Juiced Hands-On

We don't get to see many console-style racing games on the PC, mainly because, well, the genre fits so much better on the consoles. However, THQ looks like it will buck this trend with Juiced, an upcoming city-street racing game coming out for both the PC and the consoles. The PC version of Juiced was on display at the Nvidia booth at the Game Developers Conference, and from a visual perspective, it certainly is a gorgeous racing game.

The premise of Juiced is that you'll be able to choose from a huge assortment of licensed vehicles and participate in organized street races set among the steel and glass canyons of cities. The twist in Juiced, though, is that you can bet on your performance in each race, and you can also win and lose the respect of rival racing gangs. For example, lose badly in a race, and you'll lose face among all the gangs. Or, if during the race you hit and damage another gang's vehicle, you'll really lose favor with that faction. On the other hand, if you win, you'll gain respect, and this will be important because you can earn invitations to participate in other gangs' racing events, or you can even attract people to join your own gang and organize your own events. You'll even be able to assign members of your own gang to race for you--which lets you watch the race as a spectator (sort of like the B-spec mode in Gran Turismo)--or have teammates race with you.

Since it is being displayed at the Nvidia booth, you can probably guess that the PC version of the game looks good. It does. Juiced portrays a richly detailed racing environment, and it's a great-looking racing game. One nice graphical effect in particular is the way the screen blurs when you start pulling too many Gs in a tight turn. The game also appears to have some fairly solid driving physics--it's possible to get very loose in a corner, especially if you have too much momentum going in. As a result, it's not too unusual to exit a race with damage to your car, which you can repair, for a cost, in the garage. You can also take your winnings (assuming you have any) and purchase various upgrades to enhance your car's performance. There are also a slew of other upgrades to mod the appearance of your car, because what self-respecting street racer doesn't trick out his or her car?

Juiced is a game with a long history behind it. It originally started as an Acclaim game that was later picked up by THQ after Acclaim closed down. Still, the game really looks like it is living up to its promise. Meanwhile, the PC version outshines its console brethren from a visual perspective, thanks to sharper graphics, higher-resolution textures, and silky-smooth frame rates (at least on the latest Nvidia hardware). Look for Juiced to ship this May.