Product description
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The greatest rally game in the arcades is now available in your
own home. With the addition of a 10 Year Championship and
gruelling driving conditions through mud, deserts, blizzard,
night time and many more. Choose from a multitude of world famous
rally cars on 17 challenging courses. Upload your best times to
the internet or view the high score tables.
.com
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Sega Rally 2 is the sequel to an arcade game that made its home
debut on the ill-ed Sega Saturn video game console. Despite
the Saturn's demise, the original Sega Rally still holds a warm
place in the heart of video game fanatics as one of the best
arcade-style racing games ever created. Now the series follow-up
hits the console system after a successful run in arcades. And
with cars and tracks not found in the standup version, Sega Rally
2 fans should be very pleased with Sega's efforts to enhance the
gameplay fun for the Dreamcast version. On the flip side, casual
racing fans may find the difficulty level a bit too advanced for
their tastes.
Sega Rally 2 favors more of an arcade-style fantasy physics model
than its predecessor, but don't expect this game to be a Sunday
drive. Those looking for an exciting romp behind the wheel will
likely be disappointed after numerous sideline ces and races
end prematurely due to expired time. Purists and road jockeys
weaned on the likes of Gran Turismo may be able to handle the
challenge factor here, but casual arcade-style racing fans may
find the race too hot to handle for long-term, frustration-free
fun. --Jeff Young
Pros:
* More replay value than the coin-op version of the game
* Beautiful graphics Cons:
* Too hard to be fun for many arcade-style racing fans
* Backgrounds tend to pop up dramatically when the horizon is not
obscured by curvy road
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Review
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When Sega Rally first made the journey home from Sega's Model 2
arcade hardware to the Saturn, the gaming world stopped to take a
look at what would eventually become the finest racer, ever, on
the Saturn, and the finest rally-style racer on any home console,
bar none. Other off-road rally games came and went, all trying to
emulate Sega Rally's playability, with none quite reaching that
high watermark. It's been more than three years since Sega
Rally's home debut, and despite having only three cars and four
tracks, for sheer excellence of game design, it has never met its
match. Until now.
Emerging as one of the fledgling Dreamcast's most important
titles, for many reasons, Sega Rally 2 has a lot weighing on its
shoulders. For starters, the conversion quality of Sega Rally 2
is para to convincing people that the Power VR2-based guts
of the Dreamcast can handle Model 3 arcade conversions. Second,
after a poor showing at the recent Tokyo Game Show, where it was
displayed on video only, many people doubted that it could be
done, and fears started to spread that this would be similar to
the Saturn version of Daytona USA. Last, with release dates for
all sorts of Dreamcast games slipping on a daily basis, Sega
desperately needed to shore up its thin launch lineup with
another title, and fast. Fortunately for Sega and the state of
the Dreamcast, Sega Rally 2 comes cing in like a
thoroughbred, mowing down the crowd of doubting Thomases and
establishing itself firmly at the forefront of the racing genre.
While most of the attention surrounding Dreamcast Model 3 ports
will invariably center around the faithfulness of the
translation, average US gamers will most likely never have the
chance to see an actual Sega Rally 2 arcade setup. If they did,
they would probably notice that the conversion, in this case, is
very close to the original. Model 3 to Dreamcast is always going
to be tricky due to the differing hardware solutions. Currently,
the tangible differences between arcade and home are in color
saturation, intensity of light sourcing, and the solidity of the
polygonal models. The cars in Sega Rally 2 look remarkably
similar to those in the arcade version, minus a few polygons,
which results in slightly angular models, particularly where the
wheels and any other round objects appear. Since Power VR2
renders only the polygons that are in view (to save processing
power), and renders them in triangles instead of rectangles, this
may help explain the discrepancies. Track draw-in is noticeable
if you're looking but is handled gracefully so it's never blatant
or distracting. Using a particularly effective method of
MIP-ping, the horizon fades in nicely and never becomes an
eyesore due to excellent track design.
Anyone familiar with the Sega Rally style of gameplay will be
right at home here, whether using the standard Dreamcast
controller (which supports both the analog and digital D-pad) or
the Dreamcast racing wheel. The main difference between Rally and
Rally 2 is the addition of a hand brake for some crafty
powersliding. The analog triggers on the standard DC controller
can be set to control the and brakes, with performance based
on how hard you press down. While analog control is superb, D-pad
tappers will find control just as responsive with the normal
digital pad. --James Mielke
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot
logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc. -- GameSpot Review
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- The greatest rally game in the arcades is now available in your own home. With the addition of a 10 Year Championship and gruelling driving conditions through mud, deserts, blizzard, night time and many more. Choose from a multitude of world famous rally cars on 17 challenging courses. Upload your best times to the internet or view the high score tables..