Rollcage is an above-average but unfairly overlooked racing game from Psygnosis. Installation and playing is fairly easy, given that the game does have a windows version, although you may want to use a joystick for steering.
On starting the game, a nice FMV of racing cars set in a futuristic world gives way to a game screen featuring all the usual things from a racing simulator: League, 2-player (with splitscreen), Time attack, practice and so on.
You can choose from a variety of car / driver combinations, with the usual choices of speed, grip, strength and acceleration and the various cars with one outstanding characteristic out of those four.
Rollcage is an above-average but unfairly overlooked racing game from Psygnosis. Installation and playing is fairly easy, given that the game does have a windows version, although you may want to use a joystick for steering.
On starting the game, a nice FMV of racing cars set in a futuristic world gives way to a game screen featuring all the usual things from a racing simulator: League, 2-player (with splitscreen), Time attack, practice and so on.
You can choose from a variety of car / driver combinations, with the usual choices of speed, grip, strength and acceleration and the various cars with one outstanding characteristic out of those four. While you do this, the driver appears as a portrait in the bottom right-hand corner. If you don't care
about your character, ignore this: The choice only matters in the FMV sequences and in league mode.
But enough of the menus, because the racing is so much fun.
To start off with, seeing as this is the future all of your cars can attain silly speeds: 800 KM/H, for example. These silly speeds mean you can do outrageous things like drive on the ceilings of tunnels, or perform ridiculous jumps. It's great. The graphics don't really feel that dated for the age of the game, with fun blurring and neon effects. If I had one criticism it would be how dark the game environments often are. The game designers have taken full advantage of the possibilities offered by a 3-d racetrack, and you can often find boosters and power-ups at odd angles or on the ceilings of the many tunnels.
Speaking of power-ups, the weapons are where the game really shines. It's like playing gritty, cyberpunk mariokart. You can get weapons from the obvious (rockets) to the sophisticated (heat-seeking rockets) to the bizzare (lightning). As the races are so fast-paced, quite often you need to use weapons effectively to win. This does lead to some great moments, as you watch the fool who dared to overtake you disappearing in an explosion that sends his car hurtling off the track. He'll be back, however: the cars are indestructible, so there is no way to knock someone else out of the race. But as these are six-car races, you'll have plenty of targets. And if you don't want to join the fighting, you can always pick up a shield or two.
Of course, it isn't perfect. The sounds are basic, the controls a tad oversensitive, and there is little to recommend replaying. But other than that, it's a good game.
