MEMBER PROFILE FOR vrocko
Average Overall Score Given: 8.66667 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 8
Reviews
Ford vs. Chevy
Overall: Choose sides in the oldest rivalry in American motorsports and let the battle begin! Features 48 upgradeable Ford and Chevy Classic and Contemporary vehicles meticulously rendered with realistic damage modeling. Overall a great game at a great price. Fun for all even those that don't like Ford and Chevy. I've seen a lot of "haters" of American cars put this one down, hey you know what don't knock it until you try it. Personally it's better than some of those "clown cars" I've seen on the other street racers and their clones.Gameplay: I love the gameplay! Many different races and challenges to pick from. A good number of cars to race too! You do have to get a gold, first place, in all races to advance to the next level, but it keeps me coming back. It does a fair job of testing you and has some really good tracks to race on. Damage to Fords and Chevy's is a new change and really cool. You can upgrade as well with a great number of brand name parts. Another first for Ford's and Chevy's. Don't let the name of the game turn you off. This isn't a Gran Turismo or PGR but it is really fun to play for the $20 price tag.
Graphics: Really great graphics. I thought the cars were really done well and the tracks are amazing. Lots of movement and background items to see. Planes, trains, and yes automobiles as well as working cranes, birds, hang gliders, hot air ballons and all kinds of other background items. They put a lot more detail into this one and it shows.
Audio: I like what they've done with the sounds. A lot better than in FR3 and Corvette. A better match to how the actual cars sound. The announcers are pretty comical too giving each other jabs for Ford or Chevy. The music isn't too bad for the game but you can't change it to use music on your hard drive. I really like that option and it seems to me it would be easy to do, they did it on FR2 and FR3!
Suggestions: Allow the player to change music to his/her harddrive next time. Also when you upgrade show us what the upgrade will do to the speed and handling of the car before we purchase it, something that most other games do.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Ford Racing 3
Overall: I've always liked Ford and the Ford Racing games have been a great way to try out all the cars I can't have. I've played FR3 for about 20 hours now and have got about 50% of the way through. It's a great game and is fun for all ages. Great graphics and great control but can't say much for the sound but I've taken care of that by using my music recorded on my Xbox harddrive. I enjoy it and have fun trying to beat the AI. It's not GT4 but it's definitly a fun game at great price. You can't beat $14.99 as a price for a brand new racing game. Lots of cars in this one too. Plenty of things to do and try. Pick it up if you get the chance!Gameplay: I'd have to say this is an improvement in some area's but there is a couple of disappointments too. The control is good, you can do better controlled slides like in RR, except for some of the trucks, too much slide sometimes. I found myself upside down at times or facing the wrong way on the off road tracks due to sliding. Plenty of racing types to beat, drafting, seconds out, relay (a really great idea by the way to transfer from one car to the other by drafting), time attack, overtake, duel, boost, racing line, elimiation, driving skills and the standard race.
I really like what they did to racing line. The change in this is now you need to drive on the line on the track to power up your boost so you can pass other cars. Great change here. I did have a problem with the tracks being a little too contained, I guess I would say. They just seemed to be narrower than the tracks in FR2. FR2's tracks seem so much wider and better spaced. All in all very good except for the truck sliding and track space.
Graphics: The visuals as usual are fantastic. Tracks have plenty to look at. Homes, buildings, trees, bushes, everything really looks great. I like the Asuka Battle tracks with the Japanese backgrounds. The Harbor tracks are fantastic with the water, boats, trees and all. Really, really good. I would have liked to see more activity in the background though. Things that come to mind are the waterfall from FR2's Lost World tracks, the hangliders and volcano too, the trains from the City Limits tracks, etc. There didn't seem to be as much in FR3 as in FR2. May be it was a necessary change but I think that there could have been more activity in the background.
Audio: The sound is okay. Not fantastic but okay. Most of the cars sounded great except for the newer Thunderbirds. I swore I heard what sounded like a lawnmower engine in the background. I don't know what that was but they just didn't sound right. Birds, rushing water in streams, tires squeeling all were good. The music sound track is okay but the ability to change the sound track to one of my tracks on the harddrive is still the greatest option. Please leave the announcer telling you where you are in the menu off next time. She's still annoying to me. The only good thing about that is I can turn her off if I want to, one of the first things I did by the way. The sound could use some improvement guys.
Suggestions: Please no annoucer for the menu's and do more research on the cars engine sounds. The Thunderbirds just didn't sound right to me. I would like to see the original tracks from FR, FR2 and FR3 included in the next one, if possible. More activity in the back ground too. I still think that FR2 had more to look at in the background than this installment.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Ford Racing 2
Overall: Empire Interactive's studio Razorworks updates Ford Racing with the next installment, Ford Racing 2 or Ford Racing Evolution if you happen to be in Europe. This installment has a lot of great features including tests of your racing skills like racing line, following the line to get extra points but get a penalty for going off the line, cones slalom, drafting, like in NASCAR, and seconds out, collect all the time bonuses to bring your lap time down. You've got your standard races and time attack with specials included within those such as elimination, you narrow the racing field by eliminating the last two cars until its only you and one car left, and duel, 3 laps and 3 challengers beat each one to win. I've had a good time playing this one. Lots of options and a decent selection of tracks, city side, a couple of off road, countryside and a couple of racing tracks similar to NASCAR or Indy Car racing. I think its a great game for $20 bucks with good features and good controls. Gameplay: I love the drafting, first time I've seen it in any of the racing games I've played. Great option and great fun. Nice handling for the cars, not too much slide, more arcadey than anything but still fun to play. Racing line is tough especially on the hard setting, but fun to play. I like elimination and duel too great fun and I've won some at the last possible second so it kept me coming back. Good selection of tracks but when you look at the selection in PGR2 and GT3 it could have used a couple more. Definitely needed to have the option to do upgrades to cars. I want to be able to change my engines, tires, handling, brakes, etc. Many racers allow this now and I don't see why it couldn't be done here. Gameplay over all is good but it could use a little more in the features department.
Graphics: The graphics are great! Nice car models, great tracks and backgrounds. The scenery in the off-road tracks are really great in my opinion. Nice shading and lighting. Sometimes the sun gets in my eye's when racing. A couple of gripes here though. No damage! Hit the wall or tag another racer and nothing happens. Oh well I guess Ford doesn't like to see their cars all banged up. Another gripe I have but seems to happen in many racer has to do with the crowd. Why are they always flat 2-D figures? Come on, you can put in the water fall, the hang gliders, trains, planes, etc but the spectators look like cardboard cut outs. Please do something to change this. Overall a great job on graphics with just a couple gripes.
Audio: The sounds are good. The music on the game isn't bad but not my thing, luckily Razorworks allows you to use your own music from your Xbox hard drive which is great. Now I can race in my car with the music I normally listen too. This is a great feature and is becoming a standard in many games. Good job guys. The voice for accessing the menus though is annoying as all get out. Luckily again Razorworks let you turn her off if you want too. That was the first option I changed. Good bye and good riddance. A simple tone or just highlighting the menu option is plenty. Tracks also had a good mix of sounds from birds to other racers cars to the waterfall, etc. Really nice touches there. Again overall good but the options to make changes to the sounds here really make the difference.
Suggestions: Please NO voice for menu options on the next Ford Racing, allow for car damage and upgrading my car. More tracks please! OK now whens Ford Racing 3 due? :-)
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
