Previews

We’ve played Nail’d once before in single-player and the game’s serious sense of speed impressed us – we’d like to see actual numbers showing exactly how many virtual miles-per-hour the dirt bikes and ATVs can go, but there’s no mistake that Nail’d is really, really fast. It’s so fast that it’s a bit difficult to appreciate all the cool stuff scattered on and off the tracks, like hot air balloons carrying flaming rings, broken down train cars, and burning trees on the slope of a volcano...

Racing games have had a bit of a comeback recently. Codemasters are kicking every imaginable variety of arse with Dirt 2 and Grid. Bizarre Creations has 'Mario Kart for grown-ups' on the way in the upcoming Blur. And Justin thinks Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing is the best thing ever (but he would). But it's been a while since a really crazy racer made a proper splash.

That could change at the end of this year when Techland's bonkers-looking bike and ATV racer Nail'd arrives. We had a short demo the other day, and can currently only describe it as a stout kick up the arse with a boot made from solid adrenaline. Well that's a lie. We can describe it using the following list of cool things as well...

Nail’d is claiming to be “the fastest racing game ever,” which is difficult to prove, but there’s no doubt about one thing: it is damn fast. It’s so fast that it’s hard to appreciate the bright, colorful environments, although we did notice when we flew between the blades of a windmill while falling 500ft off a cliff (well, we drove off that cliff). If one were to just look at screenshots, one might be inclined to think Nail’d is the same thing as Pure, what with its ATVs racing off huge, huge jumps. Seeing it in action, or in our case, playing it, reveals the crucial differences...

While we’re sure you’ve already read the title to this preview, we just feel we need to reiterate that this is probably the sexiest-looking 3DS game we’ve seen so far. Yes, we know Dead or Alive: Dimensions is on the 3DS. Shut up. This is about overall art quality, not freakish boob physics.

Some people, after reading our review of Empire: Total War, wanted to string us up and splice our main brace. We can’t help it if the bugs other people experienced didn’t happen to us. Still, it’s safe to say that there were some problems that perhaps could and should have been sorted out before release – specifically the AI’s total lack of ability to perform invasions over a stretch of water.

Who’d have thought that, just 200 years ago, it was fashionable to hate the French? It’s one of the great burdens of having an empire. Poor Napoleon: before declaring himself the Emperor of France, he probably thought back to the time when he was the plucky revolutionary underdog, and all the blokes said “way to go, Naps.”

Everyone knows all about the Total War series and its globe-spanning campaigns and battles, but one of the things lacking has been a real focus on the actual historical conflicts that took place. Often, a disappointing handful of token battles were cobbled together quickly to be played maybe once or twice and then discarded in favour of create-your-own scenarios