Lotus Challenge Review

Lotus Challenge has been amounting a fair amount of buzz recently, screenshots showed what looked to be a visually impressive title but little did we know quite how good the actual game would be. Suffice to say Gran Turismo with its lazy update had better be looking over its shoulder; the once guaranteed champion has got some competition. <br /> <br /> Lotus Challenge has an extremely slick front end, the entire layout has been cleverly thought through and makes good use of the DVD storage, rendered movies greet your selections, as you make the final choice you’ll see your car speed off into the distance. Important? No, Nice? Yes and a sign of things to come. <br /> <br /> The game offers players two distinct modes, Championship and Challenge. The former mode is geared as any normal racer, pitting you against 5 other opponents in a 3,5 or 7-race championship. As you progress through the ranks the cars on offer and the quality of your opponents will increase. <br /> <br /> The latter Challenge mode is where Lotus Challenge shines through as a unique title, bringing new ideas to a tired genre. Players can pick either Jack or Zoe, both lowly test drivers for Team Lotus. Starting off you’ll have to prove you can drive the car, perform a few basic stunts and show them what you’re made off. Along the way a narrative progresses the story, as the difficulty of your tasks increases. You’ll be performing stunts on an oilrig to feature in a tyre TV commercial, racing in the ongoing championship, jumping over trains to feature in a Hollywood movie, build up an ongoing rivalry with an envious co-driver, and whizzing past speed cameras. <br /> <br /> This mode works beautifully; the range of tasks available ensures that you carry on playing, just so that you can see what the next event will entail. If you get stuck at a certain task, you can build up the other character. It’s testimony to this mode that we spent a whole weekend playing through it when the likes of Pro Evolution Soccer had turned up; the mode offers approximately 12hrs of gaming for experienced players, each hour a joy to play. <br /> <br /> The best part about Lotus Challenge is when you actually get out on the course. I’ll put my head on the block and say Lotus Challenge offers the best racing experience to be found, in any racing game. The experience is down to three core elements, excellent course design, aggressive but fair opponent AI and fantastic controls/physics model. <br /> <br /> Lotus Challenge offers a wide variety of courses from locations such as London, Swiss Alps, Tokyo and Arizona. Nearly every one has been created to ensure a heated battle; later levels will require your sole concentration as you weave around corners, clipping vital seconds off the clock. Two distinct courses stick out in my mind as the best to be found in any racing title ever made, they are that good and an absolute joy to play, it gets to the point when it takes a brave decision to turn the game off! <br /> <br /> Lotus Challenge features the best opponents I’ve raced against in a long time. Forget GT’s scripted opponents, here we have players that will do anything to compete for places, opponents screech out if they’ve taken a corner too quickly, 4 car pile ups occur on tight bends, you’ll be nudged across the circuit as they try to leave you trailing. On later levels you have to be at your best to compete, the game is unforgiving but because of that there is an immense feeling of satisfaction as your hard work pays off. <br /> <br /> Thanks to the perfected physics model cars react realistically to collisions and any knocks, clip a car at a fast pace and you can expect to flip, hopefully landing back on four wheels otherwise it’s race over. However there is a real sense of weight behind each car, smash into a car facing the wrong way and you’ll feel the thud of impact. If like me you’re fed up with racing titles that insist on the car sticking to the road you’ll love this game, it ensures that you’ll always concentrating even if you are 2 laps ahead of everybody else, who knows what the next corner may reveal, a 3 car pile up, flip and it’s race over. <br /> <br /> Developers Yuji have implemented a unique steering control, using the top half of the left control stick to act as a steering wheel. Taking the full advantage of the circular movement to give much finer control over your vehicle. The control is well worth getting used to, however the default control works beautifully as well. You get a real sense of the course through the controller, as you weave through corners, appreciating any diverts or bumps in the course. Like everything about this game, the controls are simply a joy to play with. <br /> <br /> Visually Lotus Challenge is a mixed back, if only because some of the courses can’t compete with the beautifully created vehicles. There are over 40 cars featured, ranging from the earliest Lotus models to their latest concept cars. Each one features real-time environmental mapping that looks fantastic, unlike GT3’s, the effect looks realistic and not like you’ve wasted one hundred tubs of car polish on the machine. <br /> <br /> The particle engine handles dirt, smoke and real-time damage, yes the game features the ‘buzz of the month’ damage, and does it make an effect on the game. You can elect whether to have the damage on visual or full, but you’ll not want to be playing without it. Little collisions will result in; your lovely paintwork scratching, headlights smashing, full-scale crashes will; severely dent your bodywork harming the cars aerodynamics, send body parts flying into the distance. It is quite possible to lose wheels, leaving you a sorry sight as you try to reach the finishing line. <br /> <br /> The courses are a mixed bag, some look fantastic, packed with detail such as office windows reflecting, whilst others feel sparse and unpopulated. There is a fair amount of fogging that occurs, which on some levels is suited but hampers the overall effect on most. <br /> <br /> Special mention must go the music supplied by Hybrid, a leading UK dance act. The music is suitably fast and packed full of break-beats, keeping in tone with the adrenaline packed frenzy that Lotus Challenge truly is. <br />