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RC Cars - full of bugs!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I bought a copy of the radio controlled car game because it looked like it might be fun for my son, age 11. In this game, you control radio controlled cars around different interactive environments and it has some real life things happening, like dogs chasing you, real cars running you over and people kicking the cars out of the way. It sounded like fun.

First, I was unable to even install this game on my PC. I kept getting an error 1311 and it would shut down the installer. Whiptail has no tech support phone number (they are in Russia), so you must use email to address problems. This is very slow and sometimes I doubted if they were even reading my email properly. Some of the responses were just innane.

Anyway, their tech support was always wrong and was never able to solve the problem.

Finally I gave up on tech support and I started searching the net on my own for solutions. Eventually, I found that I had to copy the entire CD to my hard drive and then install it from there. Then delete the files on the HD. OK, so I got it installed. Now when I start the game.....the sound is intermittant!

Sometimes there is music, sometimes there is sound FX, but usually, it is just silent. That sure makes for a fun game, doesn't it? Absolute silence. Maybe a even beep once in a while would be nice. Instead you get a second of sound followed by minutes of silence.

Aside from these glaring problems with the game, this game is sort of fun to drive around in. There are plenty of ways to go and plenty of things to hit. If you hit a person, they will kick your car, or throw it about 25 feet away. Dogs attack you, and crabs attack you on the beach. The tracks are challenging and the graphics are pretty good too.

If only I had some sounds..........

Almost Perfect

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Having never played racing games before, I went on a binge and bought about a dozen racing games at once, from Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 to Microsoft's Rallisport Challenge to Trackmania. They all have interesting aspects, but the most FUN game of the bunch, by far, is RC Cars.

It's fun because the physics are so good, the gameplay is smooth, the graphics are outstanding, and best of all, the AI is challenging. For example, your competitors may or may not take the time to try and knock you out of the way. You never know, and that's what makes them seem intelligent.

Of course, learning to knock them out of the way to increase your lead is the secret to winning consistently. Also, be sure to focus on upgrading your tires before anything else. The stock tires can't handle the upgraded engines or boosters well, and you'll be out of control.

I suspect this game isn't popular because it came from Russia. That's a shame, because overall it blows away the other games I've played now. Microsoft should be ashamed that it hasn't put out anything this entertaining.

Unfortunately, the game isn't perfect. It installed fine on my first hard drive, but I could not hear the car sounds because of an (unrelated) issue with my operating system. So I tried installing it on two other bootable hard drives, and found that it was incompatible with Nero 6.0 (again, not the game's fault--Nero 6.0 has a bug that makes the operating system think it is a hacker's tool). But even after uninstalling Nero 6.0 the game simply flashes a black screen and then terminates to the desktop, on these two other machines. That's a bad thing, because those are the most up-to-date installations I have.

So I can't hear the car sounds, yet it's still an incredibly fun game. That tells you something about this game (if you can get it to run!). I can hear the music, however, which bounces between EuroFreak techno music to late 80's heavy metal ala Yngwie Malmsteen. The sound and music, and just about everything else, is highly configurable.

I tried the mulitplayer mode. Everything went smooth, except that there was no one available to race against!

A gaming site review notes another downside to the gameplay that I haven't encountered yet: You must pay to use an upgraded track EACH TIME, rather than paying once and unlocking it forever. I haven't gone that far yet, so I can't verify this though. However, once you purchase a vehicle upgrade, it remains.

Another cool thing--you can replace the cartoon photos of players with your own photos. For some reason, this enhances the gameplay in between races for me.

It looks like this product is being discontinued, so grab it while you can--it's well worth it. If some developer would contact these guys to help them update it and fix the minor flaws, then promote it properly, this would be a multiple award-winner, for sure.

Lots of fun, bargain price

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I can't speak to the problems the previous reviewer had. The game installed without problem on my Dell 8100 with a P4 2.4 Ghz, 756MB RAM, Santa Cruz sound, and a Radeon 9500, running XP home edition.

I had played the demo from a PC Gamer CD, which also ran great. The game is very pretty to look at, the cars are well modeled and the scenery is great. The sound is fantastic, with different sounds for all the different wheels on different surfaces, spinning, sliding, skidding, and you can really hear your opponents closing in. The tracks offer great variety, and the different upgrades you earn along the way really impact the performance of the car. You can also decide to sell your car and buy another. Initially, you start with a monster truck, but can buy a sand buggy or a 6 wheeled monster, both of which can be upgraded as you win more money.

Far and away the selling point of the game, however, is the driving experience. The controls are responsive, but not touchy. The cars behave as RC cars that have heavier physics; they slide and steer (and hit each other) almost like full size cars, but with no damage (other than smacking the shins of the morans who keep wandering in the way!).

The races stay very close; even if you have a setback, if you run consistently, you can get back in it. It's also very hard to simply wipe out the competition too. The tracks are wide enough and best of all, the check points are fairly forgiving. Nothing ruins a racing game faster for me than checkpoints that keep dodging out of the way.

Downsides to the game-
Only three cars
No way to modify looks of cars (other than upgrades)
Only 3 levels of upgrades
Only 3 items to upgrade Tires, Engine, Boost

If you're in the mood for serious racing (NASCAR 2003 type game), keep looking. But if you want to spend a few minutes just PLAYING, this game is perfect.

Great fun!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I can't but wonder why this game is not more popular than it is, me and my have had lots of fun with it. Excellent life like graphics, You can move freely anywhere want, upgrade your vehicles and earn your way to the championship title.

Apparently game is rather demanding when it comes to the hardware used, at least that is what seems after reading one review with bad experiences with the game.

I myself have experienced no bugs what so ever, except that in the faces folder there is no example face to modify. The example face is however to download from the companys website if needed (that is not necessary, just follow the instructions given in the manual)

Mika

ps My hardware Fujitsu Amilo 1840 laptop Pentium 4 ht, 500 mb ddram, Radeon mobility 128 mb, 60 g...

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