Baja: Edge of Control

 PlayStation 3
Baja: Edge of Control Image
Metascore
61

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
4.4

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 16 Ratings

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  • Summary: From the core founding members of the MX vs. ATV franchise comes the next off-road racing experience: BAJA. Conquer the toughest terrain Mother Nature has to offer and build the ultimate off-road vehicle. Combining the best elements of the real-world sport with the right balance of arcadeFrom the core founding members of the MX vs. ATV franchise comes the next off-road racing experience: BAJA. Conquer the toughest terrain Mother Nature has to offer and build the ultimate off-road vehicle. Combining the best elements of the real-world sport with the right balance of arcade fun, BAJA transports players to the epic open worlds and unforgiving terrain found at the pinnacle of off-road racing. Stunning visuals, vertical environments, and unpredictable terrain are crossed in over 100 square miles of drive-to-horizon landscape. Master hill-climb, circuit, and rally races to earn career sponsorships on the path to off-road supremacy. Harness the horsepower of elite Trophy Trucks, 4x4’s and Buggies to finally compete in the definitive off-road endurance challenge, the Baja. Supercharged Vehicles: Harness the horsepower of over 40 elite Trophy Trucks, 4x4’s and Buggies across eight varied vehicle classes. Horizontal Racing: Suspension, torque and horsepo wer are perfectly balanced to create the ultimate edge-of-control racing experience. Fine-tune the roar of your off-road machine with over 200 authentic vehicle parts. Power past the competition in 4-player split screen and 8-player online racing. [THQ]… Expand
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 21
  3. Negative: 2 out of 21
  1. 1UP
    83
    Yeah, it's not for everybody (Gran Turismo fans may find themselves frustrated), but Baja gives you something a little off the beaten track -- and that's more than most racing games can say.
  2. Game Informer
    80
    As a debut title, it's a straight-forward affair. [Dec 2008, p.112]
    All this publication's reviews
  3. 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.
  4. GamingXP
    60
    The attempt to make a more serious, demanding racing-game for next-gen consoles completely failed. The challenging control turned out to be simply frustrating, graphics would make even the PS2 look away in shame and the given tuning options can only make mechanics happy.
  5. Playstation: The Official Magazine (US)
    60
    Every vehicle slides around every turn with an alarming lack of control. [Nov 2008, p.79]
    All this publication's reviews
  6. Gamer.nl
    60
    First of all, BAJA is in no way an instant classic. But it can give you that satisfying feeling after you won a match. The steep learning curve will scare of some gamers and if you're looking for more arcade just head over to the Motorstorm camp. But if you're a fan of the off-road genre just take a shot at BAJA.
  7. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    20
    If there were no other racers on PS3, or indeed on the planet, buying this would still be a mistake, but with the likes of Dirt already out there, and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift on the horizon, spending money on Baja would be nothing short of madness. [Dec 2008, p.113]
    All this publication's reviews

See all 21 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 7
  3. Negative: 3 out of 7
  1. TimothyB.
    Sep 28, 2008
    9
    If you start in beginner class, with the VW buggies, as you work your way to the others you will really appreciate the sense of speed and If you start in beginner class, with the VW buggies, as you work your way to the others you will really appreciate the sense of speed and control you get from all the classes. 4x4 class is difficult, as these vehicles arent meant for constant race conditions, the class after 4x4 is the open wheel class, which as the game will tell you, is the first real high performance you will try to master. From 1st person view, the speed sensation and higher level of stability kinda makes you feel like your in an f1 racer until you hit that whoop followed by a sloped turn causing you to adjust evry control available from the clutch to the e-brake to the thrttle control........Top Gear meets GT.....VERY well done!… Expand
  2. Flagmo-TTeamMoFF
    Oct 10, 2008
    8
    Baja has got some willpower to listing to the Drivers, on how to develop this Game, That's what they have stated in one of the trailers, Baja has got some willpower to listing to the Drivers, on how to develop this Game, That's what they have stated in one of the trailers, That sounds amazing, because it's not every day, that a game company have the will to listing to the ordiens, but they are hard to find, so if nobody can speak to them, then listing is easy ;) The Game has big issues on the graphical side, I've never seen vegitations grow that fast, and Tarmac roads being created about 40 meters infront of you, while you drive on them, and further more, is this a FPS Kill kind of Race Game, the crossings over traffic is close to murder, and can't be realistic, it is ruin the idea of reality in my way of getting in to this game, I need to feel it, and get lifted when I spend time on Driving, because I have spend about 6 hours of Racing, 3 tracks at the time, and I really had a ball, I was even laughing some times of exitement, but again why kill the joy with sad coded landscapes, when that is one of the brilliants with this Title. The game has some, and it's the most important some! and it's a Offroad Race Simulator, they only need to focus on the Sim Racing Community, and let Motorstorm and pure and what ever other Race titles are all about, do there thing.. We need a update quick for the PS3 version ( I use PS3) First priority must be the graphical side, then Gameplay and more ideas, like Free settings for controls, I use a Logitech Driving Force GT, which is the latest logitech Wheel, It should be supported by this Game already, but i don't think they have been giving it some thought's, which is a very wrong thing, the new wheel has some Major improvements from all other Logitech Wheels. Well !! I see Big potential with this Game, but it isn't there yet, and I will gladly discuss it, because I have been waiting for this, since the first pip.… Expand
  4. gt_magnus
    Feb 23, 2013
    8
    First of all, this game has some really good physics. When you're driving down a straight, you hear the shock absorbers soaking up the bumps.First of all, this game has some really good physics. When you're driving down a straight, you hear the shock absorbers soaking up the bumps. You're really at the edge of control, even on straights. Many reviewers complain about this game being "too hard", but no, it isn't. This isn't a game where you're supposed to nail a race on your first try. You're supposed to learn the different environments and know the courses. You should learn what speed you need to make that jump, and what line you should take through that corner.

    The sponsorship feature of this game is also a neat thing, although not as good as the one in Racedriver: GRID, it still cuts it.

    However, there are a few problems with this game. First off, the visuals are somewhat mediocre, and the FPS in the garage is very low, and also gave me a headache the first time I played. The FPS is quite good while actually driving though, so it isn't a massive problem.

    The AI in this game is, in some areas, pretty good, but in others, pretty bad. It does feel like they're driving the same vehicle as you, and I couldn't tell if they were definitely faster/slower than you. They don't seem to be aware of each others presence, and often trade paint in the corners. One thing I do like about the AI, is that if you come up behind a slower vehicle in for example a rally event, you can use your horn, and they will most likely pull to the side and let you pass.

    While this game has many weak areas, the overall experience for me was very good. This game is vastly impressive by such a small development team. In my opinion, a 8/10 is well deserved for this game.

    TIP: I found driving in 3rd person nearly impossible, and really boring. Try driving in "Hood View", it really helped me a lot.    … Expand
  5. midas_kid
    Sep 21, 2011
    5
    From reading Dev diaries and interviews I understand how much work goes into making a game and I understand that not all games can be great.From reading Dev diaries and interviews I understand how much work goes into making a game and I understand that not all games can be great. Sadly this game just didn't do it for me. It didn't grab me from the outset and the experience was very empty. However my young nephew can't get enough of it . He loves bouncing arcoss the sand and flying through air, so that I +1 to my score :)… Expand
  6. 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 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
  7. 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    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
  8. The_D4RknesS
    Jun 30, 2022
    0
    This game shouldn't even exist it is totally broken and even the original version in mine kept closing by itself

Awards & Rankings

90
#90 Most Discussed PS3 Game of 2008