There's a reason you always see coin-op racing games lined up two, four, or even eight in a row: It's a lot more fun to race against live humans than AI opponents.
Unfortunately, only a handful of otherwise excellent iPhone racing games offer multiplayer modes. And most of those limit you to local competition via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi--only a couple offer online multiplayer.
I'm happy to report that Asphalt 5--sequel to the mega-popular Asphalt 4: Elite Racing--has joined the ranks of online-multiplayer racing games.
It's a good thing, too, because the Asphalt series suffers from a problem I have with many racing games: once you fall behind the AI drivers, it's nearly impossible to catch up.
But human opponents are just as error-prone as you are, so the competition feels fair and, most importantly, real.
After signing up for a free Gameloft account (which you can do in-game), I hopped into an online race and was quickly matched up with five other drivers. One dropped out mid-race (jerk), but the game didn't skip a beat.
And it was a blast. Asphalt 5 really is arcade racing at its finest, with jaw-dropping graphics, 30-plus glamorous real-world cars to drive, a dozen globe-spanning tracks, and eight different game modes.
Basically, if you liked Asphalt 4, you'll love Asphalt 5. And if you find that most racing games get old in a hurry, I think you'll agree that Internet multiplayer adds significantly more replay value.
While we're on the subject, check out these five awesome online-multiplayer games for the iPhone.
Test-drive six 2010 VW hatchbacks in Firemint's free Real Racing GTI.
Firemint's Real Racing is one of the top-rated and most popular racing games in the App Store, but at $6.99 it's also among the priciest.
Alas, there's no lite version you can test-drive before you buy, but Volkswagen just unveiled the next best thing: Real Racing GTI, a free, VW-oriented version of the game.
Specifically, you get all the same visually stunning championship-racing goodness, but with just three tracks and half a dozen 2010 GTI hatchbacks.
This slimmed-down Real Racing offers three game modes: Quick Race, Time Trial (which lets you post race replays on YouTube!), and career-oriented GTI Cup Championship. (The full game offers more cars, tracks, game modes, etc., including local multiplayer.)
As Jason Parker wrote in his review, near-perfect controls set this game apart from other iPhone racers: "The sensitive accelerometer steering in Real Racing somehow gets it just right. This is due, in no small part, to the autobraking feature that teaches you the best speed at which to enter turns."
Thanks to Real Racing GTI, now you can experience that for yourself. Interestingly, this isn't VW's first foray into branded iPhone apps: just last month the company partnered with Fish Labs for VW Scirocco 24H Challenge.
So, now that you've had a chance to test-drive it, how does Real Racing compare with other iPhone racers you've played? Are you more likely to buy the full game?
(Credit:
Kotaku )
A hard-core racing simulation fan from Japan has created this very rudimentary (yet somewhat cool) DIY driving station out of PVC pipes, a wooden plank, and cable ties. While it doesn't look as polished as its video game arcade equivalent, this skeletal concoction is actually very functional, complete with a steering wheel and foot pedal mounts, plus folding capability for easy storage.
One important point we'd like to highlight: this driving station has nothing to do with Gran Turismo (which is a PlayStation exclusive) as claimed by game portal Kotaku, since the pictured steering wheel is manufactured by Microsoft and designed for its Xbox 360.
Click here for more DIY driving stations.
The driving station can fold up for easy storage.
(Credit: Kotaku)(Source: Crave Asia via Kotaku)
Shrek Kart offers movie-themed racing fun, but don't expect any talking.
Ever since Mario traded his running shoes for a four-wheeler, go-kart games have been a console staple.
Witness Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D for the iPhone, which debuted in 2008 (shortly after the App Store launched) and has been a top seller ever since.
Now comes Gameloft's Shrek Kart, which casts everybody's favorite ogre in the Mario/Crash role for some fairy-tale-themed fun.
Actually, you can race as Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, Puss in Boots, or any of 10 movie characters--each with his or her own vehicle and special ability. (Shrek, for example, can "break wind" to breeze through walls that would otherwise slow him down.)
Though noteworthy for offering 15 total tracks, 11 power-ups, and four single-player modes (more than Crash Bandicoot on each count), Shrek Kart plays pretty much like every other kart game.
Make no mistake: it's visually stunning and tons of fun, but where's Mike Myers? Where's Eddie Murphy? It would be great to hear the characters' voices in a movie tie-in like this, but Shrek Kart has only the prerequisite cutesy sound effects and music.
The good news is that it offers something Crash Bandicoot lacks: multiplayer. The bad news is it's local multiplayer only; up to six racers can compete over Wi-Fi or just two via Bluetooth.
If you want Internet competition (the gold standard for any racing game), you'll need to look to Cocoto Kart Online. It doesn't match Shrek's lovely graphics, but it does offer instant global competition.
It's also 99 cents, versus $4.99 for Shrek Kart. The latter is undoubtedly one of the best kart games I've played on the iPhone, but I'm disappointed by the lack of voices. I dunno, maybe I'm just being an ogre.
What's your favorite go-kart game? Crash the comments (get it?) to share your thoughts.
Audi's electric e-tron gets digital in PlayStation Home.
(Credit: Audi)Automakers are like forum trolls. Every time you turn around another one of them is yelling, "First!"
This time it's Audi claiming to be the first carmaker to develop its own virtual area in Sony's PlayStation Home. Audi Space, as it will be known, will come on line in late 2009. Audi Space will at first feature an Audi TV channel delivering video content relating to the German automaker.
In December of '09, Audi Space will be expanded to include Vertical Run, a futuristic racing game featuring Audi's e-tron concept. Players will collect electrical energy that will presumably be untamed by the e-tron as they race for the highest possible speed. Be the fastest and you could earn a place for your Home avatar in the virtual Audi apartments, located in a large tower in the center of Audi Space.
Audi Space will be a 3D area where players can explore the Audi brand.
(Credit: Audi)"Most young people gain their first driving experience from video games," explains Kai Mensing, who is responsible for video games and virtual worlds in Online Marketing at Audi. "With the Audi Space, we can bring this target group into contact with our brand in a highly emotion-packed and interactive environment, and demonstrate our 'Vorsprung durch Technik' with the virtual e-tron race."
"It was important to us to create an environment with Audi Space that differed from a classic showroom at an Audi dealership," Mensing said. "To achieve that, we got together with the architects at Allmann Sattler Wappner and developed an interactive concept where the focus is on selected Audi models, making it possible to experience the brand in a selective, interactive way."
The company has stated that additional Audi content will be added to Audi Space in 2010.
The Xanavi/Nismo GT-R GT car is featured prominently in the Gran Turismo screenshots.
(Credit: Polyphony Digital)Polyphony Digital usually plays its cards pretty close to the vest when it comes to releasing details about its Gran Turismo series. So, I was pretty stoked when I got a news release titled "First Official Gran Turismo 5 screenshots." I waited with baited breath as the images downloaded. Hurriedly, I flung open the attachments only to be greeted with a handful of images of the GT5's fancy menu system. Really? Talk about disappointing.
Ironically, we've already had more than a few good looks at GT5 in action, despite Polyphony Digital's weak attempts at teasers. We already know that the PS3-exclusive will feature 1,000 vehicles, damage modeling and rollover crashes, and online racing with voice chat. Heck, we even knew about the game's capability to flood YouTube with your weak sauce replays.
In fact, about the only thing we don't know is when we can expect to be able to play the game. Although to be fair, we're not so sure that anyone at Polyphony Digital knows either.
So, come on Poly-Dig. We've already seen the goods. Stop being such a tease and give us the full monty.
What can I say? I'm a sucker for racing sims.
(Credit: CTA Digital)I'm not what you'd call a fan of chintzy, plastic, snap-on video game peripherals. I've got enough plastic guitars and controllers cluttering up my living room already without taking up more space with snap-on shells that make my Wii Remote look like the world's shortest golf club. However, I take my racing sims seriously, even on the iPhone. Which is why the CTA Digital Steering Wheel for iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch is interesting to me.
CTA's wheel is basically a plastic shell that snaps onto your iPhone, iPhone 3GS, or first- or second-generation iPod Touch to make the devices feel like a small steering wheel. The design doesn't block the screen, so you can still access virtual buttons for braking, nitro, and such. CTA offers two versions of the wheel, one with a suction cup mount and one without.
I think this is a cool idea for two basic reasons. Firstly, the bigger radius of the wheel's grip can help ease hand cramping caused by prolonged playing for people with big hands. Additionally, the suction cup mount means that iPhone racing games can be played with one hand, which is great because, well, I'm lazy like that.
I haven't been able to find pricing on CTA's Web site, but expect the iPhone wheel to be priced similarly to the company's $19.99 steering wheel for Wii.
This definitely isn't a product for everyone and I can't see myself busting this wheel out on the train as I commute to work. However, if you've ever spent more than an hour at a time racking up points playing Need for Speed: Undercover or Ferrari Challenge, then check the cheesy video after the jump to see the CTA Digital iPhone steering wheel in action.
... Read moreAt the company's E3 press conference, Microsoft announced a new downloadable Xbox Live Arcade racing game that will use your Xbox Live avatar in game. While additional tracks will be available for purchase, Joy Ride will be completely free to download.
This team from Southern University in Louisiana has a grip on lunar rover design in a race that's part aerospace engineering, part soapbox derby.
(Credit: NASA/MSFC)It's been a long hiatus since the last time a human strode across the lunar terrain, and we're still some years out from the next planned mission to the moon.
But that doesn't mean we shouldn't tinker around with notions of how astronauts in the not-too-distant future might get around the Sea of Tranquility or some other lunar destination. That's part of the driving force behind NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race, an annual event geared toward college and high school students.
The mission: design and build a lightweight, human-powered buggy, then race it around a half-mile track pocked with gravel pits and bedeviled with other pseudo-lunar obstacles. While the race is designed to be forward-looking and to build on youthful dreams of the future, it also hearkens back to design challenges faced by Apollo-era engineers in the 1960s and 1970s.
Of 68 teams in this year's moonbuggy event, just 39 completed the race. Top honors went to the Rochester Institute of Technology in the college division, and--in a two-way tie--to teams from the Huntsville (Alabama) Center for Technology and Erie (Kansas) High School in the high school division.
Check out our slideshow for more details and a look at 15 or so of the vehicles.
EA ramps up the realism for Need for Speed: Shift.
(Credit: EA)We love racing games here at Car Tech. So we jumped at the opportunity to play a preview build of its upcoming Need for Speed: Shift when we were invited by EA.
Need for Speed: Shift is the first of a three-pronged split of the Need for Speed franchise that will also include Nitro--a casual, arcade racer--and World Online--sort of a racing sim MMORPG.
We were particularly blown away by the fully modeled interiors of the vehicles, which included fully functional gauges and mirrors. Having recently sat in many of the test vehicles, we were impressed by the level of detail. For example, the in-game Corvette featured the same head-up display as the 2009 Corvette Convertible we'd tested earlier.
Need for Speed: Shift is expected to be released in the fall for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. Check out our gallery with more photos and details.
