I got a chance to check out EA’s upcoming Playstation Home space at CES last weekend and one of the activities available in their Home space was an overhead racing game for up to four players.  At the suggestion of the EA rep, I took the game for a spin.

Read my impressions after the jump…

I’m guessing EA Racing won’t be a destination for people looking specifically for something fun to do, but that’s not because it’s not a decent little racer, it’s because it’s a simplistic little racer.  We won’t be putting down Burnout Paradise, Midnight Club LA, NASCAR, or any other commercially available racing games, but that said… if you’re already in Home, it’s a good way to kill a few minutes.

As I mentioned in my EA Home Space overview, other people in the EA Home Space can watch you from above as you race.  It’s really a clever extension of virtual nature of Home.  If you walk up to the racing area and suddenly you’re in a car, and I can watch you walk up and your car takes off racing, there’s a certain believability in that like the Red Bull air racing where you can watch the planes.  In contrast, if you go to the bowling alley area and play an arcade game, all other see is you standing in front of a static machine… the bowling alleys themselves don’t show much interactivity either.  So while the racing is fairly simple, the nature of the Home space implementation is a step in the right direction.  I totally got the Malibu Grand Prix vibe while checking out this area.

Because I was the only one present in the area at the time of my exploration I cannot say whether voice chat works across the racers, but that would be a welcome addition if it doesn’t currently exist.  Also, I have no idea how the crash mechanics work in the game.  My hunch says it’s simply a “hit something = slow down” throwback to classic arcade racing… and you know what?  That’s just fine.  It fits the style perfectly.

I was never interested in Playstation Home as a destination for casual gaming, but I can definitely see as the areas progress, to a certain degree it won’t necessarily be the scope of individual games that might be a draw, but the scope of varied (casual) games could definitely end up being at least a little draw to some.  The games won’t bring me into Home, but if I’m already there, I’ll definitely check them out.  When the EA space goes live, look me up and we’ll race a few laps!

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