It's Racing! Off-Road! With Fords! ISN'T THAT EXCITING!?!
You know, it is more difficult to justify for a racing game that offers only one brand of car (or in the case of Ford Racing Off Road, two, even if Land Rover was still under the control of Ford, when the game was in stage of development). With the most serious Sims now provide literally hundreds of cars, the charm of a handful of different brands of the same manufacturer has barely stronger.
Razorworks was friendly with Ford for years, so it is not altogether surprising that it is again with another game of Ford Racing, while taking things (literally) off the streets of the previous transplant games and things to deserts, mountains and beaches not provide the same sense of speed, the same variety or even the same kind of basic entertainment that previous games offered.
Much of it comes down to the overall lack of excitement. Sure, you're bounding around off-road climates, but that does not mean that the game is particularly rapid. Most of the vehicles, despite an apparently different treatment, the speed and acceleration characteristics for the most part, and the fact that you have to not only unlock but buy 18 cars in the game means that you can do a lot of the same stuff over and over again, only with a little 'different mechanic.
E 'this infinite amount of regurgitation and repurposing that has been done with the game of the tracks to help hasten the sensation of mind-numbing boredom. Sure, on paper, Elimination, Time Attack, damage control and Point to Point races seem different, but in practice are substantially similar, only to go before the other guys and stay - while the damage done to your car since it exercises on between races. I know that describes how every racing game ever made, but it's all very brain. Similarly, the Checkpoint, Slalom, Gold Rush and Seconds Out! Events have just run a pick-up or door as quickly as possible. None feel particularly attractive, once you've played them a couple of times, and literally dozens of events before the end of the career mode, all starting to drag on.
FROR the particular brand of physics is ... interesting to say the least. While the vehicles definitely feel heavy, and slidey only if you lay on the gas all the time, the odd leap has the potential to send the car spinning, which can be a major buzzkill when the voice in the final of a race. Things also tend to break down as the first car touch. There's really not correct model of collision, so cars will stick together, throwing a few sparks, but otherwise continues to their merry way. That avian influenza picks really just a path and drive through you rather than around or even with you is just as worrying.
It should be noted that Ford Racing Off Road do not look at least acceptable, but this is due more to Razorworks' core engine than anything else. There have been some very strange hardware choices, however. The PC version does not support FROR laptop / integrated graphics card, which is somewhat 'staggering into account is essentially the PS2 version brought straight over in a modern sense resolutions, texture and graphics feel of the game are pretty weak - and no real opportunity to improve things, what you see is what you get.
Unfortunately, while the vehicles look pretty decent, not always react as the real thing. The game has a very limited damage model (trucks and SUVs will be smoking if the damage meter is high enough, but not really banged up to any significant extent). I can understand if Ford does not want to get beaten when their vehicles run other companies' horses, but it is a pure Ford (and since-jettisoned mark Land Rover) offering, and to be off the road, there was extensive opportunity to paint the classic "takes a licking and keeps ticking" under a moving truck racing across the finish line when other cars would have fallen further.
Another missed opportunity: where are the sound effects? RC Cars seem little versions of the big boys, there is no real sounds of dirt or sliding and around different types of surfaces. These effects bring to the fore would also have helped drown the music frankly lame bit. The odd Wailing guitar solo or cookie cutter jazzy riff not really do anything to help set the tone phonetics of the game.
Closing Comments
Ford Racing Off Road was built on a solid foundation, however, the developers and clearly understand how a racing game and competent behind the engine, but no part of the game in fact, as we hear, also racing. Meander slowly around the same few songs with vehicles that does not express a sense of power or speed makes for a plate of boring experience, and is one you can pass without consequences.
© 2008-09-30, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved
Razorworks was friendly with Ford for years, so it is not altogether surprising that it is again with another game of Ford Racing, while taking things (literally) off the streets of the previous transplant games and things to deserts, mountains and beaches not provide the same sense of speed, the same variety or even the same kind of basic entertainment that previous games offered.
Much of it comes down to the overall lack of excitement. Sure, you're bounding around off-road climates, but that does not mean that the game is particularly rapid. Most of the vehicles, despite an apparently different treatment, the speed and acceleration characteristics for the most part, and the fact that you have to not only unlock but buy 18 cars in the game means that you can do a lot of the same stuff over and over again, only with a little 'different mechanic.
E 'this infinite amount of regurgitation and repurposing that has been done with the game of the tracks to help hasten the sensation of mind-numbing boredom. Sure, on paper, Elimination, Time Attack, damage control and Point to Point races seem different, but in practice are substantially similar, only to go before the other guys and stay - while the damage done to your car since it exercises on between races. I know that describes how every racing game ever made, but it's all very brain. Similarly, the Checkpoint, Slalom, Gold Rush and Seconds Out! Events have just run a pick-up or door as quickly as possible. None feel particularly attractive, once you've played them a couple of times, and literally dozens of events before the end of the career mode, all starting to drag on.
FROR the particular brand of physics is ... interesting to say the least. While the vehicles definitely feel heavy, and slidey only if you lay on the gas all the time, the odd leap has the potential to send the car spinning, which can be a major buzzkill when the voice in the final of a race. Things also tend to break down as the first car touch. There's really not correct model of collision, so cars will stick together, throwing a few sparks, but otherwise continues to their merry way. That avian influenza picks really just a path and drive through you rather than around or even with you is just as worrying.
It should be noted that Ford Racing Off Road do not look at least acceptable, but this is due more to Razorworks' core engine than anything else. There have been some very strange hardware choices, however. The PC version does not support FROR laptop / integrated graphics card, which is somewhat 'staggering into account is essentially the PS2 version brought straight over in a modern sense resolutions, texture and graphics feel of the game are pretty weak - and no real opportunity to improve things, what you see is what you get.
Unfortunately, while the vehicles look pretty decent, not always react as the real thing. The game has a very limited damage model (trucks and SUVs will be smoking if the damage meter is high enough, but not really banged up to any significant extent). I can understand if Ford does not want to get beaten when their vehicles run other companies' horses, but it is a pure Ford (and since-jettisoned mark Land Rover) offering, and to be off the road, there was extensive opportunity to paint the classic "takes a licking and keeps ticking" under a moving truck racing across the finish line when other cars would have fallen further.
Another missed opportunity: where are the sound effects? RC Cars seem little versions of the big boys, there is no real sounds of dirt or sliding and around different types of surfaces. These effects bring to the fore would also have helped drown the music frankly lame bit. The odd Wailing guitar solo or cookie cutter jazzy riff not really do anything to help set the tone phonetics of the game.
Closing Comments
Ford Racing Off Road was built on a solid foundation, however, the developers and clearly understand how a racing game and competent behind the engine, but no part of the game in fact, as we hear, also racing. Meander slowly around the same few songs with vehicles that does not express a sense of power or speed makes for a plate of boring experience, and is one you can pass without consequences.
© 2008-09-30, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved