FordGT0’s “ProJection” is a pretty interesting piece of work, and I’ll admit it right now, right up front: my first impression was, “hey, I hope this guy sticks around!” I kinda like his style…has a kind of uniqueness to it. He threw in a few jumps that yield some serious airtime, along with extreme & sublime elevation changes, a few cool angles, and just “a pinch” of speed. With texture sets from “Crazy 98”, “ProJection” starts you out with high drama right away with a slightly downward decline, then swings into a rather acute uphill ascent…all in deep mud. It’s a two-jump combo kinda thing, and the last one is somewhat deceptive. If you take it at full throttle, you’ll extend out beyond the checkpoint, so let off the gas shortly before getting to the end of the second upward climb. I recommend a setting of 1500m/s with deep tires – they’re a must.
In general terms the most interesting aspect of “ProJection” is the variety in the layout; I really like what he attempted to do with it. I used the word, “attempted” because unfortunately FordGTO failed to close off a number of open areas that allow for pretty sizeable shortcuts. Instead of going into great detail and using 1,000 words to get my point across, take a look at these two replays: The
first one shows a 1-lap run on the course as its laid out with a time of 3:12. On the
second replay I used the shortcuts I found after only 10 minutes of exploring. I ran the entire track in 1:31 – cutting the lap time in half, and circumventing much of FordGTO’s hard work.
In addition to negating some or all of the shortcuts, FordGTO could have made use of water (lakes/rivers), trees, houses, and other decorative props to spice up the appearance of his track. Of course, that’s just my opinion…for whatever it’s worth. In the mean time, here are a few observations I made note of:
º The
crowd scenes are a little large (and a tad repetitive with the same group of onlookders over and over) throwing the size perspective off…a lot. Looks more like “Miniature Trucks” as opposed to Monster Trucks according to that pic, huh?
º Here’s an example of
“good” texture blending, as opposed to
“nonexistent” texture blending.
º Along these two stretches of road (
here &
here) you have the texture set to mud…deep mud, even, but there’s nothing to prevent a racer from bypassing the mud by using either side of the road. Foregoing the muddy texture for that portion would have been a good option in my opinion.
º Great use of
winding roadways enroute to checkpoint 6 with slightly changing depths, but there’s nothing to force drivers to adhere to them (the roads), thus racers will take the path of least resistance, which is a relatively straight shot.
º I like the idea of the sub-ground level
mini tunnels, however, it’s awfully slippery in there. ZR1_DkriderX’s “Spring Fever” had the same characteristic in the tunnels on his track, and this was a fix offered up by Phineus: “
..switch all texture types away from rocks, grass and mud. Use dirt for each if he must stray from default. The result should be much more drivable but still give the desired effect.” I’m not sure how such a thing would affect the mud characteristic, but maybe one of those track maker types can explain further…if they wouldn’t mind, I mean lol.
This track really grabbed my attention mostly because of FordGTO’s willingness to dabble with somewhat unorthodox styles, and his imaginative approach. I’m not much of an explorer, but I even liked the little extras he thru in. You’ll find a miniature track with a pretty nifty jump (for “air time enthusiast”, no doubt lol), a cool step-down ramp-like roadway that’s suspended in air, and a maze of some sort. I didn’t go all the way in there; it was getting kinda dark, and uh, well….you know lol. There are a few other tidbits I didn’t mention, but I’m sure players will have fun finding all there is to discover.
I know this one got kind of long, but I was overdue for one of these babies anyway. I think people were getting worried that I lost my flare for long reviews lol. Hopefully I’ve allayed such thoughts with this one. However, moving on to the Copey Rating…“ProJection” earned
7.25 out of
10 possible points. Not bad, FordGT0, not bad at all. If I may make one last point about beta testing…there’s a pretty strong support system in the MTM 2 community with some extremely kind and very knowledgeable people willing to help others in any way they can. I encourage you to give it a shot – see what you think. If you find it’s not your cup of tea - no problem at all. At the very least you’ll have made an informed decision with respect to what suites you and what doesn’t.
