Baja: Edge of Control PlayStation 3
  • Publisher: THQ
  • Release Date: Sep 22, 2008
  • Also On: Xbox 360
User Score
4.6 out of 10

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 9
  3. Negative: 4 out of 9

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  1. CM.
    Oct 11, 2008
    0
    The PS3 version at least - is graphically awful - the frame rate is so poor it's given me a headache and ended my time with the game after approximately 2 minutes. The handling may very well be good - but you know what? The handling in a lot of last gen games was good too. To produce this piece of excreta on a current gen machine is beyond belief. It looks like a pre-release version of an old pc game running on outmoded hardware - it certainly doesn't look like a modern game - not even a Wii one.… Expand
  2. OOctopus
    Jan 24, 2009
    0
    What can I say?

    I'm amazed that anyone manages to see anything in this "game". If this had been a homebrew game, I'd have thought "at least he tried." How anyone can mistake the collection of broken equations contained within as a physics engine is utterly beyond me.

    The car sort of wobbles along like some kind of hovercraft, randomly swerving left and right like it's     possesed, and that's just the straights. Once you get into the corners you realise you are merely sending the car advice from the controller. What it actually does is pretty much random.

    Sometimes it even, for the very occasional corner, actually goes round it like an offroad vehicle might. Most of the time it wallows into the corner as if the suspension is made of marshmallow, and once this has begun, you CANNOT get it to straighten back up again. I've driven for 10/15 seconds with full left lock down a straight, with it merrily skewing off to the right. This is made all the more annyoing by the fact the AI cars go around as if they are on rails, only leaving the track when the smash into each other, apparently due to a complete lack of understanding of where each other are.

    On the plus side, the levels seem reasonably varied for an offroad game. The normalisation of the land is reasonable, the photo's used for the sky boxes are quite nice, and I've seen worse shadow maps. Despite these couple of basic (and these days standard) points, this game has virtually no redeeming features, and in fact, would still attract this kind of score from me if it were on the PS2.

    Speaking of which, I didn't mention the graphics. They are shockingly bad. A half decent dev team COULD get this to work on the PS2. Part of the problem is the awful job the team did of the PS3 version, but it goes further than that. Even on the 360 version, the game suffers from many graphical problems which I haven't seen in years.

    The alpha blending on the decals and textures is cheap, and only capable of one pass. The mipmaping is ridculously strong on some textures and none exisitant on others, leading to a mix of blury and bitty areas. On the PS3 version at least there is no form of antialiasing or smoothing whatsoever, and it suffers from a appalingly slow frame rate in places. There is occasionaly a strange long blue tube that pops up in front of camera for a single frame, and virtually none of the vegetation around the track actually exists. Surely they can at least manage to at least knock a large cactus over? I'm not saying they should use constructive state geomtry to actually damage them, or simulate the individual spines breaking off, but going straight through them like you're hallucinating? Pretty weak if you ask me.

    As a game dev myself, I can say with my hand on my heart, that I would be utterly ashamed to have my name associated with such an abomination. At the very least I would not release such a system with the physics broken as it is, and without having even mastered the basic 3D setup.

    All in all, I think I can safely say, this is one to avoid. Quite possibly the worst game I've played in a decade or more.

    Do yourself a favour - Buy DiRT for realism, or Motorstorm (2) for arcade fun. Buy this only if you require an expensive coaster.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
61 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 21
  3. Negative: 2 out of 21
  1. Playstation: The Official Magazine (US)
    60
    Every vehicle slides around every turn with an alarming lack of control. [Nov 2008, p.79]
  2. GameSpy
    70
    You are almost always riding the finest line between screaming along somewhat stably and totally losing it, and in that sense, Baja succeeds tremendously. Those kinds of stakes may not appeal to everyone, however, and the majority of people who tend to like finishing races may not need all of the incredible realism that an intense sim like Baja has to offer.
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  3. IGN
    49
    At times, it’s an edge-of your seat experience that gives you a sense of accomplishment for sliding across the finish line in one piece. Other times, it’s a confounding mix of erratic handling, insane difficulty and drab repetition.
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