You can sign up for an Xbox Live Beta at the above address... I did speculatively and got a code, so I don't think it has the interest they were expecting?
It looks like Wipeout... with real cars... its looks like Mario Kart with real cars... its looks like Bizarre Creations cranking out another game using the MSR/PGR engine, or maybe using their licenced car contract in time... it looks like I am being cynical again.
Either way, it could be interesting, and I am quite interested. I'm not physically near the Xbox to see what its like... the PGR driving engine suits this more lite weight driving idea than the more portentous realism, real environments route.
Riiiight.
So I've played the beta demo thang to a certain conclusion.
The premise is simple, about 6 power ups, mostly of the Mario Kart ilk, equivilents of red shell, green shells, bananas, mushroom (cheap one), the power ups even match the colours of its inspiration, must be in the human genome now. Where it deviates in terms of the combat is you get three power up slots. Some nice ones that probably owe themselves to WipEout, lightening which sticks 3 pools of damaged wielding nastyness infront of 1st place and a powerup that pushes close oppenents away. They all have single syllable names and I can't remember any of them.
It's very much the bland driving model of MSR/PGR but spiced up with the powerups, what it does well is the visibility of the power ups, in fact the presentation all round is very impressive, something they've been tweaking in the PGR series.
The online mode, which is the only thing available had 3 modes, a upto 8 player race combat, an upto 20 player race combat and a straight combat points gig... they've essentially added the perks system and ranking from Modern Warfare, which is interesting if you are a leveler type (it even has kudos (they call them fans))
They've tried to disguise the blandness of the driving model with some pretty involving camera angle fiddling, so a slide loses the camera lock to the car, drifting off to the edge, and jumping has an alarming action that jars the senses... but in the end its is just a spongefest, you are rewarded for decent driving, not hitting the sides etc etc and the combat, thanks to its fantastic presentation of the weapons, the visibility of the weapons and their effects to you and the opponents.
Generally not a must at all, and whilst I was into it for a few sessions it fell away because of the tepid driving model. They are charging FORTY POUNDS for it! Twenty and I'd have to think twice.