F-zero.. ^.-, initial impressions.. =} Options

[DivA]

it's fast, oh my goodness ~ it's fast.. O.o initial impressions ~ looks promising, granted it looks to be a serious investment of time to unlock the characters; thus far, it looks to be that only 4 are available...i'll comment more as i play, definitely a worthy successor along the line of Wipeout ~ needs weapons though.. ;p

[Crushinator]

The only weapon a true F-zero pilot needs is the side of his craft plowing into his rivals.

[DivA]

which is probably why i never liked the series much until now.. =. the predecessors were slow & clunky compared to the Wipeout series, that & lack of weaponry or upgrades made for a boring title *zzz* by comparison, this one is worthy ~ SEGA put a lot of extras into F-zero - there be lots of upgrades here & characters to acquire.. =} one thing i particularly like is the turning system ~ physics hold no place here, turning is nice.. SEGA is perhaps the best thing that happened to this series..

[Mute]

Drats, I wanna play this but I can't really afford it right now. *snaps fingers* I suppose I'll rent it when I can get my hands on it from Blockbuster. My buddy says its insanely fast and surprisingly more addictive than he thought it would be. I'm with DivA though, as in a big fan of the Wipeout series. They have to be some of the best racing games I've ever played (especially on a good video setup). And I'm not too sure F-Zero can compete with their soundtracks. Wipeout has always been known to have some awesome tunes in the game.

Also, in F-Zero, I believe there is a racetrack based in my city as well. ;p

[Crushinator]

Yeah, Wipeout may have better tunes, but F-zero X's ass-rock guitar riffs hold a special place in my heart as well.

And I prefer to the pure speed and skill racing to Wipeout's "ok I just need to shoot this guy outta the way and I win" gameplay. But that's just me.

[Mute]

GAH! I have to buy this game now, it's got MY city in it. >.>

(thx 'Rinn ;p)

[Crushinator]

Woo, I just got F-zero today...for $10 wahah. Anyways, yeah it rules, and will certainly be cutting into my PSO time for a little bit.

[Sheik]

Oh yeah, I got mine the other day....it is totally sweet. The music, the machines, the tracks.. is so awsome. The game totally kicks butt. Nothing beats an arcade style racing game at home!!!

[Layrinn]

Ok, what the hell. I got this game yesterday.

Yes, it kicks ass.

Yes, the graphics are amazing.

Yes, I totally love playing it.

But, uh... mine has crashed and reset on me twice in two days. I'll be cruising along when, for no obvious reason, the game action stops for a second or so and then dumps me back to the title screen. No error messages... no warnings of any kind. My game disk doesn't appear to have any physical damage on it, and my GC is in great condition. This is the only game I've ever had problems with. Is anyone else experiencing this? Is something wrong with my copy of the game... or is FSOD going to plague every SEGA game from now until the end of time? =/

Aggrevated,
- Rinn

[Crushinator]

I hate to say it Rinn, but it may just be you. I've never heard anyone else complain of crashes or the like before (although you may want to check the www.gamefaqs.com F0GX boards for more info).

So far unlocking the characters doesn't seem to be much of a problem, but getting all those car parts and unlocking the final circuit will be a bitch! I LOVE THIS GAME!

[Layrinn]

It's not just me... looks like a lot of folks are having the same problem:

http://cgi.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage....2&topic=9751974

Small comfort, really... =/

If there was a bad batch of disks made, it seems like stores that got them got a lot of them. People are exchanging their games for new ones and still have the same problem when they get home. Normally this would make me think that something was wrong with the 'Cube... but mine is less than a year old and has never had any problems. Even now, only F-Zero causes any trouble. Lot's of the folks in that thread tell similar tales.

In my opinion, just from looking at the GameFAQs board it seems like way too many people are experiencing the exact same problem for it to just be faulty GameCubes. My gut feeling is that either a batch of the disks are defective, or there is a bug in the software causing some obscure incompatibility with certain hardware configurations.

*sigh*

Those of you who have it and aren't having any trouble... lucky you! Have fun. =)

Those of you who don't have it yet but want it... maybe you should hold off until someone figures out what's going on here.

As for me? I guess I won't be playing much Grand Prix mode for now. =/

[DivA]

awww ~ that's unfortunate 'Rinn.. =/ at this side of the net, i have experienced no glitches; the game seems to be working smoothly.. =. *ponders* could be anyone's guess at this point, but that's something probably best left for the folks at Nintendo & SEGA to investigate.. ^.-

[HC82]

Uh, i've heard of instances of GC games just freezing up. Hopefully the room your in is cool and the vents aren't too close to something.

As for F-zero, I prefer its fast paced nature over wipeout. Weapons are cool and all, but at times that can be cheasy and F-zeros stages can be pretty intense, since it's main focus is on speed and crazy turns. Crashing into an edge is F-zero doesn't quite slow you down like in wipeout, but with no weapons in F-zero is takes a bit of times to get back into your places. You'll be slowed down quite a bit in wipeout, so it takes skill to play perfectly, but its kinda kills the rush. Too much empahsis on weapons can turn the whole battle in favor of whoever gets lucky.

[Layrinn]

Update:

I took my copy of F-Zero GX over to a friend's house tonight. We played for about two hours straight with my disk on his 'Cube, and the game never experienced so much as a hiccup. On my system, the game still resets periodically. So the possibility that there's something wrong with the game disk seems awfully slim now.

But the question remains... what's wrong with my 'Cube? I seriously have almost never had a problem with any other game. Metroid Prime never locked up on me. PSO has crashed once in well over 1,200 hours of play time. Yet F-Zero GX has crashed over once an hour on average. And F-Zero is still the only game I have problems with. I know how to take care of my game systems... my 'Cube is extremely well ventilated, so I know that's not the problem. The vents are completely unobstructed and appear to be almost totally free of dust. Sure, there could be dust inside the system, but I'm not real inclined to open it up to find out. All of my game disks are pristine... they look brand spankin' new. The laser lense looks totaly clean to the naked eye, but I guess I'll clean it anyways and see if that helps.

Wish me luck. =/
- 'Rinn

[Ripper1486]

Good luck 'Rinn! Show that Cube who's boss