Ford Racing Off Road - PC also on PS2, PSP, Wii

Description:

The newest addition to the Ford Racing franchise leaves its familiar tracks and urban streets behind for racing on tough, rugged terrain. The game features a convoy of vehicles that consumers can race across 24 detailed tracks that are sure to push the vehicles' limits. Thankfully racers won't get stuck in the mud with the introduction of real-time, on-the-go damage repair. "Thrill seekers can now see if they have what it takes to make it in the high-action sport of off-road racing as they take the driver's seat behind 18 of the toughest 4x4s, SUVs and off-road trucks," said Karim Farghaly, vice president of sales, Empire Interactive. "Taking the license off road takes the successful franchise to an exciting new level." Ford Racing Off Road has a plethora of new and exclusive features that test players' high-speed driving skills. The fastest Ford Racing title to date challenges players to find hidden routes to gain an advantage and beat out opponents as they powerslide rugged 4x4s through three off-road environments - desert, water, and ice. Racers can power-up on their way to victory with repair pods, time extensions, artifacts, and cash as they speed through 12 race modes - Standard Race, Elimination, Time Attack, Overtake, Slalom, Checkpoint, Checkpoint Sprint, Seconds Out, Gold Rush, Gauntlet, Low Damage Race, and Expedition. " FROR's particular brand of physics is... interesting to say the least. While the vehicles definitely feel weighty, and slidey if you just lay on the gas all the time, the odd jump has the potential to send the car spinning, which can be a serious buzzkill when heading into the final stretch of a race. Things also tend to break down as soon as cars touch. There's really no proper collision model, so cars will stick together, bumping constantly and sending the screen into spasms that just make the cars look like they're vibrating in place. That the AI really just picks a route and drives through you rather than around or even with you is equally troubling. It should be noted that Ford Racing Off Road does at least look impressive, but that's due more to Razorworks' core engine than anything else. Butta' smoove and rock solid, it really is a nice change of pace from some of the other racers in recent memory. This is, after all, fairly old hardware, and developers should have engines up and running at 60fps on the PS2 by now. FROR certainly does that, and sports solid, nicely detailed SUV/truck models that really do look like the real thing. Unfortunately, they don't always react like the real thing. The game features an extremely limited damage model (trucks and SUVs will smoke if the damage meter gets high enough, but they don't really get banged up to any significant degree). I can understand if Ford wouldn't want their vehicles getting banged up when racing against other companies' rides, but it's a pure Ford (and the since-jettisoned Land Rover brand) offering, and being of-road, there was ample opportunity to paint the classic "takes a licking and keeps on ticking" picture of a beat-up truck racing through the finish line where other cars would have fallen apart. Another missed opportunity: where are the sound effects? Cars sound like little RC versions of the big boys, there's no real sounds of dirt or sliding around or different types of surfaces. Bringing those effects to the fore would have also helped drown out the frankly lame music bits. The odd wailing guitar solo or cookie-cutter jazzy riff doesn't really do anything to help set the aural tone of the game.

Gameplay :

Choose from 12 distinct race types as you jump, bump and power slide with 18 officially licensed Land Rover and Ford powerful off road vehicles across 24 sweeping tracks designed for high-speed racing. Find the alternative routes to gain an advantage in your bid to be first past the finish line. With beautifully detailed environments, real time, on-the-go vehicle damage repair and in-game pick-ups, Off Road is an adrenalin-pumping, high-speed racing experience!

Features :

• 18 officially licensed Land Rover and Ford off road vehicles.
• 24 detailed tracks encouraging high speed racing
• 3 off road environments, Desert, Water and Ice
• Realtime, on-the-go damage repair
• Discover hidden routes to gain a racing advantage
• Power sliding - throw powerful 4x4s around the tracks
• In-game pickups: Discover repair pods, time extensions, artefacts & cash
• 12 race modes: Standard Race, Elimination, Time Attack, Overtake, Slalom, Checkpoint, Checkpoint Sprint, Seconds Out, Gold Rush, Gauntlet, Low Damage Race and Expedition
• Licensed Vehicles: 2005 Defender 90 Station Wagon, 2006 Range Rover Sport Supercharged, 2007 Discovery 3, 2007 Freelander 2, Range Stormer Concept, SVX Concept, 2008 Ford F-150 FX4 pickup 2008 Ford Ranger FX4 Level II, 2008 Ford F-250 Super Duty, 2008 Ford F-350 Super Duty, 2008 Ford F-450 Super Duty, 2008 Ford Escape, 2008 Ford Explorer, 2008 Ford Expedition, 2007 Ford Explorer Sport Track, Ford Bronco concept, Ford Equator concept, Ford Mighty F-350 concept

System Requirements :

Minimum Specifications Windows 2000/XP/Vista2 GHz processor512 Mb RAM (1Gb for Vista)128 Mb supported DirectX9 video card500 Mb disk spaceDirectX9 supported sound card
IGN Ratings for Ford Racing Off Road
Rating Description out of 10
6.5 Presentation : Clean, simple menus and some real-time footage of a Ford truck running around a track are fairly minimalist, but they complement the game nicely. 7.0 Graphics : Surprisingly nice, if only for the rock-solid and incredibly smooth framerate. The vehicles look nice too, though they never really get banged up convincingly. 4.0 Sound : Utterly forgettable music, weak sound effects and almost nothing else to keep your ears happy. 3.5 Gameplay : What's here seems varied until you realize to play some of the more advanced events, you'll have to unlock them first in Career Mode, which is grueling. 3.0 Lasting Appeal : One may be able to argue that unlocking the almost 20 cars is a reward, but there's really nothing else to push toward beyond some different race types. In the end, it means tons of Career Mode races. 3.5 Bad OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average)

cheat code & Trainer of Ford Racing Off Road :

fordorunlock.zip

Unlock all Cars, all tracks in career, all tracks in Tournament, all reversed tracks, all multiplayer tracks, all tracks in arcade mode and all Race types in the game and give you 99999999 in cash.

ttgforoffr-ch.zip

Add $1 Million Dollars, No Vehicle Damage, UFO Abduction (opponents vanish into the sky), Racing Points Bonus, Skip to Last Lap, Freeze Race Timer. Made exclusively for Cheat Happens. WRITTEN FOR THE ORIGINAL RETAIL VERSION OF THE GAME. May not work with all versions. Read the included readme file with Notepad for important instructions on using the trainer. This trainer features customizable hotkeys.

Posted by kelvintrinity