
<MAP NAME="boxmap-p8"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 200, 103, 207" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/thearmchairem-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x240.gif" width="120" height="240" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p8" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">	Platform Dreamcast Genre Racing Publisher Infogrames Developer Eden Studios ESRB E (Everyone) Released Q3 2000

- Solid framerate / sense of speed - Good track design -Variety of tracks - Solid control - "To the point" gameplay

- Weak graphics - Jarring camera - Poor music

Review: Sega Rally 2 (Dreamcast) Review: 4X4 Evo 2 (XBox)
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Test Drive V-Rally

Score: 8.6/10

Rally Car racing really has a flavor that sets itself apart from other forms of racing, and I don’t just mean hydro boat racing smart-ass. All of that full-throttle tearing around and e-braking the hell out of the turns makes for some tense racing that really forces drivers to have a firm understanding of their cars and the tracks. Test Drive V-Rally does a great job of emulating this with some great physics, a mountain of tracks, and a solid framerate/sense of speed. It’s not all smiles and sunshine however, as there are a couple of hefty problems with the game, but all in all it is a top-notch Rally Car racer.

The major problems that V-Rally suffers from are in its visuals. First off they don’t look as good as they should. The game looks more like a suped up 32-bit game than a 128-bit game. There is a noticeable lack of detail in the cars and the environments. The other big problem is that the camera in the game is quite jarring when taking a sharp turn. Instead of fluidly staying behind the car the camera just slams around all at once. You can get used to it, but if you’re really concentrating on your times sometimes it’ll snap you out of your zone, forcing you to lose concentration. On the happier side of the game’s graphics is its silky-smooth framerate. V-Rally doesn’t get choppy at all, and the game provides a terrific sense of speed. Sound effects are serviceable, but the music, no thanks. It’s a collection of very mediocre metal, blah.

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Track design too is very nice. The mix between relatively straight tracks that allow for constant top speeds, and twisty-turny tracks makes for a very good level of variation, oh, and the fact that there’s about 80 tracks helps too. As far as cars are concerned it’s just the usual suspects here with Lancers, Imprezas, and such.

Polishing off the package is some very nice, solid controls. Amazingly the Dreamcast controller actually feels comfortable when playing this game. The buttons just feel like they’re in the right place

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here. The controls are nice and responsive too. After a couple hours of practice it’s easy to get the nuances of moving the cars. With the quality of the analog controls it’s not too hard to get a feel for the game’s physics either.

Test Drive V-Rally is very to the point. It’s the gameplay that makes this title so good. Fast, barely in control racing on a huge variety of tracks and we have a winner here.

Reviewed by Mr. Nash

(May 26, 2001)