| Rally Championship 2000 Facts : | ||
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| Since I noticed people talking about how the games released in the recent years are more or less remakes of some older titles, I wanted to shed some light on this issue. I'll start by telling you about a great game from the year 2000, by the name of Rally Championship. Sadly forgotten by many. Developed by Magnetic Fields, it was first published by Actualize in 1999 as simply Rally Championship; then Electronic Arts in December decided to release it in the next year's spring as its own product with a slight name change. Begun in 1958, the British Mobil 1 Rally Championship is as famous in the United Kingdom as the Indianapolis 500 is in the United States. This series has produced more winners in the World Rally Championship than any other national. This offering contains six races each with six stages, encompassing all 36 stages of the Official British Rally Championship and over an astounding 420 miles of varied terrain, the largest computer game driving environment ever created. The locales are in virtually all parts of the United Kingdom, including England, Scotland, and Ireland while differing weather conditions and times of day make the stages varied and challenging. You are not confined to the roads in your driving, but if you deviate from them you encounter a major speed penalty. The diversity in the environments, painstakingly recreated from detailed reference material including Ordnance Survey maps, filmed footage and photographs, is quite high, with gravel and dirt roads, villages, bridges, quarries, mountains, rivers, and open fields. Over 20 licensed cars are available, including the VW Golf, Ford Puma, Hyundai Coupe Evo II, Nissan Almera, and Honda Civic. A nice slideshow of the cars is available with accompanying oral commentary to give you useful background information. While these compact cars pale by comparison to huge overpowered muscle beasts present in many other racers, they are considerably peppier than production models available to mass consumers. You may initially choose from one of three front-wheel-drive classes: A5 cars have a maximum of 1400 cc, A6 cars a maximum of 1600 cc, and A7 cars a maximum of 2000 cc. When you finish first with these in the Championship, you gain access to the incredible 2000 cc A8 class, involving the four-wheel-drive turbo-charged World Rally Cars. When you race in the special Championship with these speed demons, you are in for a real test. There are five different game modes and for solo play, you may choose single races, championship mode, arcade mode, and time trial mode. This last mode nicely lets you experiment with all the tracks before you try them in a Championship. For multiplayer, you may engage in network competition over a LAN for up to eight players. In addition, you may try Hot Seat and race up to four of your friends on one computer using a split screen. Two players can race in a split screen mode allowing for head-to-head competition or multiple friends can alternate and compete for the best time.Tweaking options include choosing the tires and the gearbox, tightening the suspension, and adjusting the brakes. Interestingly, semi-automatic as well as manual and automatic transmission is available. Because parts wear down over time, there is a car inspection after each stage. Inspection I say? Where else in a rally game have you seen this before? This means that you are NOT allowed to proceed to the next stage if, for example, your brakes only function at 20% of their capacity. You usually will have to undertake repairs in the service area before you progress, costing you precious time; the limited window you have to make repairs forces you to make strategic decisions about what to risk, particularly if you have abused your vehicle by driving it into the ground earlier. For those racers looking for extreme realism, the creators of the game introduced with a patch the ability to make some physichs tweaks by altering an external file, the NASCAR Heat way. It is possible to achieve the realism level promised for Richard Burns Rally where one frontal hit of a tree results in the total engine breakdown and of course, an abandon. After racing, you may watch, edit, and save your racing experience using what is without question the most multifaceted video replay interface I have seen. There are more than 20 internal and external viewing modes, with some of the outdoor perspectives positioned at less than an ideal angle. I was reading the other day the article written by the someone from SCi regarding the upcoming Richard Burns Rally. They say: "We have approached this aim with three fundamental design goals in mind � a realistic handling system, realistic wear and a damage model that actually affects the handling of the car". That's nice, but these features were introduced years ago in RC. The damage model is excellent and is nice to see that any part of the cars can receive dents. Damage is not just caused by collisions but also by normal driving, as virtually all parts of the car degenerate from wear-and-tear. The specific elements that increase damage are when your engine is revving high and overheating, when you are driving at high speed over rough surfaces, when you change gears a lot (you may often lose second gear), when you are exposed to water splashes and rivers, when you use your brakes a lot in a short period and they increase in temperature, and when your wheels spin a lot trying to get traction on the road surface. More important, one system affects another - if cooling/exhaust is damaged, the engine will loose power. The tires, as with everything else on the car, will be damaged. If you are unlucky, this might result in a puncture to one of them. All is not lost though as you do carry a spare wheel (renewed after each service area) which can be changed, although this does take time. I believe this was only seen in CMR3, almost four years after RC. Speaking of punctures and the road surfaces that may cause them, here's what SCi tell us about RBR: "Richard Burns Rally uses a very different map generation technology to other rally titles. (...) The ground surface in our game is build up by texture-mapped polygons � each texture has its own material map. This means that on any given piece of track, we can realistically model a variety of ground textures � from different depths and states of gravel, grass, rock etc." Again, this has been done before in RC - take a look at the screenshot and see for yourself. And yes, you can hear and feel the car both rumbling over the rough surface and loose some speed while the tires loose grip. This is clearly a racing simulation, not an arcade racer. The realism is exceptional, with everything seeming exactly like the real British Rally Championship. There are even actual Forestry Commission Ordnance Survey maps to help you navigate. The arcade mode in Mobil 1 Rally Championship is obviously a throw-away, a token nod to those who are not simulation aficionados: it is extremely disappointing, as it does not give those used to arcade racers enough simplification in what it takes to be a successful driver, and in any case many of the roads are so narrow that the thrilling passing moves common in arcade racers are out of the question. When you do rally racing, you have to get used to a totally different sense of time and distance. The shortest stage takes two to four minutes, most average 10 to 15 minutes, and the longest is between 20 and 26 minutes. So those whose virtual driving experience consists of short bursts of conventional racing excursions will need a lot more endurance and long-lasting focus here. It can also get a bit lonely over these long distances, as close-pack racing is extremely rare in this kind of competition. While in other kinds of racers your brain can get dull just circling over and over again around the same oval track, here the same can happen just from the unending empty sameness of some of the routes.Graphics: Using filmed footage of the real settings helped the designers achieve the absolute authenticity they desired. The introductory video is exceptionally vibrant, equal to the most riveting racing cinematics I have ever seen on the computer. While the scenery may not always be aesthetically beautiful and even sometimes appears drab and bland, that is exactly what the track environments actually look like. Notable special effects include lens flares, light filtering in among the trees, dust spreading around as cars move, and cracked windows on the cars. The internal detail within the vehicles is particularly impressive, showing great 3D dashboard detail and the driver turning the wheel. These cars get dirty, splash through puddles, and kick up dirt as they go around corners, creating authenticity not just in their appearance but in the appearance of their movement. I will comment further and say that the lighting model is one of the best I've seen so far. The cars have real time shading and shadows. Thus, the side of the car opposed to the light source (sun, light poles, flashes from the photographers!) will be naturally darkened, not just a texture being changed. It's nice to see the car's shadow or the light cone flowing smoothly over the side track scenery like stationed cars, fences, walls, bumps etc. The car/road also darkens while travelling through dense woods and you have to manually turn the lights on to better see the road ahead. Furthermore, the night is BLACK, and the damaged electrics will cause your lights to dim, flicker and eventually stop working, leaving you blind (this may happen to either of your left/right lights and/or fog lights depending on the side of the car affected by previous accidents). Another "small" detail adds to the realism: the blinding effect of the cameras' blitz in the dead of night which is nice to watch in a replay or in the real life but very annoying when YOU're the driver battling for seconds. Oh, and you'll experience all these lighting effects from the inside of the car too, not just from the outside views. Interface: Although Mobil 1 Rally can be played with the keyboard or a joystick, the optimum control device is clearly a steering wheel. My Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Steering Wheel worked perfectly using all of the default settings; the force feedback effects are excellent. It is possible to change button settings as well as the dead zone. In terms of navigating through and interpreting the game itself, I do wish the menu system were not exclusively keyboard-based, as this can be a real pain, and in many cases it seems to take too many key strokes to get to the menu you want. The play screen includes such data as driver and car information, a course map, a rev counter, and a progress bar, but conveniently all of these may be turned off if you wish. Gameplay: The twisting tracks in Mobil 1 Rally are especially challenging due to the presence of unexpected obstacles such as logs, fences, and hay bales. You slide around a lot unless you really drive carefully. As you move through the racing environments, the sense of speed is conveyed very convincingly, and at times it is terrifying as you travel over narrow and dimly-lit roads. It almost never is possible to see a long way ahead, and because you do not go around the same track over and over again you cannot easily memorize the various challenges along the way. You have to listen very carefully for navigation assistance to your co-driver's pace notes to avoid going off the road. As in real-life, the four-wheel-drive cars are very different in performance than the front-wheel drive models. Sound FX: The sounds of the engines in Mobil 1 Rally are fine, unique for each car, with high pitched revving noises. The voices of the announcer and co-drivers, real-life Rally co-pilots Derek Ringer and Claire Mole, are superb, authentic and not overdone; although it takes a while to get used to interpreting comments such as, "Left 5 into right 3 tightens," you gradually do get used to it. There is full and effective implementation here of the 3D hardware sound standards of A3D and EAX. Intelligence & Difficulty: Unfortunately, there are no levels of difficulty, which is a major drawback. Novices may get frustrated and give up due to their initial poor performance. It is not speed that is the issue but rather the absolute precision required in your driving. Even veteran computer racing fans may find it difficult to finish in the top 20 needed to score Championship points. Determining the competitive quality of your computer-controlled competitors is much harder here than in most racers, as the artificial intelligence is difficult to evaluate because you are not usually in sight of these virtual foes. It does appear, however, that the regular simulation AI is far superior to the rather primitive implementation in arcade mode. This is not the kind of racing title where you can just ignore the brakes; if you do so, you will slide off the roadways. It is also not the kind of offering where invisible walls on the road keep you going the correct way, as there are a ton of side paths available that are not part of the proper route at all. You learn to adjust to the special challenges present, but again some might be annoyed at how much they have to modify their typical racing style. Overall: For rally racing lovers, Mobil 1 Rally Championship is the closest thing to perfection ever released. The realism and excellent graphics, sound effects, and physics make this a real winner for them. It cannot be overemphasized that the designers at Magnetic Fields have succeeded in virtually all of their objectives, and this is a satisfying and polished racing product even if it does not have the broadest mass appeal. |
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Comments : |
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| Author: Matador2k4 | 18-07-2004 |
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Nice review. I always liked RC2000. But hey, it doesn't support multiple controllers, does it? |
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| Author: Tom | 18-07-2004 |
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Great Review, I 100% agree with you. RC 2000 IS the best rally game ever. some stages are very long and very challenging. The graphics are very good and don't require a supercomputer. I hope I can get this one working again on my Windows XP and MS FF Wheel. |
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| Author: jabroni | 18-07-2004 |
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"They say: 'We have approached this aim with three fundamental design goals in mind � a realistic handling system, realistic wear and a damage model that actually affects the handling of the car'. That's nice, but these features were introduced years ago in RC." Are you kidding? This game may be fun, and the stages are cool (lengthwise, narrow, etc), but realistic, this game is not. |
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| Author: TWIZTID | 19-07-2004 |
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jabroni, did you ever drive a real rally car to make comments on the realism of a game?? besides, the quote you chose is a rather poor argument for RC2000 not being a realistic game... that phrase only states that the features promised for RBR as being , were introduced years ago |
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| Author: benneyb | 19-07-2004 |
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Well done review. A pleasure to read again about this all-time great sim. |
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| Author: LinusGirdland | 19-07-2004 |
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Terrific simulator in terms of stages. But the driving realism is no where to be found. Sure, it supports multiple controllers, my stick-shifter and so on. But driving this thing is like driving a racing game of the 80's. No matter how much I tweak it, get patches, ini-files etc does it get any more realistic, or even fun, to drive. :( I remember I really wanted to find this game fun to drive, I kep tweaking, driving, hoping, but I could not fool myself for very long. Too bad for an otherwise cool game. |
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| Author: StrikeEagle | 19-07-2004 |
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"the British Mobil 1 Rally Championship is as famous in the United Kingdom as the Indianapolis 500 is in the United States". Err definetly not =) |
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| Author: C44u | 19-07-2004 |
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Best review I've read in a long while. While it's starting to show it age, RC2000 *still* pisses on other rally sims. Such a shame there are so few rally games that can be called great. |
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| Author: AK-47 | 19-07-2004 |
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This review is fantastic. But there is only 1 thing i can't agree with......it's the physics.....well, they aren't bad, but they are somehow primitive.....sorry, but that's the truth :( |
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| Author: sYn | 20-07-2004 |
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Great review, and I completely agree with you, I have a blast every time I play RC2k. hell, its been on my system for 2 1/2 yrs now :D |
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| Author: farrari | 20-07-2004 |
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Has alwayd been my fav rally game.. great revue |
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| Author: ][udson | 20-07-2004 |
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I bought this game on e-bay a short while ago to re-experience what I thought was the best rally game ever - and it is. Do you guys not know you can edit the physics? Edit the Ral.cfg file in the var folder. Here are the settings I use, and it makes for some really fun driving. I don't think these are as good as I want them but it's a start. fizpatch=1 stickygrass=0 patchstickygrass=0 patchgravity=68 patchdamages=500 patchhandbrakegrip=10 //- reduce for longer braking times patchbrakegrip=15 //- reduce for longer braking times patchaccelgrip=400 //- reduce for more wheelspin patchslidegrip=77 //- reduce for more sliding sideways patchgriptarmac=135 //- change for more/less grip on tarmac patchgripgravel=115 //- change for more/less grip on gravel/snowy gravel patchgripmud=100 //- change for more/less grip on mud/dust patchgripsnow=95 //- change for more/less grip on snow/ice patchgripgrass=100 //- change for more/less grip on grass/rough ground patchmaxdrawdistance=12 nofmv=1 //No intro movie screensnapshot=1 //Enable screenshot capture with NumPad 0 noautoneutral=1 //Disable auto neutral after a crash framecounter=1 //Shows frames per second (fps) when driving (displayed on progress bar) nonlinearsteering=1 //Non-linear steering for more accuracy around center sensiblesaving=1 mergejoy=1 //Merge input from all controllers replaykeys=1 |
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| Author: peksi | 20-07-2004 |
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got it working again! great game, i tried 2 stages, had to retire both though... broke the engine on 1st. and headlights on 2nd. i use ral.cfg and adjusted damages to 2000. now i really have to watch where i�m driving! cars could turn a bit quicker though. but i think it�s a realistic game, on championship-mode you really have to drive carefully or you can�t make it to service. i�m using the extra time-cheat on service but it�s useless if you hit a tree or stone and have to retire. it�s true that with default damage settings you really have to punish the car to get any serious damage. with some tweaking it�s the best rally game so far. |
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| Author: Cubits | 20-07-2004 |
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It truly is great! Those stages are so fantastically long and realistic. Having to change a tyre was awesome, and so was the damage system when you turned up the effects! I'd often just manage to finish a rally after having the car slowly deteriorating quicker than i could repair it. Magic! The only drawback was the physics modelling, which did wear thin after a while. RBR definitely is a few levels higher in that respect than RC2000, mostly due to the fact it's several years newer. If only we could get the cars and massive, real, stages into RBR, we would have a truly magnificent sim! Here's hoping the PC version of RBR is a little open! :D |
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| Author: craghack | 20-07-2004 |
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I have audio problems with this game under WinXP. If there is a fix it will be great. |
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| Author: Markseldis | 21-07-2004 |
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A magnificent rally game!!! When I first played it i thought it was the most realistic rally game ever...and i kinda think so even today |
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| Author: Luke | 22-07-2004 |
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Nice Review mate. I've recently got this game off of e-bay for 50p and think it's great. Why hasn't this site got a section for RC2000 where you can download skins as I have loads to send in, thought this would be a very popular game for skins!!! |
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| Author: john2 | 31-07-2004 |
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From the moment i got RC2000 i said it's the best sim rally.And here 4 years after it's release more and more sim sites prove me right.My best rally sim even and today and really glad to see people appreciating it.As for the review,excellent. |
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| Author: Okasa64 | 31-07-2004 |
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This rally sim is great ever, I own and enjoy nowaday too. |
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| Author: George Tomkins | 11-08-2004 |
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The best ever rally game gets the review it deserves! well done. But, be warned, the game crashes on anything faster than a 1.5Ghz, or did last I heard. Or has someone done a fix for that?? |
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| Author: Menace007 | 12-08-2004 |
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I concur with this article. This is my favorite rally game to date. Why doesn't a developer do the same setup as rally championship with updated physics, graphics, etc? I love racing at "real" locals much like GTR and the like. Magnetic Fields got it right. I only wish someone else would. Cheers. |
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| Author: trgz | 15-08-2004 |
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Good review. I have to say that I always felt that this was incredibly realistic until I played Rally Trophy which I think has the edge though I prefer RC's stages (now that's real!). Just re-installed it to test and it still looks good, and it reminded me that it's a great game to play, but you just felt a little like you're 'along for the ride' sometimes. Totally agree with the person who said that you've got to tweak the config file (get that grass slippery!) to get it a tad more real. I do get the feleing that (judging from the RBR movies) that Richard Burns Rally looks like you interact a lot better with your environment and I'm looking forward to another rally sim rather than yet another arcade game. And for those of you with technical concerns, i'm running the 5.3 patched version it fine in XP Home on an AMD 3200xp+, a Radeon 9800, NTFS, and sounds great through my Audigy - only snag is that I'm having small troubles setting up my Logitech FF (brake stays on all the time, and the setup keeps getting the assignments wrong) though a gamepad worked for the sake of testing purposes - and it detects multiple controllers (all 4 in my case) |
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| Author: Henrico | 24-09-2004 |
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Great game. Only thing up with it was the physics. Everything else rocked tho. Who thinks its better than RBR? Apart from the physics, I think it could be.. |
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| Author: Rat | 22-11-2004 |
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Audio problems with xp? The problem is that modern pcs run the game at v.high fps which screws up the sound. This can be fixed by using a high res and switching on anti-aliasing in your graphic card options. PS. RC is better than RBR considering its age. It annihilated any competition 4 years ago and only now is everyone else catching up (but still puts CMR04 to shame). Saying that RBR is a must buy as it is a great game and we must stick up for proper simulations. |
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| Author: Shawn | 22-04-2005 |
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This is the best game ever made. Iv played almost every rally game, except for the newer high graphic games, and this one beats them all. |
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| Author: Kris | 04-09-2005 |
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I agree. RC2000 has got to be the mother of all rally games. This game was the game that got me started in rally simulations. The graphics may be a bit outdated, and the car interiors are not very detailed, but nothing beats RC for gameplay. If someone could upgrade the car models for this game - it would be heaven! |
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| Author: paddy | 31-12-2006 |
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best rally game ever beter than rbr cmr all and xpand rally wish they could just upgrade cars but keep gameplay the same been playing it since its first release thanks for the great game |
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| Author: paddy | 01-07-2007 |
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i have all cmr games rbr and expand rally 1/2 and many other rally games . been playing race games since 1999. been through 2 microsoft ff steeringwheels a momo and now i have a logitech g 25. rallychap in my mind is still the best rally game ever made by far.try ithink its rc patch 6.it lets you save after every stage and lets you slide on grass.i only have i problem if i use a xfi creative sound card you sound gosting or sound that sounds like the soundis duplicated but out of sink .only happen after a wile of playing and i must restart to solve.still the best rally sim .only other game that comes close is rbr.just for intrest i am some times involved with real rally in south africa.i have me colin macrae and the late rithard burns.my driver i like the most is mark higgins and the best rally is the british rally camps. |
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