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AUTO Modellista Preview
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
Merging cell-shaded visuals with Gran Turismo styled racing, Auto Modellista stands out FROM the crowd...
When a game has such a distinct look itās already gone half the way to impress us. Like Jet Set Radio before it, Capcomās Auto Modellista is such a refreshing change from the usual racing titles that you canāt help but sit up and take notice. Merging the ever-popular cell-shaded visual style with Gran Turismo racing mechanics is a touch of genius, producing a very slick Manga styled racer, how could you not be impressed?
Capcom had a string of eight machines networked in order to show off the online aspects of the title last week, a strange decision seeing that this mode will not make it to the European version!
The actual racing experience is as cool as it looks, sitting somewhere between an arcade racer and Gran Turismo. With emphasis placed on speed and slipstreaming, the handling and car mechanics arenāt as technical as Polyphonyās effort, however there is enjoyment to be had. The trick to winning is slipstreaming your opponents, which will give you that extra boost to burst past them, during these moments youāll find yourself grinning with delight just because it looks so damn cool.
Thereās not a lot that can be said about the visuals, except for the fact that they look so amazing. With such a distinct look this has to be one of the better looking racing titles around, only in s different way to the likes of GT3 and Colin McRae3. More importantly itās a robust engine powering the wonderful visuals, slowdown or a jittery frame-rate could have destroyed the whole illusion, thankfully weāve got a solid 60FPS with no signs of slowdown despite 3-4 cars often frequenting the screen.
Unfortunately weāve heard worrying reports from the recently released Japanese version that suggests the game is a little too easy and lacks depth. Of course the online features help this out, playing against other people rather then AI opponents is always going to be more fun, but for us Europeans itās looking like an opportunity wasted. Itās believed that thereās no real difference between car models; a weaker car has just as much chance of winning as a souped up car, as it all comes down to proper use of slipstreaming and gaining that extra boost. You can even buy all of your parts from the start without having to save up for them, now whereās the sense in that!!!
This is likely to be a result of the online design, to ensure that races are always the heated occasions that generate the most excitement, but once again it looks like weāre going to be the ones to suffer.
