RAC Rally - New Game

According to adverts (UK) this game is out tomorrow (27/9). As the previous release wasn't very exciting, at least not by modern standards :-) , does anyone out there have any information about this newcomer. Anyone seen a demo or seen any reviews?. I might as well find out about the game before buying it!. Steve North East England

> According to adverts (UK) this game is out tomorrow (27/9). > As the previous release wasn't very exciting, at least not by modern > standards :-) , does anyone out there have any information about this > newcomer. > Anyone seen a demo or seen any reviews?. > I might as well find out about the game before buying it!. I picked up this game at EB last Friday (27th). I had heard mixed views regarding it, but hey I just wanted a rally sim, so I decided to give it a go. It's a different game altogether from the previous effort, but then so it should be - machines have come on a long way since then. Basically it follows 28 stages of the Network Q RAC Rally with a choice of 6 cars (including the Subaru, Ford, VW - I can't remember them all - I'm working from memory). The stages include varying weather conditions (snow, rain etc.), and track surfaces that make a difference to the driving style required. The game can be run in VGA or SVGA, but since it seems to run fine on my P133 in SVGA with the viewpoint set to far (VERY important to be able to see where you're going), I haven't used VGA. The framerate is pretty good on my system in SVGA - certainly perfectly useable in my opinion - but one persons perfect framerate is anothers jerky nightmare. The graphics are good, but not up to NFS standards - but then this is a rally game, the length of the stages precludes too much scenery change. You get the choice of view from in the car (my choice) or outside the car. There are several modes of play including championship, several levels of arcade mode, and individual. There are other cars to race against in the arcade modes (and even if you pass all the cars at the start, other cars miraculously appear in front of you!), and the stages are split up into sections with a time limit for each section. In championship mode it's just like the real thing - you don't see other cars very often, and you can repair damage at service points between certain stages, with a time limit, and an amount of time to repair certain bits of the car (with a damage meter for each). The main faults of the game include an ability to bounce off the scenery to gain time, but incur very little damage. It's very difficult to roll the car. I've also found that the gearbox starts to lose gears when the damage meter only shows it to be slightly damaged. Replacing the gearbox fixes this - but you can only replace the gearbox once during the rally. This may just be the way I'm driving and the fact that I've only used auto-gears so far. Is it fun? Well I think so, but you've got to like the idea of a rally game to enjoy it. If you're just after a plain and simple fun driving game NFS is a better bet, but if driving on your own for most of the time down challenging and differing trails sounds like a fun break from GP2 then you'll probably enjoy Network Q RAC Rally Challenge. These, of course, are just my opinions. Many may disagree. Mike Excell

I've seen a demo level available on a magazine cover disk recently. I think there is a (large) download version as well at the PC Release List. John -- John Hartridge | Crosfield Electronics Ltd, ext 3282 | Three Cherry Trees Lane,

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> According to adverts (UK) this game is out tomorrow (27/9). > As the previous release wasn't very exciting, at least not by modern > standards :-) , does anyone out there have any information about this > newcomer. > Anyone seen a demo or seen any reviews?. > I might as well find out about the game before buying it!. > Steve > North East England

Well. I am from the South (of England). I downloaded the game yesterday from the net. It's HUGH - 19M. I got a lease line, so it was all right... The game :- It is not bad at all, I think. You might have seen it from the box what it looks like in the game. The graphics is no where near Sega Rally. The car drives like the car in Sega Rally. Since you can drive on different surface (off-road, mud, or tarmac), you car behaves differently, which is good. You can flip the car over as well by hitting the side of the road (sometimes it is not apparent why it flips). The car looks a bit awful when flipped, you will know what I mean if you see it - nothing like what you get in Need for speed. Like Need for speed, you can not dent the car at all (may be this is only in the demo). There is only one track in the demo, and you are always in the pine forest which is a bit boring after a while. But because I don't follow Rally, I don't know how this compares to real life. The CC cars are a bit like the ones in Sega Rally, very slow and a bit blind. They are not challenging to pass unlike GP, or Nascar ... A good point is you can adjust you car (not in the demo though), so you can improve your overall time. I played on a P166 with 32 M Ram running Win95. It runs fine. But not so sure about running on my 486 Dx4-100 at home. I will buy this game because it is a new idea from the GP2, and Indycar, where you always have to perfect you line to a track to get the best time. In this game you just drive wildly on a track that you won't be so familiar with. It is fun, but I think from the demo I saw, there are still things to be worked on to really make it a vintage game. It won't replace my favorite GP2. Jeff

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> According to adverts (UK) this game is out tomorrow (27/9). > As the previous release wasn't very exciting, at least not by modern > standards :-) , does anyone out there have any information about this > newcomer. > Anyone seen a demo or seen any reviews?. > I might as well find out about the game before buying it!. > Steve > North East England

If this is the game I'm thinking of then it's being marketed by Europress (makers of Klik and Play) and theres a demo on their website at HTTP://WWW.EUROPRESS.CO.UK/ Oddly enough, they are also marketing the new F1 management game from Software 2000 called F1 Manager but there's not a single mention of it on the website... Ian PS If I remember correctly the RAC demo is 16 meg big (yup, 16 MEGABYTES) and not only that but the site is sloooooowwwwwwww :-)

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>> According to adverts (UK) this game is out tomorrow (27/9). >> As the previous release wasn't very exciting, at least not by modern >> standards :-) , does anyone out there have any information about this >> newcomer. >> Anyone seen a demo or seen any reviews?. >> I might as well find out about the game before buying it!. >> Steve >> North East England >If this is the game I'm thinking of then it's being marketed by Europress >(makers of Klik and Play) and theres a demo on their website at >HTTP://WWW.EUROPRESS.CO.UK/ >Ian >PS If I remember correctly the RAC demo is 16 meg big (yup, 16 MEGABYTES) >and not only that but the site is sloooooowwwwwwww :-)

actually going to try to D/L a file that I can't recover when (and it will) Netscape locks up....it's cute, like the other one. Sim it's not- and I can't get it to work with a T2 either. Jeff

>Anyone seen a demo or seen any reviews?. check out "http://www.avault.com/pcrl/racing.html" there is a demo there (19mb!) Its is a significant improvement over anything previous with Svga graphics and sound sub NFS standard but well done and quite fast (p100). Car graphics are very impressive. Car handling is quite good with different road surfaces sounding and handling notably unique. Like NFS however the game is "Arcadish", like if you go off the track you get bounced off the virtual track wall, with simular results with hitting other cars. _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________