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Preview: Real Racing 3

Standing on the 46th floor in a building at the top end of Collins Street and overlooking the beautiful city of Melbourne is a special enough experience in its own right, but standing there as Real Racing 3 from Melbourne’s own Firemonkeys was officially launched was another thing altogether.

From my vantage point, I could look down on Flinders Street Station, the Arts precinct and Southbank — all of which had been handily marked out on one of the windows. All of those same landmarks have also been included in the track based in Melbourne, in-game. The room was decked out with large screen television monitors and iPads, media and press, photographers and even a few politicians. It was an unusually large amount of fanfare for the launch of a video game, but even more so for a mobile game. From my time spent hands on with Real Racing 3 though, I can honestly say that I think the fanfare was justified.

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The first thing to note about Real Racing 3 — and what stuck with me through the entire day (and still does now)– is just how amazing the game looks. Not just for an iOS game, either. The graphical fidelity the team at Firemonkeys have been able to pull out of the iPhone, iPad and Android devices is nothing short of incredible. It’s been a few years now, but I’d confidently compare Real Racing 3 to Gran Turismo 4 and maybe even give RR3 a slight advantage in the graphical department. It’s so incredible that I can’t re-iterate enough that I still have trouble fathoming that it’s a mobile game. It’s hard not to be impressed by the game’s lighting and reflections. As you race around the tracks, you will notice real time shadows and reflections from you and your fellow racers changing realistically. The glass and chrome of the cars deserves special mention as being particularly pretty, especially when being hit by light at just the right angle.

An interesting fact we were told during the event is that the vehicles in Real Racing 3 have more polygons in just one headlight than the entirety of one car in the first game. We were also told that it takes one full month for the team to model just one of the cars. Interestingly, it only took me mere minutes to reduce my car to a crumpled heap, thanks to the new damage modelling system. As you race, it is inevitable that you’ll rub up against your fellow racers and the track edge and if you’re anything like me, you’ll create some jaw-dropping crashes too. As you punish your car the vehicle physically changes before your eyes and once again it looks great.Rear bumpers hang on by a thread and bounce about as you speed around the track, bonnets crumple and windows break. The damage isn’t only cosmetic though, whatever damage your car sustains will actually reduce performance. Speed and handling are both reduced by damage, so good thing that you can repair your car post race. That’s where the new freemium structure comes in.

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The first two games in the Real Racing series were paid apps. This time around, Real Racing 3 is free to play. Where real world money comes in is when you don’t have the patience for the waiting game or don’t have the stamina to grind for that next unlock. The in game currency is split between racing dollars $R and gold. Both are earned from completing events, levelling up your driver and completing certain milestones. $R are what you’ll mainly be earning with gold coming at you in much smaller quantities (think cash and donuts in The Simpsons: Tapped Out). When you need to repair your car you spend $R and the repairs are carried out, but they take time. Ranging from only a few minutes to a few hours the repair times essentially put you out of the game (at least in the beginning while only one car is unlocked) until they’re completed. If you don’t have the patience to wait you can spend gold to make the process instant. If you don’t have enough gold you can complete a micro-transaction, purchase some and carry on racing. It’s not unlike most of the freemium models you’d see in the majority of mobile games and doesn’t seem as though it will detract from the experience.  As you level up and unlock more cars you’ll likely avoid micro-transactions altogether as you can race others while waiting for repairs and earn $R and gold at a faster rate.

Real Racing 3 includes multiplayer, but not like you’d expect. It’s a simple as connecting your game to your Facebook and or Game Center accounts and racing. The Real Racing servers will save your race data and it will become available for all of your friends to race against whenever they like. Whether you raced yesterday or the day before or even last week, the game will remember you and put you in your friends game and vice versa. They call it “Time-Shift” multiplayer and while it seems like simple ghost data it’s actually much more complex and a lot more interesting. Rather than just plonk your exact race into a friend’s game, the AI will instead attempt to emulate your skill and play style and create a whole new race based on you. As you improve in the game so does your performance when friends challenge you. It’s a great concept that allows for multiplayer on the go, where ever and whenever without the need to co-ordinate your efforts. It will likely prove a hit, especially for those with a competitive streak.

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So how does it play I hear you ask. Honestly? Great. I’m not a huge fan of mobile gaming, but the sheer quality of RR3 easily trumps my skepticism. Vehicles automatically accelerate to top speed, freeing you up to worry about steering and braking. Brakes are applied by simply tapping any where on the screen and steering is as easy as tilting your device. The cars respond well to your commands and the team have done a great job of capturing the different feel of each one. There are a variety of assists built in which can be turned on or off based on your driving skill. With braking and turning assist turned on to high ans traction control on the car will almost pilot itself around the track. With all the assists turned off the game quickly becomes for the hardcore race fan only. It helps broaden the appeal of the title and ensure that casual players won’t be turned off by it being too difficult.

The Firemonkeys have done a frankly remarkable job in creating a mobile game that not only looks like a console game but plays as well as one too. Real Racing 3 shows off what is really possible in mobile gaming when you have a passionate and talented team behind a project. If you’re a racing fan or a fan of mobile gaming you’ll be amazed when you download Real Racing 3 and you will because it simply must be seen to be believed.

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We were surprised with the news that Real Racing 3 would be available in Australia, New Zealand and Canada for iOS devices from 14 February, ahead of the 28 February worldwide (and Android) release date. Best of all, it’s free.


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DeltaPhoenix08