OVERALL, EXCELLENT Victory Run review.
STATUS on MINUTIAE: Bucci was too nice about the sound effects in
Victory Run. Even back in the day, I thought the sound effects were WEAK SAUCE and WAY TOO LOUD. It's OK to have rudimentary sound effects if the VOLUME is low (subtle). Sadly, far too many developers erred on the side of ANNOYING THE HELL OUT OF ME with SFX. Call it a pet peeve. To add insult to injury, the tunes in Victory Run are actually good, so *overly loud* SFX interrupt the experience. NOTE: ENGINE/ACCELERATION SFX ARE BASIC BUT FINE and add to the experience.
WHAT BUCCI COULD HAVE EMPHASIZED MORE: He does point out that folks have to experiment/develop/devise strategies for managing parts (a crucial element to game if you actually intend to beat it)...but the same can be said for managing the terrain (the car responds differently to different terrrain....trial and error on later tracks is TOUGH PILL TO SWALLOW because you worked so hard, conserving your parts, pushing speed limits to make good time, only to SCRATCH YOUR HEAD wondering why you are FAILING to make any good time on the SAVANNAH stage--should you stay in third gear? will that be fast enough to make good time?)
BOTTOM LINE: Bucci delivers another enjoyable, fair review of Victory Run. I happen to love the hell out of this game, but I suppose he's right: most folks won't have the patience to get past a few stages.
