Tech & U: Crash Time

Original:

Imagine this, while sitting in a smoke filled room with 29 other game designers you suddenly hear someone shout, “I got it! What about a Burnout game but you're the cop instead?!”

Brilliant. And that what Crash Time sums up to. A Burnout copycat but you're a cop chasing baddies so it's all good. All damage to private and public property, put it on the gov's tab.

The missions in the game start of with little to no information on what you really need to do to finish the mission just what the mission is. Which in this game is basically one of the following, go fast, go fast and trail that car, go fast and nail that car against anything in the area, go fast around the city or the Autobahn to beat the clock and lastly which you a lot on the game's box is jumping over stuff.

An example of this is the first mission, which I couldn't figure out how to finish until I read how one reviewer did it. You are suppose to race this guy, catch him and stop him. Since, I am not a Cop I didn't know the correct procedures to actually stopping a suspect's car in a high speed chase. So after bumping his rear end a few times I stopped the game, hopped on the net, read the review and finally managed to sandwiched him. I am sure there are other ways to win this mission type but I kind of lost patience after a while.

So while trying to apprehend this law breaker I was treated to the game's graphics and physics. And I must say the graphics in the game are highly detailed. There is a lot texturing for buildings, trees and what not. Which really helps bring the feel of being in Germany to the player.

The cars are 'rips' off real cars and since the game doesn't have the licence to show the logos of any actual big names they all have the same logo on them, C11. But even being 'rips' you can easily identify a few names like Mercedes and BMW. The cars are rendered lovingly in the game, there is a lot a lighting and shadow effects as well a reflections giving the cars a really good realistic feel. And to top it off you yourself can render these works of art to pieces as you race through the mission.

But there are a few annoyances in the graphic of the game, you get odd clipping effects like when driving through grass and of course a major concern is the lack of bystanders in the game. There is absolutely not a single person in the game. The only way you know there are people in the game are the moving vehicles but other than that, not a soul around. Of course, being that this is a German made game I know there are laws in Germany about violent content and having a game that deals with high speed chases putting pedestrians in may cause some problems for the game developers especially when the player hits them (or even if they auto dodge your car it will be still deemed too violent).

The voice acting is bad. It is really very typical of the type of voice acting you'll see in english dubbed german tv shows. The sound effects are up to par with all racing games and the background music pretty much goes unnoticed when I play.

Overall, it's not a bad game. There are quite a few things about the game really makes it stand out as really good 'racing' game once you get past figuring out what you have to do. If you are a Burnout fan or someone that is looking for a racing game that lets you take action from the point of view of a cop you'll probably like this game a lot. Oh, if it didn't come through earlier, the game's graphics is really brilliant, if you want eye candy above anything else Crash Time has it.

Title: Crash Time (Alarm for Cobra 11: Crash Time)

Publisher: RTL Playtainment

Developer: Synetic

Availability: New Era Interactive Software Sdn Bhd

Suite 27-02B, 27th Floor Menara Keck Seng
203 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: (603) 2143 1332 Fax: (603) 2143 1330

Email: junking.my@neweraint.com
Website: http://www.neweraonline.com

RM129.90

Package: 1 Manual, Game DVD.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or better or Vista 32bit

DirectX 9.0c (June 2007)

Athlon XP / 64 3000+ or Pentium IV 2.4 GHz or better

512 MB RAM

DirectX 9.0c compatible video card with at least 256 MB

DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

4.2 GB free hard drive space

2x DVD ROM

Our Verdict: 3 1/2

Documentation: 2

Graphics: 5

Sound: 3

Replay Value: 4