Yeah... not bad! I agree, almost wholey, with Jan*. Here are some more
observations:
My first impression was, "These game makers are complete and utter ***ing
idiots." No slope settings on the wheel or pedals and a generic controller
setup that fully excludes someone with a home made (or modified
manufactured) pedal system. For instance; my brake pedals sends the value
backwards and the game does not allow controller driven setup. I could
either drive with the brake pedal all the way down in triple axis or with
dual axis. I opted for the latter and believe I lost a little something
using it. As far as individual slopes, sensitivity, and dead zones on the
axis' goes, it ends up that it doesn't matter one way or another. The
physics simply aren't that critical, but the game maker still receives the
Double Moron award for lack of controller driven setup.
Here's a nit: The demo is a play an exit thingy. You can play as many times
as you'd like, but if you wish to change a controller or graphics setting
you have to exit and start over.
Here's a plus: You can ALT+TAB in and out all day to take notes or whatnot
and the thing never skips a beat, never corrupts sound or video, never blue
screens.
Even at 640x480 it looks terrific. There really is no good view though as
the bumper and hood cam have decent FOVs but they use a different one for
the incar which feels great, but has the wrong FOV. Overall the car is too
big (even though the road is wide) and I couldn't tell where I was on it.
Plus, sense of relative speed is non existent. The view/fov/feel is very
GPLish.
Can't feel the brakes or the tires or where you are but, that being said...
the feel aint bad at all. It's an arcade from the get go but you understand
what it's doing and it's consistent. It's easy to drive but requires and
allows immersion to drive. The front wheel drive feels more like a center
wheel drive unless you use auto ***, then it feels very much like FWD. By
center wheel drive I mean that the tires don't really connect to the ground.
When the car fishtails it feels like the front end is steering back and
forth, not a fishtail, and the replay tells a whole different story than the
***pit does. The demo only had one surface that felt more like gravel than
rocky packed dirt, which is what it looked like, and had no sharp turns. The
car doesn't skip over bumps and rocks and you can drive your Mini through 3
foot deep ditches like nothing. Now I've only driven a Mini once, one of my
high school girlfriend owned one, but I can tell you it is not a big
suspension car. The wheels are ten inches or something and neither it nor my
Dodge Omni would have driven over 4 foot rocks like the Rally Trophy Mini
does. I would like to have felt pavement and gravel as well just to get a
better picture of the physics. The suspension and frame do not bottom out
and the over all feel could be described as spongy. There is a bit of
latency in the control and graphics that makes the whole experience seem to
'wallow' a bit. My statement about the feel of the tires is a bit wrong in
that you can feel them once you're on the sidewall, (but nothing else.) and
it is very convincing. At lower speeds the physics are distinctly worse than
at higher speeds and the throttle has an ON/OFF quality to it. It's analog,
but it subtlety is something that is not necessary in Rally Trophy. You
floor it and go.
But, who cares... it's still fun.
I won't be buying this one but the demo is a must DL. It tells a good and
complete story.
* Jan, you actually drove a rally class? Very cool.
--
"Racing! - Science for the action minded."
mark
> >What y'all think??
> Installation and controller setup was flawless, easy to use menu
> system. Only had time to drive 2 rallys, so some very short first
> impressions:
> Graphics are very good, 1024x768, everything set to max, everything
> went extremely smooth. Car handling felt great, very twitchy (maybe I
> need to fiddle with controller settings some more) but you have good
> control over the car, the car is very responsive.
> The main thing (and good thing) about Rally Trophy is FUN!
> It's fun to drive the car, the groovy music and co-driver with an
> attitude just add to the fun atmosphere.
> The track itself was a bit boring though, no hairpins, only one 90
> degree corner if I remember correctly and it was quite short. I hope
> the final version includes some wilder stages with more jumps and
> harder corners :)
> All in all, a very good quality demo, quite refreshing after all the
> buggy final-versions released lately.
> I can't wait untill it hits the stores and I will definately buy this
> one!
> Andre
> >Lagwagon.
