[Review] Car & Driver

REVIEW # 00000000 00100011

Nothing comes close to it in terms of graphics, landscaping and sensation of speed

My heart says…

A long long time ago, a frind of mine borrowed me one of those not so legal game compilation and my passion about car, racing and driving videogames took over, so I quickly installed Car & Driver. The cover was very catchy and the few screenshgots of the menu made me think of a very rigorous games centered on the graphics and on the realism of driving experience.

One of the worst mistakes of my life. Very disappointing.

Splash screen

This is absolutely the best part of the game. The book-spaped menu, with very clean graphic and professional style it’s a great introduction for the game. The problem is that with an intro like this a player will expect a game at the same level…

Graphics

Just to compare, have a look at Formula One Grand Prix which is a 1990 game and even at 1989 game Indianapolis 500: The Simulation. Even 1987 Grand Prix Circuit is better than this!

The visuals are very poor and too geometric and the only thing to save is the detail of the cockpit of the car, a bit better than the rest. But this is too little and C&D remains under the standards.

Narrative/Realism

When the road is a bit bumpy, when it climps up or goes down a descent, the car has a quite good response, so on this side (at least) the realism is safe. We have some issue when we talk about the accidents: when you hit an opponent (obviously if you don’t hit him at 500 mph) nothing happens: only the speed is a bit decreased but nothing more. Ok, this could be good if you’re trying to win a race but if you have to look after the realism it’s a bit frustrating.

Gameplay

I’ve always loved Single Player games, even because most of the games I had I played by myself so this is not a problem FOR ME. But for any other one having a game in 1992 that doesn’t support at least two players is a big defect.

In Car & Driver there are 10 featured cars: the idea is great, even because we have dream cars such as Porsche 959, Lotus Esprit Turbo and Ferari 250 Testarossa; the problem is that the poor graphics completely ruing the good things of this game. As the cars available are 10, even the tracks where you can drive are 10, being the best one the Oval Speedway and the Mahomet Drag Strip (maybe becasuse they’re quite short and you don’t have to see that shitty graphic for long time…). They’re quite differente, even the environment is various but, again, you can have the better ideas but if you draw them like a 3 year old boy everything goes to $#!t.

Sound

If it weren’t for the sound of music that comes from the radio (did somebody said “stolen from Outrun“?), the sound is poor too. The engine of the car is not roaring but is making a shy “meow”. There’s no menu sound or music so since I have to judge only the in-game effects I have to tell they are almost nothing.

Longevity

If you do the counts you have 10 cars and 10 circuits so you can experiment 100 different combinations that makes thisa game quite longeve. Unfortunately the longevity is not a feature you can consider, since you’ll be tired of driving before trying all the cars and all the circuits.

Final Score 51/100

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Year: 1992

Developer: Lerner Research

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Genre: Driving

Games Mode: Single Player

Original Platform: MS-DOS

From same developers/publishers:

• Boulder Dash (1984)
• The Seven Cities of Gold (1984)
• Skate or Die! (1988)
• Kings of the Beach (1988)
• Indianapolis 500: The Simulation (1989)
• James Pond (1990) e seguiti
• Syndicate (1993)
• FIFA International Soccer (1993) and sequels
• Magic Carpet (1994)
• The Need For Speed (1994) e seguiti
• Simcity 2000 (1994)
• Crusader: No Remorse (1995)
• Extreme Pinball (1995)
• FIFA ’98 – Road to World Cup (1997)

Inspired to:

• Test Drive (1987)

If you liked you can also try:

• Test Drive entire saga
• 4D Sports Driving a.k.a. Stunts (1990)

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