V-Rally 2: Expert Edition Review

You remember Infogrames's 'fairly' successful V-Rally (the best-selling rally game in the world)? Well, if you've read the title, and I assume you did, you know by now that V-Rally 2 Championship Edition has hit the PC market after making its successful debut on the Playstation. Great, I thought! I'll get to play my favorite -- rally racing! But wait... a difference in opinions ... failed expectations in terms of how rally driving is supposed to be played on the PC? Yep, I guess so...

Let me just make a little disclaimer before I go on with this review. I must say I'm not a big fan of arcade racing, and V-Rally 2 is an arcade racer. If you're up for more realistic rally racing, you should probably go out and buy Rally Championship. But if you're after some entertaining arcade rally with official licensing, plenty of official cars, and gorgeous graphics, than don't look any further 'cause V-Rally 2 is THE answer for all your high-speed fantasies! All personal affinity aside, V-Rally 2 is a meticulously designed fast-paced racer that can be described as Need For Speed with a rally twist. As such, it is really fun to play (ili pak great fun to play it), and it provides some exciting rally moments. Even the hardcore US crowd of NASCAR fanatics should enjoy this one, as it offers the sense of speed rarely seen in rally racing titles, especially when using the new dashboard view. It really gives you the sense of driving ultra-fast in a low visibility environment with the copilot being your eyes and ears on the road. This part of the game actually stays fairly true to the rally (sim.) concept - quite unlike the car physics and the damage model... If we look at Colin McRae, RC, or any televised rally championship for that matter, it's clear that the car's steerability and the way it slides in turns just isn't consistent with actual rally driving. This specifically implies to the car's acceleration after sharp turns, and the usage of (hand) break. V-Rally 2 damage model is, well, too mild in terms of the amount of damage it causes, visually, and it doesn't affect the car's handling as much as it is supposed to. Additionally, different surfaces don't necessarily result in more sliding or less control, except for the roads heavily covered in snow. The only feature of the damage model that seems fairly sim-like are the progressive dirt marks -- because of the dirt and snow spraying all over it during the race, your car will end-up looking like it has been the sole survivor of Paris-Dakar by the time it roars past the finish line. However, V-Rally 2 isn't meant to be a sim. It's a blistering arcade looking to get a wide variety of racing fans interested in the prospects of driving fast against the odds of bad weather, pesky spectators, and of course, other drivers looking to clear the stage in record times.

Even a casual glance at all the options featured in the game, and all the official licenses obtained to recreate the racing events reveals how much effort (i.e. greens) Infogrames has invested into this project. We're talking about 17 official cars from the World Rally Championship & 10 bonus cars to be discovered! More than 80 special stages spread over 12 different countries (Spain, Italy, Sweden, Australia, just to name a few), 4 game modes, including: Arcade, Rally Championship, V-Rally trophy and Time Trial, and a lot more cars that you can download from the official website. V-Rally 2 is a luxuriant title that had Infogrames spending dollars on it like it is its prime mare. Of course, knowing full well that the sales will more than compensate for their expenses...