Summary: Well, here's another great game that has hit the bargain bin. I'm amazed at some of the better X-box games out there that have been overlooked. This is one of them. But there have been some mixed reviews about the game due to what some hardcore gamers call 'FLAWS' (www.gamespot.com gave this game an EXTREMELY unfair 4.9 out 10).
Well, you can drive through trees as if they weren't there and you can drive on water (oops...oh well). SO WHAT? The point of racing is to stay on the track, right?...DUH!! If you want to go roaming around, go right ahead...but you'll lose the race.
I wanted to give a 4.5 rating, so I rounded it off to 5.
Rating Reviewed by: BoxJock Steve Frye(Unregistered User)
Review Date July 15, 2003
Overall Rating 4 of 5
Visitors rate this review 5.00 of 5,
1 votes
Review NaN of 7
, from Phila.Pa
Price Paid:
$40.00
from EB Theives......oops! I mean games
Summary: Sooner or later a driving game is going to have the problems that plague these type of games fixed. And the problems that these games have isn't due to technology's not catching up, it's because of poor design and the FUNKY characteristics developers insist on adding to these games. Mercedes Benz World Racing is a BEAUTIFUL game. Looking that is. How they did that with the paint is amazing. The friggin paint looks real! It is a pity there are awful flaws with the game. Example: Driving thru trees and people, phone poles and fire plugs. These cars dhadle like the rear tires are made from bacon grease, literally. I'm sorry but as hot as some of the cars are supposed to be, even a race car doesn't break traction under acceleration at over 100 mph! Even a 30 mph turn will send you spinning off the track. You will find yourself trying to control the "greasy" ass end rather than racing the other cars, 90% of the time. It's a terrible flaw to such a nice game. Yes it does have a slider that you can move from simulation to arcade, but I noticed little difference other than at full arcade there is a minor drop in the amount of wheel spin. I said minor. There really is no need for these types of handeling physics.This could have been a top shelf driver, but as it is, it's another pretty face but she won't put out. It truly is a shame.
I must also say that with all the quirks it is still a fun game. The cars are marvelous and with the environments it comes together great. The older cars are a treat to look at and the modeling is astounding. The cars front ends lift and dip according to the breaking and accelerating perfectly. You can adjust the aggressiveness of the other drivers with a slider like the one for sim or arcade. you can also set the weather. MBWR allows you to use the D pad or left thumbstick to steer, which I prefer. Put your name on the license plate. Turn damage on and off. Custom your game also with direction arrows on or off, and it allows you all the regular options also. There is also a fine replay so you can admire yourself in action that allows camera shuffle between cars with spectator view. Many of the cars you have to choose from aren't worth the effort they put into modeling them. Cars that look like they're electric if you know what I mean. Also there's like 109 cars available but they pull that garbage of counting a different engine size as another car, so I'm not sure how mant there actually are. Many of the junk cars are the ones with different engine sizes and some have 5 or 6 engine sizes for 1 scraper car. This is a professionally done game by every measure. Had they went the extra mile and corrected the flaws, this would have been a most talked about game. However, I refer you back to my first sentence. I paid retail for this game and I do not feel ripped off in any way. This is still a keeper. There is great fun to be had, but you will experience the bacon grease folly. I hope they make another one. I'll look for it.
Summary: Good game all around with some dissappointing lack of detail. Cars handle very well and the graphics look good until you dig in a little then things fall apart. If you forget about these things and "pretend: you can have one of the best driving experiences around. The cars shift beautiful throttle conmtrol is excellent and cornering is some of the best out of ant driving game. the tracks though varied for some reason can be a little boring after a while.
Summary: The posts below pretty much cover all you need to enjoy this game, so I won't go into all the stuff they have already covered.
What I will say is this: 1. If you are into all the current games that have you going 180mph in 3 seconds and hairpinning corners at 150mph, then this game will put into reality. It will either drive you nuts OR you may decide that it is refreshing to have a racing game that is more realistic.
2. Cars seem to go their realistic speeds, i.e when your climbing a steep hill in a 4X4 you go 12mph; now that seems like your crawling, but this is what the game adheres to: REALISM......If your into hughe jumps and insane racing, this ain't it. It is refreshing to actually race in a game that is probably fairly close to reality....Which is rare in VideoGames these days, where impossible speeds and flaming crashes are the norm. This game is very refreshing. Not for all, especially young kids.
Summary: A superb racing game crafted by a German development team (Synetic), released in the US by TDK Mediactive with virtually no promotion and a distinct lack of hype. I usually play a game in its entirety before posting any kind of review but I’m making an exception here. It’s an X-Box-only title, and that means the graphics haven’t been compromised by having to serve the "lowest common console denominator". They have an hallucinatory, super-realistic quality and are the best you’ll see on ANY console racing game released so far, and that includes Rallisport Challenge. Even if you don’t like racing games, M-B World Racing delivers so much fun for your $50 that I recommend it for every X-Box owner. You don’t even have to race, just plop on the sofa with a cold one and slurp from it as you enjoy the game’s "Free Ride" mode to the accompaniment of your own custom soundtrack.
5 of 5
4 of 5
