SuperCar Challenge

You can’t talk about a racing game without mentioning the elephant in the room but considering that Gran Turismo 5, and its protracted lengthy development, is still far from our consoles, it seems wise that the petrolhead in us all should turn its attentions to a game aiming to satisfy our demand for supercar racing. System 3’s racer has neither the production values nor the ridiculous roster of cars (it’s content on focusing on the higher end of the market), but it still manages to offer up a very impressive spec-heavy racer that is not hampered by its pretensions for realism.

Supercar Challenge has all the elements that generally sets car enthusiasts sweating; from the tweaking of the most minuscule detail to a garage to house all your cars and the obligatory photo mode. These are standard things you’d expect to find in a realistic racer, but what System 3’s game does particularly well is the finer details. Or, more to the point, the racing and the atmosphere it creates. Cars have a real connection with the road and while visually the game currently leaves a lot to be desired (especially the car models themselves) it’s easier to overlook them when it’s not just the visuals selling the race experience. You’ll also find the handling is attempting to cater for everyone with a choice of Assisted, Arcade and Simulation options The differences don’t really change the way the AI reacts but the handling of those supercars is nicely altered.

Races are visually interesting, if not graphically, and you’ll often see rivals making mistakes, but at this point it’s unclear if that’s down to your driving or just random coding. It’s promising to see a developer take atmosphere so seriously but there are a number of issues, besides the visuals, that could prove problematic. The camera is oddly erratic when external, creating a very cinematic feel, but makes taking some of the corners difficult.