art of rally - out now on PC - The Bear and Badger

Facewon

So this is immediately lovely.

These guys did Absolute Drift, which I liked in theory, but got frustrated with.

But it showed enough that I was defo willing to dive in with art of rally.

And so far, so good.

It's aus$30ish on Steam, (discount if you have bought absolute drift or buy it in bundle.)

My current description would be Lonely Mountain Downhill for rally driving.

Same style of graphics, and really great simple, but seemingly deep enough, handling.

Thought it was gonna be a small little thing, but it's really pretty darn fleshed out. Lots to do and unlock.

Special shout out to the entire introduction.

It takes you through all the options first, so you can go in just so, then there's a quick cinematic which sets the tone perfectly, and then it just lets you freeroam in Finland. Just delightful. Easy to get to grips with handling, how you want the camera, what buttons do, etc. Fun, in and of itself.

Then when you're ready, just exit to menu and it has all the usual stuff, career mode, set up in a neat way, time attack, online daily and weekly challenges, and free roam.

Lots to unlock too.

Other notes:

- the games shtick is kinda a wide sorta iso camera view, so there's no in car view, you can get it close enough so it's like a regular racer if that's your bag. (It handles trees and scenery in the way BRILLIANTLY)

- There's no co-driver, due to the view.

- There's car damage, of varying harshness.
- Haven't tried manual, because I'm a wuss.
- There's no mechanics, upgrading, adjusting suspension etc. It's nice and straight forward.

- art style of menus is absolutely awesome. Reminds me of Colin Mc 2.0 on holiday.

haven't checked if there's a console release yet, but given AD came out on Ps4, you'd have to think it'll hit something else eventually.

Facewon

Oh my. Unlocked a third car, and it's handling is *chefs kiss.*

Also confirmed that free roam is available for all areas.

Very very very cool idea.

Kow

It's on Epic too. So if you get Rocket League for free you get ten euros off, which leaves it at 8.99.

Facewon

Nice. It's on gog as well, not sure if there's any discount there though.

Minor correction and minor gripe:

- there is some mechanic styles. For longer rallies there is rudimentary repairs. Simple time vs what do you want to repair stuff.

- Sound is quite underwhelming. The electro pop bgm is fine, but it kinda hides really lofi average ambient noise and not very nice engine sounds. I tried no music, and dropping engine noise, but the ambient stuff isn't up to much compared to Lonely Mountain. In the great scheme of things, it's a minor gripe, and tbh, with no co-driver, I'll be pumping my own tunes shortly, so it'll be even more minor.

Have now all but completed the first section of rallies. Default difficulty and damage leaves you finishing 1 or second in each rally, and ranging from first to fourth per stage, with room for one major fuck up per run, assuming you drive ok and just stay on road. New Unlocks, both livery and cars, for each rally done. With extras for not using up restarts.

Because of the structure of "Career" mode, you can switch cars between rallies whenever you want, so it's always fresh.

Just delightful all round so far. (And given gfx style, load times are near instant, so cracking through stages is quick as.) Starting to get up to some 5 and 6 minute stages now too. Cool.

Moot_Geeza

I played an hour or so of Absolute Drift. Enjoyed it up to a point but it seemed to require top level skills too soon. Good idea though.

Will keep an eye on this.

Facewon

100% agree re AD, this is paced exactly right, total contrast on that front, even though on most other levels, it's doing everything with the same sort of ethos. (Start of free roam is AD all the way through in set up.)

acemuzzy

Felt similar on AD, so hmm I guess interested, particularly with me Epic voucher. Hmm. So much else to play though...

afgavinstan

On my radar.

Moot_Geeza

Surprised Absolute Drift hasn't been released on Switch :eyes:

I_R

Looks lovely, but the camera sounds a bit like playing GTA with the cinematic view, which is not easy. Rally games mean a lot of different things to different people as well, are we talking Sega or Richard Burns?

poprock

I would absolutely buy this if it arrived on Xbox. Looks cracking.

Facewon

I_R wrote:

Looks lovely, but the camera sounds a bit like playing GTA with the cinematic view, which is not easy. Rally games mean a lot of different things to different people as well, are we talking Sega or Richard Burns?

More sega rally, than Burns.

But really, more CM2.0-lite.

The camera is absolutely great. I only mention it because there is no in car, and it's designed to be a bit wider frame than regular, but, and they get a BIG tick for this, apart from in car or right on back bumper, you can adjust the camera to your liking to a ridiculous degree. I was watching a dev playthrough, and the mentalists had it following back of car even when powersliding. Default is not that. But you can have it wherever in between.

Handling between early cars is pretty similar, but have unlocked a few more that really give a different feel. Not as much of a pronounced difference between road surfaces as I might like, but there is something.

And overall, the handling is just good clean fun. (I haven't tried with ABS off, like a wuss.)

Facewon

Early gameplay: https://youtu.be/ySZOV5e23bM?t=282

This is from the first free roam. Default camera. You can go much closer, or a bit further away. I haven't adjusted camera swing from what you see here.

(And as mentioned, the workaround for objects in foreground is bang on.)

Facewon

I time stamped the link so there shouldn't be much spoiler in there.

jdanielp

Crazy spectators!

monkey

I'm about 3 rally games behind now. Still haven't played Dirt 4.

Paul the sparky

The art style reminds me of Lonely Mountains Downhill which is a big plus in my book, even better is that the camera is in a more conventional position. The biggest gripe I had with LMD was that the camera forced you to learn the maps by rote as opposed to reading the terrain and reacting accordingly. Made it into more of an old school memory test than a test of skill. Again the lack of a co-driver here shouting out the severity of turns for you leans into the need to read the road for yourself. Looks like a good game.

Facewon

Did some more this morning. Still delightful, and the further into the more powerful cars you get, the more interesting the handling gets.

Part of the reasoning for the look and it's general ethos is that they didn't want to have to bother with licencing.

And it ends up being a big plus. It has all the famous cars, but gives them nicknames and a funny/QI style write up.

In game the advertising signs etc simply say stuff like Oil or tire. Or some made up brands.

At the end of the day though, it nails that feeling when you're sliding through corners.

Speedhaak

Paul the sparky wrote:

The art style reminds me of Lonely Mountains Downhill which is a big plus in my book.

Was convinced it was the same developer! Really nice art styles.

Webbins

I rinsed Absolute Drift, enjoyed it a lot. I can see why people might bounce off it the later into the game you got, needed some patience and lots of replaying to crack. Fortunately I am a determined SoB. Had my eye on this, I'd be all over it as a Game Pass offering.

Birdorf

This is pretty good. It's clearly inspired by Foreveracers.

Facewon

Finally had a proper play with the different handling settings.

The main one to watch is stability assist. Which is on 100% by default. It makes for pretty smooth ride, but also seems to make all cars and surfaces a bit same same. It's not that there's no difference between rwd and fwd etc, but it's pretty subtle with stability on.

Likewise road differences.

Really is brilliant to have free roam to be Abel to test too. Because you can just change settings on the fly and try fro a bit then change again and keep driving.

Think I'll start dropping stability by 10% per rally for a couple of rallies to get a bit more challenge in the races.

@I_R jury still out on whether I'd call stability off etc Richard burns or not, but definitely harder to control cars.

acemuzzy

Had my first dabble. Seemed ok, not totally enamored but we'll see. I think part of the problem is in not sure I like rally games...

Facewon

Um, lol. Can't help you there.

Finding 80% stability and damage on heavy is a nice enough challenge on normal without being annoying.

Facewon

Group b is fun. Totally picked the wrong car and briefly struggled. Courses are getting a bit trickier too.

Game is still more an easy going tour through the history of rally rather than white knuckle sim.

Enjoyable.

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