Ok first of all I have to say what an amazingly epic game this is. For all of you who haven't seen or heard of this game then you should check out the trailer and get your gaming taste buds tingling.
Looks pretty awesome huh? Well it just so happens that on the fateful 21st day of January I was doing a bit of window shopping on the good old PS Store, when i came across the Public Closed Beta of Modnation Racers. I couldn't believe my eyes, it wasn't until later that i found out that i was one of the lucky 100,000 gamers to play this beta version. Enough of me going on, let me tell you a little bit about the game.
To give you a basic idea of what kind of game this is, you could say it was a mix between Mario Kart, (i.e. the driving style, drifting, obstacles, and power-ups/weapons), and Little Big Planet, (i.e. the look, and the games large emphasis on customisation). When i say large emphasis on customisation I mean large. You can create your own karts from scratch, choosing between different engines, bodies, steering wheels, colour, decals, you name it you can probably do it. They even have a toilet seat as a chair. Not only that, but you can fully customise your own mods (your character). You start of with a blank canvas, a "sackboy" looking white model, and you can choose your hairstyles, your ears, your skin colour, different skin designs, clothes, accessories, everything. At the moment there are 315 different mouths to choose from and 260 different eyes. You can even change the material, making it more rubbery or nice and shiny. Amazing stuff really.
Last but not least is the Track Studio. This is where you can create your very own tracks which you can later share online with everyone. You start off by picking a style, the beta version only has Alpine, but there will be a total of 4 in the full game. To lay the track you drive a big asphalt laying truck, your essentially painting the track onto the terrain. Once you've finished laying your track you can then modify the landscape, making mountains or valleys, change the sun height and direction, cloud cover, height of water, and of course you can add houses, trees, animals, jumps, boosts, power-ups, the list goes on...
So yeah, to conclude, you can make your own tracks, characters, and karts. You can play online with up to 12 players from around the world, you can play 4 player split screen, you can upload your creations for others to download, as well as download other peoples creations and remix them to your own taste. (original creator gets some recognition) The release is set for Spring 2010, definitely worth buying, and just to point out its only for PS3, sorry to disappoint all you Xbox 360 fans, just means you'll have to get your hands on a PS3 which you should have done in the first place ;) (just joking :p)
I will upload some pictures of the creations I have made soon, so you can get a taste of what is to come.
Hope you have all enjoyed this, and feel free to leave comments.