well it took 90 minutes, but I got it. So it installed OK, same
problems I always have:it uses UK keyboard maps. However the
installer was bright enough to use forward slashes.
The intro is great looking, but a waste for those downloading.
It makes sense for CD dist as this has been mentioned to be.
Well lets touch on a few points I haven't seen listed:
Where in the ***y HELL is the handbrake!?! I was stunned!
Control is nice, but I've never seen a rally car do a
corkscrew jump and land on its wheels. Twice. Yes, no
damage is fun, but silly! My first run I think I flipped
9? 10 times or so. Time of 14:30somthing. The hood er,
bonnet view was beautiful, but the high ditch sides make
using the treeline and pre-turns very tough. I like the
fact that there are a great many views.
"Hookup" with the Seat (the only car) is a bit silly.
5 seconds of front wheel spin? In second as well?
Where's the manual gear shift?! Engine noise drowns
out the co-drivers instructions, and gravel and dirt
noises are even louder. I like the grating skid-plate
sounds when attempting to high-center the car.
there seem to be plenty of choices for car based
on the closing screens. I'm dieing to run some.
I wonder if the Civic is a CVT in automatic mode?
(some guys from Honda R&D N.A. run a civic cvt here
in a F2-like class called Group-2)
My second run, I tried not to do 90 the entire time.
I held back to a more relaxed 60-70mph. I noticed
it was still VERY VERY tough to drive bonnet view.
So I switched to 3rd person outside the car.
13:34 hooked up with 2 rolls.
Playing a bit more with the physics engine I noticed
that the rear is quite realistic at low(er) speeds.
However things get very strange at high speeds, and
the car acts less like a rally car and more like a
"skipping stone" thown across a pond. I was able to
"skip" the car backwards across an entire field. NOT
too realistic.
The graphics on both my Voodoo2 and my Matrox Mil. G200
(had a hard time convincing the game NOT to do 3dfx)
both look very good and its easy to call this the best
_looking_ rally sim ever.
Do they build perfect, unbreakable wooden fences in the UK?
The crowds are still dumb-looking, but expected.
Things I hope to goodness they add/are in:
-Car setup, tire selection and gearing changes
-handbrake!!!
-damage (lots of talk about this already on other threads)
-bonus hidden cars (hey, why not?)
-reverse burnouts are exactly the same as forward? Uhm.. gearing?
-Gear sounds were un-rally-like. No straight cut loud gears, but the
"crunch" of the shift was there.
-joystick and wheel support so everyone will shut up about it
customizable polygon car models. Hell, customizable helmet models.
-less damn lens flare! since when do ALL ralleyists wear
round glasses?
-ghosted multiplayer like CMR had. Not that awful multiplayer
they had for IRC.
So my times as they stand:
1-14:30something
2-13:34
3-DNF (my brother got annoyed and made me put on headphones)
4-rebooted (damn that power cable got under my chair and I kicked it)
5-12:41
6-10:07
7- was on track for an 8min. but got backwards 1/2 way at the dry
ditch on the left, and the car became "stuck" restarted.
8-11:something
So, drop a note and tell me what YOU folks out there think.
As presented (for whatever reasons) this is NOT a sim. Rather
it is a fairly good arcade game that is much better than any
current offerings. Rating: for those that ralleye, buy it
have fun. For those who love racing sims, avoid as you'll
whine too much. Inbetween? Check it out yourself.
7 out of 10. with more in-game options, or any, it would
have gotten an 8.
Looking forward to the full game:
Ed
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"Trying to explain computers to a layman is like trying to
