Juiced has been a long time coming, but was it worth the wait?
The game opens with a very impressive CGI intro before the menu kicks in and you get to see the graphics
that'll be more reflective of the actual gameplay.
There are several different ways to play here. First up is the Arcade mode, which is simply explained.
All you need to do is complete most of the races and/or sprints in each of the eleven Arcade series
(around five tracks apiece) before unlocking the next. As you do this, more cars and tracks will also
become available in the Custom Race section.
In the Career mode, other drivers will place bets against you to hold a race with them. Take the wager
and get in your car. Win the race and then go on to buy more cars and customise them. Get advice on how
to proceed, check your stats, the amount of respect you have from the others, build up a team of crew
members and add other races to your mobile phone contact list. Note that you'll get challenged to such
races only if you get enough 'Respect' from the other drives previously. No, this is nothing to do with
the George Galloway political party, but you'll get no respect if you slam into the other cars at a moment's
notice when such a collision could've been avoided.
The Custom Race section involves selecting a model from any particular car class, modify it to your heart's
content or let the game figure that out for you. Then head off for a Race, Sprint, Solo ride or a 'Showoff'
in which you can perform basic stunts that involve staying firmly on the track (see the screenshot below-right
for an example of this).
And then, there's also Multiplayer - either six people on one Xbox, or go online with Xbox Live and try
out all the different race modes there.
In all races in which you partake, you'll be guided as to when you should really brake, slow down, when
you take the lead and when your lead is improving. There's a choice between driving automatic and manual cars,
but the latter is the only choice of gears available in sprint mode. On the plus side, those are only a
brief affair but you do need to practice in order to be successful.
In addition, you can also take your career cars and crew online and race them.
Juiced is a road already well-travelled. You know what to do when coming up to a corner. Run
out of nitrous for that boost? Well, just head along fast enough into it such that you'll smack into
an opponent, knocking them for six and pushing yourself off at the right angle to victory.
Also, whenever you bump into the scenery, you bounce off it with the effect that it's having the same substance
as every other piece, so hard metal pieces in the road to keep you on the right path have the same
effect at 100mph as hitting a wooden fence, does it?
As for the AI of other cars, if you let them get too far ahead then they'll seem to slow down enough
to allow you to catch up, which seems a bit of a cheat.
My first impressions were that the graphics were arcade-perfect and fantastic - which they still are,
but they do look nothing better than what we were viewing on
Project Gotham Racing 2
back in 2003. As it stands, Juiced was meant to be released around a year ago and under the
Acclaim banner, and I also met one of the guys working on the CGI intro at a casting studio in London
last October, but Acclaim sadly went under and the game's been in limbo ever since, always promising
to be released until now.
Soundwise, cars in a game like this make no different a noise than in most other racers. It's all in
Dolby Digital 5.1, as with all Xbox games, but its only saving grace in this respect is that it can
all get very loud indeed, which at least takes you mind off the fact that what you're hearing, other
than the soundtrack you might have added in the background, isn't much to write home about.
Overall, Juiced is an enjoyable piece of entertainment for a time, but I'd give this one a
rental first as you'd be hard-pushed to make it do much more than any other decent racer you've
already played on the Xbox, and it's still more fun to play
Midtown Madness 3.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
In all races in which you partake, you'll be guided as to when you should really brake, slow down, when
you take the lead and when your lead is improving. There's a choice between driving automatic and manual cars,
but the latter is the only choice of gears available in sprint mode. On the plus side, those are only a
brief affair but you do need to practice in order to be successful.
My first impressions were that the graphics were arcade-perfect and fantastic - which they still are,
but they do look nothing better than what we were viewing on
