A lot of hype has been associated with the release of V8 Challenge from EA. As most people know, EA focus on sports games and simulations, and have produced some very good titles. V8 Challenge is based on the Swedish Touring Car Championship 2 game, so there are some similarities. V8 Challenge, however, showcases Australia V8 Supercars. 5 litre V8s, 600 odd horsepower, and a lot of good ol' Aussie testosterone.
Initial impressions aren't too bad. The loading facility is simple fast and straightforward. The menus are clear and relatively easy to navigate. But there are one or two annoying things in the navigation though. For
example, when driving in any mode, hitting the escape key pauses the action
and brings up a menu asking you to continue, restart or retire from racing.
It can be a little confusing though, as no matter what you are doing,
whether it be qualifying, racing, or even practising, the escape menu still
uses the terms 'Continue Racing', 'Retire from race' and 'Restart Race'!
Once I had to click 'Continue Racing' to make sure I WAS in practice and
hadn't inadvertently been in Race mode. The menus are simple, and certainly not cutting edge in any way. But then again, V8 Challenge doesn't have too many options, so you don't need too many menus.
Of note is the number of cars and teams represented. It seems that due to some licensing issues, not all teams are there. '00 Motorsport' and others are noticeably absent, which is a bit of a shame. It means you may not be able to drive your favourite team car, although HRT is there.
A good amount of configuring is provided for setting up vehicles, with some adjustment for most items like suspension, handling and more. Choosing to Race, do Time Attack or Championship is easy, and you can be driving a car in no time.
There are 8 tracks available, including Bathurst, and also some European tracks leftover from STCC2.
Game Play and Physics
You can choose to either do a single race, championship with either V8 Supercars (Ford and Holden sedans) or V8Brutes (Ford and Holden utility/pickups with less power), Time Attack or Multiplayer.
Multiplayer works well and is good fun as long as you can find a network server to connect to. It is possible to spectate as well, just in case you want to see if you will get a thrashing by opponents before you jump into a game.
On to the physics, and I must say I am a little disappointed. Gran Turismo 3 on Playstation 2 is definitely the benchmark for physics and 'realism' in computer racing games and sims. V8 Challenge doesn't really measure up in the reality stakes, and is a long way behind GT3. It sits somewhere between a simulation and arcade game. Don't get me wrong though, it takes some effort to correct a power slide, or corner properly, but there just isn't much finesse in controlling the car. Instead of the vehicle gradually losing grip, the cars seem to go from good grip to no grip in a corner, which can be a little frustrating.
After a while you do get used to it though, and the game can be an enjoyable challenge. However all the cars seem to handle the same, or very similarly; Ford and Holdens may be slightly different. The gameplay itself is quite enjoyable, especially when playing someone else, and there is still enough of a challenge to try and put some good lap times down by yourself.
One annoying aspect is that no matter how hard you try, you seemingly can't kill your car. It may go pretty slowly, and look pretty mangled, but it still seems to go on and on... maybe a comment on Australian V8 reliability perhaps? I doubt it! At least crashes and accidents give your car some real and noticeable damage. Handling and performance are altered, and if you wish, you can see how badly your car is damaged by a little indicator on the screen. When first playing, it doesn't take long to have your engine and tyres madly blinking away. Try to keep away from the walls and other cars, and you should be fine.
I do have some criticism of the Artificial Intelligence in the game. It seems that at the start of every race you are practically guaranteed some sort of major accident (and I thought that only happened in Formula 1). And drivers seem to do some strange things. Exiting the pits (hey, I like bashing into walls!) saw me behind another vehicle which exited driving very slowly, and turning its wheels madly from left to right. Confused? So was I. Hopefully this AI can be improved by updating the game with a pending patch from EA.
Graphics
The graphics in this game are very nice, and well detailed. The detail in the terrain and scenery is very good, truecolor resolutions providing nice eye candy as you weave through traffic across the 'top of the mountain'. Car detail is excellent, and as can be seen by these pics, modelled extremely closely on the real vehicles. Even the advertising and wording on the panels is legible. Advertising is also apparent on track boards and adds to the visuals. Smoke effects, skid marks, flames from exhausts and brake lights all look pretty good. Even the damage you (often) sustain on your vehicle looks pretty realistic. All of this certainly makes up for the somewhat average game play.
Sound
Sound is good, but not outstanding. All the cars make a sort of V8 sound, but it certainly doesn't sound like it was taken from a real Supercar. Some better sound would really have added a lot more to the experience, as fans of this type of racing enjoy the noise of a V8 and it's one reason why they buy the Ford and Holden V8s featured in the game. I wanted to hear the cars bellow, backfire and roar around, but there wasn't a lot of variety. It sounds all too clinical for my liking. Other sounds - such as skids and crashing - are the stereotypical noises, and don't beg to be praised. Oh, and I see it enough in the movies and am getting very sick of it: cars making squealing tyre noises on wet tarmac. I know I have often tried but never succeeded...
Conclusion
So, what are we left with? V8 Challenge is a game modelled on another, STCC2. Some of the tracks of this game are left over (European tracks), and V8 Challenge seems only to me to be only a 'mod' - or large update- of the original game. Ford and Holden fans will certainly like it. If you don't own a steering wheel it is highly recommended - using the keyboard is very frustrating.
I'd like a little more realism, and slightly better driving physics. A pretty game, but not without its fair share of frustration and faults.
Rating : 6.5/10
www.v8challenge.com
Game supplied courtesy Electronic Arts Australia
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Minimum Specs For Machine
- Operating System - Windows 95/98/2000/XP
- Processor - 300MHz Pentium II or equivalent
- Hard Drive Space - 500 MB
- Graphics - 640x480 / 16bit
- 3d Accelerator - 8MB Direct3D Compatible
- Input - Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick, Steering Wheel
- Multiplayer - 33.6 Kbps Modem (Internet Play) or TCP/IP (LAN Play)
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