Metropolis Street Racer: Graphic whore says "wow!"

[Cheebs]

I just got around to picking MSR up for my DC. All I can say is that my jaw is still on the floor. I have yet to play a PS2, but I really can't immagine it looking too much better than this. Keep in mind that I'm playing through a 29 inch VGA monitor. The car models are decent, but the environments....wow! Very organic and full of life. The textures are brilliant, and I don't know what the polly count is, but since I see no square edges it must be high enough to not matter. No blurries, no jaggies, no popup, no fog, no interlacing (VGA ), nice frame rate.... Graphic whore heaven. I've only played about 3 hours so far, so this is strictly an asthetic impression. The game seems to play well enough though. Much better than DC Daytona. I only wish I could use my own CD's for the music. Curse you, X-box owners! Most in game tunes are OK (bluegrass! Whoo Hoo!), but the San-Fran butt rock is enough to make anybody throw up. Not as cheesy as the Ferrari game, but damn close.

[JefmcC]

I take it you don't own an Xbox and Gotham then?

Yeah MSR looks good. But next to Gotham, it's a turd.

[Andy787]

Next to Rallisport Challenge, most games are turds

[Cheebs]

Really? Never laid eyes on an Xbox game. That good eh?

[JefmcC]

Well, let's put it this way. imagine MSR with 60 FPS, high res, better control (IMO), your own tunes, better AI on the other cars (not much better), and more detail in everything on the screen. Plus, again IMO, a better, more forgiving gameplay system.

Then you play Rally Sport Challenge and see things kicked up a notch further.

Chibi, just get a Xbox.

[Andy787]

Xbox r0x0rz j00r graphic whore b0x0rz

[galvatron]

Yeah, MSR is very pretty in VGA, but it's not XBox level...of course, it shouldn't be considering that it came out on an older system. My only gripe about the graphics is that on a properly color/brightness calibrated monitor MSR looks kinda dark during the night races. That game coulda used a gamma slider...other than that, it's one of my better $10 games.

[Cheebs]

Originally posted by JefmcC
Chibi, just get a Xbox.

But it's $300 dollars....

*sigh*

My spending habbits are so funked up. I'll let the Xbox price tag scare me off, then I'll go and buy a second MVS (only because my first one wasn't sterio) and a game like Metal Slug 3. I can't figure me out.

I need an Xbox owner to answer a question for me, but you must be as big of an audio snob as I am. How is the compression for the songs you save on the hard drive for play durring games? I can't stand MP3 compression. It sounds ugly and sucks the life out of the music even at bitrates as high as 160. Is the Xbox compression better? Is there an option to save your music to the hard drive with no compression at all?

[Cheebs]

Originally posted by galvatron
My only gripe about the graphics is that on a properly color/brightness calibrated monitor MSR looks kinda dark during the night races. That game coulda used a gamma slider...other than that, it's one of my better $10 games.

Yeah, I have to re-adjust my brightness and contrast settings when I play. I have this piece of paper I keep around with settings for specific games and consoles. It's getting pretty full. I guess I need a better system...

[galvatron]

There's no "no compression option", but, to my ears, the compression isn't noticeable...maybe that's more of a comment on the playback quality in general. I don't have a surround sound system yet, so maybe that would expose some flaws...