Michelin Rally Masters: Race of Champions

Description

Rally racing can be fun, especially when experienced from the comfort of your own home in front of a computer. Digital Illusions does a nice job of transforming the Race of Champions event into a viable and fairly exciting rally simulation. While it's not the absolute best in the genre, it does provide a number of good qualities in its featured cars and varied tracks. Unfortunately, the game doesn't offer a truly realistic feel for the cars themselves, nor does it offer a signature sound for each of the car's exhaust.

Michelin Rally Masters: Race of Champions does, however, offer an enjoyable and easy to play rally racing game. The physics engine is reasonably challenging, but not to the point where it's so realistic you need to be a rally driver to master it. On the other hand, it's not as challenging as it should be, given that one is flinging cars of various sizes and power around tracks filled with dirt, mud, snow, and more.

The featured cars include the famed Lancia Delta Integrale, a dune buggy, Toyota Rav 4 and several others, all of which appear as boxy renditions of the originals and could be better designed. The background is beautiful, as well as free of any strange pop-up or interference and collision issues. The biggest drawback is the uniform sound made by all of the cars, an aspect that definitely detracts from the realism.

The Race of Champions is set up as a two-lane figure-eight style track that's folded in on itself. Basically, you race side-by-side with an opponent who is driving an identical car; at some point during the race, the drivers' switch over to their opponent's side, ensuring that both cars race an equal distance. It's an extremely ambitious setup in that you must use skill and cornering speeds to get the upper hand, which makes the game quite challenging.