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Michelin Rally Masters:
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Graphics & Sound:
In today's day and age, it is hard to add something to a racing game that will make it stick out among the rest. What makes Michelin Rally Masters: Race of Champions stand out? Not too much unfortunately, graphically anyway. While playing it, I had this distinct feeling that I had been down this track before. Granted, the tracks are good representations of the Race of Champions tracks in Italy, Sweden, Indonesia, and the Canary Islands, but that is something that most of the racing games offer these days. Two things that did impress me was one, the level of the detail of the crowds in the stands. Doesn't mean anything to the game, but it shows that the graphic artists had a little bit of imagination. Two, the realistic look to each of the cars and the damage that they sustain in collisions. In each race that I raced, the first thing to get damaged on my car was the right rear tail-light, every time. Sound wise, Michelin Rally Masters: Race of Champions is void of music. I don't remember hearing any music at all, just engine noise and some crowd noises.
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Gameplay:
The Race of Champions is the annual end of season event where the best drivers compete against each other in identical cars and a parallel track. The winner is decided by the best of three heats. In playing the game, you have three modes of play to choose from. The first; Race of Champions. In this mode, you compete in the Race of Champions just as you would in the real life event, against the best rally drivers from all over the world. You will be racing in identical cars, which will be given to you at random. It is the Quarter Finals and you must beat your opponent twice in a three-heat event. Championship mode seems to be the same as Race of Champions mode, only you have more racing to do to get to the finals. You will start out in Formula 2, then progress to WRC, and then to the Legend series. The cars are, once again, chosen for you at random with more cars becoming available to you along the way. You also have a Single Rally which is good for a quick race. I encourage everybody to use this and the Time Attack mode as practice. I have no information on the multi-player option because of the confusing interface it offers you. From what I could tell, you need to know the name of a server where an internet game is taking place already. I tried to search for a server but to no avail. I am sure that it is possible, but I couldn't figure it out.
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Difficulty:
Michelin Rally Masters: Race of Champions difficulty changes as your progress through the races in thechampionship, but in the options menu you can set the overall difficulty setting to either Rookie, Easy, Medium, Hard or Extreme. Remember that Race of Champions is a simulation game and not an arcade game. When you hit a wall, you will have damage to your car. Your car will become harder to control and because of that, you will probably lose a race or two.
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Game Mechanics:
Unlike some racing simulations I have attempted to play, Michelin Rally Masters: Race of Champions is very easy to get used controller wise. That doesn't mean that the game is easy, but if you lose a lot, it is probably not your controller's fault. There are force feedback settings for those of us that like to take a real beating.
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-Wickserv, GameVortex Communications AKA Eric Wickwire |
Minimum System Requirements:
233 MHz, 32MB RAM, 100MB disk space, 8MB video card, 4X CD-ROM |
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Test System:
GX-450xl running Windows 98, 256 RAM, Creative SoundBlaster 64CPCI with Boston Acoustic Digital Media Theatre, STB Velocity 4400with RIVA TNT chip, DirectX 7, 32 Mb RAM, 6X24 DVD-ROM |
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