Prancing Horse or Prancing Turd?
We take Ferrari Challenge for a spin.
Published: October 24, 2008
If you've been paying any attention to this game at all, you may very well be aware that it's been available in Europe since early July. The American release followed a little while after but regardless this review is rather late. Why should you care? Because the game has seen some changes and broken promises since release, and this review will address them.
Prior to this games release many things were said about it, with Mark Cale stating that the game was superior to it's main competitors Gran Turismo and Forza 2. With System 3's less than impressive track record however, the claims were largely met with laughter and raised eyebrows. The intent was made perfectly clear, this is a racing sim and also a spiritual successor to Yu Suzuki's classic Ferrari F355 Challenge. This becomes obvious as soon as you start the game, as with a press of the start button you're greeted to the loud rev of a Ferrari's engine in the same manner you were in the old Sega classic. This isn't the only throwback to the old game however and not the only game that has clearly influenced Ferrari Challenge.
There are a wide variety of Ferraris available in the game, from the standard Ferrari F430 to beasts such as the FXX and older Testa Rossa, and they are all an absolute joy to drive. You can choose how realistic or arcadey you want the handling to be depending on your personal preference, although you'll be hard pressed to keep your car on the track if you turn all the assists off, especially in the rain. There is also a livery editor to edit your car's paintjob that appears to be a direct copy of the one found in Forza 2, however with less freedom granted to the user resulting in some rather drab paintjobs as opposed to what we may have been seen if System 3 had opted to copy the editor completely.
The cars all handle noticeably different with some excellent physics and handling. There are a variety of views to choose from also, including a interior camera which despite being graphicly impressive proves to be too difficult to use often due to the reduced visability. The engine sounds are also cranked up when driving from the interior. The experience is especially immersive when driving in the rain as the way the water effects your visibility is great. If you bring your car to a stop the rain will flow down your windscreen as expected, however press hard on the accelerator and the car will shoot forwards, with the direction of the water trailing off the sides of the screen realisticly. You'll also want to take care in the rain as stopping distances increase significantly and bombing into corners (especially with no assists) is outright suicidal, resulting in a loss of several places and depending on the circumstances some particularly nasty bumps to your bodywork. Unfortunately however, the damage modelling is purely cosmetic which comes as a disappointment from a game claiming to be a simulation. Whilst the fact it has damage modelling at all is an improvement over games such as Gran Turismo, it's a shame more wasn't made of it.
With such a great driving model and physics engine then, you would think it would be hard for the game to go wrong but unfortunately the care and effort that has been applied to the cars and their handling (even going so far as to get Bruno Senna on-board to make sure it feels right) has been equally applied to making the games modes too realistic to be fun. It's a commendable effort really and is understandable considering the game is based on the real Ferrari Challenge, although it is frustrating and at times incredibly dull to trawl through the single player modes.
The main meat of the single player for this game is the Challenge Mode, in which you select from one of 3 territories (Italy, Europe or America) and take part in the Ferrari Challenge. Each track providing you with an optional qualifier run, and then two 15 minute races. This is where the problem lies in that this gets dull very quickly. If you're half-decent at the game you will find yourself ahead of the pack in about 5 minutes (extend this to roughly 10 minutes in the later stages thanks to the adaptive AI) which leaves you with a lot of time racing around the head of the pack and not really doing anything else. At the end of the race the usual excitement for winning was more often than not replaced with relief that it was finally over due to the way the races are structured, and combined with having to do two of these races for each track before being able to progress can be very off-putting. If that is too much for you and you would prefer something more exciting you might be mislead into thinking the Arcade Mode would satisfy your needs better, and you'd be wrong. The Arcade Mode is structured into 4 classes based on difficlty, with each one unlocking after the previous one has been completed. The problem with this though is that each class forces you to do four 5 minute races one after the other, giving you no option to save between races to keep your progress. With the two main modes the game provides being so time consuming, it can be a very frustrating experience. The only opportunity to play something a bit less time consuming is the Quick Race option, however only four of the game's tracks are available to race on by default requiring the others to be unlocked via the Challenge mode before being allowed to race on them.
The tracks are entertaining to race on and brilliantly accurate reproductions of their real-life counterparts, for example the Silverstone and Mugello tracks look fantastic in comparison to other games featuring the same courses. Unfortunately with the amount of laps you're clocking up for each race before having to repeat it all again for the same track to progress the game does become more of a chore than a joy to play. The AI of the other cars goes some way to ease the pain, and sports some of the best you'll find in the genre. Unfortunately a recent patch for the game has made the AI drivers more aggressive, resulting in a step-backwards from before. Whereas previously other drivers would display some intelligence to their racing, the increased aggressiveness has given them a very on-rails feel resulting in AI cars that will not budge from the racing line most of the time. It's frustrating considering that they had it perfect when the game shipped, but as it stands right now it is disappointing.
The game has also received other updates via patches including custom soundtracks and trophy support, it has not received it's promised monthly DLC that was used as a selling point for the game though. If you were looking forward to the game you may remember the promised, "5 Cars and 1 Track every month, starting in August" which has sadly never materialized. Considering that we are nearing the end of October and System 3 will not comment on the matter, we will have to assume that it is not coming. Hopefully it will one day and be sensibly priced, but for now it's nowehere to be seen and comes as a disappointment and wasted potential at extending the dwindling online community for the game.
If you wish to play online you can have a maximum of 16 players racing together, with a recent patch enabling the creation of private lobbies at an attempt to make it easier for friends to play with each other. When it works it can be enjoyable, but sadly it is a pretty barebones affair. A big problem is that nobody plays the game online anymore due to some frustrating bugs and the lack of private lobbies at launch. Whilst it's commendable that they have been addressed it's simply too late now that most people have written-off the online play. There are no options for splitscreen play either, so if you intend to play this you can expect to be stuck with 15 minute races against the AI.
At the end of the day, it's a shame that this game never lived up to it's potential. Had it been given some more sensibly thought-out modes and the promised downloadable content had been released monthly it could have been something special. It certainly has the same charm of the old Sega game and first impressions are positive, but after a while the weight of the time consuming modes force this to be for the hardcore crowd only. Eutechnyx are to be commended for their brilliant support of the game through the patches and fixes they've added to keep the userbase happy, but System 3's broken promises and poor design decisions prevent the game from being what it could have been. If you're a hardcore racing simulation fan with a Ferrari fetish then you might find this to be an enjoyable title, but as it stands this is a dissapointing game that could have been amazing.
Prior to this games release many things were said about it, with Mark Cale stating that the game was superior to it's main competitors Gran Turismo and Forza 2. With System 3's less than impressive track record however, the claims were largely met with laughter and raised eyebrows. The intent was made perfectly clear, this is a racing sim and also a spiritual successor to Yu Suzuki's classic Ferrari F355 Challenge. This becomes obvious as soon as you start the game, as with a press of the start button you're greeted to the loud rev of a Ferrari's engine in the same manner you were in the old Sega classic. This isn't the only throwback to the old game however and not the only game that has clearly influenced Ferrari Challenge.
There are a wide variety of Ferraris available in the game, from the standard Ferrari F430 to beasts such as the FXX and older Testa Rossa, and they are all an absolute joy to drive. You can choose how realistic or arcadey you want the handling to be depending on your personal preference, although you'll be hard pressed to keep your car on the track if you turn all the assists off, especially in the rain. There is also a livery editor to edit your car's paintjob that appears to be a direct copy of the one found in Forza 2, however with less freedom granted to the user resulting in some rather drab paintjobs as opposed to what we may have been seen if System 3 had opted to copy the editor completely.
The cars all handle noticeably different with some excellent physics and handling. There are a variety of views to choose from also, including a interior camera which despite being graphicly impressive proves to be too difficult to use often due to the reduced visability. The engine sounds are also cranked up when driving from the interior. The experience is especially immersive when driving in the rain as the way the water effects your visibility is great. If you bring your car to a stop the rain will flow down your windscreen as expected, however press hard on the accelerator and the car will shoot forwards, with the direction of the water trailing off the sides of the screen realisticly. You'll also want to take care in the rain as stopping distances increase significantly and bombing into corners (especially with no assists) is outright suicidal, resulting in a loss of several places and depending on the circumstances some particularly nasty bumps to your bodywork. Unfortunately however, the damage modelling is purely cosmetic which comes as a disappointment from a game claiming to be a simulation. Whilst the fact it has damage modelling at all is an improvement over games such as Gran Turismo, it's a shame more wasn't made of it.
With such a great driving model and physics engine then, you would think it would be hard for the game to go wrong but unfortunately the care and effort that has been applied to the cars and their handling (even going so far as to get Bruno Senna on-board to make sure it feels right) has been equally applied to making the games modes too realistic to be fun. It's a commendable effort really and is understandable considering the game is based on the real Ferrari Challenge, although it is frustrating and at times incredibly dull to trawl through the single player modes.
The main meat of the single player for this game is the Challenge Mode, in which you select from one of 3 territories (Italy, Europe or America) and take part in the Ferrari Challenge. Each track providing you with an optional qualifier run, and then two 15 minute races. This is where the problem lies in that this gets dull very quickly. If you're half-decent at the game you will find yourself ahead of the pack in about 5 minutes (extend this to roughly 10 minutes in the later stages thanks to the adaptive AI) which leaves you with a lot of time racing around the head of the pack and not really doing anything else. At the end of the race the usual excitement for winning was more often than not replaced with relief that it was finally over due to the way the races are structured, and combined with having to do two of these races for each track before being able to progress can be very off-putting. If that is too much for you and you would prefer something more exciting you might be mislead into thinking the Arcade Mode would satisfy your needs better, and you'd be wrong. The Arcade Mode is structured into 4 classes based on difficlty, with each one unlocking after the previous one has been completed. The problem with this though is that each class forces you to do four 5 minute races one after the other, giving you no option to save between races to keep your progress. With the two main modes the game provides being so time consuming, it can be a very frustrating experience. The only opportunity to play something a bit less time consuming is the Quick Race option, however only four of the game's tracks are available to race on by default requiring the others to be unlocked via the Challenge mode before being allowed to race on them.
The tracks are entertaining to race on and brilliantly accurate reproductions of their real-life counterparts, for example the Silverstone and Mugello tracks look fantastic in comparison to other games featuring the same courses. Unfortunately with the amount of laps you're clocking up for each race before having to repeat it all again for the same track to progress the game does become more of a chore than a joy to play. The AI of the other cars goes some way to ease the pain, and sports some of the best you'll find in the genre. Unfortunately a recent patch for the game has made the AI drivers more aggressive, resulting in a step-backwards from before. Whereas previously other drivers would display some intelligence to their racing, the increased aggressiveness has given them a very on-rails feel resulting in AI cars that will not budge from the racing line most of the time. It's frustrating considering that they had it perfect when the game shipped, but as it stands right now it is disappointing.
The game has also received other updates via patches including custom soundtracks and trophy support, it has not received it's promised monthly DLC that was used as a selling point for the game though. If you were looking forward to the game you may remember the promised, "5 Cars and 1 Track every month, starting in August" which has sadly never materialized. Considering that we are nearing the end of October and System 3 will not comment on the matter, we will have to assume that it is not coming. Hopefully it will one day and be sensibly priced, but for now it's nowehere to be seen and comes as a disappointment and wasted potential at extending the dwindling online community for the game.
If you wish to play online you can have a maximum of 16 players racing together, with a recent patch enabling the creation of private lobbies at an attempt to make it easier for friends to play with each other. When it works it can be enjoyable, but sadly it is a pretty barebones affair. A big problem is that nobody plays the game online anymore due to some frustrating bugs and the lack of private lobbies at launch. Whilst it's commendable that they have been addressed it's simply too late now that most people have written-off the online play. There are no options for splitscreen play either, so if you intend to play this you can expect to be stuck with 15 minute races against the AI.
At the end of the day, it's a shame that this game never lived up to it's potential. Had it been given some more sensibly thought-out modes and the promised downloadable content had been released monthly it could have been something special. It certainly has the same charm of the old Sega game and first impressions are positive, but after a while the weight of the time consuming modes force this to be for the hardcore crowd only. Eutechnyx are to be commended for their brilliant support of the game through the patches and fixes they've added to keep the userbase happy, but System 3's broken promises and poor design decisions prevent the game from being what it could have been. If you're a hardcore racing simulation fan with a Ferrari fetish then you might find this to be an enjoyable title, but as it stands this is a dissapointing game that could have been amazing.
