At a glance...

Reviewer	Platform	Publisher	Developer	Players	Screenshots
Matt Bailey	Xbox 360	Sega Europe	Sega Racing Studio	1-2 (Split screen), 2-6 (Online)	Here
Requirements				Also on...	Buy from Amazon.co.uk
Xbox Live Gold subscription for online play				PlayStation 3, PC	Click here to buy Sega Rally.

Sega Rally review

While Sega Rally is very much one of Sega's classic franchises, it is classic in a different way to the likes of Sonic, NiGHTS, or Space Channel 5. It's a part of Sega's rich arcade heritage rather than the console front, and despite the ports to home machines, it's still an arcade series at heart. Sega knew this and that's why the brand new Sega Rally (less confusingly known as Sega Rally Revo Stateside) retains these traditions, and delivers true arcade frills on your modern home console. They wanted to get this right so much they even got together a group of people with experience in the field and created the new UK-based Sega Racing Studio (SRS) to handle the job, and in turn, they delivered what the Japanese publisher wanted.

From the moment the first race begins you immediately realise that this is a different racing game. There are, of course, hundreds on the market, and while they fill various roles across the arcade-to-simulation spectrum, this one has a space at the far left of that range cleared marked out for itself. It's arcade racing as its truest, and certainly close to its finest. To be able to take advantage of the handling you have to throw out your existing ideas; even those skills learned in the likes of Burnout and Project Gotham Racing won't be needed here. Instead it's back to the heady days of 1995, slipping and sliding around every corner, and bouncing off the side walls when things go adrift. It's an enjoyable experience, and while it won't be preferred by all, it has certainly shown itself to be open to newcomers - something that has particularly backfired for myself during split-screen multiplayer matches.

However, this isn't just a high definition upgrade to the original game. This is a new edition in the series, and comes with its own major gameplay addition; deformable surfaces. Though it has been featured before in Sony's PS3 launch title Motorstorm, it didn't really pay off there - the wide tracks and multiple routes meaning you could often avoid having to follow other people's trails. But here the game's courses are tight and focussed, and there is often a naturally quicker way around the corner which loses its edge once all six competitors have trodden the same path after the past couple of laps. This means that the gameplay really does vary with each lap; you can't learn the route, because next time around it may not be the fastest, and taking advantage of a section that hasn't been torn up can be the key to catching up and overtaking rivals. This is fun in itself, but it's those well-crafted tracks that really make the game stand out. A lot of time has clearly been spent refining the selection, which unfortunately leaves a more limited number of tracks in the game than we'd have liked; there are five environments - Safari, Alpine, Canyon, Arctic, and Tropical (plus one secret extra) - each offering 3 routes and a reverse option, admittedly giving you a total of 30 options, but that's a lot of reused sections involved. The different environments do, however, provide for a range of driving experiences, with ice covered roads to dusty surfaces to muddy areas which get worse as the cars plough through, and themselves get noticeably dirty.

In fact, cars getting dirty is one of a number of visual tricks that the environments are responsible for. The glistening ice on the surface of the road, or dust blowing through the Safari region are some more of the treats that the graphic designs at SRS have employed to make Sega Rally look good on your Xbox 360. The game has a strange sense of looking rather nice without actually throwing either realistic or cartoony visuals at you. A quick glance might write off the more arcade-style look, but the longer you spend viewing the screen the more the detail comes across. It doesn't, though, look as 'pretty' overall as, say, Colin McRae DIRT, and some may not like the idea of the game running at 30 frames per second, rather than the 60FPS some racing game fans seem to demand. However, it seems to run solid at this speed with no noticeable slowdown, so I can't see it being anything of an issue for the majority of players out there.

With the emphasis on arcade, there's none of the Career mode options that seem to feature in pretty much all driving releases these days. There's no building your driver up from the start, 'pimping' your car, or earning 'Kudos' for drifting around that last bend; this is straight in and straight up racing. The main focus of this is the Championship mode; it's divided into Premier, Modified and Masters classes, each containing four leagues, which themselves consist of 3 or 4 rallies - unless it's the single rally final - with each rally containing 3 races. That's a lot of numbers for some people to multiply, so let me just say that there's quite a bit to be doing here. Not least because the game makes a big push for your to finish first in every race, with the points from each race not only determining your position at the end of a rally, but going towards a grand total for each league, and indeed each class, in order to unlock further races, cars, and of course, Achievements. There are a range of licensed cars you can choose from, with new paint jobs unlocked by hitting mileage targets for each car, and each vehicle is available in "off road" and "racing" setups, with both invoking different styles of driving - as well as offering separate Achievements.

Outside of the Championship comes a range of options you'd probably expect. Quick Race lets you jump into a single race on any of the tracks available using the cars and paint jobs you've unlocked. Time Attack, meanwhile, will bring up a list of the best times from around the world, and allow you to race against them, downloading a ghost car over Xbox Live if available. Multiplayer features both offline (split-screen) and online play - the former a welcome addition considering the number of racing games that now opt for online only action. It's only available for 2 players without CPU opponents, but it's certainly good fun, and as stated earlier, works well with the game's pick up and play nature. If you do want to head online, then up to six of you can play together with optional AI drivers. It is a lot of fun, with no noticeable lag, though it would seem that Project Gotham Racing 4 is likely grabbing the attention of online gamers with few people available to play.

Ratings

Graphics	Forget realism - this game provides true arcade-style visuals for the modern "HD era". Textures are packed for of details, there's lots of items along the roadside, and the game holds a steady framerate throughout.	9/10
Gameplay	Highly enjoyable classic Sega Rally thrills. It may take getting used to for those very familiar with other 'arcade' driving games, but ultimately most people will be able to jump into this and get a lot out of it very quickly. The deformable tracks should be commended for not only having an impact on gameplay, but for making it more exciting.	9/10
Value	Could have included more, but still a worthy package.	8/10
Lifespan	The range of tracks could possibly be bigger, as despite the repeats, the single player feels a bit short. There's some good fun to be had in both offline and online multiplayer, though you may struggle to find competitors on the later.	8/10
Audio	The music isn't all that great sometimes, but on the 360 that's hardly an issue. The sounds, however, are rather good - and the classic over-the-top announcer is in place.	8/10
Overall	There are so many good decisions that have been made to produce this excellent entry to a classic series, but probably the best one was Sega's decision to create a dedicated racing studio to handle this franchise. It's clearly paid off in a game that's both extremely enjoyable and highly addictive. Most importantly, however, it's certainly something to stand out from the vast array of driving games that have appeared on the market lately, and that's got to be a good thing.	9/10

Click here to buy Sega Rally from Amazon.co.uk.

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