Topic: Fast Racing NEO

[Evan_B]

Since I've avoided the mediocre games releases earlier this season, I would go a far to say that it is indeed a miracle. I thought the season was going to be quite barren.

Of course, the verdict on these titles is not yet out, so there's a chance they're not so great. Shinen is mostly successful when they're going for an arcade feel, while I trust Image and Form.

[Enner]

My eyes! They strain from the speed, and this was playing in the Subsonic league.

One thing that bothers me is how my closest rival in points have consistently shot past me in the last stretches of a race. That, and there's a floaty heaviness to all the racers. Hopefully I find my groove with the game.

With these peeves in mind, I'm really enjoying my time with this little racer. The simple online functionality has worked fine in the handful of races I tried.

[ShyGuy]

I was getting eye strain too while playing.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

Now that the game is out, can we tell if the texture work is that much better than other Wii U games? 4K/8K texures and all. I can't tell since I'm in the middle of doing a Wii U data recovery and my hard drive is currently offline.

[ShyGuy]

• This game is FAST
• Fulcon Capital - eh? eh?
• The soundtrack is catchy
• For me, the lighter the racer the better
• Storm Coast jumps are stupidly difficult.
• Online is broken

[Enner]

Now that the game is out, can we tell if the texture work is that much better than other Wii U games? 4K/8K texures and all. I can't tell since I'm in the middle of doing a Wii U data recovery and my hard drive is currently offline.

The textures don't look quite as nice as the early screenshots, but they're good. The aliasing in the game is heavy; I assume this is a trade off to lock in the 60 frames per second.

[ShyGuy]

The aliasing is heavy but I don't notice it all during the race.

[Soren]

Aliasing looks worse when you're standing still. But it still looks good. The tricks they use to enhance the sense of speed are nifty.

[Soren]

Digital Foundry: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-vs-fast-racing-neo

While the final frame-buffer is a full 720p, the effects and render targets are all processed at variable, often lower resolutions. So what does this mean for the player? Well, based on our pixel counts, this means players are seeing a resolution of just 640x720 during gameplay. It would appear that there is some sort of temporal reconstruction in play which can produce unwanted flicker, but the end result is noticeably pixelated even at high speeds.

Fast Racing Neo also lacks anti-aliasing. During development, FXAA was tested with the game but, at these resolutions, the end results were simply too blurry in motion. For a fast-paced arcade style game, the sharper pixels actually produce a more pleasing overall result. Still, the low resolution look of the game can be distracting at points and it is our largest complaint with the game.

It's an impressive looking racer here with a blistering frame-rate and beautiful visual design. With a resolution upgrade, it would look just as fresh on PS4 or Xbox One and holds up well despite running on less powerful hardware.

More good stuff on the article.

[Evan_B]

Maybe I'm insane, but resolution problems are in no way an issue in this game. I hate how there's always a dig at how much better something could be on "better tech". We get it by now.

Anyway, I'm having real issues with making some of the turns in this game, even when they're slight. Sunahara Desert was definitely the point when I realized how much I was relying on guard rails. I feel like is rather lay off the acceleration to make a turn but then I see other racers just blow past me with ease, and leaning sometimes helps, but not enough to save my awful turns. Some tracks just click better than others for me, but the jungle track with it's insanely narrow track is aggravating.

[ShyGuy]

I grow tired of Digital Foundry.

[Enner]

Digital Foundry shouldn't be read by anyone with limited interest to frame rates, textures, filtering, and effects.

Their FAST Racing Neo article is a neat read. Good to know about the decisions Shin'en took to achieve their goals.

[MagicCow64]

I never would have guessed about the resolution, looks just fine to me.

I downloaded the game over the weekend, and while my brother and I have had fun with it, we've hit a major wall in the third cup at supersonic speed. My brother is an old F-Zero GX hand, so he's considerably better than I am, but even he can't break the top three to unlock the last supersonic cup. This is due almost entirely to Sunahara Desert. It's not just the lack of guardrails but the fact that seemingly tiny rocks blow you up when you go off road and the extremely zealous "No shortcuts!" replacements by the computer. My brother might be able to get past this eventually, but I'm coming in at like 8th place on this cup at best, and don't think I'll be able to improve. Pretty good game overall, though, and I'd say we got the NYC movie ticket price out of the experience.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

Its eye bleed fast on the Subsonic level which while impressive worries my future.




I also suck really bad at this game...


really bad