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GAMING NEWS / COMPANY UPDATES
The September 2011 issue of GamePro magazine features Riptide GP on page 85, under the heading "What's a Blast on Public Transit".
Reviewer Will Herring writes:
I'm generally pretty faithful to my iPhone, but playing this impressively rendered racer on an office-owned Android made me, admittedly, just a little bit jealous that it hasn't hit the iTunes App Store yet.
We're glad to hear you liked it, Will. And don't worry -- your iPhone may not have long to wait. Stay tuned!
The good folks at Kotaku (Mike Fahey specificially) just reviewed Riptide GP, and gave the game an emphatic thumbs-up, naming it their Gaming App of the Day:
I had no idea the sort of juice these Tegra 2-powered devices could pump out. The age of console-quality Android gaming is upon us, and Riptide GP is one hell of a good start.
Check out the full article here: Riptide GP Rips Android Gamers a Console Quality Racer
Vector Unit's newest game for Tegra2-powered Android phones and tablets, Riptide GP, is now available on the Android Market and is making a splash with users and critics.
As of this writing, average user reviews are averaging 4.7 stars out of 5.
Critical reviews have been coming in this week, too, and the critics have plenty of nice things to say:
WOW! riptide GP is incredible....If you are at all into racing games, Riptide GP is a must-have.
We haven't been able to put it down. If you are looking for a mobile game with that "wow factor" then look no further than this one.
The frame rate, details, and polish of this game are unlike anything this editor has ever seen on a game for a mobile device to date. Riptide GP for Tegra platform truly is a console quality experience.
Not too shabby, right? We're extremely happy with the reception the game's been getting, and the great comments and feedback sent in from players around the world.
If you haven't yet picked up Riptide GP, buy it today and see what all the fuss is about!
Steve Conger at The Gamesman posted a great interview with Vector Unit's Matt Small and Ralf Knoesel.
Get a behind the scenes look at the development of Riptide GP and Hydro Thunder Hurricane, and learn a little more about the indie game development roller coaster.
It's really a pleasure for us to talk with someone like Steve who's genuinely interested in the process of game development. Hopefully this discussion can give people thinking of starting their own business a little more insight into what it takes and how to go about it.
Link: Special Edition Riptide GP/Vector Unit Interview
Reviews for the Tempest Pack, the new downloadable expansion pack for Hydro Thunder Hurricane, have been rolling in. And the reviews are good.
Here's what a few reviewers had to say:
Vector Unit have taken the triumph of Hydro Thunder Hurricane and given their fans even more to sink their teeth into, making it an essential purchase.
Console Arcade, 4/5
Over the top racing pitted with challenging maps created a great arena for players to relive and continue to have great memories of Hydrothunder. All of this for just 400 MS points, you can’t go wrong.
Gaming Truth, 4.5/5
The Tempest packs adds quite a lot to the great formula and should keep anyone who buys it bust for quite a few hours. ... If you enjoyed Hydro Thunder Hurricane, then this really is an essential purchase to expend this really enjoyable title....
- Game-Smack Ireland, 8/10
All in all, this is a great value for fans of the Hydro Thunder game. The new tracks are great, and if you enjoy player against other players, the X-Boats are a necessity...
- XBLA Fans, "Buy!"
Our in-depth look at "what went right" and "what went wrong" during the development of Hydro Thunder Hurricane is now up on Gamasutra.
We love reading developer Postmortems, at least the ones that don't BS around too much and actually fess up. We tried to be as candid as possible in this one, and at the same time give a little perspective on what it's like making the switch from working for a big company to running your own studio.
Here's an excerpt:
When we started Vector Unit, we figured the experience we had as leads managing large teams at established game development studios would scale smoothly to the development of a smaller game project. If anything, we thought, it would be easier -- fewer moving parts. To some extent that ended up being true. What we didn't count on were the countless small surprises that small game development had in store for us.
You can read the full article here: Postmortem: Vector Unit's Hydro Thunder Hurricane
There's a pretty in-depth interview with HTH's creative director Matt Small at XBLA Fans today.
Thanks to interviewer Miguel Coelho for asking more "out of the box" questions that your typical interview. The conversation ranges from descriptions of the new Tempest Pack tracks to the design process for new levels, to just why are those Expert Ring Master courses so damn hard?!?
Read the full interview here: Tempest Incoming -- An Interview with Vector Unit's Matt Small.
J2Games has an in-depth interview with Hydro Thunder Hurricane's Creative Director Matt Small, featuring tons of behind the scenes info about the making of the game.
Link: Making Waves.
Destructoid has posted a preview of Hydro Thunder Hurricane, complete with new screen shots and video clips.
Our favorite quote:
This feels and plays like Hydro Thunder of the past, just better in every way possible. You'd be stupid to pass this one up when it's released later this year.
Read the full article here.
