After popping up in a number of international App Stores around the world, Electronic Arts' latest chapter in the Real Racing series finally lands in the U.S. -- but are users ready to pay to play?
Electronic Arts finally released Real Racing 3 in the U.S. App Store on Wednesday night, two weeks after the title sped its way around the world and made pit stops in a number of exotic locales abroad.
Unlike the previous two Real Racing releases, RR3 is absolutely free to download and play. The only catch is there are plenty of ways to spend your hard-earned money via in-app purchases, which has created a bit of controversy for EA with this release.
Our own Michael Grimm spent some hands-on time with the game following its international debut and found that the in-app purchases weren't really a requirement, assuming you have the patience to wait until such extras are unlocked over the course of natural gameplay.
"Vehicles accrue damage as you race them, meaning that if you slam it into a wall you can expect both decreased performance and a repair bill," Grimm explained. "Like other freemium games, the services and repairs take real time to complete, though those in a hurry can pay a few gold coins to bypass the wait."
The good news is that every section of the game can be unlocked without spending a dime -- players won't be forced into spending money unless they want to expedite the process.
With that in mind, Real Racing 3 is finally here, and the universal app works equally well on the iPhone 4, fourth-gen iPod touch and iPad 2 or higher running iOS 4.3 or later.
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