8.12.2008

I think the best way to describe Pure is a cross between an arcade racer such as GRiD, an ATV racer such as MotorStorm, and a trick heavy boarding game such as SSX. The combination is certainly an interesting and entertaining one, and when combined with superb graphics, a fun if at times frustrating single player campaign and good online play, Pure is a thrill ride that will have racing fans on the edge of their seats.Possibly another game that I think in the same vein as Pure is Burnout Paradise. Now bear with me on this one. I found that even though I love Burnout Paradise - it's right up there as one of my Game of the Year picks, and Bikes only make it better - it can be a very frustrating game,and as such I find I can't play it for much more than an hour or so. Same with Pure. This game is such an intense racing experience, at least in single player against the rather tough A.I., that more than 30 minutes of gameplay will leave you breathless.However this is a testament to just how much fun Pure is. The trick system, although a little basic, works perfectly thanks to its combination of simplicity and versatility. As mentioned before, the game also looks totally gorgeous; from rich coloured environments and tracks to well designed characters and ATV's, Pure may be the best looking racer of the year. The framerate is also totally stable; in fact, the game runs perfectly smoothly on all areas. The simplicity of the gameplay means that this is a very easy game to pick up, although don't be fooled into assuming that it is easy. It isn't. At times it can be incredibly frustrating, and many times the air of my house has been filled with blue cursing caused by crashing just before the end of a race. But this occasional punishing difficulty only serves to add to the sense of accomplishment once you finally win the race. In that sense, Pure is pretty well balanced in terms of difficulty.In Pure there are three kinds of races; sprints, freestyles and races. Each accentuates a different aspect of the racing experiences. Sprints are pure races, and are all about getting the best race lines and outrunning the opposition. Freestyle is all about getting massive air, hitting some kickass moves and stringing them together in combos to earn massive bonus points. It's not a race, but rather a test to see who can score the most points. Races fall somewhere in between; the best way to win these events is balancing racing strategy and speed with hitting big special tricks. The reason why tricking is important in races is because tricking fills up your boost meter. Filling up more of your boost meter unlocks new more challenging moves which in turn increase your boost even more, until eventually you max out your boost and unlock a special trick, which when used will re-fill your boost bar. So in races the strategy is get a special trick, use up all your boost to get to the head of the pack, hit a special trick to re-fill the boost meter, and then repeat. It's a simple but brilliantly effective gameplay mechanic which really makes Pure a heck of a lot of fun to play.Pure has a lot of other things going for it. Aside from playing well and looking gorgeous, there is also plenty of customisation; although you can only use a handfull of character models, there are a huge amount of options for building custom ATV's. Also, winning races in World Tour mode unlocks new parts for your ATV, improving performance. It's another simple and fun mechanic. I haven't spent much time in the online, but it seems totally solid; no real lag, match-making is alright, generally it seems sound. Soundtrack is fine, although I've spent most of my game-time with my own music on.So really it seems like Pure has everything going for it. So why 4-stars and not the full 5? Well, Pure may not have a laundry list of small or medium sized flaws, unlike Fable 2 and Fallout 3, Pure still lags behind the two aforementioned RPG's in my top games of 2008. Don't get me wrong, Pure is fantastic, and I greatly recommend that if you like fast simple fun racers this is a must buy, and I think it's definitely worth a look for anyone. But Pure is a game that is content to be what it is and nothing more. Pure is an excellent ATV racer, and really doesn't do much wrong, but aside from looking oustanding, very little about the game is truly remarkable. It's incredibly solid, and you'll have a lot of fun playing it, but it falls short of 5-star glory due not to any inherant flaw in the games mechanics or presentation, but rather due to the fact that it isn't exactly the most original or exciting game to come along in a good while.Racing fans with 360's or PS3's have no excuse for not at least giving Pure a fair try - the demo on Xbox Live is what convinced me to buy the game almost immediately, it's so good - but don't expect to play it non-stop all weekend, and don't expect it to bring about a revolution. Pure does a lot of things very well, and it's combined mechanics form a very entertaining game that is definitely worth playing for just about everyone. Big thumbs up.

12.10.2008

"Pure" is an ATV-racing game, but it is not a simulator, as you can perform stunts in the game that would be either stupidly dangerous or impossible in real life (hence the warning when you first load the game not to imitate the tricks depicted within).Before you race you must go to the Garage and use one of the available ATV slots (you can unlock more in the World Tour mode as you progress) to build a vehicle from the ground up using various parts. Different combinations and parts will affect things such as handling, speed, acceleration and how adept the ATV is at performing tricks, whereas other parts (such as the style of handlebars or even the shape, colour and motifs on the ATV)are purely cosmetic. You can either design an ATV part by part manually, or you can do a Quick Race or Quick Freestyle design where the console picks a part for you depending on the discipline you are designing for. You can amend your designs at any point between races, so if you unlock new parts or different upgrades then you can apply them to any ATV by visiting the Garage.There are three race disciplines in "Pure": Race, Sprint and Freestyle. In Race mode you simply race against opponents while making the most of jumps to perform tricks to fill up the Thrill Bar on the right. To do a trick you simply press A (or B or Y once the Thrill Bar is high enough) together with any direction on the Left Stick, and you can preload a jump by holding down on the Left Stick then pressing up just as you leave the ground; this will give you more height, and thus more time to perform tricks. You can also use the X button to give your ATV a speed boost, although doing so depletes your Thrill Bar. You also lose some of your Thrill Bar every time you crash.As well as the A, B and Y tricks, if you completely fill up the Thrill Bar you can perform a Special Trick by boosting just before a big jump (many of these jumps have twin torches either side of the apex of the hill from which you jump), preloading and, when airborne, pressing both bumpers together with any direction on the Left Stick. This will completely fill your Thrill Bar again if you successfully do the stunt and land without hitting the ground in mid-trick.In Sprint mode it's similar to Race, only the tracks are much shorter and jumps you can use to boost your Thrill Bar are few and far between.In Freestyle your position compared to your opponents is decided, not by your relative position to them on the course, but by what score you can accumulate by doing as many tricks as possible. The more complicated tricks are worth more points, and you must keep doing tricks to avoid losing fuel more quickly (Freestyle is the only discipline in which fuel needs to be taken into account). There are various icons scattered around the track: some will double your score for tricks you do within a short time of driving into the icon, some give you more fuel, others allow you to instantly access a special trick, and another allows you to immediately increase your Thrill Bar to the next available jump style (e.g. if you only had A accessible before you picked this up, it would take your Thrill Bar to B). If your fuel depletes completely the race is over and the person with the highest score wins the event."Pure" is an incredibly exciting and fun game to play. The graphics and sound are absolutely sumptuous (notice how your character gets muddy as you ride through the mud sections!), and you really get some good views when you shoot off the apex of a big jump as you hear the air whistle. The game plays really well, too, although sometimes the stick control is not always as precise as you would like it to be when doing stunts (you don't get as much boost if you inadvertently duplicate a trick).Other gripes with the game include the track occasionally being hard to follow (there's no on-screen map of the track), either by it being too dark because it's in the shade from the sun, or through what looks like a jump actually being a mountain. Another thing that is a shame is that the game has no offline multiplayer mode, which is a shame as a two-player split-screen would have been a lot of fun.Online you can race against up to fifteen other players in either Race, Sprint or Freestyle events. This mode is every bit as enjoyable as the offline equivalents, although I would recommend that you play the World Tour for long enough to unlock later engine classes such as A or B before taking it too seriously or you will be left standing if you're only at engine class D (the first and only one available to you when you start playing)! (There is an Achievement that you will unlock if you somehow defeat a class-A opponent with a class-D ATV, though!).What "Pure" does, it does very well, and is different enough to help it stand out from other, more run-of-the-mill driving games.

27.9.2008

This game is awesome! Top quality in every area, dont let the Disney Interactive logo fool you into thinking this game is aimed at kids, its such a great arcade racer, when playing it you'll feel as though you should be sitting in a big moving cabinet, in blackpool pleasure beach! Even though i d/l the demo and loved it, i decided to wait until release day to make sure choosing this over TFU would be the right choice, ended up paying a few quid more from asda. Grrr... (thought they were generally cheaper?)Anyway, gameplay is fun and addictive, the amount and difference in pulling the many moves off is a joy, the handling of the quads is superb, lots of modes and shortcuts through the tracks,

7.5.2010

This is a thoroughly enjoyable and amusing game which is fun to play alone and even better with friends, perhaps after the pub or during a night in with some drinks. It's an off-road racing game on all-terrain vehicles, with different types of race and widely varied tracks.The theme of the game is similar to the more comical snowboarding titles such as SSX or Amped, in that you perform tricks to earn points and power-ups, and these tricks are exaggerated to a ludicrous extent, creating a game full of laughs whilst retaining a strong challenge.The learning curve is great; you'll soon be pulling off awesome tricks, but it will take quite a while to reach full power-ups and be able to pull off the top stunts available.The standout point of the game is the graphics,

16.2.2010

On paper, this shouldn't be my sort of game at all. I have no interest in motorsports, really, or quad biking, or anything like that. And it's made by Disney, of all people. But the game came with my Xbox 360 so I thought I might as well give it a go.Within minutes I was hooked. There aren't many games in which you can race along on a quad bike, fly off a ramp, do a somersault while sticking your legs out and then land and see the whole screen light up with the points you've just scored for your awesome display of awesomeness. It rocks.The bikes are fully customisable to a painstaking level of detail, meaning you can customise your own bike for each of the three styles of race (Freestyle,

26.9.2008

real pick up and play, best courses ever in a racer since fzero x, pulling tricks becomes an addiction, handeling is exhillarating, sountrack is spot on, also , from my comment to another review.....I found that the secret to winning the later stages is the customisation, if you dont fit the best and right gear to your ride you will be left for dust. I didnt bother with the customisation initially as I allways find that sort of thing a drag and like yourself I found myself left behind in the later stages but after building my own atv and seeing the difference it made, i.e going from last to 1st place, i was quickly was hooked on the customisation and now have a specific ride for every class and race type within that class.

24.9.2009

Pure was just what I was looking for; a racing game that invited you to take risks in order to get first place. Racing games these days are either so realistic that they lose the fun factor altogether or go to the complete opposite extreme and forget about the racing completely i.e. latest installments of Burnout and Mario kart have been focussed on special bonuses. Pure hits it right in the middle. Pure is great fun and requires a lot of stratgy and rewards risk-taking. You can either pull off stunts, which temporarily slows you down, and be rewarded with boost or just ignore the stunts and race around at a constant speed,

13.10.2008

Pure is a succinct example of gaming nirvana. As soon as the first tune blares out of the speakers and you descend the mountain in Italy's Lake District tricking sick air with a castle - literally - flying past the left of the screen, you know this is going to be something special, and Pure rarely disappoints.While the racing is tight, fun and challenging, it's the Freestyle section which really shines, and in a comaparitively short game, this is where the replay value will be found, with the gamer constantly looking for the next hill and vale to build up the combo multiplier.The stand-out moments are plentiful. The first time you drop through the tree canopy in Thailand will imbue you with a sense of vertigo,

4.2.2010

Wow! Had this game as a demo for a while and decided to purchase the full game as I found it at a bargain price. All I can say is this is an absolute masterpiece. I believe the game did win some awards on release and you can see why! The graphics and design are the best I have ever seen in a video game - drop jaw stuff! There is so much attention to detail in the amazing environments that you almost want to get off your ATV and get amongst it all! The controls are very smooth and responsive which is exactly what you want for an arcade style racer. This game is a blast and some of the jumps and tricks are out of this world. There are 12 gorgeous environments from all over the world to race in and 3 different tracks for each (36 in total)

20.5.2009

An unexpected game for Disney to produce but hey, I'm not complaining when it's this much fun.The pros: This game has wonderful graphics, smooth frame-rate throughout, a beautiful art design and some of the craziest stunts I have seen in a racing/stunt game.Thankfully the game doesn't take itself too seriously, if it did it wouldn't be half the fun it is.The Cons: If you join a game on Xbox Live that has any amount of lag your character will often fall off their ATV for no reason. Also there will be many times during races where you will fly off a cliff/into a rock/fall off your ATV when it's 100% not your fault.

5.9.2008

I downloaded a demo off Xbox live and although limited tracks and race modes, I was blown away by the visuals (you can see for miles...think Assasin's creed in terms of visuals), the tricks were so good, so high (at times)i actually held my breath! The racing speed is quick, as quick as any other game i have played, the variety of racing and/or tricks was well balanced.From what I have read, and its a lot, you can build your quad from scratch and customise the parts depending on whether you want a racing quad or a quad for tricks - pretty unique as most games just allow you to change the colour!I can't wait for this game to come out - download it and you'll see what I mean

10.9.2008

As with other reviews I can only go by the demo which is top notch. Arcadey handling is spot on as is the risk vs reward. To gain boost you must perform tricks during the jumps. The better and more varied you make these then the more boost you get, however if you crash then you lose a fair chunk of that boost (and the ability to do more complicated tricks). Multiple routes through the course adds to the replayability. Excellent graphics and sounds AND has a promising music track list. Not forgetting 16 players online means that this should be a right hoot. Fingers crossed that it wont go the way of Flatout and get forgotten pretty quickly...

17.9.2008

Some websites have just published reviews for "pure" and they range from 8.5 to 9.5.Yes Motorstorm is a great game but all those nay sayers with PS3 agendas should understand that the games industry moves on.Ive played the demo of Pure and its pretty damned good.The graphics are brilliant and the game play is spot on. I like in particular the way you are rewarded for pulling off stunts when you are in the air.Pull off the stunt well and you get extra boosts of speed that could win you the race.I for one have pre ordered the game. Cant wait!!

1.10.2008

This game is excellent, a great racing game with tricks thrown in making the gameplay fun and exciting. When playing the world tour, you have 3 types of stage, a race where tricks are a fundamental part of gaining boost which is required to win, then there's sprint which is a short circular course, sometimes crossing over (watch for crashes)and freestyle, which involves getting as many trick points before your gas runs out! Overall a great mix of gameplay with fantastic graphics.

4.5.2009

This game is real good from the start. It's exciting, the jumps and stunts are ridiculously exagerated and looks great in HD. The thing that Pure is lacking is multiplayer. Unless you go online, you'll be playing alone. Even if there was a turn based multiplayer option it wouldn't be so bad.In a nutshell, if you like arcade racing games with a bit of over the top stunt action thrown in then this a definate game for you. Especially if you play alone.

Pure (Xbox 360) - Reviews

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