This week’s launch of the XBox 360 exclusive demo of Split Second has been eagerly anticipated by Jeff and Greg, and they got together to chat about their early impressions of the demo.

Greg: We’ve been looking forward Split Second for quite a while, loving the concept, but waiting to see whether the game itself could actually live up to the lofty goals. Now that the demo is in our hands Jeff and we’ve actually gotten to check it out, what’s your first impression?

Jeff: On first play, it’s definitely living up to all the chaos and action that were being touted. Racing was fun, tense, and full of stuff blowing up. What did you think?

Greg: My gold standard in racing games is Burnout Paradise, which means you’ve got to a LOT to measure up in my mind. My initial reaction to Split Second is that Burnout COULD have some serious competition.

Jeff: Burnout was an outstanding arcade racer. One of the reasons for that was it’s depth. There was just so much you could do in Paradise City. I’m a bit concerned on how they’ll get any depth out of Split Second by comparison.

Greg: Agreed. Even with this one level demo, the first time through is phenomenal. When you see that cargo jet hurtling down the runway at you, its thrilling. When it happens the same way on the second time through….not so much.

Jeff: My races were unique each time, but there are only so many permutations you can have for each course at the end of the day. I’m looking to see how they keep it fresh. Different play modes? DLC?

Greg: The big question then is how many different races the game will pack in. There has to be enough variety to keep people coming back. There could be varieties in the races, but I think its ultimately going to be about how much variety a given race will have over multiple iterations.

Jeff: I thought I heard there were a dozen or so tracks overall? There’s alternate routes and shortcuts, of course, as well, to learn. Plus where all the Power Plays are.

Greg: Given the level of details required, I can see that, though I wonder if that’s a dozen tracks, or a dozen settings. The Power Plays are bit contentious for me. On one hand, they are very cool, and potentially spectacularly game changing. But again, can they stay fresh?

Jeff: Not the same thing?

Greg: Yeah, take the airport level in the demo. You can bring down the control tower. But will it have variety in the number of ways it crashes and impacts the game? Or is it going to be the same every time? If there’s a dynamic aspect to it, then there’s potential for something really revolutionary.

But since this is a demo, there’s really no way to determine that, and we’ll just keep eagerly awaiting the full release in a couple of weeks. What we can pass judgement is the racing. What did you think?

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Jeff: The racing itself is pretty good. I find the handling a little bit different than, say, Burnout, but it’s just something to get used to.

Greg: Drifting was definitely looser than I’m used to. I was bouncing off the outer wall every time.

Jeff: Yeah, same here. And drifting is key, so we’ll need to nail that down pretty quick. One thing I liked: the controls are very simple.

Greg: Very. There’s sort of an accepted standard now in most gaming genres, and its nice to see a game that sticks to that, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.

Jeff: Basically, gas, brake, steer, Power Play. And look behind. What else do you need?

Greg: Well, boost is always nice

Jeff: Yeah, I was missing that. Split/Second basically takes the boost and replaces it with Power Plays.

Greg: Drafting is a huge part of the game (it’s how you build your power plays) and it seemed to be handled well. Most important to that is that you can have minor impacts with other cars and not go completely off track. Rubbin’, as the NASCAR guys say.

Jeff: Yeah, the “rubbin’” is nice, leaves some room for error, though I miss takeouts.

Greg: Yeah, though there’s still some aspect of that. Not sure if you can take down other drivers on your own, or whether it needs to be with powerplays. That said, I did crash quite a few times, so maybe it is possible.

Jeff: I was kind of hoping that drafting would do more than build your power meter. It doesn’t seem to give you the ability to “slingshot” past other drivers like you can in Mario Kart, for example.

Greg: Or at Talladega

Jeff: Don’t get NASCAR in my Split Second. Isn’t it bad enough that Gran Tourismo 5 will feature the Left Turning Championships?

Greg: What can I say, I like real racing too. One thing I did notice was at least a couple of different car designs in the game. That’s always a big question for me, how many cars, and can they be upgraded. Maybe my only gripe with Burnout Paradise is that I didn’t end up using about 90% of the cars in the game.

Jeff: Yeah, there were only a handful of useful cars there. It was more about just collecting them. The others just got in the way.

Greg: Hopefully Split Second gives us plenty to choose from, and upgrade options as well. And make the cars even but unique is a big thing as well. Something Motorstorm does well is make motorcycles and monster trucks equally compelling to play.

Jeff: And I’ll assume you’ll have different car body types, where you would, say, sacrifice speed for power meter building capability and handling. Something that you can fit to your racing style.

Greg: Exactly.

Jeff: Given the background for the game, in that it’s a TV show, I assume there’ll be some sort of “season championship” mode. Of course, there’ll be single races, too. I’m trying to think of what other kind of modes they’ll come up with.

Greg: Demolition Derby seems like it could be a fit, but then not really. Otherwise, it’s kind of hard to guess, because the design of the game is so firmly built around races.

Jeff: Maybe there’ll be a “survival mode” where after x number of crashes you’re out. Last Car Standing wins

Greg: That would make sense. Maybe time trials, though that seems not so “made for TV” like the other modes.

Jeff: I can’t see time trials working in this game. Not with the focus on blowing stuff up. There’s too much interaction required by nature of the game. I don’t think it would come off well.

Greg: Another question is multiplayer. On-line is obvious, but hopefuly it’ll have a local mode as well. Though we are seeing less and less of those. That doesn’t have the word “kart” in the title.

Jeff: Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not there. Local multiplayer seems to be going extinct. To keep the experience, you really need to split onto four screens. Side-by-side takes away so much real estate. I’m thinking back to when we played Borderlands together.

Greg: Which is nice if you have a 58″ plasma….

Jeff: Yes, it IS nice.  Cause you can end up playing on essentially 4 29″ screens. But if you’re playing on a 32-incher…

Greg: Not so great. But with so much going on on the screen, you’d have to be worried about chugging.

Jeff: Geez, the Wii can do 4 player split screen. Of course, it’s cartoony characters, not 720p at 60 frames per second either.

Greg: Bingo. And the visuals, while still a little rough in some areas, look fantastic. You do get a real feeling for the destruction and power of the game.

Jeff: Oh yeah, I was scared for my life sometimes.

Greg: So you’re going to use the word “immersive” in your review?

Jeff: I guess I can, we’ll see how the proper game plays out. I guess I can, we’ll see how the proper game plays out.

Greg: A demo should give you a good taste of what a game is all about, but leaving you wanting a whole lot more. In that regard, I think we can call the Split Second demo a success, right?

Jeff: Yes, most definitely. If half my house wasn’t sick, I’d be going back and playing it again and again.

Greg: I’m not sure I want to go back to it too much, or that question about how many times you can replay a race will keep coming back and clouding my experience.

Jeff: Well, I haven’t won a race yet.

More practice and I could, though. There’s a bit of a learning curve here. I got much better at accumulating Power in my second race.

Greg: Ah, that’s the difference between us I guess

Jeff: Got up to 2nd in my best result. It’s been a while.

Greg: The good news I guess is that we only have to wait until May 19 to get our hands on the full version of Split Second.