![]() What's more, Redline also signals the return of one Gordon Bowman-Jones, the irritating trackside race announcer who delivers his lines with such a grating lilt and sense of repetition that you'll, once again, be forced to rush to the audio setup screen to turn him off. Incredibly, the game is still powered by the same antiquated OpenGL-Glide graphics engine that prevented the original from registering any sort of visual impact with flight sim fans. The racing was close and, at least, temporarily addictive, and that was all that mattered.įor its latest effort, Victory Simulations has incorporated several new perks, but, unfortunately, it left the core unchanged. Who cared that the game's OpenGL-Glide graphics were well past their due date and, as a consequence, conveyed 500mph like it was 50. Ultimately, Xtreme Air Racing was a wonderful excuse to break out the flightstick and blast through the virtual skies with a gaggle of 4000-horsepower WWII-era "unlimited-class" airplanes chomping at your tail. ![]() The racing was moderately challenging and the controls easy to master. Supplementing the real-world Reno circuit were four fictional far-flung venues (UK, Arctic, Alps, and Thailand), each featuring distinct altitude variations that demanded careful engine selection and management strategy. The courses-with Reno's legendary Stead Field circuit serving as the centerpiece-were lengthy, pylon-ringed affairs that needed to be navigated several times before the checkered flag would fly. Adding to the merriment was the close proximity of the cold, hard ground-at times less than a few measly meters away. The game didn't ask you to merely fly its aircraft, it mandated that you battle wingtip-to-wingtip, alongside other combatants, at speeds of over 500mph. It allowed pilots to command digitized depictions of celebrated Reno air racing machines, such as Lyle Shelton's "Rare Bear" F8F Bearcat or Bill Destefani's "Strega" P-51 Mustang. Three new racing classes-including the nimble Formula 1 class-have been added to the game.Ī low-cost budget title, the original Xtreme simulated the world-famous air races held annually above Reno, Nevada. Though developer Victory Simulations has kick-started things somewhat by adding a flock of new planes and courses-and a none-too-challenging combat mode-Redline: Xtreme Racing 2 otherwise looks the same, feels the same, and sports the same annoying quirks as its precursor. Surely any sequel would need a substantial upgrade if it were to succeed in a market sprinkled with such awesome achievements as Flight Simulator 2004 and IL-2 Sturmovik. Yet as novel and immediately engaging as it was, Xtreme Air Racing simply did not offer the same level of sophistication and visual quality found in the genre's top guns. Essentially an airborne NASCAR, the game invited pilots to race unfettered through the skies, enjoying a semicomplex flight model and control scheme while also benefiting from a sense of competition not found in most civilian flight sims. An innovative departure from the conventional PC flying norms, Xtreme Air Racing fluttered onto the scene in mid-2002 to prove that a viable alternative to the studious flight simulation and the hell-bent air combat game did indeed exist.
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