Much like soccer, rallying is huge in Europe, Africa and Asia but not in the United States. So this thrilling sport hasn’t entered the consciousness of American racing fans. Therefore, many American reviewers and gamers dismissed the original V-Rally as an unrealistic driving experience because of unfamiliarity with the sport. V-Rally really wasn’t like any other driving game, but rallying really isn’t like any other form of motorsport. That’s one of the strengths of the game and the sport.
Well, there’s no way that anyone with any appreciation for a true driving simulation for the PlayStation can dismiss the sequel, V-Rally 2: Need For Speed. This Electronic Arts-Infogrames title, developed by Eden Studios, has a superb combination of realism, graphics, sound, longevity and fun. It’s one of the best driving games ever released for the PlayStation. Read on to find out why. Gameplay:
The physics model is the heart of any driving game, and V-Rally 2 has a strong heartbeat. But there are a few murmurs that need correction.
First, the strong points. The physics of the cars are very good, for the most part. Each car handles slightly different. For example, the short-wheelbase Toyota Corolla is more nimble than the heavy Skoda Octavia. And the Skoda is more stable than the tall and torque-laden Ford Focus. The feel of each car is very realistic. The cars start to slide realistically through turns and rumble through bumps and undulations on the racing surface just right, depending on car setup.
And proper car setups are crucial to success in this game, especially at the higher skill levels. A car that slides too much through the turns, constantly hitting the earth mounds or guardrails at the side of the road, will have little chance of victory regardless of the driver’s talent. There are a variety of setup options, including multiple tire compounds from real-life manufacturers Pirelli and Michelin, seven gearbox settings that alter the balance between speed and acceleration, seven suspension settings, seven car-height adjustments, seven under- and over-steering adjustments, seven brake-strength settings and seven brake-bias settings. The setup options aren’t nearly as complex as Gran Turismo, but they’re much more detailed and realistic than the original V-Rally. Tinkering and experimentation is needed to find the right setup for victory. Thankfully, setups for all 84 tracks can be saved to a memory card. But not every setup works the same for every car, so you’ll need to re-tinker if you change cars. That might be bad news, but hey, it’s realistic.
Finding speed while power sliding around tracks requires a delicate balance between acceleration, braking and steering, especially on narrow tracks at the higher skill levels. V-Rally 2 is not a mash-the-gas-and-go arcade game. Your thumbs will dance all over the analog sticks on tight, tough stages such as Italy or Monte Carlo. Cars will slow when running in the cushion of dirt on the sides of the road in gravel stages and flip quickly if they stray too far off road on any surface. That’s realistic. Anyone who has watched a rally live or on television knows that some of the most spectacular accidents in motorsports occur in rallying. The driving model is a bit more forgiving in V-Rally 2 than in the original, making this an easier game to pick up and play right out of the box. But it’s still a tough, realistic game to master. That’s an enthralling combination that should have widespread appeal.
But the gameplay in V-Rally 2 has a few minor problems that prevent it from reaching perfection. First, cars float a little too much after hitting obstacles on the side of the road. This next quibble may sound contradictory, but cars don’t catch enough air off jumps in stages, either. Now before purists scream that I’m favoring arcade-like gameplay, take a look at pictures of any WRC event in the pages of the great British motorsports publication Autosport. Rally cars catch air from time to time on every rally – it’s that simple. But only the super-fast and rolling Finnish stages cause cars to launch with any regularity in this game. Many rallies also contain stream crossings, but I saw none in V-Rally 2. More air and stream crossings were found in V-Rally. It’s a shame they were removed from the sequel.
I’m pleased that service areas were added to V-Rally 2. After each stage of a rally in the championship mode except for the final stage, cars drive to a service area for repairs to the engine, gearbox, brakes, steering and suspension. Drivers are allowed to perform 30 minutes of service before moving to the next stage. That’s very realistic. But the damage model in V-Rally 2 is too lenient. I have played this game to death the last few weeks, and only two or three times did I sustain more damage than could be fixed in 30 minutes, even after mimicking Harvey Wallbanger in a couple of stages. And the consequences of starting a stage with a damaged car are severe and realistic. It’s too bad damage-hampered performance didn’t come into play more often. There needs to be more of a penalty for reckless driving.
I’m also happy that Eden Studios added superspecials – short, head-to-head races between two cars on parallel tracks with a crossover bridge - to V-Rally 2. That’s very realistic. But the standard stages in each rally are too short. Hardly any exceed 3 miles, which is very unrealistic. Some stages of the recently completed Rally Great Britain ranged between 15 and 27 miles. Plus the longest rally mode – the Expert level of the Championship mode – has only three stages per rally. In reality, the season-ending Rally Great Britain had 22 stages. More stages need to be added to each rally in the sequel.
Longevity:Talk about longevity: V-Rally 2 contains 84 tracks. That’s not a misprint. There are seven unique stages in each of 12 countries spanning the globe from Indonesia and Australia to England and Corsica. That selection offers tremendous variety, as each country has unique racing surfaces and weather or combinations of racing surfaces and weather. But there is one glaring omission: The Safari Rally in Kenya. The Safari and the Monte Carlo races arguably are the most anticipated and fabled rallies on the WRC calendar. The Safari was included in V-Rally. So why isn’t it in V-Rally 2?
There are 16 true-to-life rally cars in the game, spread out over three categories. There are eight World Rally Cars, including the mighty Mitsubishi Lancer, Ford Focus, Subaru Impreza and the late, great Toyota Corolla. These are the top-of-the-line, major-league rally cars, with four-wheel drive and 2-liter, turbo-charged engines cranking out 300 horsepower. Five 2-liter kit cars are included, such as the Renault Megane and Vauxhall Astra. Normally aspirated, 2-liter engines that churn out about 280 horsepower power these front-wheel-drive cars. They’re the rallying equivalent of Triple-A baseball. There also are three 1.6-liter kit cars. These entry-level, front-wheel-drive cars have anywhere between 155 and 220 horsepower coming from their normally aspirated engines. All cars can be taken for a spin on a test course before choosing them as your vehicle.
Four modes of play also ensure longevity. Four cars compete in the Arcade mode, with human drivers needing to reach checkpoints around each course in certain amounts of time to continue. There are three skill levels of arcade racing, with more rallies and tougher checkpoint time requirements added to each level. The V-Rally Trophy mode features four cars on the course in each stage. There are three skill levels, with added stages and tougher computer AI at each level. The World Trophy and Expert Trophy modes feature 12 single-stage rallies, each in a different country. The winner is the driver who accumulates the lowest overall time over the entire mode. So that provides plenty of incentive to keep racing hard even when you have a big lead. You’ll never know when you’ll need that extra second or two. In fact, I lost the World Trophy mode by four seconds overall once. The Championship mode resembles real rallying in that there is no other competition on the track. It’s strictly a driving contest against the course and the clock. There are three skill levels, starting with eight rallies and building up to 12 in the final two levels. The World level features two stages on each rally, for a 24-race series, while the Expert level has three stages on each rally, creating a grueling, 36-race series. Each Championship mode rally includes eight cars overall, but remember, you’re never racing against them on the track. It sounds odd, but you’ll stay riveted to the timer display in the upper left corner of each stage, calculating how far ahead or behind you are on the overall leaderboard. Drivers accumulate points after each rally, and the driver with the most points at the end of the season is the overall winner. It’s a great challenge and great fun. The final mode is Time Trial, which allows you to turn anywhere from one to an infinite number of laps on any of the 84 stages in the game. It’s a great way to learn the subtleties of each country’s stages.
Longevity also is enhanced by the reward system of the game. Human drivers are awarded a classic bonus rally car for completing each Arcade mode level or winning each level of the Trophy or Championship modes. The 10 bonus cars, which include the legendary Lancia Stratos, Ford Escort and Fiat 131 Abarth, are a really cool aspect of this game. I’m still trying to win in the World and Expert levels to unlock more cars. It’s addictive!
The final, and possibly most important, part of this game’s longevity is the track editor. This new feature lets players build any kind of track in any country featured in the game. Weather, time of day, surface, distance, contours and elevation all can be tailored to the user’s whims. Tracks can be built painstakingly by hand, or players can select a few general commands and then let the computer generate a random track. The computer does a fine job with this, too. These created tracks then can be accessed in the Time Trial mode. Still, the tracks are too short, just like the pre-programmed tracks. Plus there’s no programming built in the game to account for countries that feature more than one type of terrain. For example, the Rally Great Britain features stages in the Midlands countryside and the Welsh forests. But the track editor only will create countryside stages. Same with Monte Carlo. You’ll only get mountain stages instead of having a choice of a seaside superspecial. That choice should be programmed into the track editor of any future V-Rally sequel.
Controls:The controls are tight and simple. Analog steering with the left joystick and analog acceleration and braking with the right joystick is supported. Thank God Eden Studios didn’t follow the lead of EA with the latest version of the Need For Speed series, which inexplicably didn’t offer analog acceleration and braking. That should be a standard option in EVERY racing game, arcade or sim. Pressing the circle button activates the handbrake, which is very handy for high-speed hairpin turns. Pressing the triangle button changes camera angles. And the L1 button gives drivers a rear view, very handy during the trophy mode. Controller buttons have some mapability, creating flexibility for driver tastes and comfort.
The Dual Shock vibration in this game is better than in any other PlayStation racing game I’ve played, including the mighty Gran Turismo. The subtlety of the vibration is incredible. Every small bump or undulation in the road creates a tiny jolt in the controller. And those sensations spike in intensity during collisions with other cars or off-track objects.
On-screen displays are laid out just right during stages. The display in the upper left corner shows your position in the stage and how many seconds you trail the opponent directly in front of you on the course. The gear, speed and tachometer are shown in the lower right corner. The lap counter, checkpoint timer during arcade mode and percentage of stage completed are shown in the upper right corner. Finally, either lap times or a course map can be displayed in the lower left corner. None of the displays interfere with driving, and all can be toggled on or off.
There are plenty of driving options, too, before drivers even consider car setups. The gearbox can be set to automatic or manual, with the L2 and R2 shoulder buttons handling up and downshifting. That’s the best layout for driving games, especially when using a Sony Dual Shock Analog controller. Proper shifting is crucial when using a manual gearbox, and the larger L2 and R2 buttons handle the job with aplomb. Braking assistance can be turned on or off, and there are seven steering sensitivity settings. The default mode worked fine for me, as it’s the most neutral. But it’s nice that Eden Studios created an option for tinkerers.
Graphics:If details are everything, than V-Rally 2 is the whole enchilada graphically. The graphical detail in this game is beautiful.
Cars include proper lighting and shading, accentuating body trim and contours. A detailed driver and co-driver are seen from all views, and a detailed spare tire can be seen under the hatchback glass of each of these cars from the rear views. Cars also show accurate, spoked rally wheels with lug nuts. Every current car contains accurate color schemes and decals, and the WRC cars even have the correct numbers for each manufacturer’s No. 1 driver during the 1999 season. For instance, the Mitsubishi Lancer carries the No. 1 of World Champion Tommi Makinen, the Ford Focus carries the No. 7 of Colin McRae and the Subaru Impreza carries the No. 5 of rising star Richard Burns. One of the coolest graphical wrinkles is the license plate. Your chosen name will appear on it during all races. That’s a neat touch.
Cars also churn through gravel surfaces at speed, leaving clouds of dust in their wake. This dust is most obvious when watching replays. And the replays in this game are excellent. They even approach the video-quality replays of the hallowed Gran Turismo and offer multiple camera angles. Also, cars leave accurate, four-wheel skid marks on the road when sliding through turns on asphalt courses. Dust, mud and snow also cling to the rear bumpers and sides of cars during stages, creating extra realism. Car headlights cast a realistic cone of light during night stages.
The level of detail on the track surfaces and backgrounds is stunning. Leaves and trees almost appear real, with vivid texture and shading. Eden Studios obviously went to exhausting lengths to create realistic environments, as the beautiful, blue Mediterranean Sea is seen in all of its glory in Corsican stages, small huts are seen in the dry, dusty Australian outback stages, and barns and small houses are evident in the snowy Swedish stages. Distant backgrounds are somewhat two-dimensional and appear pasted in, but the transition between the 3D, close backgrounds and distant backgrounds is fairly seamless.
Track surfaces feature differing textures and light shading, creating an incredibly realistic look. The color of the soil and asphalt differs from country to country. That’s fanatical attention to detail. The light shading during twilight stages also must be seen to be appreciated. Certain parts of the track are bathed in warm, subtle half-light, making it tough to judge distances and hindering depth perception. This is exactly what happens to WRC drivers.
Crowds also are sprinkled about stages in realistic proportions. And one of the coolest graphical features of the game occurs when a few spectators scramble from the center to the side of the road as your car approaches certain sections of the stage. This is exactly what rabid WRC fans do: They stand in the road, waiting to snap a head-on picture of their favorite cars screaming toward them and hop out of the way, almost like high-horsepower matadors. Simply awesome.
Pop-up and draw-in does occur in this game, but not enough to create a distraction along the lines of NASCAR 2000. The pop-up and draw-in is excusable considering the sheer level of graphic detail.
There are five camera angles, and all are useful, for a change. The default view is the traditional, just-over-the-rear-of-the-car angle. Three other angles continue to move farther behind the default. The differences between each are minimal. It’s a matter of taste. The default angle also can be adjusted at precise increments for height and zoom. That’s a great feature. The last two camera angles are from the front bumper and from the back of the hood. But there is no true in-car camera, a surprising omission and flaw. A true in-car camera with the driver working the wheel and showing complete instrumentation, just like the TOCA series, would have been the proverbial cherry on top of a great graphical package. Eden Studios should include it in the next version of V-Rally.
There are only two significant problems with the car graphics, both involving overlap. There’s a bit too much overlap during collisions between two cars. It doesn’t hinder gameplay, but it’s a tad unrealistic. And in a more serious flaw, cars simply run through trees and bushes on the side of the road. That’s a negative that purists will detest. One of the great graphical and gameplay aspects of the original V-Rally was the realistic treatment of all obstacles. If you hit a tree, you were in big trouble. That’s not the case in V-Rally 2.
On a side note, full-motion videos at the start of games usually don’t captivate me. But the FMV for V-Rally 2, featuring real WRC footage spliced seamlessly with computer-generated footage, is really, really cool.
Sound:The sound in V-Rally 2 is a very spartan but effective package. Its minimalism is appreciated in a genre in which nearly every new release must contain a “hot” soundtrack. I don’t know about most gamers, but I’m not even thinking about music when trying to drive fast and win races. I want to hear the sweet music of engines roaring, gears changing and tires struggling for grip. That’s the philosophy that EA-Infogrames and Eden Studios took in V-Rally 2.
The car sounds are excellent. World Rally Cars use four-cylinder, 2-liter turbo-charged engines that rev high, creating a high-pitched whine. That’s exactly the sound you’ll hear in V-Rally 2. Shifting and acceleration/braking sounds also are realistic. And the sound of the tires sliding across gravel, mud, snow and asphalt are distinct and different. They’re also nearly perfect. The crunchy thud heard during collisions with either other cars or objects on the side of the road also is believable.
There’s also fine attention to detail with the sounds. For example, when driving on the melting snow of the mountain roads in the Monte Carlo Rally, you can actually hear the sound of slush slapping against the underbody of the car. That’s incredible.
V-Rally 2 features a repetitive techno rhythm during the menu screens that gets fairly grating after a while. Techno music also plays during racing, but I suggest turning the music way down or even off. The music is good but hearing the instructions of the co-driver is more important. Rallying is unique in that it’s one of the few forms of racing in which a co-driver accompanies the driver in each car. The driver and co-driver, who doesn’t actually drive the car, perform a recce – basically a slow test drive – of each stage before the race, and the co-driver jots down pace notes about turn locations, turn types, etc., on a notepad. The co-driver then reads the pace notes calmly to the driver during each rally stage. Pace notes are vital to the driver, as most of the stages are contested on poorly marked or unmarked roads.
And pace notes are also vital in V-Rally 2, an added touch of realism. The co-driver in V-Rally provided only limited information, such as “easy left, hard right,” and his voice resembled that of a gnarly surfer. But the co-driver in V-Rally 2 speaks in a monotone English accent and gives more thorough information about each turn such as, “Bad right over crest into medium left, tightened.” Some may consider the tone of the co-driver to be dry. But his delivery mirrors that of a true WRC co-driver. Their job is to provide dispassionate facts, keeping the driver focused on the task at hand. This audio, combined with the color-coded curve signs atop the screen display, really helps drivers navigate the tough courses. It’s superb.
Overall:V-Rally 2 is the sleeper racing title of the year. In fact, as I write this on the eve of the release of the highly anticipated Gran Turismo 2, V-Rally 2 is my choice for the PlayStation racing game of the year. Gran Turismo 2 or Formula One 99 may seize that crown, but V-Rally 2 is an awesome game, nonetheless.
It’s a shame that V-Rally 2 was released just before Gran Turismo 2. The combination of rallying’s lack of respect in the United States and the huge rush to purchase GT2 might keep V-Rally 2 out of some gearhead gamers’ collections in America. Hopefully that won’t happen. V-Rally 2 is too deep, too pretty and too realistic to stay on the shelves of stores across the country. This game deserves respect, praise and plays.
In fact, I would slot V-Rally 2 into a tie with Formula One: Championship Edition for the No. 2 position in my recent column listing the top-10 racing games ever for the PlayStation, trailing only the mighty Gran Turismo. In a world of mediocre recent racing releases, V-Rally 2 stands out as a superb achievement for Electronic Arts, Infogrames and Eden Studios. It’s not flawless, but it’s the closest I’ve seen to perfection this year in a racing game.
PC Games | Xbox | Sony PSP | Nintendo DS | Zodiac | Phantom | N-Gage | Playstation 2 | Playstation One | GameCube
Gameboy Advance | Nintendo 64 | Dreamcast | PC Demos | Forums | Cheaters Wanted | Search
Gamers Wanted is © Wewp! Entertainment | Terms of Use | About Us | Links | Advertise | XML RSS Feeds 
