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[Thelonelykoopa]

I must say they massively improved the visual style from the previous Fast . I also have a question? How do all of you play do you focus on getting the orbs or landing on the strips ; do you choose to focus on boost or positioning. I must admit I kind of wish the energy strips would refill your boost gauge.

 

[vagabondarts]

Finally bought this and OMG it's amazingly fast and gorgeous. I need to spend some time learning these courses. My initial thoughts are that this is a monumental leap forward from the wiiware game.

I feel like the guy from the 80s Magnavox advertisements.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

F-Zero announcer makes me want to better myself.

 

[ec0ec0]

But the track layouts don't seem to have many big turns, they have more straightaways. The tracks don't seem to be able to encourage the crazy stuff we've seen in games like fzero. And it seems like even if they did have those types of tracks, the movement of the vehicles isn't variable enough take advantage of it.

Compared to other arcade racers, the tracks in Fast Racing Neo are literally p) straights.

I already compared it with F-Zero GX in page 7 (i know, you know ) http://neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=188720096

F-Zero courses are pretty straight as well tbh. Neither is made up primarily of twisty courses like WipEout games tend to be, and that's pretty much a sacrifice that needs to be made if they're going to play at that speed. Though having the speed of F-Zero combined with a feeling of weight closer to WipEout definitely restricts what you can do with the courses in FAST, and if I'm honest I'm not entirely convinced it consistently adheres to those restrictions (which is likely why collisions are treated so leniently).

In F-Zero, a significant % of each track are straights. I don't think that they are "necessary", but they have a purpose.

There's multiple F-Zero tracks that go: straight -> sharp turn -> straight -> sharp turn... rigth? Well, you could add more turns, and you'd be able to handle more turns.

The base speed in F-Zero is slow (you don't "have" to boost at all times) so, each time you would find a turn that you weren't sure if you could take while going really fast, you'd simply boost less xD Also, the handling system in GX gave you insane turning abilities, so the ships were definitely prepared for taking challenging turns.

But straights do have a clear purpose in F-Zero: boosting. Straights give the player space and time so that he can comfortably chain multiple boosts in succession. If you boost, your health goes down, and where do you recover you health? again, straights. On the first lap, you can't boost yet, so those long straights may seem rather worthless, but then you remember that at that point in the race you're still surrounded by 29 other ships. In F-Zero, there's plently of thing to do on straights.

Looking at wipeout...

The base speed in wipeout is very fast. The ship already goes fast by itself, so, what's left!? driving, obviously

Tracks in wipeout feel very smooth, they never give you the "straight -> sharp turn -> straight" feel that some F-Zero tracks give. But why would you want all those straights in wipeout anyway?

The game mechanics also contribute to making wipeout feel smooth. In wipeout, it feels that you just have one type of turn (hold left/right) and that you can add to it more or less effect of the air brakes. It feels that you can take any turn with a single motion. In F-Zero, you've multiple different types of turns to choose from. While in wipeout you can take a long and smooth turn with a single motion, in F-Zero some ships will actually be better taking it with a series of little turns.

...

What both wipeout and F-Zero do have in common is that they give you ships with high enough grip, and good enough turning abilities, to handle sharp turns at high speeds. That translates into tracks which can have plenty of challenging turns.

Wipeout puts you in a fast moving ship to see if you can navigate those challenging tracks. While F-Zero gives you the tools to go even faster. In the end, neither of them feels to centered on speed or driving to me. They mix both element well while having different gameplay/track design. Fast racing neo on the other hand, feels way more centered around speed. In controlling a ship with low grip and limited turn options that can go insanely fast.

 

[chaosblade]

Tracks in wipeout feel very smooth, they never give you the "straight -> sharp turn -> straight" feel that some F-Zero tracks give. But why would you want all those straights in wipeout anyway?

Firing rockets down a long straightaway and blowing up an opponent is one of the most satisfying things in Wipeout

 

[Gsnap]

So I've been messing around in the time trials trying to figure out any extra nuance to the controls. So far I'm not really arriving at anything spectacular. I've been trying to find a good way to boost through turns and so far all I've got is that you need to feather the shifts to keep you lined up. Start your turn by feathering in the opposite direction of your turn, and then as you start your boost, feather the other way to stay lined up. This is all well and good, and it lets you get through turns much faster, but I'm only on subsonic right now, so I have no idea how that will play out on faster modes. I don't think it will go well, though. Because whenever I do come at a turn with too much speed it's far too easy for the shifting to carry me off the track. The problem I'm finding is that boost doesn't just propel you forward, it speeds you up in every direction you're going in. So basically, if you try to shift while boosting it will shift you faster and farther in the direction. And all that leads to is you turning too much, slowing down, and needing to waste a boost to get going again. This could be good, theoretically, if the momentum you have when boosting initially were more easily cancelled by a second boost. But so far I haven't been able to figure out a way to do that if it's possible. Ideally it would be good to turn left, shift right, and boost in order to maintain top speed while also instantly lining yourself up with the next section of track, and then doing another boost to propel yourself forward. Can't do it though. I'll keep trying. Maybe there's a way. Possibly another ship with a different weight class. I only chose the ship I was using because it has both the highest top speed and acceleration of all the ships I have so far, but it does weight a lot.

I did manage to get a new record on the Sunahara Desert time trial. 2 seconds under Shinen's. It wasn't the sloppiest run, but there were a handful of areas I could improve, along with proper boost management.

 

[ec0ec0]

Firing rockets down a long straightaway and blowing up an opponent is one of the most satisfying things in Wipeout

based on my posts, would you say that i prefer weapons on or off? xD

 

[?oe?oe]

Subsonic really is slow coming back from Hypersonic... hopefully online gets a speed boost.

Online is filled with only Falcun Capitol anyway.

 

[Thelonelykoopa]

Sunahara desert absolutely destroys me .

 

[Regiruler]

I went into Xenon hypersonic basically blind with the Zvil. Thought it'd be much worse than it actually was.
Gonna try online with it to see if I can outscrub the falcon players.

The online 3rd person waiting room cam is the jankiest thing ever

EDIT: Operation Zvil is going much better than I thought it would
AAAAND now it's not


afnmwfnwjglw'gbnamasdfbamdadgdajgdalkgdlgd';jdgrgdad choked on the outpost shortcut in the third lap sgnmwagdnmadsvfwa

 

[Leatherface]

I love the damn tracks in this game. SO good.

 

[Gsnap]

Sunahara desert absolutely destroys me .

That's probably my favorite track now just because I spent so much time on it in time trials.

 

[Elixist]

this game is pretty fricken dope. happy with my purchase.

 

[Yoshi]

Firing rockets down a long straightaway and blowing up an opponent is one of the most satisfying things in Wipeout

I'd argue the most satisfying thing about Wipeout is the knowledge you can always switch to a purer and faster racing game. I appreciate a lot that Fast Racing Neo has no freaking weapons. It should all be about handling your ship at insane speeds. I'm sad you don't have F-Zero levels of control over your ship in Fast, but the track design accomodates for this (except for the damn desert track). Within the confines of the controls and track design, Fast is way purer and faster than Wipeout. Which, to me, makes it the unquestionably superior game by far. Actually, Fast Racing Neo reminds me of Sonic Unleashed a lot in the sense that you are limited in the sharpness of your turns, but the track design accomodates for it.

 

[Synth]

I'd argue the ying thing about Wipeout is the knowledge you can always switch to a purer and faster racing game. I appreciate a lot that Fast Racing Neo has no freaking weapons. It should all be about handling your ship at insane speeds. I'm sad you don't have F-Zero levels of control over your ship in Fast, but the track design accomodates for this (except for the damn desert track). Within the confines of the controls and track design, Fast is way purer and faster than Wipeout. Which, to me, makes it the unquestionably superior game by far. Actually, Fast Racing Neo reminds me of Sonic Unleashed a lot in the sense that you are limited in the sharpness of your turns, but the track design accomodates for it.

As much as I've enjoyed this game so far, I wouldn't put the handling of the ships in the same universe as either F-Zero or WipEout tbh... if anything, the more I play of it and compare it to those games, the less I'm appreciating it.

I prefer WipEout without weapons also (I think WipEout peaked at 2097 and 3, and declined slightly in later iterations), but FAST has way too much fuckery going on with its AI racers, boost pickups etc for me to even entertain the idea of it being a purer racing experience than the WipEout games are, sans Fusion.

 

[devonodev]

Beat all the cups on each difficulty, excluding Hero mode. This game is great, although it did take me a while to avoid landing on edges after a jump, and that desert track is brutal.

I feel it could do with a bit more content, but for the price I really can't complain. I just wish it had a story/mission mode.

 

[Gsnap]

So a little more experimentation and I'm starting to figure things out (I think). Hopefully I'm not about to spew a bunch of nonsense that everybody knows already, but I'm seeing a lot of posts about not having a lot of control over the vehicles, and this game not allowing for sharp turns and things like that, so hopefully this post won't be a giant waste of time.

Basically it seems like what you can and cannot accomplish in FASTneo is almost completely based around how much boost you have. Turns out with the proper amount of boost, you can make pretty sharp turn pretty consistently, while also maintaining high speed and not sliding off the track or into the wall. It's really hard though, and I'm not quite at the point where I can do it consistently enough to determine if it's actually beneficial or not. But in theory it should be.

So, from what I've seen, I believe the direction boost propels you in is based mostly on the direction you're accelerating in. NOT the direction you are facing. And since shifting counts as a form of acceleration, it's basically possible to turn your vehicle perpendicular to the track, tap shift in the opposite direction of the turn, and boost in order to go "forward" while maintaining a similar speed to boosting straight (hopefully equal speed, though I don't have the numbers yet). The problem with this is that shifting while boosting can lead to two issues.

1. Because you're boosting in the opposite direction of the turn, the game wants to keep that momentum when you try to make the turn and level out. So you end up sliding into the wall if you attempt to naturally accelerate with A out of the shift boost. 2. It's way too easy to spin out and turn too far even if you manage to stay on the track because you have 3 different inputs conflicting with each other. A for accelerating forward, left stick for turning, and the shift. Problem 2 is the easiest to fix. Because you're boosting, and shifting is its own form of acceleration, you don't need to hold down A at all. All you have to do is eliminate the forward acceleration, and you're pretty much good to go. Even though your ship is perpendicular to the track, all the momentum is parallel with it. No more spinning out.

The hard part is fixing problem 1. The game wants you to go with the momentum all the time, but I think I've figured out a way around that. If I'm turing left, then I want to shift boost right (again without holding A). Once the turn is done, and the straightaway is coming up, I want all of my rightward momentum to stop immediately, and to be able to accelerate straight. Normally, if you just start pressing A and attempt to neutral boost out of your shift boost it doesn't work. Everything sort of cancels everything else out and you kinda just slide around, slow down, and start all over. You'll probably run into the wall too. However, it seems that by pressing the opposite shift button (in this case, left shift) and A at the proper time, you're able to shift-cancel the extra perpendicular momentum and get an instant forward boost with no speed lost (or at least with minimum speed lost. Again, I haven't checked out the numbers yet). I've gotten it to work about two times, so I haven't no idea if it's consistent enough or fast enough to even be worth it. And I'm not even sure if it works how I'm saying it works since I haven't spent enough time with it. Could just be a placebo, but it did feel like I was taking turns faster. One time felt perfect. Really good, like there was no perceptible decrease in speed. But again, who knows. I wish I had a way to take video once I make further progress, but unfortunately I'll have to leave that to someone else.

But the main point is, it's looking like with proper shifting and boost management, you are able to make much, much sharper turns without making huge sacrifices. And although the track design doesn't require making very sharp turns, this should still mean that we have a much higher level of control over our vehicles than originally assumed. In fact it's looking like we have more control over the vehicles than is actually necessary for the tracks in question. Which is great because that should lead to faster times all around, higher level of play online, etc. And it's just kinda cool that it might be possible for the fastest speeds in the game will be gained with far less use of the A button. lol

I mean, unless this is all wrong. : / We'll see!

 

[Pila]

Subsonic really is slow coming back from Hypersonic... hopefully online gets a speed boost.

Online is filled with only Falcun Capitol anyway.

Yeah, I see a lot of falcun online (myself included =P) it looks like the best ship for the online mode?

I'm having fun, I played this thing a lot during the weekend.

 

[ec0ec0]

[...] And it's just kinda cool that it might be possible for the fastest speeds in the game will be gained with far less use of the A button. lol

so GX all over again.

 

[T-0800]

Just got the game it's a blast with silky smooth gameplay . But damn are these jaggies are rough makes me wonder if the graphics were worth going sub 720p. Hell If it was an option I would probably enable fxaa on this. Surprisngly I would have thought Daitoshi station would look worst because of this but actually I notice the aliasing less on it.

Play on the gamepad. Problem solved.

 

[checkeredknight]

Picked this up yesterday and it's great. Played through the first speed / difficulty and completed all cups with a mixture of gold and silvers. Really impressed with how easy it is to pick up and play, but still feels and looks very impressive. I did one race online, finished in something terrible like 7th, and my game hung on the results screen. After a minute or so, my Wii U crashed (got the loud beeping noise and had to force reboot.) Was a bit disappointing but isn't the first game to crash my Wii U. Will hold off on the online play until bugs are fixed.

 

[missile]

...

Looking at wipeout... ...
The game mechanics also contribute to making wipeout feel smooth. In wipeout, it feels that you just have one type of turn (hold left/right) and that you can add to it more or less effect of the air brakes. It feels that you can take any turn with a single motion. In F-Zero, you've multiple different types of turns to choose from. While in wipeout you can take a long and smooth turn with a single motion, in F-Zero some ships will actually be better taking it with a series of little turns. ...

It's actually much more sophisticated. First off, next to the airbreaks,
side-shifting is very important for cornering esp. for fast cornering, i.e.
for setting the craft up for the next corner, during cornering, and when
coming out of a corner, all depending on the corner, of course. Side-shifting
moves the craft parallel and gives you a little boost. However, the side-
shifting force isn't applied right at the center of mass (varies with the
the craft) and as such the craft loads up angular momentum which is a feature
of WipEout HD and is pretty cool for playing the game. Giving a short steering
impulse also loads the craft with angular momentum and one can use it to set
up the craft for perfect cornering. There are many different ways to go
through a corner in WipEout HD (and all different for each craft) depending on
how you load the craft for the corner. Controlling and balancing these things
is the key to go around the track fast. It also helps in battle, in
stabilizing the craft by shifting the momentum of the craft to counter another
momentum impulse, to make additional barrel rolls etc.. It gives you a very
good feeling of actually controlling the craft. Having mastered the handling
of a craft, and given all the fine corners of WipEout HD, the game becomes a
pleasure racing the tracks again and again. The only track you are going to
hate is Anulpha Pass because it consists mostly of straight. Tracks like
Chenghou Project and Modesto Heights is a never ending joy.

Considering the speed to go around tracks, FAST is obviously very fast, but
speed is nothing without control. As a game developer you have to balance the
speed of the crafts with respect to the tracks and with the physical
properties of the crafts to make the game fun to play, which, up to my point
of view, is done very well for WipEout HD. Whether FAST is balanced or not
will be found out over time, i.e. whether the speed matches the tracks and
handling characteristics of the crafts and whether the game is fun to play in
this case.

On a side note: It is possible to make WipEout HD much faster (much faster
than Phantom, say Supersonic), but you need to adapt all the crafts for this
speed and also to the tracks, which is hard work to find out (lots of tests).
The question is; will the game still be fun? So I think this is where games
like F-Zero, FAST, etc. splits up. They are balanced differently, have put
different weights into the equation. However, the end result, no matter how
fast you can go or not in any particular game, must be fun, fun to play, fun
to race again and again. We don't know yet if FAST too will deliver within
this regard, but we will found out sooner than later!

 

[professor denim]

Shit, im really happy this game is real.really happpy. missed the feeling of playing a new futuristic racer.

 

[ec0ec0]

[...]

very informative!! xD

I'm aware of side-shifting. While side-shifting is an important aspect of handling the ship, i don't consider it a "turn". That's probably why i didn't mention it. It's "something" p) that you can add before, during or after the turn, but the main turning mechanic is the combination of pressing left/right + adding more or less effect of the airbrakes.

I wasn't trying to make wipeout look simpler or anything.

edit: apparently, if you search on youtube "wipeout hd fury" one of the results you get is a great (although slow) wipeout tutorial explaining the basics. For anyone who's curious about the handling system in wipeout (air brakes and side-shifting):

https://youtube.com/watch?v=IxzYkTralIA

 

[missile]

very informative!! xD

I'm aware of side-shifting. While side-shifting is an important aspect of handling the ship, i don't consider it a "turn". That's probably why i didn't mention it. It's "something" p) that you can add before, during or after the turn, but the main turning mechanic is the combination of pressing left/right + adding more or less effect of the airbrakes. ...

Yeah, indeed, it's not really considered turn-ing, yet physically the craft
turns upon side-shift a little which can be put to good use for the overall
turning process.

... I wasn't trying to make wipeout look simpler or anything. ...

I know. Actually, I find your posts quite good esp. when comparing the
intrinsic characteristics of F-Zero, WipEout, and FAST against each other. :+
You wanna become a beta-tester of a game of mine further down the road?

 

[Deku Tree]

Does this game scratch that F-Zero GX itch? How many tracks?

 

[llehuty]

Does this game scratch that F-Zero GX itch? How many tracks?

16 tracks. And while it does scratch a bit the F-Zero GX itch, you have to be aware that this is a 15€ downloadable game developed by a small indie studio, not a triple AAA game with a huge team (feel like some people are forgetting this).

 

[MemoryHumanity]

640 x 720 without AA

No wonder it looks so jaggie.

Holy shit. I was thinking it doesn't look as good as WipEout HD. Now I know why. I know it's only like 6 guys on the team, though.

EDIT: Maybe I'm wearing my nostalgia glasses. Going back to WipEout, there are definitely areas where FAST trumps it.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

I love almost every track in this game... They all have their own distinct graphical and atmospheric style going on.

I like they idea of having to be extra cautious in that desert level, I think they should have made that the last track of them all, since it's kind of fiddly to get right...

 

[jariw]

Holy shit. I was thinking it doesn't look as good as WipEout HD. Now I know why. I know it's only like 6 guys on the team, though.

The people that affected/created the actual game are only 3 guys: two programmers (including game design) and 1 graphics artist.

 

[Leatherface]

Does this game scratch that F-Zero GX itch? How many tracks?

YES! 16 Tracks.

 

[professor denim]

Does this game scratch that F-Zero GX itch? How many tracks?

yep. If they release Blue Falcon dlc my brain will believe this is the real deal.

 

[Gsnap]

so GX all over again.

Still doesn't look like it'll be anywhere near GX, but it looks like it'll be better than people are currently saying.

 

[Frankenstrat]

On to the second cup of the first GP class. Goddamn is this ever fun!

 

[Pyroclastic]

so that fulcom gt is pretty overpowered huh? was struggling to even get 3rd place in the first cup in supersonic, got 1st place first try with that and wrecked my old total times in the subsonic cups. I'm guessing for hypersonic a more nimble ship might be required but I don't see any reason why you'd use anything else on the first two difficulties.

 

[hatchx]

Just bought this and played a few hours.

I love it. It's been so long since I've played a futuristic racer, and this one does it for me. It's got a rich arcade-like experience with some of the best graphics on the console.

Really happy with it so far. Definitely shaping up to be one of the best games on the WiiU this year.

 

[Jon Carter]

I see a lot of people commenting on the jaggies, but I don't find them all that noticeable. They're there, but I notice the aliasing a lot more when I play Mario Kart or Splatoon for example. I'm not convinced if Nintendo had made this that there would be less aliasing, it's definitely one of the very best-looking games on the system and it's one of very few indie games that look as good as what they would have looked like if they came from a big publisher with a bigger team and a bigger budget.

 

[professor denim]

I know its still a bit soon... But is there any dlc plans for FRN?

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

I know its still a bit soon... But is there any dlc plans for FRN?

I doubt it.

 

[Vanillalite]

Hopefully I can get some free time today.

My goal was to go buy an eshop card for myself for my birthday and pick this up. Idk if I'm gonna have time though. Might have to wait till the weekend.

 

[neto]

There is also an art of balance logo hidden, I wonder if there are more hidden logos in the game

I found it last night while goofing and exploring in time trials

 

[Brian_FETO]

Hypersonic is amazing

Thought it'd be too hard to manage (and prob will be in later courses) but just finished the first cup and loved it

Feels like I'm doing better than Supersonic too lol. Leans are waaaay more important here, especially for avoiding hazards and readjusting mid-flight. So rad

 

[BNGames]

Just posted my quicklook

https://youtu.be/moxv0v3df5U

 

[llehuty]

The soundtrack is not getting enough credit in this thread. Really solid tunes that keeps you PUMPED during the whole thing. At the beginning I wasn't paying much attention to it since I was focused in the actual circuits and stuff, but once you hit Supersonic it just clicks.

I love how most of the tracks have this epic section at some point that takes everything to the next level, like:

THAT crazy melody in Cevo Canyon
the awesome build up in Mueller Pacific

Then there is also the all around great tracks like Zvil Raceway or Sunahara Plains.

It's not grounbreaking music or anything, but why would it need to be. It works so well with the constant high speed of the game.

 

[KingSnake]

I like the soundtrack a lot. The songs fit the tracks well. They add to the overall atmosphere of the game.

 

[Elixist]

i like the camera in this game, makes it feel hella arcadey without going over board. a lil shakey cam a lil under the ship cam, a lil "holy shit this waterfall jump is sick cam" its cool. also that first step up in difficulty *wipes brow*

also yes the soundtrack is awesome good point, ive been diggin it

 

[KingSnake]

#FAST Racing Neo update scheduled for January 2016
- New: Track minimap
- New: Online Tags
- Stability improvements
- Various fixes

https://twitter.com/ShinenGames/status/677171047695781892?s=09

 

[Peterthumpa]

https://twitter.com/ShinenGames/status/677171047695781892?s=09

Awesome!

 

[Putosaure]

https://twitter.com/ShinenGames/status/677171047695781892?s=09

No custom button remapping

 

[Roo]

https://twitter.com/ShinenGames/status/677171047695781892?s=09

Guess that sending a strong PM to them actually worked. I'm getting my mini map :v

No custom button remapping

I also mentioned this in my message but guess they don't think it's a real issue?
Anyway, baby steps. We're getting there. Maybe they'll add that feature in the future.