Even as a budget game, Baja 1000 is a poor attempt at virtual off-road racing. The vehicles aren't satisfying to drive, the overall presentation is poor and everything looks and feels slapped together. If you're looking for just the barest of bare-bones racers, Baja 1000 certainly fits that description. But if you're at all discerning about your driving games, steer way clear of this one.
Presentation - 5.0
Graphics - 3.0
Sound - 2.0
Gameplay - 3.5
Lasting Appeal - 3.0
Overall -
The basic boost system – forget the clutch; here you can simply boost until the engine overheats, let it cool and repeat – is a minor saving grace should you use it to correct the random oversteer/understeer rather than speed along the straights. But if you've invested enough minutes to work that out for yourself you'll have spent far too long in Baja 1000's shallow career at a time when masterpieces are being released by the dozen. Many racers have threatened to drive GamesRadar round the bend. This one succeeded.
You'll love:
* Emulates better games
* Tons of boost!
* Easy achievements
You'll hate:
* Laughable handling models
* Barren track design
* Shamelessly imitates
GC writes: "Racing… a national past-time that has bridged continents and generations. I've been fan of racing for many years and have seen everything from everything from motocross to NASCAR to boat racing, albeit from the comforts of my living room. My favorite type of racing however takes us through the southwestern United States and across the Baja Peninsula. I'm of course talking about the rugged off-road sport known as Baja.
When anyone talks about Baja racing, one company is sure to be mentioned. SCORE International has been organizing and running its flagship event, the Baja 1000, since the 70s. SCORE is such a driving force in the Baja community that they have teamed up with Activision and Left Field Productions to put their own spin on Baja racing in video games."
Game Vortex writes: "Anyone that thinks $20 won't buy you much hasn't done a side-by-side with SCORE International Baja 1000 and Baja: Edge of Control. After we got some time recently with both games, it's clear that what was sacrificed to make SCORE International Baja 1000 a "budget" title at $40 simply isn't worth the trade-off in quality. This isn't clear immediately in the front office; the opening credits and video will have you pumped, with some jamming hard rock blasting and incredible views of the famous Baja landscape. Spills and thrills galore. The actual design of the game is pretty sharp, in terms of interface. This carries over to small touches during races, such as dirt flying back from vehicles in front of you and obscuring your vision, or the extreme slo-mo segments after you crash that show some nice rag doll physics at work."
lol totally 4got this game even existed talk about Vaporware
Dam,
Edited: sorry wrong story
sorry wrong section
I'm absolutely in a minority then as i simply adore this game despite some very annoying aspects.Very rarely does a game grip like how this has in fact
Some overly harsh scores from just about all reviews who are missing the point entirely - it's demanding and hair pulling but immensely satisfying when you fully get to grips with it
In fact that's exactly what the nature of Baja is minus the flaws of this game
For those that have yet to play this, it demands a lot of time to get the most out of it, but then it's remarkably fun - certainly not just an arcade racer
HANG ON
Didn't realise there were 2 Baja games, i havn't played the Activision one and i'm guessing it's crap