First, a few caveats:

1.  My comments are based on about three hours play and should be
considered accordingly.  I played through the first level in its
entirety and started on the second.

2.  The only previous version of Road Rash I’ve played is the first one
for the Genesis.  I saw, but never really played the previous PSX
version.

3.  Everything that follows is IMHO.  

The following games (and abbreviations) are used throughout the review
as comparative benchmarks:

Road Rash - Sega Genesis (RR)
Moto Racer (MR)

Vigilante 8 (V8)
Tekken 3 (TK3)

Gran Turismo (GT)
Need for Speed 3 (NFS3)


I have to say that I was really looking forward to RR3D.  I liked RR a
lot and was hoping for a game that built on what was so much fun about
that version while exploiting the power of the PSX in much the same way
that recent releases like GT, NFS3, V8, and TK3 have.  Sadly, RR3D falls
well short of the mark.


MENU INTERFACE

Nothing special, but simple, logically structured and easily navigable,
with tolerable load times.


AUDIO

- Music

Lots of music (18 tracks as far as I can tell from the booklet) running
the gamut from great to annoying.  Thrashy in style to match the
‘spirit’ of the game.  Artists include CIV, The Mermen, Sugar Ray, Tea
Party, and others.  I pretty much sold my soul to the Church of the
Blues several years ago so, with a couple of exceptions, I’m not really
familiar with the artists.  The music seems to fit the game though and,
if your a fan of one or more of these artists, it might really turn you
on.
 
- Sound Effects

Bare bones.  Passable engine sounds, distinct for each bike, the usual
tire squawk, and little else.  Given what games like NFS3, GT and V8
deliver in the sound effects dept., RR3D is almost laughable in
comparison.

- Sound Fidelity

In a word, muddy.  NFS3 stands as my current benchmark for sound and
RR3D is its antithesis.  How much effort is involved for the sound
engineers to make a game sound good off a CD?  Apparently a little *too*
much for whoever was responsible for RR3D.

- Surround Sound

Same story here.  Is RR3D in surround?  Uh yeah.  Does it make much
difference?  Uh no.  When sound can add so much to the overall game
experience (see NFS3), and with so much possible, I’m astounded whenever
developers show such blatant neglect in this area.


GRAPHICS

A real mixed bag.  First the good, I generally like the backgrounds
despite their graininess.  They seem to be many and varied.   I think
the graphics in general would look a whole lot better though if they
moved along a little faster.  Anyone who finds the framerate in V8 or
NFS3 (in daytime races) to be less than acceptable (I don’t) will really
be bugged by the way RR3D moves.  And compared to the current Kings of
Smooth, Gran Turismo and Tekken 3, well there just isn’t any.

The most disappointing aspect of the graphics package for me is the
animation.  Part of the fun of RR was seeing your little goofball rider
and his bike go ass over tea kettle down the road after a wipeout only
to be schmucked by a car as he got up and sent flying again.  While it
was cartoony, there was a certain believability to it in terms of the
physics, particularly the momentum involved and how far that carried the
bike and rider.  None of that in RR3D.  I’ve seen exactly two wipeout
animations and the second one (a roll after a sideways spinout) only
once.  The primary animation, which you see ad nauseum, is the rider
being thrown over the handlebars towards you, arms and legs
outstretched.  Picture a bellyflop and you’ve captured the image.  Like
sound, this isn’t a gameplay issue but great animations could have added
a lot to the overall enjoyment of the game.  All of this makes me wonder
how this game could have been delayed as long as it was.  Exactly what
was all the extra time spent on?  It sure isn’t apparent from playing
the game.

There is live action FMV after every race, win or lose.  I’m not sure
how many clips there are in total, but there seem to be quite a few. 
They’re all done in the same noisy, frantic, over the top style and they
are completely boring. It won’t be long before you’re hitting the X
button to bypass them.  Think of the FMV from NFS1.  That may have been
cool at the time, but how long ago was that?  I don’t have a problem
with FMV per se.  In fact I usually like the CG variety.  For example, I
like the intro and one CG ending I’ve seen in V8 so far and the TK3
stuff is among the best yet (I think Mokujin’s ending is brilliant). 
Live action FMV, OTOH, often leaves me cold and that’s the case with
what’s on offer here.


CONTROL

Control is okay after the usual adjustment period.  Not great, but it
doesn’t completely suck either.  I’ll call it fair to good.  What *does*
completely suck is that there is no NegCon support or Dual Analog Shock
feedback.  What *were* these guys working on all this time?  I didn’t
try the game in digital mode, but the analog works fine as far as
controlling the bike goes.  Unfortunately, the ‘look-back’ function is
mapped to L3 so, when the action gets hot and heavy, there is a tendency
to activate it at the most inopportune times.  Where *is* the rear-view
mirror anyway?  Also, it’s not possible to remap the functions.  There
are two default configs for analog control, one for manual transmission
and one for automatic.  Period.  And heaven help you if you’re not happy
with the default analog calibration, because you can’t change that
either.  Another issue that I have with the control are the combat
functions.  While they are logically laid out on the controller, they
seem less than responsive.  Maybe I’m just not used to them yet, but
they seem much less reactive than in RR. 


GAMEPLAY

The game offers three modes: Time Trial, Thrashin’ (essentially single
race), and The Big Game.  Since the first two modes don’t differ much
from any other racing game, I’ll focus on The Big Game.  The gameplay
here is structured somewhat differently from RR.  You still run races
for cash that you can use to upgrade your bike, and move up levels as
you beat tracks.  The difference in RR3D is that, based on the bike you
choose, you become a member of one of four rival gangs.  Each gang has
an arch-rival among the other gangs and the rivalry is apparent as the
races are run.  The downside of this is that you only have three bikes
to choose from for each gang (perhaps more are unlocked as you
progress), essentially one bike per level.  Despite the fact that there
are four gangs and you could conceivably play through the game as each,
this amounts to only three classes of bikes.  In RR, as I recall, each
bike was progressively better than the last and part of the hook was to
keep racing until you had enough money for a better bike so you could
win that level and move on to the next, etc.

The AI is probably the brightest part of the whole game from what I’ve
seen so far.  The gang that is supposed to be your arch-rival *acts*
that way during the race.  Members of your own gang are far less
aggressive, although they’re still out to win the race.  Members of the
various gangs are easily identified during the course of the race, which
is nice.  It’s the AI that gives RR3D a much needed shot of fun.  A few
examples.  I’m riding as a member of the Dewley’s (a bunch of hog ridin’
Hell’s Angels types) when some hotshot from a rival gang buzzes up
alongside me on the outside and decides he’s going to try to force me
headlong into the end of a building we’re fast approaching on my right. 
He succeeds but, in doing so, eats the wall right along with me. 
Another race, I’ve got a cop hounding me and I’m doing my best to outrun
him but can’t quite shake him loose.  He pulls up alongside me, he on
the right and me on the left, as a car approaches head on.  I swerve
left at the last instant and squeak by the car on the far left.  The cop
gets it.  Yet another race, I’m duking it out in a pack of about five
bikes when two cars approach.  I squeeze between the two cars and come
out unscathed while I hear a *massive* wreck behind me.  I only wish I
could have seen it in a rear-view mirror or, better still, a replay.

RR3D advertises that it has 100 miles of interconnected roads.  Not that
I’ve measured them, but you won’t get any argument from me here.  These
are all point to point routes (I’ve yet to see a circuit) and they are
nicely laid out and fun to drive.  There’s a fair bit of repetition in
that the beginning of a track may be the same because it shares the same
starting point as another, but it changes as you go.  I don’t know how
many routes there are, but there seems to be pretty good variety in the
environments you race in.

Speaking of environments, you can race pretty near anywhere.  If you
veer of the road you don’t pay the automatic price that you did in RR. 
That’s the good news.  The bad news is that the collision detection when
you do this is really spotty.  It’s not bad so long as you stay on the
road (ie. contact with other bikes, cars, etc.), but once you’re
off-road, it’s anybody’s guess what the CPU will let you away with.  Hit
a telephone pole head-on and drive through it like it wasn’t there.  Hit
the next one and you’re road kill.  WTF?!  Drive through an entire
*forest* of trees and emerge unscathed but nick a little road sign and
you’re toast (but not necessarily the next identical road sign, or the
last one).

As in RR, you can choose to play passively (ie. fight only when
necessary) or aggressively (ie. constantly look for trouble).  The
passive approach is often more successful and this is especially true in
RR3D.  Some of the routes are populated by very heavy traffic.  If you
allow yourself to become preoccupied with another rider, chances are
you’ll be taken out by another vehicle in no time flat.  This is fairly
easy to avoid on the first level, but the AI becomes much more
aggressive on the second.  I can see this becoming frustrating on long
routes with lots of traffic and an already slim margin of error.  From
my limited exposure to the second level, I’m concerned that there may be
a bit of an imbalance between combat and racing.   

Oh yeah, one last thing.  If you’re looking for some hot ‘n’ heavy two
player head to head action, look elsewhere ‘cause you’re out of luck
here.


OVERALL

RR3D is big on attitude but its cockiness can’t mask its shortcomings,
which are many.  In fact I think its cockiness *is* a shortcoming.  This
game tries so hard to be badass (from the music to the FMV to the edgy
dialogue that plays over the menus) and fails so miserably that it’s
almost embarrassing. I’m playing this game thinking that a 12 year old
might find it cool.  As a ‘mature’ gamer, I find it almost disconcerting
to play a game that, whether the developers intended it or not, hits a
demographic far lower than the one I belong to.  By contrast I find V8,
a game built around a concept originally targeted at a similar
demographic, immensely appealing.  Why?  Because it doesn’t take itself
seriously or try to be something that it isn’t.  It’s spiked with a
healthy tongue in cheek sense of humor from the funkified music through
the characters, vehicles, weapons etc.  It may be cheese, but it’s
really tasty cheese.  I mean c’mon, John Torque in the ’69 Jefferson? 
You gotta love it.  Get down!

In terms of motorcycle racing games of any sort, there’s not much
competition.  Moto Racer would still seem to be the most obvious
competition (the fact that there’s been so little said about Jerry
McGrath’s Supercross can’t be a good thing, can it?).  However, for all
it’s faults, so far I prefer RR3D.  That says more about my disdain for
MR than it does about my like for RR3D.  Fact is, I *am* having some fun
with RR3D which, despite the glowing reviews, is more than I can say
about MR.  For whatever reasons, that game just doesn’t grab me.      

Given my high expectations for this title, I can’t consider RR3D
anything but a disappointment.  Taken for what it is though, I’ve had
fun with it so far.  Is it a keeper?  I’m willing to give it through the
weekend to see if it can draw me in.  In the first hour or so that I
played, I caught myself thinking that I could have picked up a used
Genesis (I sold mine) and copy of RR (I sold that too) for less money
than RR3D and probably had more fun.  What does that say?  It’s the
gameplay that will ultimately have to sell me and I’m not convinced that
RR3D has what it takes to deliver the goods.

I can see where some gamers might think RR3D is the cat’s ass,
particularly if you buy into the attitude it’s selling.  However, if
it’s arcade racing action you’re after, NFS3 is a much better bet.  If
kickin’ butt’s your thang, V8 is a far superior in that respect.  If it
must be Road Rash, I’d recommend that you try RR3D before you commit to
buying.

Pete