Hey Guys Dave here again, with another Review!
Today i am talking about one of my all time favourite racing games, V-Rally 3 on the Original Xbox!
Now VRally was a racing series that primarily existed in the mid nineties on just about every console available at the time, it was made by Eden Studios and published by Infogrames and in the case of the 3rd game, Atari.
Vrally 3 came out in 2003 on Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube to average critical review scores and ultimately ended up being the most recent game in the series.
The game is alot more arcade in its driving and physics engines compared to its big rival of the time, Codemasters Colin Mcrae Rally series. Its driving style in particular is very loose in comparison, which to be honest i do enjoy, especially now as this type of driving game is almost non existent in the triple A market.
Now the reason i love this game so much is its very enjoyable career mode. As you can see from my gameplay footage in the video below you start off without a team and have to take test drives to get a contract. At the start this aspect is essentially a driving skill rating with one test giving you only a single chance and another letting you have unlimited attempts at hitting the target time.
I like this approach because it organically lets you progress as a player, the better you become the harder the game gets. An interesting part of this are RPG style stats for each of the teams which displays a score rating for budget, performance, reliability and Morale. All these stats dictate how well your car performs, how much the team are able to improve it throughout the season, your chances of a new contract and ultimately your expectations.
I love this, as it gives you the option to build a team up or jump ship to a better car. There is also 2 distinct divisions, 1.6l and 2L. which acts as a clear progression in difficulty. The 2L cars are much faster and harder to control and as such when you get offered a chance to test drive for a 2L team you will need to be able to drive it based on skill not on how long you've been playing the game which i absolutely love. In modern games it can feel a little too easy to move up through the ranks thanks to AI difficulty settings, rewinds and driving assists but thankfully V Rally has no such options, if you get better... great! if you dont, well.... get used to the Polo.
Overall i think V Rally 3 is a criminally underrated gem on the Xbox, it doesn't look or play as well as Colin Mcrae Rally for sure but its arcade racing and deep career mode make its something entirely alternative even in 2018.
7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment