Baja: Edge Of Control - 7/10

The Baja 1000 is an offroad rally event set in Mexico (Baja California Peninsula). This event is run annually for the mad keen offroad competitors. The creators of the popular MX vs. ATV series has brought this event to that little black box next to our televisions. In a game called Baja: Edge Of Control . The vast areas of the maps to the depth of the cars have been represented beautifully in this adaptation of reality.



Your Baja Career starts you off with a simple selection of simple cars. This then extends to a large selection of some of the most powerful offroad vehicles ever thought of. This game put simply, is one of a kind. The only other offroad racing simulator that comes to mind is DiRT. And for this game to have 4 hour races, I think it’s gone above and beyond DiRT.



Some things which appear obvious is that when you do have road crossings or sections of track that are on a proper road. Is that the developers left in the traffic. This means that if you hit a jump too slow, or hit it wrong at all, you could plough into some traffic making it nearly impossible to regain your placing unless you restart your race. This is doubly annoying during the rally races, where time is everything, traffic gets in the way, and you find yourself in massive pile-ups of cars.



The damage system is well represented on how bad the environment or how bad your car is. If you “bottom out” too much, you damage your engine and it losses some of its power. Body parts fall off your car if you hit something. Or half of it will stay on and flap in the wind, causing drag. When you collide with other racers you see parts fly off your car, in addition the other racers parts fall off as well. So it’s pretty well balanced in terms of damage. The AI system crashes at points in the races as well. So it’s not uncommon to see a wreck rolling down a hill every now and then.

Game play:
the way this game plays is very different to many others because it has to make you feel both in, and out of control at certain points. When you are driving on loose dirt, you are able to slide around corners then fall off once you hit the edge of where the loose dirt meets the rocks. The cars behave naturally as if they would in real life. When you do lose control to the point where you roll the vehicle, the camera zooms out and watches, at this point you can either watch the wreck, or re-spawn to keep as much time as possible.

Sound:
The sound is unbelievably realistic. When you crash, you can hear certain parts clank, when the engine is damaged, the noise changes. When the surface of the road changes so does the sound.

Graphics:
the only real flaw I can find with the graphics is this. It was a rush job. All the bushes ( which slow you down ) are all 2D making it look terrible. And the traffic that you come across looks horrible. A box could look better. But I’ll stop dissing these points. The attention to detail with the cars and the ground of the environment is quite stunning.



Value:
this game will be of interest to any keen car fan. And suggest it too anyone with an open mind to this genre of game.

Online:
I didn’t spend too much time online, however, all the event and tracks and cars are all available online. This mean that you could challenge your friends to a 4 hour Baja 1000 duel.

Gameplay: 7/10
Sound: 8/10
Graphics: 6/10
Value: 7.5/10
Online: 9/10

Overall: 7.5/10

Reviewed by - Robert Ward

*UPDATE* if some people were really wondering why i gave the sound such a high score here

Submitted by robbo414 25/09/2008 1440 4

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Baja: Edge of Control

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• robbo414 Review 7/10 by robbo414

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