Golden Age of Racing – Review

The gaming market is, and always has been saturated with driving games, these have ranged from arcade drift-fests like Outrun and Initial D or realist driving challenges like TOCA or Gran Turismo. While these variations on a theme span across the substandard and the sublime, there has always been a little room, somewhere under the radar for a budget racer with the charm and appeal to win over the steadfast, so called “hardcore” gamer, and the casual “Need for Speed is l33t, you n00b” posse – these near classics have included titles like Trackmania, and even Outrun 2 was released at a pocket pleasant price.

Golden Age of Racing is to these classics of wallet friendly motoring, as a rancid sock is to a luggage case of clean clothes in the cargo hold of a Boeing 777. The game harkens back to a time when cars were rough and ready; drivers were real men; and assumedly the world was a brown pixelated hell, not dissimilar to some forbidden land of teletext.

*Hit the Road – Gameplay
Golden Age of Racing is nostalgic of one of the classic grand prix era’s when safety certainly wasn’t king, and cars had little or no driver aids, so success was dictated by pure grit; determination and absolute driving skill. However in GAoR what it takes to win is blind ignorance to the horrifying controls which give the feeling that the vehicles are being steered by the rear wheels, it almost feels like driving in reverse as you plow into the seemingly AI free opposition in the track ahead.

The game has been popularly touted as brilliant for car buffs the world over who long for a simpler time. However, it’s hard to see how this is true when all the cars regardless of stated differences in speed, braking or handling, all handle in exactly the same cumbersome, dire fashion. This is especially disheartening considering the large number of available unlockables, that each new car should bring the same sigh-heaving disappointment as the last.

*Mirror; Signal; Manoeuvre – Graphics
Much like the way the world was black and white before colour television, apparently the world was remarkably low res in the days before the modern grand prix. The horizon disappears in remarkably short draw distance in what I would generously call a hazy; blocky mess, akin to a half loaded image on a website.

*Speak Up Sonny! – Sound
Tinny, raspy and vacuous, there’s little to describe about GAoR’s sound, with music which isn’t appropriate to the subject matter or the theme, and terrible generic sound effects reminiscent of some LCD handheld racer.

*One for The Ladies – Female Gamer Angle
Golden Age of Racing has no real character or story so it should come off as fairly unisex, and the subject matter should withdraw it to the great and the geeky from both demographics.

*The Inuit Have Over 30 Words for Abysmal – Conclusion
However, it would be morally reprehensible to suggest that anyone – male or female – should buy this game; even real enthusiasts of the era of racing will find little relief here, and at the real budget price it would be tempting to say that at this price it’s all irrelevant – pocket money gaming shouldn’t be expected to compete with the big guns of gaming – nevertheless any game should be held up to a minimum standard to stop the decline of gaming into a mindset of backward thinking and cost cutting. So given the choice I would save even my £11.99 and instead of buying this title perhaps spend the money on poisoned tipped needles which I could forcibly insert into my genitals and enjoy it a great deal more than I ever would The Golden Age of Racing.

Review by Pete

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