
<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 PC Genre Racing Publisher Infogrames Developer Ratbag ESRB E (Everyone) Released Q1 2003

- Some good racing - Smooth graphics - Garage options

- Where are the spectacular crashes? - Traditional racing fans might be turned off

Review: NASCAR Thunder 2003 (PS2) Review: F1 Racing Championship (PC)
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World of Outlaws Sprint Cars

Score: 7.5 / 10

Can anyone think of a racing game where the majority of racing is done sideways? NASCAR, Rally, Indy, F1: All of these race types encourage “leading with the hood.” Sprint racing encourages “leading with the passenger door.” At least if the cars had passenger doors it would. But what sprint racing is known for are the crashes.

With the design of the cars – their dual fins presumably for “stability” – is it any wonder they get featured in extreme blooper clips that invariably end with, “And plucky little Todd is fortunate to walk away from that one – at least as well as a guy can walk with a broken pelvis!” That being said, World of Outlaws Sprint Cars (WoOSC) is practically devoid of massive air-borne (and often flaming) pile-ups. The standard racing options – Arcade, solid Career (one of the best I've seen in a racer), Multiplayer – are all accounted for but where are the horrendous crashes? The most you’ll get is a simple message of “car damaged” and that’s it. Or on rare occasions you'll get a pile-up but it just doesn't happen enough. One of the biggest draws for the casual fan is almost MIA.

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WoOSC does most everything else well, right down to the mud-splattered view and solid racing physics. Of course, the market isn’t exactly littered with Sprint car sims so some of this may be from having no comparison (except previous incarnations of the sport also from Ratbag).

The graphics – so necessary to conveying speed and the sense of “being there” – are generally good.

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(Obviously you have to factor in your PC hardware.) Some of the finer details seems to have been missed, like realistic shadows. Possibly in an attempt to cover this up, during the course of most races the screen becomes absolutely splattered with mud in an effort to be more sim-like. (Although player that played Ratbag's other racing games will know this to be a feature.) But WoOSC is hardly a sim although it shows potential and the depth of play in the Career mode not normally seen.

World of Outlaws Sprint Cars is fairly fun, but could have been moreso had there been realistic damage modeling and a full set of off-track racing options.

- Omni

(March 16, 2003)