ModNation Racers for PS3: Launched and Unwrapped!

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Hey everyone! I’ve spent the last couple years of my life working on ModNation Racers, and now I’m excited to sit back, relax and enjoy it!

Lets begin with our Launch Trailer!

So I’ve just unwrapped my copy and I’m about to check it out. Now there are a LOT of things you can do in ModNation Racers, so I figured I would help you out on your first day.

ModNation Racers for PSP: Box Unwrapped

Here’s a list of the five things I think are worth checking out right away.

ModNation Racers for PSP: Sackboy

1. Download Sackboy!

If you’re lucky, you scored a voucher for Sackboy and his Kart (one of my favorite karts in the game). The voucher is packed in with the game and manual, so make sure you don’t accidentally toss it out.

2. Career Basics

The first few races in the Career will teach you the basics: drifting, drafting, defense, boost, weapons and all the good stuff. A few quick tips:

  • Use Boost wisely! Once you get out in front of the pack, manage your boost wisely. Save some boost for shields if you want to stay out in front.
  • Learn to drift! Use the X button to drift. Drifting accumulates boost and it’s critical to getting around the tracks.
  • Shortcuts! Keep your eyes open and watch out for shortcuts. The risk is worth the reward.

3. Track Studio

Track Studio is the bread and butter of creation in ModNation, and is THE BEST track creator, well, ever. It’s super easy to use and makes creation really fun. Want to try something a little different? Try playing around with the terrain before you lay out your track. It’s a different experience than you have seen in most videos and happens to be my favorite way to build tracks. I was going to list out some tips, but it’s probably best if I just point you in the direction of the Tutorials, which are informative and fun to watch. You don’t have to leave the Track Studio to watch them — just press the Start button and select “Tutorials” in the circle menu.

4. Hottest User-Generated Tracks

If you want to see what the community has deemed to be the hottest tracks, then the best thing to do is check out the Top Tracks or Hot Lap events in the ModSpot.

ModNation Racers for PSP: ModSpot Events

The Top Tracks event is populated with the hottest user-created tracks. It’s really easy and fun way to dive in a check out what’s hot. It’s a series event, so may the best Mod win! Hot Lap is also populated with user-created tracks. It’s another way to check out the hottest tracks, but there is a twist to this event. You get to race against the ghost of the Hot Lap leader; it’s all about lap times! There’s a new track every day and, if you finish in the top 10%, you’ll get a nice little reward.

5. Creation Browser

Probably the fastest way to see just how cool the creative tools are in ModNaiton is to see what other players are doing with them. To do that, check out the Creation Browser. To access the Creation Browser, simply drive up to and activate the “Share” station in the ModSpot.

ModNation Racers for PSP: ModSpot Share

Each creation gets a thumbnail preview so it’s really easy to browse. If you see something you like, download it and check it out. It’s a good way to get inspired and see just how cool the creation tools are.

Oh… and don’t forget to leave comments and vote! A lot of people put tons of work into their creation, so if you’re going to download it be sure to give them some props!

That’s it for now, can’t wait to see you in the ModSpot!

Comments are closed.

265 Comments

15 Author Replies

  • TBH there should have been an option whether or not you either wanted to connect globally or to specific regions.

  • @ RONIN sorry didn’t want to make a war here but every single person is complaining about it He said if the community wants it in the long run they’ll do it why doesn’t somebody just make an online petition then?

  • @Supergamer, I understand. However online petitions accomplish nothing (take the Left 4 Dead 2 petition for example). It is a shame that so many people are now unable to play this game with friends(or any in some cases) in other regions because of a region lock that should not even be there in the first place.

  • hey, I am still waiting anxiously for my copy of Modnation Racers. UPS has never been slower. My question is: what is a region lock?

  • Cainegis_Beoulve

    the region lock is by zone or by other means like continent or country?

  • To Patar22

    for example

    If you buy a uk version , you only play with other that are uk version . If someone not uk version , you can not play with them

  • i got the psp go version , man i love it theres only one thing i dont really like about most of the psp games that support online play that theres no way to play with our psn friends , game is great , i just hope sony integrates PSN more on the next psp ( psp2 )

  • Amazing game! Being able to customize everything is great. I would tell everyone to pick this game up. It is worth every penny.

    Hopefully there will be more items to download and the creativity can go on forever.

    GREAT JOB!!

  • can someone tell me why a got an email saying I get a voucher for air raid and the codes all “X”s? Why? Just why did u taunt me like that?

  • Couldn’t wait for the game, finally here today!

    The 1-pl mode is frustrating as others have noted. AI “cheats” – you can get into 1st using skill but be piled on at the finish or you can drop from 1st to 10th in one wipe-out. Best cart game imho was CTR (Crash Team Racing) which was challenging but fair. AI programmers should play that game for a week 1-pl and 4-pl split screen. CTR got weapon delivery & balance about as perfect as I’ve ever seen in this type of game.

    The editing tools are amazing. I wish there were points that could be applied to top speed, cornering, accel, etc. so carts could feel different from each other. In fact unlocking bonus point totals in-game might help make the overall racing experience less frustrating in the long run.

    Split-screen racing w/friends this wknd to see how this game stacks up to our old favorites. If it’s easy to pick up, the “drops” make sense for the pos you’re in and AI aren’t too unbalanced this could be our new regular party game!

    Great job overall guys. I do hope your team does some fine-tuning updates to improve gameplay, this title will become a classic such as some games we are comparing it to!

  • Damn all the people that were able to buy it before the launch. I bought mine off Ebay and it hasn’t arrived which I dont mind because I got it for $40 flat.BTW this part is for Kyle Zundel, I recieved a code for the Air Raid mod and kart but the code doesn’t work, I kinda knew it wouldn’t because all it said was xxxx xxxx xxxx, you think maybe you can hook it up with another one.:) :):):):):):) IF so Thank you in advance, Email at [DELETED]

  • Hye hello! hope you can help me, I got an email with a code with the Meet air raid character to download, but the code appeared with XXXX-XXXX-XXXX, what could i do? that’s not a code :( and i would love to have it. I’m registered on modnation.com

  • Don’t buy. Region locked, well. Don’t buy if you like online play with more than a few hundred miles away.

    Wow, UFG what were you thinking? Trying to reduce lag by forcing people to play in-region? Why not force that for ranked games? I just want to play my friends.

    Anyway, the box says I can play world wide, and I can’t. So I damn well better be getting a store refund.

    Wouldn’t be surprised if Sony will be looking at another class action. Sony publishing it and all.

    Oh, whilst were at it the game is advertised as consuming 3200mb on the PS store content. Whereas it consumes 4300 as stated on the box, the in-game store also contains instances of lose HTML text strewn all across the description. Good job!

  • Can you please do something about the region locking for casual games, for a title like this it really seems pointless.

  • Interesting game and still bouncing off the wall as to whether I want to buy it or not. Friend from the UK got me to consider it a bit more, but after hearing about the region lock not so sure. With half my friend list from the UK it kind of puts a damper on plans to play with them.

    Would be nice to see someway of taking this out, or at least doing it the Mario Kart Wii way. Having some places set up for Worldwide races, region races and the like.

  • Ok, after the earlier post I pulled out the instruction manual & found the 2 handling sliders while sitting in Mod Station plaza. Haven’t tried racing yet with different settings – I’ll give it a try in the morning ;) Might be useful to have those available on the Kart garage screen seeing as there is *so much* to this game and easy to overlook things like this.

    I hope my earlier post didn’t sound too downbeat, 1250 chars is just not enough to cover everything in a game this size. There is a lot of good work that went into this game and it does show. I did also catch a comment that split screen doesn’t have AI racers which is fine, tho a set of de-tuned AI might be good to have on-track to shoot at (my slow sis will just have to get good enough to keep up w/me lol.)

  • Good fun game, need better online tho cos with region lock it blows

  • Seriously?

    Region lock?

    Are you goddamn insane?

    Most of the people I wanted to play this with are in the US. I’m not. I’ll be returning it.

  • is it just me or is it impossible to get a MP match going. ive been waiting for like 10 minutes to get into a race but no one shows up

  • I dont normally complain and I understand that things are done for a reason. But, I have to admit–keeping MNR locked to regions is sort of a Bonehead move.
    I mean people have Clans (GO WSS!) Friends, Family, etc that are not in their LOCKED region. The Freedom to play with these people is why we buy online games. Restricting this freedom is a sure fire way to ensure that people not buy your product. I want to choose who I Game with and in turn–don’t Game with. I really don’t need you to choose for me~

  • To Jultomens :

    totally agree with you , this also restrict the freedmom to play with other playes . i like to play with anyone all over the world rather than within locked region………………..

  • it is become more difficult to find player on xp race, also spend most of the time on time on waiting , matching system is totally failure…………if it becomes region locked, ……..the problem is become more serious…………………..

  • Becomes region locked? it is region locked.

  • Love the game. :D Thanks for making awesome games. The load times aren’t even bad at all. People exaggerated the hell out of that… Like really, they’re fine. -.- Whatever lol. (By the way, im from Canada and i also didn’t have the inside cover art. It’s not a big deal at all; just letting you know >.>)

    But still, i lolled at the region lock. xD What were you guys even thinking? rofl. Hopefully that’ll be removed soon enough, cause it’s definitely pretty dumb. It’s not that big of a deal for me at the moment since none of my close US friends have it yet- but im sure they will in the future.

    Anyway yeah- Thanks for the awesome game. :D I wasn’t even hyped at all for it for some reason. I was more excited for 3D Dot Game Heroes and Red Dead, but it was definitely surprising how solid ModNation is.

  • The career mode is really cheap, and need to be fixed ASAP! It’s cheats like no tomorrow! Skidplate get 1st all the time and I have tried for 2 hours. The weapons for CPU needs to be tones down, and the shield needs to be fixed!

  • I could come over from nanimo and bake you all pies for making this game rock so hard. only that would be to much pie for me to make in one day.

  • This game is absolutly amazing, for me it comes very close to my all time fav LBP. But it has 1 major fail, region locked!!!!

    Come on guys, online gaming anno 2010 doesnt need a region lock. Please fix this, its killing the game and devides the community

  • I like the game alot, the only thing i seem to be having problems with is the load time…. some times it just takes forever… even with the install. is there any ways to help this?

  • Best family racing game to date! Love the editors and downloads, but the game itself is the best my family has played!

    Thank you for creating a great family racing game.

    My one gripe is that we had to pre-order at gamestop and got the god of war code, my children don’t play god of war due to ages. we were really looking for the ratchet and clank characters but the pre-orders were not being taken on line anymore. do you think you can help out a dad and make his kids even happier with a ratchet and clank code?

  • i hope they can find a way to improve server performance , not to set a region locked………………

  • basically with region lock, the matchmaking will be slow and only at peak times will it have a decent size pool of players….without lock then it’s peak gaming time somewhere in the world

  • why can’t we edit the sackboy costume??? this is such a disappointment!

  • i like how this looks but somehow amazon did not ship it on launch day so i have to wait today (hopefully) to get it along with smg2 (whitch i also pre ordered):(

  • I also got the e-mail with the XXXX-XXXX-XXXX code this morning. I’m at work and can’t check this out but it seems like this code will not be valid.

  • umm, ok I know everyone is miffed about the region lock, but can someone help me out and tell me; when I receive an invite to play from someone HOW do I accept the invite but have it be in split screen (since my roommate wants to play too.
    When I accept it just sends the 1st player to the gamematch that I was invited to.
    Thank you to whomever helps me out.

  • You guys should add more Sony characters like:
    Nathan Hale
    Jak
    Sly Cooper
    Old Snake(I prefer Solid but old is the most recent)
    Helghast
    Pippo Monkey(I think that’s their name, the monkey from Ape Escape)
    The guys from warhakw(their planes could be a new body)
    Cole McGrath(lightning weapon was made for him)(his car could be electric)

  • I am totally blown away by the decision to add a region lock to Modnation Racers. I’ve seen countless posts now about people returning there games and deciding not to buy it at all (Other sources around the web not just here)

    I’m curious, was it the intention of UFG to shoot yourself in the foot? Why would you ever consider a MANDATORY region lock? Sure you should allow players to search for people in the same region, but it should NOT be forced.

    I’m left in total shock over this as I cannot comprehend what would ever lead a game developer to this decision. You argue it might lag? That’s our choice if we wanna take the risk or not, plus in today’s world of high-speed internet connections and 16/32/256+ players online at the same time I’m sure we can handle 12 karts going around in circles.

    I have totally fallen in love with Modnation Racers and sadly I didn’t realise this rose had a very sharp thorn hidden in a painful place.

    You need to fix his UFG, A.S.A.P

  • Kyle! I had the beta thingy and created a handful of characters,karts and tracks, how come they were never brought over into the real game? :'(

  • @ 184 Xuiryus: I concur. It’s rather ridiculous that a game that markets itself on being about the community is restricted by something like this. I can sympathize with the decision of doing so, but not by making it mandatory.

    The vast majority of friends on my PSN list is from the US whilst I myself reside in the EU. I was looking forward to setting up tournaments, challenge my friends and simply take part in a whole lot more races. Given the matchmaking that’s barely working as is, I’d say that it’s critical that you bring all the regions together, with the option of only matchmaking with those within your own region if you yourself experience that your bandwidth just isn’t good enough for those types of online races.

    Brilliant game overall, loved the career and the create factor is as addicting as ever, but I’m deeply disappointed by your choice of a mandatory region lock. Hell, if Mario Kart Wii can do so without any issues what so ever, I really don’t see what’s stopping you guys.

    Fix the matchmaking, stabilize the servers, attend to the load times and remove the region lock and you’ll have the best kart racer on the market. For real.

  • Just exactly how do we go about unlocking Kevin Butler’s Mod in the game? I’ve been looking for answers and have found nothing…

  • Luv the trailer! XD
    Who designed it, SCEE/SCEA or was it United Front Games? =1

  • I am willing to trade a sackboy code for a Ratchet & Clank code. Any takers? Hit me up on the network. (raiderforty, raider40)

  • I love how once the game is out, and it has been sold to the hundreds of thousands, and there is all this mess with the game, no one is coming and replying anymore!! Game is sold, they got our money, and now they are on vacation cause I don’t see reply anymore!! Fix Career Mode (it cheats extreamly) and fix on-line, I have not play an XP game with more than 5 people, and it takes FOREVER for people to join cause of the stupid region lock!!

    • We gotta sleep sometimes. :)

      I’ve said this before on other replies, Career mode can be tough to some, especially when you get to later tracks but I don’t think it cheats. I’ve played on dozens of online races and I have to say real racers play the same way the AI does. They shoot the crap out of you when you are in first place, and YES, they all gang up on you. That’s the nature of racing. Now if the question is, is Career mode too hard? I think that’s subjective. It might be harder than “other” kart racing games, but I hope folks appreciate that victory is that much sweeter and exciting when the AI puts up a fight. As more folks get the game (remember we are only on our first 2 days) I don’t think finding player to race will be an issue. I found more people are into Casual Races vs XP races right now for whatever reason.

  • I suppose this is more of “out of luck” kind of thing, but I suppose I should ask anyhow. Why was the decision made to move our creations into GAME DATA, as opposed to GAME SAVES? I would really love the ability to transfer some of this content to friends consoles who don’t have internet connectivity without having to bring my entire PS3 over.

    It’s just a small gripe really. Consider it something of a suggestion that, perhaps, we could see in a future update? Other than that this game is absolutely beautiful in every respect. Aesthetically, technically…it’s masterful and has replaced Mario Kart as my favorite casual racing experience (especially considering some of those challenges are anything BUT casual).

  • I only played for about a 1/2 hour last night (kids were monopolizing tv playing SMG2) but I wanted to say I liked the ModStation inner spinning hill in the center, sat up there for awhile while others tried to knock me off, cheaply turned it off before anyone was successful ;-) – though thank goodness their is an option to just get what you want without driving around.

    My Amazon code worked, though I thought it weird R&C were kartless as they were certainly driving karts in all the trailers, but it was free so whatever.

    1 question – what settings was the game using in the opening race? I played the demo extensively mixing and matching speed and difficulty and I’ld say Pro speed and Normal difficulty? I came in 2nd my first atttempt and 1st the next and am a tad worried about upcoming Career mode diffculty if it isn’t adjustable.

  • I pre-ordered on March 28th from Amazon.com so I could get the Ratchet & Clank mod but instead I got an email for a $10 video game credit and not the code for Ratchet & Clank. Does it sound like a bait-and-switch? I think so.

    The link below mentions if you pre-order from Amazon you will get the Ratchet & Clank mod. So, what’s up Amazon!!!

    https://blog.playstation.com/2010/03/15/modnation-racers-release-date-pre-ord,ers-and-box-art/

  • Kyle Zundel,
    When you say there is a region lock in the game to boost online performance, what are the regions? Is North America all one region, and EU another one? Or are there different regions within North America? The reason I ask is because last night I was play ModNation and a couple people on my friends list (who are also in North America) were playing ModNation, but I could not see them in the friends list from within the game. Could they possibly have just not been signed onto the ModNation servers, or are they in a different region that me and that’s why I could see them so I could send and invite or join their ModSpot? Thanks.

  • Here’s a suggestion that doesn’t involve the Region Lock!

    Develop some sort of PC creation tools that will allow you to create a Mod, Kart, or Track either on-line through a website or just on your PC by downloading the tools. Then you could upload your creations to the Modnation Racer server(s).

    Thoughts?

  • AnthonyTonyMagic

    Hey Kyle,

    I haven’t bought this game yet because I’m not sure how the region lock works. I live in Hong Kong and use a Hong Kong PSN account. If I buy the UK version of the game will I be able to play my friends and family in the UK, or is it based on PSN region?

    I have to say I’m quite disappointed by the region lock. Now I have to choose between being able to play my family in the UK and my friends in HK, and I don’t even know if buying the UK version of the game will make a difference anyway.

    I get what you mean about the performance of cross-regional games, but I really hope you guys can at least add the option to turn off the region lock for invitation races. Otherwise I might not even buy the game. It’s a shame, because I was really looking forward to it.

  • @poohFan Weird, I got my R&C code. I had to check my newsletters email folder though because it got caught as spam, even though the $10 vid game credit email didn’t. Hopefully this helps.

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