47_Alpha_Tango

Is the PS3 retro? Possibly not but here goes anyway.

2012’s Need for Speed Most wanted takes the franchise closer to it’s roots than it’s been for a long time. Need for Speed games of old gave you some fast cars drive and maybe some police to outrun, there was mostly no story with an absurd amount of cutscenes getting in the way back then. Most Wanted is more like those old games.

The “story” such that it is involves you beating the 10 racers on the Most Wanted list. To do this you’re given access to every car in the game to use in whichever order you want. The only catch is you have to find them in the open world before you can drive them. However there is nothing stopping you from just driving around the world, which is fully unlocked from the start, and finding all 41 cars before doing your first event after the tutorial.

To earn enough points to take on a Most Wanted racer each car has 5 events to complete. These range from simple circuit races to escape the police challenges. The events for each car range from easy to hard with the majority of them giving me no trouble. There are few that will start to fill you with rage but persistence is key.

Races never seem unfair as such, just the occasional frustratingly difficult ones like the Speedrun time trial events which usually means having a near perfect run for the gold time.

Even retrying races isn’t a problem because practically every car in the game is fun to drive. Yes they all handle a bit differently, a hyper car being more of handful than a pickup truck for example.

As for the cars themselves there is no cosmetic customisation available. As you only use each car for 5 races it wouldn’t be worth the effort anyway. For completing events you will unlock performance upgrades including nitros, track and off/road tyres, stronger chassis and aero packages. Once unlocked these upgrades can be swapped out on the fly in mid-race.

There is no money to be earned in Most Wanted which means no grinding for those expensive parts or cars. Everything is just there for you to have fun with. Basically what we have here is Burnout Paradise 2 in a Need for Speed costume. It was even developed by the same team at Criterion. There is DLC to expand the game with a new airport to play around on and new cars but unfortunately the pack is the same £24.99 today as it was in 2012.

Strangely the game still has a healthy online community that is still playing on PlayStation 3. Which means those pesky multiplayer trophies are still obtainable and the people still playing seem more than happy to help out. I got all the multiplayer trophies in 3 hours and that was this month (June 2023).

If you’re bored of the story getting in the way of the fun in modern Need for Speed games and just want race some fast cars and take out some cops then 2012’s Most Wanted is definitely worth a look.

Reviewed on PlayStation 3.

Where to play in 2023

Need for Speed Most Wanted is available on a wide selection of systems. It can be played on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, PS Vita and PC and is available both on disc and digital download on all systems except the Wii U, where since the closure of the eShop it can only be bought on disc. Depending on your system of choice a physical copy will cost anywhere from £5 for the Xbox 360 version all the way up to £20 for a boxed PS Vita cartridge.

In 1997 racing games for the PlayStation were arcade racers. Sim racers were confined to PC and at the time it was thought that consoles just weren’t made for sims. The main problem racers had on PlayStation is the controller only had a d-pad and digital buttons. So for controlling the car the steering was either off or full lock. Same for the throttle and the brake. So one month before the launch of Gran Turismo Sony released the first Dualshock controller equipped with two analogue sticks that could provide finer and more accurate control of games. It also featured built-in vibration motors so players could now feel the games.

Then along comes Gran Turismo in December 1997 and showed the world that serious sim racing games belonged on PlayStation. Offering a massive 140 cars and 11 circuits (21 if you count the reverse layouts) and dozens of parts for you to upgrade your cars with.

The amount of credits you’re given to start means you’ll be heading for the used cars and probably a Honda Prelude. It’s cheap and fast enough to win the first few races. Unfortunately it won’t be long before your grinding the same races over and over to get the cash you need to upgrade the car or buy a new one. But the grinding is minimal and before long you’ll be driving half million credit cars.

Sadly there aren’t many events on offer and the game can be finished using only a handful of cars out of the 140 available. That’s not to say you won’t have fun in the 18-24 hours it will take to finish all Gran Turismo has to offer.

Before you can compete in most of the events you will have to pass the licence tests. These will teach you how to race and tackle the various types of corners you’ll find on the tracks. Getting bronze to pass the tests is fairly easy but the gold times seem way too difficult.

The event list is varied enough so you’ll have to buy a range of small, light, front wheel drive, rear wheel drive and US, EU and JP cars and you’ll want a racing car for the 2 hour endurance races. You’ll be surprised just how far your first car will go when you start bolting turbo chargers, racing gear boxes and racing tyres to it. My Prelude was holding its own against cars costing 5x more.

GT does have its share of issues. Like having to select manual transmission before every race and the gold times on the later licence tests are unbelievably hard. The AI will drive on what seems like a predetermined path and will drive straight into you like you’re not even there and they are slow as hell in the corners.

Overall the first Gran Turismo is a very fun game and any fan of the franchise should definitely play it if you have the means.

Reviewed on a PlayStation 3.

Where to play in 2023

Gran Turismo is playable on PS1, PS2 & PS3 with the original disc and has never been released digitally. A copy in good condition costs between £8 and £15.

When most people think of the Vita they think of the only real PlayStation hardware to flop. But for those of that owned, and still own a Vita it’s quite possibly the best handheld ever made.

The games are amazing, the console in comfortable to hold and that OLED screen is absolutely stunning. Some games that are available on PS4 are sometimes best played on the Vita. Crypt of the Necrodancer is one example. It’s colours pop a lot more on the Vita and it’s just more fun too.

But if you haven’t played Fall Guys via remote play then do yourself a favour and try it. Fall Guys was made for the Vita. It suits the handheld perfectly for a quick session when perhaps the TV is otherwise engaged with the little spawns watching Peppa Spongbob The Builder or whatever kids watch these days.

In fact the Vita is so good and was so ahead of it’s time Sony could start producing them again now in 2023 and releasing games and it would still be one hell of a good system.

It’s such a massive shame the Vita was abandoned by Sony so quickly.

Maybe you don’t agree and maybe I just have a soft spot for “failed” hardware. I still regularly use my Wii U to this day, more so even than my Switch but that’s a story for another community.

They managed to emulate the PS3 with its almost infamous CPU so this should be no problem for them.