I think it all started the first time I played Gran Turismo. The speed, graphics, gameplay, and everything else got me hooked. I officially LOVED racing games. Well, I love most of them.

I picked up Roadsters in a video store figuring it would be similar to the Porsche Challenge racing game for the Playstation. The Porsche game featured expensive cars flying around, had good gameplay, great graphics, and was fun to play. Roadsters just did not deliver.

Right from the beginning, it was apparent that the graphics were just not up to par. Even the menus, where the cars aren't even racing, the graphics were awful. There is very little detail in the cars, and it makes GT, GT2, and the Porsche Challenge look futuristic. I would compare the car graphics to some really good Sega Genesis graphics. The cars themselves are that bad. The background and track graphics are pretty good, although that's not what I look for in a game. It helps, but what I came for was the cars, and what I got was poorly drawn colored boxes on wheels.

Gameplay is no better. After my first couple races, I started realizing that I was losing to cars that couldn't even stay on the track. I was working my butt off braking and shifting to stay in a good racing line, while the computer-driven cars were bouncing off of every wall in sight. When they hit the walls, however, they would ricochet off of the walls going faster than when they hit. So I decided I'd give it a try. I found that if you hit the walls at the right angle, then you would exit the turn faster than when you went it. Strange indeed.

But it doesn't stop there; you can hit other cars, too. I tried to look into my rear view mirror, and when I saw a car coming up on me from the rear, I would position myself in front of the car and allow it to bump me up another 10 or so MPH. Is everything in this game made of rubber?

Similar to other games, you can build up your car. You can buy a faster engine, a turbo, racing tires, suspension, etc. It's pretty generic, and reminds me of the old "Off Road" game for Nintendo. You can also tune individual components, and I thought this would be good, until I found out that "tune" simply means you pick your tire type (slick, studded, etc), choose suspension settings (stiff, soft, etc), and pick manual or automatic. Again, pretty generic.

One highlight of the game is the betting feature. In this game, like many others, you win money according to where you placed in the race. But in Roadsters, you can also bet on the race itself, and where you think you will finish. You can bet as much as you have. I think that if someone else would incorporate this feature into other games, it would be better. But it's not worth playing a lackluster game just to bet fake money.

So do yourself a favor and get GT2. It promises a million more cars, tons more tracks, better graphics, and more. If you want to know everything, see my review on GT2. And leave Roadsters on the shelf.



Recommended: No