MEMBER PROFILE FOR Scav880
Average Overall Score Given: 10.00000 / 10
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Reviews
Rallisport Challenge
Overall: It's been a tough go for Xbox gamers since the system launched. While there have been a few good titles in the console's short post-launch history, none have really stood out from the rest. This all changes with the release of Microsoft's Rallisport Challenge. This game's hype and familiarity among gamers is not unlike a little game named Gran Turismo four years ago. It looks good, but is it just be another game in the vast sea of racing titles? The answer is no. No. No.
Rallisport Challenge immediately surpassed my expectations. I'm no graphics whore, so like in most games, I quickly got past the game's bump-mapped surfaces with chunks of ice on the road, bushes that flatten when you run them over, and real-time lighting and reflections on the cars.
The physics are fully intact here. How your car handles depends on one of the three surfaces you race on: gravel, ice, and tarmac. Cars will make tight turns on tarmac, with little skidding while applying the hand brake. Gravel will have a little more give, while ice is where players have to be the most cautious when turning due to its slippery nature.
Driving the cars has a pseudo-arcade feel to it, mostly because they're relatively easy to handle. Don't get me wrong - you can't just hold down the acceleration button and expect to win races. This is a game about properly using the gas and timing your powerslides to hit those sharp turns while staying on the road.
Like most racing games, many of the tracks and cars in Rallisport Challenge are locked until you beat specific goals in career mode. This mode features two types of races: timed and racing against CPU opponents. The timed races fluctuate between extremely easy to very frustrating at times. You'll find yourself restarting races often if you didn't get off to a good start.
Cars do take damage, but there is a limit to how much. I would have liked to have seen an option in the game that allows me to take so much damage that I can't continue the race - this would force me to be a more disciplined racer.
The game's soundtrack is standard techno, but fortunately you can replace it with any of the soundtracks you may have ripped to the Xbox hard drive. Sound effects like breaking windshields will send chills down your spine each time you hit something.
Rallisport Challenge supports up to four players via split screen, so make sure you have a TV big enough to allow all players to see the road up ahead clearly. Thankfully, even in split screen the game runs at a smooth 60 fps. System link support would have been nice.
Any gamer remotely interested in racing games shouldn't miss Rallisport Challenge. It's fun for the casual and diehard race fans alike, and is the best Xbox game to grace the system since launch.
Gameplay: After a few minutes behind the wheel of this game, you'll quickly realize that it's not really a rally simulator per se. Its slightly exaggerated sense of speed is designed to give the game a little excitement, and certainly, you'll feel a rush as you blast down winding mountain roads at 140kph, with a solid wall of trees and boulders on one side of your car and a sharp cliff on the other. The physics model is also a little forgiving, letting you do things like get a little more hang time off jumps than would have been possible in real life or power through a turn using nothing more than your handbrake. Still, RalliSport Challenge isn't easy. At first, you'll often find yourself sliding off the road after applying a little too much of the brakes or flipping end over end after colliding with a tree. There isn't a tutorial in the game, but you'll learn an important lesson very quickly: speed kills. Staying on the gas, braking too late, and not turning early enough are sure ways of crashing. And while the spectacular accidents in the game are a sight to behold, it takes only a couple of crashes in any given race to put you out of contention. Still, the game's well-balanced mix of slightly liberal physics and the realistic handling properties of the cars make for a driving experience that few racing games can match. You'll have a blast driving each course, and you'll find that there's no better feeling than finally nailing every turn of a course you've been trying to master for a while.
Graphics: This game has what's arguably some of the best graphics yet to grace the Xbox since Halo and Dead or Alive 3, and even if you're not particularly interested in driving games, you should own RalliSport Challenge just for the sake of marveling at its visual splendor.
The environments are spectacularly detailed--a subtle amount of bump mapping on the terrain adds a three-dimensional texture to the different driving surfaces. The icy roads, for example, have a slick sheen of water visible under the sunlight, and you can easily make out the individual indentations in the gravel. Level design is usually an important consideration for shooters, not driving games--but not so with RalliSport. Every turn, every tree, and every rock is deliberately placed to keep you challenged. Many of the blind corners in the game, for example, will dump you smack into the trunk of a solitary tree--or off a cliff! Many open turns have a rock or two hidden underneath a thick patch of grass, making cutting some corners a risky proposition. RalliSport Challenge really lets the Xbox flex its muscles--the game has no clipping plane to speak of, the lighting is subtle and not overpowering, and vegetation such as long grass and trees look incredibly realistic. The cars themselves are also modeled with an eye for detail. Cars reflect the sun and their environments realistically without looking like they're made of chrome. What's more, the more you drive your car, the dirtier it gets. By the end of each race, the bottom half of your car will be caked with a nice layer of dirt, mud, or dust, depending on the kind of track you were driving on. You'll be hard pressed to find any clipping problems between the cars and the terrain, and the collision detection is exact--you'll never wonder in frustration why one of your wheels clipped a rock.
Audio: For the most part, the game's sound effects are on par with its visual prowess. Each of the 25 cars has a distinct engine noise that varies realistically as you row through the gears, as well as a unique exhaust note that changes depending on your perspective to the car. You can even make out the whiny blow-off valve when you lift off the throttle of some of the turbo cars. Likewise, each of the different terrain types sounds different. Driving over mud leaves somewhat of a wet sound, for example. Your navigator's voice never seems to get repetitive or annoying either, despite the British accent. The game's music is comprised mostly of electronic tunes from the likes of Dub Pistols, Soundmine, and Fear Factory. You can add and remove tracks from the game's playlist in the options menu and add any additional tracks that you may have sitting on your Xbox hard drive. As is to be expected, RalliSport Challenge supports up to four
Suggestions: It's somewhat noteworthy that the Xbox is only a few months old, and yet, it already has no fewer than 10 driving games available for it. However, none of those games deserve your attention as much as RalliSport Challenge does. This is easily the best driving game currently available for the Xbox, and no Xbox owner should be caught without it.
This is a Must Have!!
- Thanks to XboxAddict for letting me write this review.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
