SEGA Rally Comments by Kristan Reed

woohoo

9!!!!!!
Consider this bought then
Just need to play the demo now :D

Damn, now I'm actually curious. I wasn't interested in this at all.

Yey.

/buys

Is the only difference betwen the PS3 and 360 version the rumble? Or is there a visual difference?

For a kick-off, it's running at a rock-solid 60 frames per second, and yet throws out more detail than pretty much any driving game to date.

Edit: word has it is 30 after all.

shame i have bought a wheel.

Has any in-game screenshots been released yet?

Loved the original to death.

Am now no longer interested in arcade racers, give me realism every time.

Well... maybe I'll try the demo...

Edit: let me stop you there, confirmation from Sega says it's 30fps.

The BEST IS BACK!!! The satrun version of this is still the best rally game ever so heres hopeing this is better :)

Interesting that the comments on the demo have been mixed (mostly negative) but the review really reads like it's AAA top quality!?!?!?! Slitly shonky demo, perhaps? Or maybe people want realistic racers all the time these days...?

If they do, then why moan about Sega Rally? It's arcade racing through-and-through (like Outrun) and would be a heinous mess if it went for a rally-stly GT/Forza approach. Personally, I loathe any racing game that's all about upgrading cars rather than racing them (Forza and Gran Turismo are boring IMHO). That's the reason PGR and Outrun remain the best series of all time :0)

Krudster. Can you unlock the classic Sega Rally track? You know the first one with the chopper and the mud?

There is one track you can unlock near the end (Lakeside). Is that it?

Nice review, always was a must buy for me but this has just cemented it.

there was me just playing the demo and feeling underwelmed by it. Something just feels wrong with no on screen damage and barriers you just bounce off in this day. Gorgeous graphics and colours. Perhaps I will have to give it more goes.

Does it support split screen? If so, is it 2 or 4 player split screen?

I'm constantly anoyed that of the 15 XBox 360 games I have, of the few that support split screen, only 1 supports 4 players. How many times I'm racing the PGR3 DVD to the tray and then recall "Bugger, no 4 player..."

Which version got reviewed, the 360 version?

Yeah, I was just going to say... but there again PGR 3's 30 fps feels faster and smoother than, say, Need For Speed: Most Wanted's 30 fps, right?

It actually runs at 55 fps, not that anyone will notice.

If this is as good on the PC as it is on the 360, it's a sale. Been waiting for this for years. First Outrun, now Sega Rally. The gods of gaming are smiling on me!

It does have split screen, yes.

By the way, it was reviewed on the 360. Had a quick go elsewhere on PS3, and it looked identical, just without vibration of course...

Thanks Krudster. Not sure if it was lakeside. I actually think it was just called desert. Great news about the PS3 version too!

Could you please skip the text and just post a score in the future?

The paragraph that talks about the framerate no longer makes any sense after its correction; the context depends on the first reference being 60, not 30. Stop being lazy and rewrite it =)

Edit: ok then!

>> There is one track you can unlock near the end (Lakeside). Is that it?


Lakeside was the unlockable one on the Saturn (so the 4th course there). I always found that a bugger to play for ages, until I finally got used to it, and avoided the walls which kept stopping me.

I loved Sega Rally on the Saturn. Those 3 (and then 4) tracks, and 2 (then 3) cars kept me happy for ages. I was always amazed at the PS games I had heard about having oodles of tracks. It was great getting to know the tracks so well instead of just jumping to the next one.

This game is perhaps tempting me to get a 360 at last, so it will go on my 'to buy' list perhaps.

The first track of SEGA Rally 2 was simply called Desert indeed.
Lakeside was the 4th track which was completly in tarmak, in a marina at night (it had extra laps to account for the fact it was smaller than the other tracks).

If the original (classic) tracks aren't in there, may I suggest that they pull their collective coding finger out and release them as DLC in the near future. WOuld love to play the classic tracks in new shiny HD glory :D

Ooops, sorry, Lakeside was from SEGA Rally 1 indeed.
From SEGA Rally 2 it was Riviera (the 4th arcade track).

The first track (Desert) was similar in both games as well.

Great demo, spent the afternoon playing it and i'm still trying to lower my lap times on the two tracks. I'm now desperate to start playing the tracks from the real game.

I'm with evild_edd, definatly need dlc for the classic tracks. everyone knows the desert track

Emphasise, not emphasis (P2, paragraph 1).

:P

Best thing ever though, is they kept the "GAME OVER YEAHHHH". It wouldn't be SEGA Rally without it.

Any chance of a review of the PSP version?

The comments on Sega Rally only serve to show how inflated many gamers ideas of what games should be like nowadays. It always comes off as a list of wants to me (pulling fingers out to add DLC?! Play the game first and get it done, young bucky!). So what if there's no damage modelling? So what if it's not just like Flatout UC? Flatout UC's handling doesn't change with the damage, nor does it have deformation. People seem to demand something NEW every time a game is released... but there's nothing wrong with a game doing something incredibly WELL now and again, either.

Am taking it with me to TGS, so will definitely do one. Probably in a week or so.

I prefer arcade racers to simulations but rarely play either for very long. I would be much more tempted to give this ago if it was priced competitively.

In the latest issue of Edge or GamesTM they are discussing what Sega Racing Studios will do next, and Daytona seems a high possibility!

Outrun 2 C2C, Sega Rally, please Sega, make Daytona happen!

As far as how arcadey it feels, how does it compare to Rallisport 2? I'd love a game like that, and since DICE won't make any sequels this might be a solid alternative.

Awesome! Buy! Thx guys... great review and a great score for one of my old time favourites.

To my mind, this is as pure as arcade racing gets these days. Rallisport feels like a sim by comparison :)

I loved RalliSport 2, but that was definitely more realistic. It's more like SEGA Rally Championship on the Saturn than anything else.

Hmm, might be a bit too arcadey for me then. RC2 struck the perfect balance for my tastes. But when I'll get around to buying that 360 I guess it will still be worth giving the demo a bash.:)

And I don't understand the "less is more" comment in the review in reference to the small number of tracks in the game. If the devs can make 3 tracks for each environment then why not 5, 6 or even 8? Surely learning all of those would mean a longer lasting game, particularly as the reviewer then questions the game's longevity at the end? :?

Not suitable to driving with a wheel peripheral? Hmmz. If that is really true, then this is a definite no-sale for me.

For the pad owning PS3ers, who knows though what will happen at TGS, eh? Will they or won't they? That's the question.

If the devs can make 3 tracks for each environment then why not 5, 6 or even 8?

I think the point is it's better to have a small number of excellent courses that have a lot of depth an replaybility, than to have loads of crap & uninspired courses........

edit: err, or what nekotcha said!

So... a 9 then. Better than every PS3 game I take it?

Sold

Sounds like Dirt but more fun and multiplayer.

Sold

Another slap in the rumble-less PS3's face. That gotta hurt!

Darren, I have to agree with the less is more. SEGA Rally was always about learning the perfect balance of speed and angle in each track. Many years after it's release, I still play SEGA Rally 2, and I stick mostly to the 4 original arcade tracks.

In games like PGR3 for example, you have hundreds of tracks, but you seldom loose any time to learn them. I played the game to death and I can't even name one track I like, there are so many of them.

In SEGA Rally, they focused on strong tracks with good memorable designs, which you will slowly learn... If they had 100 tracks you would simply play the game one track at a time, but never focus on 1 track to learn it, you'd just play by instinct, not knowing what came ahead.
This way, you'll play the tracks 3, 4, 8 times, and eventually learn them (which is when SEGA Rally becomes enjoyable and competitive). We all love to play in Desert, despite the fact the track is decades old, but that's the whole point. It's a circuit we all know very well, with each turn decorated. Winning isn't about the track you never bothered to learn and what turn it throws at you next, but about a track you are already familiar with, and besting everyone else in a track they are also familiar with.

In PGR3 (with it's many many tracks) half the drivers don't even know the track they are playing, usually only the host knows the track (they pick up their favorite). In SEGA Rally, everyone knows the tracks, because you learn them and master them in single player...