Gone in a Split/Second

ign.com:

Some gaming gems get forgotten over time, some never get the chance to be discovered in the first place. Out of all of the games that instantly impressed me when I first played them and frustratingly faded into obscurity, Split/Second surely takes the pole position. Welcome to the third installment of my ongoing column, Forgotten Gems!

If you’ve never played Split/Second and you’re into arcade racers, know that it’s not too late. Largely forgotten -- or rather, unknown -- it may be, but it’s still easy to find and play (see bottom of this article). Split/Second was the brainchild of Black Rock Studio, a company formerly known as Pixel Planet, then Black Rock Studio, then Climax Brighton, then Climax Racing, then… Black Rock Studio again.

And as you may have guessed, the studio’s story doesn’t have a happy ending. Acquired by Disney in 2006, Black Rock had established itself as a racing game specialist with the MotoGP and ATV Offroad Fury series for THQ and Sony, respectively. Added to Disney Interactive’s growing portfolio of developers, Black Rock was going to be a cornerstone of a new Disney gaming initiative that went beyond kids and family entertainment. Disney’s ambitious plans also included bringing Avalanche Studios, Wideload, Propaganda Games, and Warren Spector’s Junction Point Studios into the fold – with Black Rock doing what it’s done best and laser-focused on developing great racing games.

And that it did. While Black Rock was shut down in 2011 and its talented team scattered to other development studios, it managed to create two racing games under Disney that didn’t just impress our reviewers back then, but hold up perfectly well to modern scrutiny. Its first game, Pure, is an excellent ATV racer released in