Allie<p>July 4, 2023 - Day 185 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 204</p><p>Game: Split/Second</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: May 18, 2010<br>Library Date: Jun 28, 2022<br>Unplayed: 371d (1y6d)<br>Playtime: 19m</p><p>Split/Second is an arcade racing game that answers the question "What if Michael Bay made a racing game?"</p><p>The game is set in a reality TV show, apparently, and there are explosions. A lot of explosions.</p><p>You can trigger the explosions to take out your competitors, or vice versa.</p><p>This is another game that's only *technically* unplayed. I spent 9 minutes in-game last year, trying -and failing- to get it to recognise my Xbox One S Controller.</p><p>I first tried playing a racing game with a keyboard on an MS-DOS PC clone with a CGA monitor in the late 1980's. I didn't like it then, and nothing has changed.</p><p>It wasn't until I played Forza Horizon 4, in 2019, over thirty years later, that I understood the fun of arcade racing games, and how the controller made that possible.</p><p>I bought Split/Second on special last year, and was deeply frustrated by the apparent impossibility of getting it to recognise the controller. So I gave up.</p><p>Last week, I was trying to get a different racing game working, and had the same problem. Once again, I went to the discussions on Steam, to see if I was missing something, and as it turns out, due to the age of that game, disabling Steam input meant it would recognise the controller.</p><p>When I saw Split/Second in the list tonight, I wondered whether that would fix it... and it did!</p><p>Which means that I can tell you that Split/Second is a thirteen year old racing game, in an post-Forza Horizon & post-The Crew era.</p><p>It's a good game for its age, but it doesn't hold up so well against more recent games. </p><p>There are small irritations throughout. You can map the controller (yay!) but there are only a handful of things to map. Brake, accelerator, steering, and the "Power Play(s)" that trigger the Bayesque explosions that target the other cars.</p><p>But to navigate the menus, put down the controller & use the keyboard.</p><p>The driving itself feels a little bit like everything is a fraction of a second behind the controller, particularly braking.</p><p>Even so, the game is still more fun than the table-top racing game I reviewed recently.</p><p>All things considered, given the age of the game Split/Second is:</p><p>3: OK</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/SplitSecond" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SplitSecond</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Arcade" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Arcade</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Racing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Racing</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MastodonGaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MastodonGaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>