Pacer (PS4) - El Muro
14Anti-grav racing game created by ex-WipEout devs. This is my first time playing it. Although I've uploaded a video of me doing the training section, I actually just jumped in for a couple of quick races first which is what these videos are, in the hope I'd just pick it up as I went along. As such I don't really know what the collectables do and how the different weapon types work. Some were straightforward, others I was pressing the weapon button and nothing much seemed to happen.
My first impressions are good. It looks gorgeous and it runs at 60 fps (get in!). The soundtrack's good with a lot of DnB (gotta love all them Amen breaks!), which I always love in my futurisitc style racers. Controls feel solid, very WipEout-ish, although the ships feel a bit 'lighter' on the handling than the WipEout HD Fury/Omega Collection ones, but that's not a bad thing. I've played a few demos of other indie anti-grav style racers over the years and they've always just looked and felt a bit low budget and just not that impressive to look at or that fun to play (generally I've found that if it ain't WipEout or F-Zero if ain't worth playing), so I'm glad to play one here that breaks that mould.
From the game's Wikipedia page:
"Pacer, originally titled Formula Fusion, is a futuristic racing video game developed by R8 Games for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It was initially set to release on September 17, 2020.[1] However, it was delayed until the end of September 2020. On October 19, R8 announced that game would released on October 29.[2]
A kickstarter campaign by R8 Games was successful in securing over £79,000 to begin development on the game which was released as an early access version through Steam in August 2015.[3][4] The game was re-branded from Formula Fusion to Pacer in early 2019.[5]
The game started as a spiritual successor to the Wipeout series with some of the early R8 Games staff having worked on Wipeout 3 for Psygnosis Leeds.[6] R8 Games founder Andrew Walker was part of the team that were awarded a BAFTA for best design on Wipeout 3 in 1999.[7][8] The Designers Republic, the graphic design studio that designed visual assets and marketing for the first three Wipeout games, has also contributed to the game."