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Baja: Edge of Control
Baja has a flat tire.
October 6, 2008 | 7:09 PM PSTKombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game's About
Baja is an off-road racer by a team of developers formerly behind the MX vs. ATV games. Drive on miles of dirt roads as you climb the ranks to become a legend. Drive in an open world setting exploring the dusty country side and compete for money and secure sponsors.
What's Hot
I love me some Spanish guitar and Baja features plenty of it. It captures the mood of the setting and gives you, the driver, a calm before the storm sensation. The revving of the motors, while not shockingly realistic, are gravely enough to satisfy the ears. Then cue the driving rock songs during the races. The juxtaposition of the musical genres creates a daring audio dynamic not heard often in games.
Baja pushes some limits for race modes. Offering nine open worlds, you can compete in grueling and brutal endurance races where it will take hours to compete. In total, Baja can successfully boast over 1,000 miles of terrain to blast through. The addition of off-road sponsors gives the game some believable scenery to the desert backdrop. Pulling your friends (online or off) in for some head-to-head races over long distances is unlike anything you have done before. Riding around in free roam has an Easy Rider cool feeling associated with it. The barren landscapes are yours for the taking and it is fun to see how far you can drive without seeing the same scenery.
What's Not
There are games that when you first play, they leave you with a bad impression. From the get-go, the PS3 version will make you shake your head in disbelief as you see the embarrassing quality of the visuals. For the game to look halfway decent in terms of this generation, you'd need to squint from across the living room. From what I've found, the Xbox 360 version doesn't rattle any cages either. Seeing a game in this rough of visual shape is hard to get past.
Racing games live and die by their control system and Baja narrowly escapes a humiliating demise due to the finicky handling that can be overcome by learning to deal with it. It is ridiculous that it even takes as much work to finesse the control stick like it does to ensure you won't render your vehicle unresponsive. Because the controls are not polished or even refined, it makes the new endurance modes ultra high risk because the way the controls work, it can ruin a long race.
Final Word
Baja is a below average game. The visuals are the real atrocity but some of the more interesting modes make the game digestible. With the pedigree that the developers behind the game come from, I expected the overall product to be a little more polished. Baja features a few good ideas but the problems that stick out like sore thumbs obscure the fun.
What the Game's About
Baja is an off-road racer by a team of developers formerly behind the MX vs. ATV games. Drive on miles of dirt roads as you climb the ranks to become a legend. Drive in an open world setting exploring the dusty country side and compete for money and secure sponsors.
What's Hot
I love me some Spanish guitar and Baja features plenty of it. It captures the mood of the setting and gives you, the driver, a calm before the storm sensation. The revving of the motors, while not shockingly realistic, are gravely enough to satisfy the ears. Then cue the driving rock songs during the races. The juxtaposition of the musical genres creates a daring audio dynamic not heard often in games.
Baja pushes some limits for race modes. Offering nine open worlds, you can compete in grueling and brutal endurance races where it will take hours to compete. In total, Baja can successfully boast over 1,000 miles of terrain to blast through. The addition of off-road sponsors gives the game some believable scenery to the desert backdrop. Pulling your friends (online or off) in for some head-to-head races over long distances is unlike anything you have done before. Riding around in free roam has an Easy Rider cool feeling associated with it. The barren landscapes are yours for the taking and it is fun to see how far you can drive without seeing the same scenery.
What's Not
There are games that when you first play, they leave you with a bad impression. From the get-go, the PS3 version will make you shake your head in disbelief as you see the embarrassing quality of the visuals. For the game to look halfway decent in terms of this generation, you'd need to squint from across the living room. From what I've found, the Xbox 360 version doesn't rattle any cages either. Seeing a game in this rough of visual shape is hard to get past.
Racing games live and die by their control system and Baja narrowly escapes a humiliating demise due to the finicky handling that can be overcome by learning to deal with it. It is ridiculous that it even takes as much work to finesse the control stick like it does to ensure you won't render your vehicle unresponsive. Because the controls are not polished or even refined, it makes the new endurance modes ultra high risk because the way the controls work, it can ruin a long race.
Final Word
Baja is a below average game. The visuals are the real atrocity but some of the more interesting modes make the game digestible. With the pedigree that the developers behind the game come from, I expected the overall product to be a little more polished. Baja features a few good ideas but the problems that stick out like sore thumbs obscure the fun.
November 20, 2009
