feltmonkey

Clicking the stick in for the ramjet is a pain in the arse. It always makes the camera swing one way or another, as how can you go from not using the right stick to clicking it in smoothly? Well, I can't, anyway. The two different types of boost kind of mean you have to hold down two different buttons (A and RT) to go fast. It seems a bit needless.

I know. It just didn't register for some reason.

I just noticed that the alien running the parts shop is scouse.

Some pertinent information concerning my thoughts about Galactic Racer - I had just got back from the dentist after a root canal, so I wasn't in the best mood.

Edit - To examine the first race further, @cavalcade did the moustache-twirling villain crash into the back of you and then blame you in a cutscene after the race? That's what happened to me, and I'm curious how clever and reactive the game is. I like the way other drivers shout stuff at you during the race. At one point I bludgeoned two drivers into walls using my super-afterburner, but I held it down too long and exploded myself. Another driver went past me and shouted "You deserved that!" and I was struck by how apposite the bark was. I really did deserve it.

I think there might be a lot of interesting stuff going on under the surface to make everything more exciting and engaging. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - all the best games do this to some extent. I think the "scripting" I was detecting might be part of this, but I wonder if it is toned-down later in the game, or less obvious if you're not as rubbish at it as I am.

I've played Galactic Racer a bit as well, probably less than an hour. I have mixed feelings. There's a lot to like, and it does feel a lot like Burnout and Split/Second. It could do with some of Split/Second's track-altering madness, but I think that may have just been a moment in time, as no other game has really done it since. The boosting and drifting mechanics, coupled with a mechanic where if you crash too many times it's game over, do lead to some thrilling moments, as you desperately handbrake-turn your vehicle away from a wall, avoiding a game-over crash, and boost away in an attempt to capitalise on your narrow escape and pick up a few places.

My reservations stem from a feeling that sometimes the game is trying to manipulate me. Why do I struggle for two laps and then overtake everyone on the third? Why, early in races, do other racers speed away from me even while I'm using afterburners, only to be breezed past in the final straight? The first race is very obviously scripted, but I can't shake the feeling that it's not the only one. I suppose it doesn't really matter as everything is loud and impressive, and it might well be my imagination anyway.

Luna is fairly decent as a game-streaming service, although I did crash and lose a race as a direct result of the stream freezing at one point.