V-Rally 3

"Hooray another rally game for yours truly to review..."

Rallying. Probably the most amazing, skilful, dangerous, exciting, gruelling, and demanding motorsport there is. However, despite this, rallying has been largely ignored by countries outside of Europe. Why? Beats me. But the recent ‘surge’ of rally games as of late, suggests that its popularity may be on the increase.

V-Rally 3 then. One of the games to feature in this recent surge of identikit rallying games. But does it have what it takes to stand out amongst the pack? Let’s find out.

The first thing you’ll notice about V-Rally 3 is the distinct lack of any game modes and special features. This is certainly no V-Rally 2, where there were enough cars and tracks to fill a small country. Looking around the menu screens may give you a ‘sinking feeling’ at first – ‘What? No simultaneous 2-player mode? No Arcade mode?’ In fact, there are only 3 game modes on offer here; V-Rally mode, Time Attack, and Challenge. But do not fret, as you haven’t played the game yet.

So you start off in the V-Rally mode. It’s set up in a continuous season, where you move around the different teams and car classes depending on how good you are and which contracts you sign. And to be honest, that is all there is to it. The time attack mode is just as you’d expect, which as you know, isn’t the most exciting of game modes, and the challenge is just a few stages strung together with an overall time that has to be beaten. Once the challenge mode has been wrapped up, you open the ability to make up your own challenge, but don’t be fooled, it’s not as great as it sounds. There is a four player mode, but you take turns rather than race at the same time, which renders it all a bit pointless, hmmmm?

So if you’ve read this far, you’re probably thinking ‘Bad game’. I, on the other hand, am thinking ‘No! Great game.’ Where V-Rally 2 was a definitive lesson in quantity over quality, the opposite is most certainly true of this. You realise straight away why there is not much substance at the front-end, when you begin to race. There is no denying that the courses look absolutely gorgeous. For the first time ever, the courses look like they actually exist in a location, as opposed to being bits of track mixed and matched in different ways to give different routes. The cars also look mightily impressive, although not quite is good as the courses, or up to GT3’s standard. The damage model is also extremely impressive – bits of the scenery dent when you crash into it, the car cripples and bends in truly great ways, and ‘shock horror’, you can actually retire! Yes – drive off of a cliff, or smash into too many walls, and the car will actually cease to function! Finally, a rally game that isn’t spoilt by a feeling of invulnerability!

Graphics – The actual graphics are great – the best I’ve seen in a rally game so far. Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of pop-up at times, and is it just me, or is the horizontal scanning a bit off when you go round corners? (It only seems to occur when a bit of car is visible on screen – play on the ‘bumper-cam’ and it’s alright – weird!)

Sound – Pretty good – engine noises are as you’d expect, nice crunches and bangs when you hit stuff, co-driver speech is a bit hard to understand at times though…
Also, where is the in-game music?

Game-play – Ah-ha! The meat! Unlike the previous 2 V-Rally games, the handling in this game is more ‘simulation’ than ‘arcade’. So therefore it plays more like Colin McRae Rally and WRC. Hooray! Yes I really like the handling in this game. The handbrake seems a little off though – it doesn’t feel right somehow, and it has a habit of putting you into a spin when you use it. However, the game seems to lose all sense of realism once you leave the ground – 3 games and Eden studios still haven’t sorted out the gravity physics – come on lads!

Challenge – Sorry but I’m afraid the game falls down a bit here. The challenge mode is everything but, and the career mode can be absolutely blitzed once you get into the good cars. Or maybe I just play these games too much.

Lifespan – Well, let me put it this way. Since buying this I have also bought Medal of Honor: Frontline, Rally Championship, Super Monkey Ball and Excitebike 64, and I play this more than all of them put together. I just can’t get enough of it!

Overall – If you like rally games, buy this. If you own the other 2 V-Rally games and are hoping the new one is a bit different, buy this. If you are hoping for more of the same, prepare to be disappointed, but buy it anyway. Basically, I think this game is great, it’s better than WRC, but will it stand up to the might of Colin McRae Rally 3? We’ll see…..

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/02, Updated 07/13/02