Absolute Supercars Preview

When it comes to simulation racing games, people immediately think of Forza or Gran Turismo, and with good reason. Those games set the bar for their respective consoles, and that’s ok! Of course, they don’t have to be the only simulation racing games on the market, and who knows? With the right price point, a cheaper digital title could appeal to simulation racing fans without the big commitment of a full priced games.

That’s where Absolute Supercars comes into play. A PSN exclusive, this simulation racer from the team at Eutechnyx (NASCAR the Game: 2011, Auto Club Revolution, Ride to Hell) will be coming out sometime in Q1 2012 at $9.99, and has the simple aim to offer simulation racing at a cheap price point.

Like other simulation racing titles, Absolute Supercars offers specific and exact racing. If you’re looking for an arcade racing game, you’re not going to find that here, as this is standard simulation racing through and through, with guides and breaks and all that jazz. It’s solid stuff, although I’m terrible at these games and quickly find myself slamming into walls. Oh well.

That said, the game does some new things I’ve never seen in a racing game before.  The difficulty settings are the most interesting. There is the standard simulation hardcore difficulty setting, the easier arcade setting offering assistance, and something a lot more interesting, the Dynamic AI. With this AI turned on, the game scales itself to the players’ skill as they play. I don’t know how perfect it works in the long run, but for my time it made the game feel challenging but not unfair.

Offering more than standard racing, there are over 40 high-end supercars and 20 tracks, based upon real world tracks and fantasy tracks made for the game. Fans should enjoy very much taking a Ferrari FXX or McLaren F1 around Silverstone or Nuburgring. For a digital title, the game looks pretty great too, offering a fantastic in-cab camera.

Customization is bare bones, offering no major stat modification to the cars, and visual modifications are nothing more than some color options and slapping on some decals. That said, this game is only ten bucks, so if there were one area they should put less focus in, I think customization should be it.

As far as online goes, up to 16 players can join up and take to the track, with specific lobby customizations such as penalties, assists, and more. It’s what you would expect, and that’s a good thing.

At the end of the day, that’s exactly what Absolute Supercars should be, an inexpensive simulation racer that covers the bases in all the right ways without doing too much. That’s far from a bad thing, and simulation racing fans should anticipate something solid from this one.