V-Rally 3
Can the latest in the V-Rally series cut it in a crowded market?
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Another month, another rally game. Driving around virtual back roads and dirt tracks seems to hold such an appeal to gamers that publishers cannot help themselves but to release rally games with the enthusiasm of conservationists freeing willies. This Chrimbo month sees Atari release the next instalment in the V-Rally series. This time round the series dispenses with any arcade leanings and pushes the gameplay towards a more sim-like experience (don't worry, there's no thought bubbles coming from your co-driver expressing a desire for companionship, food, and a hard sweeping left). So strap yourself in as we take a look and see whether or not you should aim yourself in the direction of V-Rally.
Unsurprisingly this is yet another console port, something which seems to be standard these days for any game that isn't an FPS or RTS title. The developers, Eden, claim to have ramped up the available detail levels and indeed you can put the screen resolution up rather high. The cars themselves are made up of a lot of polygons but as usual the washed out and low-res textures of the console versions have been reproduced here in all their underwhelming glory. There are a large number of particle and weather effects which are quite nice to look at. The way your motor gets all dirty or icy as the stage progresses is a nice touch with sun glare and weather effects all being modelled onto the car. The smudgy textures spoil the look somewhat but looking past the console heritage of the graphics there are some nice touches and attention to detail, such as wildlife gamely sprinting across the course. The sounds are also no more than adequate, but then we don't buy console ports for their looks, we do so for the gameplay.
While driving games may not be my most favoured genre I can powerslide round the Alps as well as the next man, but I found V-Rally 3 to be really rather tricky indeed. The handling is about as forgiving as the next man would be if you spilled Sambuca over his silk shirt and then did his bird. Keeping your car on the track is next to impossible when using a keyboard, the damn thing just jerks from one side of the narrow track to the other. Plugging in my new gamepad I faired somewhat better but was still generating more stress than grip.
After a few hours things settled down a bit and paying close attention to the upcoming road conditions and adjusting your car's settings accordingly helped me feel more in control of things, even if that was maybe an egocentric illusion. You can tweak the suspension, ride height, and stabilizers, and you can alter the gearbox ratio, differentials, and brake bias. My, it wouldn't be a rally game if you couldn't get underneath the bonnet for a quick fiddle, now would it?
V-Rally 3 is very concerned with the precision of your driving abilities and will not let you off with even minor mistakes. When you take into consideration the damage modelling, which is lovingly represented by the graphics engine while convincing you that your rally car is made of balsa wood, this game should only be approached by those who like the rally games on the simmy side. Which makes the instant car-righting key and the simple bar levels of the car tuning seem somewhat misplaced. A total lack of any racing options adds to the realisation that this game is not for the faint-hearted.
You see the whole game is centred around rallies. Rallies with lots of stages and the occasional repair break. You can tackle unlocked courses in a time attack mode but apart from that you can rally, or maybe you would like to rally? The rally mode is quite impressive and tries to do things differently. Mimicking the approach taken by TOCA Race Driver you have to get yourself a team by passing their driving test and then work with that team through a season, trying to score well and thereby improving the teams resources and hence the performance of your car. The interface for all this is simple in a consoley kind of way and the whole enterprise works quite well. The rallies themselves are also varied and take in Finland, France, Germany, England, Sweden and Africa. As your career progresses from season to season, you'll have the chance to drive all kinds of 1.6-liter front-wheel-drive cars and 2.0-liter four-wheel-drive cars for the different manufacturing teams, including Subaru, Mitsubishi and Ford.
So get to the very top and you can compete with some seriously beefy cars, but to be frank I had lost all interest before I reached this point. The handling frustrated the hell out of me and even after a good bit of playing I would pinball round the course with an all too frequent regularity. The complete lack of any multiplayer options was a bit of a shock and helped to lessen the value of the package. While there may well be a very accomplished rally sim hiding somewhere amongst the twists and turns I personally would prefer a rally game with more options, better graphics and a more seasonally generous helping of enjoyment.
68%
Comments
On tarmac suddenly the car jump franticly, imposibly to control. Wheel ff also dead on tarmac.
No patch is expected ? :(
To bad cus else the game is pretty much ok..
I just got my copy via mail yesterday. Living in the states I had to order from England. I found the game to be well worth the wait, and I played until my eyes burned, along with my girlfriends patience. I did briefly try the game with the keyboard and found it to be most difficult, however, I have wheel and pedals for much more intuitive input. I can only say that to be truely fair, don't knock the game until you've tried it with a much more natural imput device. I absolutely love this game. The graphics are convinicing, and non taxing to the system. The engine sounds are mediocre, but I love the sound of snow crunching under my tires, and damaged brakes squealling. As far as game play options, yep, you get rally, rally or rally. But such is the nature of the racing genre. If you want a rally game with lots of different senarios, try RalliSport Challenge by microsoft. Although, if you didnt like the twitchy keyboard imputs in VRally, good luck with RSC. For my money, there is no better RALLY game available than V-Rally 3. Thats just my opinion though.
Almost Impossible to control the vehicle.Totally ruins the enjoyment ... unless you like bouncing off the rocks on each side of the road.
I'd just wanna say that im totally addicted to vrally 3 and that people who say they find the game impossible to play, dont have any patience or are incompetent drivers,
Thanks
This is without doubt the best rally game I have ever played; the career mode gives you a sense of depth beyond any of the CMR titles, and you have total flexibility when it comes to making decisions about teams for the upcoming season.
Yes, the handling might be difficult to come to grips with at first, but this just goes further to putting this game beyond so many others; how fun would it be to be able to pick up the control and win the world championship on your first go? By working at it and improving, this game delivers an incredible amount of satisfaction. After a while the pointy rocks and things that rip of your wheels become just another part of the breath-taking scenery, as you zoom through tight corners that were previously impossible to negotiate. Making a "clean run" on this game is hard, granted, but great when you pull it off (though I have yet to get through any stage with at least one jump where my rear bumper didn't start coming off).
The graphics are superb, and add to the feeling of depth, and sometimes to the difficulty of the game. Driving on the edge through a foggy British forest remains a scary and enveloping trial no matter how good you get, and the cliff-edges of Germany always look dangerosly close....
I am a bit of a racing game fanatic, so maybe my perspective on this game is slightly abnormal, but everyone has to try this. It might not be for the arcade gamers, who like to see exactly how much of a beating their car can take before they cross the finish line still comfortably ahead of the unimaginably slow opposition, but for any racer this is an essential addition to their collection.
Really, this is a great Rally game, that is hampered by a few nasty quirks that I'll detail.
1) The menus -- someone incorrectly stated that this game only works from keyboard. There ARE controller options, including the ability to use a steering wheel. Unfortunatly, they are buried in obscure menus you wouldn't normally think to look in. This game _MUST_ be played on a steering wheel, or else you're in for massive amounts of frustration.
2) Collision damage -- It's all across the board wacky. I can lose a rear bumper from a slightly skewed jump or a graze against a fence or snowbank.... But a whack head-on into a large oak tree at 175km/h results in perhaps a broken headlight or slight brake damage?? The damage is ultra-strict in some parts, and ultra lenient in others.
3) Object solidity -- Certain objects are solid (can't be run through -- come to a complete stop if hit head-on) while others do no slowing, whatsoever. There is very little in between. Hitting a flimsy portable fan-fence causes the same damage has hitting a rock... But hitting a small pine tree or shrub results nothing more than a rustling sound.
As it stands, it's still a good game... If these issues were addressed, though, it'd be a GREAT game...
I have baught V-Rally 3 with a wheel Logitech Wing Man Formula GP but I don't found the just profile to play with it. Can you help me to find it or to submit it to me please. Thanf you very much.
Fabrice from Belgium.
i havent bought V Rally 3 yet but i downloaded the demo. Well the graphics are convincing and the weather effects are quite good. I couldnt play it at first because I only had the keyboard, I lost interest but then I got a gamepad. Much better. It is a game that grows on you....very addictive..
The game is very beautiful, this game have a very rich enhanced graphics. But, the problem is when I try to install in Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2.
The only way to make it to run is in Windows Me, and the OS is only install it without other programs.
Can someone please explain to me exactly where to find the controller settings in V-Rally 3? Desperately wanting to use the steering wheel instead of the keyboard...
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