The Sega Zone - Reviews (Sega Rally Championship 2)

Sega Rally Championship 2

Developer:	Sega
Publisher:	Sega
Players:	1-2 (1-4 online gaming)

TV System:	Japan / NTSC
Accessories:	DC Wheel
Style:	Racing

I'd say that Sega Rally 2 has as much as you could expect from a rally typegame. It doesn't have a ton of cars, but if you do the year championshipmodes, you can mess around with so many game settings that affect yourcar during different weather conditions. That makes it a lot deeper thanjust a street racing game. I think the number of tracks is ok andto be expected. Sega definately went above and beyond an arcade portwhich is nice. The standard online play will be nice over here, andwouldn't it be cool if we got some more tracks and cars for the US?

I have a high end pc and the graphics don't blow me away that much. After seeing VF3 and Sonic, I know the Dreamcast is a powerhouse. I havea crappy 19" TV that I play it on too. I have never played any Segaarcade games except for Sega Rally so I don't know what the differences between the two if there are any.

Control for me gets very tiring. I place my fingers on the triggersaround me having my thumb navigate the thumpad comfortably. I have tostop after 20 minutes because my gas finger gets numb. I'd say thecontrol is pretty good with that setup though, with analogue controlsfor brake, steering, and gas.

There always seems to be the fogging effect, but most of the time it iskept in the far distance and not where your attention should be which isgood. Sometimes there is popin in the far distance too, but so far thisgame has done a good a job as any racer as far as that goes. I haven'tseen any scenery just pop in all of a sudden like Sonic Adventures.

Now for the negative. To me I can't tell if the gameplay is dead onwith great control because of the bad framerate. Some people can playany game like this and just make due, but I can't. I like gettingbetter at racing games as I learn cars, tracks, controls, etc. Withthis framerate constantly diving (in either view) I can't get into it.It's not just happening around corners or with other cars onscreen; It'salmost constantly changing noticeably. Now judging from bad games inthe past and reading online reviews from gaming mags; I would say itnever goes below 20fps or anything that bad because the whole screenisn't that choppy. It's like flashes of pure speed then dipping again.

Some have said this is not a framerate drop, but hiccup. I don't agreewith this at all because the hiccup is the framerate dropping to a ratethat isn't updating the picture drawn as fast as the tv's 30fps. This is pretty much a judgement of framerate. Sure hiccups can happen(Isee this on my pc a lot), but they aren't every couple of seconds. Avery fast framerate is noticeable to the eye. I have run tests witholder games on my pc and they could infact become too fast andunplayable. I think this backs up on why arcade games are known topretty much stay at 60fps as a mark of high quality. So I'd say a gameneeds a constant 30fps-60 to be playing good. Its not a coincidencethat VF3 runs at 60fps. Its smoother and plays better because of it.

I'm still going to keep Sega Rally 2 and put in the hours, but this framerateissue, to me, just ruins all the great things about the game. HopefullySOA will address these issues and we will get a great port over here.Its obvious this was another rushed game needed on the shelves due tothe void of other games. Sega didn't look at this game and say that itwas of high quality I'm sure.

Review By: Nickname: Webmaster (Damac@saber.net)

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