Biggest Names In Racing Speed Towards Gaming’s Chequered Flag
Three of the biggest names in the racing videogames world are battling wheel-to-wheel for the crown of Racing Game of the Year, in one of the most closely fought categories in the 28th annual Golden Joystick Awards.
Over 400,000 votes have already been placed in this year’s competition and with just over two months to go until the winners are announced, the battle is hotting up to determine the UK’s favourite racing videogame.
Forza Motorsport 3, a hugely popular circuit racing game on Xbox 360, is in contention for the top prize alongside Need For Speed: Shift, the latest release from the long standing franchise, and Colin McRae: Dirt 2, where players negotiate a series of off-road events across four continents.
These three high-octane racing games feature in a highly competitive field of racing games, featuring different driving methods, types of car and racing formats.
The full list of nominations aiming for the top podium position, in the Racing Game Of The Year category for this year’s Golden Joystick Awards, are:
Colin McRae: Dirt 2
Forza Motorsport 3
Gran Turismo PSP
ModNation Racers
Need for Speed: Nitro
Need for Speed: Shift
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
Split/Second
Wipeout HD Fury
Zombie Driver
To watch a video overview of the contenders, with in-game action:
The racing world is represented elsewhere in this year’s awards, as F1 2010 features in the fiercely competitive One to Watch category, up against the likes of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Halo: Reach.
The categories in the Golden Joystick Awards are voted for by the only people who matter – the gamers themselves. Known as the ‘people’s gaming awards’ a Golden Joystick is highly valued by the games industry, who attend an awards event held later this year.
The Golden Joystick Awards has been the ultimate accolade in gaming since 1982 and is now recognised as the biggest and most popular gaming awards on the planet. Gamers cast 1,223,646 votes in 2009 as the awards scooped its own accolade, being named ‘World’s most popular video games awards’ by Guinness World Records.
To vote - visit http://www.goldenjoystick.com today and make your vote count!
Recent Activity
- Cargasm Candella Software Ltd and Saga Wonderworks are pleased to announce Cargasm®, for the PC, Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Nintendo Wii and IPhone.
Heralding a return of the classic arcade racer, Cargasm gives gamers a host of supercars which they can enter into different races. All the race tracks are set in meticulously recreated photorealistic real-world locations such as San Francisco, London, Yosemite National Park, Egypt, Switzerland and Mount Kilmanjaro.
The central London levels in Cargasm are the most photorealistic in the history of videogames. Created using laser scanning, the buildings and monuments in the London levels are accurate to within inches. This level of accuracy means that every window, doorway, balcony and lamp post is exactly as it is in the real city.
Cargasm Harem
During races, players will be constantly exhorted to go faster by a bevy of Cargasm Girls. If they are fast enough, players can collect these ravishing maidens for their own personal Cargasm Harem. As the players win races, new cars, Ecstasy points and trophies can also be unlocked and uploaded to an online global leaderboard.
The trophies that can be won include Cargasm Rave, Thrust, Lesbos, Orgy, Gigolo, Lothario, Playboy and the most coveted of all, Cargasm Sultan.
Social Networking Features
Cargasm is a racing game designed from the ground up for the social networking generation. Players can upload race statistics to sites such as Facebook and Hi5, update friends about their in-game achievements and invite them to multiplayer sessions. The game will also be playable inside a browser.
“Our focus is on pure racing fun rather than simulation.,” says Ajith Ram, Creative Director of Cargasm. “We are expecting gamers to go oooh aahh aahhh……….with gaming ecstasy.”
- Dungeon Siege 3 screenshots Torn asunder, the delicate balance of power between the kingdom of Ehb's powerful factions has fallen apart. As one of the few remaining members of the disgraced protectors of the land, the 10th Legion, it is up to you to rebuild the once great Legion and stop Ehb from falling into darkness. Joined by a group of unique companions, you will travel through the striking land of Ehb defeating all manner of villains and beasts through a combination of heroic abilities, screen shaking magic and fearsome weapons.
DUNGEON SIEGE 3 seamlessly blends intuitive action gameplay, a robust RPG system featuring a large selection of abilities, an extensive multiplayer component and the depth of story Square Enix and Obsidian Entertainment are known for creating.
Features
* For the first time, play DUNGEON SIEGE on high-def consoles
* Players will be able to adventure by themselves or with friends in co-op multiplayer
* Uncover a deep story that only Square Enix and Obsidian Entertainment can deliver
* Pick from unique and highly customizable character classes with a wide range of abilities to choose from
* Recruit companions with unique personalities, abilities and views on the world around them
* Players will have weighty decisions to make that will impact their alliances, enemies and the culmination of the story
- Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 screenshots Eschewing the traditional style of story-telling with cut-scenes, Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 tells the story as the action unfolds, keeping the player locked into the world at every moment and bringing the experience closer than ever to the anime.
The game will feature more than 90 of the most popular characters, over 20 of whom are new to the Raging Blast series. All the battle stages have been improved, with the addition of some brand new ones. The destructibility of the environments now has an even more profound effect on the battles immersing players in an ultra-realistic Dragon Ball universe.
Running at 60fps, the game produces faster and smoother animations than ever before, further enhanced by countless new visually stunning special effects. With seven game modes, original Japanese voices, loads of incredible unlockable treats, fully optimised 5.1 sound, ultra-realistic HD visuals, dazzling never-before-seen visual and camera effects, and a new combo system, the latest chapter in the irrepressible saga will be an unmissable treat for fans.
- Review: Hydro Thunder Hurricane Round two of the Summer of Arcade and a powerboat racer splashes onto our marketplace. Hydro Thunder Hurricane, the sequel to Hydro Thunder way back on the PSX/N64, is the only racer of the summer of arcade which aims to bring all the fun back into old school arcade racers.
Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a mixture of game types. With traditional races there’s also time trial events involving checkpoint rings, and another time trial but with explosive barrels hindering your fastest path. There are also championships combining all three of these into league like formats.
Almost the entirety of the game is unlocked via completing events. Coming in the top three which in some modes can be pretty tricky, will unlock credits which will then unlock boats, race tracks and events as you slowly accumulate a huge amount of credits. These credits work both in single player and multiplayer.
The game supports online and local multiplayer. Something games lack these days is a 4 way split screen multiplayer which Hydro manages greatly along with A.I. racers to give the players quite a challenge.
The boats are all unique and great looking, not to mention sounding. Each boat has their own attributes like handling and speed, and new skins for each boat are unlock able by winning races with them, or finding hidden tokens.
Another age old game classic featured in Hydro Thunder is the use of hidden tokens around the race tracks, there are 10 tokens in each track and they are available to collect over ALL game modes including multiplayer. Some are quite easy to find, whereas some will require cunning and a sharp eye to find. Using jumps, the boats nitro jump, or sometimes even strong waves to collect them.
Because there is no free roam, it means you may need to throw a race to find some of the harder tokens, but it makes for good fun with a group of you scouring the entire map, finding and learning new routes and shortcuts to find all of them.
The tracks are all well varied and imaginative. Most of them are point to point races with some being traditional lap races. The settings vary from dams and sewers to more exotic areas like glacier and tropical islands. The levels are filled with shortcuts and entertaining set pieces to make sure the race isn’t all smooth waters.
The games has a good fair amount of races, with plenty to participate in, and all the tokens to find, not including multiplayer Hydro Thunder Hurricane has plenty to keep you going. With both online and offline multiplayer the game can be played as a party game with mates or as something more serious on Xbox Live.
Hydro Thunder Hurricane is that of a good fun arcade racer which caters for gamers in more ways than some full triple A retail racers do. For those looking for some fun, or those who miss the games of the likes of N64’s Wave Race or the PS2’s Splashdown. Hydro does well for bringing water sports back, and who knows if we’ll see anymore?
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