Beta Preview: Modnation Racers

Who loves Mario Kart?  Who loves the ability to play, create and share just about everything in a game?  If you fall under either of these categories then set your radar for Modnation Racers.  My first look at Modnation like many of you came from E3 2009 when they demoed the game during Sony’s Press Conference.  Watching them quickly create a track from scratch set my mind back to a more simple time creating tracks in Excitebike and believe me that is not a bad place to be.  When the opportunity presented itself to take a look at the beta it was like dust being attracted to a big screen TV.

The first thing you’ll notice about the beta will be some of the painfully prevalent load times, this will hopefully clear up one the game is out of beta so I wont hold that against it.  While it deprives from the enjoyment of the beta that is not why we are here.  Modnation throws you into a central hub like area where you can find your way to the modding area, some races and leader boards, as well as see what the top mods are for cars and drivers.  The hub area also acts as a social area where you can chat with other racers or just do donuts around people.

My first stop was the mod zone where I create a driver and car from scratch.  At this time in the beta purchasing extra mods was not available so I had to choose between the preset options they provide at start.  There are still quite a bit of options to allow you to create a unique look for yourself and kart.  Once a good look has been created you can share it others can rate it and maybe it will become one of the tops mods available. If you wanted to try your hand at the racing content you have a few options, you can compete in time trials or an online race with other beta participants.  I had not trouble finding a room with a good selection of people playing and it played fairly well.  As well as you can expect a beta but I still imagine gameplay and graphics are far from complete and the developers still have plenty of time to fine-tune them all.

The selling point for this game comes in its ability to customize your avatar, kart and to create tracks, so with that you may wonder how the game actually plays.  Based on the beta it plays much like every other kart racer I have ever played.  The tracks are fun to look at and quirky and offer up plenty of alternative routes and everything you would expect from a kart racer as well as a bevy of attack and defensive powerups, turbo shots rockets and shields and the usual compliment make it a familiar affair for kart racing vets.

As I stated before Modnation is and will be about creating your own experience.  The game provides tons of potential and will be available exclusively on the PS3 in 2010.

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