Racing

If the goal is to go fast and get somewhere first, it must be a racing game.




1. MotorStorm: Pacific Rift
PS3
Sony/Evolution
October
MotorStorm enjoyed a start as the PS3’s high profile racing game at the console’s launch window, followed by a long middle age as the system’s pack-in title. These events have made it the PS3’s premiere racing exclusive, but the first one always felt a little bit rushed and a lot too small. It was dying for a sequel, and the many PS3 owners who ended up with the game know it. Pacific Rift has twice the number of tracks of the original and more robust multiplayer options, while a transplant to a tropical locale differentiates it significantly from the first. This might be enough for it to beat its predecessor and push its way to a half million or more.




2. Need for Speed Undercover
X360/PS3/Wii/PS2/PSP/NDS/PC
EA/Black Box
Holiday 2008
It’s weird that the holiday season is fast approaching and yet almost nothing is known about this year’s Need for Speed game. In fact, the biggest story to come out of Need for Speed Undercover’s news coverage is that John Riccitiello was disappointed in last year’s ProStreet (pictured). Is the new EA gearing up to delay this for quality reasons? Probably not, and considering this franchise can move a million on a bad day there’s really no reason to.




3. Baja: Edge of Control
X360/PS3
THQ/2XL Games
September
Baja is a big game, containing scores of vehicles, hundreds of upgrade parts, dozens of tracks and nine open, off-road worlds. It’s also a technical racer, though it seems to make enough concessions to keep the action fluid that it might also appeal to arcade racing fans. So it’s trying to be everything to everyone, and it runs a real risk of becoming a jack of all rally racers. But if it succeeds in execution it will have many significant product advantages over its primary competition, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. Given Baja’s multiplatform release it might even outsell that PS3 exclusive, though the fight for this new property to get there could be a rough one.




4. Pure
X360/PS3/PC
Disney Interactive/Black Rock Studios
September
The ATV Offroad Fury games were the PS2 platinum sellers no one ever talked about, and they were developed by Climax—the company that became Black Rock after being purchased by Disney. Pure is a more arcade-oriented take on ATV racing, which could open up the market for it even further. The game’s lack of any sort of license however could contract the audience, though how much of ATV Offroad Fury’s success was related to licensing is debatable. Either way, this is a game that will speak to a sizable niche. It probably won’t move a million thanks to increased competition, but a few hundred thousand certainly.