Drive a Porsche (Porsche Challenge (PS))

Member Name: Galloway

Product:	Porsche Challenge (PS)
Date:	19/06/01 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good Graphics, Good Physics, Challenging

Disadvantages: Tracks to samey, Only One Type Of Car

Porsche Challenge was released around the same time as the car it features, the Porsche Boxster. At the time, with the involvement of Porsche in its development, the possibility of the game being no more than an advertising gimmick loomed high.

Fortunately, this game provides quality racing that falls heavily into the simulation format.

Having the choice of only one type of car to use, or in fact race against, as this is the only type of car in the game, is very limiting in variety. This may put many racing gamers off, as may the theme of the game, spoilt rich kids racing their latest toy. If you can live with these drawbacks, a solid racing simulation is what you get.

Six cars, all Boxsters of coarse; are offered in different colours and with different characters as their drivers. Cars handle well and a lot of effort has been put into the driving realism of the vehicle, but don’t expect to see bent Porsches. Crashing doesn’t damage the cars at all, it just loses you time.

This is street racing, so the tracks are themed on country roads, desserts, cityscapes and snowy roads. Although 24 tracks are offered, they are mainly variations of tracks instead of completely new ones. So when you complete one set, don’t expect the next set to look a lot different.

Graphics are excellent, with real-time light sourcing and shading. Two driving views are here, chase cam and front bumper cam, but no real in-cockpit view.

Overall a good racing simulation, but suffers from a lack of variety. The difficulty curve is quite high too as you have to finish in at least 3rd place to progress to the next track. Don’t expect an easy ride.

Summary: