PURE (PC, Xbox 360) Review

by Eddie Turner on September 29, 2008 12:00 AM EST

When it comes to games, the line between realism and fantasy slices nearly every genre into two parts. While each while each section is rarely the other's equivalent, gamers often tend to gravitate toward one or the other. This raises a few questions. Would you rather wield a knife or a flaming samurai sword? Would you rather explore an office complex with a flashlight or dungeon catacombs with a lantern? Closer to the game at hand, would you rather your vehicle catch twenty feet of air or a thousand? The good folks at the newly coined Black Rock Studios show us what side they're on by taking the fantastical approach to off-road racing with PURE, a freestyle ATV racer whose focus is on frantic speed and exaggerated aerial acrobatics.


In a world where new IPs are few and far between, it's always nice to see a fresh new title rise up among those with a number 2, 3 or 4 in them. While PURE's style of gameplay isn't anything we haven't seen before, it certainly puts its best foot forward at being the best in its class. So, what exactly is its class?

PURE finds its footing among off-road racing games like MotorStorm and DiRT, with trick pulling elements that are more reminiscent of snowboarding or skateboarding games like SSX or Tony Hawk respectively. As in all racing games, speed is definitely on the agenda. However, only a combination of speed and freestyle stunts will put players in the winner's circle.

Gameplay Overview
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  • MonkeyPaw - Monday, September 29, 2008 - link

    Actually, it reminds me a lot of ATV2. Interesting scenes, ridiculous jumps and tricks, and even boost. If it has a "kick" feature where you can boot riders off their quads, then it sounds like it's the same game. That would be fine, since ATV2 was a blast, and this could be the graphical update for the next gen. :)
  • computerfarmer - Monday, September 29, 2008 - link

    It is nice to see a game of this type. Fun is the name of the game.
    What are the system(PC) and graphic card requirements?

    ON Board - ATI 790GX - nVidia 8300
    or
    ATI HD-4670 / nVidia 9600GT
    or
    ATI HD 4850 / nVidia 9800GTX
    or
    ATI HD 4870 / nVidia GTX 260
    or
    any of the above
  • EddieTurner - Monday, September 29, 2008 - link

    128MB DirectX 9.0c-compatible 3D video card supporting Shaders 3.0.
  • wumples - Monday, September 29, 2008 - link

    Why is there no mention of the horrendous loading times on the PC? I have a fairly decent wee PC (similar to the one posted in the article by the sounds of things) and thought the load times were abysmal. With owning a PS3 / 360 I was hoping something would be mentioned about this.
  • EddieTurner - Monday, September 29, 2008 - link

    You are indeed correct. I did notice the difference in load times. However, in my experience, the difference is pretty much a given between the two platforms. But yes, I did feel that the PC's load time were a bit lengthy. Totally worth it nonetheless.
  • unclebud - Saturday, October 4, 2008 - link

    thanks for mentioning that! its a deal breaker for me to have long load times. i HATE waiting. this is just as bad as crysis warhead having ea's securom (i returned it back to circuit city unopened). why do reviewers leave this kind of stuff out??? ugh.
  • Subzero0000 - Saturday, October 4, 2008 - link

    *Firstly, none of the editor function (Bold, https, Quote...) works on any of my browser (IE 7, Firefox 3, Opera 9, Chrome), why?

    Anyway, here is a quote from their official FAQ :
    ----
    "Why does Pure take so long to load?"
    Normal loading times for Pure average between one to two minutes. This is an acceptable load time for a 3D graphics-intensive game. In some cases, pressing the Space bar or Enter key will advance you to the main menu in less time; however, this would not be an indicator of any issue with the game or your system.
    ----

    Well, they think it is perfectly acceptable to wait for one to two minutes. You can't complain.
    It's ridiculous, even Crysis doesn't take that long.

    The FAQ link :
    http://disneyinteractivestudios.custhelp.com/cgi-b...">http://disneyinteractivestudios.custhel...dGV4dD1w...
  • Sabrewulf6000 - Sunday, October 5, 2008 - link

    This worked for me. Based on a post at the Pure's message boards, there is a problem with this game, VSync and NVidia cards. Turn off VSync in Rivatuner or the NVidia control panel (I set up a game profile in Rivatuner) and the load time were greatly improved. Weird huh? Hope its works for ya.

  • Sabrewulf6000 - Sunday, October 5, 2008 - link

    Here's the link - http://forums.purevideogame.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?t...">http://forums.purevideogame.com/n/pfx/f...sages&am...
  • Subzero0000 - Sunday, October 5, 2008 - link

    Thanks for the info. But it doesn't seems to improve the situation.

    Mine still takes about 30 sec to load. By the time the stage is up, my hands already cold.

    My other PC is ATI4850 though. I might try that Vsync on it later.

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