187 Ride or Die E3 2005 Hands-On Report

Ubisoft is showing a mostly complete version of 187 Ride or Die for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox as part of the company's E3 display for 2005. The game is a racing game with guns that puts you on shortcut-filled racetracks and asks you to overtake your enemies, either with speed or your gats.

On the surface, 187 seems like a fairly straightforward post-Burnout racing game. It has you racing against five other cars in a dark street environment. The game moves fast, and the steering and skids feel very loose, making for wild, over-the-top driving. But wait...is that a guy with an assault rifle hanging out the side window?

Yes, the combat in 187 Ride or Die is appropriately thugged out. All of your attacks come from your passenger, who either hangs out the top of your ride or out the side window. You can either fire ahead or behind, and your homeboy riding shotgun will automatically adjust his aim to plug any car that gets close. All of the other cars also have gun-toting roughnecks, too, so you'll have to watch out for return fire. If you manage to slam into the side of an opposing team, you can steal weapons from their car. You'll also get guns by driving over icons on the track. Your default weapon is a pistol, but you can also get an assault rifle and a shotgun. Also, it seems that shooting opponents builds up turbo boost, which you can bust out at any time for a quick speed pop. All in all, the game feels pretty good.

187 Ride or Die will also have a story mode, complete with cutscenes and celebrity voice acting and likenesses from Larenz Tate (Love Jones, Biker Boyz) and Notorious B.I.G. soundalike, Guerilla Black.

187 Ride or Die is currently scheduled to be released in July.