Customer Reviews

4x4 Evolution

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This game is a lot of fun. The cars the tracks are incredible, the upgrades are true to life. The tracks are just the right length and the short cuts are easy to find but hard to master one wrong turn and your stuck. The cars handle just like they should in a high speed 4x4 race. The one downfall to this game is the cars do not show damage but I guess thats ok cause you do not have to use your prize money to fix it. The selection of cars is huge and the things you can do (upgrade color, suspension, engine , apperance, etc) to your car make this game a must have for fans of off road racing.

From the reviews I have read, this game is hideously underrated. OK, it has a few negative aspects (it would have been nice to be able to race more than four cars, the physics are a little 'floaty' and some may find it too slow paced), but this game more than makes up for that in other departments. The game's strongest point by far is the tracks. Quite simply the best tracks ever to grace a racing game. Not only are they beautiful (all 16 of them), but they are HUGE! You can drive absolutely ANYWHERE with no limits (well, EVENTUALLY there is but trust me, you rarely ever go that far). I am not exaggerating when I say that I can spend hours upon hours just exploring the tracks to see what I can find, as there are lots of cool things to find scattered around the place. For example, on the salvage wasteland track, if you drive for about 2 miles away from the main racetrack you will find another track complete with ramps for jumping over lines of buses. And if those 16 aren't enough for you, you can download 'light' tracks from the Internet, of which there are plenty to choose from, with updates always being added. Light tracks are just tracks which aren't as vast as the regular ones, but they are fun to play on for a bit of variety. The graphics are absolutely stunning; the vehicles look EXACTLY as they do in real life, with everything in proportion, and you can even see the driver in the car steering and changing gear. Online play is superb; it plays perfectly smoothly, not once have I seen any lag because the game has such a good way of dealing with it. The network interface is extremely easy to use, with the Gamespy system making it easy to find and race your friends, and you will find hundreds of rooms dedicated to all sorts of different things such as only off-roading, drag racing, or just plain ol' good fashioned racing. Another nice feature is the ability to play PC and Mac users simultaneouly. The races take the form of one circuit (in the middle of a huge area, which as I said before is fun to explore), and you have to get round the circuit any way you can, making sure you go through each checkpoint. I do wish the game tried to make use of the surrounding areas more; the aim of the game is just to stick to the very center of the huge areas and go through the track checkpoints, and if you want to go off-roading you have to make your own entertainment, which seems a waste. Still, you can't have it all... The replay function is easily one of the best I have ever seen, you can view any car from about 10 different views in normal speed, slo-mo, super-fast, backwards slo-mo, backwards normal speed, backwards super-fast, frame-by-frame... well, you get the idea. It's stunning, although I do think it would have been nice for it to 'remember' more of the race for playback afterwards, since you don't get the whole race when you are using a long track. The main bulk of the game lies in Career mode, where you race to earn money to buy better cars, etc. until you are king of the (dirt) road. All of the cars are fully customisable, with many additional parts you can buy (some just for show), and to be truly successful you will need to do a bit of tweaking here and there. People who just want to dive right into the action without all that hassle will be satisfied with the 'quick race' mode, where you choose the track and car, and just get racin'. There is also a time attack mode where you can do as many laps as you want to get the fastest lap possible, and the computer shows you your fastest lap using a ghost-car so you can see how you're doing. There are online ranking tables for you to work your way up, too. Two players can play on one dreamcast via split-screen, either online with two other human players or offline with two other computer controlled cars. Control is spot-on, the vehicles handle beatifully and there is some damage modeling - the more abuse your car takes, the slower it will go and the more difficult it will be to handle. As I mentioned earlier, the physics tend to be a little lunar, but you soon get used to it. There are some glitches, such as if you hit a rock at the wrong angle you will go flying 100 feet (literally!) into the air, but experiment a little and it will soon become quite fun, especially as you can ruin a friend's race by smashing him/her into an obstacle. So, basically: this game isn't perfect, but it's damn near, and it's easily one of the most fun racing games I have played. Ever. While it may not be for everybody, the people it isn't for don't matter, so just do yourself a favor and buy it NOW. If you're still not sure, there is an EXCELLENT, huge demo available on the disc from issue 11 of the Official Dreamcast Magazine - it has two whole tracks and online play! It convinced me to buy it!

4X4 Evolution is awesome! When I first bought it I was afraid that I wasted my money, so I checked online for reviews. Most gamers were giving it a bad review. So, I decided to check it out anyway. Boy, was I surprised. I am here to tell you that if you like racing, this game is for you. The graphics are awesome. You can upgrade your vehicles like in Gran Turismo. You can buy roll bars for your truck, fog lights, a bug shield and even a 14" lift kit. You can choose from over 70 licensed vehicles from the top manufacturers, such as Ford, Chevrolet, GMC, Dodge, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Lexus and Nissan. You can drive a Blazer, Yukon, Tundra, Sierra, Dakota, Durango and many others. The best part about the game is probably the tracks you can race on. Most racing games limit your ability to "go any anywhere". If you go off the track too far you have to be reset at a certain point on the track. Well, that has changed in 4X4 Evolution. In this game if you want to drive off the road and up a mountain or drive down a river, then DRIVE!, because you are not limited. You can go absolutely anywhere your heart desires. The vehicles even show you their mileage under the speedometer like in a real vehicle so you can tell how many miles you actually put on your ride. Now, how is that for reallity? It looks like Dreamcast got their own version of Gran Turismo, only no cars. We finally get to drive trucks! If you are a fan of Gran Turismo, or if you just like trucks and racing then this game is for you. It is that fun!

This game is so cool. You can be over 70 kinds of trucks and SUV's like the Nissan Extera, Dodge Durango, Ford Excursion, and my personal favorite the Lexus RX300. The tracks are very detailed and are perfect for off-roading. The online play ands another fun feature to this already awsome game. Looking for a good off-road game? This one is definatly for you!

This game seems a little dull, until you log on and start playing against others. The game lobby is very well done and easy to use (it's GameSpy). You can play against PC and Mac gamers, as well as other Dreamcast folks. I was too lazy to dig out my keyboard when I first tried the online racing, but I have to say either G.o.D. or GameSpy have created an excellent interface for gamepad users. In fact, there's a menu of common sayings you can select - "Hey, you try typing with a gamepad!" is one of them.

Maybe this isn't the perfect racer, but it's not bad, and a lot of fun to play online because of the in-race shortcuts. I feel online play is the future of gaming, and I am happy to be able to do it on a console. I am a console junkie at heart, but have jumped ship to the PC simply so I can play online (Unreal, EverQuest, etc.). I'd love to see more Dreamcast games use the GameSpy lobby, which is so easy to use. The coolest part was watching my neighbor, who invited me over to "help him get his Dreamcast online". He ended up poping in the CD, signing up fo SegaNet and playing in about 10 minutes, with no help from me! He's now hooked, and loves this game. I see it as a very good start...

If you liked GT then you'll love this. Actually you'll like it either way even if you hated GT. I can't belive this game its awesome! I have to say that the graphics are amazing and that its kinda nice that if you go of course then you wont be reset back on the track! I know it sounds odd but it is kind of fun to explore the surroundings. Althouth the graphics are amazing the game is extremely fake and i say this because there is absolutely no damage but besides that if you pin another car up beside a tree or a rock they seem to magically raise in to the air like your pushing them up or something. Strange huh? IT DON'T MATTER CAUSE THIS GAME IS SO MUCH FUN. When you get the money you can purchase up to 14" lift kits! and rollbars and other things that dont even have to do with the performance of the wehicle. These extra parts jsut make the truck look cool. You can also purchase real desert racing pro series offroad wehicles, only downside is that they cost up to 850,00 dollars but they look cool. And also you can go offroading anywhere from the woods and arctic to a farm out in the country. There is only one thing that i hate about this game and that is that depending on where you are racing you ahve to change your tires, shallow cut, medium cut, deep cut, and treds for ice and snow which help but barely because i always seem to be sliding out of control. But anway i hope my review was helpful and umm...why are you still reading this you should be ordering 4x4 Evolution right now!!!

I just bought 4x4 evo from Amazon.com jus a few days ago I have gone to every site on it and played it... this game just rocks you have my favorite the Dodge truck. then you have Chevy,Gmc,Ford,Toyota,Nissan,Mitsubushi and then other trucks related to that company. There is 70 trucks in all and 16 courses packed with fun stuff to do. The tracks are truly graphical and they all have certain charecteristics. From snow to mud and ice you have a sweet track. From snow covered mountains to a bright sunny day is what you will encounter a fun packed game.

The first problem with this game is the title. Why the developers/publisher included the "4x4" in the title is bewildering, just think of how many lame "monster-trucks on steroids" games are out there right now, most of which are frightfully awful. This, however, is a GREAT game. Surprisingly deep, eminently playable, and graphically rich. You get to race actual real-world SUVs (like Nissan Xterra, Ford Explorer Sport Trac, Mitsubishi Montero, Lexus S300, Toyota Tundra, and many many more) on a host of different tracks. You can race in the desert, in the snow & ice, and many more locales. There is an easy to get into exhibition type mode, as well as a career mode with money to be earned and upgrades to be bought. The control is fine, but beware on the more difficult levels because a few wide turns can leave you in the dust permanently. There are 3 different game views: cockpit, close, and far, I prefer the far away as you can see more of the track and those around you. And speaking of the track, this is the first game I can think of that actually does not penalize you for going off course! Actually, it can help you immeasurably to completely ignore the road in some areas. I really wasn't expecting much with this title, but it completely blew me away. Stunning graphics, dozens of real SUVs, multiple levels of difficulty, quick-play or long-term levels, the game really hits all the bases. Some people find it a tad slow, but to me it makes the game more thrilling. Nothing like your opponents lingering a little too close, then you run them either off the road or into a hillside, or maybe even off of a cliff! There is one board with a battleship docked in a river, I missed the bridge to go over the battleship, fell in the water, and expected to be immediately spirited to the last checkpoint, but incredibly I continued to drive... on the bottom of the river underneath the ship! You gotta get this game!

This is the coolest game I have ever played! It has lots of cool vehicles and great graphics. One thing I don't like about it is that Chevy has the biggest selection. You can pick what cab you want on Chevies, but on Fords and Dodges there is a pretty limited selection(for example, on Chevies you can pick ext. cab or reg. cab, but on Dodges you can't even get a 1/2 ton truck, you can only get Dakotas and Durangos.) All in all I think this game is well worth the money.

I just bought this game from amazon.com and it rules. You have 70 trucks and suv's and they all act like they do in real life.
Theres my favorite the Dodge.Then theres tons of other trucks and suv's Chevy,Gmc,Ford,Nissan,Toyota,Mitsubushi,and a lot lot more.There are sixteen tracks and they have all there certain charicteristics the Rocky Mountains the Desert and you even can race on snow and ice or just a regular summer day. I recomend you buy this game it is perfect.If you want to find out more if you read Gamepro look in that on 4x4 evo or 4x4 evo 2.