Real Racing 3

Real Racing 3 is one of the most anticipated car racing simulator for Android

Real Racing 3 is bursting into scene. After months getting trailers and scoops, it has finally hit our mobile devices. Let's see if the wait and expectations generated were well-worth.

I would bet no one's is complaining about RR3's graphics, at least, if comparing to what's currently on the mobile market. Graphics are stunning: reflections and effects look neat and amazing on cars. It features well-crafted and realistic environment that perfectly recreates official tracks: Indianapolis, Laguna Seca, Silverstone and many many more. Obviously, graphics can always be enhanced but that's by far the strongest point of the game.

Controls work great too Unlike other similar racing titles, there's no pedal button: pedal to the metal, and players can just adjust speed by braking (tap the screen). Steering can be controlled both with the accelerometer (default) or with a screenpad steering wheel. The thing with controls is that it doesn't feel as realistic as other simulators. It seems to be closer to Arcades than pure car simulators.

All the events (game modes) in RR3 use their own asynchronous mode, time-shifted multiplayer (TSM). In other words, the other cars are AI-controlled version of other players that have raced the event. That makes the game really interesting: you're always competing against other real people without the need to wait for them to join the game. In addition, when signed up using Facebook Connect, you can challenge your friends with the same TSM system.

And here it comes, the BIG catch of this game: in-app purchases. Despite the parental control issue, I don't complaint about in-app purchase system. However, EA has gone a step further with it in RR3. There are two in-app currency: cash and gold. Cash is used to buy cars, upgrades and repairs. Gold speeds up the cars/upgrades delivery and repairing time. Yes, you've read it right: besides a price for stuff, it introduces time as a "purchasable" resource. If you aren't willing to pay for reducing that the time it takes buying or repairing stuff, you'll have to handle waits for almost everything, even when you earned cash enough to buy cars (that's it, you'll have to wait for the delivery, and you'll be notified when ready). This obviously kill the playability of the game since, at a certain point, user will be forced to purchase gold/cash packs.

The game is still one of the best racing games on Google Play. So, it's still highly recommended. However, lot of users are disappointed with it at this point.