By Kieron Gillen on April 10th, 2008 at 1:55 pm.
We’ve gone crazy-ranting about it before, but Eurogamer paid me to write a review of Redlynx Trials 2: Second Edition. As always, I have a leeeetle bit of a rant, and hang it off some grand theory of nonsense. Here’s a bit of it…
But playing Trials 2 made me wonder whether the tide’s reversing in another area. In the same way that PC owners used to be snobbish about consoles’ attempts at FPS, consoles have sighed about arcade games. And…well, if I want actual arcade games, the PC’s where I go to scratch that itch. And that’s proper arcade games. Not bloated epics or ninth-version-in-series franchise servicing, but ones where people take an idea and fire it as hard as they can at the target. Perversely, they’re ideal PC fodder. They’re possible with small teams – even a couple of people. There’s no corporation in the way to make you dance through hoops – the Xbox Live Arcade is very nice, but it’s just a provincial arcade compared to the PC’s Disneyland of distractions. From the insane freeware shooter scene to Audiosurf outselling Call of Duty on Steam for all of February, it’s all kicking off.
The rest is here and the trial version is here. Go PC Arcade revolution!
10/04/2008 at 14:00 Okami says:
uhmm… there’s no link to the eurogamer article. Both of your links lead to the same RPS article about Trials 2..
10/04/2008 at 14:05 Del Boy says:
I actually bought this with real money and everything.
It’s so UNBELIEVABLY HARD and I’m so UNBELIEVABLY BAD…..I’m actually worried about having a wireless keyboard because one day I’m going to throw it out of a window in frustration.
I did somehow manage to get to 500th in the world on one of the medium ones though, I’ve no idea how.
10/04/2008 at 14:26 Kieron Gillen says:
Okami: NO-ONE SHOULD LEAVE RPS. Er… fixed.
Del boy: I find it best to repeatedly play the Easy ones before moving onto the Medium.
KG
10/04/2008 at 14:50 Optimaximal says:
But even those Easy tracks are brutally hard… It took me over an hour to do the fucking Tutorial…
I fail :(
10/04/2008 at 14:56 Del Boy says:
Ouch.
OK, well I’m not quite as bad as Optimaximal.
I think the trick is that it only takes small adjustments to make a big difference to the rider yet I keep mashing at the keyboard.
10/04/2008 at 15:12 terry says:
I’m surprised this isn’t on Steam yet..
10/04/2008 at 15:28 fluffy bunny says:
Very good review, Kieron.
10/04/2008 at 15:41 Schtee says:
I also paid Real-Life Great English Monies Sterling for this. It’s fantastic! Only 7 places from taking Team RPS!
10/04/2008 at 16:20 JJ says:
Yes, I read somewhere it was coming to Steam. Any word on that yet?
I really like to buy this one, but if it’s comming to Steam, I’ll hold out a bit (jumped the gun with World of Goo).
Trials reminds me a bit of Trackmania. Except with a motorbike of course. But it’s the same sort of rush, starting a track over and over again :-)
10/04/2008 at 22:40 Pidesco says:
I just bought it. “Damn you Kieron!”, cries my wallet.
10/04/2008 at 22:52 Ginger Yellow says:
What JJ said. If it had a track editor, it would be Trackmania Bikes.
Awesome, awesome game.
11/04/2008 at 05:07 James says:
Hard as I tried, I just couldn’t see the shine in this game. I had a go at the trial version (Hee, trial Trials), but after about half an hour of wondering where it was supposed to be fun I closed the window and uninstalled it. Maybe I just missed the point somewhere along the line?