Title Sega Rally Revo Date 10.12.2007 Genre Racing Platform Xbox 360 Developer Sega Publisher Sega

I usually start with some quick paragraph explaining what I mean by my review title but its pointless here as it’s completely obvious. So on with the review...

Story
I usually also review the story of the games I review but lets face it, this game has no story except get in a car and drive through competitions.

Graphics
How or where do I start here, the graphics look as described in my my reviews title, the are beautiful, the cars look spot on, very few fault that I can see although sometimes in the rear view mirror cars look squashed un-till they are up close and personal with your cars rear end.

The locations, now this is where the graphics absolutely shine, every track in the game looks brilliantly rendered and the texturing is almost perfect, you will just love to grab a car pick any course and quick race around it for a long while taking in the views as you go.

You can come speeding around a corner with a competitor hugging your backside and birds will fly out of the way as you splash through the remains of a dried up watering hole, several animals littering the side of the course all calling out as you pass by.

The effects in the game are just as nice, following up behind a competitor one a dirt track has just the right effect, I CAN'T SEE THROUGH ALL THIS DUST!!  And the splashing effect as your car cruises through a puddle at top speed looks just as it should.

Even with all these really nice effects and textures comes the downside, taking a closer inspection of the graphics not racing at top speed shows up some odd problems mainly relating to shadows, they often look jagged and unfinished but that’s a minor issue and nothing really detrimental to the games overall feel.

Sound
I lightly toughed on this in the graphics section when I explained that animals littering the outskirts of the track make their appropriate sounds when you come racing past them, but that’s only the background noises, lets pick up on the sound we really care about, the cars engines roaring as you race toward the final finish line.

Let me say they sound great on most cars but some just don't sound quite as they should, I won't name which cars I believe sound less realistic than others as that is not the aim here, but I will say that some sound tinny to put it as best I can, as though they are encased inside a small hollow, sealed can or something to that effect, but besides that the sounds are very well done.

Game play/Controls
Ok I really have to start off by highlighting the new technology placed into the game, It is related to graphics as well as game play but I feel it relates to this a lot more to the game play side of things, the new technology we are speaking of is the track deformation that has been placed onto each and every stage.

What this does is, instead of leaving basic skid marks in the dirt by placing a simple image on the textured floor, the entire track has been applied with a wire-mesh frame work closely knitted together (obviously invisible during game play) which allows for a very unique feature, as your car and opponents cars speed through mud, dirt and snow they literally make indentations where the tires place weight onto the track, this in turn effects your suspension.

So in short, as you speed round on your second or third lap your going to feel those freshly made tracks as you cut across them.

Now, with that out of the way lets get to how the cars handle, and they handle very nicely, your given the option to fit your car with dirt or road tires before each competition and each has the expected reaction on each type of surface, for example road tires offer brilliant control on tarmac but on dirt they really lose their advantage and vise versa for the off road tires. I think thats all that needs to be explained for game play as we have nailed it to the wall there.

Lets wrap this up with the controls, they are just the same as most next generation racing games with accelerator placed on the right trigger and brake on the opposite trigger, hand brake on A, gear shifting on X and Y if you go manual. pretty much basic and easy to get to grips with so nothing to halt the game and scream wth frustration here.

Multi-player
All courses available, ranked and non-ranked, scoreboards and the ability to race against the worlds top time trial scores against the ghost car of the person who set it (a little complicated to type), pretty fleshed out for a start then is it not?

Then add in that there are up to six racers including yourself ina single match and the track deformation technology is retained for every person racing, well you have a unique on-line experience which is very fun to play and will keep you entertained for hours.

Overall
If you are a fan of rally or off road driving you should without a doubt pick this game up and at the very least rent it and try it out first. It’s really something in my opinion and I can't recommend it enough.

Game Score

A-

Reviewed By: Contributed