Baja: Edge of Control [PS3]

Tough A.I. can be a virtue in a simulation-oriented racing game, and nobody wants an easy race. But the computer drivers in Baja are made more difficult by the game's frustrating vehicle collision detection system. Simply brush up alongside another vehicle in Baja: Edge of Control, and you can expect to get hung up with them almost every time. Extracting yourself from an invisible tangle with another vehicle requires that you release the throttle, something that you can be sure the A.I. driver will never do.

Despite the difficult handling, A.I. troubles and hang-up problems, Baja: Edge of Control has a lot to offer, especially once you move past the too-long purgatory of the Baja Bug class. Once into VW Unlimited VW, 4X4, Open Wheel and beyond, the vehicles become easier to handle and races can be won more quickly, partly because that's where the learning curve straightens out and partly because the vehicles are more sophisticated. And if you don't like the way a particular truck feels, you can toy with it to your heart's content in the tuning menus.

There are seven areas to which you can apply purchased upgrades to your vehicle – thigs like quick-flow exhausts for more horsepower and beefed up shocks for more suspension travel. But you can also pop the hood and tune your ride's innards for free. Springs, shocks, brakes, transmission and gearing can all be modified to your liking. If you know what you're doing, playing around with these tweaks could give you the edge over Super A.I. If you don't, you'll probably never touch it.

Once you have the hang of controlling your vehicle over jumps and bumps, and once you've bought, upgraded and modified your truck of choice, there's nothing left to do but race. There are five race types: circuit (multiple laps where the first one over the finish line wins), rally (a point-to-point class-based race based on time to finish), hill climb (a sprint to the top of a steep hill and down again), open class (where vehicles of different classes are handicapped) and Baja (an endurance race of 250, 500 or 1,000 miles). These different race types are fun and exotic at first, but they grow old quickly, especially because, despite the wide collection of different maps, each area looks pretty much the same – rocky, sandy and desolate.

Graphically, Baja: Edge of Control was a bit of a shock when we saw it running on PS3. The game looked so much worse than its 360 counterpart that we checked to see if we had recieved a PS2 build by mistake. True story. The anti-aliasing looked practically non-existent; the cars' were pixellated and fuzzy; and the framerate was jerky and all over the map. More than anything else in the game, the way Baja: Edge of Control looks on PS3 seriously interfered with our ability to enjoy the game.

Once you begin racking up sponsorships, your car suddenly jumps from a solid-colored pixellated mass to a stickered billboard, which adds a lot to the look of your vehicle during each race. But sponsors don't even begin courting you until you've won a dozen or so races, so be prepared to look at a gray slab of VW for a good chunk of time first.

If you get bored, frustrated or just need a break from the career mode, there's also a Race mode that lets you try any vehicle type in any race on any unlocked track. It's a nice feature that helps break up the monotony a bit. There's also a Free Ride mode that lets you head off the beaten path on any map and explore each area. In a way, it's the most fun mode in the game because it lets you test the limits of each ride without the A.I. breathing down your jumpsuit.

There's also a full multiplayer mode that features all race types and modes. We tested several multiplayer tracks and race types and found that they all performed about as well as the single-player races. Very little lag showed up in our races, and what graphical details there are in Baja kept up relatively well. Up to 10 players can compete online, and Baja also supports system-link, and four-player split-screen play.

Closing Comments
Baja: Edge of Control certainly lives up to its subtitle. At times, it’s an edge-of your seat experience that gives you a sense of accomplishment for sliding across the finish line in one piece. Other times, it’s a confounding mix of erratic handling, insane difficulty and drab repetition. It’s at once laudably ambitious and frustratingly inaccessible. If you can get over the steep learning curve and deep into Baja, you’ll be rewarded for your efforts. Overall, only the hardest of the hardcore off-road racing sim crowd are likely to truly embrace Baja.

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