Checkered Flag by Rebellion and Atari
Description: Get ready to burn rubber! Race for the Checkered Flag behind the wheel of a turbo-powered speedway racer in real-time 3D-rendered action. Choose from 10 high performance tracks and see the speedway from 6 distinct views. Alter features and attributes on your racer to improve your times or even change the weather conditions. Action so intenseand realistic you'll swear you feel the wind in your hair as your tires screech around the curves. Keep your sweaty palms on the controller! Overview: Checkered Flag is/was Atari’s attempt at Virtua Racing. I think CF is still a bit better than VR, but that isn’t saying much in this case. It’s your straight forward 3D polygon racing game that lets you select 6 car colors and customize them by selecting tires, airfoils, and gearing. You have 3 choices of weather conditions (4 with a code), and that adds a nice bit of variety. The game features a whopping 10 tracks as compared to the 3 of VR’s. Select single racing, practice or tournament mode. The graphics in Checkered Flag aren’t what kill it. In fact, they’re not too shabby. The shading on the polys is pretty well done. The polygonal environment is done well, too. You’ll find little things like penguins off side the track, icicles hanging from overpasses, hot air balloons, people offside the track, etc. The polygon count is pretty low compared to today’s new stuff, but when this was released, it was right on par with the standards. The cars don’t have any type of texture mapping what-so-ever, but they look okay. The draw-in is quite a ways down the track, so fortunately this isn’t a problem. The backgrounds are pasted up like wallpaper, and most of them look very dithered. The framerate is okay. It’s no Doom or Super Burnout, but it gets by. The game seems to be crawling when you first get moving, but when you top just over 130 M.P.H., things seem to move smoother. It’s choppy, but not as bad as...Supercross 3D. Another problem here is that there are almost no height changes in the game. In fact they’re so subtle, you can barely notice them. I would have like to see some hills...some dips, etc. The sound is probably the game’s highlight. The tunes are fairly well arranged, and have a good racing touch to them. Most are about 1 ½ minutes in length, and that isn’t too bad. This isn’t a CD, and for the most part, they keep from being annoying so I’ll let it slide. There is a tune for each track. The sound effects aren’t all that great. The engine sound is pretty cool, but the screeching of your tires can drive you crazy. One sound that you’ll hear over and over is the sound of your car colliding into the wall. This sound is basically an uninspired thud. Then you have the beeps of the start light that sound like the 2600. After those, there’s nothing else. The gameplay is disappointing. You can only race against five drones. There is no 2-player mode. The control is too touchy. The artificial intelligence absolutely wreaks. If you’re racing 5 laps, and your first 4 are very good, but you wreck badly on your last lap, the PC opponents will be flying past you before you know it. If you have a poor 3-4 laps, and then turn up the speed, you’ll whip past the drones with little problem. Also, computer opponents are constantly trying to ram you into the wall! This isn’t BattleWheels, this is supposed to be realistic. That, I’m afraid, is not realistic for this kind of game. Also, in the tournament mode, there is no save option. If you’re planning on finishing it, plan on staying for over an hour. My best overall time was 69:19:3....so that let’s you know how long it takes. The control puts a lid on the possibility of having a lot of fun. The steering is very touchy, and it’s very hard to judge. Sometimes you’ll turn from the left side of the road, and the next thing you know, you’re biting it into the right side wall! You have to tap they joypad from side-to-side to keep the proper control of you car. Even this leads to unexpected wrecks. Sometimes you know that you’re probably going to hit something in front of you, but you don’t want to take the chance on turning, because you know you’ll eat it. It’s very hard to explain, and very hard to get the hang of. You can "get into the flow" on this game, but it takes a few days of repeated play. When manual transmission is selected, you must switch gear with the up and down directions on the joypad. This can really screw your steering up more than it already is. The problem is that you can’t just sit back and play this game and enjoy it. You’re constantly fighting the steering wheel. Stay away from Checkered Flag unless you’re looking to complete your Jaguar game collection. Sure, you can find reasons to make the game fun. I played it quite a lot when I got it. It is playable if you can put up with the touchy controls. That’s the bottom line.
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