Baja Updated Hands-On

Earlier today, during a meeting with THQ and 2XL Games, we had an opportunity to test-drive a near-finished Xbox 360 version of Baja. Currently scheduled for release sometime in August, 2XL Games' first offering will fittingly be a sizeable one, boasting more than 95 tracks set within 25 square miles of mountainous desert terrain. Plenty of equally impressive numbers will be scattered throughout this story, but what you really want to know is if Baja is fun, right? It is.

In the absence of our having enough time to check out Baja's Gran Turismo-style Career mode, we opted to race in a number of different events while checking out different rides and different tracks. Baja will feature nine different vehicle classes, most of which are authentic for the annual 300-mile Baja 1000 race that takes place in Mexico's Baja California. The classes in the game--in the order that you'll likely get to race in them--are Baja bug, unlimited VW, 4x4 class, open wheel, mini truck, full size truck, class 1, unlimited, trophy truck, and a "bonus" class. Needless to say, the fact that Baja doesn't feature bikes or quads shouldn't be taken to mean that the game has any shortage of variety.

All of the classes were unlocked and available for use in the version of Baja that we played. Within each class, there were also plenty of real team liveries for us to choose from (more than 160 teams appear in the game). To throw another couple of numbers at you, Baja's comprehensive vehicle options will include no fewer than 411 part upgrades, and we spent zero minutes looking at them because we were far more interested in getting behind a wheel.

Taking the controls of an unlimited VW class buggy, we were pleasantly surprised by how easy Baja is to pick up. Sure, there's a clutch button that you can use to rev your engine and the realistic damage settings are brutal, but ignoring the former and switching off the latter, we were racing competitively moments after slamming our trigger finger down on the accelerator for the first time. After we were told to use the e-brake more frequently than the regular brakes, it took us a little while to get used to doing so, but none of the accidents that we got into along the way really messed up our chances of winning because--at least in Practice mode--we had the option to return to the track at the push of a button. OK, actually it was two buttons, but you get the point.

While Baja certainly looks like a game that will challenge even hardened off-road veterans, keeping the game accessible to novice players has evidently been a consideration for the development team from the outset. Among the options available to you when setting up a race are three levels of damage (full, cosmetic, no), enabling or disabling collisions with the countless trees that are dotted around the environment, and setting the skill of your AI opponents anywhere from 1 to 100. You won't get it all your own way, though, because even less talented AI drivers will be blessed with one of four different temperaments and will do their best to return the compliment if you mess with them.

Pre-race options also won't let you do anything about the uneven and unpredictable surface that you'll be spending most of your time racing on, which at times, can make even moving in a straight line a challenge. It's difficult to put into words just how rugged Baja's terrain is, but when using the first-person view, it really does feel like you're being thrown around because the realistically modeled suspension admirably does its best to compensate. If you're a newcomer to off-road racing, you might be tempted to slow down when the going gets rough, but strangely, you're actually better off going as fast as you can. Mounds and ramps large enough to throw you up into the air are the exception to that rule because, unlike some of the MX vs. ATV games that members of the 2XL team worked on previously, Baja tends to punish rather than reward you for getting big air.

Not only will you lose speed floating through the air when you're not letting your horsepower go to work on the ground, but if you have damage enabled, the landing probably isn't going to do your vehicle any favors. Bodywork is important in so much as sponsors will only pay you if their logo crosses the finish line with you, but it's the tires, brakes, shocks, clutch, water, and oil that you'll really want to look after. We saw plenty of AI drivers paying the price for their mistakes during our time with Baja and even witnessed one calling down a helicopter for repairs at one point.

The support helicopter flies overhead for the duration of the race and can be called down for assistance at any time, at which point it lands half a mile or so down the course and waits for the driver who called it (and anyone else who wants to) to stop for repairs. You can't get your bodywork repaired this way, but mechanical problems are magically solved in the space of a few seconds that won't make too large a dent in your chances of winning.

In lengthy multiplayer races, which can purportedly take more than three hours to complete, you might be worried that your chances of winning could take a hit if you were, for example, to get a phone call, a "dinner's ready" call, or a call of nature. Baja will go some way to addressing this age-old problem by giving you the option to hand over your vehicle to an AI driver for as long as you need to before returning to the action. The AI drivers aren't going to be breaking any speed records, and they're not guaranteed to maintain your position, but handing them the wheel for a few minutes certainly isn't going to be any worse than parking up at the side of the track. Incidentally, Baja's multiplayer options will include split-screen for up to four players and online support for up to 10.

As our meeting with THQ and 2XL Games came to a close, we were treated to our first proper look at one of Baja's nine hill-climb events. Interestingly, these don't task you simply with being the fastest to the peak with drivers taking it in turns. Rather, the hill climbs are circuit-based and employ tracks with multiple paths that take you up and back down whichever hill you're racing on every lap. Furthermore, up to 10 drivers will be competing simultaneously, and you'll receive a time penalty every time your vehicle's bodywork takes damage. The result is a fast-paced yet tactical affair in which you have to balance the need for speed with the need to keep your ride looking pretty. The hill climb, like the other events that we checked out on this occasion, was a lot of fun, and we're looking forward to spending more time with Baja in the coming weeks ahead of its August release.