ATV Offroad Fury Pro may as well drop the “ATV” from its name. While ATVs are
still the stars of the show, other offroad vehicles make their appearance in the
series. We’re not just talking dirt bikes here, but snowmobiles and even trucks.
Throw in a good number of race modes, tracks, and even a track editor and some
mini games and you have a game that packs in a lot of offroad racing for the
times when you need to take your gaming on the road.
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| This time out you'll get to drive some trucks. |
The first thing that you’ll need to do when starting a career as an offroad
racer is to select a sponsor. Sponsorship nets you cash, which you can spend on
new vehicles and vehicle upgrades. There is a catch, though; the sponsors
actually expect you to win for them. Each sponsor will provide you with a table
of what they will pay for your finish in a race. Finish in first and you’ll get
the highest payout. End up in last and you’ll get nada – or worse, your sponsor
will deduct money from your bank account. It’s a cool feature of the game, but
unfortunately it is for all practical purposes cosmetic. Performing well and
landing a top sponsor will pad your bank account and allow you to buy plenty of
upgrades, but you’ll be hard-pressed to notice any difference in your vehicles
after you purchase an upgrade. Combine this with the fact that game
“rubber-bands” you with your race competitors and races will run about the same
with a starter ATV as they will with a tricked out one.
In case you’re wondering, rubber banding is a little trick employed by many
racing games to keep things interesting for an entire race. If you blow away
your competition early you’ll find them magically nicking your heels soon
afterwards. And if you blow it and crash, you’ll still be able to catch your
competitors as long as there are laps left to run. It all works like your
competitors are attached to you with rubber bands, hence the name. Some people
love it, some hate it. I personally don’t like the way that mistakes at the end
of a race are effectively penalized far more than those at the start. If you
bump a wall approaching the finish line you can easily come in third or worse
even after leading for the entire race. On the other hand, crashing
spectacularly at the beginning of a race and rolling off of the track doesn’t
really hurt your chances to win all that much. Don’t take this to mean that the
racing isn’t fun in the game because it is. The tracks are fun and in spite of
its flaws the rubber banding does keep the races close. The racing is definitely
arcade style but I doubt if serious race simmers are looking at a portable game
for its realistic portrayal of racing.
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