There are two things that really show up for a street racing game: credibility, in terms of having the verisimilitude of the racing, as well as the setting, have a unique and interesting setting that sets you firmly into position as to where and why you're racing. Moscow Racer does this on both counts.
Moscow Racer succeeds on the first count because Akella has been working with actual Moscow street racers in the development of the game. When you see how traffic acts, when you see cops or messengers fly through crowded streets, when you see how the car handles, all of that has been worked with actual street racers in order to provide the best racing game experience they can provide.
In addition, the race courses have not only been based on actual Moscow geography, it's down to the building level. If you race through the courses in the game, then go to Moscow, you're going to recognize just where things are and now how to get around, at least, in relation to those courses.
And the whole setting - Moscow - is one that hasn't been explored in racing games before. Players may have gotten used to racing through Tokyo or New York City, but an area like Moscow, especially in this day and age, still has a combination of exotic and "this could really happen" feel that can be lost when trying to imagine street racing in LA (I say as I look out over the LA streets from my hotel room).
Weaving in and out through traffic you're going to feel like a street racer. The graphics do the game justice; hopefully we'll get a chance to really sit down and see how it feels to put the pedal to the metal in a Ford Mustang on Moscow city streets.
I'm a 29 year old senior network and systems engineer for a consulting firm in the DC area. I'm mostly into MMOs and FPSes (on the console), and I'm a big pro football fan. In my other spare time I like to write and tend to read copious amounts of history and military sci-fi. I'm also into cooking and bad action movies.
