Mercedes-Benz World Racing ("MBWR") is the latest simulation from Synetic. I have always been pleasantly surprised by Synetic's work in the driving/racing sim realm; their previous effort, Mercedes-Benz Truck Racing ("MBTR"), modeled an incredibly offbeat road racing series which featured full-size Mercedes-Benz semi trucks (yes, semis, as in "18-wheelers," minus the trailers) running on a variety of real-world racing venues. This form of truck racing is actually a viable race series in Europe, and even though the top speed of the trucks is governed by a speed limiter, the racing is fast, close, and intense. Synetic brought these MBTR trucks to "life" for the sim racing world, and they did so using a physics engine that many said was second only to Grand Prix Legends, complete with a jaw-dropping graphics engine.

Unfortunately, MBTR was never imported to the U.S., so many people on this side of the pond never really "discovered" this sim racing gem. I tracked down a copy via ebay, of all places, and even though I don't really "get" the allure of racing semi trucks, MBTR offers some truly great physics, and I often fire it up just to marvel at what Synetic has done, wondering what it would be like to see this physics engine used to model a more desirable segment of the racing world.

When I heard that Synetic was involved with producing Mercedes-Benz World Racing, I was one of the first people to get really excited -- initially, it seemed that most people weren't all that enthused about MBWR; in one internet sim racing poll asking what the most-anticipated sim was, most people cast their votes for ISI's F1 Challenge '99 - '02, or for the original TOCA Pro Race Driver from Codemasters. I knew, though, that after MBTR, Synetic would not let us down with their latest Mercedes-Benz branded effort.

The writing was on the wall, in fact -- MBWR was destined for greatness from the start: Licensed cars including some the all-time classic historic racers from the Mercedes-Benz historic archives, a great physics engine carried over from Synetic's last racing sim, and expansive drive-anywhere tracks that seem to go on forever. MBWR seemed like it had enough to offer to win over sim racers everywhere, and I jumped at the chance to write a review for the Blackhole Motorsports site.

STARTING THE GAME AND THE USER INTERFACE

Like a lot of recent releases, you will need to run an external "setup" application after installing MBWR in order to configure your graphics and your sound. Everything in the setup app is fairly straightforward, but there is one graphics card compatibility issue that you should take note of: If you have an older GeForce2 MX card or a newer GeForce4 MX card, you will NOT be able to enjoy the moving steering wheel when using the in-car view. Apparently the older MX versions of the GeForce cards lack some of the features and horsepower required to support the additional in-car animations. The in-car steering wheel animations worked fine with my GeForce 3ti 200 card, though, and newer GeForce FX and ATI cards shouldn't have any problems.

The in-game MBWR menu is basically a carry-over from the menu system that was used in the MBTR title, and the best that can be said about this approach is that hopefully Synetic will take put some effort into revising the menu system for the sequel to MBWR, because once you get past the initial setup, the in-game menus are a mixed bag at best. The overall layout is confusing, and this is compounded by the fact that the only navigation method available is keyboard input -- like many other recent games released for multiple platforms simultaneously, MBWR does not offer mouse support for menu navigation.

Overall, the menu system is poorly laid out, so my criticism here is not specifically that they chose a keyboard-only navigation method -- other console port menu systems that offer keyboard-only navigation methods (such as those in Ford Racing 2 or Race Driver 2, neither of which offer mouse support on the PC) eventually become familiar and relatively easy to use over time, but the menu system in MBWR just seems to be counter-intuitive from the start, and it never has gotten any better for me.

It should be noted that although the menu structure can be confusing, the basic menu functionality is fairly straightforward, and most of the various in-game options and modes are relatively easy to figure out, but things like setting up races, selecting a track for free time, selecting your vehicle, etc., often seem to require an unreasonable amount of concentration.