The latest Ferrari Challenge has been unveiled. After the respectful debut of its predecessor back in 2008, we have been anxious to find out is it better than the last one. It costs 15 euro which looked like a bargain but when I took a look at the features it was hard to find something new.
The game features every car Ferrari have ever released, from the old classics to the F458 Italia. A great library of cars. As you enter for the first time you have a good budget and you can bay everything up to F430 which is one of my favourite Ferraris. And all the other cars are just a couple of hours away.
The newest version of Ferrari Challenge has the same modes as the old one did. This means an arcade mode, which is kind of a hard but I find it very entertaining and the other one is the career mode. This mode has been completely changed from the first Ferrari Challenge. Now you can choose from 3 championships in different regions of the world.
The AI cars aren't easy targets. They do make mistakes but are also quite hostile. The PC is really fast. The set up adjustments are the bare minimum. For instance for suspension settings you can only choose hard and soft. On most of the luxurious cars nowadays you can choose from more suspension settings. There is no tire ware, changing weather or pit stops.
The physics in this game are fantastic. They have updated the handling model and it sure made a difference. When you turn you can sense how the car shifts weight from side to side. Some of the cars under steer and for those older models without ABS you can feel how unstable they are on breaking. For those with steering wheels the force-feed back is very strong. The game is very realistic. With ESP and all other safety features turned off the cars become unstable in cornering but this offers the chance to do some drifting.
Though it is realistic the games doesn't look good. There are popping textures on the circuits. The viewing distance is also bad. The cars them self are not modelled really good. They look kind a wrong and I am not sure why. So when it comes to looks the Ferrari Challenge is far away from the big players in the genre for example Grand Tourismo, Forza Motosport and Need for Speed Shift.
When it comes to the sound of the cars I think its good. Every car has a unique sound.
So to sum the Ferrari Challenge has great physics and hard AI cars. But the graphics have still much to desire. Though it's better than the fist one and quite a bargain, the game just can't mach the big names unless you want something realistic.
You can play racing flashgames online there are a lot of really good free flash games. Some of them are even multiplayer games
