PURE (X360)

Well-known extreme sports include skateboarding, surfboarding, and roller-skating. For those of you who are not into extreme sports, I'd like to explain some aspects of this genre to you. It's all ab

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  • System: Microsoft Xbox 360
  • Also On: PlayStation 3, PC
  • Genre: Racing
  • Max Players: 1-16
  • Age Rating: Everyone
  • US Release: September 2008
  • Developer: Black Rock Studios
  • Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
  • Similar Games: MX vs ATV Reflex, Motocross Madness

PURE

Well-known extreme sports include skateboarding, surfboarding, and roller-skating.

For those of you who are not into extreme sports, I’d like to explain some aspects of this genre to you.

  • It’s all about speed. Anextremesportisalwaysfassssst—woooahhhh!! So fast, you can’t even see it—you need cameras to slow that shit down.
  • It’s all about danger. If there’s no risk of death, then it ain’t interesting.
  • It’s all about showing off. “Look, mummy—no hands!” And no face, too, when you land that sideways.

I hear you cry, “There are plenty of games about unique sports; why should I buy PURE?” Well, you didn’t cry that out, but I’m sure I heard it anyway, so I’ll answer the question regardless.

This all stems from my hatred for the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. The problem with this series, which is comprised of some moderately mediocre skateboarding games, is that pulling off tricks is mostly what it’s all about. Pulling off tricks is also somewhat boringly easy—not all that satisfying after a few dozen times. Also, the games are dreadful in general.

PURE does not initiate vast quantities of hatred within me like the Tony Hawk games do, so Black Rock Studios is obviously doing something right.

PURE invents a brand-new and potentially impossible extreme sport based around my favourite vehicle of all time—the all-terrain vehicle, a.k.a the quad. The most beautiful ground-tearing machine to ever deform the face of the Earth, leaving knee-deep tracks in the mud. And the steering on one of these beauties? Awfully tough shit.

In case it isn’t obvious, I like quads. But not everyone does, so is there any reason for you to buy this game if you don’t?

I’ll let you figure that out for yourself.

…all right, fine. I’ll tell.

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When I first heard about PURE, I was in the middle of complaining about the current oversaturation of Halo and Final Fantasy clones heading up the market. I watched the video that was uploaded on Xbox Live purely on a whim; sure enough, the video fizzled on my tongue, and it tasted better than a three-course meal at a five-star bed and breakfast. And the graphics? Oh, the graphics.

Of course, skeptical as always, I said to myself that the good graphics were solely due to its being a trailer, and it’s pretty obvious that the developers cleaned things up to make them look more appealing. When the demo landed on Live, I realized I was wrong, and I even put my hand up and accepted that (it takes a real man to do that). The graphics were ALWAYS this good, and I was freakin’ mind-blown. A shiver wobbled down my spine. This is epic, and it’s happening in my console. Jesus fucking wept.

Allow me to pull on the ever-lingering doubts that fill my head as I play the game from time to time—it isn’t FAIR. As always, demos are designed to make you want to buy rubbish games. While the demo gives you a quad-bike armed to the teeth with upgrades and extras, the actual game starts you out with a lowest-of-low machine. That’s the difference between 1st and 8th in a race I had never failed when I played the demo.

But I like hard games, anyway—because when I fail, I can blame it on the game. Simple.

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Before you can start the World Tour, mode it’s recommended that you build your own ATV (although you can also just use a generic rental). As you unlock better parts, I recommend you fit them there and then, as challenges get increasingly difficult. The World Tour is separated into your usual engine class boundaries—a few for each engine—and each of these sets is made up of different events.

Just three types of events, though. A little bit basic and limited, but I try to ignore that. There are Races, then there are shorter races called Sprints, and then you have Freestyle, the best variety of match. Basically, Freestyle is not a race— it’s a score challenge. Score as high as possible. It’s all about showing off.

Seeing as you can rack up a 5x combo with tricking off everything, you’re quickly in the 40k score before you even know it. And it feels damn good being up there—Rule #3 of extreme sports kicking in.

While the game takes pride in its vehicle customization abilities, there are no character customization options. Instead, you are given a meager selection of characters with a pitifully limited set of unlockable costumes. Personally, I would’ve preferred creating my own character much more than playing as these unoriginal nobodies, but I’m not picky; this is Black Rock’s first game of this kind. I salute them for making something genuinely playable…

I’d recommend this game to anyone who likes fast speeds, acting like a twat, and showing off how good they are. So go on, and do it—download the demo on any system you own. Hell, why not all three systems…? Why not buy all the systems you don’t have, and download the demo on all of them?

I’m sure you’ll like it.

  • GameCola Rates This Game: 6 - Above Average
  • Score Breakdown

  • Fun Score: 7
  • Novelty Score: 7
  • Audio Score: 7
  • Visuals Score: 8
  • Controls Score: 7
  • Replay Value: 4
5 votes, average: 6.40 out of 105 votes, average: 6.40 out of 105 votes, average: 6.40 out of 105 votes, average: 6.40 out of 105 votes, average: 6.40 out of 105 votes, average: 6.40 out of 105 votes, average: 6.40 out of 105 votes, average: 6.40 out of 105 votes, average: 6.40 out of 105 votes, average: 6.40 out of 10 (You need to be a registered member to rate this post.)
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About the Contributor


From 2009 to 2016

They asked me to share a little biographical information about myself. My name is Matt. Good night, everybody.

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