AccadaccA
02-26-2002, 04:17 AM
http://www.totalnfs.net/v8chal/pcpplay.gif
For those who haven't got their grubby hands on a copy of the March PC Powerplay magazine (Australian edition) here's the drum on what's to come. Mind you this review was written by a guy called Anthony Fordham. Need I say more?
I'll add my comments within blue brackets. Skip them or read 'em, your choice.
BTW, the opening paragraph was just about how much of a "Brockie" worshipper this reviewer was that he would stand up & salute any t.v. commercial featuring Peter Brock. Too bad such a fan couldn't spell "Brocky" the way the rest of the nation has done for years.
".... there have been a couple of half-hearted attempts to model the great mountain in a computer game and one of the more dismal failures was Dick Johnson's V8 Challenge. Or was it V8 Adventure? (heh) Either way, this is most definately not that game.
Tasty V8s
In typical EA Sports style, V8 Challenge is (way behind the scheduled release date) built simply, effectively and runs like a dream. Sure it mightn't jump out of the box as the most exciting racing game you've ever seen but it can be guaranteed to contain not only Mount Panorama but also a swag full of other V8 racing circuits both here in Australia and abroad, (The official site only mentions 4 Aussie circuits) in such countries as South Africa where the sport has more than a toehold and doesn't get swamped by that NASCAR rubbish.
Yes, here is a game where you most definately have to turn right on occasion. The V8 is a big lumbering beast of a machine that will howl it's way up to 250kph in 5th and catapult you into the concrete barrier when you try to treat it like a rally car. The secret folks is minimum wheel input. It's hugely easy to spin a fat-arsed V8 if you put just the merest suggestion of a tyre in the grass, and V8 Challenge models this with an unforgiving degree of accuracy. (Not sure if this guy has any idea that the cars are actually six speed and go in excess of 295kph. I doubt he has ever driven a V8 either.... I mean really driven a V8.)
Minimum Spec
The game complies with the minimum standard that gamers have come to expect from this type of title, with single race, time trial and championship races. Options also exist for car setup which contains dozens of options allowing the player to tweak everything from each individual gear ratio to the front and rear ride-heights and suspension. Sadly there's no option to give your car a custom paint job which could have provided hours of amusement. (um,... I doubt anyone wants to drive Aussie Supercars on photo-realistic Aussie tracks painted like the Scooby Doo bus. :rolleyes: )
As well as the V8 Challenge of this title, there's also the option to race V8 utes.("Brutes" dang you Brutes!) These souped up utilities have a completely different aerodynamic profile and weight distrubution and require a whole new set of skills to navigate successfully around a wet track at night when the six guys in front of you have just spun out and are flying all over the road. (Like the previous paragraph, I don't know when he is talking about real cars or the game, to me it sounds like he knows a very limited amout of each and just bluffing his way through by dazzling us with the obvious blah, blah, blah, bullshit.)
So how does the game feel? (Finally :rolleyes: ) Mostly pretty good. The cars are heavy as we expect, the engine sound is meaty, the tracks really look like their real-world counterparts and the sense of speed at 250kph is suitably pronounced. The only real niggle is that processing restraints mean there are only a maximum of 14 opponents in any race rather than the huge field encounted in real life.(True, the option to set the field size would be a wiser choice even though it beats any NFS title and we'd probably need to set it to around 14 cars anyway to keep the frame-rate at an acceptable level) This sadly minimises the opportunities for real massive pile ups.(Although a treat to "pile up' every so often, if you really want that so bad get something like Demolition Derby & Demolition Derby 2, for now we are interested in RACING.) And it is also possible to have a head on where the combined speed of the two vehicles exceeds 500kph, and yet keep on driving after the car has stopped bouncing along the track on it's head.
A solid performer, and much more effective as a V8 simulator than previous entrants in this field.
System
NEED :
Duron 800
128Mb RAM
GeForce2 MX
500Mb HDD
WANT :
AthlonXP 1600+
256Mb RAM
GeForce3 Ti200
750Mb HDD
Rating
FOR :
Familiar ol' faithful tracks
Fairly realistic handling
Multitude of setup options
AGAINST :
Indestructible cars
Limited opponents
No Brockie It's "Brocky" you wouldbe fool!!
Overall
A solid and dependable racer with aussie V8 flavour!
79 "
I don't get it. They guy says it's great on realism in both eye candy and physical feel/handling (physics engine) yet only gives it a 79 mainly because you can't total the cars and 'cause of the 14 opponents limit.
However the very same Anthony Fordham in the same mag gave "Trainz" 81 after saying (in bold) "Trainz appears to be a computer program without a game attached". He also has written very sarcastic captions under each photo of it. BTW, it got a double page spread.
Although not too bad on the eyes, the graphics of Trainz are nowhere near the level of detail on V8 Challenge however in the "Ratings" section for Trainz he claims "Detailed textures" in the points FOR it. V8 challenge had no mention of graphics in that department. This wanker even goes on to rate Trainz with "Excellent game engine". WTF? It's a friggin game about trains which run on friggin' tracks, what 'king game engine? Oh the handling is so... so ... arcade-ishly realistic because the trains stay on the freakin' rails. :rolleyes:
In the "SYSTEM" part for Trainz he says ...
WANT :
Athlon XP 1500+
512Mb RAM
GeForce3 Ti500
1Gb HDD
Be your own judge, I'll definately be buying V8 Challenge.
For those who haven't got their grubby hands on a copy of the March PC Powerplay magazine (Australian edition) here's the drum on what's to come. Mind you this review was written by a guy called Anthony Fordham. Need I say more?
I'll add my comments within blue brackets. Skip them or read 'em, your choice.
BTW, the opening paragraph was just about how much of a "Brockie" worshipper this reviewer was that he would stand up & salute any t.v. commercial featuring Peter Brock. Too bad such a fan couldn't spell "Brocky" the way the rest of the nation has done for years.
".... there have been a couple of half-hearted attempts to model the great mountain in a computer game and one of the more dismal failures was Dick Johnson's V8 Challenge. Or was it V8 Adventure? (heh) Either way, this is most definately not that game.
Tasty V8s
In typical EA Sports style, V8 Challenge is (way behind the scheduled release date) built simply, effectively and runs like a dream. Sure it mightn't jump out of the box as the most exciting racing game you've ever seen but it can be guaranteed to contain not only Mount Panorama but also a swag full of other V8 racing circuits both here in Australia and abroad, (The official site only mentions 4 Aussie circuits) in such countries as South Africa where the sport has more than a toehold and doesn't get swamped by that NASCAR rubbish.
Yes, here is a game where you most definately have to turn right on occasion. The V8 is a big lumbering beast of a machine that will howl it's way up to 250kph in 5th and catapult you into the concrete barrier when you try to treat it like a rally car. The secret folks is minimum wheel input. It's hugely easy to spin a fat-arsed V8 if you put just the merest suggestion of a tyre in the grass, and V8 Challenge models this with an unforgiving degree of accuracy. (Not sure if this guy has any idea that the cars are actually six speed and go in excess of 295kph. I doubt he has ever driven a V8 either.... I mean really driven a V8.)
Minimum Spec
The game complies with the minimum standard that gamers have come to expect from this type of title, with single race, time trial and championship races. Options also exist for car setup which contains dozens of options allowing the player to tweak everything from each individual gear ratio to the front and rear ride-heights and suspension. Sadly there's no option to give your car a custom paint job which could have provided hours of amusement. (um,... I doubt anyone wants to drive Aussie Supercars on photo-realistic Aussie tracks painted like the Scooby Doo bus. :rolleyes: )
As well as the V8 Challenge of this title, there's also the option to race V8 utes.("Brutes" dang you Brutes!) These souped up utilities have a completely different aerodynamic profile and weight distrubution and require a whole new set of skills to navigate successfully around a wet track at night when the six guys in front of you have just spun out and are flying all over the road. (Like the previous paragraph, I don't know when he is talking about real cars or the game, to me it sounds like he knows a very limited amout of each and just bluffing his way through by dazzling us with the obvious blah, blah, blah, bullshit.)
So how does the game feel? (Finally :rolleyes: ) Mostly pretty good. The cars are heavy as we expect, the engine sound is meaty, the tracks really look like their real-world counterparts and the sense of speed at 250kph is suitably pronounced. The only real niggle is that processing restraints mean there are only a maximum of 14 opponents in any race rather than the huge field encounted in real life.(True, the option to set the field size would be a wiser choice even though it beats any NFS title and we'd probably need to set it to around 14 cars anyway to keep the frame-rate at an acceptable level) This sadly minimises the opportunities for real massive pile ups.(Although a treat to "pile up' every so often, if you really want that so bad get something like Demolition Derby & Demolition Derby 2, for now we are interested in RACING.) And it is also possible to have a head on where the combined speed of the two vehicles exceeds 500kph, and yet keep on driving after the car has stopped bouncing along the track on it's head.
A solid performer, and much more effective as a V8 simulator than previous entrants in this field.
System
NEED :
Duron 800
128Mb RAM
GeForce2 MX
500Mb HDD
WANT :
AthlonXP 1600+
256Mb RAM
GeForce3 Ti200
750Mb HDD
Rating
FOR :
Familiar ol' faithful tracks
Fairly realistic handling
Multitude of setup options
AGAINST :
Indestructible cars
Limited opponents
No Brockie It's "Brocky" you wouldbe fool!!
Overall
A solid and dependable racer with aussie V8 flavour!
79 "
I don't get it. They guy says it's great on realism in both eye candy and physical feel/handling (physics engine) yet only gives it a 79 mainly because you can't total the cars and 'cause of the 14 opponents limit.
However the very same Anthony Fordham in the same mag gave "Trainz" 81 after saying (in bold) "Trainz appears to be a computer program without a game attached". He also has written very sarcastic captions under each photo of it. BTW, it got a double page spread.
Although not too bad on the eyes, the graphics of Trainz are nowhere near the level of detail on V8 Challenge however in the "Ratings" section for Trainz he claims "Detailed textures" in the points FOR it. V8 challenge had no mention of graphics in that department. This wanker even goes on to rate Trainz with "Excellent game engine". WTF? It's a friggin game about trains which run on friggin' tracks, what 'king game engine? Oh the handling is so... so ... arcade-ishly realistic because the trains stay on the freakin' rails. :rolleyes:
In the "SYSTEM" part for Trainz he says ...
WANT :
Athlon XP 1500+
512Mb RAM
GeForce3 Ti500
1Gb HDD
Be your own judge, I'll definately be buying V8 Challenge.