cavalcade

There's brake on left trigger and "advanced manoeuvre" on X, which essentially, depending on vehicle is a sort of handbrake. You can't get Golds in the time trials without mastering continually boosting almost the entire lap (alternating between boost and…. er… boost) and then trying to hit corners perfectly with a handbrake slide so you don't lose momentum.

OK, now I'm managing to Gold the time trials. It's the handbrake turns that are critical. But the lack of control customisation on this is driving me nuts. Handbrake on X is a legacy from driving games, for sure, so you roll your finger over the accelerator onto the handbrake to make tight turns. But I've always hated it, and the over reliance on it here to get good times means I'm going to have to custom map it to something else before I break something.

I do think the two different types of brake and two different types of boost is sort of a change for the sake of it, rather than being a genius new addition to driving games. One boost bar, filled when you do stuff, then triggered is fine, with perhaps the explody mechanic if you push it. The interplay here of the systems remains needlessly confusing, or perhaps I'm just getting too old for this shit.

That's alarming you only just noticed.

Wow. Then I have some serious work to do.

Do those upgrades end up in the Arcade/Time Trial mode? I'd have thought not… and that's worrying as the Gold times seem cray cray….