Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue (PlayStation 2, Xbox)

Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue
Developer: Blitz Games Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox Released in US: November 4, 2003 This game has unused text.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

A game that involves training your own horse and giving presents to other people.

Unused Text

relnotes.txt

Inside of Packages\Front\FrontEnd.xbp is a text document that contains release notes for a pre-release build.

** Please see the text file accompanying this package for the latest release notes **

Major points and generic game comments

* All trails have been updated since they were last viewed.
* All levels have their own individual skies.
* Forest trail 1 and Snowy trail 2 are the most complete trails, but still have bugs and design changes to come.
* Shoreline trail 2 is undergoing a complete texture change and only the initial section is demonstrative of the final look.
* Most of the sea is still missing from the shoreline trails, but shoreline trail 1 has some reasonably demonstrative areas. However, these are still being worked on.
* A number of puzzles have been redesigned (in response to the last report) but not yet implemented, most notably on Snowy trail 3.
* A number of the tree types suffer from 'texture burning'. We are replacing textures to considerably reduce this effect.
* We have tried to give each trail an individual look, but some of the recolouring is still to be done.
* We are in the process of replacing all Barbie animations. A few are included in this build, for example, walk and jog.
* We have received all of the ambient, character and object audio files from our sound team, but have not implemented them yet.
* we are moving to a system of increasing the height of the camera when close to an animal - at the moment there are some basic 'camera cases' in Forest trail 1 which will be replaced since they make the controls awkward.
* Controls have been improved, but will still be tweaked with focus-test results.
* Voices are placeholder at the moment - final recording of the full set is happening 6-17-03.
* Placement of objects, animals, coins etc.. throughout is still being worked on.
* The lassoing animations and code functionality are still being worked on.
* There are several places where Barbie and her horse will be able to fall through the mesh.
* At the moment the save game supports only a single slot and has an unfinished interface. We will be implementing a "3 slots" system and changing the interface.
* The save game icon is a placeholder and temporary one from a previous Blitz game.
* There are still a number of bugs and inconsistencies in the game.


Major known bugs

* At times the horse will stop but Barbie will continue to play her galloping animation. Swinging the camera around using the right analogue stick MAY fix this.
* The horse may have trouble navigating specific areas when you whistle it.
* There is an intermitant crash bug on loading or exiting some levels.
* Some ambient sound effects may start or stop suddenly.
* Several objects within the game are currently untextured.
* Throughout the game there are still some collision problems, such as being able to run through objects, the horse not jumping over some logs or running through some gates.
* We are still working on visibility, so some areas will only start to fade in when you are fairly close to them.


Individual trails comments

Pre-rendered sequences

* We have two pre-rendered sequences that are not in this build. The quality and finish of these is significantly higher than in the last version. We have also re-positioned some of the shots to reduce compression artifacts.

Frontend

* The frontend has been completely changed since the last version.

Stables / courtyard

* The stables have seen a large overhaul in the graphics although there are still a few issues with 'burning' textures.
* We have still to implement the waterfall effect in the fountain.

Forest trail 1

* Many areas and objects have been remodeled (as per the request) to create a more realistic 3d effect.
* Waterfalls are not finished.
* Textures are still being tweaked.
* Some base texture colours are still to be repaletted to produce a more individual look.

Forest trail 2

* The sluice-gates puzzle is changing to a foal puzzle - not implemented currently in this build.
* Areas and objects have been remodeled (as per the request) to create a more realistic 3d effect.
* This level still requires many finishing touches.

Forest trail 3

* Floor textures currently have several unattractive stretches that we will fix.
* Log piles will be remodeled to make them more cylindrical.
* The foal which you must lead past several logs is currently too difficult to accomplish for the target audience.

Snowy trail 1

* The first few chunks of this level need optimisation to maintain a consistent frame rate.
* Some base texture colours are still to be repaletted.
* Several areas and objects will be remodeled to create a more realistic effect, such as the bridges you must lead the horse across due to them being 'old and rickety'.

Snowy trail 2

* This is the most complete level, although it is not yet finished.
* The ski-lift does not follow quite the correct path.

Snowy trail 3

* The cave challenges are being reworked.
* The 'ice maze' has not been textured properly.
* Several objects may appear below the floor, due to collision problems.

Ocean trail 1

* A few early sections of this have water which is more demonstrative of the final sea, although it's not yet final.
* There are still some challenges to amend.

Ocean trail 2

* This level is least complete, texture wise, and is currently undergoing a complete change in terms of it's look. The early sections are demonstrative of the final look.
* The sea is in no way complete.
* This level is least complete, challenge wise.

Ocean trail 3

* The sea is in no way complete.
* Several challenges are still to be implemented.
* A few objects are untextured curretly.

Mini-games

* Mini-games are demonstrative of the final selection, but have not been tweaked for gameplay.