4x4 EVO 2
4x4 EVO 2
Sorti le 30 octobre 2001, 4x4 EVO 2 est un jeu de course, de simulation et de sport développé par Terminal Reality et Aspyr Media. Le titre a été édité par BAM! Entertainment, Gathering of Developers, Aspyr Media et Universal Interactive sur PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 2, Xbox, Mac et Nintendo GameCube. La version PC intègre une protection SafeDisc 2.
Le mode carrière place le joueur dans la peau d'un pilote professionnel rémunéré à la victoire. Les gains permettent d'équiper son véhicule parmi plus de 125 améliorations, allant des amortisseurs de performance et pneus de course aux pare-buffles, arceaux de sécurité, tubas, treuils fonctionnels et échappements performants pour augmenter la puissance et la vitesse.
L'accueil critique s'est révélé contrasté, reflété par une note Metacritic de 69 et une note agrégée de 62,24. GameZone souligne que les joueurs exigeants apprécieront la difficulté élevée des adversaires, tandis que les joueurs occasionnels seront impressionnés par le nombre de véhicules disponibles. Hot Games juge quant à lui que les nombreuses options de personnalisation raviront les amateurs de tout-terrain. Du côté des joueurs, les avis divergent fortement : un contributeur Metacritic qualifie le jeu de l'un des plus ennuyeux sur Xbox, alors qu'un autre témoigne d'un achat motivé par la nostalgie d'une partie jouée plus jeune sur GameCube.
Médias
Avis des critiques et joueurs
Critiques de la Presse (Metacritic)
« Hardcore gamers will love the high difficulty of the opponents, while casual gamers will be amazed at how many vehicles there are. »
« The only way to make the game any more fun is to through in the options that would make any four-wheeler drool, and the game has plenty of that. »
« This is a game for the die-hard off-roader. There is more to planning and buying vehicles and parts than there is to racing at times. »
« Although the vehicle models are still the best in the biz, I was expecting more from an Xbox game. [Nov 2001, p.121] »
« It's an average game that could have had endless possibilities, but ends up trundling along at second place over the finish line! »
« A fun foray into the world of 4x4 racing...But the AI does have problems and seeing that the majority of the game is centered on competing with computer opponents, I would consider how long I would play the game before dropping it for something else. »
« I could hardly play this game for 5 minutes without getting bored; there is just no "fun factor." »
« It's a standard hold-down-the-gas-and-steer racer, with nary a drop of strategy or driving savvy. It's boredom in a can... er, CD. »
Avis des Joueurs (Metacritic)
« In all honesty, this game should get an award for being one of the most boring games on the Xbox. The most fun you can get out of this game would be from turning it off and walking away. I was really looking forward to trying this as I've always enjoyed 4x4 racing games since the early days of Super Off Road. The idea for the game is solid, it has a full Forza / GT style career mode where you buy & upgrade a variety of 4x4's, but there is no point to any of it. There's no real reward or motivation to keep you engaged and wanting to keep retreading these bland repetitive landscapes over & over again. The game tries to spice it up a little by getting you to undertake various missions for cash, but good luck finishing any of them. the first one I tried dumped me onto a vast forest map and left me to it. No waypoints, no identifying locations on the map, nothing. all I knew was I was delivering supplies to some made up town that I had bugger all hope of finding. The racing isn't any better, you're just dumped on the map and off you go, luckily it has a compass showing you what direction to go, but that's not really that useful. I found it easier to just follow the other cars and try not to get lost. Also, the rubber banding in this is ridiculous, at one point I was stuck in a rock and lost about 20 secs (Hadn't worked out at this point that there's a reset button) and all the other cars just sat at the top of a hill waiting for me. however, if you try to overtake them they're on you like glue. I haven't seen rubber banding this bad since the NFS series and that's saying something. All in all, this game left me feeling a bit empty inside, the game is boring & dull to play, and lacks any excitement or fire that a 4x4 game should have. »
« I bought this game pretty recently for a good nostalgia trip, as I played this game when I was younger on Gamecube. Desperate to play it, I bought an Xbox copy instead, thinking it wouldn’t be much different. And it’s really not from what I can remember, everything that should be there is, well, there. I dunno if it’s considered cheating or not since I played it on Xbox 360 and not the original Xbox, but if it is, take this review with a grain of salt. I think that game is pretty solid is most aspects, the graphics are tight, the controls are responsive, the customization is INSANE, the car options are also INSANE, especially considering it had name brand vehicles from Chevrolet, GMC, Toyota... pretty much every well-known vehicle company aside from Ford. The game’s career mode is where you can buy and build your dream vehicle, adding roll cages, extra lights, bullbars, all sorts of aftermarket parts. The mission mode is also pretty amazing and is what I suggest you start out with first when going to play career mode, as the lag is barely noticeable, the controls are pretty responsive, and you get a big open map to search for your objective. It may take quite a while to figure everything out, but the soundtrack can help out in a lack of patience. But, again, despite this, it does tend to get tedious every now and then, but that’s what other modes are for to replenish your patience, that being the racing mode. Now this mode is a bit... not so good. The lag gets cranked way the heck up, the AI is annoying and seem to have a slight rubber-banding mechanic, vehicle collisions are a bit broken, and turning can be random due to the intense amount of lag. Because of all this it makes it dang near impossible to actually win a race, and because of it I actually have not won one single race by the time I’m writing this review. There is also no restart mechanic, so if you make a major screw-up (i.e. hit one of the checkpoint flags which you can actually do and the AI can also do pretty frequently) and you know you’re gonna lose, you’re better off just finishing the race if you’re on a final lap considering you still are going to have to go through two loading screens and a results screen. So, if you have the patience for it, I recommend sticking to missions first and racing later, since it also pays out a lot of money too. This isn’t to say the racing isn’t awful, the tracks are actually pretty good, with environment AI, shortcuts, and plenty of huge jumps. The tracks vary from a nice little race around a farmyard, to Area 51 and a nuclear waste site! Now because of this, I say you stick with time trials if you can’t stand the AI and lag that the AI causes. One more thing I think should be mentioned is the time it takes to save on 360. I dunno if it takes this long to save on the original Xbox, but it takes around 5 minutes just to save a game. I want to throw that out there since the first time I tried to save and it took that long I thought the game crashed, only to find out it saved just before I shut off my console. So, um, don’t do that. The game is most likely not broken, it just takes that long to save for some strange reason. Now, for my final verdict. Because of all this, as far as the Xbox version goes, I do recommend you play this game! But then again, I seriously suggest you stay below a budget that is around 20 dollars. Hope this review helped a few, and have fun playing 4x4 Evo 2! »
