Red Bull Air Race
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Red Bull Air Racing on the iPhone
Got a hankering to fly through some pylons? Red Bull Air Race World Championship Lite Version [App Store link] might be just the ticket. The $0.99US game puts you in air races in either San Diego or Abu Dhabi. Red Bull Air Race is not a flight simulator like X-Plane, but more of an arcade game. It uses the iPhone accelerometer for steering. and is pretty responsive. The course, said to be an accurate representation of the real locations, is rendered in nice 3D. On-screen markers point you in the right direction if you get off course. You will.Flying the race is a good challenge, and happily you can choose to turn off the background music if you want to. You can choose a cockpit eye view, or follow along behind your plane.In the hangar you can chose from 2 planes to fly, but you have no options to configure them further. An options screen allows you to change the volume, the vibration and sensitivity of the controls. There is also a calibration screen if things get off a bit.The game is the lite version, with a more full-featured version coming. It runs on both the iPhone and the iPod touch.My only complaint is that the game has a slow load time, made even slower by seeing an animated logo from the developers, then a video from a real race. It takes about a minute from the time you launch the app until you are flying. As they used to say around the flight schools, 'Got time to spare, go by air.'Screen shots are here:%Gallery-50338%
Home Events space, Air Race leaderboards now live in Europe
Sshhh, don't tell anyone, but Home has been updated in Europe. We think it's a secret though, as Sony hasn't actually told anyone, instead sneaking it out without anyone noticing. Which is a shame, because this is the sort of stuff that could persuade people that Home is actually worthwhile. The Red Bull Air Race space now features a few different aircraft that you can choose between before flying the course. There's also a leaderboard which shows the top fliers globally as well as your friends' best times. The Events space is also now open and the PSP-3000 treasure hunt has begun. The Events space plays host to a new multiplayer minigame called Tri-Sphere and hidden around the Gallery section are six hidden numbers. If you find these numbers and input them into the website (accessible via a wall terminal inside Home) you stand the chance of winning a real PSP-3000. There's no word on when / if these these things will come to Home in the US but we'll let you know as soon as Sony tells us we stumble across it. Home continues to evolve, albeit at a slower pace than we expected. These additions are certainly pleasing, but don't quite raise the service to the next level. Yet.
Red Bull Air Race now open worldwide
Home gets its first real piece of content today as the Red Bull Air Race space is now open to all Home users. You can access the area from your world map within your menu pad. Once there you'll see lots of other people standing around a fence, which is where you can begin playing the plane-flying mini-game. There's no leaderboard support yet, but that doesn't stop you shouting about your best time to everyone in the area. Americans also get their hands on Diesel clothing and Ligne Roset furniture in the Mall from today. Still no sign of any game spaces being released in Europe, but the Red Bull Air Race should give you something to do once you get bored of wandering round the Home Square for the billionth time.[Thanks heavenssniper]
Whoops! No Red Bull Air Race this year
You may have noticed that the Home launch hasn't exactly gone smoothly. With the Home teams worldwide working on fixes for the numerous server and login issues the content release schedule has been pushed back, as people are now taking their Christmas breaks. What this boils down to is this: Don't expect to see the Red Bull Air Race this year. TedTheDog has stated on the European PlayStation forums that it definitely won't appear in 2008. Though "it really ought to be worth the wait, its really quite impressive and a lot of fun." We've played it and, while it's kind of neat, it's not quite as awesome as it's maybe getting hyped up to be. Still, content is content, and even TedTheDog admits that Home is currently "a little bare." He goes on to say that "we've got some problems to solve, but they'll be solved and we can then move on to running it as the service we all want." In other words, please remain patient for just a little longer. Well, we've waited this long, what's a few more weeks?
Red Bull to be first company to charge into Home
The first third-party partner for Home, Sony's upcoming social networking platform, has been revealed. Revolution is reporting that Red Bull will have its own Home space, dedicated to the real-life Red Bull Air Race. The space will include "an aeroplane racing game based on Red Bull's real world Red Bull Air Race series." The brand marketing manager for Red Bull UK, John Beasley, says "the game gave us the first opportunity to recreate in the gaming world what we try to do in the real world, which is to facilitate interaction, to give people stories, memories, experiences and a really good opportunity to interact with the brand." Calling Home an "easy environment for brands to take that first step into gaming." No doubt that means we'll be seeing a lot more non-gaming brands coming to Home in the future.If you want to know more about some of Home's upcoming content be sure to check back with us later in the month.[Thanks Lee!]
