is a futuristic hovercar racing game from

Koei Koei Co., Ltd. was a Japanese video game publisher, developer, and distributor founded in 1978. The company is known for its historical simulation games based on the novel ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', as well as simulation games based o ...

. Originally an exclusive for the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

, it was released for the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

in 2007 and then released on the PlayStation 3 on May 29, 2008 in Japan, June 19, 2008 in North America and Australia, and July 15, 2008 in Europe as a download on the

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

under the title The PlayStation 3 version was initially delayed because of difficulties with the

Unreal Engine 3 Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) is the third version of Unreal Engine developed by Epic Games. Unreal Engine 3 was one of the first game engines to support multithreading. It used DirectX 9 as its baseline graphics API, simplifying its rendering code. The ...

on the console, due to the

cell processor The Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.) is a 64-bit multi-core processor and microarchitecture developed by Sony, Toshiba, and IBM—an alliance known as "STI". It combines a general-purpose PowerPC core, called the Power Processing Element (PPE), ...

's architecture. The game is set in the mid-22nd century

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

, and a handful of immense corporations control virtually all business, politics, and entertainment. Extreme sports have become one of the main sources of entertainment with Fatal Inertia as the most popular. Competitions take place far from cities due to the high level of danger. There are six different racing environments that are divided into fifty-one courses.

Gameplay

''Fatal Inertia'' has four main craft types, each one having advantages and disadvantages over each other: *Phoenix Class: craft that, though they do not excel, are well balanced on most parameters. *Aurora class: the fastest of all the classes, though with questionable reliability. Suited for adept or advanced players. *Mercury class: light, fast accelerating vehicles with superior handling in contrast to other classes. *Titan class: massive machines that can demolish the competition with their heavy armor and greater firepower, compensating for their poor handling and acceleration. Though there are only 4 classes there are numerous upgrades that can tune each class to its own unique look, stats, and handling. ''Fatal Inertia'' has a set of

non-lethal weapon Non-lethal weapons, also called nonlethal weapons, less-lethal weapons, less-than-lethal weapons, non-deadly weapons, compliance weapons, or pain-inducing weapons are weapons intended to be less likely to kill a living target than convention ...

s, mostly centered around magnetic behavior. Most of the weapons have primary fire which projects forwards, and a secondary fire that is projected backwards.

Development

On August 2, 2007 a playable demo of ''Fatal Inertia'' was released on

Xbox Live Marketplace Xbox Games Store (formerly Xbox Live Marketplace) was a digital distribution platform previously used by Microsoft's Xbox 360 and formerly by the Xbox One. The service allowed users to download or purchase video games (including both Xbox Live Ar ...

. On May 29, 2008 a multi-language playable demo of Fatal Inertia EX was released on the Japanese

PlayStation Store PlayStation Store (PS Store) is a digital distribution service for users of Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 game consoles via PlayStation Network. The store offers a range of downloadable content both ...

. On July 15, 2008, the same day as Europe's release, a trial version was also available on the

as a free download.

Fatal Inertia EX

The PlayStation 3 version of the game is a download-only title, and appeared on the Japanese PlayStation Store on May 29, 2008, in North America and Australia on June 19, 2008, and in Europe on July 15, 2008, as part of PlayStation Network's

E3 2008 E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo) was an annual trade event for the video game industry organized and presented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). It was held principally in Los Angeles from 1995 to 2019, with its final ...

release plan. A number of tweaks and improvements have been made to the title, notably the difficulty level; to this end, EX includes a training venue with eight new tracks, known as the "Fatal Inertia Proving Grounds Facility", as well as a Master difficulty level for veterans. The development team have also adjusted gameplay, including weapons and physics. Controls support the

DualShock 3 The DualShock (originally Dual Shock, trademarked as DUALSHOCK or DUAL SHOCK, with the PlayStation 5 version as DualSense) is a line of gamepads developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment (formerly Sony Computer Entertainment) for the PlayStati ...

along with

SIXAXIS The Sixaxis (trademarked SIXAXIS) is a wireless gamepad produced by Sony for their PlayStation 3 video game console. It was introduced alongside the PlayStation 3 in 2006 and remained the console's official controller until 2008. The term "sixax ...

tilt control for craft steering.

Reception

Both ''Fatal Inertia'' and ''Fatal Inertia EX'' received "mixed" reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. In Japan, '' Famitsu X360'' gave the former a score of two sevens, one eight, and one seven for a total of 29 out of 40. ''GameZone'' gave the Japanese version of the latter an average review, about a month before it was released in the United States. Cameron Lewis of ''

GamePro ''GamePro'' was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video ...

'' said that ''Fatal Inertia'' "does not sink to bottom-of-the-barrel status, but neither does it ever manage to rise above merely average." Later, however, Andrew Gori called the ''EX'' version "a fun game. The learning curve is gradual but the action starts from your first race and never lets up. Fans of racing games will like this title especially ones who want a little something more."

Notes

References

External links

*{{moby game, id=/58437/fatal-inertia/ 2007 video games Koei games Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation Network games Racing video games Science fiction racing games Unreal Engine 3 games Vehicular combat games Video games developed in Canada Video games set in the 22nd century Xbox 360 games