PlanetDreamcast | Games | Reviews | F355 Challenge: Passione Rossa

F355 Challenge: Passione Rossa Bar none, the best driving sim on the Dreamcast - Review By Holy Hand Grenade Page 3/3 The Bad Unfortunately, the car / car collisions are really unrealistic. With all that F355 has to offer, I am hard pressed to find many faults, although there are a few that are notable. The most glaring omission is the lack of a proper qualifying laps before each single player race, which would have avoided the annoyance of having to start in last place every time! I'm confused as to why this is the case because the code to implement a qualifier is already there (as mentioned earlier, Network Race includes this feature), so why didn't they just enable it for single player races too? Along the same lines, why is it that after single player races we only have the option to watch a 20 or so second long "Digest Replay" instead of having the ability to view a replay of the whole race (a feature also available in Network Race mode)? I have a feeling these problems can be traced back to F355's arcade roots, but in light of all the other great additions to the home port you'd think they would have found it important enough to enable such vital features. I have some qualms with the graphics as well. Although the draw distance is remarkably far for all crucial gameplay objects like the track and barriers, a few other fluff items like billboards and bystanders' cars do have a tendency to pop-in at noticeable distances. The appearance of the infamous "tree wall" (flat geometry with a tree texture placed on it) instead of individual trees on the outskirts of some of the tracks is another blemish. Also, despite the use of mip-mapping, pixel shimmer still rears its ugly head from time to time on some of the bonus tracks, possibly due to their use of more vibrant (some might say gaudy) colors compared to the arcade originals. The car looks great, but what's with that tree wall? Yuck! Even though the driving dynamics feel spot on, high-speed car vs. car collisions turn out to be anything but realistic. One would expect that when driving 150 mph head on into another vehicle that's doing roughly the same speed, devastation would ensue. Not the case here. What usually happens is one of the cars involved will either come to a dead stop, or possibly spin out -- a couple of outcomes that are neither realistic nor terribly satisfying (what better way is there to vent frustration than to pull a 180 and barrel headlong into oncoming traffic?). It's hard to condemn F355 for this problem though, because just about every other racing game before it (besides the obvious destruction derby style games) have suffered from flawed vehicle collisions as well. As a final irritation, for whatever reason, the championship competition lacks a feature for saving progress in between races. This effectively forces players to play through all 6 races in one sitting, and pray they don't slip up in even a single corner of any race. I believe this was a poor design decision for such a demanding/difficult game. There is such a thing as being too difficult, after all. The Final Word I feel that in spite of the few omissions, with its incredibly tight control, beautiful graphics, and excellent multiplayer modes, F355 Challenge takes the crown for best Dreamcast racer yet, and is a strong contender for best sim racer of all time! By focusing their efforts on perfecting the feel of just a single car, Yu Suzuki and AM2 successfully created a racer composed of pure driving gameplay, and avoided a common misconception among developers that including lots of extras makes a game fun. So at this point, if you're a racing nut and still reading, there's nothing else I can say except to go buy this game NOW! You can send your cards and monetary contributions in the mail later thanking me. And for everyone else, I would like to make a proposition. Even if you regard Sega Rally to be too technical for your taste, and you consider a hardy serving of Daytona with a glass of Rush 2049 your perfect meal, I still urge you to give F355 a try. The absolute bliss that is the control of this game might just make you realize that it's not the realism that irks you about other sim games, it's their faulty realism! If you fall in that category, simply give it a rental and a full night of your time to see what you think. I'll even let you play with the driving aids on -- I won't tell anyone. Developer: Sega AM2 Publisher: Acclaim Genre: Racing / Simulation Highs: Perfect control, intense racing, beautiful graphics, excellent multi-player modes, helpful training aids, truly challenging, fun! Lows: No qualifying lap and only digest replay in single player, unrealistic car vs. car collisions, very minor graphical glitches, no save option in championship mode. Other: VGA compatible, VMU compatible (8 blocks for track data, 14 blocks for progress/settings), Online features, Jump Pack compatible, Steering Wheel compatible. Media: Intro (MPEG) - Classy or just goofy? You decide. [Big (11.2M)] - [Med (6M)] - [Small (1.3M)] Gameplay 1 (MPEG) - We played this fellow from Japan through the game's online network features. He's quite good. [Big (12.6M)] - [Med (6.8M)] - [Small (1.4M)] Gameplay 2 (MPEG) - Then at the other extreme, you have me. Watch out, walls, here I come! - BenT [Big (13.9M)] - [Med (6.8M)] - [Small (1.5M)] Final Score: (out of a possible 10) Visit this Game's Dreamcast Database Entry Previous Reviews Comments on this review? Mail Feedback.