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Preview  Extreme G-3
- By Nathaniel Walker


If Bruce Willis had driven a motorbike instead of a taxicab in Luc Besson’s sci-fi classic The Fifth Element, and if he had spent less time saving the known universe/meeting divinely powerful females and more time playing videogames, he would have felt right at home with XGIII: Extreme Racing for the Nintendo GameCube. One of Acclaim’s five upcoming titles for the new system, this game promises a clean, raw, blazing, futuristic edge that has not been seen (successfully) delivered in videogames before. It’s fast, furious, directionally schizophrenic, and its soundtrack is so chock full of very Euro-sounding techno attempts that it might even make that $300 subwoofer of yours seem less idiotic. Will it be fun? I think so. Will it make my living room feel like a centrifuge? I hope so. Truly I do.

The first two Extreme G Racing games, known appropriately as Extreme G and XG2, were N64 titles. And they were, heaven knows, not the finest the system had to offer. As in the case of the newest incarnation, the ideas were fine and good—-fast racing with bikes, way far in the future, hyper-magnetic wheels capable of gripping insanely steep tracks, missiles, everyone breaking the sound barrier, et cetera, blah blah—-but unbelievably choppy framerates and the resulting gameplay chaos prevented those good ideas from ever materializing on TV. These games were meant to be fast—-and violently so—-but they were also made to be futuristic and visually stunning. In the end, due in part to the limitations of our blessed N64, and in equal part to the blinding play speed seriously hindered by overambitious visuals, the first two Extreme G Racing games failed. The games were not fast, thanks to the framerate. Consequently, they weren’t stunning, either-—visually or otherwise. It was the Holy Roman Empire of videogames—-which was, coincidentally, neither Holy, Roman, nor an empire. I wrote that for myself, mind you. Myself.

But hark! The next installment in the hither-to lackluster Extreme G Racing series promises a great deal more success on all fronts. Many of us have seen videos of the game already—-one is included in that nifty little promotional GameCube CD-ROM—-and it is clear as day that the unprecedented power of Nintendo’s latest brainchild will give XGIII the strength it needs to carry its own weight. The sequel’s visuals are more beautifully conceived than ever before, with tracks twisting and turning off into the distance, piercing environments that are both otherworldly in their industry and familiar in their natural shine. And the draw distance! Tremendous. I was somewhat taken aback to see how far away the game’s visual clarity goes—-and for a game that is supposed to be utterly surreal, being able to take it all in is crucial for the dual purposes of impact and believability. If we can’t actually see this futuristic wonderland, why not have the race take place in a cardboard box and spare us the “fascinating” storyline? This one we can see. Perhaps motorbike motivation will be boosted by this, because the race takes place on territory that only a fool wouldn’t want to win, inch by burning inch. You won’t be fighting to be the first bike through a finish line of fiberoptic cable—-you’ll be kicking and screaming to be the first one to pull through that corkscrew, the first one past that gigantic statue, the first one to nail that loop-the-loop over the ocean’s gleaming surface. The visuals are indeed stunning.

But what about that other previously flummoxed Extreme G Racing staple, the sonic booming speed? Well folks, it looks like it will be delivered—-and how! The bikes are fast, as in GEE-WHIZ fast. We have only the enormity of XGIII’s tracks to thank for the fact that our chosen race won’t be over in seconds. Even the reflections that blaze across everyone’s windshields do their blazing with uncanny rapid fastness. Perhaps most importantly, the notorious XG Racing framerate looks like it will finally be up to “speed” (giggles!) with the visual concepts and bike power. Not even when the guns were blazing, the missiles were launching, and the lights were flashing did I witness anything that resembled even a moment of slowdown. Granted, we won’t know for sure until we can sit down with the title and put it to the question, multi-players and powerups and all. But there is just cause for optimism.

All in all, Extreme G 3: Extreme Racing looks very promising. The first two installments in this series never really got off the ground, despite the wonderful ideas and sincere efforts. It has been said that they were ahead of their time—I for one think that they were simply not designed with the right sort of vision vs. technology compromise in mind. But now it looks as though the vision will no longer have to compromise at all—-and if the screenshots, videos, and reports are to be believed, a great and in many ways unprecedented racing game is coming to the GameCube very soon. You may not want to get the thing started with Grandma around, though. Because the violent speeds and disregard for gravity may make her feel a bit sick, even if the framerate no longer does.

- 11.14.2001