On the Fence: Pure

Today, I played the Pure demo on 360 (PSN demo should be up later today) and I have been sleeping on this racer till recently since the game is out in two weeks. After two hours of madness, Pure is a surprisingly fun game and likely will be the sleeper racing game of the year (with Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, Midnight Club LA, and Need for Speed Undercover out in the fall). First of all, the game looks amazing for a racing game in this generation with great environments (only seven different types are in the final game with about 50 tracks as the demo says in the end) and draw distance. For the gameplay, Pure plays like a simple racing game with alternate paths and a huge emphasis on the trick system. The trick system is basically the bread and butter for Pure as doing them well will dictate your races. There are four levels of tricks which depend on the buttons will also dictates the boost meter. The more tricks you do, the more boost you gain as these tricks are done with any direction of the left stick and any of the face buttons (X however is boost). Whether to sacrifice doing advanced tricks (on the Y button) to boost more frequently if behind the pack or the other way around is a nice element to Pure's racing.

I'm still on the fence with Pure after playing the demo. This definitely feels like an off-road SSX than a core racing game, which is cool. Basically, this racer is simply fun to play with great graphics and soundtrack to listen to full of rock and electronica tunes. This one has that sleeper hit in it to be something overlooked with other racing games coming out around the same time. Then again, I can see some repetition with Pure as you progress through its World Tour mode if the races feel the same throughout the whole journey or the tricks eventually getting old pending on the character. Other than that, Pure is flat out fun to play and worth your attention for your dollars if you're looking for a new racing game this fall.