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[Shogmaster]

WOW! I just picked this game up for a song ($18) and I don't know why the hell I didn't pick this up earlier! Incredible game! Gorgeous! Online! The best looking and playing XBox racer by far (which means fucking Burnout 3 is disqualified cause it ain't a real racer)!!!

And now on to the gratuitous pic parade!

 

[op_ivy]

i LOVE rsc2, but honestly, i think they lost a lot of what made the first soooo damn good. rsc1 >>> rsc2 i'm afraid (despite the improved visuals and vastly superior "campaign").

 

[Shogmaster]

i LOVE rsc2, but honestly, i think they lost a lot of what made the first soooo damn good. rsc1 >>> rsc2 i'm afraid (despite the improved visuals and vastly superior "campaign").

I much prefer 2 to 1 myself, although I just started playing. Maybe I'll feel different farther into it, but I doubt it.

 

[LukeSmith]

this isn't really necessary.
It mikght as well say.
GO LOOK AT IGN FOR PICZ.

 

[Shogmaster]

this isn't really necessary.
It mikght as well say.
GO LOOK AT IGN FOR PICZ.

Screw that! I cherry picked ones that don't look sucky even with IGN's crappy capure device. That's a lot of work!

 

[op_ivy]

its just that rsc2 feels soooo incredibly easy. its not just that the career is a cake walk either, its that even pushing myself 110% to set a great time, i usually have little trouble finishing a race.

rsc1 was hardcore. i consider myself very good at it, yet it was always a white knuckle experience to get a decent time, let alone beat your own records. the game had deep controls and a steep learning curve (for an arcade racer). didnt hurt that the best tracks in rsc1 are better then those in rsc2 either i suppose.

rsc2 was no slouch though. still one of my favorite racers, if not games, this gen.

 

[Shogmaster]

Ah, I see what you are saying. I'm just barely into the amateur section in the career mode so I assumed it would get much harder later. I guess I'll have to wait and see if I end up feeling the same.

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

This game refuses to get cheap in the UK. The least I've seen it for is 33 quid. That's only 7 quid off. Also Kingdoms Under Fire seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

 

[Shogmaster]

This game refuses to get cheap in the UK. The least I've seen it for is 33 quid. That's only 7 quid off. Also Kingdoms Under Fire seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

This game is worth full price bud. Just get it. Just make sure you have your favorite music ripped into the XBox so that you don't have to listen to the generic butt rock that comes with the game while you drive.

 

[op_ivy]

Ah, I see what you are saying. I'm just barely into the amateur section in the career mode so I assumed it would get much harder later. I guess I'll have to wait and see if I end up feeling the same.

well, most of my beef is that the cars are literally too fucking easy to control. i want to struggle around hairpins and bumps.

man, someone tell me MS has DICE slaving away at rsc3 for xenon...

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

This game is worth full price bud. Just get it.

It's a matter of principal really. Having left it this long, it would be wrong to now buy the game at full price. And you can talk Mr. I payed $18 dollars (that's only about 10 of our British pounds). I'd still be willing to pay twice that much.

 

[fennec fox]

One of my favorite games of 2004, I could not stop playing it all through the pre-E3 rush. I wrote a great 1up feature on RSC2 crashes (with videos and everything), but I'm afraid it didn't make it over when the site was redesigned.

 

[Shogmaster]

well, most of my beef is that the cars are literally too fucking easy to control. i want to struggle around hairpins and bumps.

Eh? I remember RSC 1 cars being about the same on the controls. *shrugs*

man, someone tell me MS has DICE slaving away at rsc3 for xenon...

I'd give my best friend's left nut for this cause (I might need mine later).

 

[op_ivy]

Eh? I remember RSC 1 cars being about the same on the controls. *shrugs*

no, not at all. i mean, yeah, they feel very similar, but i think the difference is in the powersliding. in rsc1 you really needed to set your car up for corners to slide. that included hitting the brakes or letting off the gas to get sideways, then punching the gas, as well as general car positioning... in rsc2 you can initiate slides just by making a hard turn.

basically, the controls feel 80% the same, just much more altered to make driving easier. i think that was one complaint a lot of reviewers had for the first 1. twits.

 

[siamesedreamer]

That game is so beautiful. I loved it. I got about 3/4 of the way through "Champion" mode when I slowly phased it out of my playing repertoire for some reason. The online was a bit of a disappointment though because of the voice restrictions.

 

[Drinky Crow]

RSC2 is my favorite racer this gen. Gran Turiswhat?

 

[fennec fox]

I got about 3/4 of the way through "Champion" mode when I slowly phased it out of my playing repertoire for some reason.

I'll tell you why: Because of all those goddamn snowy night tracks in Sweden. Get a goddamn snowplow, you cheap goddamn Swedish people!

 

[isamu]

it's a great game but from what I hear it absolutely blows with Xbox steering wheels

 

[op_ivy]

I'll tell you why: Because of all those goddamn snowy night tracks in Sweden. Get a goddamn snowplow, you cheap goddamn Swedish people!

:lol

i hated that all the longest courses were at night, most with fog. i wonder if that was to overcome some sort of technical hurdle?

 

[isamu]

I'll tell you why: Because of all those goddamn snowy night tracks in Sweden.

yes, very very VERY frustrating at times.

 

[Error Macro]

RSC2 = GOTY 2004 for me, Best Xbox game overall, my favorite rally racer ever (beating my much beloved Mobil 1 Championship on the PC, and I played that with a FF wheel!), the best console graphics, IMO... The list goes on and on. I cannot lavish enough praise on it. And for the record, I think it blows away Rallisport 1, and I absolutely loved that game.

 

[Drinky Crow]

Mobil 1 Championship PC rocked. Still one of the best pure rally sims ever, if not THE best.

How's Colin McRae 2005?

 

[Seth C]

Didn't EA buy DICE?

 

[siamesedreamer]

I actually got pretty good at the snow tracks. Remember that one course that was about 12 minutes long at night that took you through the forrest (like half the race was through the dark, foggy forrest) by that old English town? That track was friggin' nuts. One crash into a tree your headlights were gone and so was your visibility.

 

[Yusaku]

The graphics in this game are severely overrated. 0x AF = :lol

 

[op_ivy]

The graphics in this game are severely overrated. 0x AF = :lol

hardly. and whats 0x AF?

 

[Yusaku]

Anisotropic filtering. An alarming number of Xbox games have it disabled for some reason. Sudeki being the worst (best?) example.

It's the reason why the ground is always so fucking blurry.

 

[Gek54]

Mobil 1 Championship PC rocked. Still one of the best pure rally sims ever, if not THE best.

How's Colin McRae 2005?

CMR5 when back to CMR3 physics, CMR4 is much better and Richard Burns Rally has taken the crown as the best rally sim ever.

 

[Shompola]

yusaku I know you were just kidding and were sarcastic but for people who didn't understand yusaku was jokingly saying that the roads look like undetailed shit i.e. no Anisotproroprieorueoiroeiuyiuyiuic filtering is used according to these screenshots.

 

[FightyF]

One of the best looking console videogames thus far. Best looking racer from an engine perspective, no doubt. Best looking overall as well.

Wait until you get further and unlock all of the tracks...they look insanely awesomely realistic.

Many times I often stare at the jaw dropping backgrounds, and mess up on a turn. Other than having those types of problems it is a rather easy game, and like op_ivy said, it has to do with the controls. The tracks are pretty good, and would have been quite challenging if it controlled more like a sim.

 

[Yusaku]

I wasn't sarcastic. I'm saying it's unfortunate that the very detailed roads are spoiled by a lack of anisotropic filtering.

Also, why the fuck do people play racing games in third-person view?

 

[op_ivy]

man, these series of cross over tracks are soooo amazing looking. its a shame they removed the particle effects for it though. looked killer in earlier versions. i guess the reason they removed it was cause it was very hard to have competitive races with the amount of dust, but i'm not sure i buy that. it could have been toned down at least.

 

[Shogmaster]

man, these series of cross over tracks are soooo amazing looking. its a shame they removed the particle effects for it though. looked killer in earlier versions. i guess the reason they removed it was cause it was very hard to have competitive races with the amount of dust, but i'm not sure i buy that. it could have been toned down at least.

Huh? I just played one of those supercross tracks, and I thought there was dust all over the place.

 

[op_ivy]

Huh? I just played one of those supercross tracks, and I thought there was dust all over the place.

???

seriously? you must be mistaken. iirc the cars will kick up pebbles and shit, but there is definitely not the giant plume of dust that is present in the rally stages (or in early screen shots)

 

[Shogmaster]

???

seriously? you must be mistaken. iirc the cars will kick up pebbles and shit, but there is definitely not the giant plume of dust that is present in the rally stages (or in early screen shots)

It's defiitely not the plume of dust storm, but there's definitely dust, at least with 2 car supercross races. It's defnitely toned down ALOT, but it's still there.

edit: I just watched a replay of it, and it's toned WAY down. but it's far from empty like in that one shot.

 

[CrimsonSkies]

I love the game. But in both I just hit a roadblock I couldn't get over. No matter how hard I tried. Oh well.

 

[Warm Machine]

On my awards list RS2 would be nominated for...

Graphics
Best Graphics Technology
Art Direction

It would also be on my nomination for game of the year.

The 16:9 480p mode is beautiful.

Most importantly the game is amazingly fun. Great blend of arcade racer and technical racer.

 

[Prine]

Loved this game. Im not going to sell it either, it'll forever be in my collection. Best racer this gen

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

this is very easily the best rally game ever created, and has some of the best graphics ive ever seen.

remember when we had the gaming-age team leagues? that shit was crazy. i remember everyone would be scrambling to get the best times in, literally shedding tenths of a second to come through for their team and get a couple extra points. that was pretty sweet

 

[Wario64]

People still play this on XBL? I need to get this game

 

[Brandon F]

I've lost almost every ounce of interest to invest in yet another Rally game, but the unanimous praise does intrigue me.

-Are the tracks wide enough for wild drifting excitment? (ie, compared to the blisteringly lame narrow rails of Sega Rally 2)

-Is it $20 yet?

-How engrossing is the campaign? Rewards structure?

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

if there is enough interest we could start another online league if the XSN site is still up

 

[Error Macro]

I've lost almost every ounce of interest to invest in yet another Rally game, but the unanimous praise does intrigue me.

-Are the tracks wide enough for wild drifting excitment? (ie, compared to the blisteringly lame narrow rails of Sega Rally 2)

-Is it $20 yet?

-How engrossing is the campaign? Rewards structure?

-Yes

-Yes

-Fairly rewarding, very engrossing

 

[Thompson]

I always thought I was the only one who felt RSC1 was better & deeper than RSC2.

I used to have to practice a track before taking it on in the races.RSC2 no challenge at all off line. I actually completed most of the 1st game with the Ford Focus RS in 1st place. RSC2 while better looking lacks challenge. But I must confess I'm addicted to the daily online challenges. Some of those times set by some of the guys are very impressive.

Shame about those replays though....

 

[arhra]

This game refuses to get cheap in the UK. The least I've seen it for is 33 quid. That's only 7 quid off. Also Kingdoms Under Fire seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

£19 at amazon.co.uk, if you don't mind waiting a week or two for them to send it out (i ordered it on the 27th, and they say they'll be dispatching it sometime this week). Looks like they've got KUF in stock, too, for £28.

 

[thorns]

This game refuses to get cheap in the UK. The least I've seen it for is 33 quid. That's only 7 quid off. Also Kingdoms Under Fire seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

The game is region-free so you can get it from www.videogamesplus.ca for cheap

no idea about kingdom under fire though

 

[Kanbee-san]

Anisotropic filtering. An alarming number of Xbox games have it disabled for some reason. Sudeki being the worst (best?) example.

It's the reason why the ground is always so fucking blurry.

They probably have trillinear filtering, but bear in mind these are not proscan shots.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

i LOVE rsc2, but honestly, i think they lost a lot of what made the first soooo damn good. rsc1 >>> rsc2 i'm afraid (despite the improved visuals and vastly superior "campaign").

I agree.

The game is nice, but not what a lot of you make it out to be graphically either. RSC1 (PC) looked much more 'photo-like' than the sequel. The textures lost a lot of the 'oomph'.

Sears has it on clearance btw. 19.00 during Xmas rush.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

2 looks way better than 1. I can't even believe that criticism. I'd say it's a better racer all the way round.

That online tournament we had was insane. Can't believe how tight the competition was over a tenth of a second.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

'Better' is relative. Technically the game is superior, but in my experience had far fewer 'Oh sh!t, you see that?!' moments. My playtime of RSC1 on the XBOX was limited as I prefered the superior PC version. The textures/resolution alone spanked RSC2, and added a ton to the overall appearance as is the case w/ most console to PC ports.

Graphics aside, what I was put off w/ in RSC2, was that instead of refining the controls and tweaking them to perfection, they changed them. As Op_Ivy mentioned, there's little skill needed to whip around a turn anymore. Not hitting a turn the right way could make or break a race in RSC1.