So here we are again

[Snobby Hobo]

I'm not entirely sure what to say at this point. Just played 5 races of "Pacer" and it left me with the exact same taste previous iterations did. I'm fully aware 5 races is very little of a basis to make judgement upon, but I honestly feel I already did play this game several times under various different names.

It's not a downright bad game. There appear to be a lot of bells and whistles in terms of the garage (which honestly is very cool) but the core loop still feels very lackluster. It honestly feels like nothing has changed in that regard. I still think the soundtrack is very unremarkable at best, but I've yet to find any tracks that offend me like in the previous iteration (which really did not suit the game at all). I guess I'll just compile a bunch of complaints:

• Ship physics are still non existent. This was my biggest concern and it turned out nothing has changed on this front. Ships still feel like they're glued to the track rather than being hovering magnetic crafts like it did in Wipeout. Collision physics with other ships are non existent as well. There are the "hops" in specific tracks like before, but honestly these feel extremely scripted and weird
  
• Visual clarity is very bad on specific tracks. Niagara is a huge offender in this. The track is extremely narrow and the border of the track follows almost the exact same color palette the track itself does
  
• Menus look very template-ish and not particularly visually coherent
  
• The garage looks very boring, even though I do like a lot of the cosmetics

Frankly I'm a bit lost. It's almost the exact same critique I had a few years ago. If it weren't for the different menus I honestly would've been unable to tell the difference between Pacer and Formula Fusion. Many of the tracks look good even though definitely not all of them play well.

Sadly my biggest complaint remains entirely intact over all these years of development: the game does not convince me as if we're piloting an "anti gravity vehicle". It all feels extremely arcade-y rather than "realistic". Wipeout did this extremely well but Pacer doesn't sell me on the premise at all. The sense of speed is there but the physics aren't.

I do hope it gets a little bit more traction this time around though. The game isn't "bad", it's just really unremarkable to me. That being said the production quality is pretty high (give or take a few aspects) so it might appeal especially to people who haven't played other anti grav racers.

[Keyes]

Thanks

[Blackwiggle]

Well I've got both the PC version and the PS4 version on a PS4 PRO, and TBH I prefer the PS4 version.
It looks great on a PS4 and gameplay is very smooth.

The visual problem mentioned above on Niagara doesn't exist on the PS4 version, well not to my eyes at least.

My main grip with the game is the inability to remap the controls from the default ones.

I use a PS4 controller, and since you now have to hold down a button to activate KERS [SQUARE], it is very easy to also hit another button at the same time [Triangle], which changes the piloting view, needless to say this can, and has had disastrous effects on race results when your view suddenly changes on you unexpectedly.

Also if you remap [X] accelerate to R2 it gives you a much finer control over throttle [when you could do it in FF that is ], as R2 is a analog button, but again it currently can't be done, nor can swapping air-brakes from L2R2 to L1R1.....D-Pad doesn't work either [my preferred steering method ]
Basically the settings I mention above are pretty much the default settings that most old time Wipeout pilots would choose if they could.

R8 are aware of the problem, but I'm amazed that they allowed it to be released with this function not working, as something as basic as this not working doesn't inspire confidence that you have bought a quality product, especially if coming to the game for the first time.

I just hope this problem is fixed soon, as currently it's not a enjoyable thing to have to deal with.

The other problem is changing the craft specs, the changes in the graphs at the side don't seem to mirror what those changes are supposed to be doing.
Either the graphs are wrong or the changes are wrong.....How do you tell?

I really hope PACER does well, as I think it's great game, but these problems do tarnish the experience.

[MacAlbert]

Originally posted by Incredibly average:

Ship physics are still non existent. This was my biggest concern and it turned out nothing has changed on this front. Ships still feel like they're glued to the track rather than being hovering magnetic crafts like it did in Wipeout. Collision physics with other ships are non existent as well. There are the "hops" in specific tracks like before, but honestly these feel extremely scripted and weird

Total let down

[noProb™]

This was nearly exact what i felt about the game. One thing i rly dont like here is the cosmetic aspect. Ive no problems with this, i playing dota and other games where i can find cosmetics, but after this chewinggum of releases and the politics around steam players, and so on it feels like they try to build a cashcow now, and not a game what we wished.

In the game it feels like they changing not very much, only the menus, only the gameplay feels like an good old Wipeout. Racing makes fun, but in this way, i will always remeber at the story they have written on they own. At the end we got the game...

[JonatanPeI]

In Formula Fusion the simple fact of turning slowed the ship, when you used the flaps there was a stop in speed and the simple fact of brushing the edge of the track added another speed slow. Add that when you were going fast, many times you had to release the throttle or press brake because if not you go against the wall and you would suffer a greater penalty in speed.

From what I can see in a few minutes of play, this does not happen now in Pacer, where the ship just slows down a bit in those cases and the laps are more fluid, you don't feel that you are slowing speed all the time. That is a huge improvement.

One thing that I disliked too much in Formula fusion is that there was too hard, imposible in reallity to make perfect laps without braking all the time, in Pacer you can make perfect laps at normal play. But I have try some laps in Elite mode and is a total Chaos.

Other thing I see is that there is less camera options (only two), in formula fusion we had more, one of them more dinamic. And the other thing is the boost, in FF when you had been pressing boost if you had full bar the was gaining extreme speed, in Pacer is more slow. I didn't like the boost then, but I don't like now.

[puppet74]

so because the game doesn't feel like wipeout the physics are bad, ic.
This game may have visuals like wipeout but thats as far as it goes really. The game never controlled like it and tbh im glad it still does not.
I was worried they would cave in and go the more wipeout route, which would make like 90% of the tracks in the game boring and easy as hell. The only reason the tracks work is because of the way the craft fly.
Overall if you looking for something different i think this is a great game, but if ur looking for just more wipeout ur going to be disappointed. Go play BNG instead.

[JonatanPeI]

When it was announced it was said that the development team was made up of members of Wipeout, I don't understand why people would not be able to expect a similar game, it really is, saving the differences.

[Dicentim]

Terrible reboot for me, the graphics sharpness seem way lower than in Formula Fusion, there's a kind of blur.
Very disapointed.

[zeek]

Awful reboot. If I could refund it I would but sadly I'm 3 years too late for that.

[Zakalwe]

To be honest, it's just not that good. It feels and looks dated, and yet the performance is choppy. The art direction is all over the place, and doesn't seem to understand what made the DesignersRepublic influenced Wipeout so cool in the first place (clue: adopt a 360 design language for EVERYTHING in-game). I doubt this'll stay on my PC for longer than three days.

[puppet74]

Originally posted by Dicentim:

Terrible reboot for me, the graphics sharpness seem way lower than in Formula Fusion, there's a kind of blur.
Very disapointed.

yeh the lod value is much lower, really not sure why? lower it for consoels ? sure ok but dont mean it has to be across the board. one thing that was great about FF was how crisp it looked.
Its so bad actually i feel it must be a bug lol

[mskywalker18]

Very good review! It's generally very good but it somehow lacks the "I want to play this game" and "that's fun!" value. I think it's because of the lots of different customization options in the garage and the fact that you can only carry only pre-chosen weapons... Please devs, add "random" weapon pick-up pads or "random" as an option of a weapon in the garage. I believe this would increase the fun factor by 500%!!!

[TERMINATOR-SSD]

The extra camera options are gone now as well.

But the whole weight of ships just feels like paper. There is zero weight to anything now. All ships more or less handle the same. The higher class is just SPEED and it feels worse the higher you go because there is little to zero weight control.

I honestly still prefer the first few early builds of Formula Fusion as there was some weight to ships which was more on point to WipeOut back then. As originally this game was hinted at in Kickstarter years. Some team members of Sony Studio Liverpool, wipeout devs but this just feels very wrong.

It also does not look as good as what FF did a few months ago either. Very disappointed with the outcome of this game.

I’ll carry on playing BallisticNG

[Blackwiggle]

As soon as you randomize the pickups you turn PACER into Wipeout, which would give you instant gratification if you want a purely arcade racer, but it defeats the whole design choices made.

The whole point of FF/PACER was to make your choices more strategic and learn to use what you have chosen to best effect.

The reason behind that was originally to complement team builds for esport racing.

If esport teams ever eventuate is another matter.
That might have fallen by the wayside over the protracted build time, which would be a shame as it lessens PACERS potential to be something unique in AG racing.

I think PACER would pretty much need a total rebuild to randomize weapons, so I can't see it happening no matter how much people request it.
Well at least in the short term, they have plenty of other things to sort out first.

Give it time.
Now the game is out, and hopefully sales are good, R8 will have the funds to evolve PACER.

That's been the major problem from the start, lack of funds and few people working on the game.
A cash injection and some more staff could turn things around very quickly.

[MONZUN]

well i'm feeling similar. i played the game in 2017 when it was released a bit (played through the career mode) and it was alright but not thaaat incredible.

now i tried the new version with 3 years of additional development time and:

1. on the one hand you clearly see massive improvements, everywhere. the menue system is miles better and looks much better. the ui is much better. the tracks feel better and smoother

2. but on the other hand the game still feels like it felt in 2017. it still doesn't give me the right feeling. like redout did. redout did it right and i even consider redout to be nearly perfect. pacer is still miles behind a game like redout :(

still, as mentioned, its massively improved compared to 2017, but its still far away from actually being good enough to compete against games like wipeout or redout