 
#66 (-3)
in Games |
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Fastlane Street RacingPosted in Racing on 13 Nov 2008 |
 Reviewed by Steve Litchfield |
   (36 votes, average: 2.89 out of 5)  Loading ... |
Editor’s rating: 
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Racing games on the iPhone have just gone from impressive to jaw dropping with the release of this, the slickest and best driving game on the platform, a title that rivals the graphics and gameplay from £200 dedicated games consoles. But be warned – it’s hard, very hard. As hard as the real thing. So we’re talking controlling a 200mph supercar around a twisty urban circuit, needing ultra-fast reactions, a feel for racing and excellent hand-eye coordination. And not being afraid of dying. Sound like you? Read on….
The developers of Fastlane Street Racing have gone to extraordinary lengths to extract performance out of the already pretty fast iPhone graphics engine, with the result being a 3D environment that speeds by at a high frame rate and with surprising realism. Lighting effects (sun flares, long shadows at the end of the day, and so on), textures and good collision detection (witness the sparks when you just graze a barrier) mean that you’re effectively ‘there’. By default your ‘camera’ sits just behind your car, but you can toggle this to experience the race from inside the car, with the track rushing straight at you at unheard of speeds. It’s truly frightening – if you ever wondered what it would be like to really, really race a supercar then wonder no longer.
You can play in ‘Arcade’, ‘Time trial’ or ‘Challenge’ modes. Only the first of these involves opponent cars, with the other two focussing
more on your ability (or, more likely, inability) to control your car around the curves. A typical challenge might be to get around a lap
without touching the barriers more than twice.
Control is, of course, using the iPhone/iPod Touch’s accelerometer and it’s beautifully tuned. Acceleration and braking are by holding down the two bottom-of-screen brake and accelerator ‘pedals’. You’ll need both, too, plus some subtlety to get around the harder corners. There’s a big element of skill involved, with you either choosing to slow down in order to get around the corner naturally or to tap the brakes and ‘yank’ the car round in a power slide. The latter is faster and more fun, of course, but is hard to perfect.
There are a dozen different cities to race through (getting progressively harder to drive through), although (annoyingly) all but one are locked out until you reach a certain standard, meaning that lesser players won’t actually get to visit them. At least there’s a good choice of supercars, even at the outset.
Action replays of your lap, stats, great sound effects and a stereo music soundtrack, Fastlane Street Racing has it all and is the most
impressive few pounds or dollars you’ll spend in Apple’s iPhone App Store.
