AFTERPAD

Review: Real Racing 3

While there are many racing games on the App Store, the Real Racing series has always had the best graphics, and been the most realistic. This third entry in the series ups the ante with realtime shadows, lighting, and reflections, as well as bigger courses and expanded draw distances. That’s in addition to the ridiculous number of cars and courses you can choose between.

Racing fans have been waiting for eagerly awaiting this update – now it’s mostly here. I say “mostly” because the controls aren’t quite perfect. DPad controls and buttons aren’t pressure sensitive, which means light steering requires quickly tapping the direction you want to steer in. While this isn’t that big of a deal, varying finger pressure would be a better experience.

One place that Real Racing doesn’t drop the ball anymore is multiplayer. Although it originally shipped only with something they called “time shifted multiplayer” – basically driving against ghosts of other players, not multiplayer at all – they’ve subsequently added back true multiplayer with up to 4 people over Game Center.

The biggest problem with this game isn’t its controls or its graphics, but with its presentation. Sleaze drips out of every orifice of this game. Ads are everywhere, timers with premium currency are unavoidable, the game attempts to bribe you with gold into spamming your friends on Facebook after every match, you must maintain an active internet connection to play – every horrible thing you’d expect a company like EA to do, they did. As such, I can’t really recommend this game. There are other racing games with MFi controller support on the App Store. It’s tough to recommend a game that constantly feels like the developer actively dislikes you as a player.

If you’re looking for the most realistic racing game with the most features and the absolute best graphics, and you don’t mind being spammed and bled at every step of the way by the developer, this is the one for you. If you’re just looking for a fun way to drive around a track, maybe with some friends… there are less sleazy games than this to play.