From: weaponx013@yahoo.com   
      
         Barring Gamespot's "history" lesson on the Sega Rally series, the   
   reviewer makes it abundantly clear that he thinks down upon arcade style   
   gaming.  Having only a "scant" number of tracks and cars, when compared   
   to modern racers with entirely different focuses, is not a deficiency   
   for Sega Rally Revo.  Reviewers have said in the past that a good game   
   manages 10-30 seconds of "fun" and then manages to repeat it over and   
   over.  Similarly, while Sega themselves lost their magic years ago, Sega   
   Racing Studio clearly understands what Sega racers are supposed to be.   
      
          Sega racers, like all Sega games before the PS2's days, were   
   always easy to pick up and play and rewarding to master.  Perhaps more   
   significantly, Sega racers always gave the player a feeling of being on   
   the bleeding edge of losing control, and yet you could control it all.   
   This is true of the Outrun, Daytona and Sega Rally games. The fact that   
   multi-player was always a component of these games was not lost on Sega   
   Racing Studio.   
      
         In Sega Rally, the game gives this dialectic of chaos and control   
   by means of the powerslide mechanic, and the unique physics of how the   
   tires interact with the road.  While a driving simulation would punish   
   the player for oversteering by spinning the car and stopping the action,   
   Sega Rally emphasizes flow and speed.  Gamers with a bent toward Gran   
   Turismo, Forza, and Toca will have a knee-jerk reaction to this and   
   assume that the gameplay is "shallow."  This sort of narrow mindedness   
   is what makes modern gameplay so limited.  It is possible to spin your   
   car in Sega Rally, but the player really has to screw up for this to   
   happen.   
      
        The game does punish the player for hitting walls, but it does   
   everything it can to keep the action flowing without giving the player   
   an easy road.  Only a head on collision with a track side object will   
   result in a full stop.  Otherwise the car will careen off the object,   
   and the player will have to struggle to regain control and down shift   
   one to three gears to get back into the race.  Aside from steering clear   
   of the walls, Sega Rally adds the dynamics of traction with various   
   types of surfaces.  So, while the player is attempting to make a turn,   
   or speed up on the straightaways, dodging water puddles or staying on   
   asphalt is also part of the game.  The challenge comes in from trying to   
   do all of this while avoiding the other (ghost) cars.  While the other   
   cars are not AI by modern standards, they do present a challenge by   
   being both obstacles and progressively challenging times to beat.   
      
         Failing to understand this gameplay dynamic will result in the   
   assumption that the "fun" that Sega Rally Revo presents is limited to   
   how many tracks and cars are available.  The dynamic of differing   
   controls between cars and memorizing different tracks is, at best, of   
   tertiary importance to a proper arcade racer.  In fact, adding more   
   tracks and cars can be a detriment to a game like this.  DVD generation   
   game players are already predisposed to think that added content equates   
   to more enjoyment.  In a game like Sega Rally it can be quite the   
   opposite, as the player will have to break the flow of the action and   
   speed to learn each new track and car.  In a game that presents such a   
   great effort to *not* break the flow or the speed, additional tracks and   
   cars are of limited importance.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)