I just managed to get the demo downloaded last night and Ive had a very small shottie at it.
My first impressions are: The graphics are reasonably decent, especially the other human beings. The cars seem a bit chunky, like micro machines chunky, it kind of suits the game nicely though. They are are all pretty nicely detailed as well with lil touches like the car name on the back and all this. The damage modelling is pretty good, with realistic bumps and dents and all that jiggery pokery. The cutscenes are quite nicely done, like GTA's nice lifelike and witty/gritty characters given a good glossing over. The voice acting is really good as well.
Now onto the not-so-good bits, which sadly take most of the sheen off the best bits :/ The first most glaring weakness is the controls, they are almost a complete carbon copy of GTA's right down to the buttons for changing radio station and calling on 'homies'. Only, you could call them worse because where the accelerator on the PS2 had an analog button (that would be the (X) button) the A button on the X360 pad is not analog, so youve either got your pedal to the metal, or no gas at all. Shame, because PGR3 demonstrated amazing use of the analog shoulder buttons for accelerator (and brake) use. The only buttons that are different for this game are the attack buttons, which are the shoulder buttons as opposed to circle. It's odd, because there isnt any use of the analog function during combat, so its a waste of the shoulder buttons really.
Another glaringly obvious weakness is the handling for the vehicles. Unfortunately for the game, this is one aspect of GTA they did NOT copy over and they've suffered for it. The cars handle like they are glued to the road, no matter what speed you cruise at. No subtle drifting or burnouts here, just arcade style basics that make the cars all seem a bit samey. Also, the car's acceleration seems to be completely unrealistic, maybe attributed to the queer road grip. It wouldnt all be so bad, if it wasnt for the fact the car skids out like madness if you tap the handbrake. It all just doesnt fit in very well at all. In GTA you could second-guess what your car would do if you tapped right, but here you dont know whether its going to barrel 90 degrees into a building or skid a 360 into oblivion. To cap it all off, they have the right-analog stick attributed to changing camera view, yet they have the shoulder bumpers doing the same thing? What they could and should have had was - Right shoulder, accelerate. Left shoulder, brake. Right bumper, fire weapon. Left bumper, look behind. A, handbrake. Theres no way they could have gone wrong with a layout like that.
Anyway, Ive actually inadvertently made it sound worse than it is, because it was half-decent fun to play. The character creation is quite fun, and your character fits in nicely with the cutscenes (he doesnt talk either, thank god). The gunning is reasonably good, and the city is pretty, well, citylike I guess. They just need to iron out a few of the problems (which I cant see them doing, given its only a month til it is released) and it could end up being a good title.
Oh by the way, I realise this wasnt up to my usual standard of reviewing. My heads in the clouds a bit right now. Too much solvent I think.
