A UK release is still proving illusive as well oddly, Ferrari fans and possibly Shift fans will get some joy from this. The reviews have been very dismissive but taken on its own terms this could be quite fun for a while.
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