| |||||||
| |||||||
Toyota Vehicle News. Only The Auto Channel provides complete industry coverage by make.
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
 Everything From The Rearview Mirror To The Course Layout Are All Displayed On The Racing Screen
|
Sega Dreamcast racing games, so far, have been wonderful. Great graphics, excellent framerates, and great sound. The newest racer available for the Dreamcast is brought to us by Sega itself. CART: Flag to Flag has recently been released and any Formula 1 race fan looking for a game for the Dreamcast should listen up and decide whether or not to race to the stores to pick yourself up a copy or let this one run out of gas till a better game comes along.
CART: Flag to Flag is an official Formula 1 racer with all the official drivers, cars, and sponsors all over the place. Some notable sponsors would be Ford, Shell, Firestone, and Quaker State. As with the official CART series, you are able to race in a Championship season just like the professionals. Before you even begin you can customize the season options like weather, race lengths, damage, corner signs, and full course cautions. What is interesting about the weather option is that a gamer can select rain, clear, cloudy, and the actual weather option from the 1998 season! Talk about getting a little too realistic there! By selecting a difficulty and then a driver you are ready to begin. Be sure to have a Memory Card or one of the extremely awesome Visual Memory Units handy so that you may save your Championship season. Before each race you are able to test the track out a little bit and get a sense of knowledge about how each turn should be handled and each straightaway should be navigated. Qualifying is next on the list and it consists of two laps around the track. The faster you make it around the better the starting position you receive. Then it is on to the races! You are greeted on each track by a lovely fly-by of the entire track which adds a little to the suspense before each race. Then, with a rolling start, the race begins and your adrenaline begins to fly. Other modes of play consist of the usual Arcade Mode (simple single race) and a Two-Player Mode where two people can race simultaneously.
After each race is said and done you have the option to view a replay of the race from beginning to end. What makes Flag to Flag's replays so grand is that there are many camera angles as well as full motion cameras. Cameras on turns like to follow your car as it wisps by which adds to the viewing pleasure especially if you make a last second win.
As I mentioned previously, CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) Flag to Flag contains the official license to use all the real names of the drivers associated with CART. Along with each driver is a finely-tuned champ car which has the exact paint job and all the way down to the decals. With the Dreamcast's power you are able to see and read each of them individually considering the graphics are so crisp and sharp. Each champ car has a maximum of eight cylinders, 2650cc Turbo, 800 horsepower engine. The chassis of each car is wingtype, readymade chassis with a composition of aluminum honeycomb + carbon. Both automatic and manual transitions are all selectable as different options prior to a race. Some other characteristics to the CART series are the courses that are available to race on. Oval circuits, road circuits, and street circuits are all available to race on.
I am sure all of you have been thirsty for the complete track list in Flag to Flag so below is the complete list of all the tracks and what type of track they are...
|
|
|
Another very neat feature that Flag to Flag incorporates is the ability for a gamer to customize their vehicle to his/her liking. Car settings such as tires, aerodynamics, fuel, suspension, gear ratio, transmission, and reports can all be tooled around with. A nice screen presentation when working on the car is also a plus because of how it helps out even the most novice racer. With each change that is made to the car an actual difference can be recognized when racing it out in the field.
Once everything is in place you are finally ready for the race. Each CART race begins with a rolling start and when the green flag is waved white-knuckle driving begins. As with most driving games there is a pit stop that is accessable throughout each race. If "Full Course Caution" is switched off then your car can experience any the following...rear/front wing damage, tire wear, or excessive fuel consumption. By "pitting" you car will be reguvinated back to full capacity and ready to get back on the track but take in the fact that this will bring you behind a little.
With so many great features available in Flag to Flag it is a shame that there are so many problems that are very apparent that bring the overall quality down. First of all there is a problem with draw-in. For those who do not know, draw-in is the way a game "draws" the backgrounds or upcoming road in a game. Most developers use this technique in order to keep the game's framerate top notch. The problem here is that the distance one is able to see in Flag to Flag is not very far in front of you. This really does not affect the gameplay that much but it brings the graphics down a notch because not that much is going on on the screen at one time. There may be your car and an opponent in front of you but it is hard to see the rest of field in front of you. One of my biggest complaints in Flag to Flag is probably the fact that the realism is brought to an all time low once a race has begun. All someone has to do to win a race is hold the accelerator the whole time and foolishly navigate the course. It is really as easy as that, especially in Championship mode. Arcade mode is a little tougher to do this with but with this type of realism the game is incredibly too easy. You can literally crash head on with a wall, finish a turn, and your car is fine. Also, when cars seem to just be driving in a race and not actually racing is very stupid. Passing the whole field in two laps when your starting position is thirtieth is on the ridiculous side. Your car is like the king daddy of all CART racers. Plus it seems cars slowdown when you are about to pass. Throughout each race as well there are grass, dirt, and sand around different turns. What gets to me is if you barely touch either of these your car immediately goes from about 140 to 5 miles per hour. Finally, I noticed that some of the cars handled too much like others that beating the game with different drivers was ridiculous.
Graphically, Flag to Flag excels slightly over the competition. With some neat additions like mud or dirt splashing on your windshield, the collection of grass on your tires after riding the shoulder, and rear-view mirror reflections help add some flavor to Flag to Flag. But, as mentioned above, there is too much fog in the distance that hinders the ability for smooth, flowing graphics. Although the in-car view has excellent graphics, decals and paint job on each car, and textures that are seen through-and-through, it is still not enough to bring up the graphic's score.
CART: Flag to Flag's control is on par. The game is very responsive to the controller movement but car manuevers do not seem as natural as they should. Turning is slightly off balance in the beginning and accleration seems foreign in places.
Engine motors and the background music all add to the Formula 1 flavor but there is an absense of a track-side announcer and a pit crew member giving tips on certain tactics. In previous games like NASCAR Revolution there was an announcer that was sometimes annoying but provided color commentary. Who likes to JUST race? Racing around Miami for twenty laps with nothing to do but hold on to first place from the second the race begins gets incredibly boring.
CART: Flag to Flag is one of the few titles available on any system that utilizes the CART license. Knowing that, it is probably one of the better ones that CART fans should pick up. Like most Formula 1 racers that have come by they are usually just for the fans. I do not recommend picking this game up for a casual racing fan. There just is not enough realism along with not a lot of good details. If a racing game can hold a gamer even after they have conquered it then it is one of the better racers on the market but this game is definately not one of them. The Sega Dreamcast in the future will inevitably release better racing titles that are Formula 1 license. I recommend waiting for a future Formula 1 title and to leave this one alone. -Nick Steinhauer
Want more information? Search the web!
Search The Auto Channel!
The Auto Channel
