Wheelman Comments by Tom Bramwell

omg first

I liked it, fun silly insanely over the top. From the demo it's like GTA and Burnout got touchy behind the bike sheds and out popped this little one.

Mind you still undecided if I'll buy at full price, very unlikely I'll pay 30-40 notes for it.

So its wheely-bad then?

Not really surprised - the previews sounded decentish, but the gameplay trailer published the other day looked terrible.

Not a surprising score from my impressions of the demo.

I really enjoyed the demo - the graphics were pretty awful, but the game was surprisingly fun. It felt very old fashioned, but the simplicity was quite appealing in these days of 'hold L2, then push up and X to perform the manoeuvre'. I still might pick it up, but it was always looking like a bargain bin guilty pleasure.

I'm, still havng this, it was one of the best demos I've played recently. The main issue from the review is it all sound a bit one note, but I just want pretty much an extended version of that excellent demo, so I don't think I'll be disappointed :)

I agree with DF, my copy should be here today, play right through to the end and then wack on my April swapsies/sale list.

So those early 80-90% scoring reviews may have been misleading then...?

I can't say I'm surprised that EG gave the game 5/10 as I thought the demo was a bit middling; initially silly and fun but then I realised how rough and ragged the whole thing was. It screamed out 6/10 to me so the game getting an average score here is no surprise to me.

It'll be interesting to see how it fares on other sites though, it seems the Americans at least like it...

@gilroyneil - "So its wheely-bad then?"

Nope, it's just wheely-average! ;)

@Doctor_What - The Wheelman is just a penny short of £18 on the PC so that is perhaps the best way to experience the full game at the moment. It's likely to look better if you have a decent rig since it uses the Unreal Engine 3 which, IMO, runs much better on PCs than consoles (and supports AA with Vista!). Paying almost twice as much (£30+) for the console versions is certainly more of a risk.

"It'll be interesting to see how it fares on other sites though, it seems the Americans at least like it... "

Well, IGN gave it 48 wich is very low for them. They usually never go below 50.
IGN gave Wanted 73 for example.

@ Darren: cheers, but I sit in front of a PC all day at work. When I get home I like to play my games from my sofa!

Shocker... ex-Midway game turns out to be pointlessly mediocre!

I think this is pretty harsh. The game is most importantly fun, it's the equivalent of a Hollywood blockbuster, and it never claims to have a brain. Sure there might be a few flaws, and the on foot isn't as good as the driving, but if you enjoyed the demo, I'm sure as hell you'll enjoy the full game.

Quite a harsh review this, I played the demo through a few times and thought it was a bit of a giggle, not the best game I've ever played but a good laugh nonetheless, I've not agreed with an EG review for awhile now.....

I enjoyed the demo, however after playing through it a couple of times I was bored with it. The review makes it seem like the game is just the demo over and over again which I could understand resulting in a low score for a game that showed some promise but never went anywhere.

I agree with you Quint2020, it is a tad harsh. It's not unusual nowadays for EG to be among the most pessimestic/optimistic on the web. If you took all the scores and used the olympic socring system of discounting the lowest and highest scores, EG would never get a look in!

I could see the main points well enough, but I couldn't see anyone thinking this is average. Shit, I could understand, and good, but just average seems harsh, almost as if i isn't good enough to judge harshly properly. Does that make sense?

There is no way that read ANYTHING like a 5. I was expecting an 8, or a 7 at the least. :S

The demo felt like Midtown Madness with some half baked vehicular combat tacked on. Just not good enough in this day and age. 5/10 is accurate.

From my personal experience of the demo, this was a very kind score

Although I did enjoy the demo it was average at best which is reflective of the review score.

Saying that I'll pick this up when its around the £20

Me getting the PC version even though I have the choice of the 360 or PS3 version. Unlike some people I don't care which console version I play on as long as I can get the game cheap. We are in a recession.

@Doctor What

You talk like it is so hard to hook up a PC to a TV these days

DVI to HDMI sound through ATI Graphic Card 4870 :)

No different to hooking up your 360 or PS3

What was interesting about the week this demo came out, is that the Riddick game also had a demo out. The difference in quality was immense. Vin never felt like Vin in Wheelman, but was instantly recognizeable in Riddick. Not getting this. Might be getting Riddick.

@bluem4gic

It's not actually that simple, because your console can stay by your TV, but unless your PC is a dedicated gaming rig, you'd have to keep moving it back upstairs when you wanted to do boring, PC things on it again.

@Gnort

Not everyone has their PC in their bedrooms and some people I know have 32 inch HD TV in their rooms for their consoles in order to not disturb their rents or housemates. So it is not as hard as you make out. Unless you don't have the rig to play it.

Either way up to you guys. No way I paying more than 17.99 for this game. Same for the poor souls who will buy Wanted Weapons of Fate. That is definitely not worth the 34.99 price tag on consoles!

It's gonna be a fun experience but it's a appetizer for the Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Atena. I played Escape for Butcher Bay back when I was at University and to this day it's still one of the most underrated games of it's generation. I wish Starbreeze the best of luck second time coming as the game deserves to go triple platinum at least.

Looks like I will have to import the American PC or PS3 version as I can't wait the extra three weeks for it's release here in the UK

EFIGS anyone :P

I thought the demo was decent, will pick this up when it drops in price.

This isn't helped by very blatantly elastic AI.

I highlight this one phrase because I am always complaining about it in all other racing games. Yet in games like Burnout etc. etc. they completely ignore this stupid trend of having elastic AI. Basically elastic car ai negates any and all skillfull driving that we as players do. Because no matter how good you become, the game is always cheating it's way back to you.

How the frak is this the first time a game has had points knocked off for it. If reviewers had highlighted this before, then modern games would not be including it still!

@ Darren. Agreed. The demo gave the impression of a 6/10 game, all-day-long. I was hoping it would reach up to the 7 at some point in the full game, but at mid-price, I could entertain getting it; but like I think you said in the thread, it's very much a game you play when you aren't embroiled in, or need a small break from, a heftier title.
A fair bit of the review mirrors aspects that showed up just in the demo. Unfortunately, it also confirms that I was right to heed them when the issues did flag up, as I played. Neither do they iron away, as I'd hoped, but they actually increase in effect and magnitude of influence, as the game continues! Not good.

N@ - you are a tw@

@mem - Hmmm, so who to trust... an EG reviewer who can spell, capitalise, punctuate and paragraph correctly as well as articulate his views in as objective a way as possible... or a poster who clearly can't because his post is so damn difficult to read in the first place! ;)

So this is Burnout Paradise with guns and Vin Diesel, then?
Sold.

"Vin Diesel is the new Sonic!"

epic. just epic. :-)))

The demo was good dumb fun, but I wouldn't pay full price for this.

spectral tiger WTF?

Not surprised: the video footage Playr kept showing didn't exactly look great, and while I enjoyed the demo it really felt like a touched-up PS2 game from years ago in actual gameplay. Or Midtown Madness 3-ish

What no 10/10?

I'm guessing the publishers of this game weren't promising to plow you from behind in exchange for a high score like Rockstar seemingly were...

(Oh I'm fully aware this game is gash, but we must take these opportunities as they arise)

Yeah, Rockstar must have bought every single game journalist out there. Every single one.

You still around Ultimo? Still being a cock? What opportunities are you referring to? The chances to make yourself look stupid?

Perfect review imo, these were almost exactly my thoughts, except for the sonic part:).

not a bad game, at least 6

You see I loved the demo. But once it was up and they displayed all of the 'stunning features' this game had, I realised I had seen it all in the demo...There doesn't appear to be much else going for it, which is a shame because I pegged it as a game that that would reward the persistant player with unlockable driving and shooting skills.

Don't get me wrong, I could probably sit through this game until the end, but I couldn't see myself playing it again afterwards, or dealing with the repetitious side missions.

It's really getting frustrating that rubber-banding has become the replacement for actually coding decent racing AI. I can appreciate that there is a fair challenge involved in creating racing AI that can provide a realistic challenge first time through without being unfair, but weak cop-outs like rubber-banding just cheapen the experience. I'd almost prefer that the opponents were slightly cheatingly fast and you just had to be good at it, as opposed to having their speed dynamically altered in response to your abilities. Then I suppose crap people would complain at it being too hard, so it's probably hard to win in this case.

The demo was really promising for this game; yet another Midway "knock-off of a genre game done by much less technically-skilled developers" surprise (/sarcasm), but personally I have a soft spot for any sort of open world game (and Midway, to be honest). Games that are a little graphically rough around the edges like this one always strangely endear themselves to me, kinda like say Driver : Parallel Lines. So personally I'm disappointed to see this getting only half marks. Although I agree with the sentiment that while this game is worth getting, it's not worth paying full price for. And with Midway beyond help now anyway, there is no point in blowing money getting this before it inevitably hits the bargain bins in the near future.

Also, came for the review, stayed for the inevitable Crofto commentary. Never change your profile blurb, please, Leo. The purity of your incredible arrogance is a joy to behold, and it would be a shame if this prime example of what is wrong with the internet were to ever be removed.