By Jim Rossignol on June 13th, 2008 at 2:26 pm.
Now Pyroblazer is looking a bit creaky on the tech front, but this trailer suggests that their level (or track, as it’s a racing game) designers have no shortage of imagination to flesh out this futuristic racer. I’ve tried to pin down why I’m such a sucker for explosion-drenched futuristic racers before, and I think it’s to do with the sheer gaminess of them – speed, sparks, missiles, flying down magnetic pipes, all those things I don’t tend to when piloting my Fiat Punto around the lanes of Somerset. Anyway, you can raise your own eyebrow at the goings on and dodgy magma textures of Pyroblazer in the trailer that follows…
It’s about this time in the post that I mentioned flawed speedy not-quite-masterpiece Ballistics. I still have that installed for some reason.
odd. aside from the magma and the river it looks beautiful.
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Looks like a racing version of Descent. Count me in, despite the low-tech graphics. That magma texture is actually pretty good by the way, it simply shouldn’t be used for flowing lava, but just pools of it. Also, I agree, some nice levels can be seen in this. It better be FAST in any case. Let’s all remember F-Zero GX which looked just about decent in screenshots but the amazing sense of speed and smooth gameplay made it more than simply worth the sacrifices in visual detail.
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Oh man, Ballistics was fantastic. Blindingly fast, the fun was tearing down the tubes, barely in control, somehow scraping through at insano-miles-per-hour. Fantastic game. Oh, Grin, I still love you!
Despite the tubes, this game makes me think more of a faster, tighter Slipstream 5000 (assuming I’m remembering its name correctly). Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
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Reminds of me of those ‘virtual rollercoasters’.
Though it could be a fun game, sure there are some ugly tibbits of visuals, still looks decent visually. Then again why be so shallow.
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That first clip of going through the windy purple tube-thingy brought up some serious nostalgia: Looked much like a higher resolution version of the portals in Asheron’s Call.
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Needs more SPEED, seems really slow, from the clips at least.
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Yeah the liquids don’t look great, but looks interesting enough and loved the music. I am agree with Riotpoll about the lack of speed, hope that get sorted.
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Ahhh, ballistics. Has a great game’s promise ever been so thoroughly scuppered by something so trivial?
Bloody red bricks.
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Aaaaaaah, Ballistics. Was my first thought when I saw this post.
Had some great times on that game. Speeding across the tracts at sometimes 1000mph was so sweet. Disorienting too, I remember one of my friends throwing up while watching me race…
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Did anyone notice how every time something was racing there seemed to be a slight deceleration every few seconds? Like a sort of hitch? Or was it just me?
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It looked a little slow at points but that could be from the angles they were using. The ship designs fairly fun though.
Racing games with missiles always make me pine for a new Rock and Roll Racing.
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Hmm. Took me about 2/3rds of the way into the video to suss out what the game actually is. (I.e. A racing through a tube-track game.)
And, am I the only one who’s never heard of “Ballistics” before?
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No, it sank with only a few sad ripples in the marketplace.
I’m virtually immune to vertigo in games, but Ballistics just about managed to tickle my stomach. One time a bystander actually raised a hand in front of his face and staggered. Historic just for that, but also a daring game design.
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I’ve heard of Ballistics before.
Was the full version better than the demo? All I remember from the demo was hurtling through a tube at breakneck speed, with the only efforts to break up the monotony being absurdly placed triangle speed bumps that sent your vehicle from 950,000kmh back to 0 instantaneously. Is this the same game everyone is beating off to?
It wasn’t very good.
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Ballistics can be described thus:
‘Woooooooooooooooooooosh! Slam!’
It wasn’t great and the Slam! bit was a bit annoying. But the Woooosh! bit was very woooshy.
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Cage Roller, anyone?
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