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Rally Trophy

Score: 95%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: JoWooD Productions
Developer: BugBean
Media: CD/1
Players: 1 (2 - 6 via Internet / LAN)
Genre: Racing


Graphics & Sound:

Rally Trophy allows for multiple video resolutions to enhance the graphical quality, and it looks awesome! The racing terrain has great visuals to it, making it a lot easier to distinguish the track from other areas. Where RT really shines though is in the car models. With near photo-realistic textures, the cars come to life in a great way.

The sound fx and music are done pretty well too, but what stands out in my mind is listening to your monotone navigator. The tone of his voice takes me back to when I was a child watching Knight Rider, because the navigator's voice sounds a lot like the voice of the car named Kit, the true star of the show (sorry, David Hasselhoff). But it's not how the voice sounds, it's what the voice says. Along with the arrow signs that appear on the screen, your co-pilot tells you how hard of a turn approaching corners will be. This helps out extremely well, especially while racing from the in-car view.


Gameplay:

It's an overland race to the finish, and you're in control of a Rally vehicle. Choose from 11 classic car models, and outdrive your competition to victory. The basic gameplay consists of 3 real modes of play, plus multiplayer via either an Internet or a Local Area Network (LAN) connection. If you're looking for some practice time, you can race a Time Trial, a Single Stage (one section of a Rally), or a Single Rally. If you're looking for some hot racing action, choose the Arcade Mode. And, when you finally decide to go for the Rally Trophy itself, start up a Championship, in which you will race multiple Rallies on your quest for victory.

With 42 available tracks, Rally Trophy has plenty to offer. In fact, different seasons offer different weather conditions, making the replay value of the game much higher than normal racers. Throughout your Championship season, you will also need to be wary that your car may need to be repaired between races. Along with repairs, tuning your car to specific conditions (like snow or mud) will offer more control and give the game a custom feel for you.

To round off Rally Trophy's features, the developers have fine-tuned the physics engine allowing for incredible true-to-life movements. It is because of these realistic physics that when you take off for the first time you may have difficulties steering. But it's also because of the realistic physics that you will eventually gain more control than other racers you've played before. Predicting your movements before they happen while racing is key to winning, and the physics engine allows for just that.


Difficulty:

The most difficult thing to get used to is the steering of your vehicle. After that, the choice is yours for which skill level the other drivers have. There seems to be a perfect balance between difficulties, which also adds to the replay value of Rally Trophy. When you get to be a better driver, just up the difficulty and you'll have harder competition again.

Game Mechanics:

Although you can use the keyboard, I would highly recommend using at least an analog gamepad, or better yet, a good steering wheel. And if your device supports force feedback, you're in for a real treat! While controllers are usually set up well out of the box, you can also program them within the game for added control. Game menus are very easy to navigate, and you'll be off to the races in no time. Rally Trophy is a very well designed game, and well worth taking a look at.

-Woody, GameVortex Communications
AKA Shane Wodele

Minimum System Requirements:



Intel/AMD 300MHz (650MHz AMD recommended); 64MB (128MB) RAM; Windows 95/98/2000 with DirectX 8; 8MB (32MB) 3D Graphic accelerator card; Sound Blaster (SB Live!) compatible sound card; 8x (24x) CD-ROM; (Driving wheel with pedals recommended)
 

Test System:



Pentium II 400MHz CPU; Windows 98 SE; 256MB 100MHz SDRAM; Creative's 3D Blaster Annihilator 2 32MB 3D-Accellerator AGP Video Card (nVIDIA geForce 2 chipset); Ensoniq AudioPCI sound card; DirectX 8.0a; using Hewlett Packard CD-Writer Plus 9100 (reads 32x, writes 8x, rewrites 4x) as main CD-ROM; 1 gameport; 2 USB ports; Saitek's R440 Force Wheel (USB connection); 56k modem

Sony PSOne NBA ShootOut 2002 Windows Screamer 4x4

 
Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated