Big Rigs is unique, in that its the only game I've played for the sole purpose of seeing how bad it is. I sometimes like to look at reviews before I play a game, to see the general consensus of how it fared among the critics. So I really was shocked to see just how bad Big Rigs did. This...'game' is possibly the lowest rated game of all time. 1/10 on Gamespot, and at the very bottom of the PC games index at metacritic.com. Half Life 2 sits on top of the aformentioned index like the christlike wonderchild of a game, while big rigs sits 2237 places down smiling like an inbred caterpillar.The name of the game sucks as well. 'Big Rigs over the The Road Racing' is a bit of an oxymoron. Sure 'over the road' might be a nice tag to slap on a rally game, but for a truck racing simulator? When travelling past Big Trucks on the highway, you generally see signs like 'caution pass with care' written on their rear end. They're precisely designed to stay on the road, so that their cargo doesn't spill. So maybe first impressions between me and the game were not going to be good, but I still had faith in it. After all, what do critics know half the time? Don't judge a book by its cover, or a critically panned trucking game; I told myself. It might actually be good.
Before even getting round to playing the game, I had some more problems. After the installation I clicked on the icon to run the game, and it immediately crashed. I tested this on 2 computers, and on both I had the same problem. I needed to download a patch, in order to play the damn
game. I should note that, aside from actually getting the game to run, the patch fixed a few other problems that were missing from the retail copy; namely sound. Yes they sold this game without sound. I can't imagine just how boring a racing game would be without sound. Did theyhave some sort of cost cutting checklist in the Ukranian dump where this thing was born. I can see them ticking off the boxes of what to put in and what not to "Company Logo, Check! Ugly textures, check!, Sound mmm....let's not go overboard here.'
Upon actually getting Big Rigs running, The menu is simple to use at the cost of customization. Super Mario Kart on The Super Nintendo had more vehicle and level choices, and it was released over a decade before this behemoth. There are a total of 4 vehicles to choose from, and
6 levels found in the'custom race' section. Though if your in Big Rigs target demographic, of mentally incapable 9 year olds then you're bound to love the random race option; which does all the chosing work, 4 trucks of course being far too much choice for you. As I suspected, the random races weren't all that random. Every time I was given the exact same race track, every so often changing the trucks.
Gameplay is virtually non existent, the trucks having no feel to them whatsoever. Every race you compete against another truck, but they tend to fall behind after you get past 20 miles per hour. It's hard to think of a word to describe your oponents movement, 'jittery' might be the best
description. While moving forward they shake uncontrolably, as if actually getting off the start line is a glitch. It's understandable though as having an opponent was another feature the patch fixed up. EVen with the patch this is unreliable at best. After doing a lap I found the other
truck still at the start line, and was greeted by the infamous finishing text.
The Landscapes in Big Rigs are suprisingly quite nice, especially the sky. It was the one thing I genuinely appreciated about the game.The snow capped mountains juxtaposed against the pale blue sky in 'Forgotten Road' were as good as any other racing game at the time. But if
your talking about graphics in Big RIgs as a whole, then prepare to be disapointed. moving 'off the road' your going to find a motherbyte of graphical glitches. Polygons will tend to stick out of nowhere and everywhere in particular. Often the road up ahead will be half unrendered
and sometimes still isn't after you cross it. One time the level loaded without half the textures, leaving me with the tarmac and an endless formless backround. It looked Trés cool, but only managed to hinder what was left of the gameplay.
Collision detection also comes at a minimum. All objects in the game can be driven throgh. I repeat ALL OBJECTS IN THE GAME CAN BE DRIVEN THROUGH. In a dramatic 'go to hell' gesture to physics, the designers have given you the ability to drive through houses, lamposts and whatever you feel like. This is especially true for the bridges in the game, which it seems were never meant to exist. There is no way to drive over the bridges, you just drop down below them.
'Driven through' usually doesn't mean any more excitement, after a while you learn to accept your truck is invincible. That and the fact that the objects are so inanimate you forget that the houses are actually there. But many of these faults can be amusing. Picture this, your opponent has somehow overtaken you, and your stuck inside a mass of polygons somewhere. Suddenly, you kick the engine into reverse, your speakers scream as you back across the finish line at 700 MPH. Without a doubt, the jewel in the games dunce cap is the reversing. To show you just how unrealistic it is, I have 2 videos to show you.
Firstly a standard 'Big Rig' truck reversing.
Now amateur footage of a Big Rigs Off The Road Racing Truck Reversing...
If you didn't notice a difference, you do not belong on the road.
Honestly my mind boggled when I first tried reversing. I was actually scared my speakers were going to explode as I went past the 300 mile mark. It's ridiculous that, out of all the things they could have implemented into the game, they chose a feature nobody actually expected, let alone wanted. So what is my final verdict on Big Rigs? Well it's good for what it is, but its not a real game. "But that can't be," you may say "They released it to shops and everything" Well, I ask; have you ever seen the making of a Pixar, or any CGI film? I'm not surprised if you haven't, most people tend to skip the special features on Toy Story. But if you had bothered to watch the making of one of these films you would have probably noticed a series of moving numbers on the screen detailing the frame rate for each scene. These are obviously removed when the product is near completion, but are usually present during development. Guess what people, Big Rigs has the exact same thing! Present during every single race, it can only mean one thing. Big Rigs Off The Road Racing is not a finished game. For whatever reason (Hint: the reason rhymes with honey) the developers of Big Rigs could not be bothered to finsh the game, so they merely slapped a useless feature on the back of it and shipped it off from Eastern Europe. It could have been a semi decent game maybe not as a truck racer, but if those lovely backrounds were used in say a platformer, then it could have been at least playable. Instead you can now find Big Rigs over The Road Racing, lying at the bottom of your local bargain bin.
2.5/10
