Played the PS1 version cause I couldn't set DOSBox up on my Ubuntu Studio.
Much as I love some of the later games in the series, I did not like this first entry at all.
You only get a handful of tracks and a handful of cars. And despite the tracks being scenic, the colors are kinda drab. You can choose the time of day, but morning and evening basically look the same, and they just switch the skybox to a sunrise/sunset. You'd think there'd be some lights in the buildings at evening or some street lights alongside the road, but no. There's very little music, and it's some generic rock music, which I did not care for. The overall presentation is just boring.
But the worst thing is the actual gameplay and controls. Even if you select an automatic transmission, you still have to shift to the first gear to start moving for some reason. Every race starts you with the cockpit view, and there's no way to change that. There are few control schemes and there's no way to put the handbrake on the shoulder buttons. Not that you'd wanna use it anyway because it's way too sensitive. I spun my car around every single time I tried to use it. Even without the handbrake, it's way too easy to swerve. And once you lose control of your car, it's basically over. There's no restore button or even a way to back up. You have to manually turn your car around to get back to the race. And by the time you do that, you'll be so behind, you'll never catch up.
The only positive thing I can say about the game is that on the technical level it looks great, and there's no visible pop-in. Also the sense of speed is well-conveyed.
That being said, really see no reason to play it today, other than out of curiosity. Even if you just like the presentation, the game has so little content, feels almost like a demo.
Much as I love some of the later games in the series, I did not like this first entry at all.
You only get a handful of tracks and a handful of cars. And despite the tracks being scenic, the colors are kinda drab. You can choose the time of day, but morning and evening basically look the same, and they just switch the skybox to a sunrise/sunset. You'd think there'd be some lights in the buildings at evening or some street lights alongside the road, but no. There's very little music, and it's some generic rock music, which I did not care for. The overall presentation is just boring.
But the worst thing is the actual gameplay and controls. Even if you select an automatic transmission, you still have to shift to the first gear to start moving for some reason. Every race starts you with the cockpit view, and there's no way to change that. There are few control schemes and there's no way to put the handbrake on the shoulder buttons. Not that you'd wanna use it anyway because it's way too sensitive. I spun my car around every single time I tried to use it. Even without the handbrake, it's way too easy to swerve. And once you lose control of your car, it's basically over. There's no restore button or even a way to back up. You have to manually turn your car around to get back to the race. And by the time you do that, you'll be so behind, you'll never catch up.
The only positive thing I can say about the game is that on the technical level it looks great, and there's no visible pop-in. Also the sense of speed is well-conveyed.
That being said, really see no reason to play it today, other than out of curiosity. Even if you just like the presentation, the game has so little content, feels almost like a demo.