Fatal Inertia Comments by Rob Fahey

How's the demo, anyone? Worth downloading?

Ohhh, looks promising.

Eh the demo is dreadful - a complete laughing joke across every gaming forum in the land.

Lol so let me get this straight, the PS3 is now getting 360 ports of PS3 exclusive launch titles. PS3lol.

Ah, ty woodnotes

Wasn't the demo awful though? The negative comments were flying everywhere on the Xbox forums, so much so infact that I didn't even bother downloading it.

The demo was bloody awful!

Demo was crap.. looks like the full game might be better. Lets hope so.

avoid like the plague, PS3 owners arent missing a thing

awful framerate too, another victim of UE3. Koei cant seem to run the game right on the engine.

Tried the 360 demo ... it was simply terrible!!

Bad framerate, tearing, crappy controls, sub-par graphics... bring on Wipeout Pulse and HD instead :)

I have to agree with the majority of the commentors on this one for once, the demo was shockingly bad in almost every way.

I confess that I haven't seen the demo - downloading it now so I can have a shot at it and see how it compares to the build I played. I certainly didn't notice any framerate problems or tearing in that, so it's possible that this is just another example of a demo being thrown together from code that's far, far too early.

I found the demo practically unplayable. Having said that, the vast majority of demos, from PS1 days on have put me off the game. Why do they bother?!

I have to agree with everyone here: the demo was bloody awful. I can't see how this game can ever be any good.

The Demo was absolute Shite! - deleted it after two laps.

Yeah Shinji, it'd be good if you could give us some kind of comparison between the build you played and the demo.

This has already been reviewed in Xbox World 360 and got pretty pilloried. Wonder which build they had.

It is interesting to read that it is silky smooth now, as the demo framerate and response was too slow to make the game control well. It might turn this game around, although one of the things that makes Wipeout work for me is that sense of weight and interaction with the track. One to watch.

"Yeah Shinji, it'd be good if you could give us some kind of comparison between the build you played and the demo."

I agree- please compare it to the demo and let us know if it has improved ;)

The demo was DIRE. This style of game actually even pre-dates Wipeout. This implementation, though pretty, really reveals that we all played this 10+ years ago. I hate to think of the dozens of guys that spend months making this game, because nobody will buy it.

My 360 is sucking it down as we speak - I'll get back to you! Certainly the build I played didn't deserve this level of hate over the framerate though; I was quite taken with how smooth it was, whereas it sounds like the demo is bloody painful.

demo was a sack of dogballs in every respect. absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

"Stop this thing, I order you, STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!"

You left out "secure all animals in the zoo"...

If the demo is so different from the release version, they need to get a new demo out quick! I wouldn't even give this a look in now, even with good reviews . . .

I can't believe anything positive was said about this. It's abortionate.

Peej

The demo was a shambolic stinking dog poo of a thing. I resented the seconds of my life lost I spent trying it - I can never get them back! Amazed that the preview is actually quite favourable. I *want* a decent Wipeout style racing game, so I'm still hoping this can make a turnaround and be fun. But I'm sceptical!

Yeah - demo on marketplace has very choppy visuals, it managed 30fps "sometimes", but more usually not. High speed racing games need 60fps, if it's not pushing that, it's not worth looking at. I'd be very surprised if it's been radically improved since the demo build...

Repeat: these games need 60fps or they need to go in the bin.

These hovercraft games look like the simplest games to make just add futuristic design and make a dodgy controlsystem and no one could say handling is unrealistic in any way.

Althoug the old game "ballistic" was kind of cool because you were driving "hover-bikes" that had no upper speed limit except for the obstacles in the tube-tracks.

double post

Spaceballs? Oh sh*t, there goes the neighbourhood!

The demo was like an assault on the eyeballs.

If there is a massive disparity between the two (which seems likely – as even the most benighted rube can tell the difference between silky smooth and a staccato slideshow) then it begs the question as to why it was released at all?

I think if the disparity is true, another demo should be readied which has to automatically download for anyone trying to play the old one (with an explanation before it sets off).

And pull the old one off immediately.

I thought some kind of mind bending drug’s had been surreptitiously administered pre-demo when I read “The developer has clearly chosen frame-rate and draw distance over exceptionally pretty graphics - although we do rather fancy the water effects.”

Yep, the demo was ghastly... an erratic framerate complete with loads of last-gen popup, texture draw-in issues and v-sync tearing complimented by terrible controls and an overall blandness to the entire thing. Has 4/10 written all over it.

I wouldn't have given it 4/10 if it had been an XBL release.

Your too generous Darren.

After the terrible demo, this preview is a pleasant surprise as I'd hoped the game would be good. You've gotta wonder why the decision was made to release such a shoddy demo.

...the first (and probably last) game from Japanese publisher Koei's new Canadian development studio...

So, Shinji, how does it compare?

I tried the demo on 360 and it was terrible, dodgy framerate for fairly unexciting graphics and gameplay.

Demo sucks on every level it is possible to suck.

Okay - that demo is pretty bloody abysmal. I'm guessing the code I played was a much later build, because it had better framerate, much less ugly popping in the textures, and significantly better handling (although that might be partially down to the fact that I selected heavier, more controllable vehicles, whereas there's no vehicle select in the demo).

The tracks in the demo are also crap. They're incredibly short and badly designed compared to the tracks I played, which were generally much longer and full of shortcuts and alternate routes. I can only assume that the team created a tiny, claustrophobic track to try and keep the demo download size down, but it really doesn't show the game off terribly well.

Crap demo, in other words. I'm not saying Fatal Inertia is going to be a game of the year - from what I saw, though, it's a solid and reasonably enjoyable effort, whereas this demo is just a steaming pile.

Good news!

Which begs the question... why release such a sub-standard reflection of your games worth ?

Demos are meant to be selling tools and this one seems to have the opposite impact.

Same with Forza... Crap demo, great game.

hopefully devs will get used to releasing demos soon.

must hurt a lot when they fuck up so badly releasing an old build with big issues.
same with heavenly sword + tearing issues etc. =[

The track in the demo was aweful but in truth I did not see much promise in the underlying game even given the crap track. It did just not feel fun.

I feel sorry for the guys who have been working on this as I just think its going to get a really bad reception unless they can radically change what turns out to be the finished product.

One can only hope it'll be anywhere near as good as Episode 1 Racer on the N64... I played that game to death.

nah, someone is fibbing

The demo was horrendous quite frankly, and I skimmed through the preview and the comments above but no one mentioned the most obvious parallel, that forgotten Xbox gem Quantum Redshift. This game on a next gen console looks bloody rubbish compared to Quantum Redshift, and that game played pretty damn well too. I only had issues with the visual design and the ship designs, but it was a solid, smooth, ridiculously fast and intense futuristic racer, this game seems to be a bit pap by comparison, though if they released a better demo I might give it a go since things seem to have improved with time as they usually do. I hope the demo was just rushed and the final game is much better.

@citizenHunter

i too was hoping for a Quantum Redshift 2. In fact give us Quantum Redshift 2!

Good to hear that the full game is indeed much better than the demo. I thought the demo was horrible but I am a bit interested in this game, so not everything lost then.

"i had to look twice at the gfx on the homepage for this preview... "

Me too :D

I can't breathe in this thing.