I've tweaked it to get a good frame rate. the graphics are stellar, and
the queasy feeling you get when getting up to serious velocities in close
quarters is quite a rush. I can now slide the cars at will, and prefer
the driving feel to the Screamer approach of CMR. But then along come the
show-stopping flaws that ruin the experience for me. The "what the hell
just happened" as a tiny clip of certain banks sends your car into an
instant barrel roll. I could live with this, as I have seen the freak
accidents in rallies before, but these come just a little too frequently
in RC2000. Yeah, I know... improve my driving. But even if I drive
carefully, the lame damage model ruins it for me. If I broke something in
GPL, I knew why. If I break something in RC2000, it seems it is because a
certain sequence of random numbers and lookup tables aligned in the proper
way. Cut a corner and damage your.... clutch?!?! What the...? Broken
gears are the rule, not the exception in this game. Last time I spectated
the Tall Pines Rally in Canada, there were two gearbox problems in the
whole field. I drop gears at the rate of one per stage, and it has
nothing to do with my driving style. I dropped 3rd gear in the 3rd stage
of Wales, so I tested it out. Drove at 60kph in fourth gear for the whole
4th stage. I lost that gear. Driving around town for groceries cooks a
straight-cut gear?!?! C'mon magnetic fields, what were you
thinking? Tires puncturing because they are "used up"? Sure, there are
random breakdowns in real rallies, but if I had a car prepared with the
same care as those in RC2000, I'd start shopping around for a new race
shop.
I'm sure there are some fabulous sim drivers out there who can complete
the championship without these mechanical gremlins, but for me, an above
average simmer, I am finding the championship mode hopeless, not because I
can't finish it, but because there is no sense of cause and effect.
Guess I'll stick to the time-trials and single rallies for now.
Stephen