Grand Tour Racing 98 Review

  Activision's last racer, Grand Tour Racing '98, has enough options to keep even the most rabid racing fan at bay. Instead of just 1-Player and Multi-Player with the same ol' cars, Grand Tour Racing has an array from you to choose from. First, you have 9 different tracks, with an "A" and "B" version for each (and the "B" version is sometimes more than just racing the track backwards!). Then, you have 5 different classes of cars (Indy, Rally, Sports, Dakar, and Buggy) that all handle VERY differently from one another. In most games, the different cars are slightly different. That's not the case here.

   Now, you can race single player, time trial, season, 2 Player split screen, 2 player linked, or 4 player linked/split screen! Then, you choose one of 8 teams, all of whose vehicles run differently than the other teams. So, no two Rally cars are alike. The graphics are nice. The landscapes and backgrounds look great. Pop-in is not a problem. Last (and maybe most importantly), there is little to no frame rate loss in split screen racing.

   If this game could say one word, it would be analog! To play this game well, you really need an analog controller. It's still possible to play without analog control, but is definitely harder. Due to this, the Play Control rating was dropped a bit, but if you have analog control, disregard it!

   Racing fans need a copy of this. It has plenty of replay value, it's great with analog controller (and all real racing fans have analog control), and it's a blast with friends (especially four!)