V-Rally 3

"The best flipper game ever... :-("

This new Rally game is one of the biggest disappointment so far. The expectations were high and the result isn't as good as wished.

When you start the game, after a well realized intro, you'll be able to choose from 3 different game modes.

1.) The career mode is the heart of the game and is were you have to drive through several seasons, in order to win the 1.6 L and 2.0 L championship. First you'll be able to drive only the slow cars, but after good results you can be hired by better teams.

After 4-5 seasons you'll sit in the best car and winning won't be a problem. Soon the player looses his interest in playing this mode any further... :-(

2.) The time attack mode, were you have to drive as quickly as you can in order to beat the fastest time on every stage.

This mode lasts only for 1-2 days. After you've beaten all the times, it's virtually a ''dead'' mode.

3.) The last mode is only a ''bigger'' time attack mode. Here you have to beat the fastest total-time set by driving over 3 stages.

The interest here is a little bit higher, because you can create your own stage-packets.

The career mode is surely s.th. new in a rally game and it's fun to see how you can progress in the championship during a couple of seasons having a goal to achieve, which starts from arriving 12th in a rally, until winning the 2.0 L championship. But the way it has been developed is not as good as the idea. Every season is the same as the one before, the number of the rallies is too low (max. 6...) and it's annoying reading all the e-mails you get in your virtual office, because they're always the same. Variety is not part of the game... What could have been a great feature has only become a bad transposed idea.

By starting a rally, the first thing you'll see, is how the graphics works. Well...the cars really look like the real ones, and the damage which occurs to them while driving is also done well. So is the dust, snow or mud that covers your car while driving. The stages are very long and they also look like the original landscapes. But there are several problems which a game like V-Rally 3 must definitely avoid! While you drive through the stages you'll often notice a tremendous pop up and at some times the graphics slows down a little bit. I could hardly regret s.th. like that in GT3, which is a superb-looking game, but there is no excuse when this happens in a game that looks far not as good as the Polyphony-game... :-( Even if compared with WRC, the graphics of both the cars and the landscape are not that good. Sometimes you'll be crossing rivers, but there is no sign of splashing and also when it rains, you won't be able to see it as ''real'' rain. The sight depth is ridiculous!!! You weren't able to see 200m in front of you... (remember how deep the sight was in WRC?) Another problem is the replay. It was a real great feature of V-Rally 2, but now it's probably the worst part of this game. Your car looks simply too slow!!! It seems as if you were driving with 20kph on the stage, even if your speed should be 150... There is so little fun in viewing the replay after a stage, that I really forgot the game has such an option!!! :-(

Now to the important part of a rally game: the gameplay. Well, it's also a big disappointment! The car handles awfully. If this problem doesn't seem to come out during the most time spent while driving the slower 1.6 L cars, it definitely shows up when you get the 2.0 L cars. There isn't such a big difference if you drive on tarmac or on ice-covered roads. It's always like driving on soap. The car doesn't have any grip, at any speed. Even worse are the brakes. They don't slow you down enough and the handbrake is the worst I've ever tried to use in a rally game! I still haven't figured out how it works... It's useless and you won't touch the circle button during racing, that's for sure! The driving physics in V-Rally has always been ''strange'', especially on jumps or contacts, but in this third episode it's even worse. Once you come of the track (unfortunately very often, believe me...) you'll be bounced from a side of the road to the other, unable to control that at any moment, which results costing you 5-10 seconds, even if there wasn't such a big mistake of you. Sometimes you'll reach locations where you're nearly unable to free your car. It is also unpredictable to know which contact will make you jump, roll or whatever. You may be able to blast in a wall without losing control of the car and on the same stage you roll, why you only put ONE wheel of the track. :-( The jumps during the stages has always been fun in a rally game, but not in V-Rally 3. First you won't be able to judge IF you'll jump over a crest or not, and then you'll never know how long the jump will go. I.e. I jumped for 50-100m while I was driving at 50kph, but my car remained on the road after taking a crest at 180, as if there was glue on the wheels!!! This is very frustrating...

By the way, the developers has added a great feature in the game: the retirements! I was always looking forward to a game where retirements were included. But... It's disappointing when you drive into a wall at 180kph and still manage it to the end, while slipping off the track at 30kph means a retirement, because you loose 4(!) tires... :-( I ask myself how developers can bring out such a game. They have game testers!!! Their job is supposed to be testing the game... If I have found so many problems with the gameplay, so surely have they... :-/

The last comment is for the music ....... ehm ..... yes ...... the music ..... THERE ISN'T ANY!!! Only during the pre-game menus and in your office there is some. The in-game speech is clear, the indications are good, even if at some times they come too late... :-/

VOTES:

Gameplay: 3/10
For a flipper-game the voting would be 10/10, but unluckily it's a rally game...

Graphics: 7/10
Average overall looking, with good cars and damages, but poor replays, awful pop up and ridiculous sight depth.

Music: X/10
Simply there isn't any!!!

Replay value: 5/10
Every season you play after winning your first 2.0 L championship is a ''replay'' itself. The game ends after max. 32 seasons or after 4 consecutive wins of the 2.0 L championship. The other game-modes are simply boring.

Buy or rent:
Please, do yourself a favor: DON'T BUY THIS GAME!!! WRC is not perfect, but it's Platinum now... If you want a really good rally game, wait until Colin 3.0! ;-)

PS: Excuse me for the poor English, but I come from Italy. I hope you understand what I've written! :-)

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/20/02, Updated 08/21/02