Unread post
by kiwi » Thu Oct 15, 2020 2:01 pm
When I first saw the Rooftops 1 preview picture, I already knew that this guys are knowing what they do. And this tracks confirmed this once more. For me, The Fairground tracks are the most impressive pair of tracks since the original Re-Volt tracks were released in 1999. In short: The tracks combine 2 things, which let me think so: 1) They combine stock-like low-poly design, without copying parts from already existing tracks. 2) The tracks spice-up the overall very conservative approach, and use modern features RVGL introduced over the last years in a perfect way. And all this, with considering small details like having a short (and easy), and a long (and harder) track. Even the time-trial times take care of the original stock tracks system - only the Fairground 2 time is made to be beaten with Pro cars.
Fairground 1
Look how many polygons this tracks needs, to let it look like this. Not many. This is something also the stock tracks did. Yes, in 1999 this had technical reasons. But this is also something I expect from a custom Re-Volt track in 2020. It's not necessary to let a track look good by using stuff like modelled fences, add extra layers of shadows, or having HD textures. It's not easy to do so, but G_J and I Spy did this in perfection. Kudos for that. This is something I also want to reach for my next tracks. I already tried to do so at my previous tracks, but the Fairground tracks motivated me to try even more.
Another thing I am very impressed of, are the textures. I can't remember when I saw hand-crafted textures like this the last time. Maybe it was at Jailhouse Rock. They are completly fresh, and I think I never saw such a perfect mapping before. I wasn't able to find a single mapping error until now.
Having good looks by using well made meshes and nice texture is one thing. But adding athmosphere to a track by placing fitting SFX is another thing. All the sounds on this tracks are awesome. The sounds made me smell the popcorn, and all the other typical tastes you can smell at a fairground. And the pigs. Yeah, the pigs. Custom animations allow cool stuff nowadays, but seeing this animated animals made me smile so much.
Besides the absolutly fantastic visuals and sounds, Fairground 1 is also fun to race on. It has an easy to remember raceline, but you also can make a lot of mistakes. This makes it very fun in singleplayer. In multiplayer the races can be a little bit more frustrating, especially because of the oncoming traffic section. But other than that I like the flow of the track. The pickups are placed well, the AI is good enough.
Fairground 2
Fairground 1 is a nice and small track. Without knowing Fairground 2 you also could be kind of disappointed, cause all the typical stuff you would expect from a fairground track is missing. But after playing Fairground 2 everything make so much sense. Fairground 1 seems to be kind of an introduction to the fairground theme. You smell the popcorn, eat some ice, and you can already see the Ferris wheel in the background. This will be a perfect sunny sunday, sometimes in your childhood. Time flies, evening is already coming.
Fairground 2 blow your mind when you play it for the first time. It's like an overkill on impressions. Colors and sounds will float in your head, and you don't know what is happening. Is this still Re-Volt? Everything is moving. Everything is blinking. And everything looks so damn good. I can't stop smiling.
Yes, the most impressive things are the custom animations. Nearly every attraction is animated. And not in an amateur way. In the most professional way you can imagine. Until now I wasn't that impressed from custom animations other custom tracks were using. But now I want to try out everything myself. It seems nothing is not possible anymore. But G_J and I Spy didn't used the track as a sandbox for animated objects. They put them in an overall impressive concept of a track, filled with other eye candy like texture animations and very well made shading and lighting.
So - everything is bigger and better? Nearly, but not completly. At singleplayer races, the only negative aspect is not that annoying. The AI is not the best, so you can crash at one of the many moving obstacles pretty often, without loosing the race. The AI itself have very big issues with the moving objects. My first race I won with 200 meters difference to the second, the races afterwards between 200 and 500 meters. So I was hoping the track will be more challenge when playing it online. But sadly, racing the track in multiplayer mode makes it even worse. It's nearly impossible to drive a lap without crashing. Some of the moving objects you can't avoid. It's like the Toy World 2 train, multiplied with 100. Don't understand me wrong: It's still very fun to race the track. But there are also this moments, where you could cry, cause you crashed the 10th time without being able to avoid the crash. I am not a competitive player, so I can be pretty relaxed at situations like this. But I am sure there will be a lot of yelling and whining from other online racers. It's sad, cause avoiding this things would have been possible.
Time will show, if the track will also get a multiplayer classic. Visually it's the most impressive custom track ever released. Together with Fairground 1, there is a huge gap to the other custom tracks released since 1999.
Overall 5/5, Graphics 5/5, Challenge 4/5