Universal Gaming

Did you play the Future Tense level of the N. Sane Trilogy? That was a brand new level that VV made and it was a promising sign of what a new Crash platformer could be.

That shot of Cortex Castle looks good. The one I'm looking out for is Papu Pyramid, as that was the only track I played most on from the demo disc, and don't remember any other tracks.

Papu Pyramid was in the reveal trailer as one of the very first transitional shots. They just made the track a lot dingier, especially in the skybox, so it might not have been instantly recognisable; moreso if you hadn't seen the original track in a while.

Another shot of Cortex Castle was put out today, this time of the interior section near the end of the track with the stained glass windows in the blue room:

(Jan 15th, 2019, 03:49 PM)Moonface Wrote: [ -> ]Did you play the Future Tense level of the N. Sane Trilogy? That was a brand new level that VV made and it was a promising sign of what a new Crash platformer could be.

VV was responsible for some okay GBA Crash games but they weren’t to the caliber of the originals or really anything special. They also made Nitro Kart which doesn’t hold a candle to CTR. 

I did play their Future Tense level and I’ll give them credit for making a great level but it doesn’t instill confidence in me that they can create an original game that’s great given their history. The level was just rearranging assets and ideas someone else made. It’s much harder to come up with something entirely original but maybe I’m being too hard on them because not everything Naughty Dog made was good before Crash. Maybe they will surprise me. 

That said I’m looking forward to this remake. This game was so good as a kid in 4 player splitscreen. Anyone else like playing the original game before a remake comes out? I want to play the PS1 version soon before I get this.

(Jan 16th, 2019, 02:37 AM)Metallix Wrote: [ -> ]

(Jan 15th, 2019, 03:49 PM)Moonface Wrote: [ -> ]Did you play the Future Tense level of the N. Sane Trilogy? That was a brand new level that VV made and it was a promising sign of what a new Crash platformer could be.

I did play their Future Tense level and I’ll give them credit for making a great level but it doesn’t instill confidence in me that they can create an original game that’s great given their history. The level was just rearranging assets and ideas someone else made. It’s much harder to come up with something entirely original but maybe I’m being too hard on them because not everything Naughty Dog made was good before Crash. Maybe they will surprise me.

Visually it wasn't new, but they had ideas in that level that hadn't been in any Crash Bandicoot game before and they made a level that was actually challenging even with every power up, which no other level in Warped managed to achieve in my opinion. I understand their track record of not producing any full game on par to the original Crash trilogy can make it hard to have confidence in them for a new Crash title though. Their team members have likely changed since then though which might be helpful to giving them some fresh ideas, which they've hinted at with Future Tense.

In CTR:NF news, there's been a few Polar Pass screenshots coming out over the past few days:







It's interesting to see how they're visually spicing up the track since the original was rather bland and would definitely not hold up just being HD'd.

Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled Gameplay
Beenox has given some journalists access to the upcoming Crash Team Racing remake to share raw gameplay of three tracks from the game.

First Coco Park Footage
In the second character trailer for Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled, we get to take our first look at the remastered Coco Park track!

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They made this track look so good! It looks like there's some elements from the Medieval levels from Warped, since at the 0:22 mark you can see tents that seem similar to the ones in those levels.

Gameplay is looking good from that footage. I've never been in a race with players drifting all over the place to get those boosts, so not sure how crazy races will be. I assume a lot of bumping into each other or walls.

Was there always statues of Coco in that track?

Coco Park never had statues or many other details. This is a top down view of the PS1 iteration of the track, which might give you an idea of how it looks:



To help paint the picture, most detailing was trees and foliage. There were no structures apart from a crowd stand at the starting line.

As for people bumping into each other, that doesn't happen much except for tracks with very tight spaces, such as the beginning corners of Papu's Pyramid and some areas of Dragon Mines. The eight base racers come in pairs of two regarding their stats, so you can't really get more than two people going at the exact same speed in any race. Crash racing alongside Coco for example would see Crash pull ahead as he has 5/7 on Speed whereas Coco has 4/7. However from the starting line, Coco would pull away because she has 7/7 Acceleration, but over time on a straight track Crash would overtake her due to a higher top speed.

Coco Park is also an exceptionally wide track, and maybe even the widest in the game. The boost pads are also wide enough to take two people without them needing to come close to touching each other. It also only has walls in the tunnel portion of the track, and that area doesn't feature any big turns to drift through so you'd pretty much retain your racing line through there unless you on purposely change it.

Now everything I've said is taking single player into account, and could very well turn out very different in an online match with eight human players who will all be taking very similar paths without as much space between them as CPU players can create.

Ah, that's how Coco Park looked like. Alrighty.

Oh, the footage part of my comment was about the three tracks in the video above the Coco Park post. Still, helpful to know tracks are wide. Won't be something that would deter me from getting this CTR, since I'm not worried about single player. Also don't currently have PS Plus at the moment, but I'd imagine I would still play online regardless of players bumping into each other. Takes me back to playing online on MKWii and MK7, which both were fun and I'd imagine this would be too.

N. Gin Labs Screenshot, Polar Trailer, and Ripper Roo Trailer
There's been some new things to check out for Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled with our first screenshot of N. Gin Labs and two new character trailers!

 

Gotta love Ripper Roo even when he's choking out a key.

N Gin's lab looks cool.

I like that they're adding in cut scenes for the keys either being shown or rewarded (hard to tell when it takes place from the trailer) that take place on the track as if the boss has been waiting for you (if it's before the race).

I expect N. Gin Labs to be given a trailer soon, and it'll probably be a playable track at PAX East. I'll soon know when I get to that event.

One of these days I am definitely going to have to pick up the crash remake and get the racing one too whenever that comes out. I am still not quite sure if I'd want it for Switch or PC.... :thinking:

PC will offer the best experience as N. Sane runs at 60fps on it. CTR I'd get based on what platform you'd want to play online on if you intend to use online.