I agree with you that the perks aren't needed. However if by "borderline useless" you mean borderline ineffective, then I haven't found that. At least, I've used the slipstream booster on occasion and it makes a big difference. Several times when I was getting frustrated or impatient I've used it and it usually was enough to make the difference between coming in 4th and coming in 1st. In fact the main reason I haven't used it more is because it feels too overpowered, but occasionally if I'm getting frustrated enough that I'm not having fun, then it's just what the doctor ordered. Every time I've used it I've come in high enough that I made back more than I spent on the perk. One thing to be aware of though if you use a perk, which is pretty annoying, is that if you interrupt your race part way through and restart from the pause menu, it charges you again for the perk. So once you've started a race with a perk, you might as well finish the race and try to win at least something even if you make a mistake and know you won't come in 1st, since otherwise you'll have spent currency on the perk for nothing.
These daily tasks need work... I just got another task I couldn't seem to finish. It said do 3 online races and I know for a fact that I just did 3 consecutive ones but I never received the xp.
Another week, absolutely NO response from my email to the team. I don't expect a response, and I've come to the conclusion this is the same shady company that put out the turd called RR on PS Vita. I was really hoping for something back. Most of the issues we've stated in this thread are pretty common practice in the dev stage of just about all iOS games these days. I've stopped playing this game due to the ridiculous difficulty of the extreme battles (cannot even beat the 2nd race, and my car is all the way tuned) and my frustration with the virtual controls, which literally cost me a win every race now. I don't expect anything more from these guys. Screw me once, shame on you BN, screw me twice......dammit
Read thru the thread. There's endless pages of comparisons so u can get an idea (and we finally got past all that and on to tips and tricks etc). If you've played RR at any point in you're life, this plays like just about every other RR game with the added ability to slipstream (fancy word for drafting). Pages back, you will find invaluable info from some of this thread's posts, so definitely take the time to read through.
I hope they release an update soon. It crashes at least once every play session and it's mildly irritating... Otherwise it's a perfect game for someone like me.
Wow! I just made it to the extreme battles, and I agree that second race on Island Circle Reverse is ridiculously difficult. I finally came in third with the fully upgraded Fiare after a bunch of retries, so I can move on, but even coming in third felt a little like luck. The opponents are ridiculously aggressive about bashing you around, and as soon as you touch a wall they all go flowing past you and you might as well restart. I still feel like I'm making a lot of mistakes though, and with enough practice I may be able to podium consistently, if not win, that race. I also suspect if I used one of the perks like the one which reduces how much collisions slow me down, I might win, but I'm going to hold off in that since I want to see if I can beat it. That said, I certainly don't feel screwed, even if it turns out I can't finish the career mode because of the difficulty. For less than the price of a hamburger I've gotten many hours of enjoyment out of this game. I do think these higher level races would be a lot easier to do with more precision input than is possible with touch/tilt controls, but that's what my Xbox is for. I can understand if you own an iOS controller though that it's frustrating that the game doesn't support controllers. Hopefully they'll add support.
Just did a few more retries and finally got first place in the second Extreme Challenge race. To be clear, this the first Extreme Challenge, first tab, class 4 Island Cirlce Reverse regular race. I used the fully upgraded Fiare configured as for grip as follows: Running gear tab: top slider all the way left, bottom slider all the way right. Nitro tab: top slider EX, bottom slider Normal. I did not use any perks. At first this race seemed so hard that I started to think it was a mistake, or maybe even a ploy to get you to buy one of the premium cars. But with some more practice I started consistently coming in the top 3 and finally won. I just needed to refine my techniques and also experiment with settings and driving style. I tried using the Ultimate drift style where I boost while drifting through corners and boost again down straights. But that just seemed too hectic and I couldn't do well consistently that way. So I went for the full grip car style of driving instead where I minimize drifting and focus on driving fast and cleanly and getting through the pack early in the race. So far, for me at least, every time this game has started to seem too difficult, it's turned out that I could improve my skills more and it wasn't too difficult after all. I like the fact that it's a very difficult game compared to a lot of iOS driving games, and constantly pushes you to improve your skills. As for class 2 being grindy, I agree that the upgrades get pretty expensive, but I also didn't need to buy many of them, so it still never got too grindy for me. I used the Jujak to complete the class 2 events, and by the end I had upgraded the the engine and Nitro to stage 2, and the running gear to stage 1, and that was sufficient to win everything. I don't think I even needed to upgrade the Nitro to stage 2 really.
@Bilboa - I also used the Jujak with only stage 1 engine and boost and was able to at least podium (mostly 3rd) to move on. Yeah for me it's the fact that this game came out RIGHT after the 3rd MFi controller released (or maybe right before, but at least 2 were in stores), and that just seems like a huge oversight. If I were a decision maker at BN and I found out we just released a iOS port of their "bread and butter" franchise without controller support for a newly emerging segment of iOS gaming, heads would roll...Think of how much money they potentially lost through the holidays after launch, and down the road when MFi controllers become more universally accepted (with more options to choose from for gamers) But yeah, I don't use any boosts....in my opinion they're a waste on creds that are already hard enough to grind for (not so bad that it's impossible, but replaying races again is what it would take to upgrade anything in stage 2). But here we are into February now, and nothing about any fixes for even the stupid stuff they missed (like virtual button customization and iCloud sync). And I still haven't even gotten an auto response from BN about anything I asked about. I agree for $3 I can't complain, but then again I have a game on my phone that didn't cost anything, is updated at least once a month, and continually frustrates me, but I come back because the devs care about the community of players and are continually working to make the experience better and make it grow. With this, I've lost interest, and it sure does seem like BN did too. Not surprised, but still sucks.
While that free game may be fine for you, the updates that you speak of are generally lost on those that don't have the credits for said updates. I essentially will never drive any of those high end updated cars outside of the rental challenges and even then, don't stand a chance to win anything thanks to the boosts being essentially mandatory to place even remotely close to the winning times. Having to grind out a bunch of wins in multiplayer which has some of the weirdest matchmaking I have ever seen (putting a Dart up against a Bugatti is really stupid yet happens typically right as I'm about to win something big) or having to pay real money to get a boost is a little absurd. That game is fun for short bursts but as soon as I get some metaphorical traction in terms of progression I'm almost immediately handicapped by a lack of credits (which to me are harder to earn than in Slipstream thanks to them being required for progression). If I was losing because I wasn't good enough then fine but the fact that I don't even stand a chance in some of those multiplayer races and lose my streak which in turn loses what reward I was about to earn really is disheartening. When that happens I am almost always trying to find a reason not to delete it. I have several times and stupidly reinstalled it only to get angry and frustrated by the same crap again and again. It's like I hate myself and love causing myself pain. This why I will keep coming back to Slipstream. I lose a race becuase I stunk it up not because I didn't have the right car, upgrade, or premium boost/handling modifier. On-topic: While I don't disagree that the devs seem to have forgotten Slipstream, I get the feeling there were issues internally with the Android versions that have held up any progress on the iOS variant. The Android version was supposed to already be out and I don't think it is yet. Controller support is a non-issue (although no cloud saves sucks). To me, controller support isn't a big deal as that kind of defeats the purpose of gaming on my phone. I'm not buying some 80 or 100 dollar controller to play a game on my phone no matter how great a game is and I get the feeling that is the sentiment for the people they are targeting this game to. I doubt they lost many, if any sales due to no controller support. The hardcore RR junkies (which is their target market despite what Namco wants to admit) like myself will buy it no matter how terrible or great it is and either curse or praise it based on quality later. Even if the controllers were cheaper I don't think I'd buy one. If I'm going to take the time to have to remember to charge another device specifically for gaming it is going to be one of my portable consoles. Maybe in a few years time my opinion will change but as of now my phone is a phone first. I want to play games on my phone when I am on the go, in a meeting or just need to kill a few minutes. iPhone games (racing and shooters to be more accurate) may not be perfect thanks to no physical buttons but the controls in Slipstream are pretty close from the amount of time I've spent with it. I've only lost a few races due to finger placement and that is a me problem not a game problem. If I want to game with a controller or in long stretches on the go, I'll either grab my Vita, PSP, or 3DS and play those versions. The folks posting on this forum are the minority when it comes to the iOS gaming market. As for the battles, they are hard but beatable without the boosts. My only advice other than to know the track and your car is to avoid the other racer entirely. If you see him coming up and can't let him rear end you directly (which in the RR world actually gives you more speed) let them pass. If they hit you anywhere else than squarely on the bumper you will slow down and they will continue on. It's been like that since RR was in the arcades. Other than that, race cleanly, don't hit anything, and abuse slipstreaming. The auto nitro also works surprisingly well for these as it guarentees a tank and a half of nitro around most tracks (some more some less depending on length). The battles, as they have always been, are about precision and racing cleanly. Honestly, the Angelus battle from RRV was harder than all of these combined.
The free game I was referring to isn't a racing game at all, I was just trying to make a simple comparison based on dev support, updates, and most importantly community support. WE have community support, but BN doesn't...kinda sad if u ask me. As far as playing which games and controller support, I stand my ground. I own the Vita version but it sucks so bad that turning it on makes me want to kick a BN rep in the junk. It's a matter if personal preference, and so if I'm one of the only people who own a controller, then Apple needs to get off their @$$ and start promoting devs to support MFi support unanimously. Yeah it's expensive to own, but if you did, wouldn't you want the support? Your point is legit, but so is mine (we're just on opposite sides of the spectrum here). And it's not that hard to integrate it either, as Apple has made the process easy enough. This is just a case of the devs being lazy or not wanting to adopt. I could possibly respect their decision, but it doesn't mean I have to like it (and I would respect this decision for most other companies, but given BN's track record as of late, no!) And for the last time, yeah everything comes down to a ME mistake.....I think that point has been burnt into the f'ing ground by now. Do u understand what I'm saying though? Touch controls are not optimized for this game......period. If I keep missing the left turn and hitting nitro instead, should I go have my hands shrunk? No, I just fall outside the normal amount of players that don't have this issue. But here's my point: does a car maker make 1 model of a car to suit everyone? No, they don't. And no iOS game is "one size fits all", which is why most devs give as many control customization options to players as possible. I don't live in a Communist country, and choice is of the utmost importance (and should be too). And finally, all this would be moot if I could get ANY response from BN. I hope u understand that my frustration lies in trying to give them constructive feedback and them basically giving me the finger with no response 2 weeks later. Yeah, I got p'd writing this, but I don't feel I should have to defend myself. Saying it comes down to skill is saying "you suck at this game and stop talking." Well, I won't. I've played every iteration of this game (just about), and this is by far the worst controlling. It's my American freedom to point out issues, and I'm not the only one who sees these as issues. If someone wants to say "this is the best for the greatest good", then I'll go move to a damn socialist country. Nuff said.
A Dart against a Bugatti? I'd like to see actual evidence of that wildly inaccurate statement. And not rhetorical, an actual screenshot of an active multiplayer game. The best you could do is just delete it and leave it deleted because your comparisons are simply based on your favouritism of brand name at one and lack of it in the other. Funny how I've managed to gain 20 credit boosters, even more tuning kits and nitro starters than that with little or no effort in that game that you can't seem to say anything positive about in a thread it has nothing to do with.
@chief78 Of course you're entitled to criticize the game, including the controls. I can't speak for rapaleeman, but the only reason I pointed out that increasing skills does make it possible to beat the extreme races was to counter your criticism of the the game and Namco as being shady, lazy, screwing people over and other things you've said. It seemed like part of the evidence you're offering to support those views was the claim that it's not possible to progress without buying the best cars or upgrades, so I think pointing out that in my experience that's not true is a valid counter argument. I do completely agree that there is lots of room for improvement. I'd like adjustable tilt sensitivity, custom placement of on screen controls, more content (which I'd gladly pay more for as DLC), and some bug fixes (the announcer often says incorrect things, and I'd like to be able to turn her off anyway.) I personally don't care about controller support, and also doubt they've lost many sales by leaving it out, but I can certainly appreciate wanting that. I don't think the lack of any if this justifies calling NB shady or negligent though. I think they've provided plenty of value for the $2.99 price tag.
