Not even worth renting
Written: Dec 19 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: features the Porsche Boxter
Cons: Everything else: uninspired gameplay, graphics flaws, boring!
|
|
|
| B_Campbell's Full Review: Porsche Challenge for PlayStation 1 |
Overall: 2
Gameplay: 4
Graphics: 4
Sound: 2
Concept: 1
Replay Value: 2
Ever since the hugely successful release of the racing game Gran Turismo, everyone has had their hand in this genre. A few good games have come out of this renewed interest, but at the other end of the spctrum you have games like Porsche Challenge.
I really wanted to like this game. I'm a big Porsche fan, and playing a game highlighting one of my favorite cars was a big thrill for me. However, this game was just plain horrible.
There wasn't much point to the game. Whereas in many other driving games there is either a career mode, where you race to earn money and buy more cars, or there are many hidden cars and tracks to unlock through playing, this game didn't really have either. There are a couple hidden tracks to unlock, but the game consists of only one car: the Porsche Boxter. There really isn't much of a goal beyond winning races, which makes the game very boring very quickly.
The fact that only one car is available could have made the game interesting, seeing as the competition would be evenly stacked up. However, the AI is horrible, so once you get the hang of handling the car, it's easy to win. Since there are no other cars to use, there is really no way to challenge yourself, and this makes the game even more boring. The AI has one interesting feature, though: there are six different personalities, and each has certain feelings toward the others. If an opponent likes you, they might let you pass, if not, they'll block you. Feelings can change as you play, too; ram opponents, and they won't like you anymore. Good idea, but the game is too underdeveloped to really take advantage of it.
The courses are uninspired. They consist of mainly road courses, and my biggest pet peeve is that there are shortcuts; no serious racing game should have shortcuts. That's for stupid arcade racers. Also, there's nop way to change the number of laps, so each race is about as long as all the others.
As if the courses weren't bad enough, there is a horrible amount of pop-up. It's often hard to see a turn until you get to it, and obstacles jump out from literally nowhere. Aside from this, the graphics are pretty average, but the pop-up interferes with gameplay too much.
Sounds are pretty average, but with only one car to model, you'd think they could really invest some time into making the engine and exhaust sounds perfect. Music is boring and sometimes annoying techno, but doesn't really interfere.
This game gets a low concept score because there is absolutely nothing new here. This game isn't really a a copy of any other game, but it's totally generic. Replay value? There isn't much play value, let alone replay value.
The one reason to own this game would be the mini-movie about the Boxter. Being a Porsche fan, I found that very entertaining. Anyone else would ignore it. If you want to race Porsches, get the vastly better Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, which has everything this game is lacking. Stay away from this at all costs.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
B_Campbell
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: Bennett Campbell
Location: In a Volkswagen somewhere in upstate NY
Reviews written: 204
Trusted by: 151 members
About Me:
Guantanamo Aloha
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.