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     GameSpot's Best & Worst Awards for 1997



Best Driving Game

Winner: CART Precision Racing
"If you are a fan of hard-core racing simulations, you must take this CART for a spin." - Jim Varner, GameSpot Review


Developer: Terminal Reality
Publisher: Microsoft
Review and Demo
Even though Papyrus, the king of driving simulations for the last few years, didn't release a new Indy Car Racing game in 1997, it might still be difficult for it to beat Microsoft's CART Precision Racing. With an excellent driving model and great garage support, CART is clearly the one driving game that took the checkered flag in 1997.

The driving model excels due to the fact that the cars turn with the front wheels and not from their center of gravity. This gives the cars a more realistic feel and better control. But what really gave this game the edge is its accessibility to drivers of all ability levels. On the track, there is a number of driving aids that can help until you get comfortable with the track and the car. In the garage, you don't have to be a mechanical engineer to set up your car to be competitive. There's a chief engineer who asks you a few questions about the car's handling and who will then proceed to make the adjustments for you. There's also voice-over help to explain what every part is and how it affects performance.

To top it all off, Microsoft gives you free Internet play on its Internet Gaming Zone. Racing fans certainly can't ask for more than all that.

Runner-up: Moto Racer
"I was never a fan of driving games before because none of them ever made me feel the excitement of high- speed driving. This game has rekindled my interest...." - Garett Choy, GameSpot Player Review


Developer: Delphine Software
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Review and Demo
In a genre composed mostly of four-wheel racers, it might be difficult for a motorcycle game to break in and be taken seriously - or not. To do so, Moto Racer had to set itself apart from race car sims and really prove to the player that it was a motorcycle he was driving. It wouldn't hold up if it simply had the physics of an automobile with the handlebars of a motorcycle instead of a car's dashboard in the foreground.

But even if you turn off the handlebars in the first-person view, it's still obvious that you're on a motorcycle and not sitting in a car. The response time while taking turns tells the tale, as you have to pitch the heavy bike back and forth, which takes longer than turning the small-radius steering wheel in today's modern race cars. Another way to tell is from the rocket-like acceleration from a dead stop or upon exiting a sharp turn. And with the level of difficulty of the game, even at the easiest difficulty setting, Moto Racer will challenge the most skilled driver, showing why this isn't just a child's arcade game.

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