Rate FRHD

Rate FRHD on a scale of one to ten. One being the worst and ten being the best. Feel free to add a description about your rating.

 

First off, I'd like to say that I'll never quite forgive Kano for taking over Free Rider 2 and Canvas Rider. Those games were a large part of my internet exploration and a source of inspiration for an art style I still use today. I just wish the situation would've been handled better, because many communities were ruined and many tracks and members lost.

Free Rider HD is not the first to create the game, so I'm not going to score it based on ingenuity because there isn't any. The lag has been heavily reduced (although canvas rider was the first to do this), and the editor is a little more user friendly. I'm still annoyed by a few things about it (like the complete redesign of intuitive key shortcuts), but overall it's certainly better than it was. The site itself is very pleasing to look at. I really dislike the way tracks are sorted on the database though, it's way too easy to have a track get buried.

The community is more kid friendly, which helps bring in new, younger members. Most of us started with Line Rider and Free Rider 2 as kids, so it's good to know that the community still generates new members through good advertising. It's annoying that it's gotten to the point of older users getting pissy at eachother, but I guess it's necessary. We did fare well without as much moderation in the old days, though.

The FPS is too fast, the bikes flip way too easily, and the SFX are horrible. The racing and ghosting is pretty decent, although it could be tweaked and improved in some areas. Comments working is great too, and definitely helps get a conversation going. Profile pages are sh*t and don't allow you to alter or delete your tracks, and codes are inaccessible - a major flaw compared to it's relatives. Also annoying how it takes you to your ghosts rather than your tracks, and track thumbnails are pretty much ruined.

Standard is WAY higher, and some great tracks come out of it. Spam is always an issue, but it's good to see that art still takes as big a role as it did in the olden days. Idk, there's some great stuff too but I cant help but notice how many things are worse about it than FR2. Half the good things about it had already existed before it.

3.5/10? Unless someone can give me a reason to like what it's done for the community and it's tracks.

 

game its self 4.5/10 the game is pretty fun but dont have something say coming soon for 6 months+
community 7/10 lots of old players who r cool
devs 8/10 best devs by far. theu interact with us and take ideas. this is the only game that i have seen that happen. but they have a lacking Comon sense.
Overal 6/10

 

8/10.

 

8.5/10

Nah... make that 3 or less

 

Me 9/10

 

Tbh if you rate the game low, why would you even be here? One would assume that you're here because you like it and not because you dislike it

 

5/10 cos of the condition of ghosting.

I'm here because cr and bhr died. And becouse ghisting might get a lot betger soon.

 

10/10

 

The game itsself has been made a lot worse by Kano and is completre trash compared to canvasrider (/Black Hat Rider). The physics are horrible, everything is too fast, the powerups look like garbage and have sounds (wtf) and I don't even want to get started on the checkpoint system thing. The editor is also absolutely bad in comparison with the canvasrider editor, I cant do anything with it and autos don't work, which is one of the biggest issues I have with FRHD. I don't even get the coins and points thing, its kinda stupid and unnecessary and probably only exists because money is getting made because of it (people that really pay for coins must be absolute dumbasses by the way). The Shop is just as unnecessary as the whole coins thing is and leads to many people wearing those dumb hats, which is annoying when I'm racing those guys. I also hate the layout of the whole game and the forum, it just looks bad to me. The profile pages are, as CityShep already mentioned, a lot worse than on BHR and I also hate that you cant delete, hide or get the track code of a track you already subnitted to the database. One thing I like is that its possible to comment on tracks, that was only possible on freerider2.org and Sketchrider before and is really cool.

The Forum has some positive aspects, its really active and although there are too many young people, most guys are alright. I like that you get alerts and that you can decide when you get them. Its also cool that you can comment on profile pages like on Sketchrider. Overall there are more possibilities in this forum than on the BHR forum, which I like. The layout isn't really my thing, but I've already said that.

Game: 2/10
Forum: 7/10
Overall: 4.5/10

 

there's a way to get the code of a track back, and I think I know how but I'm not sure. ask someone else ( like Silver_bird7 or Char ) and they can get a code back for you if you want.

anyways, I like the speed of the game because it's what I started with (not on frhd tho. app called draw rider). I don't mind the sounds, you can turn them off. everything is more modern than on cr and bhr, so that's cool. powerups here do limit autos, and if that could be fixed that'd be great. points are a better way to gauge the amount of tracks completed instead of number of ghosts imo. it opens more possibilities for tracks. if super big tracks (like magnum opus) awarded more points that say a track that takes 4 seconds to complete, then that'd be cool. editor is fine really. then again, I never played cr so I can't necessarily compare frhd to it.
forums are fun. I like you people, and I feel like people like me back (could very well be wrong about that tho). it's a tight-knit community that actually accepts newcomers, if they think that or not remains to be seen. the trophy points system is good for now, but in a while when everyone has a ton of likes and messages, it'll need more points to keep it from becoming obsolete.

game- 8/10
forums- 9/10
total-8.5/10

 

Honestly, I agree with about half of that, but I really think the only reasons why cr and bhr were clearly better is the gameplay, mainly autos working, physics, the editor (maybe I just have to get used to it) and the goddamn front brake. Also deleting tracks would be necessary. I don't mind the whole shop stuff at all, layout and everything is just fine. The forums are absolutely great (ghosting forum still missing, wink wink Char Eric Velksy Stig )
Also stiggy boi, nobody dislikes the game, it's just that cr and bhr were alot better imo

idk like 6/10

 

Getting a code from a track is super easy Minus

 

I know how to do that (thanks to codrey)but its bad for people who don't know.

 

Stig pls. I like the game, I was just rating the edits done to it. Lots of downgrades and not enough upgrades. The original game, concept, and the creativity it allows gets a 9.5/10 from me. It's really not missing much, but as YoYo124 said (who put it perfectly, may I add)

We're also rating FRHD, not Free Rider in general. To be honest, free rider HD is probably my least favorite interpretation of the game, and YoYo once again states exactly why;

Like literally YoYo, you said it freaking perfectly. Words cannot describe, it literally seems like you scooped into my brain and wrote exactly what I have been thinking xD

 

KanoGames overtaking Canvas Rider and other FR2-related sites
Stated previously by YoYo and CityShep, this was a tragic day for committed users of the mentioned sites. I remember it well, with all the forum threads in protest, the crowding of the community Tinychat page in a similar protest, and the closing of the database (there was a way to bypass the closed database however, as the last tracks posted are by forum members where the bypass was most likely spoken about). I had very fond memories of Canvas Rider, being the first site on the Internet that I truly was active and interested in, making many friends along the way which I still have contact with to this day. The game was in its simplest form at the time, and in its prime as well. Over 1.4 million tracks had been uploaded over the multiple years which it remained alive, a large amount of track moderators/VIP members, as well as a small staff of global moderators. The only thing missing was an active administrator; Maxime had gone MIA since early 2012, after the end of the Poster Contest. Once members started to acknowledge the absence of Maxime, it was easy to tell that the game was headed in a downward spiral. The game didn't need much moderation, and yet the lack thereof started to become a problem, mainly on the forums. The day when KanoGames had shut down Canvas Rider was still surprising nonetheless, and caused a huge amount of members to quit the game right then and there. So many talented artists had been stifled by this change, and would never make a track again. It seems as though the folks here at FRHD had made a valiant effort at transferring some popular tracks from Canvas Rider, but I still long for the whole experience over at Canvas Rider.

Customizations in the game which vary from previous versions
This is where my rating becomes biased. The customizations added to the game, namely a coin-based system and graphical/coded changes to power-ups, are something that I look down upon. However, the group of people that agree with me here consist of a very small group of "veteran" players from Canvas Rider and other preceding sites. We were used to a game that was based on simplicity, and thrived in such a state of simplicity before FRHD had come. I don't want this part to influence my rating of the site, because I have no control over how I view the constant changes of the game I had previously adored. What matters is that the large increase of new players are enjoying the game and contributing greatly to the FRHD database. These new players had no previous experience with other sites that had not been as customizeable, and most likely had played other games where much more customization had taken place. Perhaps I am overreacting to the customizations, as they are very minimal compared to other games. However, I believe FRHD has done a great job at pulling in new members. Customizations are a benefit to the game, because new players would see a blank canvas and most likely get bored of the game before they truly get in-depth with it. A small price to pay for disheartening the veteran players, but a benefit nonetheless for the good of the game.

Checkpoint system
Another area where biased is included, but I wanted to bring this up anyways. I am used to an entirely different checkpoint system of preceding sites, where the clock saves your time at the passing of the checkpoint, rather than keep going as it does here on FRHD. I believe this is a benefit to the game, but another topic where veteran players, mainly those who are avid riders of tracks, will disapprove. Personally, I am used to being stuck on a checkpoint for 10-15 minutes before I believe I have perfectly executed the track, until I had reached the next checkpoint. I used to spend even hours on a single ghost, in order to get the perfect result to show my friends at Canvas Rider and BHR. I always had motivation to play new tracks and work my way up to the top of the scoreboards. Due to the changed system of checkpoints here, I have never felt that motivation to begin racing on tracks. This is biased because honestly, I think the checkpoint system is more beneficial here. Those who reach the top of the scoreboards have proven that they are able to ride tracks with endurance, not going back on checkpoints and still making ghosts that are perhaps minutes in length. I never learned much of endurance riding on CR/BHR, however I was used to repeating a checkpoint constantly, as I had previously stated. I also wanted to add this for some reason, however I do agree that it is beneficial to the game, as I had done with customizations in the previous paragraph.

Changes in the boost engine
I'm unsure as to what the changes in boosts had done to help the game, however what it did to hurt it is make previous automatic tracks unable to work correctly. You cannot change a single aspect of an auto and expect it to work the same as it had before, which is why the changing of the boost engine was detrimental to these tracks. Some amazing autos that were previously made simply crash after seconds, which leads to users voting the track negatively, and wondering why these tracks had been posted at all. Once again, I'm not sure of the positive aspect of this change, but I'm sure there is one present.

Database vs. Forum
Unlike sites prior, FRHD has done a great job at integrating users to the forums. This is something that Canvas Rider had failed to do, with only a single link redirecting to the forum, with no help on how to make an account or any incentive to join the forum at all. I am happy that FRHD has all the links under the community section, which allows users to involve themselves with others in a more verbal fashion, rather than cutting themselves off to comments on tracks, and so on. Just looking at the numbers can put into perspective how things have changed for the better. Canvas Rider had a total of 1,470,321 tracks uploaded and a total of 13,366 registered forum members; the ratio of tracks to members is 1:110. On FRHD, there are a total of 217,040 tracks and a total of 6,329 registered members; a ratio of tracks to users at 1:34.3. I think there can be more done to try and get more people interested in increasing forum activity, but I'm sure this ratio will start slowly approaching 1:1 as time goes by.

Community
Compared to other sites, FRHD has an active and positive community. This is most likely due to a larger amount of younger users, while there tends to be more disagreement when communities are smaller and mainly older members. I actively check this site because I am interested in the community, and I'm glad to have met multiple great people here in the short time I have been posting. I do not regret switching to this site, as it was easy to leave behind the toxic community of previous sites, which I will not name, however I'm sure some of you can name them yourselves.

Speed of the bike
Perhaps this is coming from me having played multiple versions beforehand, but I think the game runs much too fast. I am saying this as the bike accelerates much too quickly, when compared to a real life bike. It might not be the best idea to compare this game to real life, however I just think it runs much too fast. A bike is not as mobile as it is portrayed in FRHD, especially when it comes to backflips and small movements. This aspect of the game could also turn certain users off, as it takes quite a bit more time to learn the game when things move much faster than they should.

Staff
This is where FRHD really excels over previous sites. More recently than ever, more staff members have been employed to moderate both the database, as well as the forum. Personally, I believe more moderation or more activity of moderators is needed, but FRHD is taking a step in the right direction to employ more people to moderate the site. The higher ranked administrators are active on the site and take in many ideas that users post, which is great for the development of the game. I'm glad to see some trusted and familiar faces taking over both the forum and database moderator jobs, as well as some people I have not known previously, but are taking the job seriously and performing well. The administrators of the site are choosing a great set of people to carry out these tasks, and should consider employing some more users as well.

~~

Rating: 7/10
I might've been too harsh on the site for my opinions of the preceding sites, but I tried to not let that influence my rating as much as I could. It's such a huge change for me, as well as some veteran players of the game, but most of the changes are important to the development of the game. Where a majority of games are becoming more complex in order to attract players, FRHD is not putting as much emphasis into a drastic change, rather editing the game in a minor way to become more attractive to possible players of the game. There is still a large group of players that create wonderful works of art through the database, as well as players who have perfected their ability to ride tracks, reaching the top of leaderboards on many tracks. I believe the only way is up from this point forward.

 

10/10

 

overrated much?
itll be like 7/10 for me when ghost feats come.
no disrespect!
and i just now realized, that you have developed this game around what you find cool/necessary.

 

No, we have developed the game based on projected analysis, and what we thought might work better for gaining new players. Rather than the old veteran scrubs, who just give me headaches

A lot more changes are sure to come in the future, which will probably shape the game more towards something you guys want.

Slower FPS.
Different Checkpoints haha (Honestly, at this point we might as well make checkpointing a hotkey)
You guys need to create a list of ideas and vote on them as well.

For the time being, we are moving forward with a simple mobile version (app).