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Review:

13th April 2004:
Carve
Wecome to the wonderful world of extreme watercraft racing.
Posted by John Grothier - Xbox - UK and Europe

Ever since the days of Wave Race on the N64, gamers have been invited to taste the thrill of extreme watercraft racing in the comfort of their own home. The latest offering from Argonaut is Carve for the Xbox - featuring breathtaking locations to race, insane tricks and stunts to pull off, and Carve is also fully Xbox Live enabled.

As with similar water-based racers, buoys are scattered throughout the course and you must guide your craft either to the left or to the right - around each buoy, as you race for the finish. If you miss the buoy completely, or pass round the wrong way you will loose one of five buoys misses, displayed in the top right corner of the screen. Miss all five and you will be disqualified from the race. To help you make the right choice, the buoys have a simple colour coding - red buoys have to be passed on the right hand side and yellow buoys have to be passed on the left hand side. There is also a slightly intrusive 'buoy lock-on' which is displayed in the centre of the screen, this indicates the next buoy on the course, which way you have to steer around and also how tight the upcoming turn will be. Now perhaps we can get on with the fun of racing?

No. Before any racing and buoy dodging can be done, players must select one of four teams to race for. These are Team Venta - consisting of Moke the surfer, and Oz who is fortunately both cool and collected. Team Tsunami features a couple of Japanese girls, while Adrienne and Max are Team Inferno with a hard as nails reputation. Team Terra make up the last team - Ex-Soviet Bloc riders who specialise in blocking their opponents. The teams are Carve's weakest point, with no real difference from each team. You can win any race with either member of each team, and the characters of these riders and very two-dimensional. If only they had a bit more personality like the snowboarders in SSX.

Game modes in Carve consist of Quick Race, Arcade, Tournament, Trick Tutorial, System Link and Xbox Live. The Quick Race mode is for one player only, and this mode selects a random character and course for instant action. The Arcade mode is for up to four players, and this mode gives you added options of changing the number of laps and even the weather conditions. The Tournament Mode is the main meat (or perhaps fish) of the game, and allows the player to compete in five tournaments from Rookie to Pro. These races start off easy, but the learning curve gets rather steep after a couple of these tournaments. However, by completing them you are rewarded with new courses, craft to race, new tricks to perform, and even cheats to activate. The system Link option supports up to eight players, but some of the best multiplayer fun can be found on Xbox Live. Here there are all your usual Live features, including Quick Match and Optimatch - where you can select courses, laps etc. There is also a skill board to show off your scores and online ranking, as well as all the normal options for inviting your friends. There is also a Teamplay Mode, where players can take control of two racers from the same team. While on this mode you and your teammate will have a combined score when the race is over. The Xbox Live features in Carve are well implemented, and although we could have used some new downloadable content, the racing is fun and furious and the only real way you can be sure of victory is to pull off some cunning stunts and tricks.

The trick system in Carve is much more than just showing off, although you can do that if you please. Gamers using the Trick tutorial included, will soon be able to perform backflips and barrel rolls - and with just a little bit of practice, advanced tricks like the submarine, Indian Air, the air walk and superman will become second nature. Each trick, with a successful landing, will give the player an adrenaline rush - a speed boost to you and me. The bigger the tricks you perform the more rush you will receive. The rush is awarded to the racer in five different stages - these are represented by an on-screen meter which fills up as and when you successfully pull off tricks. Once the meter is filled it will flash, and by pulling the left trigger you will receive double rush - complete with a nice colourful blurred screen effect to go with it.

The graphics in Carve are nice, bright and colourful, and the game also has a high framerate that never seems to stutter. The water effects are stunning, with some nice wave and weather effects thrown in. Each course is well designed and varied enough to keep the player trying to unlock all the available courses. A special mention must go to Argonaut, who have also done and excellent job of the Pal conversion, something that has been slipping badly with Xbox games of late.

The sound in Carve has all the usual splishes and splashes that you would expect in a watercraft racer, and also includes some cheesy dialogue that the racers hurl at one another during the race. Although Carve features more than twenty tracks from artists like Percy X, RNG, Funk D'Void and Slam, I am still none the wiser, and the lack of a custom soundtrack is unforgivable.

Overall Carve is an entertaining water-based racer for a budget price. The Xbox Live play makes Carve stand out from similar racers, but with the inclusion of custom soundtracks, and a bit more variety and interaction with the characters in the game, Carve could have been so much more.

John Grothier

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Review Summary:

Get ready for the rush! Take control of an extreme watercraft racer, avoid the buoys and pull off insane tricks and stunts in order to finish first. Breathtaking locations, intense weather and wave conditions make this budget title stand out from the pack. Importantly Carve is fully Xbox Live enabled for some fast and furious online racing.

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