To compare GeneRally to real motorsport would be to compare TF2 to CSS. While the latter is focused on skill, tactics and accuracy the former is a distillation of the very elements of its subject matter- in TF2s case shooting things, in GeneRally's case racing things round tracks.
There is no shortage of things to race in GeneRally, with 12+ classes of car to race on an almost infinite number of tracks, thanks to GeneRally's devoted community and a very easy to use track builder, which uses 16 colour images to create tracks, meaning you can create them in any image editor you like.
Such a simple track editor is made possible by an equally simple graphics engine. Every car has 40 polygons and the game is played in a defiantly top down view, albeit one with some fairly nice touches, such as tyre marks remaining on the track for the duration of the race, marking out a line to take and cute little puffs of smoke from your car when it's damaged.
Yes, I said damage. Generally can become a surprisingly hardcore little racing simulator if you so desire, with tire wear, fuel and damage all modeled. You repair all of these with pit stops, opening up a whole new level of F1 style strategy. If you pit earlier than your opponent can you overtake him when he has to? Is it worth risking a lap running on vapour for the extra speed? (Fuel has a weight too) Such thoughts are constantly running through your head during a race and this strategic element makes generally incredibly compelling.
Of course such strategies are dependent on the level of your opponents who, like everything else in GeneRally, are customizable. You create your own AI drivers, setting their skill, name and car colours individually. I recreated the highlights of the 2007 F1 grid lineup to race against, which was a lot of fun. Of course you can also race against friends, which is even better due to the AI being quite aggressive, to put it mildly.
GeneRally is great fun, one of my favourite racing games in existence. You can pick up the latest version (alas, it is not being updated) at:
http://generally.rscsites.org/download.shtml
A fairly easy to use car editor can be found here:
Forums full of likeminded fans, all beavering away making mods are here:
2 comments:
Hi,
Even though the post is a few months old, it is excellent and captures the aura of the game. I should know, as I am one of those beavers! This should really posted in those forums. Cheers :D
///Dzz
(check out Nascar&GeneRally=GRASCAR)
Your post made me interested enough to check out this game.
It looks like the coolest game developers in the world may have found some quality competition.
Thanks for sharing!
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