Richard Burns Rally

Written by Trevsweb

Richard Burns frantically difficult Xbox game paved the way as being one of the hardest driving games to date on a console, now lets see if this port on the Gizmondo can live up to its bigger brothers reputation.

Aim:

Richard Burns Rally is… you guessed it a rally game, which means various stages around the world on different stage types, from dust ridden to tarmac roads to icy and snow covered roads.

You begin the game with 2 tracks and 3 different cars, trust me when I say this, be careful in which car you choose for specific ground types otherwise you’ll soon find yourself in the nearest ditch/tree/cheering fan/lake/river/mountain side or all of the above.

One thing you find out the minute you start driving is that it is no where as easy to pick up and play straight from the box as such games like burnout, this game seriously frowns upon reckless and throttle hungry drivers (like myself). It helps to be a little cautious and able to handle your corners.

Controls:

As we’ve touched on above, the cars can be very unforgiving when dealing with corners etc, but this is mainly due to the harsh controls of the Gizmondo, seams the directional pad doesn’t give you that level of fine tuning detail you need when pulling off that sweet corner.
I often found myself button bashing the brake and the throttle to get it round the corners in one piece if I managed to miss any trees that is. It is very difficult to drive, I’m so glad I kept away from the manual choice in transmission otherwise I would be all over the place.

Gameplay:

The Gameplay is pretty simple on paper, you start with 3 cars and 2 tracks and you must unlock the other 5 cars and 8 tracks by completing the two game modes.
This game is a serious simulation if you’re after a quick arcade game then it is likely not to appeal to you.

The first game mode is quick rally, this is just practice mode on first look but if you do manage to beat the lap record, you might be able to get an un-lockable goodie.
Checkpoints tell you if you’re ahead of time or in my case behind time, but practicing the tracks really help with the arcade mode.

Arcade mode is the main part of the game, don’t let the arcade name fool you it is very tricky, the mode itself is a time attack mode in which you have to complete the courses with a countdown, with every checkpoint you get extended time.
If you run out of time you roll to a stop, if your able to roll to the checkpoint/finish line then your time will be increased, phew just in time.

Multiplayer:

There is no multiplayer but if that was the case then you would see either a large drop in detail or in frame rate. You also don’t see multi opponent rally that’s just dangerous although a shame.

Graphics:

From the simplistic menus to the mouth watering intro this title really sets the game up to be one corking graphically intense game, here’s were we normally says it misses this assumption but here’s something a lot different… the game is awesome. The 3D models of every car are unique and very detailed from the realistic damage of the cars to the greatly detailed tracks. This game oozes the quality we have been expecting from this game, and damn they have defiantly done the Gizmondo proud with this title.

Screenshots make the replays look nice but nothing is like playing this game great frame rate too makes all those lush 3d models fly around the track.

Particle effects have really improved from the demo version we saw way back in December too, if you accelerate you get the general kick of dirt you do when rallying around but if you brake harshly then you get chunks of rock thrown at you.

To put up the thrill of the realistic racing even more Gizmondo Studios have included realistic damage to the cars, so when you go head on to a tree you can expect your car to not look so pretty afterwards, the damage is pretty forgiving and only damages the body of the cars.
Lighting also looks great when you check out the brake lights and shadows of the cars as you’re spinning around in the air after hitting a rock… beautiful.

Sound:

Sound is equally impressive, nice catchy tunes are well placed in the menus.
Car sounds sound crisp and gritty as they should do the crunches and bangs as you clear jumps and hit trees prepare for some teeth grinding noises.
The best part of the sounds though is the great addition of pace notes, these aid you around the course and tell you what type of obstacle are ahead, this takes a while to get used to but you can defiantly see its use when you’re not very good at memorising tracks.

Improvements:

Maybe some tips on driving properly would be handy, the original game had the driving school which would’ve aided in getting around courses a lot faster, and also a good addition would be a ghost car mode.

Closing comments:

This is without doubt a great game there are a few points that would make the game better, but these don’t stop the game from being very challenging and great to look at, additions to the game can merely added onto a list for maybe a sequel, as at this time I love this game.