deKay's Gaming Diary

Yes! I bought a PSP game! Mainly because I saw it in a bargain bin for less than three quid, and I quite like Outrun 2006. And I quite like this too.

It’s not without fault, though. Firstly, there’s the save game bug. Like some other early (and mainly Sega) PSP games, the game won’t recognise there’s any free space on memory cards bigger than 4GB. Mine is 16GB, with 14.5GB free, and Outrun said there wasn’t enough space for it to create a 1600KB file. Oops!

Luckily, a downloaded-from-GameFAQs Outrun save solved that, and I deleted the licence info from it, and it’s all working now.

The other main problem is the controls. The analogue “nub” is useless, and the d-pad doesn’t give enough control, what with being digital and all. Combined with the whatever-the-left-action-button-is-called being used as brake (rather than the right action button), it made drifting a bit hard. I’ll probably get used to it, I suppose.  Unless I just put my PSP away again (which is likely).

I did manage to complete an “Easy” route on the Outrun 2SP course, though.

Well, I did say that online was the main bit of Outrun, didn’t I?

“Completed”, in case you’re wondering, entailed this: completing every Goal from A-E, and the 15 Stage mode, all on Normal difficulty. Yeah, a bit short, but never mind.

I did try some time trials, but there’s no way on earth I’ll ever manage to get the achievements for them. 4:30 to reach a goal? My fastest time, with no mess-ups, crashes, and very little off-roading, was done in 4:56. Rubbish.

It’s Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast! Only not quite! For 800 points on Xbox Live Arcade!

What is ace: It’s FUN. Like the older versions. It’s also SHINY. What is not ace: There’s less there in the previous games. It has Arcade mode and Heat Attack mode, but no mission mode or anything.

What is a real killer: online mode, the main point of the game, is broken. It’s all too easy to get the BSOD – where the track vanishes and you can’t see the road, essentially making you lose. Not only that, but the leaderboards are arranged so as to be pointless – you can’t use the leaderboard of friends, as the friends leaderboard is arranged alphabetically rather than by time. Rubbish!

But… it’s Outrun and fantastic. So all is well.

Well, Ye Olde Xbox got dusted off today so I could play two games I bought over Christmas as they were cheap. First up was this. It’s basically Outrun 2, but with the Outrun 2SP levels in addition, and a new single player mode. And it’s lovely. Just as lovely as Outrun 2 was, only more so.

Played Arcade Mode for a bit, and reached goals A, B and C (and failed D), then went into Mission Mode (or whatever it’s called) and did all the first set of Flagman events, and some of the Girlfriend events. I then went and bought some stuff with the “Outrun Miles” I’d “earned”, including some more audio tracks, and another game mode – Outrun 2SP 15 Stage Mode.

Basically, it’s all 15 possible stages, one after another. Ace! I only managed to get as far as 13 though, being about one second from the checkpoint. Bah.