Hi everyone,
My name is James Grieve and I am the Technical Director on ModNation Racers here at United Front Games in Vancouver, Canada. I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself to all of you in preparation for the unleashing of the ModNation Racers European Public Beta.
As a lot of you may have heard, the response to the North American beta has been amazing. With tens of thousands of creations published and almost 100,000 online races run, the team here has been amazed at how people have taken to the game. The creativity of players’ creations just blew us away … there was stuff in there even we had never thought of doing 
We have also received a ton of useful feedback from players, and likewise we hope to hear from all of you. The team is hard at work finishing the game now, and a lot of that feedback is being listened to and addressed. One of the key focuses of the beta has been online stability and load testing. The data we have gathered has been very useful in this regard and the European data will be even more so. We have already used some of this data to tweak our server configurations, so hopefully things should be running nice and smooth. We’re continuing our frame rate optimisations and load time improvements, and these will be ready for the final game.
One thing we were disappointed in was that we weren’t able to release the European Public Beta simultaneously with the North American version. Because of this, we have decided to open up a couple of new tracks and we hope you really like them. They will give you a taste for a little more of what the ModNation Racers experience will have to offer and hopefully they make up for the wait
I also just heard that the Public Beta will be released in Australia and New Zealand as well. Although I’ve been in Vancouver for a few years now, I am still an Australian at heart, so I am very happy all my compatriots will be able to join in the fun
Anyway, remember to log in to PSN January 21 to get in line for the download. We look forward to being even more surprised by all the creative and exciting stuff that goes on and hope everyone in Europe has a great time in ModNation!
James
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131 CommentsAdd Yours
101
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 2:11 pm by nick_m_a
First time i’ve EVER been the first to get news like this on the board first.
Well done me :0)
102
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 2:11 pm by mak994
Downloading now.
103
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 2:15 pm by g-unit98_
guys great news beta is available to download
104
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 2:17 pm by maxapbl4
Beta is up! Download it, guys!
105
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 2:18 pm by canand
Downloading now
106
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 2:19 pm by miesah
yesss, confirmd!!
107
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 2:21 pm by George_Robo
5% with 40 minutes to go. Though we can’t play it until tommorow. Still very exiting!!!! Can’t wait!
108
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 2:22 pm by Petor
I GOT ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
109
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 2:24 pm by nick_m_a
Will be most interested to see how long it lasts
110
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 2:48 pm by fcp10
a fazer o download
111
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 2:50 pm by iTetris
Got it, downloading right now!
112
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 2:53 pm by johndrinkwater
I got it
D
113
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 2:59 pm by ZippyUK
Downloading now how do i get a key
114
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 3:34 pm by nick_m_a
Seams to work. Not sure about online, but the time trial works for 1 track and the track designer. It’s SO cool
115
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 4:19 pm by George_Robo
Very good game, very sensitive driving controls but easy to get used to. 1 problem for me though: Loading times, there soooo long!!!
116
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 4:59 pm by ElWaster
Ahhh still at work
even bought my psp, but can’t get it to remote play connect…
117
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 5:00 pm by KeizerKuzco
Already spotted two translation errors in the Dutch version:
- In the ModSpot, the top players are translated as “toppracer”, with a double “p” whereas it should be “topracer”
- Also in the ModSpot, the “Showcase series” has the German translation “Showcase serien”; it should be “Showcase series”
Just so you guys know…
The beta is cool though, as is the game! Can’t wait for it to come out. However, as said before, the loading times are killing the gameplay somewhat…
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 5:21 pm by Julian Beak
Thank you for the feedback on translations. Back in Vancouver we are still working to refine all aspects of the game and all this feedback is great. I am happy to report the load times are much better in our development build. We wish we had sped it up in time for the Beta. We hope you have fun and don’t forget to share your creations with the community.
118
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 5:16 pm by ramthx
this is not looking good its taking ages 125minutes and just signed me out of psn grrrrrr gonna be along nite
119
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 8:26 pm by nivhsay
hello, where can I post feedbacks about the beta? I got a few already!
120
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 10:56 pm by ZhePrime
Well apart from the previously mentioned stuff about long load times etc. the game also freezes at loading screens. I had almost completed my track (took about 30min to make) and then when I decided to auto re-populate it it froze at the green loading screen (the auto-populate worked fine prior to my last use).
This happened once again after I made another track that took 15min.
Will this kind of stuff be patched or something for the Beta? Bugs etc. I can deal with and report, but I won’t waste a lot of my free time on stability issues that anyone can notice. I simply don’t have the time to work for free when I can’t even make a track without the game freezing, that’s for your playtesters to deal with. Basically I can’t Beta test your game if I can’t even Beta test it.
121
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 10:21 am by Capeview
Is there an actual Bug Reporting Forum???
122
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 11:13 am by ALIJJ
A bug reporting forum would be nice because it does have lots of bugs. Even for a Beta.
It randomly freezes and when you try and quit the game it restarts the PS3, which does put a damper on the fun, but still is quite good despite the bugs;). Although the limited customization options is a bit of a disappointment
123
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 11:52 am by dutchguy1982
Wasn’t able to download in time.. no big deal.. if it’s any good i’ll buy it anyway.
124
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 4:04 pm by DiscoMonkey
Not sure how we are meant to leave feedback as it doesn’t say.
But,
controls: too loose and no option to use buttons instead of analog.
I love building and playing around with this, but being unable to race makes this a non-purchase.
I realise this is more to do with my skills,
125
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 4:19 pm by Capeview
Just been reading the MOD Blog on the US PS Site, and it says that the EU version of the Beta won’t include hardly any of the fixes they are implementing for the final build of the game, and only includes a few fixes to the server and some track improvements.
Seems completely pointless having a BETA, if they aren’t actually going to give the fixed and updated code to the BETA testers to test.
I’m going to play the BETA, but don’t intend on buying it straight away, if they aren’t going to actually let us test the updates. Whats the bloody point of having a BETA??
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 5:26 pm by Julian Beak
The difference between this European Beta and the North American one are minor on the surface, but are definitely helping us test and refine the final game. We appreciate all the feedback.
126
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 7:58 pm by Capeview
@Julian Beak,
The trouble is, where do people give the feedback. We had a thread on the PS Forums that was being updated with peoples pointers on what they feel needed changing, but it appears to have been deleted.
There is no other official word on where you would like the feedback left, which just basically leaves a lot of people playing the Beta with no way of giving feedback.
After all, I very much doubt everyone is going to frequent the PS Blogs to update on the beta if they don’t know that is the right place to do it??
Is there somewhere to update for bugs and issues, because I’ve found a few more that are annoying.
127
Posted on 23 January, 2010 at 7:21 pm by Joe382
Best beta I have played in a long time, it has secured my purchase. However I don’t know where to give feedback, I have looked everywhere.
128
Posted on 24 January, 2010 at 1:36 pm by HazelAM
if this is the eu beta why do any in game announcements always use US timezones?
129
Posted on 25 January, 2010 at 3:44 am by MNRHQ
The beta is awesome! I am amazed at how many unique designs have been created with the limited selection of items available in the beta.
Share your creations and get the latest news and tutorials at ModNation Racers H.Q. where you can rate and review other people’s work as well.
http://www.modnationracershq.com
130
Posted on 25 January, 2010 at 8:30 pm by Lord_Sprcmptr
@Capeview :”The trouble is, where do people give the feedback?”
It’s a shame that the info from the PS Forums have been taken down as I’ve only just thought about “where could we leave our feedback” and only just seen there was something already on the webnets.
But what the flip. I guess this blog will do for now, right? or MNRHQ’s site maybe?
131
Posted on 28 January, 2010 at 9:18 am by thebone80
This is a great game the only gripe i am having is that no body ever seems to be in the single or series race lobbys ive waited for up to 20 mins with 2 others waiting for a third but they never come also quitting out and trying to find another lobby i have no luck again, this is a great game but i just cant rack up the play time. 2-3 4minute races per hour kind of a tease
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