F355 challenge IS a challenge...a welcome challenge
Written: Oct 29 '01
Product Rating:
Pros: Great graphics, tight control, realistic physics, good challenge
Cons: steep learning curve, not much customization, limited replay option, no damage model, "sticky" walls
The Bottom Line: F355 Challenge is a fun, challenging game that should appeal to lot of hardcore racing sim fans, but may be a bit too frustrating for the casual gamer.
doingkagb's Full Review: F355 Challenge : Passione Rossa for Dreamcast
I love racing games, and I really love when they're challenging, but I had no idea what I was getting into when I bought Ferrari F355 Challenge. I was in the store when I asked one of the salesmen if F355 Challenge was any good. His answer..."It's hard as [crap] man." How could I resist? I bought it, took it home, put it in my dreamcast and awaited the opening screens.
It was appearent from the opening demo that this game had REALLY good graphics. The graphics are just about as polished as graphics can get on a racing game...higly detailed tracks and highly detailed cars all running at a very solid 60 frames per second. After the spiffy little intro, I pressed start, which led me to the game's main menu.
The menu gives you the following options:
Arcade
Championship
Single Play
Versus Play
Network Race
Car Settings
Driving Data
Home Page
Options
Save Game
Load Game
I think the menu is pretty self explanitory.
Arcade is basicly the arcade game. You start, and you're taken to a screen where you select your track. The available tracks when you start are as follows:
Motegi
Suzuka Short
Monza
Sugo
Suzuka (the full track)
Long Beach
Once you race a few races, more tracks, including Laguna Seca and the Atlanta Motor Speedway, are added to your selection, however, these tracks cannot be used in ARCADE mode. You can only race them in Single Play or Versus Play.
Once you select your track, you are then prompted to select "Novice" or "Intermediate." If you choose Novice, you race with an automatic transmission and the computer does all the break work for you. You also get various other assistance, such as traction control and ABS. Intermediate gets rid of both the automatic transmission and the automatic breaking, but you still get traction control and ABS. After you make your selection, you're taken to another screen where you get to choose one of the following options:
Training
Driving
Race
Training is nice for learning a track. There are no opposing cars, and the line of the track is followd by a red line that you follow for the best times. There's also a voice that tells you what kind of turn is coming up next. The voice also tells you when to slow down and to speed up.
Driving is just like Training, but without the red line, and without the voice telling you which way to turn. It's basicly you and the track. I enjoy this mode because it lets you drive on your on without having to deal with computer cars.
Race is just that...you get to put your training and practice to the test, and believe me, it WILL be tested.
Now, in arcade mode, you race for a set amount of time, and every time you pass through a "checkpoint" you get more time. You play until your timer reaches 0.
In championship mode, you're taken to each of the tracks to race. At the end of each race, you're given points. If you do good, you get more points. This mode is a bit frustrating to me, because it really makes you learn all of the tracks for you to be able to do well, and learning all of the tracks in this game is not a simple task, and it takes a long time to complete one championship...and there's no save feature.
Single Play is exactly like Arcade, only there's no time limit, and you can choose to race the tracks you've unlocked. This is my favorite mode, because you can concentrate more on racing with the computer cars and less on wheather or not you're going to finish the race before time runs out.
Versus Play is pretty self-explanitory. Two players race via a split screen. This mode is cool, but it seems a bit slow in pace to me...may be because of the size of the screens. But overall visual quality doesn't suffer. The game is still VERY sharp, it doesn't slow down any. An option to play 4 players would have been sweet, but probably would have made the visual quality suffer.
Network Race...the name is a bit misleading. Yes, you connect to the internet to race other people, but you don't race WITH them. A track is choosen, and everybody takes a few laps around the track. Your internet connection is terminated, and a replay of the race starts. It shows eveybody racing their laps, and at the end of the replay, the person who finishes first gets the satisfaction of knowing that they finished their laps the quickest. It's a cool little feature, but considering you can't choose who you race with (whoever is connected is just stuck into a race with all the other people who are connected), and considering you don't actually race WITH your opponents, it's usefulness is quite limited.
The car settings mode is pretty much useless. You can't really get under the hood of your car, so for the most part, you'll not be using this option.
Everything else on the main menu is self-explanitory.
Sound is very good in F355 Challenge. Everything is pretty accurate sounding. The Music, however, is a different story. I'm a fan of 80's metal, but this stuff is just trash. It sounds like what a REALLY bad Van Halen session with Sammy Hagar might have sounded like. Oh well...just turn the music off and you'll never miss it.
One thing I need to address is the fact that a lot of people have said that this game suffers due to a lack of cars. I, personaly, don't see why, because nobody complains about a lack of cars when a NASCAR game is released and it doesn't have indy cars...or a motocycle game that doesn't have stock cars. If you're looking for lots of cars, Gran Tursimo 2 is your game, but F355 Challenge is a SIMULATION of a Ferrari, a GOOD simulation of a Ferrari, and considering the amount of detail put into simulating the one car, you might as well be driving a Ferrari.
Now, you may be thinking, "Why is this game so much different from any other racer out there? Why is it so great?" The answer to that is, "Control, difficulty level, and realizm"
The control is a bit touchy at first, but combine it with the level of realizm found in the game, it can't be beat. If you go into a turn too fast, you WILL end up in the grass. If you're going into a turn and you clip the grass on the inside of a turn and your car starts to slide, you WILL slide across the track and into the wall. If you're coming out of a turn and you give the car a bit too much gas, your back end WILL get loose and you WILL have to correct your steering to compensate. Just the driving model is pretty unforgiving, but at the same time, it's very learnable, and to me, it's VERY satisfying to learn how to properly take the turns on the tracks. And to make things a bit crazier, we have the computer cars.
These guys don't hold back. There's no difficulty select, so you're just going to have to grin and bear it. They're faster than you, they know the track better than you, and since there's no qualifying sessions in the game, you'll have to start at the very back of the pack. The trick is in how you make your turns. If you properly come from the outside of most turns and go through the apex and back out, and keep up good speed while doing so, you should be keeping up with the computer in no time. In fact, that's the ONLY way to keep up with the computer since they tear away from you on the straights. Yes, it can be a bit maddening, and yes you'll probably throw your controler across the room a few times when you miss first place by a hair, but believe me, it's all worth it. The first time I won a race (I was racing Monza), I jumped up and ran to get my roommate to prove to him that it could be done. I almost called my parents to tell them of my achievment, I was that happy. And while the feeling becomes less the more you win races, you still get a great feeling of satisfaction to see the 1st at the top of the screen as you cross the finish line with a computer car right on your bumper. And that's what makes the game so great.
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