rec.autos.simulators

1. It is an *Arcade* rally racer
2. Still it is a lot of fun, although likely to be quite short in the
longevity stakes.

There was not a lot of info on this title during development, but what was
available seemed to suggest that this would be more sim than arcade racer.
Given Martin Kenwright's background from DID I also thought this the most
likely scenario?

I don't quite know why developers make pure arcade racers anymore? I guess
to keep development times and costs down to maximise profits. It had always
seemed a bit short-sighted to me. Games with depth usually develop a
following that can be milked in terms of sequels more easily I would have
thought. Although what do I know, isn't ridge racer up to 19 now?

Anyway to the guts of it.

Graphics:

There is a lot of multimedia stuff before each rally, it is nice but really
you only watch it once. 'nuff said.

The graphics are very nice indeed. Very nice ability of the graphics engine
to pull back so you can see miles (figuratively) off into the distance (eg.
helicopter shots). This has an added benefit when during racing you can
often see two or three corners in advance. Very helpful and realistic.
However you pay dearly for this privilege with long load times. Sometimes
upwards of 1 minute for the longest stages. This obviously can be very
irritating.

Nice animated pilot and co-pilot (only useful for replays tho, I don't know
anyone who would actually race from that perspective). They seem to have
mapped each pilot and co-pilot's face to their virtual models, which is very
cool.

There are animated 3D spectators and animals although to me, they seem
farcical. They remind me of flight Sims in the early days, you know.... see
that box over there, that is New York! The numbers are kept incredibly low
(compared to the real spectator count) to keep the frame rate up. Talking of
frame rate, it is good, no slow downs or drop outs (except occasionally on
the replays, which is of little importance).

Car damage! Yes! But hold your horses. Again damage has been done in an
arcade only way unfortunately. It is location based to be sure, but quite
limited in the visible damage which you can do to the car as well as damage
effects to the car handling/engine/transmission etc. I can hit a massive
boulder at 200km/h head on and honestly only smash the left headlight and
damage the car transmission!!!!!! In reality the car would be almost totally
disintegrated. Once again they did this to appeal to the arcade crowd ...
"what do you mean I am out of the race ... how frustrating". I am beginning
to appreciate why polyphony have been so reluctant to move over to a full
damage model. The reason is because realistic damage is hard to do right. I
have yet to see any racing game that gets car damage anywhere near
realistic. Either do it right (none), or don't do it at all (Polyphony).

Another arcade concession is leaving the track. You get a 3 second timer to
return otherwise you will be placed back on track. So I can totally lose the
car on a deadly corner in Cyprus, plunge 250 feet to my presumed death but
be returned to the course ready to race again in 3 seconds! If I didn't hit
the bottom by 3 seconds I won't even have any car damage!!! Ha!

Sound:

Good, nice bang bang (turbo anti lag system), music, as always in these
games sucks ... you will turn it off. Honestly why do they bother ... better
to spend the $$$ elsewhere.
Good co-pilot voices (I think they sampled each one - not sure will need to
play more, or else, at least they got their accents right), although you
will need to turn down the engine sounds to hear them properly.

Physics model:

I have never driven a WRC car before! Certainly it feels different from
every other rally racer that went before it, and each one, of course, claims
that his or her model is better than anyone else's. The cars *can* roll,
which is more than can be said for GT3. I don't know but the cars do feel a
bit *light* to me. Again I am not qualified to pass judgement. Certainly
each different surface type requires a different driving technique, which is
good. Even different gravel surfaces feel and handle differently which is
extra good.

The car set-up model is *WAY* simplified. There are 5 car variables (gears,
brakes, steering, tyres, suspension) which can be modified with only three
different states ... i.e. real arcade stuff here, especially as the choices
are so *OBVIOUSLY* tied to the track (tyres dry - for dry, wet - for wet,
spikes - for snow, same for suspension) they are not choices at all. Hell
from what I have seen so far, you may as well just stick with the defaults.

The force feedback is poorly modelled IMHO. The forces are weak. You only
get the vibration and bounce effects; I can't detect weight transfer like I
could with GT3. Obviously nothing can touch the greatness of GPL FF but GT3
is much better than this.

Because it is an arcade game there are no things that would make this a sim
like:

Reccie
Service stages
You always go last on a stage!
Sweeping the stage for other cars after you
Real car systems damage
etc

In terms of longevity I have managed to complete one WRC season on normal
difficult with no trouble at all coming first in every event except GB on my
very first attempt.

I am now in the middle of a pro season and am easily coming first in all
events so far, and it looks like I will easily win again on my second try.

After that then what???? There is some kind of international championship
competition system built into the game where you can have a chance at
winning a Mitsy Evo by sending in your times, but as the comp doesn't open
until December I can't say anything more about it. Certainly the single
player game seems way too easy, unless the second half of the pro comp
becomes incredibly harder (which I doubt). Part of the reason why this is
because in reality a race ending crash is only given an arcade 3 second
penalty. One way around this is to be honest, if you crash badly enough,
forfeit the remainder of the event. This is how I will need to play in the
future if there is to be any hope of game longevity.

Bugs:

No major ones so far. Minor ones with the car shadow appearing above the car
in chopper view sometimes, occasional pauses in replay mode (minor).

Occasionally the AI cars achieve very strange (questionable) split times. I
will need to look into this in more detail, but it seems that at times
something funny is going on.

Summary:

Ok Ok I have vented and dumped on this game enough. As you have guessed I
feel disappointed in the direction Evo' Studios decided to go with this.
Especially in light of early reports hinting this game being a sim rather
than an arcade racer. They even snagged the WRC licence, which I thought
would have swayed them more in the direction of a sim. Although in truth
they never really said one way or another.

I don't want to leave on a sour note tho'. The game is fun. The sense of
speed is captured very well (better than GT3 IMHO); the immersion factor
during racing is high. It draws you in with the feeling of "just one more
race".

Well that's it, my final suggestion would be to rent this first, which I
certainly will be doing with WRC 2002 ... looking forward to CMR3.

John

Unlike yourself, I've only played 3 stages but from that short play I
can concur with almost everything you've said. (the ones I don't concur
with are most likely due to not playing more than 3 stages)

I was prepared to buy this game and had travelled specifically to the
nearest vendor to pick it up. However, I saw Rally Trophy on the shelf
(didn't know it was due out in Australia so soon) and picked it up
instead.

Shame really.

Cheers,
Rod.