Reviews
As Xbox owners we have been rather treated when it comes to driving/racing games. I mean one just has to look at the Forza or Project Gotham Racing series, perhaps GRiD or too a lesser extent the Need for Speed series. However sorely lacking from the line up of racing games is a decent (and I emphasise decent) MONSTER TRUCK game. This is not the first Monster Jam game and the last effort well for lack of a better word was basic so now that Activision have bought the rights to the game have revved their engines and pulled out a decent title of once again left us all hanging for a decent car crushing title. Well read on to find out!
Well Monster Jam is as you all gathered a Monster Truck racing game. It derived its name (and subsequently the game play) from a TV series in the USA of the same name. So this being an officially licensed game you naturally would expect a decent representation of the actual licensed product. Well not here unfortunately. As you first start playing you are going to notice that the game has very limited options. The game is sealed up tighter than Tom Cruise’s lips on Zenu’s real location. You need to play the main “World Series” part of the game to be able to do the fun stuff.
So the game plays like it was a pet project of the lowest grade of programmer there is at Activision. When you first enter a monster truck you get the feeling that these people have not. It doesn’t feel like a monster truck should. The noise isn’t right, the steering (well ill go into that in a min) defiantly doesn’t feel right and the physics well ill leave that to your imagination. The steering is way too sensitive. If you bump the analogue stick you start to turn full circle and before you know it you are completing a 180. To add insult to injury the other “trucks” will try to knock you off course and there is next to nothing you can do (steering wise) to stop them. If you hold down the “X” button you can also use the “4WD Steering” which is another way of saying “ridiculous turning circles”. The steering at first unbearable becomes over time slightly and I mean slightly bearable until of course you stop playing for any length of time, then you need to relearn the tacky controls. As part of the truck you also have a “boost meter” which depletes as your engine starts to heat up. If the engine overheats the boost meter becomes unavailable until the engine cools right down again. Also in races if you crush obstacles you will gain a bonus boost that will not over heat your engine. One thing I did about the game is the fact that the trucks are destructible and parts of the truck will fly off and it is also possible to pop your tyres.
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