Jahobie

EA Real Racin Just as one might say about an incompetent driver mishandling a beautiful super car "nice car, shame about the driver", so one might say about Real Racing 3 (Real Ripoff or Ripoff Racing - either name fits like a glove) "nice game, shame about the developer". Talk about being utterly and completely driven by greed, this game takes the biscuit at every level. And they have the temerity to talk about honour. What brought on this rant? Well it's been building ever since I first discovered the superb Real Racing 3 graphics, handling and sheer visual pleasure it delivers. However, within 5 minutes of playing this game I found my joy and pleasure utterly overshadowed by the two game playing protocols of entrapment and extortion that EA have brought as their legacy ever since acquiring the original developers and, most regrettably, this game. Why entrapment? They bill it as a free game, and it is free, to download and install. And it is so damned compelling to play, and this is where the extortion comes in. From the first engine rev in a race, any race, EA are degrading the performance of the car so it will need a 'service' after about 10 KM or a few laps of racing, a 'service' that will not only entail payment in one of the two currencies of the game, R$, but will also entail a wait, hours to days long in some cases, while the car is 'serviced'. A wait? Whatever for? Haven't I just paid for the service? Well, here is the entrapment again. You want to carry on immediately? Of course you do. So if you let us extort some racing gold, the other currency, from you, we can 'expedite' the 'servicing'. You can also buy more 'mechanics', for racing gold of course, and does this mean the service times are reduced? Don't be so silly, of course not. All this sounds quite trivial and meaningless, after all your racing wins are earning you R$ and racing Gold, aren't they? Well, yes, but at a rate that is so utterly disproportionate with the cost of racing, a balance that has been skilfully worked out by EA that in order to ensure the unbroken continuity of the experience, the player will very rapidly turn to the online purchase options which is what the game is all about, at least as far as EA is concerned. Online purchases? Oh dear! That old hoary chestnut. EA offer you packs of R$ and racing gold starting from £4.99 all the way up to £99.99. Gosh that's a lot! So, if I wish to continue playing this 'free' game without these tiresome wait periods (many hours to days for faster cars) after a few laps of racing, surely if I buy, say £40 worth (about what a console game costs), that will be that, won't it? Would that that were true. As you progress in the game and acquire new cars, which start to cost about 10 to 100 races worth of winnings and then set about upgrading them with each tiny increment costing another 10 - 100 races worth of winnings for fractional improvements and of course some enhancements and cars can only be acquired with racing gold, rare as hen's teeth, you quickly realise why there are £99.99 packs of online purchases, of which you will require many, many, many packs to continue unhindered play. The actual cost of this 'free' game can run into many, many hundreds of £s, enough indeed to buy every console and every console racing game available today. In fact, more than enough to buy a real car. Then of course there are the wonderful, 'generous' special events to 'win for free' an upmarket expensive car. Well that can't be bad! Well, actually it's dreadful, as you might expect given the EA touch. The car will be provided in its base form and every tiny upgrade will cost more than the car itself and some increments will only be available with, rare as hen's teeth, racing gold. And do try winning the races, a necessary criteria for 'winning' the car, without making the disproportionately expensive upgrades if only as an exercise in frustration, further compounded by the hours long 'service' cycle every few laps. Should you persevere with this folly and actually 'win the free car' you will have paid about 10-50 times its worth had you bought it normally. Buying a car is another extortion bottleneck where every car purchased, the further you progress, costs many race wins worth (up to 100+ for faster cars) and entails several hours to days of waiting for it to be 'delivered', expedited of course by paying, again, with, rare as hen's teeth, racing gold. The same extortionate formula is applied to upgrading with many hours to days for 'R&D' to complete, but with, of course, the 'give us a few quid and we'll shorten it for you' philosophy in play. The driving and the courses are another source of considerable irritation and bad behaviour introduced by EA. The irritation comes from the fact that the racing and courses are endlessly repetitive with the same courses, trials and tests for every new car, level and competition; over and over and over and over the same old, same old. The bad behaviour co